Overrated and Underrated Episodes

[Halfbreeds4ever]

I started out writing this post as a defense of Mental As Anything, but then I got to thinking about other episodes.

On other Farscape forums, I've seen Mental As Anything listed as one of the worst ever. And the farscapeworld.com review was pretty negative. I just watched it, and I thought it was great. My biggest complaint was with how they met up with Macton. The encounter seemed a little too random and coincidental. Also, the pajama outfits were pretty goofy. But I was quickly sucked into the story, and I found it exciting and emotionally engaging. The flashback scenes with D'Argo's wife were great, and I liked the ending. The mental conditioning was an interesting idea, and created some memorable scenes.

I've seen I Shrink Therefore I Am, and A Prefect Murder listed as worst episodes too, and I liked them(coincidentally, A Prefect Murder and Mental As Anything were both written by the same person. I'm starting to feel bad for him now! Poor guy...).

And then Kansas, the episode good enough to have a whole website named after it, turned out to be a huge disappointment for me. It had a few good moments, but most of the gags were ruined by

A.) being blatantly stolen from The Beverly Hillbillies(I'm serious. The whole "middle finger being mistaken as a friendly greeting" gag has been done before)


or B.) being illogical (why are kids trick or treating at an abandoned house? Not to mention the fact that everyone could have hidden out on D'Argo's invisible ship anyway).

Terra Firma, another well-liked episode, fared a lot better with me. It had some great stuff, but even it was marred by a few scenes with bad dialogue/acting.

Anyway, I'm not really sure where I'm going with this topic--but I encourage everyone else to shoot down Mental As Anything, or any of the other episodes I like, or to defend Kansas.

[padmeskywalker]

Of "Terra Firma" did you not like???

[stellar]

I'll take this oppurtunity to snipe at Taking The Stone. :whip:

:kitty::boom:

[ScorpSik]

Defense post for Prefect Murder:D :D

Didn't like Bad Timing at all, or Revenging Angel or John Quixote Oh, or DWTB

Loved Eat Me, Incubator and PM ....hmmmmm...don't know why these eps aren't popular....:whip:

[herdthinner]

The Bad:
I hated the camerawork and "choreography," if you can call it that, of the fight scenes in John Quixote. They were played up for comedy, but come on - no swordmasters on hand to even show Browder how to hold the thing properly? Way too stiff, for starters. (Mesa tooken iaido lessons many years)

I'm no J/A shipper, so The Locket did very little for me. And even on that time-warp planet, they didn't get together, so his pic in her locket wasn't an Awwwww Garsh moment. Plus I knew that somehow, there had to be a reset button pushed, since the writers certainly weren't going to continue the adventures of Doddering Old Fool John and Mummified Aeryn for the rest of the series. Also, Red Dwarf already did that episode! Heh.

RD also did their version of Twice Shy. It was called Polymorph! And was a lot funnier.


The Good:
Even a diehard J/A shipper I know wasn't thrilled with Meltdown, but I liked that one, and probably for the same reason that she didn't care for it - lots o' Stark! In-Charge Stark, even. Still, I needed a second viewing of his episodes to really appreciate the character.

The Choice is another fan fave, but I like the Stark and Rygel scenes, not the Aeryn Over the Edge scenes. Those annoyed me. Yes, I know, showcase for CB's acting, but... actually, I can't really articulate why I didn't like those scenes. Just a gut reaction.

Is Dream a Little Dream low on most fans' radars? Well, if it is, I dug the Rygel and Chiana scenes very much. I've always liked Rygel best.

Is Eat Me not popular, either? I liked it. Sci Fi Horror, mwah ha ha ha!

[Zantar]

I found I.E.T to be poor but nobody seems to defend that anyway.

I cant really think of an episode that i really hated watching though and didnt get SOMETHING out of it.

[fandom]

Originally posted by herdthinner
The Bad:
I hated the camerawork and "choreography," if you can call it that, of the fight scenes in John Quixote. They were played up for comedy, but come on - no swordmasters on hand to even show Browder how to hold the thing properly? Way too stiff, for starters. (Mesa tooken iaido lessons many years)



Why would John Crichton know how to hold a sword?

That's probably why Chiana has to save him from the ogre.

[ScorpSik]

Thanks Herdthinner.....I'd forgotten about the sickening Meltdown *shudder* - shippiness I hate, but shippiness to tv-porn saxophone makes me want to slit my wrists!:cool: :cool:

[Selena]

IMHO there are NO bad episodes of Farscape. Some are just more endearing than others and all have merit.

[Halfbreeds4ever]

Originally posted by padmeskywalker
Of "Terra Firma" did you not like???

The scene with Jack and Aeryn flying in space, and the scene with Aeryn and John's old girlfriend. The dialogue is usually so great in Farscape, but here it was painful. "You have a lot to learn about human emotions!"

It's clear that the actors don't quite buy into it either. John's dad seems so wooden, in his scene with Aeryn--especially compared to his "goodbye" scene with John, where you can see some actual human emotion.

Otherwise, it's a great episode.

Reading other posts reminded me: I also hate Taking The Stone, The Locket, and The Choice. I wouldn't classify Taking The Stone as overrated, but I've seen a lot of fan lovin' for the other two episodes. I don't get it...I thought they were all weak.

And all written by Justin Monjo, too. But he's written some other episodes that I've loved, so I can't diss him.

[jfranka]

I'll take this oppurtunity to snipe at Taking The Stone

I have to go along with that. Being an ooooold Trekie fan I was expecting the kids in that show to start yelling "Bonk! Bonk! John Cricton!" and calling him a "grump."

I also didn't like the one before it, Vitas Mortis. Don't know why. To me it was kind of a stagnant episode.



Is Eat Me not popular, either? I liked it. Sci Fi Horror, mwah ha ha ha!

I have to agree with that as well. Complete with evil laugh. :ewink:

[Selena]

Originally posted by Halfbreeds4ever
..... I also hate Taking The Stone, The Locket, and The Choice...
OMG those are wonderful episodes. They're all nutso crazy episodes where everything that John takes for granted is out of control.

I especially love The Choice. Claudia was nothing short of brilliant in that episode ... playing the grieving lover and dead drunk too. Her commentary on TC was very eye opening.

The locket was wonderful too ... it was a masterpiece of acting for both Ben and Claudia and the make ups were supurb.

Gigi in TTS was spectacular. It was an exceptionally alien episode and showed how inhuman they all were. It made me realize how much of a sister John considers Chiana and what a unique relationship they have.

[padmeskywalker]

DWTB, but gonna buy it, read the dialogue, and I was literally crying, looked well written...

also like to get the LATP tri, seen part of it, but not all, and remember very little, read the dialogue again... cried like a baby at the scene w/ John and his daughter.

BTW, how come John and Aeryn are compatible, but John and the other sebeccan arn't same species as Aeryn... doesn't make sense to me.

[trubador]

I thought this thread was for Season 4 eps only?

Somewhat Underrated S4 ep: "Coup By Clam"
Vastly Overrated S4 ep: "Constellation of Doubt"

[Lindsay White]

It was so good to get a clearer picture of D'Argo and Lo'Laan. There was such intense emotion displayed by D'Argo. I loved Katoya's whole layout, his icosohedron and his methods. The relationship between Scorpy and Katoya was intriguing. Too bad he got killed. The scenes between Crichton and Scorpius were very intense, too. It demonstrates so surely that Scorpius really doesn't understand John. The point was made repeatedly that John HAD to learn the mental discipline to hold off the Scarrens. He didn't develop those skills, but he still managed to fake out Jennek in "Fetal Attraction." I liked Rygel's duel with the Charrid, and he seems to have learned something from Katoya. He even remarks about it in "Bringing Home the Beacon."

[Halfbreeds4ever]

Originally posted by trubador
I thought this thread was for Season 4 eps only?

Somewhat Underrated S4 ep: "Coup By Clam"
Vastly Overrated S4 ep: "Constellation of Doubt"

Yeah, it started as season 4, but I have no problems with talking about other over/underrated episodes too.

I just saw Bringing Home The Beacon, and as much as I liked Mental As Anything, I have to say that the girls' adventure was way better. Terrific episode.

"Overrated and Underrated Episodes" has pretty much described the whole fourth season, for me. I think a lot of shippers are too forgiving of some scenes/episodes. To be honest, I've found all the angsty relationship stuff to be kind of blah. The ending of Twice Shy didn't do anything for me(though overall it was a good episode), and I've already complained about those Terra Firma scenes.

On the flip side, some really good stand-alone episodes get unfairly trashed. Mental As Anything was a fine episode, and it was good to finally resolve some more of D'Argo's character issues before they get to the finale. Maybe I should post this in one of the more general season 4 threads, but I must say I really like where this season is going. Much like the other seasons, it started off kind of slow, with a few weak episodes, but once the main story gets going, it really kicks into a higher gear. Right now I have five episodes left, and I have a feeling that the ending will leave me hating Scifi even more(if that's possible).

[auroraSun]

well I like "Shrink therefore I am"
but never liked Infinite Reality, also never cared for the character Jack. meaning I didn't like that part in BT, when they were talking, fastfowarded it all the time.

I thought Meltdown was funny. And I enjoyed JQ

[NeuralClone]

Mark me down as another non-Shipper who finds the angsty relationship scenes "blah". As for "underrated" and "overrated" - well in the fourth season I'd have to pick "Coup by Clam" as one of the underrated episodes. In spite of the "Euugggh!" factor it was a genuinely funny episode, and there was one outstanding moment when Scorpius came slithering down that ladder to snap "Mr Sexist's" neck. "Overrated" - I'd have to pick Kansas and "Bad Timing". The first seemed to undercut the seriousness of the wormholes/time travel situation, which was so painstakingly pointed out in UR. The second - well, I liked the beginning of the episode (the conversations within conversations were clever) but the ending seemed to get bogged down in wordy scenes which undercut the tempo of the episode. And once again, as a non-Shipper, I thought six minutes out of 45 was a bit much to spend on the proposal scene.

Season three - most "Overrated" would have to be The Choice. Most underated - firstly, Losing Time (where we first get a glimpse into Scorpy's mind and world from his POV *and* a marvellous performance by Gigi as Chiana possessed). Secondly IYYY, where we get to see Rygel and Scorpius team up - how rare is that?

Season Two - most "overrated" would be "The Locket" (did I mention I'm not a 'Shipper? :D ) and most "underrated" "The Ugly Truth" - I loved the way we got to see the crew through each others' eyes.

[Scaper_S]

Originally posted by trubador


Somewhat Underrated S4 ep: "Coup By Clam"
Vastly Overrated S4 ep: "Constellation of Doubt"

I definitely have to second this. COD - 99% of it was yawn inducing for me. Coup by Clam is one of Rygels best! Season 4 is, however, my favourite season. The episode that I find really interesting is UR. When I first watched it, I was a little bored. I've watched it several times since and it gets better and better everytime. Mental as anything I thought was pretty good too. WSS trilogy & BT I love and rewatch these all the time.

[grapeshot]

being blatantly stolen from The Beverly Hillbillies(I'm serious. The whole "middle finger being mistaken as a friendly greeting" gag has been done before)


well, I must say that I'm happy that I didn't see this movie. (I'm pretty sure that you must have meant the movie. It's hard to believe that this sight gag would ever have appeared on the original TV series.) While I didn't think it was the most original idea, at least it didn't set off bad memories of it being done before.

As for "Coup By Clam", am I the only one to think that there were some seriously warped "battle-of-the-sexes" thing happening on that planet? It's not just that the mechanic seemed to think it wasn't extraordinary to have a sex change operation (how desparate must the women be on this planet?), but that the official (the one with the zergenbob problem) seemed not very surprised at Crichton's cross-dressing, and in fact seemed rather attracted. What's up with that? I mean, Crichton was Butt-Ugly! And WHAT do you suppose that official meant when he said that he liked his interrogations to be "long and hard" ones?? And didn't that leader of the underground women's movement seem rather like a man dressing as a woman?? Between all this, and the evil Dr. willing to kill them as part of his little shakedown scheme, I thought the whole planet was bordering on evil. (Yes, it's easy to get caught up in the Dr.'s humorous and/or gross mannerisms, but what he's doing is truly evil, and not normal behaviour on any other planet they've been to.) I was glad to see Moya and her crew leave that planet behind them.

[herdthinner]

Why would John Crichton know how to hold a sword?


Ah, lost track of this thread. Didn't think anyone replied to my stuff!

In JQ, it became a running gag that various "monsters" would attack John, and rather than show the fight, it'd show the aftermath of Victorious John, holding the beast's head or whatnot. Thus one could assume that either the monsters are incompetent, or John is a Mighty Warrior, smiting all who come against him. If the latter is supposed to be the case, the fight choreography didn't convince me of this. That's all! Not a big deal. Pwintheth Aewyn scenes made up for all the confusion. Oh, and Return of Zhaan! Yay.


Was I the one who got off the "4th season only" track? Maybe I was. That's because I never taped any of the shows and have only seen S4 once, so apologies if I got offtrack. But klarn it, I was sick of shippers swooning about The Locket!

Somebody mentioned I Yensch You Yensch as underrated. Twue. The two smartest folks on the show matching wits, heh. It also has many "Awwwww, Anthony!" moments for my local group's Drinking Game (ie, drink whenever you see D'argo "prone" or "lying down," meaning Anthony is doing stomach crunches!)

Um... not that I encourage underrage drinking!

[AABeatrix]

I always thought the What Was Lost 2 parter was underrated. I thought it introduced quite a few interesting potential storlylines and it was good to see Jool get something to do for once. Terra Firma always seems overrated to me, I thought it was a bit anti-climatic.

[stellar]

I think that Through The Looking Glass is an UNDERRATED episode. It's one of my all time favs.

[PsiTrey]

Heck, I think the entirety of Seasons 1 and 4 are very underrated while a lot of Season 3 is overrated (especially the middle sections).

Now, I love Season 3 as I love all Farscape, but I think Season 4 is really cool. I wasn't sold on the two Johns because it meant we got less time with all the other awesome characters like Stark, Rygel, and Chiana.

Trey

[akimbo]

Originally posted by stellar
I think that Through The Looking Glass is an UNDERRATED episode. It's one of my all time favs.

Got to go with you on this one stellar. Especially when comparing season 1 eps. When I need a FS fix and I'm in the neighborhood of Season 1, Through the Looking Glass gets pulled out more often than others. But I also liked Back and Back and Back to the Future for style (the commentary was also very good).

Edited to add: In fact I'm going to watch them right now :D

[MediaSavant]

Originally posted by herdthinner
The Bad:
I hated the camerawork and "choreography," if you can call it that, of the fight scenes in John Quixote. They were played up for comedy, but come on - no swordmasters on hand to even show Browder how to hold the thing properly? Way too stiff, for starters.

Excuse me, but did they ever claim that John Crichton was a master swordmaster?

If he was stiff, he was supposed to be. It's called realism.

[NeuralClone]

Originally posted by grapeshot
As for "Coup By Clam", am I the only one to think that there were some seriously warped "battle-of-the-sexes" thing happening on that planet

... And don't forget the official who was hitting on Scorpius, while making sexist remarks about women.

[JrMissToughChick]

Originally posted by stellar
I think that Through The Looking Glass is an UNDERRATED episode. It's one of my all time favs. I love TTLG it is one of my top ten eps :)
I also loved ISTFIA

~JrMTC~

[SueDonym]

WHEEE! :D

IYYY is one of my all-time favorite eps. When it first came out I thought I was totally alone in this, and a lot of the initial chatter about the ep made it seem like I was. But I just loved the film noir aspect of it, and the way that the Moyans/Scorpius find their galaxy-shaking negotiations broken up by an insurance scam gone bad. How fabulous is that?! And the Scorpius/Rygel interaction is CHOICE. :aok:

And priliminary appologies because my over/under are both end of third season:
I didn't particularly like the final ITLD. I know. Sacrilege. :ewink: But for unknown reasons it didn't move me as much as it was clearly intended too, nor as much even as the initial ITLDs. I feel bad about that. Really. The music and images should be powerful. I kept thinking this should really be...but it wasn't. That's just the way I reacted. If I could see it again I could probably figure out why.

Didn't much care for the first ep of Season Four either. Just had difficulty with the way everything was crammed in, although I understand why and there was payoff in later eps.

[JadedLegend3]

Originally posted by MediaSavant
Excuse me, but did they ever claim that John Crichton was a master swordmaster?

If he was stiff, he was supposed to be. It's called realism.

Indeed! I took a fencing course at college this past semester. I'm by far no master, but I still think I can criticize some fencing.

JQ is my fave ep, so I may be a bit biased, but I believe that MediaSavant and Fandom are correct.

The beauty of that ep is that of course John isn't a sword-fighter! He's not a warrior, either. He simply became one throughout of the necessity of the series.

Chiana didn't recieve any special powers, or greater abilities in that ep, either, and her sword-fighting wasn't quite up to par, I'm sure. Why should it need to be?

Just because you play a video game in which you box or race cars or whatever, doesn't mean you can do it in real life.


Jacqui :love:

[Warhola]

Originally posted by stellar
I think that Through The Looking Glass is an UNDERRATED episode. It's one of my all time favs.

I totally agree with that, this is probably my most fav episode of season 1. It was pretty cool how Aeryn, D'Argo and Rygel were trapped on three different dimension levels. Especially the scenes with Rygel on the 'yellow' part of Moya are unforgetable, also the bad jokes he told...:D

[stellar]

As I've stated before, Through The Looking Glass gets my vote for most underrated. However, Die Me, Dichotomy gets my vote for most overrated... it's a frelling good ep, but is it one of the four best as one would expect from a season finale? I think not, even though the cliffhanger is huge... perhaps the second hugest - but it's not in the top four overall.

Flame on.

[dieddead46]

For me its got to be John Quixote. Its just another wierd twist in the Farscape universe and thats how I like it

[Selena]

I can't think of one episode that I would call overrated.
They are all fantastic so none of them are underrated either... IMHO.

[JrMissToughChick]

Originally posted by dieddead46
For me its got to be John Quixote. Its just another wierd twist in the Farscape universe and thats how I like it I don't think it's underated I thought everyone thought it was Awsome ;)

~JrMTC~

[dieddead46]

This has got to be the most underated episode in the history of Farscape even though its by far one of the best

[JrMissToughChick]

Originally posted by dieddead46
This has got to be the most underated episode in the history of Farscape even though its by far one of the best It is a realy cool ep and by far one of my top ten favorites but I don't see the underatedness of it

~JrMTC~

[Dangermousie]

The only two Farscape eps I really didn't care for at all were Jeremiah Crighton (felt like I was watching Hercules) and Coup by Clam (ugh! Too many bodily fluids, silly plot, not funny. Nothing redeeming about this one). Lava's a many splendored thing would be on the list as well, except for the tag.

I don't much care for Bone to Be Wild. Just not very interesting, but then it's sandwiched between THM & Family Ties, so it suffers by comparison.

I, ET is OK but no more. Dream a little dream is somewhat entertaining, but that is the episode that made me realize that I watch the show primarily for Crichton. Then Aeryn and D'Argo. And a whole ep with none of them is not very much to my interest. Still, it's actually a quite decent episode if I take my biases into account.

As for the rest: love them!

I loved all the eps that were supposed to be great, but a lot of episodes that are low on the list (Taking the Stone, VM etc) I happen to be fond of. They develop Chiana and D'Argo very well. I like Meltdown. Not my fave ep ever, but certainly a good, solid FS ep. Perfect Murder? Ditto. Eat Me is a very good ep, even though gruesome.