Betsy, DaLD is universally accepted as appallingly bad. [link] And, sadly, the first Farscape episode I came across. Thankfully, I turned it off after ten minutes or so, and didn't hold it against it when I actually watched my first full episode (which was Green-Eyed Monster, much much better).

There are a few real clunkers of episodes in the run of the show: Jeremiah Crichton, DaLD, Picture If You Will, Mental As Anything. And there are a number that are seriously flawed for whatever reason: TOBM, Vitas Mortis, The Ugly Truth, Coup By Clam, A Prefect Murder, Twice Shy, La Bomba.

But there's so much wrong with DaLD that I'd be just as happy never to watch anything but the envelope scenes again. Oh, and maybe a couple of Zhaan's hallucinations. It does supply that fabulous shot of Aeryn, John, and D'Argo walking down the hallway in silhouette, that they use for the credit sequence, though -- the one where John has his flight suit on.

when I actually watched my first full episode (which was Green-Eyed Monster, much much better).

Wait. I was into Farscape before you were? That seems wrong, somehow.

Right. In the last three days, I think we saw three of those: Vitas Mortis, Picture If You Will, Dream A Little Dream. (That's the DVD ordering.) At least Out Of Our Minds is cued up and ready to go.

I have to speak up in defense of "La Bomba," which to me was a rollicking thrill-ride that restored a lot of my lost affection for the series. Sure, it had people riding out a nuke in an elevator, and Sikozu pulling that previously unsuspected Skarran-killing superpower out of her ass. But it's not as if the show didn't train us to use jazz hands when waving away the plot silliness long ago. And it gave us back the real Aeryn, who'd been AWOL for far too long .

Consuela eloquently says what I was feeling. That was not a happy Jack, nor even an entertainingly unhappy one, which I'm willing to entertain for a little while. It hurt me to watch him so torn up.

Which show is this, and should I be watching for the pretty pretty boys or for the writing?

Why do I watch Stargate? It's never brilliant TV, but it's engaging TV, and fun TV when it's on -- and when it's on it can be like a little Chinese puzzle where they slot the doohickey from season one into the unresolved plot detail from season two and swish it around with the knowledged they gained last episode.

There are only a couple through-notes on the character's emotional development. By and large, they're the same people in different (or similar) situations.

The locations are all very Vancouver, much of the costuming sucks, you'll never be transported by the language -- but ... I don't know. I can't get enough of the OT4 that is SG-1.

Plus, Jack O'Neill is my favourite TV character.

Living or discontinued? Because nobody's ever gonna beat out Emma Peel.

Which show is this, and should I be watching for the pretty pretty boys or for the writing?

I'm not sure I get the context here. ita is following up on an earlier exchange about Jack O'Neill in the last Stargate episode that aired.

You should watch Farscape for the pretty and the writing, which is occasionally brilliant, and almost always very good. Except when it sucks, but I'd say the bar is set very high.

If you were to watch Stargate, it would be for the premise, which has great potential, and the characters, who are engaging, even if they don't get to evolve much. The writing's not all that fab, although they're better at remembering their own canon than many non-Joss genre shows. Oh, and it's pretty too, but in a different way than Farscape. Still, hard to beat the black tank tops. And the team dynamic, which I like a lot. t sighs wistfully Season 9 is going to be different.

I think Emma Peel totally blew everyone out of the water when she showed up, and the discordance between her and her surroundings will elevate her forever.

But -- I don't want to have sex with her, and her fight scenes are appalling. So Jack wins on both those two counts.

Ooh. I just had a thought -- F/C/M (or who'd win in a cage match ...) Buffy/Zoe/Emma.