Referring to my earlier blogs about parts of the first season from 2015

2023/03/24

It was some time ago, my last rewatch, too long ago, 2015 was my last rewatch. Being daily on Twitter with the website, was a catalysator because Farscape is so BIG on Twitter, it is mind boggling that there hasn’t been a reboot or a continuation by now. Anyway, when I rewatched it in 2015, I also wrote a blog about part of the first season: I wrote about the pilot and about the last 5 episodes of the first season which are truly fantastic. For a while I was in doubt whether to write a blog about the first season because of the earlier mentioned blogs I already had written. So, I decided to do a season one blog after all, but I will refer to the older blogs for the pilot and the last five episodes, because they still are, in my humble opinion, good blogs.

The premise, the pilot reminds me a lot about the TV show “Buck Rogers in the 25^th Century”. It is not that they are similar because Buck Rogers is frozen in time for 500 years, but for some reason, when the intro starts, it always reminds me of that quirky show from the late 70’s. It revolves around the character John Crichton (Ben Browder) who accidentally travels to a different part of the universe, he docks on a ship, what turns out to be a living ship, Moya. There he finds a couple of aliens: Ka D’ Argo (Anthony Simcoe), A luxan, framed of murdering his wife, which was actually done by his brother-in-law, and he had to sent his son into hiding, Pa'u Zotoh Zhaan (Virginia Hey) a Delvian Priestess and Dominar Rygel XVI, a Hynerian (Jonathan Hardy). He doesn’t understand them because the universal translater does not know English yet. These aliens escaped from imprisonment of the Peacekeepers. Through circumstances, a peacekeeper, Aeryn Sun (Claudia Black), a Sebacean, joins them because she is no longer welcome among their own people, like the others, she also becomes a fugitive. John Crichton, who cannot return home, tries to earn his keep on the ship till the time he is able to go home again. The ship’s Pilot, is named…Pilot (Lani Tupu)! Pilot is a member of a race known simply as "Pilots," who bond with the organic Leviathan spacecraft and become their navigator. Later in the season we get another crewmember Chiana (Gigi Edgley, a Nebari. Bialar Crais (Lani Tupu), a Jjaal-Sebacean, former commander of Aeryn Sun, becomes Crichton’s biggest enemy when Crais learns that Crichton is responsible for his brother’s death, even though it was an accident. Towards the end of the season, we meet Scorpius (Wayne Pygram), quite a character. He becomes a major character in the rest of the series, a nemesis to John Crichton, who is after the wormhole technology.

One more thing I want to say about Ben Browder’s character John Crichton: For a long time, before he became Cameron Mitchell on Stargate SG-1, I always had a bit of difficulty with the character Crichton. Always shouting, always barking loud and being annoying. When I just started watching Farscape, for me, he was the reason at that point I could enjoy Farscape but I could not love it! This changed for me after his portrayal of Cameron Mitchell in Stargate SG-1. After seeing him on Stargate, the negative feelings I had of him from watching Farscape, were reduced to almost zero…no not zero, almost zero! 😊 But I have to say, with this rewatch, it is completely gone, now I really can enjoy it, love it, like I do Babylon 5, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and the Stargate shows!

Well, the pilot episode is a strong one, where Crichton, an astronaut, travels through a wormhole, arriving in an unknown universe, in the middle of a fight. As said, you can read a blog about the pilot episode in more detail here.

Episodes 2-17

On the whole I think there isn’t one really awful episode in its first season, although I thought “Thank God, It’s Friday…Again” was rather a mediocre episode. The 2^nd episode, “I, ET, was not an original episode, every SCI-FI show has such an episode were a lead character is stranded on a planet. The Farscape episode however, was nicely done. 3^rd episode “Exodus from Genesis” is another okay, not brilliant, episode where the Peacekeepers return to Moya, Aeryn becomes ill because Sebacean’s cannot take the heat. Alien creatures enter Moya and communicate via Zhaan. Crichton lets the Peacekeepers leave in the hopes Crais will see this as a good gesture, but of course he is mistaken. Episodes 3, 4 & 5 are enjoyable episodes, we get to know the inhabitants of the ship, the ship itself and Pilot. What you are also reminded of is that the aliens think of John Crichton as a lower being or something, they see him more as a child. He really must earn his keep and he does this. Especially this first season Crichton & Sheriff Carter from the TV show Eureka are similar in the fact that Carter was seen as a less intelligent human being, but he was always the one who had the right idea how to solve a problem. With Crichton this is also the case. As I said the 6^th episode, “Thank God, It’s Friday…Again”, is probably my least favorite episode of the season. The first real fantastic episode after the pilot is number 7, “PK Tech Girl” where the crew finds an old Peacekeeper ship that was lost for a decade or so. It was a most feared ship. On that ship they find a tech girl from the peacekeepers, Gilina, she was left behind by Crais, with a team of engineers, only she is left after an attack. Crichton and Gilina bond, get feelings for one another. The episode is directly linked to the final 5 episodes of the season because of Gilina.

“That Ole Black Magic” is another solid episode, guest stars Grant Bowler (Defiance) where, through a wizard, Crais and Crichton are once again at each other’s throat. Crichton tries to reason with him which of course fails. The episode “DNA Mad Scientist” is another great piece of television. The crew have found someone who can show them a way back to their home planets, except for Crichton. The other members of the crew become selfish because they want to be the first to go home. Aeryn fears she might stay behind alone, so she also goes to the scientist. But with her he has other plans! Note – Great episode, uncomfortable to see how easy they are willing to cut off an arm of the pilot.  In the 10^th episode “They’ve Got a Secret” we learn about Ka D’ Argo’s wife Lo’laan and son Jothee. He is projecting his feelings on Zhaan and Rygel. Crichton learns that Moya is pregnant. This is really an interesting episode, we get more info about D’Argo’s personal life, that he was married to a Peacekeeper named Lo’Laan. The brother of Lo’Laan could not accept that she married a Luxan.

Episode 11 is also one of the best episodes of the season, “Till the Blood Runs Clear”. Crichton & Aeryn discover an unstable wormhole, when the ship gets damaged, they are forced to land. There we meet Furlow for the first time, a mechanic, who says is able to fix his ship, the price, exclusive rights to the wormhole information, he himself isn’t even allowed to make a copy! They also discover an automated recording of Crais where he puts out a reward for the 3 fugitives D’Argo, Zhaan & Rygel. He also has a hidden message for Aeryn. Bond between Crichton and D’Argo becomes more definite here. Note – When a bounty hunter introduces himself as Rorf, Crichton thinks he heard Worf! 😊 “Rhapsody in Blue” does for Zhaan what “They’ve Got a Secret” did for the character D’Argo. Although this wasn’t my favorite episode, could not get into it. We learn that Zhaan is betrayed by her leader!

“The Flax”, an entertaining episode where meet Staanz, an alien who comes on board Moya to warn them about the flax, the “thing” which is the undetectable object Aeryn and Crichton ran into. Nice moment when D’ Argo has a chance to perhaps learn the location of his home planet, but he also needs to save Aeryn & Crichton, he cannot do both. important role for Rygel in this episode too. When Aeryn and Crichton think they are about to die, they begin kissing and when it is about to get further, at that moment, they are docked, D’Argo saves them! Note - Last moment is also nice between Aeryn and Crichton, when she smiles without him seeing it.

“Jeremiah Crichton” is also not a favorite of mine; Crichton is fed up with everything and goes out with his shuttle when Moya starbursts. He spends 3 months on planet where he is welcomed but thinking that his crew has abandoned him. “Durka Returns” is definitely a tick-up from previous episode. Long time ago Rygel was tortured for many cycles by a man named Durka, it still haunts him and now, so many cycles later he comes onto Moya. It seems he has changed, but has he? First episode where we see Chiana who was a prisoner of Durka and Salis with whom he came to Moya. “Human Reaction” is also one of my favorite episodes this season. A wormhole is opening right in front of Moya, it even shows us planet Earth. Crichton takes his chance and actually succeeds in getting home. But soon Crichton figures out that there is something wrong because everything he experiences, is 7 months old, about the time he left Earth. “Through The Looking Glass” is also an interesting episode where Moya is stuck in Starburst and therefore Moya is there in different realities. For a long time, it is uncertain what they should do to solve this and there seems to be a creature wanting to come into their reality. The creature is in fact trying to communicate what they should do, Crichton is the one to find this out, he and Jack Carter from Eureka are the same in that respect, both a seen as not intelligent but somehow usually the ones to solve the problem.

Episodes 18-22

The final 5 episodes of the first season are, more or less, a 5-part story, and I don’t exaggerate when I say it is fantastic television. Up until that point it was entertaining sure, but these Peacekeeper stories, Scorpius, the Gammak Base, the Aurora chair, Stark: my side your side, my side your side, and of course the Peacekeeper tech Gilina, who is in love with Crichton, makes Farscape MUST-SEE television! These five episodes were already described in my 2015 blogs so I won’t divulge any further about it here but via this link (part one) and this link (part two) you can see what my thoughts of it were 8 years ago!

Final Word:

Yes, Farscape is definitely different from shows like Star Trek, Babylon 5, Stargate or Battlestar Galactica, but it definitely is not inferior to these big shows! High quality stories, well thought of characters who get the chance to evolve, a good recurring cast and some impressive villains! It seems like I am appreciating Farscape more with each rewatch, it’s just frelling good! I’m so much looking forward to season two!

Screencaps taken from: FarscapeCaps.com