| we've used "SciFi" to refer to visual scientifantastic storytelling (i.e. movies and TV), and "SF" to refer to written stuff. I don't ever want to be yelled at by Harlan Ellison again, thankyou. ;)
What I look for in good SF literature is character-driven stories. The "what ifs" are less important to me now (although the "what ifs" in "Slant" (Greg Bear), which I'm currently reading are quite compelling, but the characters are also 3-D and the entire story is hard to put down.
I really like a good hard SF story as well (Sheffield, and Forward spring to mind) that also stays within the bounds of proper physics.
I don't know why you have issues with Farscape - the science wasn't totally out there (OK, maybe it was) - it's not a "human race" story - it's a love story about a guy put in extraordinary circumstances. I like a good romance as much as the next gal (hence the huge collection of McCaffery books).
SF doesn't translate well to the big or small screen, and that's why you don't see it too much. Because it would be BORING.
Although "bad science" is what turned me off to "The Matrix"
The humanoid alien thing occurs in film/TV, because you are ultimately working with actors who are HUMAN. At least there, you should give Farscape a nod, because they have had the most diverse, non-humanoid, and interesting batch of aliens in anything short of an animated cartoon.
And Babylon 5 proved you *can* have a character-driven "space opera" type story that DOES get the science right (allowing for the hyperspace stuff).
As a side note, I met J. Michael Straczynski at the Hawthorne HighSchool comic convention last saturday, and it was extremely cool. (still jazzed about it). And there are new things in the works that he can't talk about, but we're expectin an announcement in a couple of weeks.... (pant) | 
