Anyone care to discuss Farscape?

Stark

bonkey wrote:

Farscape was canned (afaik) because it was expensive to produce and its audience numbers were static, while cheaper shows were producing better returns.

That was the myth. Farscape was as popular as it had always been (in fact the audience was growing) and wasn't costing any more to produce prior to its cancellation. It was just the victim of really bad timing (hence the decision to rename the last episode to "Bad Timing"). A corporate takeover of the Sci-fi channel went wrong and Farscape took the fall.

The full story is here: http://www.watchfarscape.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=93&Itemid=25

Jack B. Badd

Stark wrote:

Like make them watch every season of Charmed?

Hehe...actually a mate of mine has all of them so if he'd let me borrow them, then yeah!

bonkey wrote:

...hence my attitude. C'est la vie.

Sigh...the apathy of our young people today. Dammit, we should fight!!! The geeks of this world should rise up and make a stand against the evil people who would cancel our favourite sci-fi shows. Overwhelm them with our superior...um, geekiness...

I have to say I reckon Farscape (for an arc-based show) is reasonalby easy to pick up/put down. When I initially started watching it I only saw a few episodes of each of seasons 1, 2 and 3 (not because I didn't want to see every episode (I did!) but I simply didn't have access to it all the time) but because the way it was written/filmed/produced I found I could still enjoy the episodes as individual stories even if I didn't get exactly what was happening overall. It was something about the humour of the show - it appears to be really light and flippant even though there's a serious story going on. It made the show really accessible even though I hadn't seen it all. Now that I get to watch it start to finish I'm appreciating it as a full story but I also think the episodes are brilliant taken on their own.

But I do get what you're saying about arc-based getting cancelled because they don't pull in massively increasing audiences as time passes - basically people are idiots with short attention spans and the TV peeps pander to that!

bonkey

Stark wrote:

That was the myth.

If you say so.

Farscape was as popular as it had always been (in fact the audience was growing) and wasn't costing any more to produce prior to its cancellation.

I never said it was shrinking in popularity or that it was growing in cost.

I said that it was hard to expand the audience base and that it was expensive. There is a subtle but important difference.

The fanboy article you link to shows that at best there was a very modest increase in Nielson ratings across series 3-4, and argues that costs weern't increaseing.

However, if you compare Nielson for (dodgy) series 1 with series 3 or 4, you'll see that there was very, very little growth in the fan-base. And yes, costs weren't increasing, but that says nothing about whether or not they were high. If I were to say a ferrari today costs the same as 5 years ago, that doesn't mean ferrari's are cheap.

It was just the victim of really bad timing (hence the decision to rename the last episode to "Bad Timing"). A corporate takeover of the Sci-fi channel went wrong and Farscape took the fall.

Indeed. It took the fall because they wanted to cut costs and throw cheap pulp junk at a market that they believed showed all the signs of being willing to lap such stuff up.

It was a dumb decision, as evidenced by the failure of the junk it was replaced with.

Jack B. Badd wrote:

Sigh...the apathy of our young people today.

I'd criticse you for calling me young, but I just couldn't be bothered

Ever since they cancelled Sapphire & Steel, I've accepted that this is the way it goes. What I wouldn't have given for Adventure 7.

Dammit, we should fight!!! The geeks of this world should rise up and make a stand against the evil people who would cancel our favourite sci-fi shows. Overwhelm them with our superior...um, geekiness...

Indeed. Who needs profit when you've got a dedicated, geeky fan-base instead.

But I do get what you're saying about arc-based getting cancelled because they don't pull in massively increasing audiences as time passes - basically people are idiots with short attention spans and the TV peeps pander to that!

Exactly.

What annoys me most is that DVD sales are basically considered nothing but icing on the cake. Movies gross about 50% in teh box-office, and 50% on DVD these days, but if it hasn't made a profit by the time its out of the cinema, every decries it as a dud.

Same for TV series - story-arc, fanboy-appealing stuff like Farscape and B5 are serious sellers on disc. I know several people who went and bought the entire sets of both once they finally had the chance to be able to watch it all, from the start, at their own pace.

Jack B. Badd

Oh lord, Rygel in black leather and Crais in red high heels - I think I've gone blind!

Stark

Ah, "Won't get fooled again". That was a great episode.

superfly

did any one think that this was a bit of a rip off of Blakes 7?
Blakes 7 - a bunch of criminals who find a powerful ship and who go up against a mighty empire
Farscape - a bunch of criminals who find a powerful ship and who go up against a mighty empire

even the characters are pretty similar

Aeryn - an ex soldier who joins up with them
Tarryn - an ex soldier who joins up with them (even the names sound the same!)

Vila - a cowardly thief
Rygel - a cowardly thief

Zen - the ships avatar
Pilot - the ships avatar

Zhaan - a spirirtual person
Calli - a spirirtual person

Servalan - The evil leader who tries to thwart them at every turn
Scorpius - The evil leader who tries to thwart them at every turn

monkeyfudge

superfly wrote:

Servalan - The evil leader who tries to thwart them at every turn
Scorpius - The evil leader who tries to thwart them at every turn

Commandant Grayza was a lot more like Servalan actually.. even the same haircut.

Stark

Moya wasn't really a powerful ship

As for the rest, yeah they're pretty similar but then Farscape never was original in its premise. It was more in the execution.

Pugsley

Stark wrote:

As for the rest, yeah they're pretty similar but then Farscape never was original in its premise. It was more in the execution.

Same can be said about SG-1, not a single origional thing in that show, its just done well (and has O'Niell).


I think its a bit unfair comparing any other bad guy to Scorpius, there hasnt been one who is just so damn cool, and Farscape went through 3 bad guys (Krace, Scorp, then Grayza), and Moya was indeed fairly harmless

Jack B. Badd

Oops double post

Jack B. Badd

Pugsley wrote:

I think its a bit unfair comparing any other bad guy to Scorpius, there hasnt been one who is just so damn cool

Part of Scorpius' coolness has to be Crichton's reaction to him. I love their relationship I know most of Farscape's characters aren't exactly stable but Crichton looniness when dealing with Scorpius is just something else!

madrab

heres a question regarding Sicozu

In the last series it was revealed that she was some sort of super anti-skarren weapon, so why did she betray everyone to the skarren?

also other things i wish they would have dealt with

I wish we had seen more of the Nebari, expecially after how powerful they were meant to be, considering that they easily destroyed the zelbinion, the peacekeepers most powerful carrier

I wish that they had dealt with starks character better at the end, ie he kept randomly being in episodes & not in episodes & then trying to kill cryton, etc

Vulture

Like to start by saying i saw the first episode of farscape first and i instantly hated it, john was such a boy scout go team sort of person, also it vaguely reminded me of an old tv show can't remember the name, plot was astronaught lost in space in his shuttle and get involved in a war between 2 races one good one bad (evil queen) and he always saved the day. It was terrible don't suppose someone remembers it? Did not see farscape again for years untill after it was finished and did not like it straight away manily because i saw scorpius in that episode and lets face it he looks like a gimp. Black leather outfit with coat tails on it. I remember thinking who the hell makes the main bad guy a gimp. But it grew on me quickly and i collected all of it. It is far and away my favourite series of all time. Better than babylon 5 even if you cut out the bad bits of B5, season 5 and most of season 1.

madrab wrote:

heres a question regarding Sicozu

In the last series it was revealed that she was some sort of super anti-skarren weapon, so why did she betray everyone to the skarren?

also other things i wish they would have dealt with

I wish we had seen more of the Nebari, expecially after how powerful they were meant to be, considering that they easily destroyed the zelbinion, the peacekeepers most powerful carrier

About Sicozu they were ment to have a whole season to fit her betryal in, given the time constraint of the films they rushed it and it just did not fit. But all in all they finished things nicely i thought.
The lack of the Nebari in later episodes really bugged me to but i just put it down to Scorpi is the new baddie he has a history with the scarrans lets go that direction. Hell in one episode early on they even helped a scaran, true he got shot and then blown up but they did try.

Favourite moment

when they have to shoot arayns mother and crase is going to do it. Johy and Aryan are walking away and aryan freaks and tries to run back to save her mother just as crase opens fire with what sound like an automatic weapon firing 7 shots. I was in stiches, he's got the gun about 2 feet from her head with the daughter not more than 20 feet away and he decideds to go full auto, is he a bad shot? did the first bullet he put in her head not kill her? Gets best moment due to the follow up two episoeds later when john thinks crase really dident kill her and they do the "is that what you think happned flash back" also had me in stiches because i dident think he killed her either

monkeyfudge

Vulture wrote:

Like to start by saying i saw the first episode of farscape first and i instantly hated it, john was such a boy scout go team sort of person, also it vaguely reminded me of an old tv show can't remember the name, plot was astronaught lost in space in his shuttle and get involved in a war between 2 races one good one bad (evil queen) and he always saved the day. It was terrible don't suppose someone remembers it?

That's Buck Rogers... they showing it on Bavo these days... It was pretty well made for the time but it's let down by the fact that the future is actually the 1970's.