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Television Media

Farscape Signs for 2 More Years 294

Dimes noted that the scifi channel has signed Farscape for 2 more seasons. 44 more episodes of my favorite sci-fi on TV (Well, maybe Lexx gives it a run for its money ;). New episodes start in January, and I'm a happy camper. Related ramblings: TNN is doing a marathon rerun of all of ST:TNG all this week. And I finally watched Enterprise- that theme song really has gotta go. But I'd like to see more, if only I could get it in my area. So much potential if they don't screw it up.
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Farscape Signs for 2 More Years

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  • Lexx (Score:3, Funny)

    by Glytch ( 4881 ) on Tuesday October 02, 2001 @11:06PM (#2381678)
    What I really like about Lexx is how each episode starts off dull, but gradually gets weirder and weirder until you're asking "What the FUCK were the writers smoking?!"

    Oh, and the sex is good. Yes, I'm shallow, but dammit, I like it, so bug off.

    *sniff* Makes me proud to be a Maritimer.

  • by Jerf ( 17166 ) on Tuesday October 02, 2001 @11:18PM (#2381719) Journal
    The problem isn't so much the theme itself, IMHO, it's that in ten years, it will seem incredibly dated. (Actually, I'm willing to bet that it will seem dated in 2-4 years, but I'm being conservative here.)

    Even TOS theme isn't that dated, though it does bear a certain '60s vibe.

    Is that a crime? For any other show I'd say no. But for a sci-fi show (and this goes for damn near all of them, not just Star Trek), I don't want a theme that screams "Contemporary!!" In a subtle, yet real way, it pulls me out of the show and drops me back in the year 2001... where, I might add, I'm not much on pop, or light rock, or post-disco semi-calypso, or whatever the hell genre that fits in. (Like I said, I'm not much on it :-) )

    I don't watch a whole lot of other alternative Sci-fi shows... my cable system doesn't run many. But I do get syndicated Stargate SG-1 (which I think is excellent)... same music as the movie. Granted, it takes place in the present time, but still, the theme doesn't drag me into Hip Culture.

    In this day and age, psuedo-classical like the Voyager theme is very neutral to us; it probably wouldn't be if we could listen to our culture with truly fresh ears, but we are who we are. It doesn't take us to the universe of the show; but there's no music that could do that directly. It also doesn't firmly ground us in the early days of the millenium.

    That said, your description: "conveys the theme and mood of the series quite well - we're explorers, and tired of being held back" can be equally well done in a more culturally neutral style, and in fact, probably better. (May be an unpopular opinion, but the style the credits are in now, whatever style that may be, is IMHO one of the least expressive styles imaginable. Plop in some sad words and flip the song to minor and you're a long way to "me and my baby broke up, but I'm screwing her sister so who really cares".)

    All IMHO, but that might help clarify some people's reasons for disliking it.

    Or they may just not care for that style of music.
  • Re:Lexx (Score:1, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 02, 2001 @11:55PM (#2381825)
    What the FUCK were the writers smoking?!

    Cock.
  • by Rosco P. Coltrane ( 209368 ) on Wednesday October 03, 2001 @12:00AM (#2381835)
    ... isn't Furscrape or Star Truck or Legs or any of that garbage : the pinnacle of space SciFi on TV is undeniably Red Dwarf [reddwarf.co.uk].

    Disguised Aussie accents in Farscape ? Lister's accent [radioactivecat.com] sure beats the smeg out of it. Food replicators in Star Trek ? small potatoes compared to cow vindaloo [cervenytrpaslik.cz]. Data the android ? how about Kryten the 3000 series mechanoid [radioactivecat.com] ? and 790 the robot head is really ugly compared to Holly [tripodnet.nl].

  • by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 03, 2001 @02:16AM (#2382090)
    Blame the accent on the Microbes :)
  • by xQx ( 5744 ) on Wednesday October 03, 2001 @02:42AM (#2382141)
    No confusion, no shame.

    All it takes is a look at the lexx its self to see what the show's based around.

    What are the main charactures in less:
    - A huge organic space ship, with a long extrusion, and two 'ocular perabola' which are so powerful they can blow up planets.
    Additional notes:
    - The lexx talks, but has an IQ of about 3
    - It is capable of sustaning life within it, 'replicating' food for the crew, so it tastes how they want it, but always comes out in an ooze, from some equilly attactive extrusion in the cabin.
    - The dunny's have no paper, the lexx 'licks' you clean.

    Then there's Xev (formally Zev)
    - Part sex slave, so she'll fuck anything that walks... except stanley tweedle
    - Part cluster lizard, so she can stand up for herself, put up with the heat... and eat flesh.
    - Because she was turned into a sex slave, she is drop dead gorgeous.

    Kai. A dead guy.
    - Also pretty good looking.
    - Dead, so he's (basically) invincable
    - Is an ex-assasin, with no feelings.

    Robot Head
    - A head, of a robot, that is madly in love with Xev, except for season 3, when it's madly in love with Kai.

    Stanley Tweedle
    - A real geek. Has been a geek all his life.
    - A wimp, if it wasn't for Xev, he'd be dead long ago.
    - ... who never gets laid.
    - ... but controls the Lexx, thus is the most powerful man in existance.

    Right, thats a pretty good crew workup there, a great chick, a dead guy, a geek, a robot and a planet destoryer.

    What do they do? ... Travel around in the universe trying to get stanley tweedle laid, because he's the captain, and Xev refuses to fuck him.

    I don't know what it is about lexx, but there's no shame or confusion about what it's based around.

    Lexx has got to take the cake, as the most F*cked up, sex oriantated cult sci fi series out ther.

    I don't know how anyone can not love it :)
  • by Rogerborg ( 306625 ) on Wednesday October 03, 2001 @07:46AM (#2382584) Homepage
    • 4. Their technical voodoo bullshit sounds reasonable

    Joyously so. "Spare me the technobabble, gadget girl, let's just get on with it." I nearly wet myself.

  • by caesar-auf-nihil ( 513828 ) on Wednesday October 03, 2001 @09:11AM (#2382821)
    Yes, the current theme song is somewhat contemporary, but in a very pop-music format.

    To combine on several threads, I'd like to see the opening theme go through changes as the series progresses. Farscape and Babylon 5 both did this, so maybe they'll do the same with Enterprise. Or better yet - how about different intros that reflect different world cultures?

    Now for theme song changes you won't see:
    -Enterprise theme song sung by Rob Zombie
    -Techno/Rave version of Enterprise opening
    -Enterprise theme song sung by Bjork (then again, maybe she should do this in light of the TOS theme song)
  • by shankel ( 316522 ) on Wednesday October 03, 2001 @04:08PM (#2385226)
    I got into FS starting with Nerve and have been pretty impressed since then.

    As an all around TV SF fan, I dug ST:TNG, lived for B5 and put up with Voyager. I even watch Lexx, but only for ten minutes at a time :)

    What's impressive is not how many episodes of FS are good. What's impressive is how many of them are not dreadful. Even the most die-hard ST:TNG fan has to admit that there were too many Counselor Troi's Mother Gets Married - Worf's Son Gets In Trouble - Wesley Crusher Almost Gets Laid episodes. The best of ST:TNG was great, but the worst was unwatchable.

    Same goes for B5. Seasons 1 and 5 were simply not good. Season 5 was watchable only because by then you were hooked. Season 1 is watchable now because you know what's coming. Only Seasons 2-4 were truly great.

    There are a number of ho-hum episodes of FS (Back and Back and Back to the Future, The Flax, Jeremiah Crichton, Taking The Stone, Scratch And Sniff). But there hasn't been one yet, for me, that has been downright painful. Compare these against Picard Turns Into A Marmoset, Mua'Dib Wesley, I Left Data's Head In San Francisco, My Pet Borg and anything *anything* with Lwaxana Troi.

    Even compared against the the best of TNG (A Matter Of Honor, Yesterday's Enterprise, The Best of Both Worlds, Unification, All Good Things...) the best of FS holds its own (Nerve, Crackers Don't Matter, The Way We Weren't, Liars Guns and Money, Icarus Abides, The Choice).

    Someone else mentioned this, but it bears repeating. What makes FS good is the relatively light touch when it comes to invoking technobabble. Yes, the DRDs and the translator microbes do come in handy from time to time. But you rarely get the old TNG "If I realign the deflector to emit the Particle Of The Week, we might just be able to get out of this!" Thanks Geordi, here's your cookie.

    Oh, and here's a little something other sci-fi shows could pick up on. Notice how they actually move the camera from time to time and choose creative shot compositions? Again, I liked TNG, but sometimes it felt like it was being filmed by a set of surveillance cameras.

    None of this is to say that FS is perfect. For my taste, they're a little self-conscious with the made-up time and distance units (what's Moya's top speed, in metras per arn?) I understand the need for bogus expletives, but if Rygel says "yotz" one more time I'm gonna kick the frelling hezmona out of him. Also, these translator microbes must really be something. No one seems to notice that Crichton's not actually speaking Sebacean when he passes himself off as a Peacekeeper.

    But why quibble? If the Trek techs could rig the transporter to cure Dr. Polaski, why would anyone ever die of anything? On balance, FS is a decent show.

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