Farscape rewatch: Season 1
Farscape has to be in my top 10 tv shows ever. I was probably about 17 when it first aired and I stumbled across it on BBC2 part way through season 1 and easily fell in love. For some reason the DVD box sets have always been hellishly expensive, and still are. At £30 ish per season on iTunes I could just about justify the cost, even though it’s a rip off when you consider how old it is and you can buy the entire run of something like West Wing for £50.
Anyway, I managed to quickly plough through the first season in about 2 weeks and I’m pleased to say on the whole it has aged well. Production values still look good, the actors nailed the characters early on and the stories are a lot of fun. The downside to watching any tv show back to back is that the character and relationship developments at times feel like they are rushed, but that’s a trick of the mind. You have to remember that usually a 22 episode series will span nearly half a year!
The basic premise is astronaut John Chrichton gets slung through a wormhole to another part of the universe and lands on a prison ship in the middle of a breakout. This prison ship is a living ship and the prisoners on board are a priest called Zhaan, a warrior D’Argo and a dethroned monarch called Rygel. In addition to this is Pilot, an alien that’s plugged into the ship (Moya) and who as his name dictates is the pilot of the ship. They of course escape and spend the rest of the show on the run from the Peacekeepers who are not as nice as their name might suggest.
One of my favourite aspects of the show is the thing that put a lot of people off it, the wonderful creations of the Jim Henson Creature Company. I used to hate it when people said it was “Muppets in space”. To call these creations muppets is a bit of an insult, the design of the characters is brilliant and as the seasons go on they get even better. The Scarrens are a particular favourite of mine.
The highlight of season 1 for me is the introduction of Scorpius who to this day is my favourite SF villain. What I like about him is that he is so intelligent. Whilst a whole base of Peacekeepers are fooled by John, Scorpius calls him on it instantly. Sure he has certain special abilities, but I like how Scorp cuts out the BS and gets things done. He’s not a stereotypical villain who will go at great lengths to explain his plans to the enemy, he just gets in there and does things.
So then, any bad sides? Very little for me. There’s the occasional boring or low budget episode (“Jeremiah Chrichton”) and I found the rock music a bit intrusive early on in the season. Ben Browder’s acting is a bit OTT/hammy at times but Farscape doesn’t take itself too seriously so it’s all part of the fun.
Overall Farscape has aged well and is just as much fun watching a second time. I think it will be a while before I move onto Season 2 (mainly due to cost!) but I really look forward to it as I have fond memories especially once Chrichton has a Scorpius inside his head (way before BSG did it!).
