Farscape Rewatch: John Quixote (4.07)
Jul. 4th, 2021 10:31 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakWik summary: John and Chiana enter a bizarre virtual reality game, only to find bizarre versions of the people they know with the gamesmaster being none other than Stark.
The second of Ben Browder's scripts, with The Green-Eyed Monster being the first. Neither is a "best of Farscape" episode, but both are good character installments very different from each other. I wonder, did he continue with the occasional scriptwriting in his subsequent career? Because there's some talent there.
This said, John Quixote is one of these episodes where you best not think too long about the premise. I mean, I can buy that Stark had some massive hidden/repressed resentment against Crichton due to Zhaan's death, but he takes his responsibilities to the dying so seriously in all his other appearances that I just can't get my mind around him sellling some of TalynJohn's memories to the game makers. Note to self: ask the Stark fans among your online friends what their preferred explanation for this is. On a Doylist level, I think it's no more complicated than Browder and the producers wanting to do another episode like The Human Factor and Won't get fooled again or Revenging Angel without introducing yet another evil alien intruding Crichton's mind and/or a coma as an excuse.
In terms of "is this real or not?" I have to say I figured John and Chiana were still in the game the first time around, because it was way too early for them to have left in this kind of story. On repeat, the Moya part of the game is even more obvious John's worst fears materializing, i.e. Scorpius takes over the ship and everyone and Aeryn enigmatically betrays him and rescues him and betrays him and rescues him in turns. My complaints about the John/Aeryn s4 angstorama not withstanding - and this was the episode where I originally started to anti-ship them, a state of affairs that didn't change until The Peacekeeper Wars (where they were presented in a show, not tell manner as a couple actually good for each other again) - it does make psychological sense. Let's face it, John was violated mentally on repeat through several seasons, with Scorpius as the main though not the only perpetrator, but Moya, constant danger of the week notwithstanding, was his home and safe space. And now Aeryn has brought Scorpius there. How the show chooses to resolve this is a rant for another episode, but just within this one, yes, it works.
What also works: Zhaan, not Aeryn as the Princess in a Stark-based game, and Zhaan's question to John both if we take it as something based on Stark and as something John's own subconscious and his crushing sense of guilt - not just because of Zhaan, but because of all the other people who have died by now (let's not forget the "Game" starts with Gilina). Something that I hadn't noticed during my original viewing but did this time around that when John says "this is Scorpy's war, not mine" (the Sebacean/Scarran conflict) the game figure tells him it's still his responsibility because of the knowledge he holds, which iworks as a set up for where the show would eventually go.
That all this serious stuff is presented in a Farscapian playful manner with computer game set up, pseudo medieval garb and pop culture allusions that must be all but incomprehensible to a current day audience (the Max Headroom bits, for example) befits the show and allowed the actors to play costume. I have to say, Chiana really rocks that Squire outfit (and btw, John casting her as his faithful squire/Sancho Pansa to his Don Quixote says something about how far their relationship has come since their first encounter in s1 when he felt sorry for her but did not trust her one bit.
Something I only wandered this time around: the pseudo medieval get up and Rygel as the gatekeeper do carry faint Labyrinth echoes. I wonder whether the episode avoids letting John make that association because it would be too Henson-incesteous an allusion? Then again, s2 had John refer The Dark Crystal when the Skekses showed up, so probably not.
The other episodes
The second of Ben Browder's scripts, with The Green-Eyed Monster being the first. Neither is a "best of Farscape" episode, but both are good character installments very different from each other. I wonder, did he continue with the occasional scriptwriting in his subsequent career? Because there's some talent there.
This said, John Quixote is one of these episodes where you best not think too long about the premise. I mean, I can buy that Stark had some massive hidden/repressed resentment against Crichton due to Zhaan's death, but he takes his responsibilities to the dying so seriously in all his other appearances that I just can't get my mind around him sellling some of TalynJohn's memories to the game makers. Note to self: ask the Stark fans among your online friends what their preferred explanation for this is. On a Doylist level, I think it's no more complicated than Browder and the producers wanting to do another episode like The Human Factor and Won't get fooled again or Revenging Angel without introducing yet another evil alien intruding Crichton's mind and/or a coma as an excuse.
In terms of "is this real or not?" I have to say I figured John and Chiana were still in the game the first time around, because it was way too early for them to have left in this kind of story. On repeat, the Moya part of the game is even more obvious John's worst fears materializing, i.e. Scorpius takes over the ship and everyone and Aeryn enigmatically betrays him and rescues him and betrays him and rescues him in turns. My complaints about the John/Aeryn s4 angstorama not withstanding - and this was the episode where I originally started to anti-ship them, a state of affairs that didn't change until The Peacekeeper Wars (where they were presented in a show, not tell manner as a couple actually good for each other again) - it does make psychological sense. Let's face it, John was violated mentally on repeat through several seasons, with Scorpius as the main though not the only perpetrator, but Moya, constant danger of the week notwithstanding, was his home and safe space. And now Aeryn has brought Scorpius there. How the show chooses to resolve this is a rant for another episode, but just within this one, yes, it works.
What also works: Zhaan, not Aeryn as the Princess in a Stark-based game, and Zhaan's question to John both if we take it as something based on Stark and as something John's own subconscious and his crushing sense of guilt - not just because of Zhaan, but because of all the other people who have died by now (let's not forget the "Game" starts with Gilina). Something that I hadn't noticed during my original viewing but did this time around that when John says "this is Scorpy's war, not mine" (the Sebacean/Scarran conflict) the game figure tells him it's still his responsibility because of the knowledge he holds, which iworks as a set up for where the show would eventually go.
That all this serious stuff is presented in a Farscapian playful manner with computer game set up, pseudo medieval garb and pop culture allusions that must be all but incomprehensible to a current day audience (the Max Headroom bits, for example) befits the show and allowed the actors to play costume. I have to say, Chiana really rocks that Squire outfit (and btw, John casting her as his faithful squire/Sancho Pansa to his Don Quixote says something about how far their relationship has come since their first encounter in s1 when he felt sorry for her but did not trust her one bit.
Something I only wandered this time around: the pseudo medieval get up and Rygel as the gatekeeper do carry faint Labyrinth echoes. I wonder whether the episode avoids letting John make that association because it would be too Henson-incesteous an allusion? Then again, s2 had John refer The Dark Crystal when the Skekses showed up, so probably not.
The other episodes
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Date: 2021-07-05 05:57 am (UTC)That is very true, and he also strikes me as an actor-friendly writer in that all the characters in his episodes get something interesting to do.
In my opinion, Stark, in the wake of Zhaan's death, was not written very well.
I agree, especially since the main way his grief for Zhaan was channelled on screen was by developing a creepy obsession with Aeryn. I mean, I get they probably wanted to imply transfer - since Zhaan essentially died to bring her back - but it didn't do Stark's characterisation any favors, and outside of such scenes, he was used as comic relief.