Foray into Science Fiction Fandom (6)



Just in case you are wondering, my list of Science Fiction universes goes up to twenty-five items at least.

Today's object is Farscape. The hero of the adventures is a young astronaut and physicist named John Crichton who accidentally launches himself into the other end of the universe where he meets aliens. The ruling body at that end of existence are called Peacekeepers, and they are actually quite tyranical and violent. They are also humanoid (well, from our perspective, naturally). He meets some interesting people and makes some interesting shipmates as he attempts to return home. They live as semi-symbiotic parasites on a space-going leviathan named Moya.

Most characters have lovely Australian accents with a few exceptions. John speaks with an American accent, as does Dargo (an alien friend). Aeryn (the love interest) sounds British. Thus far, the accents have some historical relevance to their relative positions in the show. This dynamic only holds for shipmates; most peacekeepers also have Australian accents (the show was filmed in Fox Studios Australia).
Some puppeteering was done by Henson studios, and Brian Henson produced two episodes.

Things I love about Farscape include: John and Aeryn; Claudia Black; A character who farts helium when stressed; A humanoid evolved from a plant (not original, but well done!); Dargo's Culpa blade - a broadsword that also shoots like a rifle; 1812 - Crichton's own DRD; Scorpius - an enemy that really is all in his head (for several episodes, at least); Cartoon Crichton and the Looney Toons version of Farscape; "Merry Frelling Christmas!" and their "happy" Halloween; a propulsion system that makes random, unpredictable, long-distance leaps; a living ship; a pregnant, living ship; a spaceship with motherhood issues and a teenage son; a main character whose main viable skill is bluffing; animatronic full-time characters; translator microbes - it's shaky, but it does deal very well with all those stupid "language" issues that science fiction has (rather than ignore them, as most science fiction does) ('cause you KNOW everyone in space speaks English); and finally, my FAVORITE thing about Farscape is the use of Crichtonisms - all the little proper nouns and cultural references John uses as both dramatic irony and humorous obfuscation.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Joy in the Ugly Process

Image
 Today I sat on a panel of colleagues at a "Meet the Professor" activity hosted by the English student committee. It was awesome! Such bright and interested English majors. Meanwhile, I was sitting there, a middle-aged woman, on a panel of people who had "arrived." They had reached their destination. Each of them took a moment and explained how they had succeeded, how they had found acceptance. Even those who had detoured through other paths before they got what they wanted described those detours as some kind of success: some successfully raised families, some had other jobs, etc. Some were convinced that it was because of a particular habit or capability. For several minutes, I just sat there feeling horrible, right in the middle of this impressive panel. I should have stayed silent. Blerg. I can't stay silent. I'm not that wise. So I added my two cents: I explained that I would tell them something the others would not: that sometimes you don't arrive,...
Read more

High and Low Horses

 I have not blogged in a LONG TIME and I'm so rusty.  Politics these days, amirite? My little brother pissed me off a few weeks ago in the throes of a political kerfuffle (not reasoned enough to be an argument by either definition). He accused me of posing - I don't remember exactly what he called it, but it was something like "virtue signaling." And very, very rapidly, I was trapped. I could not even attempt to do the right thing without knowing that I was doing exactly what he had just sneered at. I suppose I could go back and carefully analyze the rhetoric of the conversation and delicately unravel exactly what was happening. I am capable of that kind of analysis, but this is a blog, not a school paper, and I'm more interested in the abstractions at play. I'm always more interested in the abstractions. Let's imagine that you have a stick figure in a two-dimensional world. I'd draw it and upload it for you, but somebody stole my reMarkable. Stick fig...
Read more

The Guilt-Edged Life

Folk philosophers and self-help "experts" (seriously: what kind of person claims to be an expert in living somebody else's life!? I mean, BESIDES me) have hypothesized about the negative emotions that we struggle with when we become painfully aware of our own flawed natures. In my own experience, I can identify three, and this year, I'm going to deal with each of them differently than I have before. 1) Shame. Shame is that mortification and humiliation I feel when I see my flaws through somebody else's eyes: a symptom of valuing their opinion above its worth. I want to learn how to put negative feedback - verbal and nonverbal - into context, subordinate to what I know is true about me, the world, and God. And I want to distinguish between my actions and my identity. I can be mistaken, but I am NOT a mistake. I am Batman, but that doesn't mean I accept all the pop-philosophy of the Christopher Nolan films. 2) Guilt. Guilt is the puritanical conviction that I ha...
Read more