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selenakWiki summary: Struggling to accept the loss of Zhaan, Stark's power combines with goggles that look backward in time, which pulls Moya's crew back in time to the site of a legendary Peacekeeper battle.
Aaaaand we're back to the show making excellent episodes again. Mind you, the impact of this one today is somewhat different than it was back in the day. Back then, the only time travel episodes I was familiar with revolving around the "changing the past/fixing the changed past" gimmick had our heroes having to restore the altered worse past to the original good past again, usually by inserting themselves into the proceedings, and they succeeded. While these didn't always end on a cheerful note and involved tragedies (both TOS' City on the Edge of Forever and DS9' sPast Tense, part II had tragic deaths necessary to guarantee a "good" outcome), Farscape still stood out for a) the relentless "it gets worse and worse and worse" drive until the final twist, b) the eventual "fixed" outcome still being worse than the original, unmeddled with situation, for which our heroes still bear responsibility, and c) the changed past not affecting the universe at large or our heroes' lives themselves but "only" the planet/place in question (and its millions of inhabitants) - which does heighten rather than lessen the emotional impact and our heroes' attempt to resolve the situation.
But this was before grimdark became a thing. Rewatching the same episode now, it's not the darkness that stands out but the humanity; Aeryn and young Subofficer Dacon (spelling?), the cook, and the way she doesn't hold it against him when he at first crushes her hero image of him by being just a drafted kid; the way she mentors him, and bonds with him. John - who as a genre wise geek knows his time travel tropes - desperately trying first to avoid desaster and then to fix it, and at last, shattered by the recording of the murdered nurses crying out his name, finding mutual comfort with Aeryn. D'Argo and the kid. Rygel and Chiana in Zhaan's quarters, trying to be cynical and badly failing at it and at last confessing their grief for her. And the guest stars: both Dacon and the enemy general come across as sympathetic, and the terrified nurses are heartrendering.
This episode's Harvey scene has him as John's consultant again, but for the first time not in a situation where he's supposed to provide the "do the darker thing" advice. Harvey bringing up that he wouldn't know the melody he plays if John hadn't remembered various "last stand" US Westerns at this point throws an interesting light on how this brainsharing thing works: it seems Harvey without the chip cannot access John's memories at random but only if the association happens in John's mind anyway?
Also, not for the first time I think the eventual solution - the timeline is fixed in that peace did happen, the planet and its people are back into existence, but it's still not as it was before, terrible tragedy has happened and our heroes will have to live with it, though they have each other to bear the burden - in a way sums up John Crichton's arc through the show.
Trivia: Jool, alas, is still a one note annoying character. Stark fares slightly better, as he gets that scene with the nurse at the graves where he can be his compassionate, calm self instead of his mad, babbling self. The make up looks like it's cribbed from the 1980s Beauty and the Beast tv series, so I'm surprised John didn't make the connection (unless he did and I missed it by blinking out?).
The other days
Aaaaand we're back to the show making excellent episodes again. Mind you, the impact of this one today is somewhat different than it was back in the day. Back then, the only time travel episodes I was familiar with revolving around the "changing the past/fixing the changed past" gimmick had our heroes having to restore the altered worse past to the original good past again, usually by inserting themselves into the proceedings, and they succeeded. While these didn't always end on a cheerful note and involved tragedies (both TOS' City on the Edge of Forever and DS9' sPast Tense, part II had tragic deaths necessary to guarantee a "good" outcome), Farscape still stood out for a) the relentless "it gets worse and worse and worse" drive until the final twist, b) the eventual "fixed" outcome still being worse than the original, unmeddled with situation, for which our heroes still bear responsibility, and c) the changed past not affecting the universe at large or our heroes' lives themselves but "only" the planet/place in question (and its millions of inhabitants) - which does heighten rather than lessen the emotional impact and our heroes' attempt to resolve the situation.
But this was before grimdark became a thing. Rewatching the same episode now, it's not the darkness that stands out but the humanity; Aeryn and young Subofficer Dacon (spelling?), the cook, and the way she doesn't hold it against him when he at first crushes her hero image of him by being just a drafted kid; the way she mentors him, and bonds with him. John - who as a genre wise geek knows his time travel tropes - desperately trying first to avoid desaster and then to fix it, and at last, shattered by the recording of the murdered nurses crying out his name, finding mutual comfort with Aeryn. D'Argo and the kid. Rygel and Chiana in Zhaan's quarters, trying to be cynical and badly failing at it and at last confessing their grief for her. And the guest stars: both Dacon and the enemy general come across as sympathetic, and the terrified nurses are heartrendering.
This episode's Harvey scene has him as John's consultant again, but for the first time not in a situation where he's supposed to provide the "do the darker thing" advice. Harvey bringing up that he wouldn't know the melody he plays if John hadn't remembered various "last stand" US Westerns at this point throws an interesting light on how this brainsharing thing works: it seems Harvey without the chip cannot access John's memories at random but only if the association happens in John's mind anyway?
Also, not for the first time I think the eventual solution - the timeline is fixed in that peace did happen, the planet and its people are back into existence, but it's still not as it was before, terrible tragedy has happened and our heroes will have to live with it, though they have each other to bear the burden - in a way sums up John Crichton's arc through the show.
Trivia: Jool, alas, is still a one note annoying character. Stark fares slightly better, as he gets that scene with the nurse at the graves where he can be his compassionate, calm self instead of his mad, babbling self. The make up looks like it's cribbed from the 1980s Beauty and the Beast tv series, so I'm surprised John didn't make the connection (unless he did and I missed it by blinking out?).
The other days
no subject
Date: 2021-09-23 04:14 am (UTC)