I’m watching through Farscape for the first time. Currently on S1 E19. You can see my previous opinions about earlier episodes in the Star Trek ranking thread.
I created this thread to say:
Grey sexpot is AWFUL. Just dogshit. She’s so bad. I mean, it’s a bad character in the first place, but her acting. My god. We’re stuck with this? Really?
When they first added her, I thought, “Ah. Well. Priestess lady is a bit boring maybe it will be nice to have a wildcard.” But Jesus Christ.
It’s weird how nerd shows always think they need a sexy lady, but then the ladies are never sexy.
She looks and acts like one of the cats from Cats wandered onto set.
I met Chiana’s actress last year! The friend I’d been watching Farscape with told me to tell her how they’d appreciated her being a sex positive character, which I guess is true. But yeah: she has her moments, and “Cats, but an alien” is at least something I’ve not seen before, but she never gets to be a favorite. That said, “something I’ve not seen before, but doesn’t really work consistently” can eventually be said out of like, half the cast of the show, but I like that Farscape continued trying.
She’s hilarious, such grifter energy all the time. Her and the disgusting frog muppet make such a good team and the nebari episodes are great when they happen (has the eye extraction scene happened yet? I love farscape’s commitment to body horror and the nebari are the totalitarian body horror fascists)
the really bad crewmember additions come up much later in the show: Jool and Sikozu. I am sorry to say that you won’t like them and you’ll wonder what is wrong with me that I would recommend a tv show that has a character like Jool in it.
Those two never really fit with the show and while they came up with a cool thing to do with Sikozu, it was relegated to the peacekeeper wars tv movie that was made as a substitute for a season 5 so that plotline was rushed and truncated to the point of not really having any impact
She’s a better traumatic childhood history character than later sci-fi shows had (looking at you Firefly).
Enjoy the physical props and effects, the puppetry is very, very good. And the acceptance of the actors to play with the writing space available to sci-fi shows makes it quite the unique tv series of its time; even Stargate SG1 which is a close equivalent in feel I can think of is stifled somewhat by being limited with it’s militaristic background. I can’t speak to like Lexx which would be the other extreme since I only got small tastes.
I like Jool. : ( The way everyone on the ship seemed to dislike her for being an uncool prissy princess-type utterly unsuited to the space wanderer life endeared her to me, and that the show really couldn’t be bothered to try to actually do anything interesting with her is one of the biggest disappointments–so in the end, I’m glad they cut their losses with her and had her leave.
Sikozu, meanwhile, is actually in the top tier of my favorite characters, and I’m really into her disdain for everyone else, and especially into how they made her the one Scorpius partisan for reasons that made perfect sense to her and no one else. It’s actually what happened later that I don’t care for; it felt like they completely changed what her deal was, and the contours of her relationship with Scorpius ended up becoming much less interesting. Plus, given how hot her original look was, the makeover in the films feels like a downgrade in every single way.
Writing this, it strikes me that if Farscape ever had a successor, it’s Legends of Tomorrow–at least in terms of being centered on a ship of weirdos whose makeup was more or less constantly in flux. But where that series made it so that it always returned to a state of equilibrium–a sense of “if you’re here, you’re family” that made it so that new additions could never be too abrasive. Farscape never really attempted to cultivate that with its characters, which often made things unpleasant. On one hand, that sort disharmony is potentially really interesting–Moya eventually came to resemble a really cramped apartment complex–but on the other hand, having that sort of rough edge meant that the series could often be, well, rough.
that’s all fair. I do think Jool’s problem was that the writers never knew what to do with her so she frequently ended up in the role of ‘somewhat irritating scream queen’ instead of a character with things to do
Sikozu I found frustrating the entire time because I could see the outlines of a good character but not enough breathing room to make it happen. Added way too late to a show doomed to premature cancellation
To me, the biggest asset of Farscape is its general rejection of a status quo in any of the character relationships. Things are always up in the air. Everyone kinda hates each other but depends on each other. Likening it to a cramped apartment complex feels exactly right
I hated chiana to start but she does get a lot of character development and gets a lot more likable in seasons 3-4 imo.
and yeah thirding that I really enjoy farscape’s ability to never go the “expected” route with character relationships settling into a groove. something is always changing
Hell yeah farscape thread! Glad it’s here, I’d been meaning to make one myself.
I’ve had to pause my watch of Farscape cuz my partner’s out of town and she’s my Farscape co-conspirator. We’re at the beginning of season 2. We watched the excellent S2 opener and then the not-so-excellent second ep, which was a rare moment where the show just felt like an edgy version of a mediocre TNG episode.
We’re both really loving this show though! We finally got to the albino bondage guy… He hasn’t yet shown himself to be the all-timer villain people hype him up to be, but there’s some intrigue there. I like how he storms around with his arms freely dangling out of his giant shoulder pads… The actor makes those arms look so bouncy and doily like he’s a jack in the box or something. It makes him seem more alien and also that slight silliness sort of amplifies his menace. I also liked when he stuck a cooling rod in his brain.
Also lol at comparing Chiana to the cats in Cats. I hadn’t made that connection but it’s too accurate. She hasn’t won me over yet either – she just hasn’t done that much to establish her character at this point. Right now I’m sort of reading her as a shady people pleaser. Like, she acts like she’s in it for herself, but she seems to stick her neck out when she doesn’t need to pretty often. She’s always ingratiating herself to the people around her and at first that seems like she’s just trying to manipulate them for her own ends, but then she doesn’t actually advance any personal goals so I guess she just wants approval? Maybe her character will develop later on and render this post totally wrong.
The other day we were stoned and found this youtube channel where a mcdonalds frycook shows you an hour at a time of POV working a busy shift making the food. Kind of mesmerizing. The guy was the ultimate American, very exuberant and positive in tough conditions, ultra friendly to his coworkers, seemed pretty naive but had impressive skills. We just kept saying to each other “they better not put this guy in the Aurora Chair. We have to protect him from the Aurora Chair. They’re gonna put him in there to try and pull out the knowledge of how to generate a McRib.”
I’m at the start of S2 on my rewatch and I also really dislike Chiana. I do think it helps to remember that they’re all criminals and outcasts of some sort, and I did kind of like her backstory ep.
Zhaan is so fucking cool, every new thing we learn about her, and every time she makes a choice for the crew, makes her yet better.
I guess Chiana is from a society of extreme enforced conformity, and she’s considered a criminal because she was too individualistic. But ultimately she was still raised in that environment. She’s the most non-conformist conformist. Maybe that’s why she seems to gravitate toward trying to bring the crew of the Moya together as a community. That’s my galaxy brained read, but something I like about Farscape is that it’s one of the most galaxy brained shows I’ve ever watched.
Last night I got to the introduction of Space Voldo, and I have to say that the actor actually pulls it off. Nazi interrogator with a US accent works well, and makes the bondage suit feel less ridiculous.
I’m sure it doesn’t happen (no spoilers), but I’d kill for a full episode with his race where they’re walking around buying tomatoes while torturing their genitals in codpieces.
As someone who has never really enjoyed any Trek (even DS9), I will say that Farscape IS the best Trek.
Crichton doing the peacekeeper accent really made me lol, I fucking love it when he busts that out. Every time a whole episode is staked on Crichton constantly passing insane charisma checks to bluff his way to the finish, I can’t get enough.