Loss of Innocence: Rewatching Farscape
May. 29th, 2003 05:01 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakThe Buffy finale wasn't the only genre goodness awaiting me on my return from Italy. I also found my season 1 Farscape DVDs. Now, I'm not sure what the genre etiquette on Farscape is - DS9 having been finished right and proper and a much longer time ago, I didn't bother to conceal my thoughts on it for the unspoiled. But Farscape's fourth season has ended only a short while ago, and the first is currently repeated in the US, so in the interest of potential new viewers, I go for discretion. Spoilers for pretty much everything, though it's mostly a discussion of the pilot.
I was introduced to Farscape through![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
hmpf (may she be praised), though it took me a while to fall in love. I was definitely fascinated by the time the first season ended. (The passion happened sometime during the second season, I suppose.) However, I had not seen all episodes of the first season when it was broadcast, notably not the pilot, so it's intriguing to go back.
"Premiere" (or would that be the Premiere?) is incredibly poignant with the additional knowledge of what is to come. By itself, it's a captivating series pilot (which is good because the episodes immediately afterwards, which was when I came in originally, are nice but nowhere near as excellent as this show could get even then), certainly one of the best I've seen. But I'm prejudiced and incapable to detach myself enough from later knowledge to evaluate it in a truly objective fashion. For example, the very first images, the sea, the beach, will haunt John Crichton throughout the entire show; it's a core inner landscape, his lost home and yet more than that. Also, watching Crichton in early season 1 again is somewhat like watching Frodo in the film version of "Fellowship of the Ring" if you've read LOTR and know what's to come. Or watching the very young Buffy in pre-"Innocence" episodes of the show. The optimism, the wide-eyed wonder, the utter innocent lack of awareness just what life is going to do to them.
You know, in earlier times, I tended to find villains, on the whole, more interesting than heroes; many people do. But this last decade has left me increasingly fascinated with heroes, or rather, those broken, scarred but still trying heroes I found in genre books and TV. It doesn't work every time; even when the X-Files were on top of their game and I was an interested Watcher who often couldn't wait for them to broadcast in Germany and therefore rented the English language video tapes, I never felt emotionally connected to Mulder and Scully the way I do to Buffy or John Crichton. But then there's Fitz of Robin Hobb's "Assassin" saga, with whom it worked perfectly again.
Back to Farscape, "Premiere": pilot episodes are by their very nature saddled with exposition, the necessity to introduce important characters and the premise of the show, and not all series manage to pull that off in a manner which leaves the episode in question still interesting upon rewatching it. This one does, though theoretically you could almost check a very strict schedule by the way they handle the intros; after Crichton's paradise-soon-to-be-lost, we get to see his friend DK (which reminded me I found the guy in many a fanfic and then was somewhat surprised by the real thing in season 4's "Terra Firma"), his father - and of course John Crichton, being an American hero, has The Father Thing going. I'm not sure why the Father-son relationship (no matter whether competitive or supportive) is so much more likely to be found with American heroes than with European ones. This is not a criticism - just an observation. To limit myself to genre, here's what I mean:
Star Trek: Picard? Had a dissaproving father. Riker? Doesn't get along with his father. Bashir? Feels embarrassed by his father and resents what his father did to him. Sisko? See earlier entry about the importance of the Sisko/Jake relationship on DS9. Tom Paris? Naturally, has rebellious son type relationship with his overambitious father.
The Jossverse? Has just devoted one entire season to the father-son relationship on Angel, and it's easier to list the nice, supportive fathers who did not harm their children in the slightest than the demonic/evil/dysfunctional/dissappointing/dissapproving/oppressive ones which can hardly be counted anymore.
Babylon 5? G'kar's dream imago of his dead father is the core of his spiritual revelation in season 3's "Dust to Dust". Sheridan can hardly stop quoting his father. When Dr. Franklin's old man shows up, it's ever so predictable to find out the good doctor has, dare one say it, father issues.
Meanwhile, on this side of the Atlantic, there's one of my favourite Sci-Fi shows of all time, the one my icon is from: Blake's 7. (Which btw is an obvious influence both in Babylon 5 and in Farscape.) And guess what? No fathers-son relationships at all. Blake (another of those broken heroes - only Blake already starts the show finding out he has been brainwashed and broken) never, ever mentions his father, and neither does anyone else of the regulars. (With the exception of Dayna who turns up in season 3, but then her father getting killed by the show's main villain gets only brought up when it is important to the plot.) Blake has issues, Avon (the show's antihero) has even more issues, but whatever their relationship with their fathers was, it doesn't matter at all.
Or, another British series: Ultraviolet. Very cool, original take on the vampire concept. And yes, the regulars have issues. But again, not father issues. One of these days someone has to ponder why the Father Thing touches something in the American psyche it apparently does not, or less so, in the European one.
John Crichton's father, as is clear from their scene together in the pilot, belongs in the "supportive" category, but also in the "ambitious father and son secretly wondering if he can live up to his father's belief in him" category. Which can be seen as a first hint Crichton's emotional make-up is not ALL sunshine even at this point, or maybe I'm overinterpreting. At any event, like the beach and the sea, Crichton Senior will be back, again and again. In various forms, many of which show the uneasiness mingled with the love and respect John feels. There's Alien Jack, modelled, after all, on a worst-case scenario from John's psyche, who ultimately goes with the government-as-a-force-of-oppression, there's the Jack Crichton in "Dog with Two Bones" who, in his son's imagination, takes up with Chiana, and most intriguingly for me there's the Jack Crichton who isn't played by Ken Cord but Wayne Pygram in "Unrealized Realities", a Scarran/human hybrid talking to John about fate and compromises.
After the teaser finishes with shoving Crichton through the wormhole (btw, having recently rewatched DS9, I was somewhat amused that the special effects people went for similar colour schemes, only Farscape, of course, being the younger show has the far better special effects), the list of introductions continues, in a perfectly fluent, not-obvious manner. I especially like that the destruction of the Peacekeeper prowler which accidentally collides with John's pod is handled so matter-of-factly; no ominous music in the background pointing out this is going to be crucial to the plot, and our hero doesn't wonder aloud just who might have been in that little space ship, either. It's just a moment, and it's gone. Perfect.
First sight of Moya: now here is a ship which looks like the Liberator of B7 fame (also an organic/mechanical mixture) might have looked like if the BBC would have had the means and the money back then. (Not that I don't like the good old Liberator the way it was.) Since both Farscape and Blake's 7 start with somewhat similar situations - a bunch of escaped prisoners getting posession of a fabulous ship, an oppressive military dictatorship as a system, and the regulars coming together more by necessity than anything else, starting by bickering with each other at every chance they get - I appreciate the differences Farscape came up with. For starters, John Crichton was the first hero of a show which I watched who wasn't also the leader of the show's regulars, and it's refreshing to see poor John having his first encounters and not being taken seriously at all. When I first saw D'Argo I thought he was Worf, Mark II, or at least a Klingon; rewatching the first season as I do now I still think the early similarities are rather pointed, though my knowledge of later D'Argo helps with seeing the differences as well. Zhaan in her sleek blue elegance, otoh, is just herself from day 1, though if you stretch it and if you really want to you can see similarities to B7's Cally, who is mystic and warrior at the same time. (But doesn't have Zhaan's sensual side.)
And then there's Officer Aeryn Sun. Okay, this is where certain reading and viewing habits do have conditioned us: even without any knowledge of future episodes - if a beautiful woman gets introduced kicking the hero's behind and pinning him on the floor in the pilot, you just know those two are going to end up together. In the audio commentary of the episode, Rockne Bannon and Brian Henson, talking during a shot where we see Aeryn and Crais, remark on how both Aeryn and Crais seem to be straightforward, easily classifiable types in the pilot and how proud they are of the development they gave these two characters. In Aeryn's case, the pilot does show already she's not just an unthinking soldier in letting her speak up for Crichton out of some basic decency; Crais at this point is simply the episode's black-clad villain, and set up as the hero's future nemesis. Lani Tupu does villain!Crais well, and reminds me of Blake's season 1 and 2 nemesis, Commander Travis, with whom early Crais shares not just the black leather and the sense of personal injury (Crais' brother, Travis' eye) through the hero, but also the single-minded, not quite rational obsession. And of course, both Crais and Travis ultimately get kicked out of their power position and "home" and have to become outlawst themselves. But Travis remains a villain, and I'm glad Farscape went a far more interesting route with Crais. He's effective as the bad guy in "Premiere", but had he remained nothing more than this, it would have gotten dull. Apart from all other things because he's far too clearly in the wrong.
The John/Aeryn exchange "How do I know I can trust you?" "You don't" could serve as the Farscape motto, just like Crichton's exasparated "What is the matter with you people?". (Of course, by the time they revisit this particular moment in "Unrealized Reality", John is more screwed up than anyone else of the original Moya crew.) Just about the only moment in the pilot which strikes me as a bit artificial and too obvious a set-up is the final John/D'Argo scene; there's a slight feeling of "now we have to remind the audience again D'Argo really has a temper and prison issues". The corresponding scene with Crichton and Rygel, however ("are you a sound sleeper?") is just perfect, but then I'm the freak who after watching her first season 1 episodes didn't fall for John/Aeryn but for John/Rygel. What can I say: Rygel is a nastier version of Quark in his way. Plus Ben Browder has great chemistry with that muppet...
I was introduced to Farscape through
hmpf (may she be praised), though it took me a while to fall in love. I was definitely fascinated by the time the first season ended. (The passion happened sometime during the second season, I suppose.) However, I had not seen all episodes of the first season when it was broadcast, notably not the pilot, so it's intriguing to go back. "Premiere" (or would that be the Premiere?) is incredibly poignant with the additional knowledge of what is to come. By itself, it's a captivating series pilot (which is good because the episodes immediately afterwards, which was when I came in originally, are nice but nowhere near as excellent as this show could get even then), certainly one of the best I've seen. But I'm prejudiced and incapable to detach myself enough from later knowledge to evaluate it in a truly objective fashion. For example, the very first images, the sea, the beach, will haunt John Crichton throughout the entire show; it's a core inner landscape, his lost home and yet more than that. Also, watching Crichton in early season 1 again is somewhat like watching Frodo in the film version of "Fellowship of the Ring" if you've read LOTR and know what's to come. Or watching the very young Buffy in pre-"Innocence" episodes of the show. The optimism, the wide-eyed wonder, the utter innocent lack of awareness just what life is going to do to them.
You know, in earlier times, I tended to find villains, on the whole, more interesting than heroes; many people do. But this last decade has left me increasingly fascinated with heroes, or rather, those broken, scarred but still trying heroes I found in genre books and TV. It doesn't work every time; even when the X-Files were on top of their game and I was an interested Watcher who often couldn't wait for them to broadcast in Germany and therefore rented the English language video tapes, I never felt emotionally connected to Mulder and Scully the way I do to Buffy or John Crichton. But then there's Fitz of Robin Hobb's "Assassin" saga, with whom it worked perfectly again.
Back to Farscape, "Premiere": pilot episodes are by their very nature saddled with exposition, the necessity to introduce important characters and the premise of the show, and not all series manage to pull that off in a manner which leaves the episode in question still interesting upon rewatching it. This one does, though theoretically you could almost check a very strict schedule by the way they handle the intros; after Crichton's paradise-soon-to-be-lost, we get to see his friend DK (which reminded me I found the guy in many a fanfic and then was somewhat surprised by the real thing in season 4's "Terra Firma"), his father - and of course John Crichton, being an American hero, has The Father Thing going. I'm not sure why the Father-son relationship (no matter whether competitive or supportive) is so much more likely to be found with American heroes than with European ones. This is not a criticism - just an observation. To limit myself to genre, here's what I mean:
Star Trek: Picard? Had a dissaproving father. Riker? Doesn't get along with his father. Bashir? Feels embarrassed by his father and resents what his father did to him. Sisko? See earlier entry about the importance of the Sisko/Jake relationship on DS9. Tom Paris? Naturally, has rebellious son type relationship with his overambitious father.
The Jossverse? Has just devoted one entire season to the father-son relationship on Angel, and it's easier to list the nice, supportive fathers who did not harm their children in the slightest than the demonic/evil/dysfunctional/dissappointing/dissapproving/oppressive ones which can hardly be counted anymore.
Babylon 5? G'kar's dream imago of his dead father is the core of his spiritual revelation in season 3's "Dust to Dust". Sheridan can hardly stop quoting his father. When Dr. Franklin's old man shows up, it's ever so predictable to find out the good doctor has, dare one say it, father issues.
Meanwhile, on this side of the Atlantic, there's one of my favourite Sci-Fi shows of all time, the one my icon is from: Blake's 7. (Which btw is an obvious influence both in Babylon 5 and in Farscape.) And guess what? No fathers-son relationships at all. Blake (another of those broken heroes - only Blake already starts the show finding out he has been brainwashed and broken) never, ever mentions his father, and neither does anyone else of the regulars. (With the exception of Dayna who turns up in season 3, but then her father getting killed by the show's main villain gets only brought up when it is important to the plot.) Blake has issues, Avon (the show's antihero) has even more issues, but whatever their relationship with their fathers was, it doesn't matter at all.
Or, another British series: Ultraviolet. Very cool, original take on the vampire concept. And yes, the regulars have issues. But again, not father issues. One of these days someone has to ponder why the Father Thing touches something in the American psyche it apparently does not, or less so, in the European one.
John Crichton's father, as is clear from their scene together in the pilot, belongs in the "supportive" category, but also in the "ambitious father and son secretly wondering if he can live up to his father's belief in him" category. Which can be seen as a first hint Crichton's emotional make-up is not ALL sunshine even at this point, or maybe I'm overinterpreting. At any event, like the beach and the sea, Crichton Senior will be back, again and again. In various forms, many of which show the uneasiness mingled with the love and respect John feels. There's Alien Jack, modelled, after all, on a worst-case scenario from John's psyche, who ultimately goes with the government-as-a-force-of-oppression, there's the Jack Crichton in "Dog with Two Bones" who, in his son's imagination, takes up with Chiana, and most intriguingly for me there's the Jack Crichton who isn't played by Ken Cord but Wayne Pygram in "Unrealized Realities", a Scarran/human hybrid talking to John about fate and compromises.
After the teaser finishes with shoving Crichton through the wormhole (btw, having recently rewatched DS9, I was somewhat amused that the special effects people went for similar colour schemes, only Farscape, of course, being the younger show has the far better special effects), the list of introductions continues, in a perfectly fluent, not-obvious manner. I especially like that the destruction of the Peacekeeper prowler which accidentally collides with John's pod is handled so matter-of-factly; no ominous music in the background pointing out this is going to be crucial to the plot, and our hero doesn't wonder aloud just who might have been in that little space ship, either. It's just a moment, and it's gone. Perfect.
First sight of Moya: now here is a ship which looks like the Liberator of B7 fame (also an organic/mechanical mixture) might have looked like if the BBC would have had the means and the money back then. (Not that I don't like the good old Liberator the way it was.) Since both Farscape and Blake's 7 start with somewhat similar situations - a bunch of escaped prisoners getting posession of a fabulous ship, an oppressive military dictatorship as a system, and the regulars coming together more by necessity than anything else, starting by bickering with each other at every chance they get - I appreciate the differences Farscape came up with. For starters, John Crichton was the first hero of a show which I watched who wasn't also the leader of the show's regulars, and it's refreshing to see poor John having his first encounters and not being taken seriously at all. When I first saw D'Argo I thought he was Worf, Mark II, or at least a Klingon; rewatching the first season as I do now I still think the early similarities are rather pointed, though my knowledge of later D'Argo helps with seeing the differences as well. Zhaan in her sleek blue elegance, otoh, is just herself from day 1, though if you stretch it and if you really want to you can see similarities to B7's Cally, who is mystic and warrior at the same time. (But doesn't have Zhaan's sensual side.)
And then there's Officer Aeryn Sun. Okay, this is where certain reading and viewing habits do have conditioned us: even without any knowledge of future episodes - if a beautiful woman gets introduced kicking the hero's behind and pinning him on the floor in the pilot, you just know those two are going to end up together. In the audio commentary of the episode, Rockne Bannon and Brian Henson, talking during a shot where we see Aeryn and Crais, remark on how both Aeryn and Crais seem to be straightforward, easily classifiable types in the pilot and how proud they are of the development they gave these two characters. In Aeryn's case, the pilot does show already she's not just an unthinking soldier in letting her speak up for Crichton out of some basic decency; Crais at this point is simply the episode's black-clad villain, and set up as the hero's future nemesis. Lani Tupu does villain!Crais well, and reminds me of Blake's season 1 and 2 nemesis, Commander Travis, with whom early Crais shares not just the black leather and the sense of personal injury (Crais' brother, Travis' eye) through the hero, but also the single-minded, not quite rational obsession. And of course, both Crais and Travis ultimately get kicked out of their power position and "home" and have to become outlawst themselves. But Travis remains a villain, and I'm glad Farscape went a far more interesting route with Crais. He's effective as the bad guy in "Premiere", but had he remained nothing more than this, it would have gotten dull. Apart from all other things because he's far too clearly in the wrong.
The John/Aeryn exchange "How do I know I can trust you?" "You don't" could serve as the Farscape motto, just like Crichton's exasparated "What is the matter with you people?". (Of course, by the time they revisit this particular moment in "Unrealized Reality", John is more screwed up than anyone else of the original Moya crew.) Just about the only moment in the pilot which strikes me as a bit artificial and too obvious a set-up is the final John/D'Argo scene; there's a slight feeling of "now we have to remind the audience again D'Argo really has a temper and prison issues". The corresponding scene with Crichton and Rygel, however ("are you a sound sleeper?") is just perfect, but then I'm the freak who after watching her first season 1 episodes didn't fall for John/Aeryn but for John/Rygel. What can I say: Rygel is a nastier version of Quark in his way. Plus Ben Browder has great chemistry with that muppet...
