My Farscape Marathon continues. Well, it DID . . . until one of the DVDs JUST started to not work. At a really annoying point too. Each DVD has 2 episodes. This particular DVD is the 2 part episode when Creighton first meets Scorpius. Part one plays fine. Part 2 has no picture. The sound plays, although jerkily, but there is no picture. It does the same thing on both the PS2 and on my computer. So, now I'm never going to know how John gets away from Scorpius . . .
Well, I might. I remember waaaaay back when, before I got this boxed set, that I bought a "Best of Season 1" DVD, containing 6 or so episodes from season 1. I think that the 2nd part is on there. I'm pretty sure the 1st part is, and I doubt they'd put part one without part two. Yeah, I think it is. So I just have to wait until I get home tomorrow before I can see it. A pain in the ass. Especially since I can't find a reason for that particular episode to not work. There's not a mark on the DVD. Its just so weird . . .
Anyway, as I was telling Jason, the story structure of Farscape intrigues me. Not an episode is wasted. They all serve a purpose. There is clearly a central storyline revolving around John Creighton's quest to use Wormhole technology to find his way home. But there are also several episodes that have nothing to do with that, nor assist the story in that direction in anyway. While they don't advance the central storyline, they DO advance the characters. Take for instance, "Thank God It's Friday . . . Again", revolving around the crew discovering a planet that is mind-controlled to enjoy slavery. It has nothing to do with wormholes, or helping Creighton find his way home. It doesn't introduce any lasting characters. On the surface it is a worthless episode. Except for the fact that it functions to develop Aeryn Sun's character. Circumstances in the show require her, for the first time, to solve a problem with her brain instead of force. From this episode forward, Aeryn's character begins to soften from her hard, warrior exterior. "Rhapsody in Blue" serves solely to explore Zaahn's character. Her past is explored and confronted, and by the end of the episode, she advances to become a level 10 Delvian Priest.
I simply love this approach to the storyline, as it really fleshes out all the different characters, and brings this imaginary universe to life that much more. You'd think that making every episode have a purpose would be a no-brainer, but I haven't seen it in any other TV show. Another popular Sci-Fi series, Star Trek has no central storyline. Rather, its just a bunch of different stories thrown together that happen to have similar characters. While this can work b/c it focuses on such a large universe rather than individual characters, it also has the effect of not seeming as cohesive, in my opinion. I remember lots of Star Trek episodes that would have little to nothing to do with any other episode in the series. It was as though the writers were just cranking out adventure stories. Sit-coms seem to do that as well. Just crank out laughs to entertain people. Every once in a while episodes will be connected, but rarely. I guess that's why I like Farscape so much.
The whole system actually strikes me as one that could be adapted to make a VERY interesting videogame. Take Final Fantasy X-2, which utilized a mission-based gameplay system. You could choose to go to any place in the world, and whereever you went, there might be a mission, or objective to accomplish while you were there. Not all missions were neccesary. But it made the game very non-linear in that you could choose your own path through the game, to a certain extent.
FFX-2, however, seemed to suffer the same failings of Star Trek and other TV shows in that the optional missions had very little to do with anything. You re-align lightning towers for seemingly no more reason than to get a little extra treasure. You don;t learn anything new about the characters, and there are no advancements.
Imagine, however, if those optional missions DID serve a purpose. You could learn more about the main character's back stories, or their personalities would be further developed so that they would behave differently in the missions you tackle at a later time. Maybe the optional mission enables them to have different abilities that can be used in later missions. I suppose that is used to some extent, but it seems thrown together, and not terribly cohesive, in my opinion.
Along those same lines, and as I was also telling Jason, I see the Farscpae model as one that would actually work even better as a campaign model for RPGs. You know, the geeky imagination ones like D&D and Vampire, and ShadowRun. In Farscape, a majority of the conflicts the characters come across are solved not through force or combat, but by quick thinking and negotiation. Sure there's combat, but its hardly focused upon (unlike a large portion of Sci-Fi, like Star Wars). I think this approach of an episodic character driven campaign that does NOT focus on combat would be incredibly interesting. Of course, it would be much more difficult to run and plan. Personally, I would love to develop something like this for the Vampire Campaign that has yet to get off the ground, but I'd would need to make sure that there are people who are actually willing to play. And to keep playing. I don't want to go to all the trouble to create something like this only to have it fall apart after a few sessions like ALL the other games.
Basically, it would be one long journey broken down into fragments, that focuses on a central story, or objective. Every once in a while, a little sub-story would be introduced and focus on one or two of the characters specifically. It would require an enormous effort and use of imagination on my part, but maybe it can serve as something for me to throw myself into. Something to occupy my already enourmous free time. I may not have much in the coming months, but that remains to be seen. Its still an idea that I would very much like to explore.
So, if anyone is interested in a very cool game of make-believe set in the World of Darkness, let me know.
Eric 1/14/2005 01:22:00 AM
