The Critics Have It Right: How Could Anybody Watch This and Possibly Imagine That This Show Was Ready for Cancellation? (WARNING: Spoilers for Farscape Episode 4.13, "Terra Firma")

I don't care what the ratings say. I don't care what Sci Fi says. I don't care what anybody says, this week's episode is proof incontrovertible that Farscape is one of the very best damned shows ever to grace our unworthy TV screens. I'm not pegging "Terra Firma" as my favorite epsiode ever -- the competition is far too stiff for that -- but it is definitely up there. Way, way, up there.

If nothing else, it stands as a blazing example of just how very different Farscape is from every other show on TV. If you ever watched Star Trek: Voyager, think of how many times you must've said to yourself, "Of course, they can't get home. Not for real. Not without a catch. Because if they did, the show would be over." Think of how many times you've thought something similar about other shows, whatever their not-to-be-tampered-with premise might be. But Farscape... Farscape does the un-doable and makes it work. Surprise! John Crichton got home, and -- boneheaded decisions from Sci-Fi aside -- the show is very, very far from over. And this works, not because there's some cop-out plot button that gets pressed at the end to reset everything so the status quo can resume next week, but because John Crichton is doing what it is in character for John Crichton to do. Hell, in many ways, this episode can be seen as the culmination of three and a half years of his character arc. And because of that, Crichton's decision not to stay feels right. A year ago, it wouldn't have. Now, it does. The show can change its premises, because the characters can change. Geez, what a concept!

Other examples of things in this episode that you most likely wouldn't see anywhere else on TV? Well, I might mention the fascinating incongruity of the spiky-leather-wearing, good-guy-torturing, ugly-as-sin, scary-as-hell Bad Guy expressing a calm willingness to give his life to keep Our Hero alive. Ah, complex motives... Everybody on Farscape's got 'em. Indeed, one thing that the show excels at is not giving in to the dramatic urge to simplify that which should be complex. Another case in point: the delicate topic of the current political situation on Earth. How many other shows would feel the need to Take a Stand, to preach, to make explicit the comparisons between current world politics and the whole Sebacean/Scarren/wormhole mess we've been dealing with for the past three seasons? How many would end up attempting to flatten the whole complicated mess -- either mess -- until it could be summed up with a feel-good platitude or two? Farscape acknowledges the political realities of the situation, it lets the characters express their own opinions of them... and then it leaves them, complexities intact and answers nowhere to be found.

But, even apart from all that, "Terra Firma" is just a damned good episode. Indeed, this one delivered absolutely everything that I was disappointed we didn't get last week, in spades. All the emotions, all the responses that ought to be there as John truly, finally gets home again, were there, and they were all, without exception, perfect. Perfectly characterized, perfectly acted. In fact, I think "Terra Firma" features some of the best acting we've ever seen in this series, from everyone. Every single one of the regular actors did an incredible, above-and-beyond job (and, yes, I include Kent McCord, David Franklin, and even Rebecca Riggs, much though I dislike her character). And between the acting and the writing, it managed to put me through an amazing range of emotional responses, myself: from laughter to warm fuzzies to horror to genuine adrenalin-pounding fear to... Well, I have to admit, I actually got a little teary there at the end.

Honest to god, this was so good that, for the duration of the hour, I actually forgot how upset I was that the show is scheduled to come to an end. Of course, now that the hour is over, I'm even more pissed off about it than ever...

Come on, Skiffy! Get a frelling clue!