The Best of Farscape

I was reading SFX magazine over Christmas, and they had a review of sci fi over the decade. As part of that, they picked their top ten series, and for some series listed a top ten episodes. Even though the top ten for Farscape was good, obviously I have my own opinions. This is what I think the top ten episodes are, in no particular order. Oh, I am cheating a little by the way, in that I'm classing two parters as one.

Into the Lion's Den (parts 1 and 2)
Okay so I said there was no order, but I still think this is my favourite episode. Strangley not on the SFX list, but I can't imagine a Farscape list without it. This is the episode where Scorpius finally loses his cool. It's been coming all season, but he usually approaches every situation calmly. Now he's desperate, and it's great to see the change. Seeing the Moya crew on the command carrier is awesome too. Harvey is even helping out. And then we see Crichton doubting what they're doing because he actually begins to think that Scorpy could be right about the Scarrans. Fantastic twists in this one. We sympathise with Scorpy! That's awesome in itself. Then end though...the end is amazing. I'd wanted Crais to have a real good side for most of the series, but his character was very real in that he was always out for himself. He proved in this one that he was capable of doing the right thing. Every great series has to have moments where you shed a tear. Crais and Talyn's sacrifice did it in this episode.

We're So Screwed (parts 1-3)
Farscape was great at these multipart episodes. Part one is the weaker of the three, but it's still exciting. Crichton will do anything to save Aeryn, even sell out to Scorpius. Scorpy will help because he thinks there's wormholes in it for him. Part one sees them rescue Aeryn, only to discover that they now need to rescue Scorpius so that he doesn't share wormhole tech with the Scarrans. This leaves us with a massively exciting two episodes dealing with what happens on the Scarran base, Katratzi. Scorpius shines here. At one point we're even lead to believe that he was a Scarran agent all along, and in the final part we see him cracking up beyond even what happened in Into the Lion's Den as he finds that Stark didn't know about the protection around the flower. We see a victory at the end, but we see the very human Crichton upset over what he had to do to achieve it. Brilliant.

Nerve/The Hidden Memory
Again cheating with a two parter here, but this is the turning point for Farscape. Season 1 was good, yes, but Crais was never really a great villain. Not a primary villain anyway. He was much more effective later on, when he was loyal only to himself. Nerve introduces the best science fiction villain there has ever been in the form of Scorpius. Wormholes become the centre of the plot, and Scorpius takes over as the guy chasing Moya across the universe. Oh, and don't forget that Talyn is born. As well as being pivital to the plot, these are great episodes in their own right.

Liars, Guns and Money (parts 1-3)
Another fantastic and exciting three part episode. They decide to rob a bank, but doh! Scorpy uses the same bank. Some great Scorpy moments in this one, and we really see Crichton cracking up. Great effects and a great story.

The Way We Weren't
One I'm surprised that SFX agrees with me on. In this one, we find out more about Aeryn's past, and Pilot's past. Pilot was involved a lot more in the first two seasons than the last two, and I think he was missed. This one explores the skeletons in their closets, as well as showing just how nasty Rygel can be when he shows Pilot the tape. It's not action packed, but it's emotional. Farscape was good at that.

Incubator
This is an episode that at first, I thought might be spoiling the mystery of the Scorpius character. Do we now know too much about him? Are we putting his evil down to a rough childhood? Subsequent viewings have made me love this episode though. There's more to Scorpius than just being evil. He wants revenge, and this is why. Scorpy is awesome.

Scratch n Sniff
Maybe the weirdest choice on my list. This isn't related to the story arcs at all. It's a strange episode, since it's being told as a story to Pilot. However, it is the first episode I ever saw, and the episode that made me think "hey this series is different, I should watch the rest". The story is simple, and damn funny. Makes it one of the best to me.

A Constellation of Doubt
Another one I agree with SFX about. This one shows the documentary broadcast on Earth after the aliens were there, and I think it shows how we'd really react. We aren't accepting, we're suspicious. SFX points out that the same guy wrote Alien Nation, and you can see that in this episode more than any other. Made even more awesome at the end by Crichton's realisation about Katratzi, and his need to go to Scorpius for help.

Bad Timing
I love the idea timing is their curse, and I love this episode. They need to find another way to save Earth without asking the Peacekeepers for help, and they find it. It just means Crichton has to make the decision he couldn't make at the end of season 3. He chooses Aeryn over Earth. Cue happy ending...only not quite. Blasted apart in the last seconds before cancellation. And that leads to the final "episode" on my list.

The Peacekeeper Wars
The perfect ending. Well, a few flaws where it suffered not having a full final season, but almost perfect. The end of the wormhole struggle, awesome battles, the end of Harvey, Crichton and Aeryn are married with a baby. It was brilliantly exciting all the way through, with some great twists. It's a real shame that the fifth season was shortened like this, but they still did the job.

The End of Time

The Tenth Doctor's story is over. It's very sad, and it was a cracking episode. Not the greatest of the David Tennant era, and I still don't think the specials match up to the epic series finales Russell T. Davies has given us over the years, but it was still a good one. Instead of writing an essay that'll never be read again, here's what I did and didn't like about The End of Time.

What I liked:

• Wilf as the main companion. Made a change from having a young woman, and Wilf has always been a great character. He's a good man who'll always do the right thing, and that makes him a good companion.
• Timothy Dalton as the Timelord President. In fact, the whole idea of the Timelords being dark and not particularly good people anymore. The President was an awesome bad guy, and not what we expected when we saw the trailers with John Simm.
• The Master going crazy. Actually crazy rather than just evil supervillain crazy. And turning everyone into copies of him! Great story, and great ending (or is it?!) for the character.
• The Doctor still didn't shoot anyone. I've read one review that wasn't impressed with the shooting a machine copout, but I still love that The Doctor is the man who never would. He's not a killer.
• There are still mysteries. Who was that Timelord woman? I've heard talk of The Doctor's mother, but the way he looked at Donna was interesting. She is part Timelord afterall. Does that mean anything? I like that we don't know yet.
• Captain Jack being introduced to Alonso. Future Torchwood character maybe? Even if he's not, maybe he's some kind of salvation for Jack. Another dig at the people with a problem with gays in Doctor Who though, which is a good thing. RTD handles that kind of thing very well in Doctor Who.
• The fact that his death didn't come as some kind of epic battle situation. It was low key and personal. It was about saving the life of a friend, not the glory of a great victory. The Inquisitor man in Babylon 5 said that true heroes are the people who'd give their life for the sake of one other life, alone in the dark where there's no one to see and no glory to be gained. That was who the Tenth Doctor was.
• Matt Smith seems like a crazy person, in the way that The Doctor needs to be. This can only be a good thing.

What I didn't like so much:

• The Doctor's reluctance to accept his fate. I guess when you've lived for that long, life is hard to give up, but when it was just about regenerating rather than permanent death...that's something The Doctor has dealt with before. It's just what he does. It can be explained by the fact that usually he dies quickly and has to regenerate, whereas this time it was a slow process and he had time to think about what was going on. I still wasn't that keen, even though I do get where RTD is coming from. It truly is the end of the best Doctor there has been, so it was an occasion to mark.
• The extended goodbyes bit at the end. Even if The Doctor didn't want to regenerate and all that, I think that going to see everyone at the end was maybe a bit much, or at least a bit too long. Again I totally understand it and I get why RTD would want to do it for the sake of wrapping up his time on the show. I think I'll probably like it a lot more the next time I see it. It's just that at first viewing, it was a bit much. Still, I guess it was nice to see them all again, particularly Jack, and Martha and Micky being married.
• Donna's lack of conclusion. Well, I guess you could say that this is her conclusion, and it's certainly not a bad one as far as the story goes. I just wanted something happier. I want her to remember, even if it kills her, because she's so much more than she appears. I want her to know. I'm not knocking the story here because it's a valid way of dealing with her story, but I'd love for her to remember someday.

On the whole I thought it was really good. I didn't cry, but then I don't when I'm watching things with other people. That's not an embarrassment thing. I just don't feel compelled to when I'm not alone. Still, I don't think it would have made me cry anyway. End of an era, but not really emotional in that way for me. The Doctor isn't dead. He's just Matt Smith now.