Farscape

Farscape, another science fiction show canceled before its time, has been my guilty pleasure for the last two months. There's something so alluring and Australian about this show which, after the the initial bewilderment, continues to attract viewers. I attempted to watch Farscape a year ago, but could not get past the jarring beginning in the premiere. However, if you stick with it, you'll find yourself hopelessly attached to John Crichton and the crew of Moya. Instead of taking place in a distant future, the story is set during our era and features an American astronaut who, like the viewers, is thrust into a strange galaxy with a variety of alien life-forms and conflicts. Along the way, a series of adventures (often episode of the week, but later on more epic story arcs) will entertain and challenge viewers.

The show's lore, characters, humor, creativity, depth, and sense of wonder never fails to deliver, even during the mediocre episodes or the substandard miniseries (which, one must admit, had to wrap up a story that was meant to have a full final season). I cannot recall the last time I watched a science fiction show which could be so action-packed, morally ambiguous, and adventurous all at once. The show endeavors to explore the possibility and ethics of war and power, xenophobia and contact between Earth and the aliens Crichton encounters, and how a group of escaped prisoners befriend and love one another. It is fantastic, swashbuckling, wondrous, and, in some cases, anthropological as Crichton and company explore the Uncharted Territories. Who wouldn't love a show with tight leather costumes,  puppets, living spaceships, corrupt Sebacean Peacekeepers, neural clones, wormholes, bounty hunters, heists (the Shadow Depository episodes being among my personal favorites), and a show irreverent enough to poke fun at its own lore ("Zhaan did a unity thing")?

Of course, Farscape has its shortcomings. The aforementioned miniseries felt rushed, was inconsistent with some of the previous character relationships, and, due to its nature, could not tell the full story envisioned by the writers. Details of the Scarrans, Rygel's return to Hyneria, Chiana's brother and the resistance to the forces of conformity to the Nebari, or the possible Earth-origins of Sebaceans (oops, spoilers) are unexplored, and replacements for Zhaan never felt like full-fledged characters. And don't get me started on Stark, one of the zaniest characters to ever appear in science fiction television. Jool and Sikozu, compared to him, or even Noranti, were lovable additions to Moya's crew. But in spite of, or perhaps because of its flaws, its Australian cast and crew, and its sense of wonder made for an excellent science fiction program. There will never be anything quite like it, but one hopes for a continuation of it or its wacky universe