Sci-fimovies and TV shows can’t avoid the fact that they all borrow from the same pool of tropes, but there’s one show in particular that I think takes a huge hallmark of the genre and uses it in a totally different way. It would be a lie to say sci-fi isn’t my favorite genre, so I’m incredibly familiar with all the trends and storytelling devices that arise in the various movies and TV shows in the category. Whenever I notice a sci-fi property being particularly original, it makes me enjoy it even more.
I find a certain comfort when enjoyingoverused sci-fi tropesin a story, but I also love it when a TV show or movie makes a concerted effort to freshen things up. Even some of thegreatest sci-fi franchises of all timedon’t push the genre’s conventions too far, but the overall quality of the production puts them in the upper echelon of space-faring adventures. In my experience,greater levels of interest can sometimes be found outside the sci-fi elite, and that’s certainly the case with one of my favorite space operas.
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Farscape Addresses The Difficulty Of Navigating Space Better Than Most Sci-Fi Movies & Shows
Moya and her crew often find themselves lost in space
SyFy’sFarscaperan between 1999 and 2003. While it was initially canceled after season 4, 2004’sFarscape: The Peacekeeper Warsallowed the saga to come to a more organic end.Farscapeboasts all the famous elements of sci-fi franchises. Much of the narrative unfolds in space, butJohn Crichton and the rest of Moya’s ragtag crew can’t navigate among the stars with ease. This is a true rarity in space operas, and I love the fact theFarscapecastis often as lost as they are on the run.
Farscapedoesn’t necessarily allow a character to get to a planet simply because they “know” where it is.
It may seem obvious, but space is absolutely gigantic. Navigating the endless void shouldn’t be an easy feat, and yet many franchises make interplanetary travel seem time-consuming, but ultimately without any major obstacles.Farscapeaddresses this misrepresentation of how easy it would be for a crew to reach its desired destination. Specific coordinates are required for almost every planet, and those aren’t easy to come by.Farscapedoesn’t necessarily allow a character to get to a planet simply because they “know” where it is, and I think that adds an awesome layer to the story.
While I also loveStar Trek: Voyager, the show makes navigating space seem very easy. Captain Janeway and her crew know exactly which way to travel to reach Earth, butFarscape’s John Crichton has absolutely no idea.
Farscape’s Approach to Space Travel Made The Peacekeepers Better Villains
The Peacekeepers are better navigators than most in the Farscape universe
Just because Moya’s crew largely struggles to find their way around, that doesn’t mean there aren’t certain groups that are capable of navigating space with greater ease.The Peacekeepers are the main antagonists throughoutFarscape, and they are also uncommon in their ability to find their way around. The Peacekeepers' maps aren’t complete, as evidenced by the existence of the Uncharted Territories, but they’re far more capable of getting exactly where they need to be.
If space travel had been treated differently in the SyFy space opera, the Peacekeepers would be fairly pedestrian.
Being on the run from an organization like the Peacekeepers is already a terrifying prospect. They’re armed to the teeth, xenophobic, and incredibly relentless. Their ability to traverse space with greater accuracy than mostFarscapecharacters makes the Peacekeepers even more formidable. In fact,I’d go as far as naming the Peacekeepers among the best sci-fi villains of all time, largely due to the context in which they’re presented inFarscape. If space travel had been treated differently in the SyFy space opera, the Peacekeepers would be fairly pedestrian.
What Else Farscape Did Great Other Than Space Navigation
Farscapealso drew me in by taking on other sci-fi tropes incredibly well. For instance, many of the characters portrayed by puppets - like Rygel and Pilot - were the result of collaborating with the Jim Henson Company. Most known forThe Muppets, the Jim Henson Company’s work onFarscape’s puppets helped sell the illusion of genuine alien life. In a time when sci-fi relied on underdeveloped CGI and human actors in prosthetics,Farscapepushed the boundaries of visual worldbuilding. Of course,Farscapestill used CGI and make-up for its aliens, but Henson’s puppets helped reduce their presence.
Lani Tupu’s Second Farscape Casting Is A Smarter Move Than People Realise
Lani Tupu didn’t just have one character to play in Farscape, he had two roles. However, there’s a clever connection between them both.
I was also a huge fan of howFarscapeslowly introduced its own vocabulary for real-world terms. What was brilliant about this was the fact the new words were never openly explained, but in context, they were very easy to work out. For instance,Farscapedidn’t use the traditional F-word and opted for “Frell” instead. Cursing aside,Farscapealso replaced “Year” with “Cycle,” “Hour” with “Arn,” and also renamed other measurements of time. I assumed they were only rough approximations, but that only made me feel more immersed inFarscape’ssci-fiworld.
Farscape
Cast
Farscape is a sci-fi television series that initially premiered in 2004 and was created by Rockne S. O’Bannon. Astronaut John Crichton is sucked into a wormhole across the universe after an experimental flight goes haywire, setting him onboard a ship with a crew of several different alien races. Stuck in space and on the run from a nefarious organization known as the Peacekeepers, John and company work together to make it day-by-day while trying to maintain peace throughout the universe - as much as possible
