Sci-Fi with a wink, a smile and a plot
In December of 1999 I was taken to St. Mark’s hospital in Metro Manila to have my gallbladder removed. For the next few days, my doctor and the incredibly attentive staff worried about the state of my internal organs. Me, I was higher than a kite on whatever it was they put in my drip line, and figured that any place that calls itself “the most progressive hospital in Southeast Asia” didn’t need any help from me. So I flipped back and forth between the Discovery Channel and The Food Network, and can tell you that both of those networks benefit greatly from being higher than a kite on whatever it is Filipino hospitals put in drip lines. But that is not the point. The point is that if I’d had but known, I could have flipped a few channels further along the dial and there’s a good chance I would have discovered FarScape when it was originally on the air. *
Instead I had to wait twelve (or possibly 13) years to discover it, but now that I have I couldn’t be happier.
For those of you who’ve never seen the series, it’s the brain child of Brian Henson and some Australians. The plot is the best of the basics: Human astronaut gets shot through a wormhole, makes a hugely powerful enemy in the first episode and falls in with a bunch of fugitive aliens who just barely managed to capture the prison ship that was transporting them. The ragtag group is made up of a big hairy warrior alien (D’Argo), a tall hairless blue priestess alien(Zhaan), a small muppet alien (Rygel), and the ship itself (Moya), which is alive and has a symbiotic muppet pilot (Pilot) who keeps her flying. Oh, and the merciless commando alien (Aeryn (pronounced “Erin”)) who was supposed to capture them all is forced to join the crew as well. Also Aeryn’s people look just like humans. So pretty basic stock sci-fi action storyline, right?
Well, kind of. The difference is in the details. The human, John Crichton, is tremendously Genre Savvy. In his own words: “I am not Kirk, Spock, Luke, Buck, Flash or Arthur frelling Dent.” (the show uses a number of made up naughty words. “Frelling” is a popular one).
He’s seen Star Wars, Star Trek, Dr. Who and the rest and is aware of just how insane and hilarious his position in the universe is, and laughs a lot. John is actually likable, unlike most of the stars listed above. His first impulse when met with conflict isn’t to raise shields and make demands a la Picard, nor to square up mano a alien and get his shirt ripped off like Kirk. His usual course is to talk to the other person and see if he can figure out what to do next. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t, but at least it’s something he tries.
The rest of the cast is appealingly well rounded as well, and unlike Firefly “well rounded” in this case doesn’t just mean “has serious issues,” it means “has an actual personality.” For example D’Argo (the hairy warrior alien) has the traditional heart of gold under all that armor and fur, but is actually a decent warrior instead of just being the Worf, allows the others to gain his trust, and also expects to be required to gain theirs. The characters usually think before they act, and their actions make sense with their personalities.
So, usually, this is where I say something like “And as for the plot… well, don’t worry about the plot. It’s the characters that sell this one”. But not today. Every episode is crunchy with plot. This ain’t Star Trek, where you have fifteen minutes of set up, thirty minutes of wondering what to do, and fifteen minutes of resolution. Things in FarScape happen fast and furious and all at once. Potential enemies turn into part-time allies and actions from old episodes have consequences now. For example (the entire next paragraph is a giant spoiler, by the way):
In one episode near the end of season one, John Crichton has been captured by the new Big Bad, Scorpius. The former Big Bad (Crais) arrives, ready to kill John, because he thinks John killed his brother in episode one. But Scorpius needs John alive, because some aliens John met a few episodes back secretly implanted some magic sci-fi formulae in John’s brain. Meanwhile, plucky new crew member Chiana (who, to my eyes, is a direct expy of Pris from Blade Runner, but with a speaking part) is working with John’s former love interest Gilina to get the needed medical supplies back to Moya to save Aeryn’s life, because of an injury she suffered in the previous episode. Meanwhile Moya is having a baby. Yes, the spaceship is pregnant, and is about to give birth. Gilina gets Chiana safely back to Moya, and now is working to figure out how to break John out, because she’s in love with him, even though she suspects he loves Aeryn. And this is just part 1 of a two-part episode. Part two is even busier.
And yet, even with these packed episodes, the writers show the characters being themselves, taking care of one another, and even manage to fit in an impressive number of jokes, usually where you’d least expect them. At the end of just about every episode you feel like just saying “yeah!” because of the sheer awesome that just happened. It’s kind of addicting, in the sense of “I watched three episodes while writing this article” addicting. So, I’m going to stop writing now and get back to season 2.
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*My wife, who just read my somewhat baroque opening paragraph, reminded me that I had my gallbladder removed in 1998. I reminded her that she wasn’t there and neither was anyone else who’s likely to read this, so why ruin a perfectly good story with niggling little facts?
You have a limited amount of time, so why spend it reading about things that suck or are only kind of okay? Favorite thing EVER is not a review site. We're unrepentant fans, and this is the stuff we love. Hope you like gushing, because we're about to embarrass ourselves.
Farscape and Buffy are tied for my Favorite Show Ever, so I pumped a fist with a “hell yeah!” when I read this.
Interestingly, I first saw Farscape when I was high as a kite following complications from an appendectomy, and I can confirm that drugged to the gills is NOT a good way to watch the show. There’s no way you can keep track of all that juicy plot in such a state, and the surreal aspects of the show become truly frightening. Farscape is best enjoyed sober.
Ah ha ha, I knew you’d be all YES INDEED about this post.
Tragically, I think I have the wrong gene for this show. Like Dr. Who and Supernatural, I continue to fail to “get it”.
At least I have Sherlock and Inception to poke around in.
As long as you have something making you happy, baby.
Are you coming to Bitchin’ Party? Are you liking Sherlock? Inception? How about Lost Girl? Surely we have some common ground!
Don’t you DARE link me over to TVtropes.com, you louse! I just don’t have the time to waste the next six to ten hours on teh internets!
One of the things I liked about the show is that John (very understandably) slowly goes insane over time, it’s all too overwhelming for him. In the episode where the crew was deciding who should be ship’s captain, at no time did they even consider the show’s supposed “hero” — privileged American white boy that he was — because they knew there was no way he could shoulder the responsibility.
I also loved the way John came to completely accept the bizarre alien beings around him as ordinary folks. In “Scratch-n-Sniff,” Pilot refuses to believe the tall tale John’s telling, so John protests, “You don’t know how crazy it can get out there because you’re always stuck inside all the time!” The fact that John is saying this to a two-ton alien being grafted to a living spaceship always cracks me up.
hmmm… sounds fun!