Farscape Rewatch: The Locket (2.16)
Nov. 8th, 2020 11:09 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakWiki summary: While travelling through a mist Aeryn scouts ahead for several hours, but when she emerges, she has aged 165 cycles. She informs Moya's crew that they have to leave lest they be trapped there forever. When she departs again, Crichton follows her only to get trapped on the planet with her, where he's forced to stay for several decades. Stark returns in this episode.
I remembered this episode as primarily mushy shipping material. Not in a bad way, and maybe "mellow" is a better term for what I mean. But that was my main memory of it, so what surprised me upon rewatch was that the "meanwhile on Moya" parts were in fact pretty dark. The concept of being frozen in time (so shortly after John's stint as a statue, eighty years of which I still think are an ideal recipe for driving anyone insane) by itself is chilling, but there are also the Chiana and D'Argo scenes tersely outlining why they're doomed as a couple. Chiana's "we're not going to make it, are we?", which I hadn't remembered, is way more self aware than I had recalled Chiana being at this point. It's also telling that D'Argo frames his objection as seeing Chiana rumaging through Aeryn's transport with Rygel as interpreting these actions as Chiana not regarding herself as a part of the crew. Which, not really? But this way, he can object in a way that makes it sound like concern for her, as oppposed to objecting to a reminder Chiana has far more in common with Rygel than with him.
I also found it interesting and that the entire crew (save Aeryn, who is at this point already dead) when faced with the alternative of spending their lives in peaceful rural agriculture or risking death by reverse starburst (followed by continuing their life of being hunted) picks the risky getaway. Some of it is that D'Argo and Rygel as well as John can't give up the dream seeing their home/family again (whether for love or vengeance) that has driven and sustained them for so long. But still, the alt-life Aeryn lived here would, in theory, be something you'd think the Moyans would prefer to being on the run and having near death experiences all the time. But no. They see it instead, I think, as a kind of comfortable, glorified prison.
Now, the Aeryn and John main plot is as mellow as I remember. Incidentally, since this episode makes it canon Sebaceans have at least double (if not more) the natural life span of Terrans, does this ever come up again? The two of them living out their lives together, with the fact Aeryn had reached old age before John joins her not making a bit of difference to his emotions, and also that she hides her admission of love behind a dare (and a locket) is very them. Long term wise, it does strike me that Aeryn in fact being able to accept this alternate life (even before John is also stranded there) with her family, "sole love of my life" or not, while John can't give up on the hope of returning shows their different degrees of obsession and also Aeryn's greater pragmatism. By letting Stark voice his multiverse explanation that means Aeryn's alt-family keeps existing in one universe, and by not letting either John or Aeryn (or anyone else) realize they might be able to reverse time and prevent the key incident ever taking place, the episode avoids the moral dilemma, which, say, DS9's "The Children of Time" makes central. No one in this episode has to choose between either stranding themselves, dying or wiping out Aeryn's child(ren) and granddaughter from existence. It would be a far darker episode otherwise, and since this is something of a breather, I understand why the scriptwriters avoided it. The crystallized picture in the locket falling into dust when John and Aeryn finally open it would make for a far different emotional impact if they hadn't. (I'm thinking Kira's stunned and not a little horrified face when Odo tells her what his Alt!Self did at the end of Children of Time.)
Lastly: Stark being abruptly back with minimal explanation as to why also starts Zhaan/Stark, which I remember not having been keen on. We'll see how I feel this time.
Trivia: the old age make-up for Claudia Black and Ben Browder is average for tv at that time, which is to say it's not that convincing. Something which never fails to make me marvel is that I, Claudius the BBC series from the 1970s manages with far less budget than American shows have nonetheless far more convincing old age makeup for not only Derek Jacobi as Claudius but pretty much everyone else whose character gets to age, including Sian Philipps as Livia. I once even had an argument with someone who swore that Jacobi was in his 60s at the very least when making that show and there was no way the older Claudius look was all make-up.
The Other Episodes
I remembered this episode as primarily mushy shipping material. Not in a bad way, and maybe "mellow" is a better term for what I mean. But that was my main memory of it, so what surprised me upon rewatch was that the "meanwhile on Moya" parts were in fact pretty dark. The concept of being frozen in time (so shortly after John's stint as a statue, eighty years of which I still think are an ideal recipe for driving anyone insane) by itself is chilling, but there are also the Chiana and D'Argo scenes tersely outlining why they're doomed as a couple. Chiana's "we're not going to make it, are we?", which I hadn't remembered, is way more self aware than I had recalled Chiana being at this point. It's also telling that D'Argo frames his objection as seeing Chiana rumaging through Aeryn's transport with Rygel as interpreting these actions as Chiana not regarding herself as a part of the crew. Which, not really? But this way, he can object in a way that makes it sound like concern for her, as oppposed to objecting to a reminder Chiana has far more in common with Rygel than with him.
I also found it interesting and that the entire crew (save Aeryn, who is at this point already dead) when faced with the alternative of spending their lives in peaceful rural agriculture or risking death by reverse starburst (followed by continuing their life of being hunted) picks the risky getaway. Some of it is that D'Argo and Rygel as well as John can't give up the dream seeing their home/family again (whether for love or vengeance) that has driven and sustained them for so long. But still, the alt-life Aeryn lived here would, in theory, be something you'd think the Moyans would prefer to being on the run and having near death experiences all the time. But no. They see it instead, I think, as a kind of comfortable, glorified prison.
Now, the Aeryn and John main plot is as mellow as I remember. Incidentally, since this episode makes it canon Sebaceans have at least double (if not more) the natural life span of Terrans, does this ever come up again? The two of them living out their lives together, with the fact Aeryn had reached old age before John joins her not making a bit of difference to his emotions, and also that she hides her admission of love behind a dare (and a locket) is very them. Long term wise, it does strike me that Aeryn in fact being able to accept this alternate life (even before John is also stranded there) with her family, "sole love of my life" or not, while John can't give up on the hope of returning shows their different degrees of obsession and also Aeryn's greater pragmatism. By letting Stark voice his multiverse explanation that means Aeryn's alt-family keeps existing in one universe, and by not letting either John or Aeryn (or anyone else) realize they might be able to reverse time and prevent the key incident ever taking place, the episode avoids the moral dilemma, which, say, DS9's "The Children of Time" makes central. No one in this episode has to choose between either stranding themselves, dying or wiping out Aeryn's child(ren) and granddaughter from existence. It would be a far darker episode otherwise, and since this is something of a breather, I understand why the scriptwriters avoided it. The crystallized picture in the locket falling into dust when John and Aeryn finally open it would make for a far different emotional impact if they hadn't. (I'm thinking Kira's stunned and not a little horrified face when Odo tells her what his Alt!Self did at the end of Children of Time.)
Lastly: Stark being abruptly back with minimal explanation as to why also starts Zhaan/Stark, which I remember not having been keen on. We'll see how I feel this time.
Trivia: the old age make-up for Claudia Black and Ben Browder is average for tv at that time, which is to say it's not that convincing. Something which never fails to make me marvel is that I, Claudius the BBC series from the 1970s manages with far less budget than American shows have nonetheless far more convincing old age makeup for not only Derek Jacobi as Claudius but pretty much everyone else whose character gets to age, including Sian Philipps as Livia. I once even had an argument with someone who swore that Jacobi was in his 60s at the very least when making that show and there was no way the older Claudius look was all make-up.
The Other Episodes
no subject
Date: 2020-11-08 11:26 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-11-08 12:55 pm (UTC)Now s4, I have an old rant about that, but I'll repeat it when we get there (and I still feel this way). So let's just say that "ZOMG, Scorpius must never find out I love Aeryn and would do anything for her!" is the most insulting-the-audience's-intelligence" writing of the entire show. And yet, even s4 has episodes which I love and wouldn't want to miss.
no subject
Date: 2020-11-08 10:31 pm (UTC)WELL I BLOCKED THAT ONE OUT. AAAAAAAAHAHHAA.
Oh yeah, I think S3 isn't bad, at all, it's just kind of retroactively coloured for me because Zhaan was close to my heart and I loved Crais and Talyn and isn't S3 where we get Grayza? and oh man, I could not handle Grayza's portrayal on many levels. (Same with Noranti.) ITA that S3 is still about the ensemble, but that pretty much gets destroyed by the finale. I just remember my reaction to "Die Me, Dichotomy"/"Season of Death" so vividly and it didn't kill my love for the show or anything, but the angst got turned up to 11 and it was mostly propelled by really bad plotting.
no subject
Date: 2020-11-09 05:53 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-11-08 12:26 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-11-08 12:42 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-11-08 10:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-11-08 07:33 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-11-09 05:54 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-11-14 07:36 pm (UTC)Don't know if you noticed, but old John's Southern accent is significantly stronger than most of the time in the show.
Also, before the reverse Starburst, Pilot yells "Kahaynu preserve us", which definitely shows how much he bought into the events of "Look at the Princess" being necessary.
And a plot hole that has always annoyed me in this episode - since she'd been living all that time on the planet and not been trapped in the pod, why was the pod completely overgrown with Zhaan's herbs when Aeryn got back?
no subject
Date: 2020-11-14 07:42 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-11-15 11:20 am (UTC)I hadn't noticed about Pilot calling for Kahaynu and what this implies! you're right, this shows he, unlike Zhaan, bought into the justification.