Farscape Signs for 2 More Years

Dimes noted that the scifi channel has signed Farscape for 2 more seasons. 44 more episodes of my favorite sci-fi on TV (Well, maybe Lexx gives it a run for its money ;). New episodes start in January, and I'm a happy camper. Related ramblings: TNN is doing a marathon rerun of all of ST:TNG all this week. And I finally watched Enterprise- that theme song really has gotta go. But I'd like to see more, if only I could get it in my area. So much potential if they don't screw it up.

Comments

Greaattt..

[evel aka matt]

Am I the only person in the civilized world who DOESN'T like Farscape? I mean, maybe it's just me, but it just seemed kinda ...weak? How about some network picks up the Critic?

---
evel aka matt
"we got a might convoy, rockin' through the night"

Re:Greaattt..

[grepnyc]

FS kind of grows on you after a while. It's really quite a good show.

pressure/grep

rm -f /bin/laden

Re:Greaattt..

[Trem]

I've found that on a lot of those multi-seasonal science fiction shows, not catching it from the beginning will leave you thinking it's weak. At this point in the series, almost all of the character interaction is based on what's happened in previous episodes. Someone will make a comment, and a meaningful look will be exchanged. If you've seen it from the beginning, you know exactly what they're thinking.

Re:Greaattt..

[Halster]

No, you're not.

I personally have never been impressed by Farscape.

It's kind of like a "the muppets in space on crack" or something. The whole puppet alien thing really gets to me too. This was fine for the time of the first three Star Wars, or TOS. Moreover, it's way heavy on the fiction and light on the science too. Couple all that with some shoddy acting worthy of the first season ST:TNG and some uninspired plotlines (not that other scifis can't do that as well), and it's all very ho-hum.

Again, I don't like it. But I think maybe ever since B5 left my television nothing else really compares... I guess I've been spoiled!

Re:Greaattt..

[mel21clc]

Actually, I've dated geek guys over other guys because of their intelligence, ability to see the big picture, and relative maturity compared to their non-geek peers. My boyfriend of two years is a huge geek, but he's also funny and smart, and could have plenty of other girls if he wanted to.

You're reading and posting on Slashdot, which makes you automatically part of the geek community. At least, you seem to have read enough of the articles posted to have formed an opinion on certain people in the community. Maybe it's just you who can't get a date.

Re:Greaattt..

[Exatron]

What's so wrong with using animatronics designed by the Jim Henson Company? Most of them are more lifelike than the real actors in the wasteland of broadcast TV. All of the actors have shown that they are quite talented. Just watch episodes like "Won't Get Fooled Again," "The Way We Weren't," "Infinite Possibilities, Part 2: Icarus Abides," "A Human Reaction," "Green Eyed Monster," "Incubator," "Crackers Don't Matter," "Die Me, Dichotomy," and "They've Got a Secret" with an open mind and you will be pleasantly surprised by the acting.

Science runs rampant throughout the series, but in a subtle and nontechnical manner: Zhaan is a plant, wormholes can be used for travel or as weapons, Leviathans are biomechanoids that operate on cesium-based fuel, require a pilot to regulate functions for passengers, and utilize a trans-dimensional jump for movement and defense. None of these things are explained in detail for a reason- the explanations are unimportant and often lead to an overabundance of technobabble.

Re:Greaattt..

[Sloppy]

No, you're not the only one.

I gave Farscape an honest chance. I watched about a dozen episodes. And in the end, I decided that I just didn't "get it" and I gave up.

Re:Greaattt..

[c4tp]

I watched Farscape when it first started and I didn't like it. I watched a few eps last season and I still didn't like it. Then there's Lexx, the coolest show on TV right now. Too bad we have to wait until January for the rest of the season...

This should be interesting...

[shwim]

It will really give a lot of the newer Science Fiction TV show a run for their money. I know at the beginning I was unimpressed with Farscape, but it has been developing, and the audience it has gained has acquired its taste. The Soap Opera-tic style combined with the comedic mannerisms really give the show a uniqueness that you don't really find in a lot of today's Science Fiction shows.

Enterprise Theme song...

[Boone^]

Sorry, I think it fits. 2151 is still a time of military rule, and exploration is just starting, not well underway.

I like it.

Re:Enterprise Theme song...

[aka-ed]

If 2151 is still a time of military rule, why does the song sound so frickin' 1980s?

Re:Enterprise Theme song...

[SomeoneYouDontKnow]

It's like they're trying to drag in a younger audience by making the show's theme song sound like one of those WB Teeny Bopper shows (Dawson's Creek and the like).

That's exactly what I was thinking when I saw the opening. Not that I think it's that bad of a song, but for Star Trek, it just doesn't fit at all, and it has to go.

Which leads me to wonder who Paramount is after as far as viewers. I suppose that UPN and The WB are geared toward "Generation X" or whatever the marketing idiots have dubbed the generation after that (Gen Y?). But of all the people I know, I can't think of one who watches these networks on a regular basis, except for those who tune to UPN for Star Trek. Most of the programming seems...dumb. Or am I just over the hill at 31 and too old to "get it"? That must be it, since I find much more interesting stuff on TV Land.

Re:Enterprise Theme song...

[paranoid.android]

Because it was originally sung by Rod Stewart .

Re:Enterprise Theme song...

[richie2000]

I'm getting used to it. The whole intro plays like a joint NASA/Air Force recruitment commercial and that actually fits with the rest of the show, IMHO.

I think they wanted to separate Enterprise from the other Trek shows, both to signal that this is different (except they'll sneak in the same time-warp plots and weekly alien nose-jobs) and to attract a new audience that thinks 'real' Trek is silly.

Now, don't get me wrong, I even love Voyager and the first seasons of DS9, I often hum Voyager's theme song on my bike and Picard could take out Archer any day. But, give Enterprise a chance. Treat the intro like another commercial and zap around while its playing. It's not like the producers give a rat's ass what we think anyway... :-)

Re:Enterprise Theme song...

[xQx]

I dunno if picard COULD take out archer any day.

Knowing picard he'd be more likely to get warf to do it for him.

... Pro'ly get Riker to take out archer for him, except my bets is he'd be too interested looking after J'Tal.

Re:Enterprise Theme song...

[psychalgia]

i like the _feel_ of it. It is a bad song. They had the right idea, but the talent is a little lacking.

Re:Enterprise Theme song...

[trash eighty]

i love the song personally, but then again i
love music like that so perhaps that is what it
depends on.

Re:Enterprise Theme song...

[cyclist1200]

"Nothing could be worse than what they have now."

Wrong. They could have composed another piece of the same tired, boring crap they've foisted on us since TMP.

Let's face it, the symphonic scores weren't exactly Mozart. They weren't even Bernstein.

Re:Enterprise Theme song...

[ravage]

Here, here! It works for me too....I like the lyrics.....I'd better, the damn thing's been in my head for the past 3 days (twice on tv, and once from video tape so the wife could watch it will do that to you!)

"It's been a long road..." AAHHHH!!! *must control tunes in head. Must control tunes in head*

"A horse is a horse of course, or course..."

Re:Enterprise Theme song...

[boy_afraid]

I agree with psychalgia, when I first saw the intro I was shocked. Then into it I sorta liked it, but then after it ended I loved it. I can't get it out of my heard either. I searched the internet to find out who did that song, which was Rod Stewart. I think it's a cover song from Susan Ashton, or she covered it from Rod Stewart. I don't know, but I do know that I found the lyrics and I love the song. I can't get it out of my head.!!

Re:Enterprise Theme song...

[gaudior]

No, they weren't Bernstein. They were Jerry Goldsmith, who has won more Oscar's for his film scores than you've had orgasms.

Re:Enterprise Theme song...

[vanyel]

I agree. I don't understand why people don't like it, as it perfectly describes what the show is about, especially with the historical background images shown with it.

Enterprise Theme Song

[TellarHK]

Y'know, from what I read on /. the day the show premiered (And thanks to the morons at DirecTV I don't get UPN), I expected something that was a total disaster.

I was pleasantly surprised. I have to say I actually like it, a lot. It conveys the theme and mood of the series quite well - we're explorers, and tired of being held back. In a way, I think the music as much sets the pace for the entire series as well as it does for this incarnation of The Franchise itself. Humanity finally coming into it's own.

I expect the series will have it's ups and downs, but really, how much stagnation do we -want- in Star Trek? Same Theme, Different Stereotypes?

Re:Enterprise Theme Song

[Jerf]

The problem isn't so much the theme itself, IMHO, it's that in ten years, it will seem incredibly dated. (Actually, I'm willing to bet that it will seem dated in 2-4 years, but I'm being conservative here.)

Even TOS theme isn't that dated, though it does bear a certain '60s vibe.

Is that a crime? For any other show I'd say no. But for a sci-fi show (and this goes for damn near all of them, not just Star Trek), I don't want a theme that screams "Contemporary!!" In a subtle, yet real way, it pulls me out of the show and drops me back in the year 2001... where, I might add, I'm not much on pop, or light rock, or post-disco semi-calypso, or whatever the hell genre that fits in. (Like I said, I'm not much on it :-) )

I don't watch a whole lot of other alternative Sci-fi shows... my cable system doesn't run many. But I do get syndicated Stargate SG-1 (which I think is excellent)... same music as the movie. Granted, it takes place in the present time, but still, the theme doesn't drag me into Hip Culture.

In this day and age, psuedo-classical like the Voyager theme is very neutral to us; it probably wouldn't be if we could listen to our culture with truly fresh ears, but we are who we are. It doesn't take us to the universe of the show; but there's no music that could do that directly. It also doesn't firmly ground us in the early days of the millenium.

That said, your description: "conveys the theme and mood of the series quite well - we're explorers, and tired of being held back" can be equally well done in a more culturally neutral style, and in fact, probably better. (May be an unpopular opinion, but the style the credits are in now, whatever style that may be, is IMHO one of the least expressive styles imaginable. Plop in some sad words and flip the song to minor and you're a long way to "me and my baby broke up, but I'm screwing her sister so who really cares".)

All IMHO, but that might help clarify some people's reasons for disliking it.

Or they may just not care for that style of music.

Re:Enterprise Theme Song

[Boone^]

I enjoyed it as well. DS9 and Voyager kept taking place later and later in time, but there's this period of rapid change that takes place closer to our time. I wonder how often the Enterprise will return to Earth, knowing that the warp core only hits warp 5?

Also, wtf is wrong if the theme song is sung instead of being electronically produced?

Re:Enterprise Theme Song

[stefanlasiewski]

Hrm, interesting. After hearing that theme song, the first image in my head was a dated 80s glam rock band. I already thought it was 10 years outdated.

Re:Enterprise Theme Song

[ttyRazor]

It already is dated, it's some old Rod Stewart song (sung by somebody else)

Re:Enterprise Theme Song

[SectoidRandom]

From what i heard i agree that it fits nicely. Unfortunatly i havnt yet seen the whole episode tho, still waiting for Kazaa to download that one, you americans without UPN think your unlucky! Try living in Australia, right now were are only seeing for the first time Season 6 (YES SIX) of DS9! Not to mention season 5 of Voyager! I dont expect Enterprise here for a few years yet! :( (What about Farscape? You ask? Blockbuster's got it....)

But i digress., :) From what ive seen it appears that the theme song is trying to play to the wider audience as well as set the stage / time of the show. I think it works, but i will go and re-listen to it again and think about it.

One thing, it certainly breaks the 'same-old same-old' trend of the previous ST series, yet to be seen how much of a Good Thing(TM) that is..

Re:Enterprise Theme Song

[CleverNickName]

I loved "Enterprise". I loved it so much, I am actually going to write Berman and Braga a note, and tell them how amazing I thought it was...

Strangely, the only thing that I really hated was the theme song...I suspect that the guy who composed that is going to be the new holder of the "Most Hated Man In Star Trek" title...if he calls, I'll hand over the badge to him...I know I have it someplace.

I suggest, to anyone who feels the same way about the theme song, that you turn the volume down, and crank up Pink Floyd's "Learning To Fly". Not only is it a cooler song, but it goes very nicely with the visuals.

The best thing about "Enterprise"?

Two words:

Detox. Gel.

Re:Enterprise Theme Song

[reverius]

Who said anything about electronically produced? The themes of the other Treks were all orchestra music, not electronic. In case you can't tell apart the two categories, they consist of:

Orchestra
- Chopin
- Mozart
- Beethoven
- Bach

Electronic
- Moby
- Fatboy Slim
- Orbital

See the difference?

Personally, I would much rather hear a theme song without singing in it - it completely ruins the sci-fi mood (bringing us back into the Real World of pop music). But maybe that's just me. I also wouldn't mind if it was electronic or orchestra. :)

Re:Enterprise Theme Song

[Nightpaw]

Shut up, Wesley.

(Ah, the beauty of Star Trek marathons; just got to see that tonight on my TiVo.)

Re:Enterprise Theme Song

[jorbettis]

Uhh, you don't value his opinion because of a character he played on a show that ended production years ago?

Oh, no, I get it, you're just a troll.

So:
From Jargon File (4.2.3, 23 NOV 2000) [jargon]:
GoAT // [Usenet] Abbreviation: "Go Away, Troll". See {troll}.

Re:Enterprise Theme Song

[Telek]

Earth, knowing that the warp core only hits warp 5?

The core currently only goes up to warp 5, but don't forget that there are races that have much more advanced warpdrives right now, and considering how earth-to-cronos is like 4 days or something (well, wait, let's not work out the math of that one) I don't think that it will be a limitation in how far they can travel.

But they'll probably have warps higher than 5 by the end of the first season, no doubt. The first season will probably have a lot of newish technologies/tweaks/new ways of trying things going on. That's one of the benefits of already having those technologies laid out, you just have to plan how to get there.

You know, a thought just occurred to me. Why would Bakula's Dad not have lived to see his drive hit warp? If Cochran already had a warp drive then there is no reason to see why Bacula's drive couldn't at least do warp before he died, if not warp 5.

Re:Enterprise Theme Song

[ispq]

It was that Captain Archer's father didn't live to see his, as in Captain Archer's father, warp drive power a starship. Cochran had warp, but he didn't have a starship. The vulcans specifically kept just enough information from the humans to slow them down to a pace the vulcans felt safe and appropriate. Humans had warp drives, and they had ships with warp drives, but they did not have a human designed and built starship to show off the flag so to speak.

Re:Enterprise Theme Song

[Telek]

right, but when you have the tech to build the ship and a warp drive that can do warp, then you build that, so that even if the vulcans are holding you back, you can still get your ship on the road, so to speak. I don't see why holding back warp drive information would keep you from building the ship itself that you already have an engine for. And by the sounds of it, they vulcans dragged this out for 10 years or so. You'd think that you'd just build your ship with the warp drive after the first year or so of them dragging their feet.

Re:Enterprise Theme Song

[caesar-auf-nihil]

Yes, the current theme song is somewhat contemporary, but in a very pop-music format.

To combine on several threads, I'd like to see the opening theme go through changes as the series progresses. Farscape and Babylon 5 both did this, so maybe they'll do the same with Enterprise. Or better yet - how about different intros that reflect different world cultures?

Now for theme song changes you won't see:
-Enterprise theme song sung by Rob Zombie
-Techno/Rave version of Enterprise opening
-Enterprise theme song sung by Bjork (then again, maybe she should do this in light of the TOS theme song)

Re:Enterprise Theme Song

[Knara]

Feh. Listen, TOS is dated in all sorts of styles, including the theme song.

The _problem_ people have with the Enterprise theme song is that they're stuck in this rut of what Star Trek is "supposed" to be. What the plots are supposed to be like, what they're supposed to do, what they're supposed to look like, what they're supposed to sound like, etc. It's the same arguments people made with Babylon Project: Crusade vs. Babylon 5. Now, granted in Crusade the CGI sucked massively when compared to S1-S3 B5, but that's not the point.

The _point_ is that the theme song is perfectly good on its own. There's no law saying that the Enterprise theme song needs to be a pseudo-Williams classical piece. For my part, when I heard the intro the first time I thought, "Ooh, nifty, maybe this series will be different than the lousy drivel we got with Voyager."

Re:Enterprise Theme Song

[Jerf]

People love it when you explain the problem they are having with things.

Re:Enterprise Theme Song

[Gary0G]

This new theme song is so sappy, it really makes me think of some TV execs somewhere trying to find some way to appeal to a broader audiance. It has got to go!

The suggestion that a Bjork tune would never get picked for a theme song is sad but true. You gotta give her that: she's out there! Personally, I'd pick a Bjork tune or anything else but what is being now.

Re:Enterprise Theme Song

[arkanes]

Assuming that they had to reverse-engineer alot of components from what the Vulcans gave them, then assimilate that technology into what they already had, I think 10 years would be a pretty decent interval. Theres alot of issues with building a starship beyond having a warp engine - and an engine that just made warp 1 couldn't have been all that usefull.

So, despite the fact that a military ship is full of immature whiners, and the interesting xenophysiology demonstration of how Vulcan nipples react to cold, this point is internally consistent. I still don't like the hull plating going off line, however :P

Re:Enterprise Theme Song

[Telek]

how Vulcan nipples react to cold

Nipples? It was the whole breasts man... They were downright perky

and an engine that just made warp 1

We weren't actually told how fast it went, but assumidly faster than warp 1 (since that's just the speed of light). But still, it's been like 50 years or something since the first warp flight, you'd think that they could get some engine up and running.

I still don't like the hull plating going off line

It wasn't the hull plating, it was the polarization of the hull plating. They used polatization (by electromagnetic fields) to help repel particle weapons, and that's easy to go offline =)

Re:Enterprise Theme Song

[Goldberg's Pants]

I suspect that the guy who composed that is going to be the new holder of the "Most Hated Man In Star Trek" title

I should think it'll come as quite a shock to Diane Warren that she's the most hated man in Star Trek...

Re:Enterprise Theme Song

[CleverNickName]

I should think it'll come as quite a shock to Diane Warren that she's the most hated man in Star Trek

*whew* It's a relief that I won't have to give up my "Most Hated Man In Star Trek" badge, then...it's keeping the table level.

However, if she gets the "Most Hated Person In Star Trek" award, I'll have to give that one up...which is too bad. It's keeping the bees out of my kitchen.

Re:Enterprise Theme Song

[arkanes]

It wasn't the hull plating, it was the polarization of the hull plating. They used polatization (by electromagnetic fields) to help repel particle weapons, and that's easy to go offline Then why didn't they SAY "hull polarization offline"? It's not the hull plating. It's the polarization. Steel plates don't go offline :P

Re:Enterprise Theme Song

[Picass0]

Nah.... Wesley lost that title a long time ago. You are well insulated from the top of the list. Rick Berman is the most hated person in Star Trek. Followed by Worf's little kid Alexander on DS9. Oh god, then there's Neelix on Voyager. He sucks. And the first guy to nail the hot Vulcan chick on Enterprise, he's going to be hated big time.

Re:Enterprise Theme Song

[AmyMarr]

I agree that the song sucks. It's not even so much that TPTB decided to do something other than an instrumental ala Alexander Courage.

The song that was used in the radio promotions, Wherever You May Go, which I believe is by a band known as The Calling, would have been MUCH better.

Is there a petition going around to get rid of the theme song? I'll sign it!

Amy, /. newbie

Does any one know?

[RavensDark]

Is Farscape going to still be produced in Australia? Are the commercial networks going to run it here?

Re:Does any one know?

[Tekgno]

It may still be 'officially' shown but channel 9 are probably going to treat it like they have many other shows like La Femme Nikita, ie. move it to horrible time slots take it off for weeks on end put back on one night take it off the next etc. etc. etc.

All this will be compounded by the fact that channel nine now have the *(&)^% footy and will have to squeeze the hours from somewhere, at least the dodgy matches will be given to channel ten so they don't have to screw up their schedules like seven have in the past, but I digress.

If it continues to air here in Australia, it will most likely be a hit and miss affair.

Lexx

[echomonkey]

Lexx owns you...

Re:Lexx

[Anonymous Coward]

What the FUCK were the writers smoking?!

Cock.

Re:Lexx

[DNAGuy]

"What the FUCK were the writers smoking?!"

They're usually drunk. Just show up at the Economy Shoe Shop on Argyle Street in Halifax during shooting season. It explains many things.

Lexx

[Glytch]

What I really like about Lexx is how each episode starts off dull, but gradually gets weirder and weirder until you're asking "What the FUCK were the writers smoking?!"

Oh, and the sex is good. Yes, I'm shallow, but dammit, I like it, so bug off.

*sniff* Makes me proud to be a Maritimer.

Best Show Ever.

[antis0c]

3 simple words that describe Farscape. I don't think I've seen a Scifi show ever that is like Farscape. ST:TNG was good, but it was never as interesting as Farscape. I think it's partly because everyone can relate to John Crichton. Just a semi-regular guy who was in the space industry sucked into a wormhole and into the middle of another part of the universe. Completely stupidified by everything. It makes you think man what is he going to find out next. And it's the simple stuff, like the second episode of the series he finds out how the people he's with brush their teeth. There are plenty of unanswered questions, like why do Peace Keepers look so much like humans, why is Jool's DNA related to Crichton's, ton's of stuff. They haven't even really elborated on the characters in the show very much at all. Mostly basic stuff and a little extra here and there, there are worlds of ideas and topics they've yet to cover, and thats what makes this show so good and fresh in my opinion. Now I'll click Submit and check back for a fresh amount of flames because I said it was better than ST:TNG.

Re:Best Show Ever.

[Rogerborg]

• I don't think I've seen a Scifi show ever that is like Farscape

I wrote it off because of the "damn muppets", and only eventually and very reluctantly sat down to watch an episode at the insistence of a long suffering friend, who just kept patiently plugging it while I teased him mercilessly.

Oh my. Oh my.

For those who haven't seen it, here's a taster of how slick and knowing it is. Picture our protagonists fighting off an attack by evil space pirates armed with powerful strap-on bracer weapons. Our ersatz-Klingon protagonist picks up a discarded weapon and straps it on. It injects some glowing green goo into him. After the pirates are beaten off, ersatz-Klingon is still angry and bellowing, and declares that he should lead the ship in this crisis.

How would Star Trek handle this? Fifteen minutes of hammering the point home, while he cackles maniacally and the crew go "Gee, Dargo seems a little out of sorts today. Is he wearing black eye liner?" and we shout "He's evil! Get the weapon off of him! You idiots!"

On Farscape, his companions exchange one subtle glance - and no words - and jump him the instant his back is turned. The writers expect us to know the genre and to have figured it out. No patronising exposition is required, no frustrating and uncharacteristic period of ignorance by the crew. I really appreciate that.

This theme continues through most of the episodes. When the characters can't figure something out, it's not made obvious to us the viewer either. Sometimes the characters figure situations out before the viewer does. Often, there are no obvious solutions to their problems, and the solution is rarely if ever a Particle of the Week or a Deus Ex Machine.

Farscape treats its characters and its viewers with equal respect. The characters never get conveniently dumb, and the viewers aren't expected to either. I really appreciate that.

Re:Best Show Ever.

[CS_Snapple]

I'd have to agree with you. I'd watched previews for the show for two years, and they NEVER made me want to see the an actual episode.

Then one day, my friend brought over about 20 CDs with all of the first two seasons with of episodes. I sat down and ended up watching them all in about a 3 day period. I wasn't expecting to like it... and if I had seen two or three episodes at random out of the two seasons, I probably wouldn't have liked it... but it's REALLY a show that needs you to watch the episodes in the right order.

None of this "planet of the week" crap like on Star Trek, with no real character development and very little continuity between episodes. Farscape builds off previous episodes. Characters CHANGE. They learn.

The show is full of subtleties and nuances that would otherwise be missed if you hadn't seen the previous episodes.

Re:Best Show Ever.

[weakethics]

I don't get it. There is nothing special about this show. It is lame in all of the same ways as other TV scifi stuff; vapid action instead of smarts. Why people around here rave about such a completely ordinary program gets to me.
I had high hopes about based on the raves here, but... yawn. How about some originality? Is it too much to ask that the lead character have a scintilla of charisma? Violence != fun.

Re:Best Show Ever.

[Fluid Truth]

I have just gotten into this show and I love it. My problem was that I tried watching a random episode after I'd learned about it and it confused me all to hell.

You have to watch this show from the beginning. That sucks for anyone just discovering it, as we're just finishing up the first season's worth of re-runs. But if you actually watch from the beginning and watch the character development, the show totally rocks.

And I totally agree with the idea that the writers and directors give their audience more credit than any Star Trek series ever did.

Kill Me Now....

[ashrael]

I have watched both this and Lexx a couple of times and they don't stand up to any of the classic sci-fi shows such as ST:TNG, The Outer Limits, Babylon 5, etc. I would even have to say DS9 was better (and I didn't care for that show too much either). The acting, stories, and characters are bad, boring, and weird. I sure won't be celebrating this announcement.

Ashrael

Re:Kill Me Now....

[shankel]

I got into FS starting with Nerve and have been pretty impressed since then.

As an all around TV SF fan, I dug ST:TNG, lived for B5 and put up with Voyager. I even watch Lexx, but only for ten minutes at a time :)

What's impressive is not how many episodes of FS are good. What's impressive is how many of them are not dreadful. Even the most die-hard ST:TNG fan has to admit that there were too many Counselor Troi's Mother Gets Married - Worf's Son Gets In Trouble - Wesley Crusher Almost Gets Laid episodes. The best of ST:TNG was great, but the worst was unwatchable.

Same goes for B5. Seasons 1 and 5 were simply not good. Season 5 was watchable only because by then you were hooked. Season 1 is watchable now because you know what's coming. Only Seasons 2-4 were truly great.

There are a number of ho-hum episodes of FS (Back and Back and Back to the Future, The Flax, Jeremiah Crichton, Taking The Stone, Scratch And Sniff). But there hasn't been one yet, for me, that has been downright painful. Compare these against Picard Turns Into A Marmoset, Mua'Dib Wesley, I Left Data's Head In San Francisco, My Pet Borg and anything *anything* with Lwaxana Troi.

Even compared against the the best of TNG (A Matter Of Honor, Yesterday's Enterprise, The Best of Both Worlds, Unification, All Good Things...) the best of FS holds its own (Nerve, Crackers Don't Matter, The Way We Weren't, Liars Guns and Money, Icarus Abides, The Choice).

Someone else mentioned this, but it bears repeating. What makes FS good is the relatively light touch when it comes to invoking technobabble. Yes, the DRDs and the translator microbes do come in handy from time to time. But you rarely get the old TNG "If I realign the deflector to emit the Particle Of The Week, we might just be able to get out of this!" Thanks Geordi, here's your cookie.

Oh, and here's a little something other sci-fi shows could pick up on. Notice how they actually move the camera from time to time and choose creative shot compositions? Again, I liked TNG, but sometimes it felt like it was being filmed by a set of surveillance cameras.

None of this is to say that FS is perfect. For my taste, they're a little self-conscious with the made-up time and distance units (what's Moya's top speed, in metras per arn?) I understand the need for bogus expletives, but if Rygel says "yotz" one more time I'm gonna kick the frelling hezmona out of him. Also, these translator microbes must really be something. No one seems to notice that Crichton's not actually speaking Sebacean when he passes himself off as a Peacekeeper.

But why quibble? If the Trek techs could rig the transporter to cure Dr. Polaski, why would anyone ever die of anything? On balance, FS is a decent show.

Re:New study reaffirms facts about homosexuals

[mel21clc]

...And this has to do with Lexx, Farscape, and Enterprise in what way? No wonder you posted anonymously, you idiot. I'm not even going to go into the fact that a non-academic, religious study is going to be incredibly biased in their research and how they display it.

Good geek TV

[Sanity]

Well, Farscape was always too "muppets" for me, but in the unlikely event that anyone cares, here is what interests me on TV these days :-

• Stargate SG1
  Perhaps it is just a throw-back to those days in my youth watching McGyver, but this is a good show, scientifically plausable, interesting plot, and compelling characters.
• Earth - Final Conflict
  Not actually on any more, but recent enough to be interesting. Amazing special effects, and an interesting plot where you never really know whether the aliens are good guys, bad guys, or somewhere in between (the reality being the latter). In that sense, it mirrors the complexity of real life.
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer
  While the last season got somewhat depressing in places, the people behind "The Onion" have consistently provided a tongue-in-cheek, very funny dialog which, until recently didn't take itself too seriously. Also, new season just starting, can't talk long.
• BBC World News
  One of the few ways to watch TV News which actually talks about that insignificant part of the world outside the US.
• Law and Order
  There is just something about the consistent style, interesting plots, and slightly sick humor that makes this the best Cop show since "The Bill" (it's a Brit thing - Yanks need not worry).

Re:Good geek TV

[LordNimon]

The new season of E:FC is starting this week.

Re:Good geek TV

[Weedhopper]

Stargate SG1 Perhaps it is just a throw-back to those days in my youth watching McGyver, but this is a good show, scientifically plausable, interesting plot, and compelling characters.

Hey, how many Stargate teams are there? I watch this show occasionally and don't understand. Are there multiple "SG teams" or is there just the SG-1?

Law and Order There is just something about the consistent style, interesting plots, and slightly sick humor that makes this the best Cop show since "The Bill" (it's a Brit thing - Yanks need not worry).

No way. Best cop show in the past decade would have to be Homicide. Better writing, better stories, better chracters and characterizations.

Re:Good geek TV

[nsrbrake]

Earth - Final Conflict just started a new season... I think the last, it is looking to be more interesting that the previous ones at that.

Re:Good geek TV

[hidden]

there are lots of gate teams (they add some every so often, so I'm not sure of the exact count) I think it's about 12 at the moment.

SG-1 is an advance scout team...

SG-9 (I think) is the diplomatic team

etc, etc...

Re:Good geek TV

[hearingaid]

Maybe where you are.

Here in Canada, it's all over. Just like First Wave.

I'll miss them both, kinda. Although First Wave's ending was a bit ... lacking. Final Conflict went out in a much more interesting way. However, First Wave made up for it for being a much better show through the years.

Current shows I'm watching now:

• Buffy - yeah. I can't believe it. This show used to suck so amazingly much, it made me physically ill to watch it. However, I started watching Angel, and consequently, discovered that the writing has improved, the acting has improved, and well... it's now a really good show. TV horror is usually awful: but this is different.
• Beastmaster - Why this is my favourite show, I'm not sure. It's just really well-written fantasy, and dammit, they kill characters. It can be rather cheesy, though. (Well, it was my fave show last season, anyway.)
• Wolf Lake - Speaking of TV horror... only two eps so far, but really good: better than expected actually. Which probably means it's doomed. Whenever I like a show this much, and it's funded by Americans... sigh. (Another example: All Souls. Gone after, what, 6 episodes? Brimstone... Fantasy Island (with McDowell)... Empire (4 eps in 1984)... Earth 2 (which actually got a whole season)... but on the other hand, Max Headroom only got one season too.)
• X-Files - I really like Robert Patrick. Even if this is still a Carter show. Sigh. Carter comes so close to making excellent television.
• Angel - Well, of course I'm still watching this, given that it's what got me watching Buffy. Tonight's episode was really good, I thought.
• Outer Limits - Best SF show in a long, long while. Certainly the best Canadian SF show ever.
• Immortal & Andromeda - Fun shows.

Anyway, that's mostly it. There are other shows I watch sometimes, when I'm in the mood, and shows I watch in reruns. I'm pretty loyal to Open Mike now, too.

I was mildly surprised to like the initial episode of Pasadena. We'll have to see if Delany can continue to hold the show together: although actually there are some pretty talented people in the rest of the cast, too.

But I don't get Farscape. Maybe it's the best show on TV. Oh well. :)

Re:Good geek TV

[Forkenhoppen]

Gene Roddenbury Timeline:
(reposted on Slashdot in an obvious attempt at karma whoring)

- Earth: Final Conflict
- Star Trek
- Andromeda

All were supposed to originally be Star Trek universe.

Re:Good geek TV

[Telek]

Dude!! You forgot West Wing... that's gotta be one of the best drama shows on yet...

Re:Good geek TV

[Rogerborg]

• Farscape was always too "muppets" for me

Witty and knowing? Really, give it a try. It's the most complete show in terms of writing, acting and cinematography. Yes, the puppetry can look a little fake, but high budget puppetry still wipes the floor with low budget CGI. Did you see the Voyager episode with the flying spikey tentacled pyramid things? It was painfully embarrasing to watch the actors trying to wrestle with bits of empty space. Farscape avoids that by having physical beasties, and also by clever cuts and angles rather than monotonous mid range shots.

Re:Good geek TV

[GooberToo]

I agree. My wife and I were just watching a re-run of Farscape last night and mentioned to each other how well the "slug dude" (Rigel(sp?)) is done. For the most part, if willing, you can completely accept both Rigel(sp?) and Pilot as just another character. Both are done rather excellently. It's important to keep in mind that many people have problems doing that because they are so used to the stick-in-the-mud concept (okay -- brainwashed by lesser shows) that everyone should be bipedal humanoid and roughly the same size as presented in every other scifi shows since we were wee-tad kids. Farscape moves beyond that horrible preconcept.

Re:Good geek TV

[Jerf]

It's just that SG-1 gets all the interesting missions...

"Tonight on Stargate: SG-9: In a desperate, last ditch attempt to initiate a scientific exchange program between the Tolin and the people of Earth, SG-9 works overtime and desperately search for a concession to attact the interest of the self-sufficient Tolin... you've never seen bargaining-table politics like this!"

[shot moves to a bargaining table] SG-9 Team Leader: "As you can see from paragraph 3, subparagraph one of our treaty, if we blah blah blah blah...."

"Brought to you by the United Nations."

Re:Good geek TV

[shaum]

Well, Farscape was always too "muppets" for me

I had the same problem at first. After watching the show for a while, I'm completely over it. Puppetry is kind of like animation: if the only context in which you've seen it is in kids' shows and comedy, it's jarring to see it applied in a more dramatic context.

It doesn't help that Rigel, one of the puppet characters, is so frequently used for comic relief. But then the writers have Rigel torture a captive to death (he had it coming, but still...) and in so doing, extract a life-saving bit of information -- and suddenly, you no longer think about the muppetly cuteness and the hands inside making Rigel move: he's a real character.

And think about it: how do you do truly alien aliens in a live-action show on a realistic budget, or even an unrealistic one? Humans -- even extremely large or small humans in elaborate costume and makeup -- don't quite fill the bill. The alternatives are CGI and puppetry. And if the choice is between Jar Jar Binks and Rigel XVI, well...

Re:Good geek TV

[bill_kress]

E:FC and Star Trek couldn't have been in the same universe unless he wrote E:FC just after the first StarTrek series completed.

It's been clear in the ST universe for a long time that Vulcans were the first who contacted humanity.

And why the hell would we be flying around in something as clunky as the Enterprise if we'd seen those awesom little speedsters in E:FC?

Re:Good geek TV

[DCheesi]

Wolf Lake - Speaking of TV horror... only two eps so far, but really good: better than expected actually. Which probably means it's doomed. Whenever I like a show this much, and it's funded by Americans... sigh. (Another example: All Souls. Gone after, what, 6 episodes? Brimstone... Fantasy Island (with McDowell)... Empire (4 eps in 1984)... Earth 2 (which actually got a whole season)... but on the other hand, Max Headroom only got one season too.)

So in other words, you like dark fantasy. Yup, it's true, the American audience can't handle dark fantasy yet. We're catching on to dark sci-fi, which is easy due to our collective Luddite-conservative streak, but dark supernatural stuff just doesn't play. I think maybe it's the Disney-fied fairy tale thing; people tend to thing that silly happy endings are the only reason fantasy exists. And shows with a heavy theological burden tend to turn us off; either we don't agree with the interpretation, or we don't want to be reminded of our guilt-ridden religious beliefs (or lack thereof).

Re:Good geek TV

[DCheesi]

Oh yeah, I should mention that by dark, I mean gritty stuff and unhappy endings. Americans love so-called "gothic" stuff, as long as it's not too heavy (there's a paradox). Hence the Buffy craze, etc.

Re:Good geek TV

[DCheesi]

True, but they only seem to mention other teams as an afterthought, when it's convenient or unavoidable. Since we never see the other teams, nor does their behind-the-scenes work ever seem to affect the story-arc (while SG-1's discoveries regularly change *everything*), it's easy to conclude that they don't really do much.

The only plausible explanation I can think is that SG-1 is the primary team, and most of the other teams are just backups. Even saying that they're advance scouts doesn't explain it; they go on missions that wouldn't be appropriate for that role (including diplomatic missions --where's SG-9!? ;) So the other teams must be cleanup crews who do the mundane stuff, while SG-1 is the only real ecounter group.

Re:Good geek TV

[hearingaid]

So in other words, you like dark fantasy.

Well, it's true, I do like dark fantasy, but I don't think that's what I was talking about in the bit you quoted. :)

Wolf Lake is a horror show. All Souls was also a horror show. Brimstone, maybe: but I would put it probably on the horror side of the line. Fantasy Island was dark fantasy, yes. Empire was a satire soap opera. :) Earth 2 was semi-dark SF. Max Headroom was cyberpunk (and treated badly by the British).

I've seen extremely little in the way of genuine dark fantasy on TV, or in the movies. Usually it's either heroic fantasy or horror. Beastmaster comes close sometimes: but the main character is pure heroic fantasy. It's a quirky show. Xena wandered towards dark fantasy sometimes, but that's a show that was all over the map in so many ways (sometimes it felt like a quasi-feminist version of Xanth :). I think the old Conan show thought it was dark fantasy, but they didn't know either what dark fantasy was or how to write.

Now, I read tons of dark fantasy. The first name that comes to mind is Brust, but my shelves are awash in it. But I can't think of any live-action TV show ever made that was even remotely reminiscent of something like the Taltos books (which would make an excellent TV series, I think; Vlad's character has a lot of potential). Perhaps the Gargoyles cartoon, at least on the surface; stylistically the Batman cartoon had a lot in common too I think.

Hmm. Some of Burton's stuff, perhaps. Especially Beetlejuice and Scissorhands.

Nevertheless, I ramble too much. It will be interesting to see how the three Lord of the Rings movies do, especially relative to each other. I see Fellowship of the Ring as being the archetype of high fantasy, The Two Towers providing the basis of dark fantasy, and Return of the King as the archetype of heroic fantasy. Of course, these are overgeneralizations, but I feel there's some truth to them (even though heroic fantasy predates Tolkien; he just wrote it better :)...

Haiku

[575]

Chrichton, a man lost
Uncharted territories
His doom, two more years

If they screw it up...

[Rayonic]

> So much potential if they don't screw it up.

And even if they do screw it up, it'll still be on the air for at least five years.

Farscape Newbie

[Jethro]

I've been hearing a lot about Farscape, but never watched it because I didn't want to jump in in the middle.

Thankfully SciFi started re-airing it and this time I caught it. I think Season 2 just started on the reruns. Can anyone tell me what they're up to in the 'real' ones? I want to start watching those but I don't know where exactly they're at (Season 3 somewhere?)

I'd have taken notice of Farscape a LOT earlier if someone had told me Jim Hanson's Creature Shop was involved. The look & feel of the alien muppets beats the living daylights out of the "Nose Of The Day Department" who seems to do Star Trek. Then again when Farscape does have Human-Like aliens it's usually "Different Skin Colour" aliens.

I also love how everyone except Crichton has an Australian accent. And how badly they're trying to hide it. Yes, I know it's because the show's filmed there.

Plotwise, it's ok. The first season did have quite a few "Standard SciFi Plot #42" episodes, and some corny stuff (Scorpius? I mean... come on...), but I still like it. The characters are a lot more real than in Trek.

It's still not Babylon 5, but hey.

Re:Farscape Newbie

[Pfhor]

The later into the series, they usually get more diverse aliens, but there are a lot of humaniods, not as close as star trek, where it really is most ly facial makeup changes. I don't know if anyone can find the actual article, but i remember reading somewhere some theories that pretty much said that other intelligent life out there has a good chance of being humanoid because of some basic ideas of convergent evolution (like how in australia there are species which look similar to ones in north america, but have a very different ancestry). I also think they threw in the humans with ink thing because at the beginning they didn't have a lot of money, so they probably spent a lot of their money on the big puppets (pilot, rygel, d'argo's costume, etc.) and were left with enough money for body paint and sparkly things.

But it works.

Chiana is hot. I am still unconvinced that andromeda is better (it's more of a hercules in space thing).

Re:Farscape Newbie

[Bitsy Boffin]

Try living in any country outside of North America, most out TV shows have actors with American accents !

Re:Farscape Newbie

[IBgrad]

Go to scifi's farscape page. You can read the "journey log" wich is essentially a teaser for each episode. It is best if you just read up to where you are to get an idea of what it going on. But the logs leave enough unsaid to still make the episodes worth watching if you are like me and loose control and just read all of them. Right now they are rerunning earlier season 3 stuff on fridays. This Friday they will be showing "Thanks for Sharing," and Wednesday they will show "Family Ties" the last episode of season 1. There will not be any truly new episodes until the season finale in January. After you read the journey logs there is lots of other interesting stuff, like the character profiles and Chrichton's notes. Though my personal favorite was the "character insights" with the director that are in the "farscape primer." The character insights more than anything will help you get an idea of what is going on in the show.

Here a link to make it easy for you Farscape

Re:Farscape Newbie

[SanGrail]

Re: "everyone except Crichton has an Australian accent"

Except for the ones with English accents...

Re:Farscape Newbie

[Telek]

Do you have any idea where one can get a hold of Farscape episodes? I got a few on DVD, but I haven't been able to find many others and I haven't been able to watch past the first 9 episodes =(.

Re:Farscape Newbie

[YanIsa]

Can anyone tell me what they're up to in the 'real' ones? I want to start watching those but I don't know where exactly they're at (Season 3 somewhere?)

Latest ep shown is 3.18 "Fractures". Final four episodes of the season coming in 2002.

Cheapest Farscape DVD's are to my knowledge at Black Star.

For the monetarilly challenged, eps can most easily be DL-ed via eDonkey2000 or IRC - channel #farscape-central on DALnet.

Yan

Re:Farscape Newbie

[chad_r]

I also love how everyone except Crichton has an Australian accent. And how badly they're trying to hide it. Yes, I know it's because the show's filmed there.

Ever heard the actors in Xena or Hercules talk off camera? Or Marina Sirtis' real accent (or perhaps a lack of one, depending on where you live)? It really throws your brain for a loop, doesn't it?

I think the gist in Farscape is that the Peacekeepers all speak with an Australian accent. Whenever Crichton tries to infiltrate them, he fakes a horribly done British-type accent.

BTW, I agree with all the praise previously posted here. Top-notch writing that never spoonfeeds to the audience. I thinks it's unique in the way it has set up the characters and their interactions. The main characters are all (until the 3rd season) escaped prisoners, their dishonorably discharged captor, or a clueless alien (human) outsider. There is always an inherent mistrust that surfaces occasionally, just as it would in real life. They mostly work together out of mutual benefit, but ultimately they each want to go back to their home planet, and no one is going to sacrifice their chance so someone else can go first. They've backstabbed and stolen from each other, and even forceably cut off one of the ship pilot's arms (it regenerated) to trade for information. You do need to pay attention; if a character is lying or scheming, there won't be a wink to the audience to let us in on it.

And if you're watching 2nd season in reruns, it gets even better. Scorpius royally kicks ass! What a truly frightening character.

Re:Farscape Newbie

[Jethro]

Ever heard the actors in Xena or Hercules talk off camera? Or Marina Sirtis' real accent (or perhaps a lack of one, depending on where you live)? It really throws your brain for a loop, doesn't it?

Yeah, I know that - the Marina Sirtis thing is just totally dumb (they didn't want to have TWO characters with a british accent).

The Xena people seem to fake an American accent a lot better - on Farscape they don't try, which I think is great. I honestly wasn't complaining about it, I do find it funny that even Chrichton's father has an Australian accent.

Re:Farscape Newbie

[David Greene]

Can anyone tell me what they're up to in the 'real' ones? I want to start watching those but I don't know where exactly they're at (Season 3 somewhere?)

The re-runs are just starting season two. The current run is in middle/late season three.

The look & feel of the alien muppets beats the living daylights out of the "Nose Of The Day Department" who seems to do Star Trek.

Amen.

Plotwise, it's ok. The first season did have quite a few "Standard SciFi Plot #42" episodes, and

While it's true that some basic plots resemble time-honored themes, it's usually the case that some odd twist is thrown in to mix things up.

some corny stuff (Scorpius? I mean... come on...),

Little do you know...:). Scorpius is one of my favorite baddie characters of all time. It's not that he's pure evil. That would be uninteresting. It's that he actually has motiviation and reasoning behind what he does. The season three scenes showing him "behind the scenes" are almost, sick as it is, touching. The viewer really starts to understand his struggle.

but I still like it. The characters are a lot more real than in Trek.

Because they change. This is especially true in season three where all sorts of crap hits the fan.

It's still not Babylon 5, but hey.

Yes, and thank goodness. B5 had a great story arc, no question. But the writing in individual episodes was at times atrocious. JMS is a storyteller, not a writer. He puts in far, far too much exposition. Farscape avoids nearly all of that and is better for it. Farscape often presents great drama, but never, ever takes itself too seriously.

Re:Farscape Newbie

[albamuth]

Unfortunately I don't have cable but when I did I remember Farscape being a pretty decent show. I went to the web-page you linked, explored around, and discovered this gem in the "Crichton's Notes section:

Okay, so when I'm published in the International Journal of Intergalactic Science I'll have to edit these sections down a bit, but for now, I've gotta talk about how great it was to be inside Aeryn.

Oh, not like that, come on now. Give me some credit. I'm not the type to kiss and tell - not when I think I might get caught, anyhow.

See, these aliens attacked us, but Moya used the defense screen we'd recovered from the Zelbinion. Somehow the combination of the energy beam and the defense screen caused a bizarro physical reaction, and *poof* next thing I know I'm in AERYN'S body! I mean, like, my consciousness is, or something. And she's in Rygel's, and - ick - Rygel's in mine. BOY was it weird. But, Aeryn's body, man, let me tell you, I thought that thing was fun from the OUTSIDE. I'm not even going to try and describe what breasts feel like, I mean HAVING breasts feels like... Suffice it to say if I got to keep Aeryn's body I might never leave my room again.

'Course, alien beam hits again, right, and it's bye bye breasts.

Hmm...

Getting a head start?

[Anonymous Coward]

Taco seems to be watching a lot of TV nowadays, in addition to the 12 hours/day of Anime. All he has left to do when VA closes is add his fat ass to the bottom of the welfare rolls...

Watching Enterprise

[Slarty]

If you happen to be unlucky enough to live in an area where you can't get Enterprise at all (no UPN, no WB) how can you see it? I heard the pilot is online somewhere, but heck if I can find it...

Sure would be nice to see it for myself!

Re:Watching Enterprise

[AsylumWraith]

Warning, this option is probably not legal...

I had to work the night of the premiere (sp?). So, two days later, I went on Morpheus, and managed to download it, san commercials.

Should still be available. Just hope you have broadband. :p

Re:Watching Enterprise

[aka-ed]

It's being postd over and over and over in newsgroups, in mpeg and in divx formats.

Try alt.binaries multimedia

Re:Watching Enterprise

[jo44]

It's also quite available on eDonkey.

Farscape... The best..

[ChiefArcher]

I am so happy to hear about the farscape renewal.. I think people generally like it because they seem to connect with John. There are not many "crew members" 5?6? so I think viewers seem to follow the show a bit better than say star trek.. when that unknown guy in engineering walks by or that guy in the yellow shirt that gets killed every episode...
Farscape keeps me wondering what's next... The show rocks... One of the better shows Tivo decided to record.. ;)

ChiefArcher

Re:Farscape... The best..

[RavensDark]

For most of the life of Red Dwarf there were only 4 main characters.
Hell I guess what I'm trying to say is I always identified with Lister.
Beer milkshakes.
Potato Crisp Sandwiches.
Vindaloo so hot it hurts.
Flossing my teeth with the E-String of my guitar.
And socks that show up on scanners as alien life forms.

Re:It sort of

[antis0c]

Quick! Judge an entire show by one episode, I bet you're a hit with the ladies.

Another quality product from Oztralya.

[ratzmilk]

The best Sci-Fi since Mad Max (Road Warrior for you Yanks). Only problem is, we don't get to see it here. Season 1 is currently showing on Cable on the FoxKids channel, but that's it. It ran for about 4 weeks on free to air, on Channel 9, who incidentally are co-produces of the show, but they pulled it.

LEXX is becoming more popular here, but still is only shown on Cable. Again, it was on late Sunday nights on Free to Air on Channel 7 here, but only for the first season.

Re:Another quality product from Oztralya.

[Tekgno]

How long was the first season?

I think I saw about three or four episodes scheduled for on channel seven but I missed one of them, I saw the rest, but still, a bit short for a season.
If memory serves me, I think the first one was either on christmas or boxing day at about midnight.

Re:Another quality product from Oztralya.

[deniable]

They had to rename Mad Max 2 the Road Warrior because there was a really bad dubbed (into American?) version of the original Mad Max.

Channel 9 still shows Farscape. IIRC, it is Saturdays at 4:30 PM, during the kiddie time slot.

At least it's not in the usual Australian TV Kiss of Death time slots. All of the follwing are/were shunted to the graveyard shift and get bounced by the sport of the week: Buffy, Angel, B5, Star Trek: All of them, Roswell, West Wing, The Sopranos...

Of course, the excuse is that these shows don't rate well. Sound like circular logic.

Re:Another quality product from Oztralya.

[Shadow99_1]

Unfortunately (for me at least) cable is the only real way to get most sci-fi shows here (in the US) is super late at night (aka 1-4 am) or cable. Most markets don't have a UPN station...

I live next to the third largest city in PA as an example let me take you on a tour of local TV... ABC, NBC, & CBS (the three major networks) have all had stations here for years... PBS came in in the early 70's... & A local college started a fox affiliate back in '93 so we've had them for a bit (though fox eventually bought out the station from the college so no good shows have lasted)... Otherwise you'd best own cabble... & where I live (about 15-20 miles from the city I'm talkign about) the cable company is a monopolistic piece of crap, they don't care about providing good TV to their customers or price... They know quite well you don't have any choice unless you go satellite...

So It's not just an AUstralian thing.... & I'd rather shoot myself than watch ABC/NBC/CBS, so I spend countless hours online instead... I do miss sci-fi shows though...

Farscape is quality sci-fi

[p24t]

Farscape is a unique take on a space-exploring sci-fi show. Crichton is thrust into a completely alien environment, with no other humans. (although Sebatians don't really require makeup). Each of the other main characters are different species, a couple of them are non-humanoid, and are therefore puppets. The other planets and races they run into are strange and bizarre, and you never know what to expect.

The ship itself, which the pilot is connected to biologically, is itself a living being, and sometimes makes decisions on its own. The show seems to have explored the living-ship aspect quite well.

The show's main focus is usually on Crichton, who is confused from the start. He doesn't understand anything, much less how he got there. Of course, he learns quickly (Humans have to be good for something.) but is still considered by the rest of the crew to be inferior.

The crew, being made of excaped prisoners, is always on the run, but they don't start off by trusting each other, except by necessity. On more than one occasion, one member has betrayed the rest. Each different species has their own quirks, and biological differences, from D'Argo's self-poisonous blood to Rigel farting helium.

The language-barrier is tacked by implanted microbes, which, while something that has to be tackled by the type of show, doesn't immediately take effect on Crichton. The different languages also cause problems with other non-implanted beings later. But at least it's not the 'magic auto-translating badge' or other methods used elsewhere.

The plots are good, the episodes are well-written and interesting, and the acting is great. While watching it, I forget that Rigel and Pilot are puppets. I recommend it to anyone who likes science fiction, just watch a couple episodes. It's not for everybody, but what is?

p24t

Re:Farscape is quality sci-fi

[Tekgno]

I still reckon babelfish do a better job at solving that language-barrier. :)

Even further OT, what are the chances of the goa'uld from Stargate being highly evolved babelfish?

Re:Farscape is quality sci-fi

[RavensDark]

Yeah, but really bad attitudes.

Eh?

[Anonymous Coward]

How does that make the theme song fit?

Like the first person who replied clearly pointed out, the Trek franchise HAS a theme-- why they ditched it (and any instant recognition it had) is beyond ANYONE..

Re:Eh?

[nomadic]

Like the first person who replied clearly pointed out, the Trek franchise HAS a theme-- why they ditched it (and any instant recognition it had) is beyond ANYONE..

I kind of liked it; it went well with the montage opening. You know, after what, 20 years worth of episodes with the orchestral music on the previous 3 series, the old theme was getting a little played out. Especially since each consecutive show had duller and duller opening music.

Comedy Central

[grinwell]

The Critic is on Comedy Central.

And Farscape is incomprehensible in the middle of a multi-episode story arc. But watch a few episodes in a row and you'll fall in love.

This makes my day!

[Beowulfto]

I just started getting into Farscape. The first couple of times I watched it all I could think of was "WTF?" The plot arches feed on each other and it took a couple of shows for me to get an understanding of what was going on. Now Farscape is one of my favorites.

btw, I just watched the Buffy season opener and now understand why people are such big fans. Now all I need is a TIVO and my few last hours of free time will be gone.

A Slashdotter's ultimate farscape episode

[Ukab the Great]

Scorpius, Claudia Black, and frilling hot grits.

Re:A Slashdotter's ultimate farscape episode

[tangled27]

me, Crichton #1 and Crichton #2, no jacuzzi, just those tight peacekeeper leathers

Is it me or....

[JDAustin]

Did Babylon 5 set a standard form Sci-Fi that all new series try to go for?

That theme song has GOTTA go

[BattyMan]

Uh. Otherwise it seems OK

Obviously subjective

[Schwarzchild]

since I think LEXX is better. The episodes are definitely quirky and sort of like Moonlighting (the old Bruce Willis TV series) in space. The third season had extremely beautiful CG effects.

I am sad to hear that this is probably the last season of LEXX.

Re:Obviously subjective

[cheese_wallet]

Personally, I don't like lexx at all... but they have quite a following and I doubt this will be the last season. I think last year's was supposed to be the last season too. It keeps coming back.

Re:Obviously subjective

[DCheesi]

"It's the Show That Wouldn't Die!!" coming soon to a drive-in near you...

Seriously, I hated Lexx in the first season. I'd only watch because of a sort of morbid fascination I had with it (ok ok Zev may have had something to do with it also). I didn't watch regularly, and so it wasn't until the end of the season that I understood that there was more going on behind the B-movie schlock.

I still don't watch it regularly, but now I have greater appreciation for the show. There are a lot of interesting ideas floating around, and the cheesy and irreverent nature of the show allows it to explore them in unusual ways.

Funny Ass Recap of Enterprise

[cancrman]

at mightybigtv.com The link is slow, as they have been having really nasty server problems lately. But, when the server works this is one of my favorite sites (Ok, I watch a lot of TV). Sorry for the blatant plug, but I thought this was something that everyone might enjoy. Ahh, who am I kidding, this is just going to overload the server more. Don't click the link. There will be no clicking. You are getting sleepy..... Pete

The ultimate TV space opera

[Rosco P. Coltrane]

... isn't Furscrape or Star Truck or Legs or any of that garbage : the pinnacle of space SciFi on TV is undeniably Red Dwarf.

Disguised Aussie accents in Farscape ? Lister's accent sure beats the smeg out of it. Food replicators in Star Trek ? small potatoes compared to cow vindaloo. Data the android ? how about Kryten the 3000 series mechanoid ? and 790 the robot head is really ugly compared to Holly.

Re:The ultimate TV space opera

[sawilson]

Recently Lister was nice enough to do a cameo on LEXX. :) Personally, I loath lexx, but it's usually the least shitty thing on at that hour, which isn't saying much. I wish they'd just make farscape 2 hours long and ditch LEXX altogether.

Re:The ultimate TV space opera

[xQx]

Except for that whole female holly thing... and that wierd season 8 with the crew back alive?

:)

Nah, I love the dwarfers. ... Except they didn't truely explain why lister can't concevably spend the rest of his life in the 'better than life' total imersion video game.

Give me the dwarfers any day of the week.

Re:The ultimate TV space opera

[Goldberg's Pants]

Except they didn't truely explain why lister can't concevably spend the rest of his life in the 'better than life' total imersion video game.

This was explained in the books. People using BTL usually died after prolonged use as they stumbled around wherever they were with the kit on, smashing into things, falling down stairs etc... Basically injuring themselves repeatedly without realising. (It was considered a drug in the books.)

But, Back in Sydney

[mrgrumpy]

It's ironic that Farscape is filmed in Sydney, Australia where I live, but Channel 9, co-sponsor of the show isn't showing it since season 1 finished last year. In the regular sci-fi timeslot of Tuesday and Wednesday nights they are showing ST:TNG (again) and Roswell. They aren't even repeating B5 yet!

The I hear runours that it's showing in other cities in Australia, but still not Sydney. What's the story? It's even been taken off the Channel 9 web site, which makes it even harder to work out what is happening.

It's quite surreal to see Sydney bush scenes, with the plants spray painted blue or something similar, or Sydney beach scenes (remember, I've only seen season 1) for what is primarily an American show.

Oh, of course. How silly of me, it's on cable. Unlike the US, cable TV doesn't have the same market penetration over here yet. Well, I can always go over to my mum and dad's place and watc them ... at 3:30am!

Re:But, Back in Sydney

[deniable]

Channel 9 has season 3 on Sarurday afternoons in Perth. Maybe they can't show it in Sydney unless it's a sellout game.

Re:But, Back in Sydney

[mrgrumpy]

Channel 9 has season 3 on Saturday afternoons in Perth. Maybe they can't show it in Sydney unless it's a sellout game.

Do you mean to say that you've also had season 2 in Perth? Sydney must be in a time warp. This is disgraceful. Something must be done. T-Shirt wearing, sticker campaigns, we need a slogan. Hurrah, banner making at my house on Sunday followed by afternoon tea and commitee formation. We'll smash those corporate tyrants!!!

Re:But, Back in Sydney

[spathi]

The I hear runours that it's showing in other cities in Australia, but still not Sydney. What's the story? It's even been taken off the Channel 9 web site, which makes it even harder to work out what is happening

In Queensland we havent seen anymore since the original season was aired. Very frustrating, having a quality sci-fi show made in your own backyard (figurativley speaking :) ) and they dont air it on free to air stations. Worse of all I cant get cable where I live...

Re:But, Back in Sydney

[deniable]

No, I got it wrong. I double checked the IMDB, and it looks like the last episode I saw was 2.16. That was about a month ago. I didn't even realise Farscape was on until I found it channel surfing. (I usually don't watch 9 on Saturday Afternoons because it's all horse racing.)

Yay, more production money for D/U

[maaaaanis]

I know for a fact that Farscape is keeping several production/post prod facilities afloat down here whilst our local industry is in a fairly bad slump at the moment. Don't know if the CG is done here though, probably not.
They might also have been encouraged by the recent anouncement of hefty tax breaks for produtions worth more than AUS$15 (US$8)million.

Re:Yay, more production money for D/U

[Dief_76]

The CG is definately done in Sydney, in a production company that lives in Fox Studios. My roommate works for them, and they have a 30 - 40 person team dedicated soley to the Farscape CG effects.

However, the actual filming of Farscape is out in a studio near Homebush.

Main Character is Dead

[Alien54]

In Farscape, the main character died in the final episode of this season. So it is going to be interesting to see how they continue the show.

Seems to be the big thing to do. Kill off the main character, and see how to return them from the dead. Note Buffy of all things, which is pretty lame in this respect.

At least in Bab5, dead was dead, and was pretty permanent for most characters.

maybe it is all just a bad dream.

Re:Main Character is Dead

[DunbarTheInept]

At least in Bab5, dead was dead, and was pretty permanent for most characters

Unless you die on Zha'ha'duum (or however it's spelled). Then you don't really die for another 20 years. That was just as much of the cliffhanger-death-thats-not-a-death hook as other shows use. (Not that I mind, B5 was the best - but it did use that some old plot device just like everyone else did. The difference was that the event was planned from the very beginning of the show, so it seemed to "fit" better than in other shows where they do it.)

Re:Main Character is Dead

[/dev/niall]

In Farscape, the main character died in the final episode of this season. So it is going to be interesting to see how they continue the show.

Well, sort of. Remember he was "twinned" several episodes back. One went off on Talon and the other stayed on Moya (sp?). The Talon one, who developed a relationship with Eryn and figured out how wormholes tick, died. The Crichton on Moya is still alive.

Re:Main Character is Dead

[Exatron]

I take it you haven't seen several episodes in the third season, which doesn't end until January. Pa'u Zotoh Zhaan is dead for good (the actress who played her left the show) and one of the two John Crichtons died. Crichton was duplicated in the episode "Eat Me," with each copy eventually traveling on different ships while attempting to evade the Peacekeepers. The only character that was ever truly resurected was Aeryn Sun, but the process proved quite detrimental to Zhaan's health. All of the other characters only died in the sense that some hospital patients may die and be resuscitated while undergoing an operation.

Re:Main Character is Dead

[shogun]

Oh great thanks for the spoiler alert.

Re:Main Character is Dead

[Telek]

Unless you die on Zha'ha'duum (or however it's spelled).

Funny thing about that, it's spelt Z'ha'dum even though it's pronounced "zah-ha-doom"... go figure.

The difference was that the event was planned from the very beginning of the show

And it had a damned good plot.
and it had damned good plot continuity.
and it had damned good graphics.
and it had damned good characters.
and it had damned good character development.
and it had realistic plots.
and it had realistic tech.
(and I can go on) =)

Re:Main Character is Dead

[tap]

There have been a few more than that.

In the episode with the Tavloids, er Tavleks, Rygel gets choaked to death by a guard before a commerical, then after the break he is brought back to life by the squid thing in the cell next to him.

Stark is killed when he's dispersed as a punishment for blowing up the nuclear waste aliens' ship after D'argo rats on him. But then he comes back to life in another episode.

Durka, the captain of the Zelbenion, is a dead corpse in the episode "PK Tech Girl", but in "Durka Returns" it turns out he faked his death and was captured by the Nebari and frozen for 100 years or so. His ship is sucked out of Moya and explodes at the end of that eposide. But then later it turns out he lived (he ducked when the ship exploded) and now leads the Zenetan pirates. He appears right before a commercial break and then Rygel kills him and sticks his head on a stick right afterwards.

Maldus, the magic vampire guy, gets killed at the end of the episode, but then comes back in another and is killed again.

In one episode Crichton appears to have killed Scorpius after his cooling rods explode, but then we find out he didn't die, just got a headache.

D'Argo appears to get eaten in the episode "Eat Me", but then we find out the weird dude made a backup copy of D'Argo before eating him so he's still around. Chiana also gets eaten (not like that! maybe the uncut verison..) but we see her get copied first so it's not a return from the dead.

The weak surgeon alien that took apart Chrichton's brain appears to die when Scorpius breathes on him. But next season we find out he was just passed out, and he survies just long enough to put Chrichton's brain back before a scaran breathes on him and dies for good.

In one episode Chrichton is frozen in carbonite (it worked for Han Solo) and his head is cut off and tossed in a pool of hot acid. But carbonite is tuff stuff, so in the next episode they fish out his head, stick it back on, and revive him.

Aeryn's mother Xhalax cuts Rygel in half when she escapes in the episode "Relativity". But then Stark stiches him back together with magic healing vine and he comes back to life.

In that same epsidode, Crais kills Xhalax when they recapture her, but then she comes back in another episode because Crais just really just pretended to kill her.

And Zhaan might not really be dead. The last episode ended with Stark staying Zhaan is trying to contact him from behond the grave (compost pile?) and he's going to leave Moya for a while and look for her.

That's all I can think of off the top of my head, but clearly there have been quite a few "he wasn't really dead" plot twits.

Re:Main Character is Dead

[uberdood]

> At least in Bab5, dead was dead, and was pretty permanent for most characters

Unless you're the _MAIN BLOODY CHARACTER_.

(Or Kosh...)

Which one is it? You're either dead, or not dead. Pretty permanent and dead are mutually exclusive.

You wasted a personal point for this?

Re:Main Character is Dead

[dinivin]

On the contrary, Buffy has the best damn resurrection I've ever seen :-)

Dinivin

Re:Main Character is Dead

[Exatron]

Stark isn't the best example of a character that died. He has a weird ability to communicate with and resurrect the dead, but only under special circumstances. He was only able to resurrect Rygel because the vines healed the physical wounds.

I have no explanation for Durka. His presence in the second season served no purpose whatsoever.

The cooling rod wasn't in Scorpy's head when it exploded. He can survive without the rod for a short period of time. The last shot of him in the episode is of his hand reaching for the new rod.

I could have sworn that Zhaan said that Maldus might be able to return after their first encounter.

Crais made a deal with Xhalax for a very good reason. If someone didn't tell Peacekeeper Command that Talyn and crew were dead then more retrieval squads would have been dispatched.

Zhaan is dead and won't be returning any time soon. Virginia Hey left the show because she couldn't tolerate the makeup any longer and had moved to America. The writers added the bit about Zhaan contacting Stark from beyond the grave because Paul Goddard had a commitment to the theater that coincided with Farscape's Shooting schedule. Stark wasn't even meant to be more than a minor character until Virginia Hey decided to leave the show.

Chrichton wasn't just frozen in carbonite in "Look at the Princess," his entire body was converted to a different substance. He technically didn't die because he was a statue when his head was removed. The techonolgy that made him a statue had to be robust enough to compensate for reattached or damaged body parts; a lot can happen in 500 cycles.

I also have no explanation for why the doctor survived the first time. Grundshclik made it very clear that the doctor would suffocate if dust particles entered two nostrils at the same time. The Scaran didn't just breathe on the doctor; he used his heat breath.

The Tavlek guard may have choked Rygel to the point where the Hynerian passed out, but squid boy resuscitated him before any significant brain damage occurred.

Two completely unexplained instances of someone not staying dead and a few with extenuating circumstances that were often little more than someone saying, "By the way, you were dead, but I revived you," isn't bad.

Re:Main Character is Dead

[Lonnold]

And it had CGI effects that looked cool at the time but are dated and stupid looking now.
And it had damned poor actors(with one or two exceptions).
And it had damned poor "alien" makeup.
And it had damn poor production values.
And it had damned stupid stories until the arc started.
And it had damned poor characterizations.
(and I can go on:)
Hey I liked B5, I really did. But it was not the greatest SciFi show of all times as some people proclaim. Wooden acting, ridiculous dialogue. Ugh... Farscape is good, but not without its problems either. I watched the first episode and then dropped out until the season 2 finale. Now I am checking out the reruns to see what I missed.

New audiences..

[SectoidRandom]

I think new audiences is right, but i dont think its at all a "Younger Audience" their aiming for, I would think its a small part of a broad strategy they seem to have with the whole season (im guessing from what i have seen / read) too relate to more people, and not just all the sci-fi geeks.

In my opinion (a sci-fi geek) thats a damn good thing, the *worst* thing that could happen (already sooo close) is for it to turn into a
'virtual' b-grade show appealling to only the most diehard geeks. Say like Babylon 5. =)

(Sorry for that flame-bait, i cant stand b5. Please ignore. :])

Speaking of TNG...

[SomeoneYouDontKnow]

...and speaking of things that have got to go, what about that damn black bar on TNN? Who's the genius that cooked that up? I'd actually like that channel if that thing weren't there, especially since TNG looks better than it has in years, but I just can't stomach that bar, cutting off the bottom of the picture.

And to lump a totally unrelated topic into this post, did anyone catch the season premiere of Andromeda last weekend? I think my local station accidentally ran it a week early. I really want to like that show (as someone here said once, it's all about the ladies, and yes, it is), and I keep waiting for it to improve, but it never seems to get better. Too many implausible plot twists to keep the story on the right track. If you saw the season opener, you'll recall a huge one, but I won't post that big of a spoiler.

Re:Speaking of TNG...

[Forkenhoppen]

HELL YEAH.

..sorry, I know how Slashdot abhors me-too posts, but I just had to agree. I'm too distracted by that black bar crap to be able to concentrate on the episodes and what's happening onscreen. Note to TNN: if I wanted banner ads, I'd be on the internet--not watching television.

Which raises an interesting question; anyone have the entire series DivX'd? TNN has sparked my interest in this series again, but if they won't deliver, then I'm all for pirating decent copies of the eps..

Australian tv sucks!!#%$@

[SectoidRandom]

Ahhh i cant stand TV down here!?!!@$ Damn the govt supported free-to-air monopoly! Jesus even now with digital tv, thanks to one media owner (aka Kerry Packer, Channel 9) we have digital tv in the 'more of the same' format!!@$# Ie no, new channels (except govt chan), and NO FSCKEN digital cable! ARGH!

No wonder the best we see right now on tv, DS9 and Voyager, seasons 6 and 5 respectivly, at that prime-time once a week spot of midnight!!@$ Not to mention Farscape getting axed after such a short time! :(

Grr!! (insert !^inf)

*ah-hem* as you were..

Re:Australian tv sucks!!#%$@

[spathi]

I live in Aus too, and i must say your quite right. and DS9 and Voyager get taken on and off at whim (because tennis is *so* important!) I was very dissapointed with Farscape being taken off, I mean wasnt it partly Funded by Channel 9?

Cable is okay, although not digital, but its always the same here in Australia, its okay if you can get it. its not very widley available unless you live in a capital.

But they killed off Xev!

[J.C.B.]

They need to bring here back, quick. If there's no Xev, who's going to be having the sex?

Kai? Nope, "The dead do not get hard."

Stanley? He wishes.

Bunny? She can't get into it unless it's that dorky president guy.

WE NEED XEV!

Guy?

[Pope]

Dude, it was Diane Warren who wrote the theme song.

last hope

[FoulBeard]

Doh! this sucks, and its offtopic. My nameserver is smoking crack, the only thing it will resolve is slashdot.org (no I dont have root). Can someone
spout off a quick nameserver that I could temporarily.

Re:last hope

[sawilson]

Good God. There are a billion nameservers out there to use. Try something on a big pipe like:

24.48.64.2
or
24.48.57.2
or
207.69.188.185 (the example in DNS and BIND :) )
or it's brothers .186 and .187 (which are really the same machine, I used to work there)

Hope this helps you live up to your silly technical goal.

Why I like it.

[sawilson]

Farscape completely nails the space opera genre. Period. While nailing it, the characters are very well developed, and you actually care about them. The plots are incredible because:

1. They don't always come out on top, or completely walk away supreme victors in conflict.

2. A lot of the time (much like in cowboy bebop) they don't come out ahead in the end because of something they did, they do because of weird luck, or the source of conflict making a huge mistake. So it's not predictable.

3. They focus a lot on things that happen in the past to season plots without overdoing flashback sequences (also like cowboy bebop)

4. Their technical voodoo bullshit sounds reasonable.

5. They will kill a character off.

6. They have the soap opera feel, and the cliffhanger crafting completely nailed also.

So basically, it's done intelligently. I hate watching a show and having my intelligence insulted. There's only been once episode (that crappy dance club, people milking episode) that truly sucked ass. I swear they accidentally let some brain dead shitty 60's movie director man the helm for some unknown reason. The only scifi I watch on TV at this point is Farscape, Outer Limits, cowboy bebop, outlaw star (more to see where they are going with it) and Stargate SG1 reruns. Even though Stargate SG1 is pretty predictable most of the time, it still has a big screen feel to it that I like. The characters are better than the plot, but good enough that watching it is still fun. I initially caught the first episode of farscape on scifi by accident at a friends house (Hey Dave) around the time it first aired, and they were playing it 3 times a day. I was hooked from then on. I had just grown completely sick of X-Files, and it completely replaced it. I can't wait for the new episodes. The awesome thing is that as the show matures, it gets better. My girlfriend and I were really worried that they'd apply the LEXX treatment to the show to try to push the ratings, or keep it on top. Then they brought the annoying big titted redhead on the show, and it really looked like it was going that way. I swear they must have changed directors or something for a little bit. Either way, things improved and it's me and my girlfriends favorite show at this point.

Re:Why I like it.

[Rogerborg]

• 4. Their technical voodoo bullshit sounds reasonable

Joyously so. "Spare me the technobabble, gadget girl, let's just get on with it." I nearly wet myself.

Re:Why I like it.

[mcelrath]

There's only been once episode (that crappy dance club, people milking episode) that truly sucked ass.

Man, that episode ruled! They let the director go all wacky with camera angles and music, it was like one long acid trip. I thought they did a really good job. (Not as good as Aranofsky, but very good nonetheless) That's one of the reasons I enjoy the show, not only is the plot different in each episode, but they're stylistically different. There are a lot of ways of telling a story, and they seem to be willing to experiment.

The other thing I love about the show is that stuff happens that you just don't expect. The show is FAR from predictable. They explore ideas that just don't occur to most people: Plants as sentient beings? What's the world like with a duplicate of yourself? Criminal insanity - "Family? Food? What's the difference?" Characters DIE. Characters can be ANNOYING FUCKS, but can still be worthwhile beings. Creative lifeforms -- living ships with symbiotic pilots?

Good shit.

--Bob

Re:Why I like it.

[Alzheimers]

I hear Sega's already got a game made after that episode...it's called

Dance Dargo Dance Revolution!

Re:Why I like it.

[shankel]

There's only been once episode (that crappy dance club, people milking episode) that truly sucked ass. That would be Scratch And Sniff. Not my favorite episode. But, I will say this in its favor. Yes, it does have a weird 60's beach-party meets 90's rave vibe, but this is because the story is being told by Crichton to Pilot, who expresses more than a little incredulity. It's not clear how much of the story has been affected by Crichton's, uh, recontextualizing. From this perspective, it does give an interesting insight into how Crichton relates these "strange alien creatures" to his more familiar Earth culture.

Re:Why I like it.

[SandsOfTime]

There's only been once episode (that crappy dance club, people milking episode) that truly sucked ass.

Man, that episode ruled! They let the director go all wacky with camera angles and music, it was like one long acid trip. I thought they did a really good job.

Not only that, the episode was actually a story/excuse that John and Dargo were telling to Pilot to explain where they'd been. This story was a huge exaggeration at the very least, and may have been completely untrue! This explains how weird it was, and how it didn't seem to fit with the normal course of the show.

Technical Accent

[Anonymous Coward]

Blame the accent on the Microbes :)

Moderators!?!

[Anonymous Coward]

why is this modded as a troll? its not his fault that taco is an idiot.

News from behind the scenes... SPOILER WARNING...

[Danae's Dad]

Until recently I'd never seen more than ten seconds of Farscape. They don't run it on any of the free-to-air channels in Sydney, much to the ire of many. I'm not much of a TV watcher myself, but I don't mind the odd episode of ST:TNG and happily admit to having been hooked by Babylon 5 when they were playing it on late night timeslots four years ago here in Sydney. I only knew about Farscape because my brother once played a bit part in an alien bodysuit for one episode. But now I've seen three whole minutes, and what's more, most of them not yet seen by the public, because last night I sang in the soundtrack recording for the penultimate episode (21) of the 3rd season at the Sony studios in Sydney. The production company contracted us (the Sydney Chamber Choir) to provide sixteen male voices for a couple of hours. The music was dark and Mozart-Requiem-like with lots of low notes, and we had to make it sound as much like a Russian choir as possible (for the choral iliterati, that means cavernous and subsonic).

SPOILER FOLLOWS

In the scenes we accompanied, an immense spaceship was being destroyed, water everywhere, and there was a tense meeting between some human bloke and a mean-looking alien commander in a black leather headpiece with a shrivelled face and pointy teeth (seems it was his ship being pounded). They both wore identical technological amulets which they discarded while talking. This seemed to be significant. There was no dialogue track, so all we had to go on were the visuals. Does any of this make sense to you diehards out there?

Or

[sawilson]

you could actually purchase the ones you can get on DvD, and watch them every night at 8pm on scifi. Not to be a dick about getting something for nothing, but I'd actually feel guilty about getting pirated copies of this show. This is not your father's scifi.

Re:Or

[n3bulous]

Well, Farscape is kind of dicky about bundling a pair of episodes and selling it for $25 (20 on amazon).

You can get all of Buffy Season I for $50. (ok, it won't be released until Jan 15, but there are other examples...) I'm hoping they wise up and release each season bundled for a reasonable (to me) price.

Still my favorite show. Someone said this is the last season for Lexx, I hope not.

Re:Or

[Alzheimers]

I think more people'd buy it....if there was more then Season One! ADV has YET to put out a single DVD from Season 2 on...which means, all the best episodes are still unnaccounted for.

Beastie Boys - Sabrosa

[xQx]

I'm serious.
Get the VCD, turn the volume right down, then play the intro to the tune of Sabrosa.

All you need is a clip from the 'decontamination' in the start and you're set.

That singing is really, really bad. I'm sorry. The rest of the show ROX. But it's a real letdown.

The makers of enterprise really should have a listen to the following, then keep the trend up:

Star Trek TOS Theme
Star Trek TNG Theme
Star Trek Voyager Theme
Star Trek DS9 Theme
Lexx Theme - start of series 1 "I am the lexx"
Babylon 5, series 3 theme.

If they're intent on having lyrics, They should refer to Red Dwarf. They had lyrics, they did it well. (IMHO)

Re:Beastie Boys - Sabrosa

[cyclist1200]

Good. God. Kill. Me. Please.

Beastie Boys???
Good???

TOS??? 35 year old tired sixties-TV dreck?
TNG??? 20 Year old tired pseudo-Williams seventies dreck?
DS9??? Booooooring
Voyager??? Even moooooore booooooring
Lexx?????? RED DWARF?????? GOOD MUSIC??????

B5....okay I have to agree with you there. Though I liked the 4th season theme better.

Re:Beastie Boys - Sabrosa

[Tukla]

B5....okay I have to agree with you there. Though I liked the 4th season theme better.

5th season here. In fact, 1st and 5th season themes are the only ones I can remember. Maybe I just have a strong aversion to dissonance. (That'd explain why I hate the Farscape and Andromeda themes so much, too.)

thanks

[Sanity]

Thanks, I have programmed my Tivo accordingly

At least there's no confusion with Lexx

[xQx]

No confusion, no shame.

All it takes is a look at the lexx its self to see what the show's based around.

What are the main charactures in less:
- A huge organic space ship, with a long extrusion, and two 'ocular perabola' which are so powerful they can blow up planets.
Additional notes:
- The lexx talks, but has an IQ of about 3
- It is capable of sustaning life within it, 'replicating' food for the crew, so it tastes how they want it, but always comes out in an ooze, from some equilly attactive extrusion in the cabin.
- The dunny's have no paper, the lexx 'licks' you clean.

Then there's Xev (formally Zev)
- Part sex slave, so she'll fuck anything that walks... except stanley tweedle
- Part cluster lizard, so she can stand up for herself, put up with the heat... and eat flesh.
- Because she was turned into a sex slave, she is drop dead gorgeous.

Kai. A dead guy.
- Also pretty good looking.
- Dead, so he's (basically) invincable
- Is an ex-assasin, with no feelings.

Robot Head
- A head, of a robot, that is madly in love with Xev, except for season 3, when it's madly in love with Kai.

Stanley Tweedle
- A real geek. Has been a geek all his life.
- A wimp, if it wasn't for Xev, he'd be dead long ago.
- ... who never gets laid.
- ... but controls the Lexx, thus is the most powerful man in existance.

Right, thats a pretty good crew workup there, a great chick, a dead guy, a geek, a robot and a planet destoryer.

What do they do? ... Travel around in the universe trying to get stanley tweedle laid, because he's the captain, and Xev refuses to fuck him.

I don't know what it is about lexx, but there's no shame or confusion about what it's based around.

Lexx has got to take the cake, as the most F*cked up, sex oriantated cult sci fi series out ther.

I don't know how anyone can not love it :)

Re:At least there's no confusion with Lexx

[/ASCII]

I watched 3 or 4 episodes of Lexx in a state of utter confusion. My mind couldn't grasp such a fscked concept for a TV-series. Eventually I accepted Lexx for what it is and I like it.

Re:At least there's no confusion with Lexx

[pivo]

I don't get it either, how people can not love it that is.

The best part is the refreshing lack of an opressive moral code that, on other shows, often makes the resolution inevitable as soon as the conflict is known. Tweedle blows up entire planets to demonstrate his power, seldom with any reprocussions at all, Zev wants to get f**ked and happy tells informs to almost everyone she meets of this fact. This is television that isn't (totally) morally sanitized! How did it get past the network execs?

The only clue I have as to why this show isn't universally loved is that it really isn't "science" fiction since it rarely deals with any science issues.

It's not like 9 to disrepect a sci fi.

[xQx]

I don't know if I like your tone.

Channel 9 have always treated us sci-fi lovers well.

I tuned in keenly at 10pm for my series 1 bab5.
10:15pm for series2
10:30 for series3
11:00 for series4
I switched on at 11:00pm every night through season 5 so I'd be ready to watch the show at it's airing time of 'Any radom time between 11pm and 1am'

I liked the way channel 9 gave Deep Space 9 a post-modern feel by playing their series completely out of order on tuesday or thursday nights randomly between 11pm and 3am

And now, I tune in routenely at 2am every friday morning to catch my beloved series 6 Voyager.

I'm waiting for the adds (in a year or two) when they pick up enterprise:

"Tonight, or tomorrow night, We might start series 1 of the new science fiction series "Enterprise". Tune in. We'll play it at around 4am... maybe 5am, it depends on how long the important issues of the day take to spell out in NightLine so our audience understands them"

It's just part of the great service our wonderful, loving and caring government spends the revinue raised our 52% petrol tax on.

Re:It's not like 9 to disrepect a sci fi.

[RavensDark]

You must remember the marvelous job that Nine did with B5 when one week Ivonova (I'm sorry die hard fans, I just don't know how to spell it) had her leg in plaster then the next it was off and then the episode when she actually broke it. The fact is the people who organize the programming don't realize that there is some continuity to most sci-fi shows and that to break it up and show episodes out of sequence just drives the big fans nuts.
At least they are going to show the last two ST:TNG movies this Saturday from 8:30 EST.

The Onion??

[Gorimek]

Well, I've read far more about Buffy than is healthy, and I've never heard of an Onion connection. What the #&^%#$& are you talking about?

farscape etc.

[56ksucks]

Farscape I like. Lexx seems stupid to me though. I haven't got a chance to see Enterprise yet, but, I already see a flaw in it. The Klingons. In the original series Klingons looked human, it wasn't until the first movie that they had bumpy heads. Enterprise is set before the original series. So logically Klingons would look human. This flaw in the story line wouldn't be a big deal, but the writers have already addressed the fact that somewhere in the fictional history the Klingons went through some type of change. In the DS9 episode trials and tribble-ations the DS9 crew look at Warf in disbelief when he tells them that the human like beings at the other table are indead Klingons. Of couse we don't know exactly what happened (other than an increase in the makeup artists' budget) because Warf explains to the crew, "We do not discuss it with outsiders". The point is, they've already accepted in the story line that something happened in the history of the Klingons that changed their appearance forever. And now the Klingons in Star Trek Enterprise look like the new Klingons. Major flaw in the story line.

love that farscape

[maxpublic]

I love Farscape - it's made more of an impression on me than any SF show since I first saw ST:TOS. Great characters, actors that can actually act, interesting plots, continuing story arcs (no Trek reset button), no inconsistent gaping tech holes, and, of course,

BABES

Claudia Black. Gigi Edgly. Oh my.

I can't think of any other show I've seen where my favorite character is the *ship* and my second is a puppet (Pilot). Or where the women kick such ass, or the main character screws things up as often as he saves the day.

Trek you can predict in the first two minutes of any ep. In Farscape you never know what's going to happen. Except, of course, that there'll be at least one or two hilarious moments, and that someone is bound to act like an asshole in a most unheroic - but most human - way.

Max

What I'd REALLY like to see...

[/ASCII]

is another season of TOS. Can someone please give Shatner a call?

Gnutella and Xolox advertisement

[porttikivi]

Pirated Farscape episodes are easily available on Gnutelle with a good client like Xolox.

Edgar Rice Burroughs

[invid]

What I like about Farscape is that it is a retelling of the classic Edgar Rice Burroughs books, particularly the John Carter, Warlord of Mars series. These are pure escapist stories--literally. It is about escaping from familiar into the bizzare--into a land of danger, beautiful women, capture, rescue, and battles against evil. It is well done, has good eye candy, has a mishmash of appealing characters, and the plot twists are interesting enough to keep me involved. I like it.

Re:Edgar Rice Burroughs

[Nuncio]

Well put!!! I think that's exactly the appeal for me too. And looking at Ben Browder for an hour is icing on the cake. He's not normally my type, but I guess I identify with the character more often than not (although they've been downplaying the techie geek thing over the past season) The female characters are hot too (all three). I'm going to FanCon in Springfield, MA in November, and I can't wait to see what Virginia Hey looks like with hair :-) I hear she's really hot in real life.

Farscape rocks

[jjohn]

It took me a good while to give it a chance, but damn is it good. Space opera is back with a vengeance! Farscape often tells stories better than any show I've on television. From the writting to visual effects, this show has it all. I think it's one of the best kept secrets on TV. It's not exactly the televised novel that B5 was, but many shows are connected and the series feels like it's going somewhere. Here's a few reasons to give Farscape a chance:

• The main characters don't always get along. In fact, they often betray each other
• Characters make decisions that have lasting consequences
• Leather fetishists will adore the PeaceKeepers!
• Muppets, what's not to love?
• The human, for most of the first season, is treated as nearly useless
• The series is set in a mildly dystopian near future
• Talking, sexy plants!
• The villians are credible and relentless
• The way stories are told is often incredible. Non-linear stories, warner brothers-like cartoons, omninous endings. Farscape's got it all

Re:Farscape rocks

[blair1q]

Concur.

Farscape is good, solid skiffy.

Lexx is just Gilligan's Island with bugs and necrophilia.

Farscape is why I use edonkey

[specialized_sworks]

Farscape is not being shown in Canada, so the only way I can get it is via edonkey. Works out quite well. The shows are about 350MB, which doesn't really take that long to download. And I have a laptop with TV-out, so I can watch the show on the big screen with the rest of the family.

Apparently there was supposed to be a deal with YTV in Canada, but it never happened. And this way I can watch the shows at my leisure, and in order (very important).

-W

Re:Farscape is why I use edonkey

[xQx]

Enterprise is why I use edonkey :)

How long till the RIAA or MPAA feast their grubby mits on that awesome protocol.

eDonkey truely is the napster of the movie community. There is NO rival yet.

Lexx? CmdrTaco revealed!

[Kostya]

I know conclude that despite all of CmdrTaco's talk about anime and such, he is clearly a sci-fi poser. Lexx is the bottom of the barrel, below even all those bad Mark Hamill movies (which at least have the fact that they document the plummeting career of a scifi beloved going for them).

Lexx is crap. Not Andromeda crap (i.e. sketchy scifi/science) which is still fun. Lexx is crap-crap. Utterly iredeemable. It is the TV equivalent of Battlefield Earth.

Love Boat in Space

[n3bulous]

If it's a time of miltary rule, why are they so friggin non-military? Maybe it is just Scott Bakula having no spine and horrible line delivery, but with that rub down scene it seems more like Love Boat meets soft pr0n than Star Trek or SciFi. Ayn Rand says "Show, don't Tell". Regardless of what you think of her books or ideologies, just saying "it's a time of military rule" doesn't cut it. You have to show it for the audience to feel it.

That said, I accidently saw the pilot and it wasn't too bad, but it was typical ST schlock. You would think geeks would be smart enough and get tired of recycled plot lines, but they don't (or they did long enough to get Voyager off the air).

Every episode of Farscape impresses me more than any other show I've ever seen. I put off watching Farscape because of the puppets and the usual SciFi lineup was horrible, but I'm glad I gave it a chance. Pilot still looks like a puppet but is rarely shown, but Rigel, unless I focus on him, blends in pretty well.

Re:Disappointing Lexx season

[royalall]

I agree with you man, it started to suck when they decided to spend the entire friggin season on fire and water. Now they decide to spend the entire LAST season on earth? Why the fluck do they have to torture us?! It was waaay better when they used to go to different planets with new aliens and different plots. I hate what they did with the show. Anyways, it's still my favorite program (next to Farscape), but that only cos everything else on TV sucks ass and I love Xenia's lips.

I wonder if its a sign of old age...

[Snaller]

...when you think its a totally pathetic piece of brain dead crap, which is almost entirly unoriginal and totally non inventive with the sole exception of the totally over the top far out visuals, which appear to be aimed at the bubblegum generation.

The only thing i really liked was the intro to season 1

Greatest American Hero

[jpostel]

It reminds me of the them song to the TV show from the early 80s.

"The Greatest American Hero (Believe it Or Not)" by Mike Post and Stephen Geyer, sung by Joey Scarbury

Believe it or not
I'm walking on air
I never thought I could feel so free-ee-ee
Flying away
On a wing and a prayer
Who could it be?
Believe it or not, it's just me

Enterprise - What's wrong with the theme

[nullhero]

What's the deal that the only problem people have with Enterprise is a theme song. Considering that this series is closer to us than Kirk it makes much more sense. Consider that Cochran was a Steppenwolf fan. It makes sense to have a 20th/21st type song accompaning this show. These people are us not in the distant future but in the soon and now - 100 years is not that far. With the advent of Warp technology 200 years becomes even closer.

Why Farscape is Cool

[Mr. Punch]

I really dig Farscape and think it's the best SF on tv at the moment. Why?

* It's exciting and unpredictable. You can never be sure that our heroes are going to win or, if they are, if it'll go as planned.
* There is a strong and effective story arc. The story truly does move forward; this isn't just a story about some people wandering around in space. (DS9 was good like this, but TNG, alas, was not.)
* The technology is at a good level for story purposes; it's high enough to make this clearly SF, but there's a lot of room for things to fail. The ship isn't nigh indestructible like the Enterprise D.
* The aliens really are alien, not just humans with funny noses. Even the human looking ones have key physiological differences (Sebacean heat death), and plenty of aliens are just bizarre.
* Finally, there are far more realistic levels of good and evil than you see in much commercial SF. The villians tend to be bad _individuals_, not giant evil empires. The heroes are all somewhat self interested and will do unprincipled things at time (cutting off Pilot's arm to give to NamTar in exchange for a map home). The largest and most powerful military organization in the area are, for most intents and purposes, a high-grade rent-a-cop outfit. The Peacekeepers aren't good or evil, they're lawful, and have members who can be either.

Overally, I think it's an exciting, dynamic, believable show, and I'm thrilled that the SF channel is recognizing this and giving us more of it. They'll certainly have my eyeballs for the next couple of years.

-michael-

I have never gave Farscape a chance...

[ChozSun]

... until a friend of mine is collecting the episodes on DVD. Combine that with Farscape replaying the entire series since episode 1 and it gave me a chance to watch it.

Not only does Farscape prevents me from watch sci-fi crap such as Lexx and the entire Star Trek franchise, but my tolerance for crappy shows in general is lessen.

Farscape is beyond just a great sci-fi show, it is a great show. I do not spend a lot of time watching tv but I will stop down for three things:

1. Hockey and NHL2Night
2. The Sopranos (and half the HBO lineup include Sex & The City, 6 Feet Under and Band of Brothers).
3. Farscape

Farscape is so greatness in fact my wife likes it. That would not be so impressive however she hates sci-fi so much that she will go out of her way to tease me about it. But she loves Farscape!

Re:Lexx? CmdrTaco revealed!

[gwernol]

I know conclude that despite all of CmdrTaco's talk about anime and such, he is clearly a sci-fi poser. Lexx is the bottom of the barrel, below even all those bad Mark Hamill movies (which at least have the fact that they document the plummeting career of a scifi beloved going for them).

Lexx is crap. Not Andromeda crap (i.e. sketchy scifi/science) which is still fun. Lexx is crap-crap. Utterly iredeemable. It is the TV equivalent of Battlefield Earth.

Why was this inane comment moderated informative? The only thing the poster said was "Lexx is crap". That tells us nothing. For this to be informative, tell us why you think Lexx is crap; that would (possibly) be informative, or at least interesting. Are the characters unbelieveable? Do the plots have internal or external consistency? Is the writing poor? Are the sets so badly constructed that they wobble when an actor walks by?

And some examples to back up your claims would be good.

But just saying "Lexx is crap" is worthless. It is certainly not informative.

I tried...

[gaudior]

...to watch from the beginning, when Sci-Fi started it over a couple of months ago. I had the same experience with Babylon 5. When TNT started it from scratch, I made sure to catch it, in order. I loved that show. The writing, acting, stories, were all excellent. The whole universe was engaging.

Now, I started watching Farscape, as It had been recommended by people who had told me about B5.

I wanted to like this show, if only to maintain my high regard for some of my friends. But... after 2 weeks, I realized this was nothing other than Buck Rogers meets Buffy, the Vampire Slayer, with some left-over Fraggle Rock puppets thrown in.

Sorry Farscape just isn't worth the time. The story line wasn't engaging, the caracters were flat, and the whole structure was trite, and had been done better, other places.

I'm glad it appeals to some, but, I've got code to write.

(Lexx is by far, the worst program I've ever seen, except for ALF. And Andromeda. And Earth:Final Conflict.)

wtf???

[gaudior]

How is this connected, even slightly, with a discussion of Farscape?

Re:Lexx? CmdrTaco revealed!

[cheese_wallet]

Like we fucking care.

Re:No, it's totaly gay.

[Tukla]

So you liked it, then?

FarScape on DVD

[Red Avenger]

Does anyone know where I can buy Farscape Season 1 on DVD? All I have seen is the individual shows sold separately. I want the whole season ala The Sopranos Entire First Season.

I liked the Red Dwarf cameos

[SpiceWare]

Lister and Holly(Craig Charles and Hattie Hayridge) where the husband and wife prison wardens in the episode P4X

Hicks and geeks

[StikyPad]

TNN has been showing alot of Star Trek lately. A few weeks ago they had a marathon of the movies (but only the first five). I didn't realize there was such a demand for sci-fi in the hillbilly demographic.

Continuity, Character, and Clichelessness

[Stickster]

OK, so I sort of made that last term up. But Farscape is the first SF television show I've seen that I wasn't in some way squeamish about mentioning to people I know who aren't big SF fans. It's got a quality that sets it apart from most of the rest of television, and just about all of the rest of SF TV. I am also overjoyed that Farscape doesn't avoid subjects which other SF shows either ignore completely or "wink" at in a very pubescent fashion, such as bodily functions and sexuality. It's a fine line between "not avoiding" and "wallowing in," and the show does a great job of walking that line to maximize dramatic impact and character exposition. Anyway, in my opinion, there are three hallmarks of Farscape that, when taken together, differentiate it from other SF TV shows.

1. Continuity. This is, to me, the difference between crappy money-makers like the Star Trek franchise and good SF TV like Babylon 5. It also happens to be one of the virtues that the Farscape writers/producers were smart enough to seize on as well. The things that happen in our lives determine and affect our later behavior.

I remember hearing someone else say the following once about ST:TNG, and it stuck with me because it really epitomized the problems I had with that show. I always thought it was somewhat juvenile (although I understood the need to appeal to the 12 to 18 demographic), and this drove it home. In one of the episodes, the android officer, Data, knifed one of his fellow officers (I think it was Yar) pretty seriously, due to some malfunction. The very next week they were chatting and sharing an elevator normally as if it had never happened. I'm sorry, but higher consciousness be damned; if someone sticks a blade in your gut, you're going to be a little uneasy being alone with that person for the foreseeable future. Farscape never suffers from this problem.

It's important to remember that the reason that ST series were never big on continuity (in more than a general background way) was because the producers and script supervisors have to work a lot harder to keep control of story and character arc to enforce it. (Meaning you have to have story and character arcs to begin with.) To me, this why the film ST:Generations was pretty good; despite the silly plotline with bringing back Kirk, it was the first time we really saw something awful happen to one of the characters (Picard), something he couldn't fix and which would deeply affect him for the rest of the story arc. In this case, it was a little easier to do since the story arc was only two hours long, but it was a great leap forward for a character who was basically nothing more than a one-dimensional metaphor for good judgement up to that point. It also gave the later story emotional resonance, something also usually lacking in ST shows. (There were a few exceptions; the one that comes to mind immediately is the excellent ST:DS9 episode where the station commander is forced into some sort of time warp which causes him to only be able to see his son periodically through the rest of his life as he matures, grows old, has his own family, etc. That was a script and show which stacked up favorably against some of the best West Wing and ER episodes.)

2. Character. I like my characters three dimensional. I just started watching at the beginning of season 2, and I've enjoyed immensely discovering the very rich backstories of all the characters. I had been content with seeing them only as the two-dimensional constructs I had assumed they were, but what I am finding is that as I see older episodes and see more of each character's personal arc, I can watch a later episode and see actual growth and motivation that I had simply missed or ignored before. Plus the acting is really quite good for the most part.

It is clear as you see more and more of the episodes, and place them in chronology, that the producers have a very clear understanding of where each character is going. It is very rare that they pass up the opportunity to have a character take action which furthers his/her own personal goals because of some "higher" or "altruistic" motive. These motives may be good for morality tales, but they don't necessarily equate to either good drama or illuminating the human condition. (And yes, I believe that at its heart that is still what Farscape and other good SF is about. The only way to illuminate some invented alien condition is through a work like LeGuin's The Left Hand of Darkness. And anyone insane enough to want to make an hourly episodic series of something like that is not likely to find anyone else even more insane who would put up the money for it, not to mention air it, put up commercial time, etc....)

3. Clichelessness. This is what separates Farscape from B5 in my opinion. B5 did an excellent job of having both story and character arc on the large scale -- which one would expect of a writer of J. Michael Straczynski's [sp?] stature and credentials. On the small scale, however, it frequently suffered from problems of tired, worn-out humor; overwrought and/or clumsy dialogue; and contrived situations and character simplification to achieve plot points. And although my hat is certainly off to Mr. Straczynski for his landmark work at pulling off a five-year series of this scope, I think the writing itself fell victim to that scope by being stretched too thin.

While Farscape certainly has its moments as well in this regard, they are much fewer and farther between than in any other SF series. Although some of the plot devices are not wholly novel in the SF realm, they are well-integrated (the warrior race, the living ship) and never reduced to two dimensions even to temporarily serve the needs of poor writing. What I see in Farscape is, above all, the evidence that the producers and script supervisors are more than willing to say to a writer, "No. Go back and do it again," until they see something that serves the motivation of these fleshed-out characters.

What separates the good SF like Farscape from the crappy 90% (to paraphrase Theodore Sturgeon) is the unwillingness to settle for less than something that looks, smells, and tastes like Truth (in the dramatic and literary sense). That's a hard vintage to come by, and once you've drunk from that cup, it's very hard to settle for the kind that comes with a screw-top. Farscape has raised the bar for SF television, and I for one say it's about time.

Re:oppressive moral code

[shankel]

Oh FFS. It's a softcore sci-fi porn show; it's not Stalin's death squads. I like the fact that the characters are morally ambiguous. I also like that they're not bound by a Prime Directive.

I liked Lexx at first because I thought it was one of the most original sci fi universes on TV. It had a sense of humor about modern society and reminded me, in many ways, of Max Headroom.

Now it's just bad porn (see Fluffdaddy). Not that I'm knocking porn, but Lexx used to be something else.

Last season was better, but the whole "Fire and Water, get it? It's Heaven and Hell! Get it? Get it?" thing wore thin after about three episodes and then we had to sit through nine more, which basically consisted of "Okay, Xev and Stan are on the Lexx...Where's Kai? Okay, rescue Kai, but now Stan is stranded...Okay, rescue Stan, but now Xev is stranded...oh, wait, that's not Xev, that's Prince, or is it Kai...or is Prince Kai?" ENOUGH!

Still, the Brunnen-G fight song is pretty cool. I guess that counts for something.

Best? Well...

[fm6]

I don't think I've seen a Scifi show ever that is like Farscape.

Yeah, it's certainly original. The characters are more interesting than those on most TV shows (never mind other SF shows!). And it's the first space opera I've seen that admits that the future will be a messy place -- rather like the present.

But if it's the Best SF Show Ever, it's only because the competition is so laughable. I'm most bothered by the weak science. (Helium farts? A very mammalian-looking alien who's supposed to be a walking plant?) I never miss an episode, but it's not the kind of show I enjoy watching over and over.

What really bugs me is SciFi Channel's stupid scheduling. I don't mind that they counter-schedule, so their TV season begins when the regular networks' are ending. But couldn't they find a way to do it without a 4 month hiatis every fall? It means that Farscape and Lexx get cut off in mid arc. By the time the shows return, you've lost all your sense of continuity. Not the way to build viewer loyalty!

Re:Is it me or....It would seem so. And rightfully

[stefen50]

It would seem so. And rightfully so, Babylon 5 being (IMHO) one of the best examples of quality televised science fiction to date. Enterprise has almost zero chance of being as great as Babylon 5 was, but it's a good goal to shoot for.

I like the Enterprise theme song

[philsown]

I felt it was a nice change from the trumpets and sweeping chord changes of all the previous shows. Worst ST theme: Deep Space 9