(Harvey! And Talyn! And Gilina!)

[deird_lj]

I saw someone on the internet this morning saying that Farscape's aliens were basically:
"...Proud Warrior Race Guy, Greedy Nobleman, Space Buddhist, Spock, Action Girl..."
...and concluding that the characters weren't all that original.


No. Wrong.

This show has D'Argo - the Proud Warrior Race Guy... who wants to stop fighting, settle down, and have a farm.

And Zhaan - the Space Buddhist... who is completely psychotic on her bad days.

And Aeryn, who was raised to be a soldier and nothing else, and Pilot, who is mostly calm and logical but also stubborn and snarky, and Jool, who is intelligent and resourceful and also a spoiled brat, Crichton, who is the American Hero and is not the action guy, he's the scientist! - and he's completely out of his depth...

And everyone else, too.


There are a lot of complaints you could make about Farscape. Lack of original characters is not one of them.

Comments

[beer-good-foamy.livejournal.com]

Agreed - though I'd say Talyn is the one who IS a stock character, since he's basically Psycho Emo Teen à la Angel!Connor/Weeds!Silas/NipTuck!Matt/etc. Of course, he subverts it somewhat by being a huge friggin' spaceship with FTL drive. Even Connor can't top that one.

And yes, D'Argo may be Proud Warrior Race Guy when he's on the clock, but... The guy builds guitars in his spare time, ffs. Not to mention that Chiana, the Grey Skinned Space Nympho, is pretty much the only one of the bunch (and that would be including the PRIEST) who isn't a complete selfish cynic now and then...

...and that's all vast oversimplifications too. *loves show*

[penny-lane-42.livejournal.com]

This makes me want to finish the show. A lot.

Too bad I got distracted by The X-Files....

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

Lack of originality is not a problem for Farscape. It samples a lot of things and ties them up in an emotional, epic story that is also funny as hell sometimes.

[rahirah]

Obviously this person on the internet is WRONG.

[green-maia.livejournal.com]

I'm planning to watch Farscape next...

[mabus101.livejournal.com]

I've never watched the entirety of the show--it had already been on almost a season by the time I started watching, and I only saw bits here and there.

I think in context, the argument was more that the characters failed to be truly alien aliens, but I'm not sure I've ever seen that sort of alien work as anything except "incomprehensible Negative Space Wedgie that happens to be biological".

[neutralalienist.livejournal.com]

This just in: you can use basic character archetypes in interesting, unique ways!

IN OTHER WORDS, very much agreed.