I Miss Farscape

I'm generally picky when it comes to science fiction on television, but as the title states, I miss Farscape. The characters were complex. At times, they were downright ruthless. None of them were typical heroes. They did good things incidentally while trying to survive. The villains were nasty, and once in a while, heroes became villains and villains became heroes. Sometimes, the heroes and villains remained enemies yet worked together to defeat a common enemy--think of Xmen 2 in space. The characters eeked by akin to Indiana Jones; every plan went wrong yet they persevered by the skin of their teeth. The banter was great too; probably not as witty as Joss Whedon's writing in Firefly but great nonetheless and funny as well. Characters conspired against one another, zero trust between them. They were secretive, manipulative thieves, warriors, pacifists, murderers, sex slaves, and they were all prone to mocking humans as an inferior, dumb species.

There was always an intriguing idea behind every episode, ranging from traditional alien encounters to a living spaceship giving birth to a warship, not to mention some really trippy, somewhat psychotic scenes. Every episode progressed the story for the season as well. They never inundated viewers with freaks of the week. Plus the dark, moody sets, make-up, CGI, and puppetry was done splendidly by the Jim Henson Company. I still feel makeup and puppetry can look more realistic than CGI when done correctly. More often than not, Farscape reaffirmed my belief.

When I found out Farscape had been cancelled, I wrote the SyFy network several disgruntled emails with lines such as, "I hope you're proud developing B movies and generic TV shows," and, "This is the best show you've ever aired. Too bad you're too stupid to realize it." I still feel that way. I haven't watched that network since the cancellation of Farscape, which they replaced with Stargate: SG1 or something, a spin-off of a spin-off I believe failed after two seasons. SyFy has offered nothing original that has peaked my interest in years.

Bottom line is if you've got some time on your hands and are looking for a show to get into that you might have missed out on, Farscape is my recommendation. In my opinion, it is and always will be the best science fiction series ever to bless my TV.