Imagine the impossible: coincidentally ending up at the other end of the universe, being unable to ever lay eyes on planet earth again. It happened to John Crichton, protagonist and only human of the TV show Farscape. Farscape is essentially one thing: far. Far away. By far one of the most imaginative shows. Far and wide. So far out there.

John Crichton is an astronaut from the good old US of A. He is apparently also a talented engineer or something, since he built a module by the name of Farscape which he volunteered to take out into space. It just so happens that during his virgin flight to the edge of space, he opens up a wormhole and is sucked through to the other end of the universe. There’s no time to rest from this shock, as he is immediately caught in the middle of an alien spaceship battle. He accidentally kills someone, putting the name John Crichton high up on the interspacial Wanted list. He escapes on board of a spaceship full of escaped prisoners and becomes a fugitive. Sounds pretty average so far? That prisoner ship is Moya, a living organism, a female Leviathan. Moya also carries the giant, brutish, betentacled D’Argo, the very blue and floral Zhaan, and Jim Henson’s pride Rygel Dominar the Sixteenth. They are fleeing from the Space Nazis known as Peacekeepers who have a very borderline perception of right and wrong. To make things more interesting, Aeryn Sun, one of those Peacekeepers is also stranded on Moya because she was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Over the course of 4 seasons, the crew of Moya experiences many adventures together and are occasionally joined by new, though sometimes temporary, crew members. Among them are the monochromatic, sexually overactive Chiana, the completely paranoid yet gleaming Stark, the constantly hysteric Jool, the too-clever-for-her-own-good Sikozu and the erratic old woman Noranti. Having mentioned all their friends, it is probably worth noting that they actually make a lot more enemies than friends on their constant run from the Peacekeepers. John Crichton becomes notorious – even legendary – in the uncharted territories as the man who blew up impressive things and caused the death of several important (yet shady) people. But most of all, he comes to be known as the man who possesses wormhole technology, and for this he is chased across the universe. There are people who see great potential in wormholes, especially when used as a weapon.

Farscape

[Major spoilers follow]. Now that I have illustrated just how colourful Farscape is, let me say this: I really don’t know if it is a good TV show. The most significant disadvantage of Farscape is its plot. The major plot line feels weak – it is repetitive and not particularly well laid out. This show certainly didn’t have a cross-season plan such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer or Doctor Who (2005). Or maybe it did, but it was so abysmally executed that it turned the whole thing into a huge disappointment. Farscape’s major plot line consists of two things: John wants to go back to Earth, and in order to to that he has the find wormholes, but at the same time he has to prevent the bad guys from getting the wormhole technology. This whole plot is stretched out over four seasons, which is just too tedious. While watching, thoughts like “Give him the damn wormhole” and “Let him go back to Earth already” keep surfacing. The latter actually happens (OMG), but when it does, it feels cheap. There is no mind-blow factor in this show. John’s return to Earth is just shaken off. It feels completely out of place. Which might be intentional because how can John ever go back to live on Earth after all he’s been through, but when a shows keeps talking about this one event for four seasons, shouldn’t it be a bit more…. powerful?

Farscape has no power. Aside from the underwhelming return to Earth, major characters deaths are cheapened by return to life or reluctance to let go. Also, it sometimes can be a bit un-enthralling – it took me about four months to finish watching the entire show. Usually I will watch a show like this within a month or two, depending on its addictiveness. Farscape doesn’t have quite a lot of that addictiveness – sometimes it even seems like a bit of a burden to keep watching (you know something good is coming, but you have to go through 5 more episodes to get there)…ugh. Oh by the way, speaking of seeing things coming: you’ll see a whole lot of the “plot-twists” coming in this show. Not a lot of surprises. No mind-blowing. No power.

Farscape does, however, have something a lot of shows might be somewhat lacking in: meta love. You might not be rewarded with great stories, but you are certainly rewarded with lots of fangasms. After 1-2 seasons, it becomes very obvious that everyone who worked on Farscape had a huge amount of fun creating the show, and everybody just loves it to pieces. There is so much attention to detail with obscure references thrown in here and there. But best of all are the wild, somewhat experimental episodes, in which both writers and actors appeared to have a blast doing the most ridiculous things imaginable. You will feel that this show was truly made for the fans. You wouldn’t believe all the lovely tumblr gifs you can make from this show.

Harvey

But when Farscape was made, tumblr didn’t even exist yet. The show premiered in 1999, back when fan interaction probably mostly took place on conventions. Unlike Babylon 5, Farscape actually doesn’t look like the decade it was made in – which might be attributed to its creativity. Farscape is so alien that maybe it might even be better off in the category of fantasy than science fiction… I’m sure this is debatable. Is it scientifically possible for a creature to live in the vacuum of space? Can a plant be unrooted, blue and woman-shaped? Can blood change colour from black to translucent? Could there be convergent evolution, producing a human-like species at the other end of the universe?

The universe, as I have noticed, looks a lot like Australia. Farscape was filmed and produced in Australia and might to some extend even be called an Australian TV show. But of course it’s not – it’s all about John Crichton, portrayed by American actor Ben Browder. He is, however, the only American on the show – all other characters are played by Aussies and Kiwis. But strangely enough, most of them try to hide their identity with fake accents – successful to variable degrees. Some are hardly recognisable, some are very obviously speakers from the Southern Hemisphere. It’s a bit of a shame if you ask me – why not make John Crichton an Australian astronaut? That would have been something innovative. It’s not like there aren’t enough Americans in TV shows already. Having now written an entire paragraph of the relationship between Farscape and Australia, you might have discovered my motivation for watching this show: after Babylon 5, I scouted the internet for new, worthy, science-fiction shows. It just so happened that Farscape popped up, and since I had about half a year before getting on a plane to Australia myself, it seemed like a very good opportunity to combine two things that interest me.

So let me get back to the main question: Is Farscape a good TV show? Not… particularly. Is it fun to watch? OMG, yes! (Sometimes).

So, should you watch it? Well, that depends. Are you a complete and utter fan of everything science-fiction? Are you open to not-so-traditional science fiction? Can you see past minor (also, major) plot screw-ups? Do you understand New Zealand English? Do you always finish what you start? Do you enjoy seeing plot events coming? Would you like to be rewarded with the cutest, craziest, most imaginative fan-dedicated episodes ever? Alright, go watch Farscape!