Farscape or SG-1
POSTED BY: JenDandy
UPDATED: Friday, November 5, 2004 05:21
VIEWED: 18548
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I'm a Joss Whedon fan with little to no interest in other shows in the sci-fi or fantasy genre.
My top 3 shows are as follows (in order):
1. Firefly
2. Angel
3. Buffy: The Vampire Slayer
...and they're all over (until next year when the movie comes, at least). Soooo...in the interest of trying something new, I've heard great things about Stargate: SG-1 and Farscape. What are your opinions of them? Which is the better show?
Also important - what are the DVDs like? 
Sig Rebel
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They're both really good series, though SG-1 has the added bonus that they're still making new episodes (though Farscape does have Peacekeeper Wars coming out) SG-1 has a lot of infuriating moments where the attention to detail isn't as high as it is in Farscape or any of the Whedon shows but they're both really good, well crafted shows.
Can't comment on the DVDs though I'm pretty sure SG-1 has commentaries on every episode.
check out my WIP firefly roleplay system at www.estador.co.uk/firefly
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I've been a pretty huge Stargate fan for a merry long while and I'd say it's a good show. C'mon, there's an episode where they go back in time to the '60s!
Never watched a bit of Farscape, but then again I don't get around to watching much TV.
Stargate DVDs are pretty bare-bones until season 4, then you have commentaries for every episode and interesting behind-the-scenes things.
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Stargate Sg-1 ,
you might like this a lot but it won't be half as good as Firefly. Those nasty worm creatures that live inside people, the Goa'uld are a mean bunch of aliens, there are other good aliens adding another mean element to the show, tokra, replicators and asghard.
The characters in the show are very good, the show has done very well and there's even a spin-off series coming.
Farscape
-Now you'll either hate this show for being just weird
-or you'll learn to love it for its creativity and story-line
This also was a show cut down before they got to finish the tale. The show starts of slow with little happening, nothing really fantastic goes on during the first Season but it's worth watching otherwise some find the storyline impossible to follow and the show does pick up fast near the end of Season 1. When it was on TV it was hard to find and aired unpredictably, so many viewers were lost. The Farscape show later becomes a great sci-fi with wonderful aliens, like others have said :'it's wild, it's weird, the stories become fastmoving and continuity is great.' As another poster put it : 'if you have patience to and pay attention to the details it develops into a Fantastic show. It then becomes a gorgeous, mind-blowing series with the best aliens ever shown on TV'
http://www.fireflyfans.net/thread.asp?b=8&t=7319
Quote:
..If you haven't seen it, never heard of the bird of paradise, have not seen Harvey, or never knew what happened to the blue plant-girl then you haven't really seen the show
check out the TV
...
all 88 episodes of the series in a weekday marathon from 8 am-4 pm Oct. 1-15. The stunt is a prelude to Farscape PK wars
http://www.fireflyfans.net/thread.asp?b=7&t=2787#94928
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Stargate SG1 is an entertaining series which almost never produces bad episodes. It is very strong, with a real sense of progression to it throughout the first 6 seasons. Good humor, great characters.
However, the show's weakness is that the producers aren't willing to make radical changes to the format. For that reason, seasons 7+8 have been a bit on the stale side. Stargate Atlantis, the spin-off, is showing early signs of the same creative stanation, although it is less pronounced.
I haven't seen a whole lot of Farscape. However, from what I have seen, I can say this: Farscape is far more willing to take risks than Stargate. Sometimes it works out great; sometimes it falls flat on its face. But the willingness to risk is there.
Which show do I prefer? Stargate SG-1. Which show is more Whedonish? Probably Farscape, although I haven't seen enough to be certain.
On a related note, another show very much worth trying out is Babylon 5. Its essentially a novel for television, told in 5 parts (seasons), with each episode advancing the plot a little bit more. Season 1 is a bit on the dull side, as the exposition and establishment section of a book usually is, but it picks up quickly.
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I like 'em both. Why choose between them when you can get both and be twice as happy!
However, since you're obviously a big Joss fan, the show more in his style is Farscape. In fact, and this floored me when I saw it, in a season two episode of Farscape, one of the characters even mentions "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" by name. If you absolutely had to choose between the two, I'd go with Farscape.
Apathy on the Rise. No One Cares.
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Quote:
This also was a show cut down before they got to finish the tale. The show starts of slow with little happening, nothing really fantastic goes on during the first Season but it's worth watching otherwise some find the storyline impossible to follow and the show does pick up fast near the end of Season 1.
While I agree that Season 1 isn't as fast-paced as the later seasons, I actually prefer the tone of Season 1 to some of the later seasons. There was a real sense of discovery in the show...and while I strongly disagree that there was "little happening", I agree that the show was less action-based and more cerebral in the first season. Still a good watch, though, especially the last 5 episodes of the season.
Quote:
When it was on TV it was hard to find and aired unpredictably, so many viewers were lost.
I gotta respond to this with a resounding, "huh?"
The series aired on Fridays at 7 for the first season, Fridays at 8 for Seasons 2 and 3, then Fridays at 9 for the fourth. Hardly unpredictable. I think you're remembering the repeated episodes, which aired at odd times...early Saturday morning, late on Sundays, around 11pm or midnight the nights they first aired. I'd say more viewers were lost during the third and fourth seasons due to the storylines becoming more and more complicated. If you missed an episode during the third season's "Twinning" arc, you were completely and totally lost.
Quote:
Farscape show later becomes a great sci-fi with wonderful aliens, like others have said :'it's wild, it's weird, the stories become fastmoving and continuity is great.'
Hallelujah, brother!
Quote:
As another poster put it : 'if you have patience and pay attention to the details it develops into a Fantastic show. It then becomes a gorgeous, mind-blowing series with the best aliens ever shown on TV'
Again with the hallelujah!
Yes, the show is an acquired taste...but many Farscape fans (Scapers) are also Browncoats (like me) and the SaveFarscape campaign folks participated in the campaign to save Firefly. Lots of us bought the DVD's, which helped convince the fine folks at Universal to make the BDM. So, you might say that Farscape fans rock just as hard as Browncoats, just at a different party!
I heartily recommend Farscape to Browncoats. Start at the first season, and work your way up, and you'll be fine. You wouldn't want to watch the series out of order and lose interest, would you?
;P (CURSE YOU, FOX NETWORK!!!)
- T
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Quote:Surely you mean "Hell Yeah!"
Originally posted by BlueSunWorshipper:
Hallelujah, brother!
I too love both shows, despite my inability to watch them "live" (Canada doesn't get them until a season later at the very least).
A fair warning about SG-1: the continuity is complex (it's big for Farscape too, but SG-1 just has more of it). Pretty much every SG-1 ep makes reference to at least one previous ep (this, IMHO, is why it's so good; you can see the universe changing due to the actions of both the leads and even the supporting, recurring baddies).
What all this means is that you shouldn't skip seasons or watch out of order (CH18 Hamilton, I'm looking at you), or you will be lost/spoiled.
-----
We applied the cortical electrodes but were unable to get a neural reaction from either patient.
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Definitely Stargate SG-1. Though they are in their final season, there are seven prior seasons you can catch up on which Sci Fi plays every Monday night from 6pm to 11pm, Tue-Thu @ 6pm, and new episodes of Season 8 on Friday nights @ 9pm.
There is also Stargate: Atlantis, the spinoff of Stargate SG1 that comes on Friday nights @ 10pm right after the SG1. They are repeating the first half of the 1st season while the shows are on their summer break.
I really like the characters and depth of the plots on SG1. It is a very involving series w/ great special effects, great writing, and a wonderful cast. I think if you start at the beginning of season 1 of SG1 you will be hooked.
"May have been the losing side. Still not convinced it was the wrong one."
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Stargate is a lot like current Star Trek. Only without a ship, and done right. There are always The Good Guys, there are always The Bad Guys. The plots are stories for the week. There are arcs in the same way the Borg had arcs - this week we'll deal with This Enemy. Sounds boring, but it's not, because the makers know just how to make a show like that - keep it light, keep it adventurous, and keep it funny. When it gets serious, it doesn't get overblown. When it geets into the alien stuff, it doesn't dive too badly into technobabble. The characters generally don't change much but they're always written really well and have a great charisma. It's an enjoyable show, and you can learn any backstory that's necessary in five minutes. Worth watching when it's on, but it's never really something I *have* to see.
Farscape, on the other hand... EVERYTHING is overblown and twisted. The start of the show, half the crew of Moya doesn't trust the other half. The characters all have their own problems and angst, and our hero John is literally the runt of the pack to start. The sci-fi cliches that get pulled out are usually stood on end to be a bit zanier, and are used as clubs to beat on our crew, and eventually hammer them together into one hell of a dysfunctional family. The relationships take over the core of the show, really - the sci-fi stuff, their constant on-the-run from enemies, one insane situation after another, all becomes just a backdrop for how these guys start to get along. More importantly, a backdrop for the love story between John and Aeryn, an epic of Herculean and Shakespearean troubles and twists. You can't really miss anything, or you'll miss everything. It gets complicated, it gets messy, and it gets crazy, and then when it gets serious, it gets worse... and that's why the people that love the show, LOVE the show (I happen to be one).
There's your comparison.
Radhil Trebors
Persona Under Construction
Add-on: The DVDs of SG1 are easier to get into - the Farscape sets are one of the most overpriced on the market. I'd just catch each show on TV if you can (Farscape is repeating with it's miniseries coming up), and see if it's to taste first.
Also Babylon 5 - as epic as Farscape is, but with much nobler characters and much less craziness, but no less dire a tale. If Farscape is a Broadway kick-ass rock musical, B5 is the epic opera that inspired it. Well worth getting into, if you can watch it all in order.
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