[HN Gopher] Farscape and Henson's Lasting Legacy (2011)
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Farscape and Henson's Lasting Legacy (2011)
Author : indigodaddy
Score : 76 points
Date : 2024-02-01 06:00 UTC (1 days ago)
(HTM) web link (reactormag.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (reactormag.com)
| aredox wrote:
| Farscape was a great show with bold choices. I really miss it and
| wish it had more recognition.
| throwup238 wrote:
| _> I could go on for more pages than anyone would care to count
| about Farscape. It is, without any doubt, one of the greatest
| science fiction television series' ever created. Please quote me
| on that._
|
| A'men! It holds up incredibly well to modern scifi because
| there's very little CGI and it doesn't look as badly dated as
| say, Babylon 5. It's sad that there's no one who really does
| animatronics like Henson anymore and if the show were to be
| remade today (god forbid), all the characters would probably be
| Andy Serkis in a mocap suit.
|
| My favorite puppet to this day is the Seer Creesus [1] which
| would have given me nightmares if I had watched the show as a
| kid.
|
| [1]
| https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/farscape/images/5/55/Cresu...
| RajT88 wrote:
| My wife and I rewatched it recently. She is not particularly a
| sci-fi geek but she really liked it - until season 3.
|
| Some of those Season 1 episodes are some of the best TV I have
| seen.
| indigodaddy wrote:
| And btw it's still on sale on iTunes for 19.99 for the complete
| series. Just picked it up before I posted this :)
| altruios wrote:
| *The license... you aren't buying the series, just the
| license to stream it from iTunes.
|
| The Blu-ray box set is $200.
|
| The price difference between revocable streaming licenses and
| physical media is worth it, as physical media is not
| revocable.
|
| (You might find it cheaper on eBay)
| gettodachoppa wrote:
| If that iTunes license goes away that's a morally green
| signal to get a non-revocable license from The Pirate Bay.
| indigodaddy wrote:
| Yep yep I know how it works. But fwiw I've never had
| anything I've purchased on Vudu or iTunes not be
| accessible/playable subsequently. Sure it may get removed
| and not searchable anymore, but still playable and present
| in your library. And I have over 700 movies (peanuts by
| comparison to many though).
|
| And also, re: $200 vs $20, $200 for the physical is most
| definitely NOT worth it to me.
| Verdex wrote:
| As a teenager, I really enjoyed watching Farscape. As an adult, I
| definitely feel a lot of the flaws that the show has. But, they
| didn't compromise on wardrobe or set design or on the
| characterization for the main characters. Pretty much everyone
| had some sort of arc going on more or less all the time. And
| besides all that, it was legit scifi.
|
| But the thing that stands head and shoulders above the rest was
| Wayne Pygram's Scorpius. You simply do not get villains of that
| caliber every day.
|
| Interestingly enough, Pygram also plays Tarkin in a blink and you
| miss it scene in Revenge of the Sith. Which makes me think that
| we missed out on something very special with Rogue One. Instead
| of CGI Tarkin, I really wish they could have had Pygram sprinkle
| some Scorpius magic into a Tarkin role.
| 7thaccount wrote:
| The show definitely has some campiness to it and some episodes
| are a little cringe, but overall it's wonderful and a breath of
| fresh air. I didn't watch it until I was a young adult and
| enjoyed it. The Farscape corner of the galaxy is so bizarre it
| does feel actually alien in a sense.
|
| Scorpius is a terrifying villain. He's brilliant, ruthless, and
| seemingly always one step ahead.
|
| If anyone hasn't seen it, I'd recommend giving it a go if you
| like scifi and anything Henson.
| sirbranedamuj wrote:
| Decided to watch Farscape on a whim after watching Ben Browder
| and Claudia Black in Stargate. What a great show! It starts off
| on an awkward foot, like most sci-fi shows do. But it eventually
| comes around to a really amazing show with great performances
| both by human actors and by puppets. Scorpius is such a great
| villain for John Crichton. Pilot is one of my favorite characters
| ever, and sometimes he feels more human than the humans do (yes,
| I know only John is technically human but I mean the human actors
| that play some of the aliens).
| Verdex wrote:
| Out of curiosity did you notice who the voice actor for Pilot
| was? When it was pointed out to me, I had a 'no way' type of
| reaction. It goes to show that some people really know how to
| give a performance that goes beyond who they are as a person
| and results in giving a spark of life to the character itself.
| joeconway wrote:
| I actually gasped. Wow
| sirbranedamuj wrote:
| I didn't notice before being exposed to that information (I'm
| one of those "imdb in my hand at all times" kind of
| watchers). It's way more noticeable in the movie because I
| guess they lost the voice modification toolset they were
| using and had to try to make it up again from scratch.
|
| but yeah he does a great job!
| flir wrote:
| If you haven't watched it as an adult, in the era of binge
| watching, you should give it a shot. There's more there than you
| think.
|
| What I get from it most clearly is the slow unravelling of one
| man's mind under the assault of the new. If you focus on Ben
| Browder you get something that's almost a character study.
| simpaticoder wrote:
| For anyone looking for a nostalgic, but honest, revisit, check
| out "Farscape(1999) Retrospective/Review" on YouTube[1]. It is
| comprehensive and I think picks out the strengths and weaknesses
| of the show very honestly as a fan. My personal belief is that
| the show peaked in Season 2 (the heist arc is pretty epic) and
| then started going downhill after Crichton split, and the
| introduction of some legitimately annoying crew, but they
| regained some glory with the Peacekeeper Wars mini-series/movie.
| The chemistry between the two leads (Ben Browder and Claudia
| Black) was always a particular strength of the show. Highly
| recommended but, like with so many series (The Walking Dead, GOT,
| etc) if you skip the last season(s) you'll be fine.
|
| 1 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m0POJFs5PUM
| titusjohnson wrote:
| I was so amped up when I realized Crichton wasn't going to get
| merged back together by the end of the episode. They took an
| old Star Trek trope and _didn't_ resolve it neatly by the end
| of the episode! They're just dealing with 2 now??
|
| Far and away my favorite Sci-Fi TV show. I agree with another
| poster here, it's a character study of a normal-ish human
| losing his mind due to a continuous assault of The New. Poor
| guy can never catch a break.
| Gregaros wrote:
| As seems to be the case for another commenter, the double
| Crichton's was one of my favorite parts. What it introduced to
| the storytelling and narrative and characterization was a
| unique depth and capacity for analysis and consequence that I'm
| surprised hasn't been emulated since.
| bonton89 wrote:
| Funny, I loved the that the split didn't resolve and let the
| show go in an interesting direction that most shows chicken out
| on. I thought season 1 was actually a little rocky and 2-3 were
| the peak myself.
|
| Season 4 was a complete disaster unfortunately. While Scorpius
| is fantastic, he doesn't belong on the ship and that wasn't the
| only nonsensical thing happening by a long shot. I was very
| happy we got the peace keeper wars to give a solid end to the
| series, even if it wasn't perfect.
| simpaticoder wrote:
| _> While Scorpius is fantastic, he doesn't belong on the ship
| ..._
|
| I agree, and so did the maker of the YouTube video I linked
| to. Interestingly, Wayne Pilgrim, the actor who plays
| Scorpius, mentions in an interview how difficult it was for
| him to play the character, since his motivation became, how
| shall I say, conflicted. It's an interesting case of the
| story-tellers putting an actor in a very tough spot.
| saalweachter wrote:
| Yeah, I loved the Split -- most SF shows will make one of the
| two disposable and then kill them off at the first
| opportunity, usually within the same episode. Star Trek, I'm
| looking at you.
| simpaticoder wrote:
| The only Star Trek splitting story-line that I recall [1]
| was not actually resolved! Lt. Riker just sort of
| disappeared into the background at the end of the episode,
| with Cdr. Riker and the writers never mentioning him again.
|
| EDIT: apparently Lt. Riker showed up in a DS9 episode[2]!
|
| 1 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Chances_(Star_Trek
| :_The...
|
| 2 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defiant_(Star_Trek:_Deep_
| Space...
| saalweachter wrote:
| There was also Sim, in Enterprise, a clone of Trip who
| was then harvested for spare parts.
|
| Stargate: SG-1 had robot doubles who were killed off.
| bonton89 wrote:
| Sort of both resolved and not resolved since I can't
| remember him coming back. It did give Frakes an
| opportunity to play a different character later on in
| DS9.
|
| I liked that episode and would have enjoyed Thomas Riker
| showing up again from time to time. Although it was
| another one of those "why can't they just restore dead
| crew from the transporter beam?" episodes. Even worse
| than the Scotty one since doubling Riker means that
| Riker's matter didn't really matter much.
| Alex63 wrote:
| Canonical example? _The Enemy Within_ https://en.wikipedia.
| org/wiki/The_Enemy_Within_(Star_Trek:_T...
| CodeWriter23 wrote:
| The Crichton Split of course was about coming up short in the
| budget department. So the storytelling was limited to
| interactions among 4 characters rather than 7. Those arcs were
| split every other episode. I think they did a stellar job
| despite those constraints but no doubt the production took a
| hit.
|
| But the most telling thing IMO about Farscape was the
| dedication of the fans that actually pushed and got their
| conclusion in the Peacekeeper Wars. Contrast that with BSG
| where we basically got no resolution.
| simpaticoder wrote:
| _> Those arcs were split every other episode. I think they
| did a stellar job despite those constraints but no doubt the
| production took a hit._
|
| As a casual viewer, I didn't catch every episode in order,
| and so it was very confusing for me. No doubt it would have
| been a lot better if I had done. Not being able to follow the
| story-lines, I definitely started checking out at that point.
| Another commented mentioned that the whole series is being
| sold on iTunes for $20, perhaps it's worth a purchase and
| rewatch for this reason alone.
| RulerOf wrote:
| >after Crichton split
|
| I had missed a few episodes that season, and picked back up
| after the two Chrichtons parted ways, but didn't manage pick up
| on the fact that there were two of them.
|
| I was so utterly confused and upset when the main character
| just died and they cut straight to the credits.
| horacemorace wrote:
| As sometimes silly and campy as it was, Farscape was a
| speculative fiction masterpiece. Outside of hard sci-fi books
| I've never experienced more engaging world building. Even if the
| individual characters sometimes weren't engaging, the backdrop
| was rich enough to make up for it.
| indigodaddy wrote:
| Watching it a few days ago for the first time, I was taken
| aback myself by the beautiful and detailed environment/world.
| Not at all what I was expecting from a seemingly B-grade budget
| 1999 show.
| sandworm101 wrote:
| >> a seemingly B-grade budget 1999 show.
|
| Then don't watch the original Trek, or B5, for Stargate.
| Farscape was far from b-grade budget. That was as good
| budgets ever got for TV in the 90s. Definitely in the A-grade
| budget of the time. For b-grade, look to Space:AboveAndBeyond
| or even SeaQuest:DSV.
| jshier wrote:
| First season seaQuest wasn't B-grade either, unless you're
| overly influenced by the use of mid-nineties CGI. Just look
| at the interior sets and how much water they use! Add to
| that the sheer amount of CGI they used (anything happening
| outside the ship) and there's no way that show was cheap.
| Of course, once they lost their major producers in season
| two and three there was a definite drop in quality, but
| season 1 was definitely up there.
| sandworm101 wrote:
| CGI looks expensive because of the nature of how it is
| billed: one big cost to a CGI studio. But in television a
| much greater expensive is on-location shoots. A few
| thousand or tens of thousands for a CGI sequence is
| nothing compared to keeping a hundred people fed and
| working at a remote location.
| mwilliamson wrote:
| Although the linked article is missing its images (at least for
| me), the archived version from tor.com has them:
| https://web.archive.org/web/20160305081415/https://www.tor.c...
| indigodaddy wrote:
| Oh nice, that's way better with the pics and the formatting is
| also nicer. Maybe @dang can update the URL in the OP.
| tivert wrote:
| It looks like the article was migrated at some point in a way
| that broke the images.
|
| I found this archived version with working images:
| https://web.archive.org/web/20160330064639/http://www.tor.co...
| vouaobrasil wrote:
| I once made a comprehensive list of all the television I have
| ever watched, which included the Star Treks and various other
| science fiction shows, and Farscape was at the top. Highlights
| include the chemistry between Browder and Black, Scorpius, the
| above average writing, and the originality and catchiness of the
| themes. It was hard to say whether it was better than DS9 at the
| time but if I had to choose one to rewatch, it would be Farscape
| for sure.
| Verdex wrote:
| I think my favorite part of DS9 was how many non-human / non-
| federation cultures they had walking around in the spotlight.
| There's a great little scene where Quark gives Garak some root
| beer and they commiserate over how weird humans are.
|
| Anyway, Fascape is basically ONLY that kind of thing. Only the
| aliens are significantly more alien. Even the sebaceans and
| crichton keep clashing because they both expect the other to
| act more like themselves.
| farmdve wrote:
| Funny thing about Farscape, it was my favorite TV show as a
| child. Fond memories. The only thing that doesn't hold up is
| Rygel, maybe back then it was ok, but it's pretty horrific to see
| it now in all of it's Animatronic glory.
| vlachen wrote:
| Far and away, one of my favorite shows. The characters, the
| writing, the sets and the puppets are all top notch. Of course
| there's campiness. Of course there are bad episodes and tropes,
| but the thing taken together is a well done work of art. I'm
| supremely impressed that they were able to pull together support
| for The Peacekeeper Wars to wrap it all up.
|
| One of the things that I find most novel and appealing about
| Farscape is that the human might be the lead character, but The
| Humans are not the galaxy's bad-asses. Quite to the contrary. If
| not for the circumstances of Crichton's transport, he would have
| just been some (galactic) low tech monkey from a backwater
| planet.
|
| I've always found the Hollywood trope of "plucky current era
| humans face off against pan-galactic force and save the day" to
| be abused and absurd. Farscape gave that a pass by making
| Crichton "The dumbest smart person in the room" who didn't want
| to dominate. He just wanted to be left alone.
|
| Additionally, Farscape did venture a bit into the idea that if
| aliens exists, they likely don't look like us. There were a lot
| of bipeds walking around with heads on top, but there were also a
| good number of extremely different types.
| k3vinw wrote:
| I remember being blown away by this show. It's a rare gem with
| one of the best executed love stories between Crichton and Aeryn
| that heightened the stakes as the series progressed. I hope other
| writer/producer types are paying attention and taking notes.
| echelon_musk wrote:
| I can't see Farscape discussed without reminiscing on the episode
| of Community where Abed "really likes talking about Farscape".
| [0]
|
| It still makes me laugh after all these years.
|
| [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WT1QPFr6qPI
| narag wrote:
| The living ship and the blue woman are so powerful and so
| different. There from the first episode.
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