When Farscape came out in 1999, it was a direct alternative to the endless Star Trek clones that had dominated television sci-fi for years. From the start it was more freewheeling, more adventurous, more imaginative, crazier. Instead of a rigid military ship it had a crew of escaped prisoners on a living vessel (Moya, a character in her own right). Also it had muppets. Can't forget the muppets.
Really, this show and some other sci-fi gems of the late 90s (like the under-appreciated Lexx) did a lot to rescue science fiction from the pit Jonathan Frakes had been digging for it. And they paved the way for other shows, like the breakout hit Firefly, which showed nerds and non-nerds alike what you could do if you treated sci-fi right.
Farscape is no Firefly, of course, and it's probably too inured in its own genre-ness to appeal to anyone but avowed nerds (such as myself). But there's a certain joy seeing what elements in Farscape would later appear in Firefly. While I wouldn't call it a direct influence, Firefly and Farscape drew on a lot of the same elements, and ended up with remarkably similar ideas. A small ship with no weapons, a small tight-nit crew of castaways, on the run from a military complex, but really just trying to make a buck. And some of the best moments of either series have the crew just sitting around over dinner, talking and laughing. One of Moya's crew is a muppet, though. That's extra points.
But Farscape is all about genre. While Firefly consistently ducked expectations and avoided clichés, Farscape seemed to take pride in diving head first into every trope-hole in its path. A quick scan of any random page on tv-tropes is probably going to lead you into a Farscape episode. Have all the characters switch bodies? Check. Have a character cloned (repeatedly)? Check. Have a character live out several decades on an idyllic agrarian world (The “Inner Light” maneuver)? Check. Hell, it would probably be easier to try to name tropes that Farscape doesn't recycle somewhere over its 88-episodes-and-two-miniseries run.
Here's the rub: the series is too long. Don't get me wrong, I still think the abrupt cancellation before a promised fifth season is going to land certain TV executives in the lowest circle of hell (reserved for traitors and deal-breakers and people who cancel TV shows early.) What I mean is that the ratio of padding to story in each of the 24-episode seasons is nauseatingly high. While the episodes that further the story arc are consistently good (the finales, the multi-part episodes, etc), the leftover ones are a total crap shoot. Sometimes you get an excellent one-off episode like “Crackers Don't Matter.” Other times you get some gloopy residue recycled from Gene Roddenberry's used coffee grinds.
This isn't really a problem for a show like Star Trek TNG, which was never supposed to be original. TNG could recycle the same crap over and over again and no one would complain because that's just what it was. But with Farscape, you're watching because it's different, original, imaginative. So you feel particularly betrayed when it ends up being so dang conventional. Good thing now it's on Blu-ray you can skip the boring episodes.
What the show does well, really well, is adapt. Changes in the crew routinely change the whole dynamic of the show, changes in characters change the writing. The best example is the show's lead, Crichton (Ben Browder, the lone American on this Australian production). In the early episodes he's a scientist and experimental fighter pilot, shot into deep space while doing low-earth-orbit experiments, and he has sciencey lines to go with his sciency persona. But by season two someone must have realized that Browder is about as sciency as an orangutan in a lab coat. What he's really good at (really really good at) is being crazy. By the second season this wackiness is written constantly into the storyline (neural chips, Skarren probes, craziness-inducing suns, whatever), giving us the Crichton we know and love (and wouldn't want to sit next to on an airplane.)
The show just keeps evolving, all four seasons. This new Blu-ray set includes all the original episodes, from Moya's first escape from a Peacekeeper convoy to the start of the Peacekeeper wars. It doesn't include the four-hour miniseries The Peacekeeper Wars, though, which were made after the show's premature cancellation and subsequent fan uproar.
That's roughly 68 hours of weird aliens, sexual tension, space battles, explosions, and muppets (roughly 25% of which is watchable). The sound is particularly good on the Blu-rays, which is perfect for those episodes with a lot of pew-pew-pew.
So if you're ever feeling down about the sorry state of sci-fi on television (and can't wait for the next season of Doctor Who to complain about), Farscape is an excellent lesson in the sort of fun you can have while still being crazy.
Also if you have a lot of time to kill.
Blu-ray Bonus Features
The four-box, 20-disc Complete Series boasts an intimidating amount of special features, from 31 audio commentaries (31! I dare you to listen to them all!) to a catch-up featurette for every season (good for if you plan on conscripting a friend to watch them with you.) There is a making-of documentary made at the series end, and a brand new one made for the Blu-ray release. There's also a series of interviews/focuses on the musical score, which was unexpected and unexpectedly interesting.
Another featurette examines what happened to the fanbase once the Sci-Fi channel announced the cancellation. These were the young days of the Internet, and I don't think anyone had an idea what a big deal it would end up being.
All in all, it's a trove of stuff sure to please any fan and overwhelm any newcomer, adding more content than you'll probably ever end up seeing. Which is precisely what a box set should have. It's the gift that keeps on frelling.
"Farscape: The Complete Series" is on sale November 15, 2011 and is rated PG. Action, Adventure, Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Television. Directed by R Ellis Frazier , Tony Tilse. Written by Rockne S. O'Bannon. Starring Anthony Simcoe, Beau Billingslea, Ben Browder, Claudia Black, Gigi Edgley, Lani Tupu, Jonathan Hardy.
