One thing that happened to Farscape is that it got more bold as the time passed. After Crackers Don’t Matter Kemper has figured out that the Scapers love offbeat, weird scripts that push the envelope.

So they kept pushing it, and we loved it. We squeeled with joy like schoolgirls whenever something bizarre happened. And thus we ended up with a whole episode revolving around road runner cartoon joke, and bunch of other weird things.

Sikozu was an ultra lame character. She was essentially a carbon copy of early Season 1 Chiana. She was the oddball character with her own agenda, who could shift alliances at anty time. But somehow the writers decided to domesticate Chiana and then reinvent her from scratch in Sikozu.

Then we had Grayza taking over as the # vilian of the series. Crais was a good character, Scorpious was awesome, but she was totally lame. But if you think about it, it all conforms to the common theme: push the envelope.

So we replace Scorpious with a PK seductress who enslaves men with her mightly clevage juice. Push the evnelope.

I think this became the mantra at the witers’ table. Instead of trying to write good cohesive stories they were trying to make up new inside jokes, and top the last outrageous skit. Some of this stuff was still great though. We loved most of it, and we were willing to forgive them all the goofs just because they were pushing the show into new unexpected directions.

All of a sudden Farscape started to become an acquired taste. The entry barrier for new fans just became to high. By Season 4 it was a common Scaper lore that you hook people onto the show by giving them some of the tamer S1 and S2 episodes, reel them in with the big arcs and then once they are sold on the show you let them experience the craziness of S3 and 4.

Alot of people say the quality slumped in the later seasons. But I think this was not really a slump as much as a departure from the beaten path. Both the writers and the actors experimented alot with different things. Sometimes we got really awesome episodes out of it, sometimes we got slapstic commedy, and sometimes we got road-runner jokes. They made some bad choices, and some good ones.

But I loved that show. Even when it was bad, it was still awesome. It was a hell of a ride, and I will miss it. I think they desrerved a full Season 5 to tie up all the loose ends and end with a bang. But we got PK wars so I guess I can’t complain.

I dont know if you noticed this, but the episode quality seems to have slipped down to nill after season two. The first couple episodes of season three are good, and them things started getting hokey, even campy at times. I am a hardcore FarScape fan but I definately noticed a degradation in story quality and even a change in the acting and shot aspects after season two. I think FarScape was heading somewhere nasty anyway, and was doomed for cancellation. It is unfortunate for all of us.