5 Reasons Why Farscape Is Still The Best Sci-Fi TV Series Ever (20 Years On)
Happy 20th anniversary from the Uncharted Territories.
This is a great week for Farscape fans. The entire saga is now officially available for streaming on Amazon Prime, including a remastered upload of the show's finale, The Peacekeeper Wars. Official social media pages have also pressed the nostalgia button, as well as treating followers to a live chat with series producer, Brian Henson. It may have last aired 15 years ago, but it seems as though the following has never been stronger. Henson even dropped a microscopic hint at something new in the future.
Farscape was a show which dared to be brave. It flew by the seat of its pants in many respects, but it always put good storytelling and beautiful visual design at the forefront of its persona. From its first season in 1999, it strove to continuously improve and grow smarter. It's no surprise then, that in its short tenure, it developed a loyal populous of fans who still mourn its departure to this very day.
And to this very day, there is still a lot TV can learn from Farscape. Here are some of the show's finest conventions for more recent programming to take note of.
5. The Humour
Farscape's comedy was sharp, side-splitting, and injected some true life into the show. It was often outrageous and anarchic, never afraid to pop cultural references, and parody everything, including itself. The comedy element was something that grew and evolved with each series, as the writers became emboldened with the show's popularity.
Entire episodes were dedicated to comedy. Take for example the Looney Tunes Roadrunner/Wile E Coyote homage episode, Revenging Angel, and the clubland insanity of Scratch and Sniff. Humour was at their core, but it was good humour which was genuinely hilarious.
Many of the characters also displayed a funny side, and their comedy traits were a large part of their likability. This was mostly a testament to the actors, and their exemplary performances. A case in point was Australian actor Wayne Pygram, who played arch-antagonist Scorpius.
Scorpius wasn't really a character from which humour could be extrapolated. So instead, writers created the neural clone alter-ego character Harvey, who served as a not always helpful voice inside of protagonist, John Crichton's head. And so ensued a swathe of slapstick performances and the occasional pink bunny costume.