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selenakWiki Summary: Returning to Earth through a wormhole, Crichton receives an unfriendly welcome but is reunited with his father. Aeryn, D'Argo and Rygel arrive to rescue Crichton but receive less than humane treatment.
When first watching the show, this was another of those episodes that made me sit up and really pay attention. And btw, can't say I figured the big twist out before Crichton did, though upon rewatch, the episode is really careful to play fair and plant clues; it's mentioned several times Crichton has been in Australia before, that he knows Wilson, his request about the baseball news - or any kind of news post his departure - remains unanswered and no one tells him anything he did not already know. Now obviously, I didn't expect the show to end two thirds in to its first season with Crichton's return to Earth, so I thought something would happen, but mostly I thought the something was him leaving again in disgust, and yes, I thought they killed Rygel.
The contemporary context to view the episode in has much changed. I mean, twelve years old me found the scenes where the US government invades Eliot's mom's home in E.T. and everyone Ends up in a lab incredibly scary, but in the end the government people did not actually do anything bad, they did try to save E.T., back in ye olde 80s. Even years later, in 1999 when this episode was first broadcast, the depiction of the US government forces and the US in general in American genre media was more positive than not. (Excepting theX-Files where everyone was in a conspiracy.) So this worst case scenario of John Crichton's mind in how an encounter between his home planet and his alien friends could go came across as startlingly self critical and self aware. Fast forward to twenty years later, and yeah, no kidding, John. No kidding. (Mind you, if Crichton had come home to an earth where the Orange Menace was President and the entire Republican Party had fallen in line while similar evil clowns rose to the top in other countries throughout the globe, he'd have suspected an alien mind game set up much earlier.)
On a Doylist level, I admire the tightness of the construction: Crichton has his one joyful moment on the beach upon arrival, and things go relentlessly downhill from there. (Also, observe the careful details - the blonde he sees does not talk to him because she's based on a memory of a woman walking past him and he has no idea what her voice sounded like. Otoh, since no one on Earth has translator microbes, we do get to hear Aeryn, Rygel and D'Argo speak in their own languages - which Crichton has briefly heard at least for D'Argo and Rygel, and I assume that since Aeryn is really there, the Ancients based her language on what it was.) On a Watsonian one, I'm gripped despite knowing the twist, not least because in retrospect this is a big turning point for the show in general and John Crichton in particular. (Thanks, not!Jack.) Incidentally, I forget which vidder it was that observed it was a great visual gift that the wormhole has the same shade of blue like Crichton's and Scorpius' eyes.
Also because it really puts you through the wringer along with the main character, whose dream of a homecoming turns into a first class nightmare, and that he has these fears subconsciously is also very telling about who John is. Not just in the sense that seven months in the Unchartered Territories have made him more suspicious and less willing to assume good motives, because this innate distrust of human nature when faced with the alien evidently predates Earth, no matter how often he tells Aeryn she'd be welcomed. The sight of a dissected (vivisected?) Rygel still is a punch in the gut, no matter that I know Rygel is fine and will remain with us till the end of the show and then some. It's a vicious and viciously effective visual for the, excuse the lack of a better term, dehumanisation of the alien (in both senses of the word alien).
Mind you: on a Watsonian level I do wonder why Rygel has come along on the rescue Crichton mission. I mean, I know why he had to on Doylist terms (Rygel is the most alien looking and most physically helpless, and thus it's believable they'd with him, then move to D'Argo), but since we learn at the end of the episode that Aeryn, Rygel and D'Argo really were all there, not just their minds or avatars or whatever: Aeryn and D'Argo to the rescue makes sense, but was Rygel curious about Earth? Did Zhaan think he would be better at negotiating with the local authorities than Aeyn and D'Argo and pushed him to go along? Did he face his grudging fondness for the irritating human? What?
Aeryn being really there also means this is when the UST between leading man and leading lady becomes RST as of this episode, not that this solves much between John and Aeryn emotionally, but in terms of tv conventions where UST, especially in the late 90s, a) got dragged out endlessly, and b) if solved, did so in a very special episode (tm), the way it happens here is pretty casual. Speaking of Aeryn, the way she's delighted with the rain is such a neat detail and reminder she grew up on space ships and space stations. But given how things go here, it's a wonder she wasn't more paranoid when she finally does make it to Earth in s4.
Question, though: Aeryn saying Peacekeepers wouldn't dissect their prisoners in labs. Is this Aeryn still deluding herself, or are we supposed to believe our soon to be introduced main antagonist picked up the habit solely from the Scarran side of his heritage?
Trivia: Australia does look great. Where exactly did they film this?
The Other Days
When first watching the show, this was another of those episodes that made me sit up and really pay attention. And btw, can't say I figured the big twist out before Crichton did, though upon rewatch, the episode is really careful to play fair and plant clues; it's mentioned several times Crichton has been in Australia before, that he knows Wilson, his request about the baseball news - or any kind of news post his departure - remains unanswered and no one tells him anything he did not already know. Now obviously, I didn't expect the show to end two thirds in to its first season with Crichton's return to Earth, so I thought something would happen, but mostly I thought the something was him leaving again in disgust, and yes, I thought they killed Rygel.
The contemporary context to view the episode in has much changed. I mean, twelve years old me found the scenes where the US government invades Eliot's mom's home in E.T. and everyone Ends up in a lab incredibly scary, but in the end the government people did not actually do anything bad, they did try to save E.T., back in ye olde 80s. Even years later, in 1999 when this episode was first broadcast, the depiction of the US government forces and the US in general in American genre media was more positive than not. (Excepting theX-Files where everyone was in a conspiracy.) So this worst case scenario of John Crichton's mind in how an encounter between his home planet and his alien friends could go came across as startlingly self critical and self aware. Fast forward to twenty years later, and yeah, no kidding, John. No kidding. (Mind you, if Crichton had come home to an earth where the Orange Menace was President and the entire Republican Party had fallen in line while similar evil clowns rose to the top in other countries throughout the globe, he'd have suspected an alien mind game set up much earlier.)
On a Doylist level, I admire the tightness of the construction: Crichton has his one joyful moment on the beach upon arrival, and things go relentlessly downhill from there. (Also, observe the careful details - the blonde he sees does not talk to him because she's based on a memory of a woman walking past him and he has no idea what her voice sounded like. Otoh, since no one on Earth has translator microbes, we do get to hear Aeryn, Rygel and D'Argo speak in their own languages - which Crichton has briefly heard at least for D'Argo and Rygel, and I assume that since Aeryn is really there, the Ancients based her language on what it was.) On a Watsonian one, I'm gripped despite knowing the twist, not least because in retrospect this is a big turning point for the show in general and John Crichton in particular. (Thanks, not!Jack.) Incidentally, I forget which vidder it was that observed it was a great visual gift that the wormhole has the same shade of blue like Crichton's and Scorpius' eyes.
Also because it really puts you through the wringer along with the main character, whose dream of a homecoming turns into a first class nightmare, and that he has these fears subconsciously is also very telling about who John is. Not just in the sense that seven months in the Unchartered Territories have made him more suspicious and less willing to assume good motives, because this innate distrust of human nature when faced with the alien evidently predates Earth, no matter how often he tells Aeryn she'd be welcomed. The sight of a dissected (vivisected?) Rygel still is a punch in the gut, no matter that I know Rygel is fine and will remain with us till the end of the show and then some. It's a vicious and viciously effective visual for the, excuse the lack of a better term, dehumanisation of the alien (in both senses of the word alien).
Mind you: on a Watsonian level I do wonder why Rygel has come along on the rescue Crichton mission. I mean, I know why he had to on Doylist terms (Rygel is the most alien looking and most physically helpless, and thus it's believable they'd with him, then move to D'Argo), but since we learn at the end of the episode that Aeryn, Rygel and D'Argo really were all there, not just their minds or avatars or whatever: Aeryn and D'Argo to the rescue makes sense, but was Rygel curious about Earth? Did Zhaan think he would be better at negotiating with the local authorities than Aeyn and D'Argo and pushed him to go along? Did he face his grudging fondness for the irritating human? What?
Aeryn being really there also means this is when the UST between leading man and leading lady becomes RST as of this episode, not that this solves much between John and Aeryn emotionally, but in terms of tv conventions where UST, especially in the late 90s, a) got dragged out endlessly, and b) if solved, did so in a very special episode (tm), the way it happens here is pretty casual. Speaking of Aeryn, the way she's delighted with the rain is such a neat detail and reminder she grew up on space ships and space stations. But given how things go here, it's a wonder she wasn't more paranoid when she finally does make it to Earth in s4.
Question, though: Aeryn saying Peacekeepers wouldn't dissect their prisoners in labs. Is this Aeryn still deluding herself, or are we supposed to believe our soon to be introduced main antagonist picked up the habit solely from the Scarran side of his heritage?
Trivia: Australia does look great. Where exactly did they film this?
The Other Days
no subject
Date: 2020-06-21 11:17 am (UTC)(I'll have more to say on this episode later - at the moment I'm rather busy. I'll just say now that the sight of Rygel's dissected body has stuck with me more vividly than any other image from the first season. It was horribly shocking the first time I saw it!)
no subject
Date: 2020-06-21 01:23 pm (UTC)Yeah, that image of Rygel still makes me shiver. I haven't watched ep 1.16 in several years, but I immediately knew the scene you meant, and I immediately recalled it vividly. And I felt the same horror and rage just picturing that scene that I did the very first time I watched it.
As for Aeryn, she might just be making a rhetorical point, rather than deluding herself. John understandably hates the Peacekeepers, and she knows that. She has very bitter memories of the Peacekeepers, and John knows that. She's effectively telling him, "Your species are just as cruel as, maybe crueller, than my species."
no subject
Date: 2020-06-21 04:06 pm (UTC)re: Aeryn - could be, or
Rygel: I knew it was coming since I had remembered it vividly as well, but still - seeing it again was utterly shudder-worthy.
no subject
Date: 2020-06-21 09:33 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-06-22 12:23 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-06-21 02:39 pm (UTC)I think she's still a little reluctant to totally throw away everything she grew up with. "At least we wouldn't do THIS" isn't a great thing to hold on to, but it's not nothing.
no subject
Date: 2020-06-21 04:04 pm (UTC)"Like a bolt of thunder from the blue"
Date: 2020-06-21 05:06 pm (UTC)The memory may cheat, but I remember both shows constantly doing episodes where the main characters were given an opportunity to return to Earth, or actually doing so, and (a) it turning out to be a fake; (b) activating it required doing something grossly immoral; or (c) it was time-limited and they nobly let it go in order to save the downtrodden-person-in-need-of-help of the week. And the constant emotional manipulativeness of it really gave me a distaste for episodes of this type.
Nevertheless, this is a really good example. I didn't remember from my previous viewing of the episode how dark the depiction of John's reception is right from the beginning, even before Aeryn, D'Argo and Rygel turn up. And John really seems damaged in this episode, in a way we only saw briefly before in "Back and Back and Back to the Future". As you say, even though it turns out to have been all a fake-out, he's still been confronted with what he genuinely fears would happen to people he's come to care for if he brought them home with him.
I do wonder at what point all three of the others knew that it was a fake - whether they were told in advance or whether they only had it explained to them once they were taken "offstage". There is that moment where Aeryn says something to "Jack" in Sebacean that isn't translated for us, and he says "Thank you, Aeryn Sun", which makes me wonder if she was consciously acting by that point.
The question of whether Aeryn was in on it maybe explains why John and Aeryn sleeping together for the first time here doesn't have any immediate consequences for their relationship and isn't brought up again, as if she knew that they weren't really in danger there might possibly be some dubcon issues. Also, apparently the original US broadcast of it cut the relevant scenes entirely.
I've read that Aeryn's reaction to the rain was Claudia Black's own idea, imagining that she'd never encountered it before having spent all her life on spaceships.
A final note - John's joyful "Hello sky!" when he first arrives on the beach is a pop culture reference, to something that one wouldn't expect an American necessarily to know about, the molesworth boarding school comedy novels by Geoffrey Willans and Ronald Searle.
Re: "Like a bolt of thunder from the blue"
Date: 2020-06-22 05:15 am (UTC)Same. I remembered what happened to Rygel vividly, but not stuff like John getting locked up from the start and operated on so that they discover the translator microbes. Incidentally, it does occur to me that it's probably telling that not!Jack, while providing a sympathetic ear, doesn't actually do anything helpful until the reveal, which is perhaps telling in how John subconsciously sees his father, despite the very real affection and hero worship.
I do wonder at what point all three of the others knew that it was a fake - whether they were told in advance or whether they only had it explained to them once they were taken "offstage".
I think the later. Not least because none of these three are very trusting people, and why the hell should they believe these aliens are benevolent as opposed to another version of Maldis playing mind games? Surely D'Argo and Aeryn at least would have tried to give John a hint if they believed they had to play along to play for time since these Ancients were so powerful. Again, none of their previous encounters would have justified the idea that people who wanted to play an elaborate mind game were in any way or shape to be trusted.
The moment between Aeryn and "Jack" I interpreted as her telling Crichton's father something which she normally would be too embarassed to say out loud due to sappyness, but figures it's safe to say because this human doesn't understand her, like "I promise I'll look after him", or "I care deeply about your son". (On a Doylist Level, of course, it's a clue to the audience that this isn't actually Jack Crichton, including the fact that he uses her full name, and John only refered to her as "Aeryn" in his hearing.)
Re: "Like a bolt of thunder from the blue"
Date: 2020-06-22 06:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-06-22 06:03 am (UTC)I thought Aeryn addressing "Jack" and "Jack" appearing to understand her was another clue.
Well strictly speaking, Farscape is a US/Australian/British production, so I'd expect more cynicism from it than from a purely American product. That said, post 9/11 the paranoia in "A Human Reaction" seems that little bit more realistic.
On a Watsonian level, I wonder why the Moyans mounted a rescue Crichton mission at all! As far as they were concerned, there was nothing to indicate that everything wasn't fine and dandy with Crichton. Where Rygel is concerned you could make the argument that he's the team negotiator (Aeryn and D'Argo tend to prefer a, er, more physical approach). Also, knowing Rygel, I wonder if he was hoping for something tasty to eat on Earth? He's probably had to listen to Crichton extolling the virtues of chocolate, fries, pizza and beer for the last seven month. *g*
Thinking about images from this episode that have stuck in my mind (that scene with Rygel!) the sight of Aeryn sticking her tongue out in the rain remained vivid, as did the scene where Crichton flung open the door of the ladies room ... only to discover nothing but orange swirly light.
Lastly I have to say that Aeryn looked all sorts of wrong in that floral dress--and since as far as I know, Claudia Black does not look wrong and awkward in dresses, all credit to her acting wearing it!
no subject
Date: 2020-06-22 06:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-06-23 12:13 am (UTC)