Farscape Rewatch: The Flax (1.13)
Jun. 7th, 2020 08:17 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakWiki summary: John's flying lessons with Aeryn come to an abrupt end when he is caught in a net left by Zenetian pirates to trap ships. D'Argo must choose between potentially finding his son and rescuing John and Aeryn.
I had remembered this episode was when John and Aeryn first kiss, but I hadn't recalled the D'Argo and the Rygel storylines. Or Pilot's snarky way of ending the bickering early in the tale. Good for you, Pilot! Because Rygel is pretty childish early on, the misdirect re: his game playing works - as does the reveal then that he really did know the entire time what he was doing, including using Staanz' game strategy in order ensure the pirates really did know the Moya crew had met him, and getting rid of the pirates with a planted false lead. As I recall, in an s3 episode commentary (when talking about the negotiation scenes between Rygel and Scorpius) either Rockne O'Bannon or David Kemper say Rygel and Scorpius are arguably the most intelligent people on the show.
In another show, I'd say D'Argo picking saving John and Aeryn over potentially finding a way home was predictable, but given just a few episodes ago, he was willing to cut Pilot's arm off, this is not true for s1 Farscape. Also, the episode lets him take his time making this right decision, during which John and Aeryn could have died at any point, and doesn't let him off the hook later for it but has D'Argo himself point it out. It's part of what makes Farsape Farscape and the characters more dimensional; D'Argo now feels an amount of solidarity and responsibility for his shipmates, but the urge to reunite with his son is as strong as ever, and when the two get into conflict, he won't automatically make the noble and selfless choice.
However: as I mentioned briefly in last week's post, during this rewatch I found myself annoyed by the pay off to D'Argo's interacton with Staanz, the "female of my species" gag. Not the gag per se, I guess, but Staanz suddenly speaking higher, fluttering his eye lashes, in short, displaying cliché "feminine" traits when declaring his attraction to D'Argo. (D'Argo's response being the same as Beverly Crusher's when the first Trill the ST universe gets to know shows up with a female host, I would add that for all it's determined "we're not Star Trek" stance, this still shows the episode as a child of roughly the same tv era.) In combination with John and Aeryn, while trying to rationalize their kiss, telling each other they'd have done the same thing if John had been with Zhaan or Aeryn with D'Argo in such an emergency situation, it's, what's the word these days, a bit gender and sexualit essentialist, which wasn't my memory of the show.
Meanwhile in the main plot: Farscape milkes the "two people locked in an emergency situation rescue each other and reveal their feelings, then hastily retreat when they survive" trope and does it really well. Incidentally, Crichton needing to be taught how to pilot the Trans Pod instead of magically knowing how to do it because he's such a hot shot pilot is another pleasant way Farscape was different from standard sci fi fare back then, especially since it's part of an ongoing theme of Crichton perceived as slow and backward by most people he meets in the Uncharted Territories, including his shipmates. Now he is intelligent, both in a scientic and in a practical way (the episode offers yet another example by him teaching Aeryn the CPR in case her Peacekeeper chemical fails to revive him) , but he's also in a completely different environment where he has to learn nearly everything from scratch. (I wonder whether any of the creative team were taking a cue form the tv version of Shogun. Now in the source novel, readers got to know various povs and of course knew what the Japanese characters were saying (and thinking), but one of the key decisions there, which was as far as I know unprecedent for American tv, had been to render the entire Japanese dialogue - i.e. two thirds of the dialogue spoken on the show - in Japanese for the tv version, hardly ever subtitled, so both the main character Blackthorne and the audience knew only what was said if a translator was at hand or by slowly picking up bits of the language, which really heightened the sense of the main character being lost in a different world where he has to learn everything anew.)
While the kiss, welcome as it is as the culmination of all that build up, shows the chemistry between the leads at its best, to me the great emotional pay off is a bit earlier, i.e. Aeryn deciding she can't let John die to save herself even if that means they'll die a bit later together anyway. It's irrational, and it's not even a "sacrificing your own life for another" scenario: this, I think, is when she faces she's not just attracted to John but has fallen in love, and being Aeryn, it doesn't come with a verbal declaration but with bringing him back to life so they can half half an hour together.
Something else: when I first watched the show way back when, I was expecting it to artificially drag out the John/Aeryn UST for many a season, as per usual for tv at that time, so I rolled my eyes a bit when D'Argo burst in because I had expected something like this. Knowing this won't be the case, I this time around chuckled and thought, yeah, this never happens in "we're dying, so let's have sex" fanfiction.
Lastly, trivia: You know, D'Argo, the show has gone through a great deal to emphasize how much your wife and son mean to you. You therefore should be familiar with pregnancies.
The Other Days
I had remembered this episode was when John and Aeryn first kiss, but I hadn't recalled the D'Argo and the Rygel storylines. Or Pilot's snarky way of ending the bickering early in the tale. Good for you, Pilot! Because Rygel is pretty childish early on, the misdirect re: his game playing works - as does the reveal then that he really did know the entire time what he was doing, including using Staanz' game strategy in order ensure the pirates really did know the Moya crew had met him, and getting rid of the pirates with a planted false lead. As I recall, in an s3 episode commentary (when talking about the negotiation scenes between Rygel and Scorpius) either Rockne O'Bannon or David Kemper say Rygel and Scorpius are arguably the most intelligent people on the show.
In another show, I'd say D'Argo picking saving John and Aeryn over potentially finding a way home was predictable, but given just a few episodes ago, he was willing to cut Pilot's arm off, this is not true for s1 Farscape. Also, the episode lets him take his time making this right decision, during which John and Aeryn could have died at any point, and doesn't let him off the hook later for it but has D'Argo himself point it out. It's part of what makes Farsape Farscape and the characters more dimensional; D'Argo now feels an amount of solidarity and responsibility for his shipmates, but the urge to reunite with his son is as strong as ever, and when the two get into conflict, he won't automatically make the noble and selfless choice.
However: as I mentioned briefly in last week's post, during this rewatch I found myself annoyed by the pay off to D'Argo's interacton with Staanz, the "female of my species" gag. Not the gag per se, I guess, but Staanz suddenly speaking higher, fluttering his eye lashes, in short, displaying cliché "feminine" traits when declaring his attraction to D'Argo. (D'Argo's response being the same as Beverly Crusher's when the first Trill the ST universe gets to know shows up with a female host, I would add that for all it's determined "we're not Star Trek" stance, this still shows the episode as a child of roughly the same tv era.) In combination with John and Aeryn, while trying to rationalize their kiss, telling each other they'd have done the same thing if John had been with Zhaan or Aeryn with D'Argo in such an emergency situation, it's, what's the word these days, a bit gender and sexualit essentialist, which wasn't my memory of the show.
Meanwhile in the main plot: Farscape milkes the "two people locked in an emergency situation rescue each other and reveal their feelings, then hastily retreat when they survive" trope and does it really well. Incidentally, Crichton needing to be taught how to pilot the Trans Pod instead of magically knowing how to do it because he's such a hot shot pilot is another pleasant way Farscape was different from standard sci fi fare back then, especially since it's part of an ongoing theme of Crichton perceived as slow and backward by most people he meets in the Uncharted Territories, including his shipmates. Now he is intelligent, both in a scientic and in a practical way (the episode offers yet another example by him teaching Aeryn the CPR in case her Peacekeeper chemical fails to revive him) , but he's also in a completely different environment where he has to learn nearly everything from scratch. (I wonder whether any of the creative team were taking a cue form the tv version of Shogun. Now in the source novel, readers got to know various povs and of course knew what the Japanese characters were saying (and thinking), but one of the key decisions there, which was as far as I know unprecedent for American tv, had been to render the entire Japanese dialogue - i.e. two thirds of the dialogue spoken on the show - in Japanese for the tv version, hardly ever subtitled, so both the main character Blackthorne and the audience knew only what was said if a translator was at hand or by slowly picking up bits of the language, which really heightened the sense of the main character being lost in a different world where he has to learn everything anew.)
While the kiss, welcome as it is as the culmination of all that build up, shows the chemistry between the leads at its best, to me the great emotional pay off is a bit earlier, i.e. Aeryn deciding she can't let John die to save herself even if that means they'll die a bit later together anyway. It's irrational, and it's not even a "sacrificing your own life for another" scenario: this, I think, is when she faces she's not just attracted to John but has fallen in love, and being Aeryn, it doesn't come with a verbal declaration but with bringing him back to life so they can half half an hour together.
Something else: when I first watched the show way back when, I was expecting it to artificially drag out the John/Aeryn UST for many a season, as per usual for tv at that time, so I rolled my eyes a bit when D'Argo burst in because I had expected something like this. Knowing this won't be the case, I this time around chuckled and thought, yeah, this never happens in "we're dying, so let's have sex" fanfiction.
Lastly, trivia: You know, D'Argo, the show has gone through a great deal to emphasize how much your wife and son mean to you. You therefore should be familiar with pregnancies.
The Other Days
no subject
Date: 2020-06-07 09:00 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-06-07 11:22 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-06-07 01:13 pm (UTC)Some scenes from the book really do stick in the memory.
no subject
Date: 2020-06-07 11:47 am (UTC)Now I had the opposite reaction: I remembered the Rygel and D'Argo subplots (at least the part where Stanz tells D'Argo she's the female of her species). But then again, I was never a great John/Aeyrn shipper, especially after the relationship became all angsty UST.
As the first season progresses. I seem to be becoming more and more of a Rygel fan--though looking over my left shoulder I can see a tiny Rygel action figure, which indicates I always thought him a pretty special character.
(Veering slightly off topic--I've been watching the episodes we decided to leave out of this little rewatch. "I, ET" was pretty *meh*, but I'm slightly puzzled why we decided to skip over "Exodus from Genesis". True, it's not the greatest episode of the 1st season, but it has some fantastic crew interactions and character building, and we get to Sebacean heat delerium for the first time, which is going to lead to many fruitful plot point in the future.)
no subject
Date: 2020-06-07 03:49 pm (UTC)"Exodus from Genesis": I did ask in several posts, and there were several votes against this episode. Since I don't have any feelings about it myself, I decided to follow suit and skip.
no subject
Date: 2020-06-07 01:58 pm (UTC)I don't think I noticed this the previous time I watched the episode, but Staanz has a leg brace that is very similar to that worn by Mel Gibson in the second and third Mad Max films, which makes the implied reference in her general character design very explicit.
In relation to episode ordering, I think that this episode should be after "Rhapsody In Blue", as Zhaan's unusual irritability with Rygel and D'Argo at the beginning implies that her loss of emotional serenity there is still having effects on her.
no subject
Date: 2020-06-07 03:43 pm (UTC)Agreed, and I suspect otherwise she might tried more to negotiate with the pirates herself, especially since she assumed Rygel was blowing it.
Mad Max allusion: good Lord, yes, especially given this is a show shot in Australia. Were there any shared actors?
Very true about Rygel.
no subject
Date: 2020-06-07 04:13 pm (UTC)Virginia Hey (Zhaan) played one of the good guys, the unnamed but significant Warrior Woman, in the second film, The Road Warrior.
Hugh Keays-Byrne, who played Grunchlk in Farscape, was the top villain Toecutter in the original Mad Max, and then returned to play the top villain Immortan Joe (probably a different character) in the most recent film Fury Road.
And Melissa Jaffer, who played Noranti in the final seasons of Farscape (after previously playing old!Nilaam in "Vitas Mortis" and the female Pilot in "The Way We Weren't") appeared in Fury Road as one of the feminist biker gang who Furiosa was abducted from as a girl and who she leads back to conquer the citadel at the end of the film. At the age of almost eighty, she still did some of the less dangerous motorbike-riding herself.
no subject
Date: 2020-06-08 02:35 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-06-08 07:25 am (UTC)*getting all the Rygel feels*
no subject
Date: 2020-06-07 04:56 pm (UTC)