Tune in, geek out
One of the great things I've discovered about QFlicks in the past week is that, as well as having loads of films there you don't find in your local video shop, they've also got lots of DVDs of TV programmes, which means I'm taking the opportunity to go back and watch Farscape again from the beginning.
It's interesting seeing it again from the start as it did take some time to find its feet and realise just what they could achieve within the format they'd created. The pace of the earlier episodes feels a lot slower than the later ones and they'd not yet begun the multi-stranded, multi-themed plots that would feature in episodes later on.
It's also fun to play the 'Which Blake's Seven character were you based on?' game in the early episodes. Though before I get misinterpreted, I think it's more homage than plagiarism...after all, if you're going to copy, do it from the best. Rygel's clearly Vila, D'Argo's Gan with more to do, the Peacekeepers are the Federation and Zhaan is a mellower version of Cally. The other's aren't quite as easy - Pilot's mostly Zen, but with bits of Jenna, being used for the same sort of exposition. The only ones that don't map easily are Crichton and Aeryn with Blake and Avon (though the relationship between Crichton and Aeryn does have some of the same tone that slash fiction writers put into Blake/Avon stories). The best mapping is probably Crichton as the more idealistic Blake and Aeryn as the more cynical Avon (with the same 'if it's not black leather, I'm not wearing it' fashion sense).
Anyway, I'm only a few episodes in, so there's still lots more to discover and rediscover along the way. I had missed the first few episodes of the series back when it started, mainly because the trailers had made it look like another Henson Space Muppets series - I still bear the mental scars from watching ten minutes of Space Precinct all those years ago - and it was only when I caught an episode about halfway through the first series that I realised it wasn't just another Star Trek ripoff, but something much much weirder.
It's interesting seeing it again from the start as it did take some time to find its feet and realise just what they could achieve within the format they'd created. The pace of the earlier episodes feels a lot slower than the later ones and they'd not yet begun the multi-stranded, multi-themed plots that would feature in episodes later on.
It's also fun to play the 'Which Blake's Seven character were you based on?' game in the early episodes. Though before I get misinterpreted, I think it's more homage than plagiarism...after all, if you're going to copy, do it from the best. Rygel's clearly Vila, D'Argo's Gan with more to do, the Peacekeepers are the Federation and Zhaan is a mellower version of Cally. The other's aren't quite as easy - Pilot's mostly Zen, but with bits of Jenna, being used for the same sort of exposition. The only ones that don't map easily are Crichton and Aeryn with Blake and Avon (though the relationship between Crichton and Aeryn does have some of the same tone that slash fiction writers put into Blake/Avon stories). The best mapping is probably Crichton as the more idealistic Blake and Aeryn as the more cynical Avon (with the same 'if it's not black leather, I'm not wearing it' fashion sense).
Anyway, I'm only a few episodes in, so there's still lots more to discover and rediscover along the way. I had missed the first few episodes of the series back when it started, mainly because the trailers had made it look like another Henson Space Muppets series - I still bear the mental scars from watching ten minutes of Space Precinct all those years ago - and it was only when I caught an episode about halfway through the first series that I realised it wasn't just another Star Trek ripoff, but something much much weirder.
Nick got away with this at 3:21 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home