"Premiere"
- The first episode of the series had a lot of flaws. Ben Browder's
lost astronaut John Crichton was still a work in progress, and frankly
didn't come off very well. The villains were all pretty dull. The
aliens and the effects work though, were awesome. The level of the
makeup and the costuming and other practical effects were very
inconsistent throughout the run of "Farscape," but in the first episode,
everyone was clearly giving it their all. "Premiere" does a great job
establishing the look and feel of this universe, and distinguishing it
from similar shows.
"Through the Looking Glass" -
The fun of science-fiction series is that they can do very high concept
stories that other shows don't, in ways that they often can't. The
premise of "Through the Looking Glass" is wild enough on its own -
Moya is fractured into four different dimensions that all require
navigating in different ways. However, it's the depictions of these
different dimensions, and the use of color and sound and space that
really caught my attention. Learning the rules and figuring out the
puzzle along with Crichton is a lot of fun to experience.
"Nerve"
- Along with the preceding episode "A Bug's Life," and following one,
"The Hidden Memory," this is where "Farscape" really kicked into high
gear. The main villain Scorpius is introduced here, along with Stark
the complicated madman, and we get the beginnings of all sorts of fun
plot arcs that will carry through the rest of the series. Crichton
gets a lot of development during these episodes too, taking big strides
toward becoming the badass action hero he'll eventually become. And he
finally ditches the spacesuit for cooler Pecekeeper duds.
"Crackers
Don't Matter" - One of the early "mind frell" episodes, where all the
usual rules go out the window due to alien elements messing with the
characters' perceptions and mental processes. The crew becomes paranoid
and turn on each other, finally culminating in a very silly showdown
between Crichton and the monster of the week. "Crackers" is a fan
favorite because of its humor and tone, which the show was finally
getting a handle on. There would be similarly nutty jaunts into the
absurd in the future, but few that were as much fun as this.
"Won't
Get Fooled Again" - We've already had one episode where Crichton wakes
up back on Earth, so when it happens again in the second season, we know
it's just aliens messing around in his head, and the premise can be
played for laughs. To some degree this episode is an excuse for the
writers to come up with outrageous, off the wall things to do with the
characters - Rygel in bondage gear! - but it's also one of the most
important in terms of the ongoing story with Scorpius's neural clone,
Harvey, who plays a big part here.
"The Ugly
Truth" - I love "Rashomon" episodes because they're so much fun to pick
apart. Here, the whole crew get captured and interrogated about a crime
that, or course, they all remember differently. The different accounts
offer a glimpse of how the various characters view one another, but
then there's a twist at the end that puts everything into an entirely
different light, so you can rewatch it with the new motives in mind. I
always love it when an episode clearly done quick and cheap outshines
the bigger, fancier installments around it.
"Liars,
Guns and Money" - Then again, there's plenty to be said for gorgeous
effects, big action scenes, and putting a lot of money on the screen.
"Liars, Guns, and Money" is a three-parter that helps bring the
excellent second season to a close. What starts as a big mission to
rescue D'Argo's son turns into a showdown with Scorpius with all kinds
of complications. This was the biggest thing that the show had
attempted at this point in its run, and boy did they pull it off. Also,
quick kudos to my favorite one-shot character, Scorpy's gal-pal Natira.
"Infinite
Possibilities" - I loved the double Crichton storyline in the third
season and everything that it let "Farscape" do, but it's difficult to
single out specific episodes for praise. So to represent the whole arc,
I'm highlighting the two-parter "Infinite Possibilities," where a lot
of the big climaxes happen and we wrap up a few of the ongoing plots.
The Crichton-Aeryn relationship in particular is handled just right,
cementing the pair as one of my favorite science-fiction power couples.
And this was without question the best use of Rygel ever.
"Terra
Firma" - Another big warning for spoilers here, because it's impossible
to talk about this episode otherwise. So one thing leads to another
and the crew of the Moya end up on present-day Earth. For real this
time. "Farscape" gets to speculate as to what humanity's reaction to
the aliens would be, while Crichton has to come to terms with certain
uncomfortable realities about his relationship with Aeryn and about his
place in the universe. It's a big turning point for the show, which
leads us to the unfortunate reality of...
"The
Peacekeeper Wars" - The cancellation of "Farscape" was harsh and mashing
an entire season's worth of story into one miniseries was definitely
not ideal. However, the fact that we got an ending at all was something
of a miracle, and there's plenty in "The Peacekeeper Wars" to love.
With amped up production values, big goodbyes, big hellos, and just
about everybody getting the spotlight one last time, this is a love-fest
of epic proportions. And sure, it's a bit of a mess, but "Farscape"
was always a bit of a mess anyway. So it was an appropriate way to go
out.
Happy watching.
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