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I would love to respond to all of this in detail, but the show will do that itself, and it's better if I let that happen. Basically: You're not wrong; keep going. ^_^

I will say that the Farscape fangroup I joined back in the day was called the Friends and Defenders of Pilot (FaDoP, pronounced like "fed up"), and that is why to this day my emoticons wear Pilot's carapace on top. {= ) And I'll clarify that he can direct Moya, but since she's a living ship, she can also direct herself.

And yeah, it's rather planet-of-the-week to start and maintains elements of that throughout, but the overarching plot (beyond "evade pursuit, survive, try to get home") cometh in due time.

I shall be following along with the episode transcripts by FaDoP founder Sojushisan, which are blatantly opinionated and very fun. ^_^ Caution: May contain spoilers, I'm not sure.

~Neshomeh

Assuming "S1E1 - Pilot" is the first episode, obviously... ^_~

There's a lot to like. The muppets are shockingly Labyrinth, which shouldn't have taken me by surprise but did. I enjoyed the fact that John Crichton (Kaitlyn, incredulously: "Is his name actually John?!), Human Manly Adventurer, actually isn't a pilot. He's a scientist! The fact that he latches onto the first person he meets who looks like him is a problem, but it's a problem because of the character, not the writing. (I also giggled at the reveal that he apparently thinks Pilot is actually transparent and blue. Has he never seen Star Wars?)

In terms of plot, there wasn't much to say on the basis of one episode. It feels like it's setting up a "planet of the week (because we're being chased)" show, a la Battlestar Galactica, Firefly, arguably Voyager and Quantum Leap... there was a bit of a growth industry on those, wasn't there? But for all I know, they could have escaped the Peacekeepers at the end of the episode and will now spend three seasons floating in a nebula.

The Peacekeepers... would operate a lot better if they weren't being led by '90s Lin Manuel Miranda. The dude repeatedly watched clear footage of his brother harassing and sideswiping a stationary ship, and still went with "you killed my brother, prepare to die". If we could just promote him to a desk job, the rest of the crew should have this whole escaped-prisoners malarkey locked up by lunchtime.

Moya is beautiful ^_^. I'm less instantly enamoured of her crew, which consists of Ood Klingon, Sex-Cultist Twi'lek, Evil Muppet, Transparently Blue Guy, and now Adventure Scientist and Literally The Enemy. They're good TV, but I don't find myself liking them as people straight off.

Except Pilot, who... isn't a pilot? I'm confused. He seems to be the Ops officer, keeping ship's systems going and maybe telling the "autopilot" where they want to go. I would have expected him to have the manual flight controls, but I guess the translator microbes got a bit mixed up. (Love those, by the way, though them being given in childhood makes me wonder whether anyone speaks the same language as anyone else, or if everyone across space just invented their own language which the microbes translate.)

hS

In which the Skystreakers discover just how much their past got rewritten due to them being accidental casualties of Kaito's rewrite.

I'm taking this chance to announce that The World Without Authors has kind of entered the "end of service" phase. Kinda. I still have two arc planned after this one, but after that this story will be fully wrapped up (an estimate of around a dozen chapters more, 15 at most, from now), but this thing has become a bit too big to handle.

As such, since the fifth arc will already provide a good climax for the entire thing, I will take the chance to wrap this thing up and do other projects. What exactly I haven't given much though about already - I haven't even decided if it will still be stuff about Sergio, Nikki and company or if it will be an entirely new setting (I might end up doing actually both, since I plan on doing MUCH shorter things - no more several hundred words behemots from me!). I have time to decide, it will still take me at least one year to finish TWWA...

I'd go with incoherent, myself.

--Ls

Amazing how Gaunt just contradicted his own logic, right there in the newspaper! “Hogwarts students have outsized influence on elections” and “there are only double digits worth of student voters in a given year” are a square peg and a gerrymander-shaped hole. But I’m sure his friends in the Circle of Avalon won’t notice, because they think they deserve to win all elections; he’s telling them exactly what they want to hear. Heck, Harry’s nightmare later in this very chapter confirms that following the heir of Slytherin is actually taught as part of the Avalonian “scripture.” Terrifying! It assumes that lineage will never produce an abusive monster! Thank goodness there aren’t any real life religions in the United States that would look to a particular politician as a figurehead, and vote him into a position of power on the assumption that he would destroy their perceived enemies and place their religion in ascension over the rest of U.S. culture! That would be destructive and harmful indeed! Anyway, I’m glad to see Marvolo Gaunt is finally making New Avalon great again.

Welp. I must be just as dense as Ron, because when Ginny said he had “three girls on the hook,” I had the exact same reaction. Who’s the third girl? Lavender, and Hermione . . . after three to five minutes of contemplation, I finally remembered Ron is interested in Cho in this timeline. I am not, uh . . . smart! (And yes, I know Hermione is the one Ron is failing to recognize, but obviously I wasn’t going to forget the local book nerd!) Also, speaking of Lavender, I know she isn’t “the one I’m supposed to be rooting for,” but I really do love that she got her hands on the commentator microphone and just immediately started talking up her man midgame. I like to think that even without Harry’s placebo ploy, Ron would have gotten a good enough confidence boost from Lavender’s words to get the job done satisfactorily. Lavender’s pretty okay, actually!

Oh ho ho, Brutus Malfoy played fast and loose with people’s safety, and paid a price! It seems that power and money can’t always save you after all! If Brutus hadn’t denied all those coverage claims, Luigi might not have—shoot, sorry, I moused over the wrong tab!

Ooooooooooooh, Rabastan is a bad dude. Like, I already knew that, for at least a couple reasons, but holy cow, that is a baaaaaad maaaaaan. He’s, um. That scene was kind of ill-making, you know what I mean? My stomach was upset with my eyes? Blegh. No wonder the Malfoy parents have ramped up their protagonist vibes this year; I’m impressed Narcissa had the pateience and strength of will to not murder Rabastan and join the Order of the Phoenix on the spot. Yeah, we need to, uh. We need to “finish the bonding” as soon as possible, so there’s no chance Draco can get forced into marrying Rabastan? And also, maybe, possibly, kill Rabaatan?! Because there might be more skinny teenage boys??!? And we need to??!?!?! Not let that!!?!?!?!?! Happen?!?!?!!?!?!?!?!?!?!?

Boy, I did not catch the name during the Pensieve scene; that was Gregson? Man, she was on both ends of the Marvolo Gaunt situation, and didn’t even realize it . . . I love it as a writing detail, though, linking two separate years through a minor character. I’m also glad Draco was able to communicate the basilisk’s presence to someone close to the Order, too; They’re already lucky no one has run into the basilisk during the spying work! Progress! (My note-to-myself for this section reads, “basilisk at lastolisk.” Because I am a child.)

Some minor stuffs:
-Pansy immediately dropping Draco from the team is such a quintessentially Slytherin solution to a problem! “Teamwork not teamworking? Just cut off the weakest link and move on!”
-Pointless to keep ranting about it, but Nott is maneuvering in the background AGAIN. Although . . . interesting tidbit about one of his family’s elves getting MURDERED! Like, for what, the unionizing situation? But Nott’s father would seem like the logical suspect there, but he’s clearly concerned by it, AND seems to think it’s related to his own wife’s death, too? Extremely weird stuff going on there, and maybe Nott isn’t up to something dastardly after all . . . Oops. I ranted again.
-Noooo Hermione, calm down! You can’t go around attacking other students, you’ll get in trouble again!
-New word, sort of: “secateurs,” though I learned them as “garden shears.”

And a possible missing word, though I may have read the sentence wrong because it was very early this morning:
Harry dove into another fight with the Snargaluff, just Dean and Seamus’ whispered row . . .
I think you wanted “just as” after Snargaluff? Also, how dare you remind me Snargaluffs exist, I hate them so much.

—doctorlit makes his first post on the board since being declared cancer-free!

I’d have to recommend the Official Fanfiction University of Redwall by Laburnum as well, seeing as that’s how I found the PPC.

In case it somehow wasn't clear, read The Official Fanfiction University of Middle-earth by Camilla Sandman first. It's the original and sets the precedent for all other OFU stories there are. It has an unfinished sequel, too. (Links are to the AO3 mirrors, because it's less janky than Fanfiction.net.)

Then, my recommendations for spin-off OFUs:

1. The Hogwarts Fanfiction Academy by Meir Brin is one of if not the most successful at taking the concept and putting its own unique spin on it. There's also a crossover with OFUM's sequel and an enormous PPC crossover toward the end! It's also one of the few completed spin-offs. HFA also has an unfinished sequel, but unfortunately, FF.net has butchered the formatting so much it's hardly readable. (I'm working on an archival version.)
2. Official Buffy and Angel Fanfiction University by HonorH is, IMO, one of the best written spin-offs, and it's a real shame it was kicked off FF.net and never finished. Link is to the wiki page because it's backed up on Livejournal and there isn't a good chapter index there. Also features a strong PPC presence.
3. I would be most remiss if I didn't mention The Official Fanfiction University of Discworld by Huinesoron, my good friend. And it's Discworld! I'm of the opinion that you can't properly appreciate the PPC until you've read at least a couple Discworld books. Wiki link again because of its complex history.
4. I would also be remiss if I failed to mention The International Academy of Hetalia Fanfiction by Lily Winterwood, also my good friend. It's a rare completed OFU, and it also has a completed sequel! I confess I never read it fully because I never got into Hetalia, but even so! Wiki link again just because.

I'm sure I'm forgetting some other good stuff, and I don't know your fandoms, so be sure to look through our wiki's category for Official Fanfiction Universities. There are probably more lurking out there that we don't have pages for, too.

Happy Learning Through Pain! {= D

~Neshomeh

What would you recommend?

I don't know how quickly I can be relied upon to do anything, but I do have a reasonable amount of free time coming up. If I can also muster the focus, I would be especially happy to look over the ESAS piece. Maybe the others, too, if it works out.

You know where to find me. {= )

~Neshomeh

It's been a bit, but I have one more piece to add to the backlog: a 3.5k word vignette that was an attempt at being slightly meta, something I am not sure I actually succeeded in. I don't think any canon knowledge should be needed, and the only Blacklist item of note is #9.

I'm glad you like the pun! The OG worldbuilder had "Leaf No Scone Unturned" but my Britpicker didn't like that :'D

Hold the thought on Emily! I will say that she's got a difficult journey ahead of her...

Yes, the Malfoy parents are starting to move against Gaunt, if only for the preservation of their family magic + Draco's safety :P And I figured Lucius deserved to get Harry's response to Draco's letter from back in 5th year. Unfortunately he now has to deal with both of them and their feelings!

I am cackling evilly like a mad scientist watching you try to solve this mystery like a lab rat in a maze. But I am also an ethical scientist who treats their lab rats well, so have a bit of cheese for your analysis!

(ETA alternate title 6.9: nice.)

Draco deals with his new burden. Harry tries to help.

Once again, BL10/11 warnings for Harry's dreams, and a bit of accidental offscreen BL2 regarding conjuring birds.

I already started watching and didn't realize about this. I'll have to go back and watch the episodes I missed.

About the only things that carry over, outside the basic "Space... the final frontier" setup, are:

• There is a strongly-godlike guy named Q who drops in occasionally.
• A member of the crew died during S1 and people were sad about it.
• The previous Chief Medical Officer is Wesley's mother; I don't even remember why she wandered off for S2.

Next Generation is very strongly a planet-of-the-week show. I'm not saying it's always good, and a lot of very silly things happen, but it's certainly consistently better after S1.

hS

Ooh, so it wasn't just me? I tried watching it, I did, but I don't think I made it very far past the first episode. I did skip ahead and watch the one where they go back in time to "The Trouble With Tribbles", and had a good time, but I just Could Not get into it in order. I had set out to essentially watch all of Star Trek in release order, too, after getting into it via AOS, so it was pretty disappointing. But if it picks up after the first season and I could get by with, at most, looking up a summary on the wiki...maybe I'll give it another go sometime??

~Z, a bit intrigued ('a bit' because by now it's been a while since I watched or read anything Trek, even if I still think fondly of it - wait, hold on, I watched a few TOS episodes a couple years ago! I remember now. It was strange, nostalgic, and comforting to be watching it again. I'd forgotten about that!)

We should probably delete and remove references to JulyFlame's rec center.

--Ls

Edit: typo

Heh, “Babbitea Rabbitea!” A pun worthy of the Potter section of that Universal Studios park, and it feels like it could exist in canon, as well. The animate rabbit cake also has the vibe of canon to it, alongside chocolate frogs and wizards’ chess. (Plus, yeah, I can easily picture kids having a little too much fun “hunting” after their cake . . .)

Go for it, Emily! I hope she finds a way through the wards, all the same, and finds her way back to her real family. If the situation with Gaunt and the Bonding weren’t so demanding of Our Heroes’ time, I feel like they would be looking for a way to help Emily. Hopefully you’re doing that Rowlingesque thing where a minor plot gets resolved as an accidental side consequence of the main conflict being addressed . . . We’ve got to get that girl home!

Boy, I wasn’t expecting this chapter to be such a huge deal when I started it, but it’s allowed me to finally and definitively shift the Lord and Lady Malfoy into the “protagonist column” in my mind. I just hope their willingness to prioritize Draco’s safety and Gaunt’s lack of access to more magic isn’t going to lead to their own deaths . . . Lucius transferring the family magic to Draco here and now is such a power play! Terrifying to see Draco visibly bending under it, though. This society is so used to accepting and using magic, that they’ve become desensitized to the side effects of its constant presence. (Although I suppose that’s common enough in any society. glances at alcohol, tobacco and cars) But I liked Harry’s little mini-speech about how Draco’s friendship has made him a better person, and the admission that he might have had a more black-and-white moral view of the Wizarding World if he hadn’t seen Draco learning to question things. I think it was good for Lucius to hear that, too!

I am in deep love with the fact that Ron is the only member of the quartet who has his eyes on a very serious plot point! Although I admit I’m second-guessing myself about my previous assumption: I don’t know if Nott is carrying out the Dumbledore assassination from canon, or if he really is just working to sabotage the Gryffindor Quidditch team! The vanishing cabinet feels like a major point there, because it was the main crux of Draco’s canon plan, but doesn’t seem like it would serve much point sabotaging the team, since dragging it to the pitch would be impossible to conceal without someone noticing . . . Unless he’s only using it as secret transport to Knockturn Alley to get other supplies, with no intention to move anything or anyone else through? Hm. I must read more chapters for data . . .

—doctorlit is vindicated to finally see some progress on the party drug potion plotline!

Sadly, it looks like the official channel's playlists kinda suck. However, be careful if you look elsewhere, because created playlists may have the eps in one of several airing orders as opposed to the production order. Production order as shown on Wikipedia, makes far more sense and will make for a much better experience.

~Neshomeh

And it when I say it gets better by the end of it, I say it goes fairly steadily from above-average to great. Yes, there are a few stumbles here and there, but even Farscape's worst episodes still have something worthwhile about them. Even 1.14, which is arguably skippable from a plot and 90s-cringe standpoint, still contains some good character development for Rygel, which would be a shame to miss—he doesn't often get to be the hero. Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater. {= )

To answer the question directly: Not remotely! It's a character-driven show. You could summarize the major plot events, but never the evolution of each character and their relationships from ep to ep. In fact, the necessity of watching pretty much every episode to get what was going on from week to week is part of why it (like other great sci-fi shows) got cancelled before its time.

Which reminds me: the SciFi Channel-that-was did not help by screwing around with the viewing order, but I'll make a separate post about that.

~Neshomeh

There are some shows, particularly on the sci-fi side, where you can and arguably should do that: Star Trek TNG, for instance, season 1 is a draaaag. In that case you don't even need to catch up on anything, but is it possible to get into Farscape with a summary of S1 and starting on S2?

(I know the very idea rankles, but I'm not sure I can get Kaitlyn to sit through an entire season of "it gets better I promise".)

hS

I mean. I won't complain. :-P

It was about a wearet named Kew-Kew and followed him and a few other’s adventures. It was quite possibly one of the funniest ones I’ve ever read. It’s on fanfiction.net under the Redwall tag so if you want to go poking around, it’s there.