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Farscape to Return? Is Sci-Fi Channel Redeemed?
Cyno01 writes "I was just watching Firefly and switching to Taken during commercials (i'm a thief i know), and I caught a commercial for Sci-Fi 2003. It looks like there's going to be a few new actual sci-fi shows, and some not. Tremors: The Series, Children of Dune and another talkshow-esq looking thing called The Dream Team with Annabelle and Michael. Also it looks like Stargate: SG1 and yes, Farscape, are still alive and kicking."
Farscape is far from a Star Trek rip-off. It may lift some elements of the classic science-fiction shows, but it's usually done as an homage or even a slightly under-the-belt punch. Star Trek was made fun of several times on the show.
How do I know you've never actually watched Farscape?
1. Star Trek is in a nice clean universe where everything turns out fine at the end of the episode. Crewmen wearing certain shirts die or when that practice stopped death became an almost avoided subject.
Farscape is in a dirty, grimy universe where everything is out to get you. Major characters die. Enemies become friends... or at least necessary to trust them for a while.
2. Star Trek deals with holographic sentience, space-time anomolies/fluxuations, omnipresent alien beings, transwarp confibulators, blah blah blah
Farscape deals with manslaughter, death of loved ones, bounty hunters, torture, s&m, farts, piss, sexuality, emotional pain, intense love, uncomfortable situations, insanity, drug use, outright murder, seduction, loss of life on a massive scale, weapons of mass destruction, spirituality and many other more 'human' topics.
3. Star Trek uses a little bit of makeup on every single alien actor. Thus a universe of bipeds all roughly the same body type.
Farscape uses this method along with elaborate makeup/costumes and 'muppets' which are used to bring to life non-bipedal alien life forms or short stumpy annoying stab-you-in-the-back crew members whose farts cause a helium-like effect to those that inhale it.
4. Star Trek's crew is composed of mostly a bunch of stuffy, by-the-book Federation employees who are all good folk working towards the good of the universe.
Farscape's crew is composed mostly of a bunch of escaped prisoners along with a bumbling <injoke>erpling</injoke> astronaut, former antagonists, and rejects of the universe. It takes serious time and shared experiences for bonds to solidify enough that trust can be built. Everyone is looking out for number one.
5. Star Trek is straight science-fiction historically with a political or social message to bring to the masses while having a heavy focus on the technology.
Farscape is a dark comedy and a tragic love story that happens in a science-fiction setting.
I could go on and on about how Farscape has innovated in the realm of television science-fiction and how it is different than Star Trek, but I won't.