Can it be blamed on XF, though? FS started right after what was arguably the biggest year for XF (1998), and only changed after XF was well into its downslide. If FS was being influenced that way, I would think it would've started off darker than it did.
I do think a certain darkening of the show was seeded from the last four episodes of season one on. The Aurora chair put John through the mental ringer, and if they were going to follow through on that--which I'm glad they did, rather than brushing it off--a darker tone was inevitable, because the show became basically about John's descent into insanity. They as much as telegraphed where they were going by putting Stark in those first episodes with the Aurora chair anyway. I think with Virginia Hey's departure from the show, though, they seemed to give themselves permission to make everything surrounding John's growing madness darker as well. For example, "...Different Destinations," the first one after Zhaan dies, is just depressing as hell, especially for a one-off episode on a planet they never return to.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2012-06-23 09:40 pm (UTC)I do think a certain darkening of the show was seeded from the last four episodes of season one on. The Aurora chair put John through the mental ringer, and if they were going to follow through on that--which I'm glad they did, rather than brushing it off--a darker tone was inevitable, because the show became basically about John's descent into insanity. They as much as telegraphed where they were going by putting Stark in those first episodes with the Aurora chair anyway. I think with Virginia Hey's departure from the show, though, they seemed to give themselves permission to make everything surrounding John's growing madness darker as well. For example, "...Different Destinations," the first one after Zhaan dies, is just depressing as hell, especially for a one-off episode on a planet they never return to.