Farscape - 1/17/2003 (1 Viewer)

[SpenceJT]

This has got to be one of the best episode of the series so far, so how come nobody is talking about it?

My only question is this;

Why is Scorpy plotting to destabilize the worm hole. I mean he is willing to die to achieve this... Did I miss something?
The ending interaction between John and his father touched me. There were some very good character moments between father & son, nicely acted by Kent McCord and Ben Browder.

Spence

 

[PhilipG]

I saw this episode a couple of weeks ago, but I was waiting for you lot to see it first.
Spence,
My interpretation was that Scorpius was prepared to die rather than let the Servalan character get to John and the wormhole technology, or take him captive again.
This was my favourite episode of the season so far. Nice to see some shock reality in a sci-fi show (the 11 September reference), and nice too that the writers are bold enough to make a political statement about American go-it-alone-ism. I wonder though if this could have contributed in any way to SFC's decision...
Merry Frelling Christmas!

 

[Sean Bryan]

Yes, this was a very good episode.

Since this thread is for discussing the episode, I'm not sure spoiler bars for stuff that happened is necessary. But I'll give SPOILER WARNING for those silly enough to have not seen the episode but are reading this thread.

*
*
*
*
*
*
*

Poor DK! I can't believe they killed him. Although it did give it a sense of reality and danger. I was honestly worried that Jack or John's sister might have bene killed when they were attacked at the end.

Yes, Scorpius will protect the wormhole knowledge (and Crichton) from falling into the wrong hands (Graiza/Scarans,etc..).

I wonder what Earth will now do. They are now aware that there are other world and other sentient life-forms that could be both a resource and a serious threat. I wonder if Crichton left them samples of weapons and technology. I would think he would have let them keep stuff. If the wormhole is stable, do you think they will try to go through with a shuttle?

This second half of the season is going to be very good.

 

[Paul E. Fox II]

A question for any of you that would like to initiate a closet fan like myself.

Is Scorpius planning something to get back at Crichton and the others or is seriously one of the good guys now? When I watched the first part of this episode, it appeared that he may be actually working against the crew of the Moya, but I may be confused.

Man...this is one of those shows that I really wish I would have watched from the beginning now!

 

[Jason Seaver]

Scorpius is not (and likely never will be) a good guy, but his interests and Crichton's currently co-incide: He does not want the Scarrans to get their hands on wormhole technology, but does want it for himself. Well, he says he wants it for the Peacekeepers/Sebaceans, but not if it means Grayza being in charge. So, he protects Crichton until such time as he can get his command carrier back from Grayza. Then he'll be the Alpha Villain again.

As to Earth... I have a terrible feeling that the S4 end-of-season (now series) cliffhanger will be Grayza/Scorpius bringing the command carrier into Earth orbit. I think Crichton Sr. will likely make a real effort to push for a global defense force, since he's seen that not only are not all aliens as friendly as Crichton's friends, but that they are looking to target Earth specifically because of his son. How well and how much he can do by the time everyone returns to Earth... Well, that's the big question, isn't it?

 

[Jon Torres]

I think the episode was pretty good. I really liked the touching moment between John and Aeryn. I kind of wanted to know what his answer would be. Aeryn clearly wants John back (even willing to live on Earth), but John is an idiot taking drugs trying to forget about her.

Scorpius has some other plan in mind. Maybe he wants to use the wormhole knowledge to kill all the Scarrans since he has a strong hatred toward them. I really like how Farscape converts the chief bad guys into good guys.

I didn't really like how they screwed with the time sequence. If there were infinite time sequences happening at the same time, why couldn't they just jump back into the wormhole and find the correct Earth. Also, it seemed only a handful of people took the translator microbes, but all the humans (like John's sister) knew what the aliens were talking about. Aeryn was speaking her Sebacean language and not English.

 

[Brian Kaz]

I thought this was a great episode...but man, did it ever need to be a two-parter. They crammed so much in that it seemed like a lot was trimmed due to time. For instance:

1.
John's best friend is murdered and we don't get any reaction from him or even a mention of a funeral before he leaves earth

2.
After finding DK's body, D'Argo suddenly shows up at John's house to save the day at the end. What made him go there with his ship of all things?

3.
Pretty much everything with Scorpy & Sikozu seemed to come out of nowhere and needed more explanation


Anyhoo, when I see a great FS episode such as this, it just hurts that much more in that it may never get a proper ending.

 

[Paul E. Fox II]

Brian,

I had the same question about John's buddies as you...why was there no mention of remorse from John about their deaths?

A possible explaination for this could be that the consequences of these actions will come into play at a later date. It's worked for other shows, but since I'm getting into the game late, I'm not sure if Farscape does this sort of thing or not.

MAN, I wish I'd paid more attention to this show from the beginning!

 

[Ron McBadger]

Terra Firma was a great episode...I especially liked JC holding the line and telling Earth to get their collective act together...even showing them tech to help push them to unify because it will only be a matter of time before the scarrens or peace keepers find there way to Earth...as Scorpy said only 60 years without a wormhole.

It is truely sad that a show this good will be off the air after another 9 episodes and other crap shows will fill its time slot.

Once Farscape is done being aired I am done with the Sci Fi channel...I will just wait and buy the Dune series on DVD.

 

[Wayne Bundrick]

Once Farscape is done being aired I am done with the Sci Fi channel...I will just wait and buy the Dune series on DVD.

Ditto, except I won't even buy their DVDs.

 

[Jason Seaver]

Well, they wouldn't exactly be "Sci-Fi"'s DVDs... Artisan, not Universal, would put them out; I forget who the production company is.

Still, I just don't get the "I'm through with Sci-Fi" idea... It just seems like cutting off your nose to spite your face to me.

 

[Michael St. Clair]

I'm done with Sci-Fi in general, and it is not spite. Science Fiction genre series typically have long story arcs, and I simply don't have the time to get involved if the show is likely to get cut off unexpectedly.

So I'm not watching any more ongoing series on Sci-Fi, and I have several friends who feel the same way.

If the series is good and has closure, I'll get the DVDs. No Sci-Fi needed.

 

[Jason Seaver]

So I'm not watching any more ongoing series on Sci-Fi, and I have several friends who feel the same way.

If the series is good and has closure, I'll get the DVDs. No Sci-Fi needed.

Of course, by that logic, you never would have seen Farscape in the first place.

That serials may get cut off without a proper ending is just the nature of the medium - even if the financial numbers worked out for USA Networks, David Kemper or Ben Browder still might have gotten hit by a bus before shooting a finale. Any number of things can happen between shooting a pilot and shooting a finale 5+ years later; the only thing close to a certainty is that good shows won't be helped by people ignoring them because of situations the producers probably can't control.

 

[Michael St. Clair]

After Season 3 of Farscape, Sci-Fi told me there would be a Season 4 and a Season 5. Instead, they cut it off in mid-story at the end of Season 4.
This scenario has nothing in common with how I started watching Farscape in Season 1. Sci-Fi has now made it clear that their word means nothing.
So I'm not going to watch unlimited series on their network any more. I have limited amounts of time for television, so I'm not going to get involved with genres that use long story arcs on networks that lie about how many episodes will be shown. Seems perfectly reasonable to me.

 

[Ken Chan]

The dirty truth is that the network always has an out from its long-term contracts -- if they're smart. Their word is conditional.

In this case, you might fault Sci-Fi because maybe the ratings weren't really that low, and the costs weren't really that high, to justify cancelling a well-respected marque show, and by extension, screwing the fans (which has hidden costs). In other words, maybe they were being a bit too cheap. But I don't know the numbers to say one way or the other.

//Ken

 

[Jason Seaver]

Right... One thing that didn't get mentioned until after the inital firestorm of anger died down was that EM.TV raised the price of Farscape between seasons, which certainly played into Sci-Fi's decision.

I'm starting to wonder if it just doesn't pay to be too informed about the entertainment industry. Sure, it's easy to look at Farscape's cancellation and say that Bonnie Hammer is a tool (ha-HA!) and I won't watch Sci-Fi again as long as she's in charge... But I certainly don't have enough information to confidently second-guess everything she does.

 

[Michael St. Clair]

The details don't matter. If Sci-Fi knew that the price/ratings situation could change enough to kill a Season 5, they never should have promised more than a Season 4.

Sci-Fi is on the hook.

If they can convince me that things have changed, maybe I'll be back.

 

[Ron McBadger]

Why should I watch a channel that tells me that shows like Tremors, Dream Team and repeats of the X Files are better than one of the best shows I have ever seen...Farscape?

By the way on buying the Dune DVD's I will wait till they are at a used store, that way USA networks will not get a dime of money.

***plus this way I will not have that annoying little bug on the screen while I watch****

 

[Jason Seaver]

Why should I watch a channel that tells me that shows like Tremors, Dream Team and repeats of the X Files are better than one of the best shows I have ever seen...Farscape?

Um, they're not telling you that. They just think that those will be a better return on investment than another year of a highly serialized (and thus not likely to attract new viewers) series whose (already high) price went up past what they could afford where they wouldn't see any profit.

The thing is... Tremors could be the next Farscape. Unlilkely, sure, but possible. I just think a blanket refusal to watch Sci-Fi makes about as much sense to me as not going to see Confessions Of A Dangerous Mind this weekend because of how Miramax cut another movie.

 

[Michael St. Clair]

There's nothing on the horizon from Sci-Fi that looks even remotely interesting to me. "Tremors" indeed. A good episode of Farscape is better than the first "Tremors" movie (the only good one).
I won't "miss" the next Farscape. If a "next" Farscape comes out, I'll be watching it on DVD. I'm not depriving myself of anything.
Oh, here's the cover (ad) for the February 3 Farscape. Scapers are the most loyal, determined fans I have ever seen.

plus this way I will not have that annoying little bug on the screen while I watch

Yep, that white screen-burning bug they use these days would keep me away from Sci-Fi for casual viewing regardless...