If the subject line hasn’t frightened you off yet, I’ll keep this brief. It just occurred to me that the first three season finales of Farscape mirrored the endings of the first Star Wars trilogy.

  • Star Wars ends with Luke blowing up the Death Star. Farscape season 1 ends with Crighton blowing up Scorpy’s Gamek base.
  • The Empire Strikes Back shows how the Empirial forces seriously set back the Rebels’ plans. Farscape season 2 ends with Crighton strapped in an operating table with part of his skull removed, his ability to talk coherently gone and Aeryn Sun dead. These would all be setbacks for Team Moya.
  • Return of the Jedi shows the final destruction of the Empire’s latest Death Star and, presumably, the Empire itself. Farscape season 3 ends with Crighton destroying both Scorpy’s command carrier and Scorpy’s Peacekeeper career.

I think these parallels help explain the popularity of the Farscape’s first three seasons and why season 4 seems to be a little directionless. Farscape appeared to be telling a grand story that had familiar rhythms. I do think that by the end of season 4, Farscape got it’s “Plot On” by setting up an almost certain war between the Scarrans and Peacekeepers. We’ll never know now that Farscape is gone.

Hail DVDs!

[Original use.perl.org post and comments.]