It is the story of modern day astronaut, John Crichton, who disappears through a wormhole to wind up on a living starship with its alien Pilot and escaped criminal crew including disgraced Peacekeeper Aeryn Sun, warrior D'Argo, priestess Zhaan, deposed royal leader Rygel, and sexy, sticky-fingered Chiana. Accidentally killing the brother of Peacekeeper military commander Bialar Crais sends Crichton on the run and earns him a longtime enemy. He has to learn to adapt to new cultures and new experiences, all the while trying to return home to Earth. Along the way, he makes new friends and new enemies. And some old enemies become new friends... or at least, allies.

The TVGroupie strongly recommends watching this series from the first episode onwards. She tried more than once to get into the series in the middle of a season and despite some knowledge about the premise, couldn't follow what was going on and couldn't connect to the characters. She knows that some people have picked up in the middle of the show and gotten hooked, but like Babylon 5, you simply miss a lot of plot and nuance by jumping in in the middle of things.


Personal:

Though she recently showed her support by attending a "Save Farscape" rally, the WriterGroupie took some time initially getting into this show. Like many potential viewers, she was turned off by the thought of 'Muppets in Space'. Ironically, one of her favorite episodes of the series ever turned out to be the backstory of one of the puppet characters, Pilot. And although at the heart of the show is the romance between Crichton and Aeryn, as the WriterGroupie relates most to Aeryn and adores Lani Tupu's Crais, she has since the first episode been, and will always be, an Aeryn/Crais shipper*.

The WriterGroupie is friends with author Paul Simpson who co-wrote the fantastic companion books to the series, so she was very happy when the SciFi Channel started to rerun the show from the first episode, so she could catch up and find out what all the fuss was about in regards to this show.

The end result? A love for the show that developed slowly, with an appreciation for its subversive and experimental nature. The WriterGroupie didn't find Farscape an easy show to love, but definitely felt it worth the investment to grow to love it. Watching as the recently-cancelled series wound down with its last few new episodes to air on SciFi, the WriterGroupie felt a mix of pleasure in enjoying these last original adventures (for now) with these difficult, temperamental, wonderful characters, combined with a sorrow at being forced to say a premature goodbye.