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selenakIn recent weeks I succumbed to sudden Farscape nostalgia and rewatched my favourite FS season, season 3. I hadn't watched the episodes for years, and it was good getting back into that universe again. Not least because of the colours. "The wonders I've seen" indeed. It's such a different visual language from most other sci fi shows. And I love, love, love the aliens, whether human-shaped ones or those wonderful products of Jim Henson's factory. Forget about my Bill Adama issues, the moment I started to feel a less than reasonable grudge against Eddie Olmos was when he said in an interview, all the way back in season 1 of BSG, "if bumpy headed aliens show up, I'm out of here". Because of the inherent snobbery; as if sci fi is only acceptable if it's the present in a thin veneer, and certainly not with any aliens in sight. Bah. Farscape fans have a standard reply to the "but this show has muppets!" objection, to wit: "The muppets will break your heart." For real. If you're not in tears about Pilot in a certain s1 episode, or in s2's The Way We Weren't, then, to quote a newly fashionable internet expression, I judge you.
Going back to s3 specifically: I noticed that though it has been years, my perspective hasn't much changed. I still think this is when the show was at its creative peak, with both the craziness and the serious drama. What few criticisms I have remain the same as well. I wonder how they would have resolved the matter of Aeryn's inevitable resurrection if Virginia Hey hadn't wanted to leave the show. Be that as it may, on the one hand, Zhaan's death means Aeryn's survival doesn't feel cheap, on the other, the manner of said resurrection still bugs me, more specifically Zhaan's reasoning: "I love you, but more importantly Crichton loves you." This foreshadows what would make season 4 such an uneven season, the writers treating John/Aeryn as the be all and end all of the show, and Aeryn herself as the love interest without an emotional life outside of John Crichton. Wouldn't Zhaan giving her life for Aeryn because she cares about Aeryn been enough of a reason?
To get the other criticism out of the way before I rave and praise, I like Jool's relationship with Chiana, but I don't think they ever figured out what exactly they wanted to do with the character, and so they went with mannerisms first (the screaming) and later, the scenes with Chiana aside, just gave her Zhaan's old sickbay job without tying this into Jool's characterisation. When Jool in the epic two parter near the end of the season wonders why the hell she's on the command carrier risking her life, I had to wonder, too, because we haven't had scenes that would either have established Jool as a character who does it for the ethical reason (no wormhole tech for anyone) or would have given her a friendship with John Crichton to motivate her (main reason why Chiana went, say). And lastly, Co-Kura in Wolf in Sheep's Clothing goes from "yay, wormhole research! how could you sabotage this!" to "omg you're totally right! please mindwipe me with a torturous instrument!" literally within seconds. John convinces him with one single statement. Now that statement is a good one (the "it's never just science!" outburst), and I get why the scene is there at all; the season is strong on the John/Scorpius parallels, and the writers wanted John to use the Aurora Chair on someone, which makes a strong emotional and visual statement about how much he has come to resemble his nemesis at this point. On the other hand, they didn't want him to get the idea himself, or do it without that someone's consent, since he's still supposed to be the hero and have a compassionate core which Scorpius lacks. This unfortunately doesn' t make Co-Kura's sudden change of heart more convincing to me. It's the one point in what is otherwise my favourite FS episode where I still go "...what the hell?"
Okay, now on to the good stuff. After s2 had introduced Scorpius' neural clone in Crichton's head as a menacing figure slowly driving him insane and taking him over, s3 changed said neural clone into the Harvey most viewers remember. This was an ingenious twist as it both gave us access to Crichton's head with its geeky pop culture imagination and made Harvey from a plot device into a genuine character in his own right. (The only return of menacing!evil!s2 style Harvey in s3 comes in the Daedalus Demands/Icarus Abides two parter when he tries to take T-John over.) Who is neither Scorpius nor Crichton, though he shares traits with both. The other crucial creative twist of s3 was to use what was otherwise a one-shot episode, Eat Me (and btw, I've seen other shows do a cannibal episode, but this remains one of the most creepy takes on the genre ever) to kick off the two Johns arc, which didn't allow the viewer to see either John as the "real" Crichton but treated them both as equals, with Moya and Talyn based episodes presented in turn. Not only was this a good way to use what was at this point a fairly huge ensemble, but it allowed the producers to have their cake and eat it in many ways. The Talyn episodes tended to be high drama (with the exception of the abominable Meltdown, which I skipped this time around - I remember I wanted to slap everyone in that episode too well to put me through a rewatch), while the Moya episodes were vehicles for Farscape's gift to do zany craziness and comedy; this culminated in the death of T-John being followed by the ultimate craziness of Revenging Angel, aka the cartoon episode, which in turn was followed by the Aeryn character drama The Choice. Farscape could do all equally well, and rewatching, I'm still as admiring of this skill as ever.
Confession time, though, as far as the two Johns are concerned: I've always somewhat preferred M-John and thought that T-John was easily the least interesting character on Talyn. Not that he was dull, exactly, but this was a John who had it all: his relationship with Aeryn sorted out, the wormhole obsession dwindled to a mininum, no obsession with Scorpius, an approving father figure showing up and finally a heroic death for the greater good. He was your typical square jawed American hero, and the interesting thing about John Crichton, whether we're talking naive s1 John who is still crap at self defense or later seasons John who has gone through a battery of assaults, is good at physical self defense but is also more than a little crazy and messed up, was always the ways he didn't fit into the conventional hero parameter. Also, I thought the relationships between Aeryn, Crais and Talyn - which very much resembled a divorced parents still care together for adopted child dynamic - was far more interesting.
Meanwhile, without Aeryn, M-John's wormhole obsession escalates, he's taken to talking to Harvey on a regular basis, and the bickering and occasional hurt/comfort with D'Argo makes for one of the most entertaining friendships around. Also, the writers get experimental with the narrative; Scratch 'n Sniff, with its framing of Crichton having to justify himself to Pilot for all the spent money is both hilarious and great meta on the show. And then, of course, the comedy episodes end and we get the last pay-off of the two Johns storylines as Talyn returns, and Aeryn can hardly look at M-John. (This is narratively earned angst as opposed to the gratitious and annoying one from season 4.) Incidentally, what I hadn't remembered about Eat Me itself was that Chiana and D'Argo, who get also twinned, react to this in different ways, and that Chiana, who saw her other self get captured and eaten but chose to run and save herself, is not a little freaked out and guilty in subsequent episodes as well about the idea that maybe she's the clone. Has there been any fanfic where she and Crichton talk about their cloning issues?
S2 already had Scorpius as the main villain, but s3 was the season that both gave us crucial background - Incubator remains one of my favourite FS episodes - and established the relationship with Braca. What made Scorpius a much better antagonist than s1 Crais (thus allowing Crais in turn to move from main villain to morally ambigous and much more interesting character) from the get go was that he wasn't after John because of some personal vendetta but for the wormhole tech. The climactic s2 two parter also had him reply to a "ruler of the universe" quip from John that this wasn't about power, and s3 then showed us what it was about for Scorpius. The question as to whether vengeance on the Scarrans or safety for the Sebaceans would be more important wouldn't be answered until The Peacekeeper Wars, but making Scorpius something other than an "I wanna rule the galaxy!" supervillain made for a fascinating narrative indeed, and allowed John Crichton in the Into the Lion's Den two parter to have some scenes of doubt as to whether foiling Scorpius was really the right thing to do. What s3 also pushed one level further was the homoerotic subtext in the John/Scorpius relationship; it's no wonder that the teaser scene from Into the Lion's Den: Wolf in Sheep's Clothing, with Scorpius literally on top of John, ended up in many a vid. Even leaving the slash factor aside, though, the season does play up the increasing emotional closeness of these two enemies. (In the Moya scenes in Incubator, Pilot cracks me up when in reply to Linfer's observation that Scorpius is irrationally obsessed with wormholes he replies pointedly and in John's presence, "Scorpius is not alone in this regard".) I've always thought that it was a neat coincidence that both Ben Browder and Wayne Pygram have blue eyes, and that this blue is the blue of the wormhole special effect Farscape uses. The sequence where John in order to distract Scorpius takes him on a short wormhole trip in his module brings that out to full effect. John's ambigous statement in their last scene in Into the Lion's Den - "we were so close" (which could refer both to the wormhole tech decyphering and their emotional state) sums that season arc up.
Speaking of closeness and enemies, former in this case: that goodbye scene between Crais and Aeryn, that silent exchange of looks (I watched the deleted version of this scene where there is a quick dialogue exchange, and I think the producers made the right choice to cut it, the silent version is more meaningful) with her hand on his cheek, still kills me in the best way. And I'm really glad it's there, given that their last significant scene before that is the viscerally painful one outside of Aeryn's hotel room in The Choice. I always thought, and still think, they understood each other a little better than anyone else understood them, both the bad and the good parts.
Oh, and apropos that scene in The Choice: I can't help myself, when Aeryn after eviscerating Crais then hisses at Stark "you know what makes you so much worse than him? The fact you think you're so much better!", I still emotionally agree, even though I know it's unfair. Stark never did any of the villainous deeds Crais did in season 1 and really has the tragic backstory from hell, compared to which Crais' being drafted as a child looks harmless. But. You know, I have at least two fervent Stark fans on my flist. And in all seasons pus the final miniseries, there are individual scenes when I really feel for Stark and do like him. But in season 3, the thing with Aeryn ( him telling her she's beautiful, the hovering, the fact he listens to her and T-John having sex and yes, all his scenes in The Choice) just scream "stalker" at me, creep me out and invoke dislike. I can't help it! If it's any comfort, after he returns to the show there are no more dislike-invoking scenes.
What I didn't watch, other than Meltdown: Dog with two Bones. Mostly because to me, that's setting the format for s4, and s3 really ends with Into the Lion's Den. But also because Into the Lion's Den is so epic; it wears you out in the best way. And sends you back to the old fanfiction you haven't read in years, either.
In conclusion, Farscape at its best was crazy and wonderful, and I'm really gladandrastewhite reconsidered and that there will be a Multiverse Ficathon again this year, albeit one with a new format, one where anyone, not just the writers of the ficathon, can leave prompts. So name your favourite space crossover ideas here!
Going back to s3 specifically: I noticed that though it has been years, my perspective hasn't much changed. I still think this is when the show was at its creative peak, with both the craziness and the serious drama. What few criticisms I have remain the same as well. I wonder how they would have resolved the matter of Aeryn's inevitable resurrection if Virginia Hey hadn't wanted to leave the show. Be that as it may, on the one hand, Zhaan's death means Aeryn's survival doesn't feel cheap, on the other, the manner of said resurrection still bugs me, more specifically Zhaan's reasoning: "I love you, but more importantly Crichton loves you." This foreshadows what would make season 4 such an uneven season, the writers treating John/Aeryn as the be all and end all of the show, and Aeryn herself as the love interest without an emotional life outside of John Crichton. Wouldn't Zhaan giving her life for Aeryn because she cares about Aeryn been enough of a reason?
To get the other criticism out of the way before I rave and praise, I like Jool's relationship with Chiana, but I don't think they ever figured out what exactly they wanted to do with the character, and so they went with mannerisms first (the screaming) and later, the scenes with Chiana aside, just gave her Zhaan's old sickbay job without tying this into Jool's characterisation. When Jool in the epic two parter near the end of the season wonders why the hell she's on the command carrier risking her life, I had to wonder, too, because we haven't had scenes that would either have established Jool as a character who does it for the ethical reason (no wormhole tech for anyone) or would have given her a friendship with John Crichton to motivate her (main reason why Chiana went, say). And lastly, Co-Kura in Wolf in Sheep's Clothing goes from "yay, wormhole research! how could you sabotage this!" to "omg you're totally right! please mindwipe me with a torturous instrument!" literally within seconds. John convinces him with one single statement. Now that statement is a good one (the "it's never just science!" outburst), and I get why the scene is there at all; the season is strong on the John/Scorpius parallels, and the writers wanted John to use the Aurora Chair on someone, which makes a strong emotional and visual statement about how much he has come to resemble his nemesis at this point. On the other hand, they didn't want him to get the idea himself, or do it without that someone's consent, since he's still supposed to be the hero and have a compassionate core which Scorpius lacks. This unfortunately doesn' t make Co-Kura's sudden change of heart more convincing to me. It's the one point in what is otherwise my favourite FS episode where I still go "...what the hell?"
Okay, now on to the good stuff. After s2 had introduced Scorpius' neural clone in Crichton's head as a menacing figure slowly driving him insane and taking him over, s3 changed said neural clone into the Harvey most viewers remember. This was an ingenious twist as it both gave us access to Crichton's head with its geeky pop culture imagination and made Harvey from a plot device into a genuine character in his own right. (The only return of menacing!evil!s2 style Harvey in s3 comes in the Daedalus Demands/Icarus Abides two parter when he tries to take T-John over.) Who is neither Scorpius nor Crichton, though he shares traits with both. The other crucial creative twist of s3 was to use what was otherwise a one-shot episode, Eat Me (and btw, I've seen other shows do a cannibal episode, but this remains one of the most creepy takes on the genre ever) to kick off the two Johns arc, which didn't allow the viewer to see either John as the "real" Crichton but treated them both as equals, with Moya and Talyn based episodes presented in turn. Not only was this a good way to use what was at this point a fairly huge ensemble, but it allowed the producers to have their cake and eat it in many ways. The Talyn episodes tended to be high drama (with the exception of the abominable Meltdown, which I skipped this time around - I remember I wanted to slap everyone in that episode too well to put me through a rewatch), while the Moya episodes were vehicles for Farscape's gift to do zany craziness and comedy; this culminated in the death of T-John being followed by the ultimate craziness of Revenging Angel, aka the cartoon episode, which in turn was followed by the Aeryn character drama The Choice. Farscape could do all equally well, and rewatching, I'm still as admiring of this skill as ever.
Confession time, though, as far as the two Johns are concerned: I've always somewhat preferred M-John and thought that T-John was easily the least interesting character on Talyn. Not that he was dull, exactly, but this was a John who had it all: his relationship with Aeryn sorted out, the wormhole obsession dwindled to a mininum, no obsession with Scorpius, an approving father figure showing up and finally a heroic death for the greater good. He was your typical square jawed American hero, and the interesting thing about John Crichton, whether we're talking naive s1 John who is still crap at self defense or later seasons John who has gone through a battery of assaults, is good at physical self defense but is also more than a little crazy and messed up, was always the ways he didn't fit into the conventional hero parameter. Also, I thought the relationships between Aeryn, Crais and Talyn - which very much resembled a divorced parents still care together for adopted child dynamic - was far more interesting.
Meanwhile, without Aeryn, M-John's wormhole obsession escalates, he's taken to talking to Harvey on a regular basis, and the bickering and occasional hurt/comfort with D'Argo makes for one of the most entertaining friendships around. Also, the writers get experimental with the narrative; Scratch 'n Sniff, with its framing of Crichton having to justify himself to Pilot for all the spent money is both hilarious and great meta on the show. And then, of course, the comedy episodes end and we get the last pay-off of the two Johns storylines as Talyn returns, and Aeryn can hardly look at M-John. (This is narratively earned angst as opposed to the gratitious and annoying one from season 4.) Incidentally, what I hadn't remembered about Eat Me itself was that Chiana and D'Argo, who get also twinned, react to this in different ways, and that Chiana, who saw her other self get captured and eaten but chose to run and save herself, is not a little freaked out and guilty in subsequent episodes as well about the idea that maybe she's the clone. Has there been any fanfic where she and Crichton talk about their cloning issues?
S2 already had Scorpius as the main villain, but s3 was the season that both gave us crucial background - Incubator remains one of my favourite FS episodes - and established the relationship with Braca. What made Scorpius a much better antagonist than s1 Crais (thus allowing Crais in turn to move from main villain to morally ambigous and much more interesting character) from the get go was that he wasn't after John because of some personal vendetta but for the wormhole tech. The climactic s2 two parter also had him reply to a "ruler of the universe" quip from John that this wasn't about power, and s3 then showed us what it was about for Scorpius. The question as to whether vengeance on the Scarrans or safety for the Sebaceans would be more important wouldn't be answered until The Peacekeeper Wars, but making Scorpius something other than an "I wanna rule the galaxy!" supervillain made for a fascinating narrative indeed, and allowed John Crichton in the Into the Lion's Den two parter to have some scenes of doubt as to whether foiling Scorpius was really the right thing to do. What s3 also pushed one level further was the homoerotic subtext in the John/Scorpius relationship; it's no wonder that the teaser scene from Into the Lion's Den: Wolf in Sheep's Clothing, with Scorpius literally on top of John, ended up in many a vid. Even leaving the slash factor aside, though, the season does play up the increasing emotional closeness of these two enemies. (In the Moya scenes in Incubator, Pilot cracks me up when in reply to Linfer's observation that Scorpius is irrationally obsessed with wormholes he replies pointedly and in John's presence, "Scorpius is not alone in this regard".) I've always thought that it was a neat coincidence that both Ben Browder and Wayne Pygram have blue eyes, and that this blue is the blue of the wormhole special effect Farscape uses. The sequence where John in order to distract Scorpius takes him on a short wormhole trip in his module brings that out to full effect. John's ambigous statement in their last scene in Into the Lion's Den - "we were so close" (which could refer both to the wormhole tech decyphering and their emotional state) sums that season arc up.
Speaking of closeness and enemies, former in this case: that goodbye scene between Crais and Aeryn, that silent exchange of looks (I watched the deleted version of this scene where there is a quick dialogue exchange, and I think the producers made the right choice to cut it, the silent version is more meaningful) with her hand on his cheek, still kills me in the best way. And I'm really glad it's there, given that their last significant scene before that is the viscerally painful one outside of Aeryn's hotel room in The Choice. I always thought, and still think, they understood each other a little better than anyone else understood them, both the bad and the good parts.
Oh, and apropos that scene in The Choice: I can't help myself, when Aeryn after eviscerating Crais then hisses at Stark "you know what makes you so much worse than him? The fact you think you're so much better!", I still emotionally agree, even though I know it's unfair. Stark never did any of the villainous deeds Crais did in season 1 and really has the tragic backstory from hell, compared to which Crais' being drafted as a child looks harmless. But. You know, I have at least two fervent Stark fans on my flist. And in all seasons pus the final miniseries, there are individual scenes when I really feel for Stark and do like him. But in season 3, the thing with Aeryn ( him telling her she's beautiful, the hovering, the fact he listens to her and T-John having sex and yes, all his scenes in The Choice) just scream "stalker" at me, creep me out and invoke dislike. I can't help it! If it's any comfort, after he returns to the show there are no more dislike-invoking scenes.
What I didn't watch, other than Meltdown: Dog with two Bones. Mostly because to me, that's setting the format for s4, and s3 really ends with Into the Lion's Den. But also because Into the Lion's Den is so epic; it wears you out in the best way. And sends you back to the old fanfiction you haven't read in years, either.
In conclusion, Farscape at its best was crazy and wonderful, and I'm really glad
andrastewhite reconsidered and that there will be a Multiverse Ficathon again this year, albeit one with a new format, one where anyone, not just the writers of the ficathon, can leave prompts. So name your favourite space crossover ideas here!
