Slashdot Mirror
Farscape Fans Reinventing Television
JoeCotellese writes "With the recent cancellation of Farscape, this Salon story discusses the creative ways fans are trying to save the show.
Specifically it talks about how grassroots organization through the internet has helped them to the point where they are discussing fan funded production of the show."
How come the NYT gets an obligatory 'free registration required' warning while Salon doesn't merit an 'expensive and probably futile registration required' fatal error?
If you've watched the show from the very beginning, you have to have seen several differences between it and 'typical' American sci-fi programming.
For one, the show focussed on several issues that were 'uncomfortable' to american audiences. Applause there for forcing us to stretch our brains a bit!
Also, the characters were much more involved with each other, in real ways, than most other crap you see on the 'major' networks. These relationships made several viewers addicted to the show even though they watched almost no other science fiction programming. Applause for making us re-examine our own interpersonal relations a bit!
Semi-finally, just about every major character in the show was physically different from 'human' in ways to remind us of the plurality of life. Crichton's best friend had tentacles growing off his face, and a very long tongue with an adaptive toxin in the tip. The first sexy chick you saw (at the beginning of the series) was a gorgeous sky blue in color, with no hair at all. Ear-splitting applause for showing that Different is Good!!!
I hate to use the past tense so much in this commentary. But, the show is effectively killed by corporate politics/greed/stupidity. I'd be quite surprised to see it continued by fan support.
Best chance for the show to return anew would be for the son/daughter of some ultra-rich individual finding the right button to push on daddy's emotions to force funding to flow.
Sigh.
I'm already seeing several questions about why Farscape (FS from here on out) is so good, or people talking about how they can't stand (and then admit they've only watched a few episodes). So, to answer those posts, I'm going to give you X number of reasons (where X equals the point where I get tired of typing or can't think of anymore) why FS is a fantastic show (especially SciFi show, but even among other shows).
These are in no particular order.
1. Continuity matters - What happens in one episode usually has an impact on a later episode, even if you don't realize it at the time. This ranges from X happened last epsiode, and now it has impact Y on the next one to X happened a season ago, and helps explain Y in this episode a season later. There are a few other SF shows on TV right now that do this (Enterprise), but not many. Unfortunately, this has a downside, in that grabbing new viewers midstream becomes problematic.
2. Complex characters - Sometimes the "good" guys act bad and some times the "bad" guys act good, and sometimes the "bad" guys turn out to be not so bad and really it can get a little hard to tell who the good and bad guys are a lot of the time. All of the time you're left guessing at most of the characters motives. Friendships and allegiances bend and break. Sometimes the "good" and "bad" guys have to cooperate to achieve shared goals.
3. Unpredictability - Farscape has done some stuff I never saw coming (or my wife, who's better at guessing plot twists than I). They killed off a main character in the middle of a season. They "cloned" the main character and had both walking around for nearly a season. Normally, you sort of realize that the central character can't get killed off, but when there's two of him, you never know if/when one might get wacked.
4. Somewhat more creative aliens - This is due in part to the Henson involvement. It allows them to create non-humanoid aliens that are very believable. Among those are the "ship" itself, the somewhat symbiotic pilot of the ship and Rygel. Even the humanoid aliens are fairly different from one another. One of the main characters is a humanoid meat-eating vegetable. Nearly a season's worth of episodes are focused on the pregnancy of the ship, how the crew deals with it, how it affects their run from the law, etc.
5. A great ensemble cast - For the most part, every main character is well acted (and via some episodes we get to see them stretch their abilities) and well written. This interplays with having complex characters, but unlike some shows, there's hardly a dud in the bunch (I'm looking at you Harry Kim or, sorry Wil, Wesley Crusher).
6. Comedy - I know a lot of SF shows are good at inserting humor, but Farscape does it as well as any other. I would rank it right up there with Firefly. If nothing else, the voices in the main character's head are handled perfectly, just skirting the edge of slapstick but not quite turning into the stooges.
7. Fresh characters - The cast has been changing since the first season. New characters show up, others leave the show. And this isn't just "add a hot babe to boost ratings" changes. Think more along the lines of old ugly witch-doctor woman who cooks meals and occasionally drugs the crew.
There are so many other reasons, but I can't think of them all right now. If you can get your hands on them, go rent the first few DVD's which will have the first six episodes or so. Watch them all, and I think you'll see what I mean.