laurashapiro

Posted by

thefourthvine

What got you into this fandom in the first place?

Vids. I watched so many Farscape vids that I was able to identify whole sequences and start putting them together like puzzle pieces. And the vids were so amazing. And I didn't really know how to engage with the fandom beyond the vids - still don't! - so then I had BB watch the canon.

And, oh, Farscape, in some ways you were the fandom that never was, and the canon was the reason. I loved that first episode - actually, I loved every episode I've ever seen - but it was so fucking hard to watch. The episodes are long, and complex, and the show is often lacking in the cues I need to figure out what's going on (why are the backgrounds on Farscape ALWAYS THE SAME?). The show just basically functions right at the edge of my ability to function and process visual information. And then there were no subtitles, and that took me beyond my ability pretty handily. I was always exhausted after watching an ep, and no matter how much I loved it, as it went on and got more complicated, I got worse and worse at understanding it, until eventually I just couldn't.

I still cringe a little thinking about Farscape, actually, because it's the first time I've comprehensively failed at watching a show I desperately wanted to watch. I tried as hard as I've tried with everything else, but. I didn't try hard enough? Or maybe I couldn't try hard enough to make up for everything else.

But I loved what I could understand. And I still love the vids. And someday I will try again, when I have the time and energy, and maybe next time I'll get it.
Do you think you'll stay in this fandom or eventually move on?

...See above. You know, thinking about it, another reason I failed at comprehension might have been that I was trying to learn too much. Other canons I watch, I come in knowing a LOT, because I read the fan fiction. (And the spoilers, and the meta, and the summaries, and just everything. This is why I'm grateful to people who post spoilers and commentary that is written so that anyone can read it; I learn enough from that to get the shows! I have a friend who emails me really detailed summaries and reactions for everything she watches, and it's SO GREAT.) But I could never figure out where to find great Farscape fan fiction and commentary and so on, and so I didn't really know much, coming in - the vids were fabulous, but there are things you can't learn from vids. Or at least things I learn a lot better from text. And I didn't have enough text on Farscape. A thing to think about, for that future day when I try Farscape again.
Favorite episodes/books/movies, etc?

The first one. It was like someone had made soulcandy for me, basically. My SF-loving teenage years (and, okay, adulthood) met my love of characters that can't have facial expressions and had a baby! They even had some NASA sequences! And that great moment when John is like, holy shit, I'm MEETING ALIENS! ("Hi.") And it does not go right! The little bitty robots, and John fixing the one! His meeting with Aeryn! Man. That is just a really great episode.
Do you participate in this fandom (fanfiction, graphics, discussions)?

Not at all. After I failed out of the canon so comprehensively, I even stopped recommending vids for it, because I knew someone would tell me I would love the canon, and I knew how I'd sound saying, "I did! But I can't watch it."
Do you think more people should get into this fandom?

Yes! It isn't the space narrative of everyone's heart, but it is for a lot of people. And the canon, what I could get of it, seemed smart and funny and like it was genuinely trying to do something right, instead of just trying to get the ep out under budget. It was like. Hmmm. It was like it was made by people who loved the show and science fiction, instead of by people who were sort of laughing at themselves for writing science fiction (or, in the case of certain shows, laughing at the audience for loving it). The canon has a feeling of - commitment, I guess. They're doing something, and they love it, and they're owning it. So, yes, I think people should watch it.

I guess what I'm trying to say is, Farscape struck me as a canon that, if you can love it, it will love you back. I think everyone should have that, and it's pretty rare, so yes. I think more people should get into Farscape.