Farscape Week: Farscape Season 1

Well readers welcome back to the blog.  I thought we would do something a little different this time around to wit I will talk about multiple seasons of one show.   Is such a thing possible you may ask?  You may indeed…I’ll wait.    I will wager you asked and yes such a thing is indeed possible with the science fiction series I speak of.   Jim Henson Productions (Sesame Street, The Muppets, Dark Crystal and Labyrinth) under the yoke of Jim’s son Brian Henson (director/producer of The Muppets Christmas Carol, Dinosaurs, Muppets Tonight, Muppets Treasure Island and Nightmares & Dreamscapes: From the Stories of Stephen King) comes a tale of science fiction to the likes this critic had not seen before nor has it been duplicated.  So prim your pulse pistols, strap in for starburst and hold on to your mivonks.  This is Farscape Season 1

 

Bad place to go cruising.

Aeryn Sun: No offense, human, but what can 

I possibly need from you?  

John Crichton: (under his breath) Oh, I don’t know.  Manners? Personality?  Spoiler Tips?

Writer Rockne S. O’Bannon (The Twilight Zone, Alien Nation, Fear, SeaQuest 2032, Defiance and Cult ) brings us a story of a young astronaut scientist John Crichton (Ben Browder of Memphis Belle, Party of Five, Stargate SG-1, Bad Kids Go to Hell and Doctor Who) has a theory of using gravitational waves from Earth as a means of propulsion being a sub-orbital maneuver and if this theory is sound will revolutionize existing space travel.  His module is prepped and awaiting launch, recording telemetry and cameras’ catching this experiment for posterity, a wormhole opens up and shoots John into the far recesses of deep space.

Hmm exhaustion or boredom on that girl's face?

John finds himself in the midst of a space battle as 30 some starfighters are attacking a much larger vessel.    The module is dragged aboard the larger vessel with some sort of tractor beam.  John is lead from the cargo bay by gun point from a technorganic droid no bigger than a dust buster.    He is lead to the bridge of this ship to find 3 different aliens all shouting and John cannot understand a single one of them.   After the droid injects a translation biological program into him he can decipher everything they are saying.   He learns that this ship is a living entity and the three aliens are escaped prisoners fleeing the authorities.

To make matters even worse, Crichton has a near miss with one of this starfighters which caused the death of the pilot.   The commanding officer of this flagship and squadron’s younger brother and he swears Crichton will pay for that in blood. 

Yeah I do have a bit to talk about in my notes.

Combining green screen EFX, with Henson puppetry and an amazing cast, this show is not the typical science fiction we are used to.  Everyone has their own agenda, they work with one another only because they have to and these different species do not know how to cope with the distinct differences in language and culture.  

That really furrows my bone brows!

John is the voice of humanity in the fact he is a sci-fi and sports nerd so plenty of pop culture comments from him that I bet you were thinking the same thing when seeing the episodes.   There is no drawn line in the sand over what is a good and evil but myriad shade of grey which makes for excellent writing.   The story will keep you coming back for more as everyone is attempting to get their way back to their various homes, avoid Peacekeeper entanglement and whenever possible enjoy a hot cup of tea.   Well maybe tea isn’t the highest priority.