Farscape is genre television at its most ambitious, inspired both by the cult appeal of Babylon 5 and the continuing success of the Star Trek franchise, but taking a visual and conceptual leap beyond those shows. Making extensive use of CGI, prosthetics, and state-of-the-art puppetry, courtesy of Jim Henson's Creature Shop, the Farscape concept has a freshness that makes it look and feel completely original. After the nail-biting cliffhanger at the end of the first season, the second season gets off to a shaky start in "Mind the Baby," as all the loose plot ends have to be gathered and resolved. Crais apparently has a change of heart, and Scorpius takes his place as Crichton's new nemesis. In "Vitas Mortis," D'Argo falls for a lonely Luxan, with catastrophic and barely plausible results for Moya. "Taking the Stone" showcases Chiana's grief in an episode that manages to be even more confusing. Fortunately by the fourth episode, "Crackers Don't Matter," the show has really hit its stride once again: the crew slowly succumbs to a state of paranoia-fuelled madness, fighting and trying to kill one another thanks to the presence of an odd light-seeking alien. Crichton has a string of great lines ("I hate it when villains quote Shakespeare") and a lot of fun doing an impersonation of Jack Nicholson in The Shining. --Mark Walker
