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selenakWiki Summary: D'Argo, after threatening the crew with Luxan hyper-rage, is later found docile and happy on a planet and decides to stay. Crichton discovers that the planet's food contains a drug, with the help of a small band of rebels immune to its effects, and must determine a way to convince the others of the truth and the true nature of the drug.
This struck me as some really good early character exploration in the disguise of a one-off. I mean, the central MacGuffin of the story has been known since Odysseus encountered the Lotophages, with the one twist that it turns out the Sykarans a) have some (a few) rebels among them, and b) are exploited by the Peacekeepers to manufacture the basic materials they need to arm their rifles. Incidentally, this twist strikes me as very necessary, given that the show has the Sykarans in distinctly Asian-looking red hats and clothes. Oh, and of course only on Farscape with its gleeful dedication to bodily fluids would it turn out that the key weapon that prevents our heroes getting killed is Rygel's piss. Still, it's not the plot stuff that impressed me about the episode.
Aeryn starts to bond with Pilot here, which given their relationship has some great episodes to come made me practically coo while rewatching. Also, Aeryn learns to think outside not just the Peacekeeper box but her own opinion of herself and her skill set. The way Claudia Black plays Aeryn's reactions to this throughout, both the early frustration and the childlike satisfaction later, made me feel Aeryn to be still very young, emotionally, I mean, not in years. (Which is of course also true of Pilot.) The big reveal here isn't that Aeryn is intelligent - of course she is, we've seen her be intelligent before - but that she considers herself so unsuited/incapable of anything other than flying or fighting to begin with, and that Pilot confiding in her about his own limitations helps her overcome them.
Meanwhile, D'Argo may be drugged into the agrarian life, but as his last scene with Zhaan points out, there really is a part of him who wants to settle down and wants a committed relationship to go with it. Again, it's this that makes this plot more than "danger of the week", because it remains true of D'Argo through the show, and it will impact on his later relationship with Chiana in key matters. (And thus we learn more about who D'Argo is beyond "Space Viking".) Before this rewatch, I had forgotten early Farscape played with some D'Argo/Zhaan subtext that petered out as they ended up with Chiana and Stark, respectively, but it's strongest here, as Zhaan says she would have accepted D'Argo's proposition. Mind you, I suspect it's less about D'Argo himself, though she clearly likes him, and more about a part of Zhaan, too, yearning for the idyll. Of course, Zhaan already did make a life-altering choice of that calibre. Unless it comes up in the episodes we skipped, this is also the first time Zhaan alludes to her pre-priestess days and calls herself "savage" during those. More of this to come.
Crichton in this episode experiences the second of many body invasions the show throws at him (the first being the translator nanites) as he gets a worm to ensure his immunity to theLotos pacification drug. Here, it's played mostly for laughs, as is his uncomfortableness when he realises he'll spend the night on the same bed with Zhaan, and at the involuntarily hand movements (hers in the night, his on the morning). The first time I watched, I remember thinking "good lord, how American". These days, I suppose it plays out a bit differently, in that John leaving it up to Zhaan whether he sleeps on the floor or on the bed and making it clear no exploiting the situation will happen signal he's got a clear set of ethics regarding this. But given the situation - the bed really is large enough for two - his first reaction when he realises they have to spend the night here still strikes me as one of those things clearly signalling his geographical origin.
Not played for a laugh but important: two distinguishing traits of early John Crichton - a) among the still learning how to live with each other crew, he's the one functioning as the "heart", refusing to leave D'Argo after D'Argo's first refusal to return (then again, he's also genre wise due to being a sci fi geek and thus knows something is up) which the others at this point still would have been ready to do, b) revealing the truth behind the exploitation of the Sykarans is important to him (as opposed to, say, just hitting Zhaan and D'Argo on the head and getting them back on Moya) once he's seen that the Peacekeepers are behind it and their leader wants to leave everyone to die, but c) he's not played as the inspiring hero actually leading the revolt. He provdes the information, but leaves it up to the Sykarans what to do with it. (BTW, given that everyone, not just the naturally immune small band of rebels, seems to snap out of hit at the reveal when earlier the insistance was that without the worm, this was impossible, the world building is less than consistent here. Then again, the revolution afterwards does not happen, and if the corrupt leader gets deposed, we don't see it, either.)
(Later season John also would not have led the revolt, but s4 Crichton might have considered poisoning all the tannot oil resources on the planet.)
The other days
This struck me as some really good early character exploration in the disguise of a one-off. I mean, the central MacGuffin of the story has been known since Odysseus encountered the Lotophages, with the one twist that it turns out the Sykarans a) have some (a few) rebels among them, and b) are exploited by the Peacekeepers to manufacture the basic materials they need to arm their rifles. Incidentally, this twist strikes me as very necessary, given that the show has the Sykarans in distinctly Asian-looking red hats and clothes. Oh, and of course only on Farscape with its gleeful dedication to bodily fluids would it turn out that the key weapon that prevents our heroes getting killed is Rygel's piss. Still, it's not the plot stuff that impressed me about the episode.
Aeryn starts to bond with Pilot here, which given their relationship has some great episodes to come made me practically coo while rewatching. Also, Aeryn learns to think outside not just the Peacekeeper box but her own opinion of herself and her skill set. The way Claudia Black plays Aeryn's reactions to this throughout, both the early frustration and the childlike satisfaction later, made me feel Aeryn to be still very young, emotionally, I mean, not in years. (Which is of course also true of Pilot.) The big reveal here isn't that Aeryn is intelligent - of course she is, we've seen her be intelligent before - but that she considers herself so unsuited/incapable of anything other than flying or fighting to begin with, and that Pilot confiding in her about his own limitations helps her overcome them.
Meanwhile, D'Argo may be drugged into the agrarian life, but as his last scene with Zhaan points out, there really is a part of him who wants to settle down and wants a committed relationship to go with it. Again, it's this that makes this plot more than "danger of the week", because it remains true of D'Argo through the show, and it will impact on his later relationship with Chiana in key matters. (And thus we learn more about who D'Argo is beyond "Space Viking".) Before this rewatch, I had forgotten early Farscape played with some D'Argo/Zhaan subtext that petered out as they ended up with Chiana and Stark, respectively, but it's strongest here, as Zhaan says she would have accepted D'Argo's proposition. Mind you, I suspect it's less about D'Argo himself, though she clearly likes him, and more about a part of Zhaan, too, yearning for the idyll. Of course, Zhaan already did make a life-altering choice of that calibre. Unless it comes up in the episodes we skipped, this is also the first time Zhaan alludes to her pre-priestess days and calls herself "savage" during those. More of this to come.
Crichton in this episode experiences the second of many body invasions the show throws at him (the first being the translator nanites) as he gets a worm to ensure his immunity to the
Not played for a laugh but important: two distinguishing traits of early John Crichton - a) among the still learning how to live with each other crew, he's the one functioning as the "heart", refusing to leave D'Argo after D'Argo's first refusal to return (then again, he's also genre wise due to being a sci fi geek and thus knows something is up) which the others at this point still would have been ready to do, b) revealing the truth behind the exploitation of the Sykarans is important to him (as opposed to, say, just hitting Zhaan and D'Argo on the head and getting them back on Moya) once he's seen that the Peacekeepers are behind it and their leader wants to leave everyone to die, but c) he's not played as the inspiring hero actually leading the revolt. He provdes the information, but leaves it up to the Sykarans what to do with it. (BTW, given that everyone, not just the naturally immune small band of rebels, seems to snap out of hit at the reveal when earlier the insistance was that without the worm, this was impossible, the world building is less than consistent here. Then again, the revolution afterwards does not happen, and if the corrupt leader gets deposed, we don't see it, either.)
(Later season John also would not have led the revolt, but s4 Crichton might have considered poisoning all the tannot oil resources on the planet.)
The other days
