Sci-Fi Show reccomendation

[Regus]

I always hated Lexx, I found the overt double entendres and innuendos to be annoying, plus, none of the plots made any sense at all.

I did find the star attractive though, she looks kind of freaky, but her lips looked great:

[amitavc]

mulduss sucks. worst episodes.

[Drewbacca]

I've just completed watching the ENTIRE Farscape saga on DVD, including the television movie The Peacekeeper Wars. I gave this show a lot of flak for small inconsistencies and bad direction and I stand by my earlier comments to some degree, but not entirely. Farscape is an amazing saga, and I hope that it gets a full length feature film like the rumor bee's have been buzzing (The rumor is that Farscape will be greenlit for a full length feature if Firefly does well at the box office).

From here on in I will not use spoiler tags, because it's been almost a year since it was cancelled.


Season one was great for me. It introduced the universe, the cast and most importantly who the good, the bad and the ugly were. John Crichton, Zhaan, D'Argo, Aeryn, Pilote, Rygal the XVI, Moya and Captain Craise varied the cast. I'm surprised a show like this has such strong development between the characters because of the large cast. My favorite out of all of these creatures was Dominar Rygal the 16th, an amphibious humanoid species called the Hinerians that are short on height and big on stomachs. At every conflict the crew faces in the first two seasons Rygal chimes in with a plea to leave everyone behind and run for it in their living ship Moya. There's just something about his puppet that I find endearing.

The first season is a stand alone one, involving Crichton accidentally killing Captain Craise of the Peacekeeper Army's brother. Craise swears revenge and takes up a vendetta to find and kill Crichton that takes them both across the galaxy. I really enjoyed Craise's character arc, including his death with Moya's son Talyn.

Farscape is such a great show because characters are effect by the events of the show through the seasons. Characters die, characters change, characters leave, and characters turn evil. Out of the original 4 main aliens aboard Moya 2 die (Zhaan in season 3 and D'Argo in the mini-movie) while others, like Craise, turn good and give up their lives for the crew. In a way you get a huge sense of family with this crew because not everybody likes one another. D'Argo doesn't like Rygal, Chiana doesn't like Sikoza (or Jewel to begin with).

Season 2 introduces Scorpious to us. What a great villain this manipulative psychopath he turns out to be. I also like how he eventually allies himself with Crichton for the greater good of the galaxy. You never quite know what's going to happen in this show until it does, which is probably part of the alure that made its fans so crazy when it was cancelled. Not only did you not know what was going to happen in the story, but what kind of aliens you were going to encounter.

I personally enjoyed the Hinerians (Dominar Rygal the 16th race), but I also enjoyed all of the side races developed and thought out. The Scarrans were cool brutish villains. The Jim Henson company didn't always come up with the greatest creatures (what the fuck was that spider girl in season 3?) but all of them were inventive. This is the kind of universe, much like Star Wars, that I would want to explore in a videogame concept. There are so many territories, so many planets and so many things in the show that made it a visual treat for the mind to think of. I love shit like this, and it is also why I loved Star Wars Episode I. Just throw a bunch of crazy, creatively designed aliens at me and I'm happy.

The one thing I disliked about the show was that about 90% of the people they met were trying to con them, arrest them, or kill them. How many times did a mysterious stranger board their vessel only to turn in to an evil bounty hunter. The one twist on this was that little zork alien Chiana brought onboard the ship to hunt space parasites. They killed that little guy and he wasn't even a threat to them.


John Crichton returning to Earth in the third season was among my favorite episodes. I liked that they explored someone actually returning to Earth and telling mankind what was out there. The reaction from Earth was expected, and reminded me of the political aspects found in series like Stargate SG-1.

Anyway, I've been ranting here for twenty minutes about this show. I love it, but some things remain true. The direction in some action pieces seemed poorly shot. You'd often hear something happen and not see it directly. I'm assuming that the lofty goals of the series were hampered by budget. I also thought some of the angsty LOVE LOST stories were bullshit ripped right out of Joss Whedons book. How many times can you lose someone you love before it gets old? The ending to the series puts an end to this thankfully. They also reused some of their cast in the TV movie (same actors portraying different characters).

My favorite seasons were Seasons 2 and 3 with my favorite episode was "Out of Their Minds". The actor who portrays D'Argo did an AMAZING job of acting like Chiana (a sex starved Nebari alien from a world which surpresses personality in favor of discipline and order). This is acting you have to see to believe.

Here are my favorite episodes (in no particular orders):

"Out of Their Minds" (season 2) - An episode where the ship mate's minds become switched with one anothers body. Rygal has to get accustomed to having only one stomach. Each actor becomes remarkably adaptive to the character they are portraying, which is the best part about watching the entire thing.

"Durka Returns" (season 1) - The reintroduction to the evil Peacekeeper Commander Durka, an evil commander responsible for justifying acts of horror under his high ranking badge. He and Rygal have a history, with Rygal assuming Durka hadn't changed. It was also the introduction of a major character named Chiana. Oh yeah, Rygal spits black crap on Durka and tries to kill him with a make-shift bomb.

"Nerve" and "The Hidden Memory" (season 1) - The introduction of the main villain Scorpious and also the mystic Stark, who helps people overcome their fear of death and pain while they are dying (a crazy grimm reaper I suppose). Scorpious straps Crichton to something called the Aurora chair, a device that recalls and captures memories. He also plants a chip into Crichtons head to obtain his "wormhole knowledge". This goes on until season 4 (the main story arch of the series revolves around wormhole technology)

"That Old Black Magic" (season 1) - The introduction of the Black Magician Mulduss. He uses mind trickery and magic to enslave people. They referred to him as a "vampire" of course, because he feeds on fear and death. He will torture you for his pleasure as long as he can before killing you. Zhaan is forced to use her abilities as a Delvian priest for pain, ruining her lifelong oath.

There are just so many good episodes in season 1. A lot of my favorites are here, mainly because the cast was so strong, but also because the adventures were stand alone and crazy. This reminds me of the first season of Stargate SG-1, a series which has yet to have a bad season in 9 years running. Farscape never had a bad season, but it did have a few things I didn't like in the seasons (Jothee and Chiana? WTF? That shit was bad when Whedon did it with Conner and Cordelia in Angel too)

The worst episode of the series, hands down, is "Taking the Stone". It's about Chiana joining a cult in a cemetary planet. The inhabitants only live to 21 before they have to take the test. They jump off a cliff while chanting, which activates a sonic net at the bottom. Those who live get outcast into the chambers to live the rest of their days while the ones who don't hit the bottom (and presumably die).

All in all I love it and hope Firefly does well in theatres so this gets a release too.

an MMO Farscape would blow my socks off.

[Klonoa]

Just bought two more DVD collections of The Outer Limits: The New Series.

It fucking blows that they decided to release the show on DVD as categories instead of seasons. Anyways, bought Fantastic Androids and Robots and Death & Beyond.

I can't be the only The Outer Limits fan here, fan enough to buy the DVDs. Most of the stuff is cheesy, but its good cheese and I thoroughly enjoy most of the episodes.

[amitavc]

http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/releasei...ReleaseID=5356

for those still waitiing to purchase the X-Files DVDs (like me) there is a new release (new packaging, slim pack dvd cases and a lower MSRP are pretty much it) coming out next year. The link is for Season 1 of the show, though all three come out on the same day w/ a nice new MSRP of $49.99

for those who care, nowhere man should be out next week.

[Josh]

The actor who portrays D'Argo did an AMAZING job of acting like Chiana

Agree. I really got a kick out of that one.

Also: The guy who plays Dargo is a little light in the loafers irl... which makes Dargo even better.

[jonas]

I'm thinking about buying some of the X-Files - Story Arch DVD sets. I never really watched the show in it's run and I want to check some out but I don't want to buy all the seasons plus I hear that most seasons actually weren't that good after 4 or so.

These new story arch sets seem pretty interesting.

[Revoltor]

Don't be a douche.

oops, too late

[haohmaru]

X-Files was good through season five, spotty season six and seven, and a total waste of time after that. Once Chris Carter lost interest, the show was fucked.

[amitavc]

there were some bright moments in the later seasons i thought. There was one where the scientist from T2 (cant recall his name) guest starred as a lawyer accused of killing his wife. It starts out with him on death row and he his jumping back in time slowly putting together the pieces that will hopefully lead to his eventual freedom.