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selenakWiki summary: Crichton and the crew of Moya are brought on board Scorpius's command carrier to assist him against the Scarrans, but secretly plans on delaying Scorpius's research. Aeryn meets an old friend among the crew, and Crais is reunited with his previous second-in-command and lover. Crichton and Scorpius are interrupted by the arrival of Grayza, a Peacekeeper Commandant who is attempting to negotiate truces with other races and believes that the wormhole research threatens that. She has Crichton attacked, and the alliance is on the verge of falling apart when Scorpius reveals that he knows of Earth's location, and that if Crichton does not cooperate he will have it destroyed.
Gentle readers, it was hard not to watch the second part immediately, but I managed. Anyway: whereas my general opinion of the third season upon this rewatch is that it had more downsides than I recalled, the highlights are as great as ever, and this episode definitely is among them. Also, it never struck me before that Crichton & Co. really start this entire endeavour with a no more definite plan than "somehow foil Scorpius' wormhole research for good", which is insane even for our lot. Mind you, given that previous plans have had a tendency to be derailed mid happening, perhaps they have a point when deciding to improvise upon learning the lay of the land, so to speak.
It also struck me that Scorpius unknowingly gets so very close to fullfilling his dream and then self sabotages in a spectacular fashion. To wit, MoyaJohn in this episode comes across as more than half convinced by the Scorpian pov; that the war not just between Scarrans and Peacekeepers but between Scarrans and all other species is an existential one and that he needs the wormhole technology to save the rest of the galaxy from their otherwise very likely fate of being subjugated. That this Crichton's emotional response is different from both Neuralclone John (when Scorpius makes his case in Incubator) and TalynJohn (who never had reason to regard Scorpius as anything but bad news) is intriguing and yet plausible. NeuralJohn is a clone taken from the moment when John was getting operated on, with the awareness that Aeryn died, courtesy of himself and Scorpius. ("Where is my revenge?" indeed.) TalynJohn did communicate with his inner Harvey, but nowhere to the extent that MoyaJohn did, and also, due to the emotional focus on Aeryn, his wormhole fascination did not grow to the same extent. Whereas MoyaJohn has come to trust his Harvey at least to a certain degree (including his assessment as to whether or not Scorpius is lying, and to believe Harvey's explanation as to why Scorpius can't tell Crichton is, which btw is one of the more inspired writerely excuses for how the plot works despite a key fact established about Scorpius in s1) and has himself experienced what it is to give in to wormholes-above-all as a scientist.
And then, of course, Scorpius overdoes it and tries to blackmail John by using Earth as a leverage. This provides the viewer with another homoerotic bodyslamming scene, but it basically kills his chance at getting genuine cooperation from John Crichton. It's his biggest mistake on the show so far, and I wonder whether he later realizes this. Otoh, this, too, comes about in a plausible way, given that Scorpius is now under immediate threat of losing his command and thus his time table has moved up to a degree we haven't seen yet. (There's also the obvious parallel to s1 Crais, presumably not lost on the people who served under both.) I'm still not a fan of Grayza (I've watched Servalan; you, Commandant, are no Servalan), but given the kind of organisation the Peacekeepers are, it makes sense that they wouldn't give Scorpius authority endlessly and without competition or supervision if he can't deliver tangible results.
Both Aeryn and Crais get confronted with their past in this episode, though their cases as ex PKs are slightly different. Aeryn's original departure really wasn't in any way her fault, and up to this point, she had served the Peacekeepers loyally and without reservation. Otoh, Crais even by PK standards had abused his command; he'd killed his second, Teeg, (more about this in a moment) to hide the fact he was using said command to pursue a personal vendetta without authorisation and in fact against the expressed wishes of his superiors, and his actions before deserting were never to the benefit of anyone but himself (or rather, his revenge). No wonder Braca (and others) switched their loyalties to Scorpius, who did give the impression of serving the greater good (and no wonder that starts to be questioned at this point of the plot). Of course, Aeryn was born into the service, while Crais always had memories of another life and non-PK emotional ties. In this episode, Aeryn doesn't come across as doubting her choice not to return to the PKs once that was possible, but she does come across as still very much caring about her former comrades. Meanwhile, it might be in the eyes of the beholder, but given how poor Teeg ended up, I never bought Crais actually caring about Larell, and on this rewatch, too, saw what he's doing in this episode as the same kind of emotional manipulation he used on Teeg pre death. Also, while Crais' resentment against Scorpius for taking his command is of course powerful, I never had the impression that he cares about the PKs (on this or any other ship) per se, or regrets losing old relationships the way Aeryn does. (People Crais cares about: his dead brother, Talyn and Aeryn. He also has come to respect Crichton and the rest of the Moyans, but in terms of genuine affection, I think it's limited to these three.) Conversely, that's why I don't think he minds what Braca & Co. think of him now, whereas Aeryn does mind, hence her pointing out to her former friend that she's following the same ideals as ever, only she's seen she can't do so as a Peacekeeper given what she has realised about the organisation.
Incidentally, all the scenes with Aeryn on the command carrier: that's exactly the kind of thing that was needed for Finn in the Star Wars sequels and which he never got.
Trivia: another hint that Sebaceans and Americans have shared ancestors! They attend their saunas wrapped up in clothing. (Sorry, couldn't resist.)
Lastly: Grayza's idea of making alliances and to negotiate with Scarrans comes across slightly differently in this rewatch to me than it did back in the day. By which I mean: back then, I saw it as a variation of the same trope JMS uses in s2 of Babylon 5. Have someone suggest negotiating with a designated evil villain bent on conquest, and in case the audience doesn't get this would totally be the wrong thing to do, have someone use the term "appeasement". And/or "peace in our time". (There's of course the double irony for both B5 and Farscape that in fact the conflicts in which this trope is used do not get resolved by a complete military defeat of the designated bad guy but with, gulp, negotiation. The occupation of Narn doesn't end via a successful Narn uprising and/or Narn allies coming to the rescue, it ends with a personal negotiation between Londo and G'Kar. The Peacekeeper/Scarran conflict ends with a third party supervising negotiations and numbing down everyone's aggressive instincts. Decades later, I'm wondering whether Grayza was meant to be as wrong as that or whether the Farscape team was already aware that however their show would end, it definitely would not be with a clear victory for either party, and that there might be negotiations involved.
The other episodes
Gentle readers, it was hard not to watch the second part immediately, but I managed. Anyway: whereas my general opinion of the third season upon this rewatch is that it had more downsides than I recalled, the highlights are as great as ever, and this episode definitely is among them. Also, it never struck me before that Crichton & Co. really start this entire endeavour with a no more definite plan than "somehow foil Scorpius' wormhole research for good", which is insane even for our lot. Mind you, given that previous plans have had a tendency to be derailed mid happening, perhaps they have a point when deciding to improvise upon learning the lay of the land, so to speak.
It also struck me that Scorpius unknowingly gets so very close to fullfilling his dream and then self sabotages in a spectacular fashion. To wit, MoyaJohn in this episode comes across as more than half convinced by the Scorpian pov; that the war not just between Scarrans and Peacekeepers but between Scarrans and all other species is an existential one and that he needs the wormhole technology to save the rest of the galaxy from their otherwise very likely fate of being subjugated. That this Crichton's emotional response is different from both Neuralclone John (when Scorpius makes his case in Incubator) and TalynJohn (who never had reason to regard Scorpius as anything but bad news) is intriguing and yet plausible. NeuralJohn is a clone taken from the moment when John was getting operated on, with the awareness that Aeryn died, courtesy of himself and Scorpius. ("Where is my revenge?" indeed.) TalynJohn did communicate with his inner Harvey, but nowhere to the extent that MoyaJohn did, and also, due to the emotional focus on Aeryn, his wormhole fascination did not grow to the same extent. Whereas MoyaJohn has come to trust his Harvey at least to a certain degree (including his assessment as to whether or not Scorpius is lying, and to believe Harvey's explanation as to why Scorpius can't tell Crichton is, which btw is one of the more inspired writerely excuses for how the plot works despite a key fact established about Scorpius in s1) and has himself experienced what it is to give in to wormholes-above-all as a scientist.
And then, of course, Scorpius overdoes it and tries to blackmail John by using Earth as a leverage. This provides the viewer with another homoerotic bodyslamming scene, but it basically kills his chance at getting genuine cooperation from John Crichton. It's his biggest mistake on the show so far, and I wonder whether he later realizes this. Otoh, this, too, comes about in a plausible way, given that Scorpius is now under immediate threat of losing his command and thus his time table has moved up to a degree we haven't seen yet. (There's also the obvious parallel to s1 Crais, presumably not lost on the people who served under both.) I'm still not a fan of Grayza (I've watched Servalan; you, Commandant, are no Servalan), but given the kind of organisation the Peacekeepers are, it makes sense that they wouldn't give Scorpius authority endlessly and without competition or supervision if he can't deliver tangible results.
Both Aeryn and Crais get confronted with their past in this episode, though their cases as ex PKs are slightly different. Aeryn's original departure really wasn't in any way her fault, and up to this point, she had served the Peacekeepers loyally and without reservation. Otoh, Crais even by PK standards had abused his command; he'd killed his second, Teeg, (more about this in a moment) to hide the fact he was using said command to pursue a personal vendetta without authorisation and in fact against the expressed wishes of his superiors, and his actions before deserting were never to the benefit of anyone but himself (or rather, his revenge). No wonder Braca (and others) switched their loyalties to Scorpius, who did give the impression of serving the greater good (and no wonder that starts to be questioned at this point of the plot). Of course, Aeryn was born into the service, while Crais always had memories of another life and non-PK emotional ties. In this episode, Aeryn doesn't come across as doubting her choice not to return to the PKs once that was possible, but she does come across as still very much caring about her former comrades. Meanwhile, it might be in the eyes of the beholder, but given how poor Teeg ended up, I never bought Crais actually caring about Larell, and on this rewatch, too, saw what he's doing in this episode as the same kind of emotional manipulation he used on Teeg pre death. Also, while Crais' resentment against Scorpius for taking his command is of course powerful, I never had the impression that he cares about the PKs (on this or any other ship) per se, or regrets losing old relationships the way Aeryn does. (People Crais cares about: his dead brother, Talyn and Aeryn. He also has come to respect Crichton and the rest of the Moyans, but in terms of genuine affection, I think it's limited to these three.) Conversely, that's why I don't think he minds what Braca & Co. think of him now, whereas Aeryn does mind, hence her pointing out to her former friend that she's following the same ideals as ever, only she's seen she can't do so as a Peacekeeper given what she has realised about the organisation.
Incidentally, all the scenes with Aeryn on the command carrier: that's exactly the kind of thing that was needed for Finn in the Star Wars sequels and which he never got.
Trivia: another hint that Sebaceans and Americans have shared ancestors! They attend their saunas wrapped up in clothing. (Sorry, couldn't resist.)
Lastly: Grayza's idea of making alliances and to negotiate with Scarrans comes across slightly differently in this rewatch to me than it did back in the day. By which I mean: back then, I saw it as a variation of the same trope JMS uses in s2 of Babylon 5. Have someone suggest negotiating with a designated evil villain bent on conquest, and in case the audience doesn't get this would totally be the wrong thing to do, have someone use the term "appeasement". And/or "peace in our time". (There's of course the double irony for both B5 and Farscape that in fact the conflicts in which this trope is used do not get resolved by a complete military defeat of the designated bad guy but with, gulp, negotiation. The occupation of Narn doesn't end via a successful Narn uprising and/or Narn allies coming to the rescue, it ends with a personal negotiation between Londo and G'Kar. The Peacekeeper/Scarran conflict ends with a third party supervising negotiations and numbing down everyone's aggressive instincts. Decades later, I'm wondering whether Grayza was meant to be as wrong as that or whether the Farscape team was already aware that however their show would end, it definitely would not be with a clear victory for either party, and that there might be negotiations involved.
The other episodes
no subject
Date: 2021-05-02 11:10 pm (UTC)Ooh yes, great point.
no subject
Date: 2021-05-03 04:38 pm (UTC)Ah well. What's done is done. We'll always have the Unchartered Territories.