Ernie-17 Reviews

Farscape (1999–2003)

The best original science fiction I've seen in a great while.

[17 September 1999]

This has got to be without a doubt, the best original science fiction show I've seen in a long time. I had rather high hopes for seaQuest (written by Rockne S. O'Bannon as well), and was disappointed. My first impressions of "Farscape" were "Voyager" / "Battlestar Galactica" clone, but that lasted about five minutes. I think my favorite characters are probably Pilot and Moya herself, although Aeryn is a close third. I do wonder that everyone frequently defers to John's leadership since he is brand new to the situation (not to mention that area of space) and seemingly does not understand even the basics of Leviathan tech.

I do love the occasional pop-culture reference, such as John's statement "This place looks like Dagobah." Upon being asked where "Dagobah" was, John smiled at his joke and replied that it was a place where great warriors were trained. I half expected the reply to be "Wars not make one great". It's a good, subtle blend that keeps us awake, but doesn't inspire wild "easter egg hunts" for other allusions.

I am very impressed with this show, and I hope the Sci-Fi channel will continue to produce this excellent series.

Katie Joplin (1999– )

Strong actors, good premise, not so good stories

[23 August 1999]

While it's nice to see Park Overall in series television again, she may not have the audience draw necessary to pull this show past its first few episodes, which have been weak re-tellings of all-to-common tales (country girl moves to big city to start over and has trouble adjusting, teen disobeys parent and is caught, father who walked out tries to come back). The premise of the series has some potential, but will need better stories to survive.

Crusade (1999)

Excellent! Someone needs to pick this up...

[20 June 1999]

The first episode was a bit rocky, full of re-telling "A Call to Arms" and useless violence not typical to a B5/JMS project. The second episode was much better and more of what I expected. I hope the series continues to improve and that someone (Sci-Fi Channel?) will pick this up for next year.