5 Reasons Why Farscape Is Still The Best Sci-Fi TV Series Ever (20 Years On)

Farscape was a character-driven show, and character development was at the heart of its storytelling. Each personality was swift to break out of their own mold.

Rygel wasn't a wise-cracking lovable puppet. Ka D'Argo wasn't a Klingon carbon-copy. John Crichton wasn't a hapless human lost in space, and Scorpius wasn't an atypical dastardly villain. The series was set around the clunky jagged relationships between a band of outcast misfits, who found the long-way-round in accepting themselves and each other, all whilst being hounded by a swathe of super-cerebral but ultimately flawed bad guys.

Watching the characters make their journey from A-B in the space of four seasons was one of the biggest draws for the show. And the remarkable level of love the actors put into these personas weighed in during virtually every scene. It's no exaggeration to say that the characterisation of Farscape puts a lot of TV, past and present, to shame. And it's mind-blowing to think that even with all the substantial source material available, numerous shows still make the grave mistake of underselling the occupants of their own universe.