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Farscape Rewatch: Terra Firma (Part 3) (4.12.)
Wiki summary: Crichton and the crew of Moya reach present day (2003) Earth. While Moya's non-human passengers are introduced to Crichton's home planet, John finds that returning to his old life easier said that done, as both he and Earth are quite different from when he left. Meanwhile, Grayza's predator stalks the crew from the shadows.
Yep, still as good an episode as I recalled from many years ago, to my great relief. It's also a rare case of how the scriptwriters of a then ongoing show worked with 9/11 and the ensuing US mentality having happened in a way that really fits this show's themes. Whereas what, say, Star Trek: Enterprise did with the Xindi arc did really not. And The West Wing's approach of one particular out of continuity episode to deal with the event itself and then later going inevitably AU just made the difference more glaring.
Whrereas in Terra Firma we on the one hand from last episode's cliffhanger tag scene which is this episode's opening scene get to see how hardened and paranoid John has become (thoiugh is it really paranoia when most of the galaxy's bad guys are after you?) by the way he reacts to his first real time, not visionary, not time travelling reunion with his father (and assorted colleagues), and on the other how the 1990s optimism that still was a thing in the show's pilot now is gone, and instead you have a post 9/11 US primarily concerned with getting its hands exclusively on all that shiny alien tech. Compared with John's nightmare version from s1 - where the cage his alien friends are put in is literal, not metaphorical, and Rygel gets dissected - this at first glance seems milder (and compared with rl events such as Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib definitely light), but it still points to a huge pov difference between John and the govermental representatives (including his father). (That John is then able to convince his father to go for the idealism over the America First approach in the end is downright Star Trekian, btw, but fits the mixture of dark and light this show mostly is.) Mind you, watching this in the Dubya era was one thing; rewatching this in the current day, I try to imagine what would have happened if John and the Moyans had arrived with the Orange Menace in charge, and my mind comes to a screeching halt.)
(Incidentally, John's insistence that providing the US with exclusive access to alien tech would be a terrible plan reminds me of the very start of German's longest running sci fi series, Perry Rhodan, where the titular hero comes to the exact same conclusion and acts on it.)
Despite the menace of the week - btw, had forgotten Grayza's assassin actually seems to be of the same spezies as Natira was - , this is a quiet episode, introducing us to John's sister (and nephew) in addition to a version of his father who isn't in his head or based on his memories or in the past. Also back outside of John's head for the first time since the pilot: Caroline. Mind you, I think this "we were just friends with benefits" thing is a bit of a retcon, since s1 definitely gave me the impression Caroline was John's girlfriend, but never mind; I do appreciate she and Aeryn aren't made enemies and aren't beating around the bush but squarely address the questions they have of each other.
Speaking of Aeryn's conversation with people from John's past: Jack Crichton's statement that maybe he'd freak out if he thought of Aeryn as an alien re her/John, but he doesn't see her this way, does make one wonder whether he'd have responded differently if the woman John was noticably hung up on had been visually different, like Chiana or even Sikozu, and I think the episode is honest enough to imply by this statement that yes, he would have. Not to the degree he'd have been hostile, but he would have consciously seen her as other in a way he doesn't the entirely human looking Aeryn.
Olivia, otoh, is a champ, taking to all of John's friends the same way. For all that the first season repeateadly showed John recording this thoughts for his father, it's his sister he has the most emotionally open conversation here, and I wish we'd gotten more of Olivia in the series. Speaking of the first season; back then, John's stated goal was to return home. Over the course of the series, this got modified ("or should I stay?"), but for all my complaints about the fourth season, I think it's to the show's credit that with Terra Firma, it delivers on the real, unfaked, return to Earth for the main character, thus fulfilling his original desire, in a way that both shows why this can't be his end goal anymore and doesn't denigrate that he used to want it to much. I.e. Earth has changed, John has changed, this is not his home anymore, but there is still a lot of warmth and affection and joy in his homecoming, not the feared nightmare and isolation.
(Except for D.K. and the unfortunate just for this episode invented female engineer. RIP, D.K..)
Meanwhile in space: Grayza using Braca as her physical telephone to her assassin while letting him believe she'd been using him for sex creeps me out far more than it did years ago. It does fit with Grayza's utter lack of regard for anyone's consent to anything, of course. On the more enjoyable side, Scorpius and Sikozu continue to flirt. Though I do suspect Scorpius remains on the other side of the wormhole for Doylist reasons, because there's no way a "Scorpius on Earth" scene would fit with the emotional tone of the episode (where, the menace of the week not withstanding, the biggest emotional concerin for John is "what have I and what have they become?"). That said, it does fit with his own goals on a Watsonian level as well.
Trivia: I's a good thing I know we'll see more of how the non-Aeryn rest of the cast responds to Earth in a future episode, otherwise I'd regret we only get (amusing) bits and pieces here. (And one not so amusing one, with D'Argo and Chiana.) Noranti's "cop porn" malpropism is one I remember promptly stealing and using in a rpg back in the day.
Next week: the episode which made me spitting mad years ago, and which I therefore never watched again.
The other episodes
Yep, still as good an episode as I recalled from many years ago, to my great relief. It's also a rare case of how the scriptwriters of a then ongoing show worked with 9/11 and the ensuing US mentality having happened in a way that really fits this show's themes. Whereas what, say, Star Trek: Enterprise did with the Xindi arc did really not. And The West Wing's approach of one particular out of continuity episode to deal with the event itself and then later going inevitably AU just made the difference more glaring.
Whrereas in Terra Firma we on the one hand from last episode's cliffhanger tag scene which is this episode's opening scene get to see how hardened and paranoid John has become (thoiugh is it really paranoia when most of the galaxy's bad guys are after you?) by the way he reacts to his first real time, not visionary, not time travelling reunion with his father (and assorted colleagues), and on the other how the 1990s optimism that still was a thing in the show's pilot now is gone, and instead you have a post 9/11 US primarily concerned with getting its hands exclusively on all that shiny alien tech. Compared with John's nightmare version from s1 - where the cage his alien friends are put in is literal, not metaphorical, and Rygel gets dissected - this at first glance seems milder (and compared with rl events such as Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib definitely light), but it still points to a huge pov difference between John and the govermental representatives (including his father). (That John is then able to convince his father to go for the idealism over the America First approach in the end is downright Star Trekian, btw, but fits the mixture of dark and light this show mostly is.) Mind you, watching this in the Dubya era was one thing; rewatching this in the current day, I try to imagine what would have happened if John and the Moyans had arrived with the Orange Menace in charge, and my mind comes to a screeching halt.)
(Incidentally, John's insistence that providing the US with exclusive access to alien tech would be a terrible plan reminds me of the very start of German's longest running sci fi series, Perry Rhodan, where the titular hero comes to the exact same conclusion and acts on it.)
Despite the menace of the week - btw, had forgotten Grayza's assassin actually seems to be of the same spezies as Natira was - , this is a quiet episode, introducing us to John's sister (and nephew) in addition to a version of his father who isn't in his head or based on his memories or in the past. Also back outside of John's head for the first time since the pilot: Caroline. Mind you, I think this "we were just friends with benefits" thing is a bit of a retcon, since s1 definitely gave me the impression Caroline was John's girlfriend, but never mind; I do appreciate she and Aeryn aren't made enemies and aren't beating around the bush but squarely address the questions they have of each other.
Speaking of Aeryn's conversation with people from John's past: Jack Crichton's statement that maybe he'd freak out if he thought of Aeryn as an alien re her/John, but he doesn't see her this way, does make one wonder whether he'd have responded differently if the woman John was noticably hung up on had been visually different, like Chiana or even Sikozu, and I think the episode is honest enough to imply by this statement that yes, he would have. Not to the degree he'd have been hostile, but he would have consciously seen her as other in a way he doesn't the entirely human looking Aeryn.
Olivia, otoh, is a champ, taking to all of John's friends the same way. For all that the first season repeateadly showed John recording this thoughts for his father, it's his sister he has the most emotionally open conversation here, and I wish we'd gotten more of Olivia in the series. Speaking of the first season; back then, John's stated goal was to return home. Over the course of the series, this got modified ("or should I stay?"), but for all my complaints about the fourth season, I think it's to the show's credit that with Terra Firma, it delivers on the real, unfaked, return to Earth for the main character, thus fulfilling his original desire, in a way that both shows why this can't be his end goal anymore and doesn't denigrate that he used to want it to much. I.e. Earth has changed, John has changed, this is not his home anymore, but there is still a lot of warmth and affection and joy in his homecoming, not the feared nightmare and isolation.
(Except for D.K. and the unfortunate just for this episode invented female engineer. RIP, D.K..)
Meanwhile in space: Grayza using Braca as her physical telephone to her assassin while letting him believe she'd been using him for sex creeps me out far more than it did years ago. It does fit with Grayza's utter lack of regard for anyone's consent to anything, of course. On the more enjoyable side, Scorpius and Sikozu continue to flirt. Though I do suspect Scorpius remains on the other side of the wormhole for Doylist reasons, because there's no way a "Scorpius on Earth" scene would fit with the emotional tone of the episode (where, the menace of the week not withstanding, the biggest emotional concerin for John is "what have I and what have they become?"). That said, it does fit with his own goals on a Watsonian level as well.
Trivia: I's a good thing I know we'll see more of how the non-Aeryn rest of the cast responds to Earth in a future episode, otherwise I'd regret we only get (amusing) bits and pieces here. (And one not so amusing one, with D'Argo and Chiana.) Noranti's "cop porn" malpropism is one I remember promptly stealing and using in a rpg back in the day.
Next week: the episode which made me spitting mad years ago, and which I therefore never watched again.
The other episodes