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selenakWiki summary: While Crichton is out exploring a wormhole in an EV suit, he's pulled inside. There he finds himself face to face with a mysterious being who warns Crichton of the dangers of wormhole navigation and determines that Crichton may have to die because of what he knows.
Around s3, I realised that I had developed a low key resentment of the Ancient masquerading as Jack Crichton on this rewatch, his death notwithstanding. (Because of the manipulativness of showing up in Dad disguise. Yes, John knows what’s up after the first time. It’s still something guaranteed to trigger emotional responses in him.) Correspondingly, “Einstein” showing up as a stranger and emphasizing the alien-ness feels more honest when watching. Here’s to you, Einstein.
Anyway: Unrealized Realities turns out to be one of those concept episodes I like despite being aware parts of it don’t bear thinking too much about. Such as: why one Unrealized Reality has the regulars as mix-and-mingle beings of their personas. Doylist-wise, it’s evidently there so the actors can have fun. Honestly, in this case I don’t care about Watsonian explanations. (I would say one can always assume it’s John’s psyche projecting despite of what Einstein told him, but a future episode shows that particular corner of the Multiverse is quite real and physically present. The Rygel-and-D’Argo character with the bad temper of both cracked me up again, and like the last time, SikozuStark made me wish, sorry, Paul Goddard fans, that Ralee Hill had been playing Stark throughout the show. Claudia Black as Chiana does an eerily perfect job on the body language, and makes me wonder once again whether there’s anything she couldn’t do as an actress.
Speaking of her, the short scene in the teaser with Aeryn learning English while John is spacewalking, and the dialogue between her and Chiana is the first time since the “Into the Lion’s Den” episodes in s3 when I think the John/Aeryn angst isn’t overdone, and it’s definitely largely due to Claudia Black’s performance, the mixture of earnestness and playful wistfulness with which she tries out English words. (“Wormb-Hole”.) Also, Chiana’s comment feels as just the right type of friendly supportiveness without coming across as intrusive, and showing how well these people know each other by now.
Also in the teaser: the point where the Scorpius/Sikozu relationship definitely turns flirtatious. Natira and Sikozu physically are nothing alike, but they’re both clever, double-dealing looking out for number 1 types who think they’re superior to (almost) everyone else, with the main difference that Sikozu doesn’t enjoy cruelty the way Natira does. (I don’t mean BDSM, I’m referring to Natira having fun torturing people she’s not sexually engaged with. I don’t think Sikozu, including in the Unrealized Reality where she’s a spy shooting the cast, is ever shown doing that.) So I have no problem believing that while both of them (Scorpius and Sikozu) are following their respective agendas, the attraction between them is genuine.
Back to the main plot: I’m not sure that the existence of Unrealized Realities was necessary as a reminder why Wormhole Knowledge Is Dangerous In The Wrong Hands, but the show does need some explanations why John with his ability to access wormholes still can’t get everyone to safety before “The Peacekeeper Wars” and this danger is as good as any. In terms of character exploration, what struck me this time around isn’t just that the tv docu style comments on John Crichton from various departed (by death or staying behind) cast members (Zhaan, Crais, Stark, Jool) as well as people from John’s Earth past (I should have known when first watching this we’ve got a return to Earth upcoming before the tag scene, they wouldn’t have brought these folk to Australia just for these tidbits, but I wasn’t as wise in the ways of tv and budget yet back then) go from hilariously over the top praise to also hilariously over the top put downs (including on his penis size, because this is Farscape), but that the two most developed Unrealized Realities - John as a PK Captain and Braca’s superior vs Spy!Sikozu, culminating in him killing her and enjoying it, and the one where John is the spy and Crais his approving handler, where nearly all other Moyans also die - both share the element that they position John Crichton as a killer and/or betrayer. The only Unrealized Reality which isn’t a trip to his past and which has him as a good guy instead of a worse version of himself is the one where Earth has been occupied by Scarans since centuries, he and his father are human/Scarran hybrids, and his father isn’t played by Ken Cord but by Wayne Pygram with his very distinctive voice. This is something coming across as quite deliberate on the writer’s part since John is visibly disturbed the first time it happens - “This isn’t me” -, and it’s a change from John’s fears taking the shape of imagining scenarios in which his human world kills his alien friends (Human Factor in s1) or in which Scorpius does (Dog with Two Bones). You can make the case that both John and the showwriters are aware he’s become a darker character and that therefore his fears start to circle more about what he himself is capable of and what he shares with his enemies (with both Crais and Scorpius symbolizing them) than about what could be done to his friends by other parties.
Lastly: the scenes with “Einstein” are also a welcome reminder John is a scientist and only became an action hero due to survival needs. And the replayed first encounter with Aeryn, where he at first is able to hold his own due to the self defense moves she taught him but where his smugness about that is destroyed a moment later when Aeryn still wipes the floor with him and the scene ends as in did the first time around is another welcome case of the John/Aeryn relationship not coming across as gratitiously melodramatic but engaging and in this case amusing, even.
Overall: still love the episode. On to Earth!
The other episodes
Around s3, I realised that I had developed a low key resentment of the Ancient masquerading as Jack Crichton on this rewatch, his death notwithstanding. (Because of the manipulativness of showing up in Dad disguise. Yes, John knows what’s up after the first time. It’s still something guaranteed to trigger emotional responses in him.) Correspondingly, “Einstein” showing up as a stranger and emphasizing the alien-ness feels more honest when watching. Here’s to you, Einstein.
Anyway: Unrealized Realities turns out to be one of those concept episodes I like despite being aware parts of it don’t bear thinking too much about. Such as: why one Unrealized Reality has the regulars as mix-and-mingle beings of their personas. Doylist-wise, it’s evidently there so the actors can have fun. Honestly, in this case I don’t care about Watsonian explanations. (I would say one can always assume it’s John’s psyche projecting despite of what Einstein told him, but a future episode shows that particular corner of the Multiverse is quite real and physically present. The Rygel-and-D’Argo character with the bad temper of both cracked me up again, and like the last time, SikozuStark made me wish, sorry, Paul Goddard fans, that Ralee Hill had been playing Stark throughout the show. Claudia Black as Chiana does an eerily perfect job on the body language, and makes me wonder once again whether there’s anything she couldn’t do as an actress.
Speaking of her, the short scene in the teaser with Aeryn learning English while John is spacewalking, and the dialogue between her and Chiana is the first time since the “Into the Lion’s Den” episodes in s3 when I think the John/Aeryn angst isn’t overdone, and it’s definitely largely due to Claudia Black’s performance, the mixture of earnestness and playful wistfulness with which she tries out English words. (“Wormb-Hole”.) Also, Chiana’s comment feels as just the right type of friendly supportiveness without coming across as intrusive, and showing how well these people know each other by now.
Also in the teaser: the point where the Scorpius/Sikozu relationship definitely turns flirtatious. Natira and Sikozu physically are nothing alike, but they’re both clever, double-dealing looking out for number 1 types who think they’re superior to (almost) everyone else, with the main difference that Sikozu doesn’t enjoy cruelty the way Natira does. (I don’t mean BDSM, I’m referring to Natira having fun torturing people she’s not sexually engaged with. I don’t think Sikozu, including in the Unrealized Reality where she’s a spy shooting the cast, is ever shown doing that.) So I have no problem believing that while both of them (Scorpius and Sikozu) are following their respective agendas, the attraction between them is genuine.
Back to the main plot: I’m not sure that the existence of Unrealized Realities was necessary as a reminder why Wormhole Knowledge Is Dangerous In The Wrong Hands, but the show does need some explanations why John with his ability to access wormholes still can’t get everyone to safety before “The Peacekeeper Wars” and this danger is as good as any. In terms of character exploration, what struck me this time around isn’t just that the tv docu style comments on John Crichton from various departed (by death or staying behind) cast members (Zhaan, Crais, Stark, Jool) as well as people from John’s Earth past (I should have known when first watching this we’ve got a return to Earth upcoming before the tag scene, they wouldn’t have brought these folk to Australia just for these tidbits, but I wasn’t as wise in the ways of tv and budget yet back then) go from hilariously over the top praise to also hilariously over the top put downs (including on his penis size, because this is Farscape), but that the two most developed Unrealized Realities - John as a PK Captain and Braca’s superior vs Spy!Sikozu, culminating in him killing her and enjoying it, and the one where John is the spy and Crais his approving handler, where nearly all other Moyans also die - both share the element that they position John Crichton as a killer and/or betrayer. The only Unrealized Reality which isn’t a trip to his past and which has him as a good guy instead of a worse version of himself is the one where Earth has been occupied by Scarans since centuries, he and his father are human/Scarran hybrids, and his father isn’t played by Ken Cord but by Wayne Pygram with his very distinctive voice. This is something coming across as quite deliberate on the writer’s part since John is visibly disturbed the first time it happens - “This isn’t me” -, and it’s a change from John’s fears taking the shape of imagining scenarios in which his human world kills his alien friends (Human Factor in s1) or in which Scorpius does (Dog with Two Bones). You can make the case that both John and the showwriters are aware he’s become a darker character and that therefore his fears start to circle more about what he himself is capable of and what he shares with his enemies (with both Crais and Scorpius symbolizing them) than about what could be done to his friends by other parties.
Lastly: the scenes with “Einstein” are also a welcome reminder John is a scientist and only became an action hero due to survival needs. And the replayed first encounter with Aeryn, where he at first is able to hold his own due to the self defense moves she taught him but where his smugness about that is destroyed a moment later when Aeryn still wipes the floor with him and the scene ends as in did the first time around is another welcome case of the John/Aeryn relationship not coming across as gratitiously melodramatic but engaging and in this case amusing, even.
Overall: still love the episode. On to Earth!
The other episodes
