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!).

Well I’m back at work after two weeks off for the easter break. Did bugger all really, but Kat has been ill and we are saving up at the moment, so didn’t go anywhere. Well, I actually went to Nottingham for Robs birthday, which was fun for two reasons.

The first is that for the first time since I’ve become a comics fan, I went to a comic shop. Two, to be precice: Forbidden Planet and Page45. It was like walking into heaven! Where I live, there is only Waterstones that sells comics, just trades/graphic novels. A very limited selection. In these comics shops they had everything I could want. I spent…a considerably large sum of money. Mainly because it was a rare opportunity, but also because I had by mistake paid off one of my credit cards and then another £90+ on top the month before.

My main scoop was Captain America Omnibus. 25 issues, one huge beast, and thoroughly entertaining. Captain America has easily become one of my favourite characters. The modern version is not the cheesy, I love America type of guy you’d expect. 

I also picked up Kick Ass #1-2, Marvel: Secret Invasion #1, Ultimate X-Men vols 5, 6 and 7, Ultimate Iron Man, Preacher Vol 3, and back in Boston I got X-Men: Deadly Genesis, Fallen Son: Death of Captain America and 52 vol 2. All in all, a good month of buying, though a blip really as there’s no chance I can afford to buy them at this rate. And, other than making use of Waterstones 3 for 2 offers, I really should buy them online, I would save on average 30%. 

It’s also been a bit pants that I’ve had 3 assignments to do. One was a computer marked one, did that last week, handed in another yesterday, and I have until Thursday to finish the third. As per usually I am dragging my feet and completing them last minute. But that’s just part of who I am really, and I actually enjoy the thrill of doing it by the skin of my teeth. Which is silly really, I’m doing this voluntarily in order to get a better job!

Still, can’t wait until that is out of the way. I have the new Alastair Reynolds book, House of Suns (signed!). Started it last night, not got very far. I often hate the start of books, it takes me a while to get used to character names and I’m often flipping back a few pages in order to get it round my head who is talking to who etc. Especially this book, as so far it seems like the first person perspective is changing with each chapter, something I’m not used to. I suspect it’s something tied to the plot of these shatterlings (clones). Or that I was just so tired last night after the first day back at work that I wasn’t making any sense of it. 

On the horizon, next weekend Rob and Ben are coming over and we’re going to see Iron Man (which I am very, very much looking forward to), and then off for food and perhaps even the pub. All in aid of my birthday, which won’t actually be until the 6th. But it’ll be nice to see them again, we had a lot of fun on Robs birthday the other week. I especially enjoy the old traditions of staying up until 3am talking about bollocks, both low brow (which 5 celebrities would you have sex with) to the high brow (is there a God?). 

Anyway that’s enough waffle for now. I’m actually doing my usual work avoidance. Meh. I’ll aim to complete question 2 tonight, perhaps a little of Question 3, then do Question 4 (the final one) tomorrow. I know I have until midnight thursday, but I am at least trying to get assignments handed in the day before they are due with these courses.

Damn, on second thought’s I may not reach Question 3, it’s new Battlestar Galactica tonight.