Farscape Rewatch: Bad Timing (4.22)
Oct. 17th, 2021 12:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakWiki: Crichton learns that the Scarrans are heading to Earth and must consider an alliance with the Peacekeepers; in order to stop his home being destroyed.
Back when it wasn't yet known we'd get The Peacekeeper Wars, the show had been cancelled and this looked like it would be the final Farscape episode ever, I remember being ticked off. By many thing, one of which was, as I think Sab or Maygra put it, the final scene with the other regulars narrating the John/Aeryn drama below for recently blinded Chiana's benefit sort of encapsules how John/Aeryn centric the show had become, with the rest of the ensemble functioning as a Greek chorus but not any longer as characters with storylines of their own. It's not quite as bad as the final Enterprise episode, but...
Now that Bad Timing isn't any longer the last Farscape ever but the epilogue of the previous season with a cliffhanger for the next bit it was intended to be, I feel somewhat milder, and there are several elements I like - John delivering his credits voice over narration mid episode as an actual scene, summing up his journey, the Buffy-esque (from the opening of The Gift) opening sequence presumably added at the last minute when it became clear the show had been cancelled, Crichton and Pilot doing science together (it's always welcome to be reminded John Crichton ("an astronaut") didn't start out as an action hero but as a scientist), Braca going from being pleased to have Scorpius back to being less than pleased about Sikozu the competition. Speaking of Sikozu, this is also the last time Raelee Hill gets to play her in her original design, because I remember being baffled by her PK-War look (in addition to being baffled about everything else done with Sikozu there). Alas, for I liked that look.
The John/Harvey Easter bunnies fight was hilarious. Mind you, I'm surprised that Harvey doesn't point out Scorpius has kept his promises to John so far while John clearly intended to break his and had to be blackmailed into rescueing him just an episode before.
What else: Akhna and Staleek, aka the show's one valiant attempt to individualize the Scarrans (other than Tauza) into characters. I did like their scene, and suddenly was reminded of Will and Diane ca. season 2 of The Good Wife when Staleek proposed an alliance. (Scarran lawyers: now there's a thought. A scary one.)
Unfortunately, the other emotional beats of the episode even knowing what's to come still fall flat to me. Yes, it's nice that John and Aeryn finally got their act together, and not in a way that's insulting the audience's intelligence as in Mental as Anything, but we could have been there eons ago without the show dragging out the angst for two thirds of a season. Pilot addressing D'Argo as "Captain D'Argo" only reminded me that we hardly saw D'Argo do any Captaini-ing (after first going over board with the responsiblility feeling in the episode after he was voted for), Chiana using her seer ability to help Pilot only to go seemingly permanently blind only reminded me Chiana didn't have a proper storyline to which this could have been the climax, either, and so forth. And given the excellent mid season Earth episodes offered their share of Crichton and Dad scenes, did we really need yet another one in this episode?
All this said: it's a perfectly servicable epilogue for this particular season but would have been terrible as a series finale, so I'm ever so grateful it wasn't. Now: on to the Peacekeeper Wars!
The other episodes
Back when it wasn't yet known we'd get The Peacekeeper Wars, the show had been cancelled and this looked like it would be the final Farscape episode ever, I remember being ticked off. By many thing, one of which was, as I think Sab or Maygra put it, the final scene with the other regulars narrating the John/Aeryn drama below for recently blinded Chiana's benefit sort of encapsules how John/Aeryn centric the show had become, with the rest of the ensemble functioning as a Greek chorus but not any longer as characters with storylines of their own. It's not quite as bad as the final Enterprise episode, but...
Now that Bad Timing isn't any longer the last Farscape ever but the epilogue of the previous season with a cliffhanger for the next bit it was intended to be, I feel somewhat milder, and there are several elements I like - John delivering his credits voice over narration mid episode as an actual scene, summing up his journey, the Buffy-esque (from the opening of The Gift) opening sequence presumably added at the last minute when it became clear the show had been cancelled, Crichton and Pilot doing science together (it's always welcome to be reminded John Crichton ("an astronaut") didn't start out as an action hero but as a scientist), Braca going from being pleased to have Scorpius back to being less than pleased about Sikozu the competition. Speaking of Sikozu, this is also the last time Raelee Hill gets to play her in her original design, because I remember being baffled by her PK-War look (in addition to being baffled about everything else done with Sikozu there). Alas, for I liked that look.
The John/Harvey Easter bunnies fight was hilarious. Mind you, I'm surprised that Harvey doesn't point out Scorpius has kept his promises to John so far while John clearly intended to break his and had to be blackmailed into rescueing him just an episode before.
What else: Akhna and Staleek, aka the show's one valiant attempt to individualize the Scarrans (other than Tauza) into characters. I did like their scene, and suddenly was reminded of Will and Diane ca. season 2 of The Good Wife when Staleek proposed an alliance. (Scarran lawyers: now there's a thought. A scary one.)
Unfortunately, the other emotional beats of the episode even knowing what's to come still fall flat to me. Yes, it's nice that John and Aeryn finally got their act together, and not in a way that's insulting the audience's intelligence as in Mental as Anything, but we could have been there eons ago without the show dragging out the angst for two thirds of a season. Pilot addressing D'Argo as "Captain D'Argo" only reminded me that we hardly saw D'Argo do any Captaini-ing (after first going over board with the responsiblility feeling in the episode after he was voted for), Chiana using her seer ability to help Pilot only to go seemingly permanently blind only reminded me Chiana didn't have a proper storyline to which this could have been the climax, either, and so forth. And given the excellent mid season Earth episodes offered their share of Crichton and Dad scenes, did we really need yet another one in this episode?
All this said: it's a perfectly servicable epilogue for this particular season but would have been terrible as a series finale, so I'm ever so grateful it wasn't. Now: on to the Peacekeeper Wars!
The other episodes
