Exploring the Uncharted Territories: A Farscape Viewing Experience

That is disappointing. Like bigdaddy , I also was hoping to meet her brother.


I-Yensch, You-Yensch
- I only have a two-word response to Talyn destroying the medical ship: holy shit. I don't even have words for my dismay over his attack on Moya.

- Liked D'Argo walking around knocking out guards as he began his "negotiations" with Scorpy. A small thing, but amusing and very in-character.

- I sometimes forget how intelligent and perceptive Rygel is, but he shows both characteristics quite well in this episode, both in the "negotiations" with Scorpy and in dealing with Sko & Wa.

- I wish the two stories in this episode hadn't been put together. I didn't really feel "it" with the hostage situation (though I did enjoy watching Rygel and Scorpy interacting). I was far more interested in the Talyn situation, which was both disturbing and heart-breaking.


Into the Lion's Den Part I: Lambs to the Slaughter
- Watching everyone walking around a PK command carrier without restraints is so damn strange. Loved Crais putting Braca in his place by telling him that he is a "consummate Peacekeeper." Crais has come such a long way from a zealot PK himself to a full member of this strange little renegade family clustered around Moya.

- On the Crais subject, based on his subplot in this episode with the former lover, I'm now expecting that his remaining time alive is now short. It felt like one more humanizing story for Crais in preparation for his death, which I expect to be a selfless sacrifice to save the others.

- Speaking of walking around on a PK ship, loved seeing all of the different environments that a command carrier has. Very cool. The generator room especially made for a fun environment for a fight scene.

- After a season of increased combat options, it's nice to see Crichton back to earlier season basics, trying to work out a problem with his brain rather than with Winona.

- I think the war movie backdrop to Crichton's interactions with Harvey in this episode make for my favorite Harvey environments so far. Speaking of, I find it interesting that - at least so far - Harvey is willing to aid Crichton in fooling the real Scorpy in order to preserve his own existence, rather than attempting to aid Scorpy somehow. He may have started out as, and may still be, a neural clone of Scorpius, but Harvey does seem to have become a separate entity of his own.

- Things really are heating up... a new PK commandant, who apparently outranks or whose authority at least can supercede Scorpy's? That can't end well for our crew. Grayza is already portrayed as devious, with her plot to assassinate Scorpy through killing Crichton. I imagine she'll play an even bigger role in season four; it could be interesting to have two PK "big bads" at once.

- Great episode that felt like it packed a lot of material in and covered a lot of ground - ending with Scorpius issuing a chilling threat against Earth...


Into the Lion's Den Part II: Wolf in Sheep's Clothing
- I never get tired of hearing Crichton say that they need to blow something up. The gammak base, the Shadow Depository, now the command carrier... No wonder this crew is gaining alternating reputations of being "infamous" and/or "legendary" in the Territories. Hell, this is exactly the plan I was expecting in Part 1 when Crichton was talking to Aeryn about Plan A vs B vs C.

- Aeryn's conversation with the young PK girl and Henta is a perfect showcase of how far she's come, how much she's changed, since the beginning of the show.

- Since I had accepted Crais as a full member of our crew, I didn't want to believe that he had actually betrayed Crichton and the others to Scorpius. Needless to say, I'm very glad he didn't. As mentioned in my thoughts on Part 1, I was expecting Crais to go out with a "hero's death," as nothing else than full, absolute redemption at this point would have felt right. Still, I'm sad to see him and Talyn gone; I'll miss both of them.

- PK command carrier corridors remind me a great deal of Colonial Battlestar corridors, particularly those onboard Galactica.

- Watching the "death throes" of the command carrier was awesome - and I do mean that in the genuine awe-inspiring sense of the word. A particular moment of note was Scorpy standing a set of steps, with the water running down the steps around him. I also appreciated the episode taking a few seconds to give us Pilot & Moya's reaction to Talyn's death. Also got to give kudos to Strappa for his willingness to let Crichton use the Aurora Chair to wipe his wormhole knowledge from his memory.

- Did I say that Part 1 was a great episode? Well, this one rises above even that. It was thoroughly entertaining every step of the way, awe-inspiring as I said before, upped the stakes for Crichton and company considerably, and contained more than one selfless sacrifice. Given the way this episode ended, I'm rather surprised that it's not the season finale.


Dog with Two Bones
- I know I haven't commented on Chiana's visions / premonitions yet, but that's because I just don't know what to say. They're the one thing that - so far, at least - Farscape hasn't really approached in a different manner than most other shows, other than perhaps in the sense that no one has tried to find an explanation for them yet, simply accepting (or not accepting, as in Jool's occasional doubting comments) the visions as a matter-of-course.

- If I didn't already know that the "old lady" is Noranti and a member of the crew in season four, I'd be echoing the question everyone in this episode is asking: Who is she? That said, she's annoying me already in her first appearance, and I hope, even though many people have already posted their opinions about her, that that opinion gets revised over the course of the next season.

- This episode is rather melancholy, what with everyone talking about leaving Moya and John's apparent hallucinations about Earth - and, of course, Talyn's burial. The rogue Leviathan, and the necessity of killing it, was rather sad too. A much smaller episode to end the season one, but it feels appropriate.

- I'm betting the Ancients are behind the wormhole that drew in Moya, resulting in Crichton being stranded in space.

- It may not be quite the adrenaline run of the previous two episodes, but this was still a damn good one, definitely a highpoint worthy of capping the end of the season. I'm sad, though, to see the crew split up again. As much as I did enjoy the separate crews experimentation of this season, I hope this split doesn't last nearly as long next season.


I can't believe I'm headed into the final season. I do not want this ride to be over.

 

Yeah....this is one of Temis's common complaints about the show that most people here agreed on......we really could have used at least a mini-arc dealing with the Nebari if not a full season type one.

Yeah, everyone who first watches this scene is in total awe when they watch it as well. I know the music, the water flowing down the stairs....everything......literally everything was perfect in that moment. There's one other punch-you-in-the-gut-moment to close out this season......(at least it was for me)....the last five minutes of Dog with Two bones where John goes from being heart-broken at Aeryn leaving to having Harvey unlock that Aeryn is pregnant to Moya being sucked into a wormhole and almost completely out of fuel. I thought that was just about as awesome as a finale as the Season 1 cliff-hanger.

 

I love Noranti, but it took me a while to realize it. It really isn't until the latter half of Season 4 that I actually started to find her a worthwhile member of Moya's crew.

How could you not say anything about my absolute favorite scene from the entire frickin show?! John and Aeryn saying goodbye!

John: "Say goodbye to me."
Aeryn: "We don't say goodbyes."
John: "We do this time. You see, you leave, and then you come back, and I can't handle the in between. Say goodbye to me."
Aeryn: "Fine. Goodbye, Crichton."
John: "John! My name is John. Goodbye, John - to my face."
Aeryn: "Guarantee you won't die in my arms again!"
John: "Gaurantee you won't die in mine!"
Aeryn: "I can, by leaving!"

Followed by more yelling and crying and a coin toss! AH!

AND AERYN IS PREGNANT!

Oh, I love that episode so much.

WARNING FOR SEASON 4:

Season 4 starts out weird. Part of the weirdness, I think, is simply because the show is filmed differently. It's filmed in HD widescreen in stead of the 4:3 that we were used to for the first 3 seasons. The lighting is different. The whole show is a lot darker.

The first few episodes are a bit on the mediocre side of things. Not so much because they're bad, but because after all the stuff that happened in the end of Season 3, the last thing you want are fucking standalones!

That said, there is not a single episode of Season 4 that I dislike, and the second half of the season is absolutely fantastic. It just has an awkward start.

 

I finally got my complete series DVD set the other day and I immediately watched my two favorite episodes, which just happened to be "Into the Lion's Den." It's been several years since I've watched the show but that two-parter still punches me hard in the stomach.

"Talyn...Starburst!"

As for Noranti, I love her. I'm continued to be surprised how much people don't like her considering she's just as crazy as everyone one else on the show.

 

Final arc of Season 3 somewhat represents destruction of old status quo in Farscape and Moya. Now they have to pickup the pieces and start everything again....( crew getting together , John/Aeryn relationship , wormhole technology locked in John's mind ) It will take time.

First half of Season 4 is a little bit uneven. After a great serial arc they turn back to stand alone format for a few episodes ( but are they really stand alones ? Remember so many stand alone episodes which contributed so much in Season 1-3 ) Sci-Fi Channel began to interfare to Farscape at this point demanding more stand alone type eps. There are good episodes and mediocre ones. But second half of Season 4 is excellent , as impressive as Season 3 itself...

 

I haven't seen season 4, but I have a bad feeling the "stand alone" episodes were supposed to bring up topics for a 5th season.

I love the fact that the characters on the show come and go, it's really perfect and I will always give them credit for killing off and getting rid of some characters and bring back others and new ones. Plus you miss the old characters that are gone, but start to really like the news ones... besides Jool (Jewel?) I really just don't like her, she seems useless and I wish they gave her more back story.

The set is now down to $60.49 on Amazon.

 

For people watching this live for the first time, I remember what a huge deal this was. The way the season ended totally sucker punched me and it was awesome.

While I agree that we didn't want standalones, I'd say "What was lost" and "Lava's a Many"...were both just plain bad episodes to boot. Noranti is painful to have on screen and she's constantly blowing her magic pixie dust crap at John..... Commandant Cleavage is a joke of an adversary after Scorpy and Crais........you basically just have two women constantly drugging John pulling him in different directions. I was so done with that storyline long before it ended.

The second half of this season is indeed awesome, I just don't know how you found a way to like "Lava's a many"......for me, there was little redeeming about that episode.

 

Well, I did like it, and I love "What Was Lost" as well. Of course, I also think Granny is a great character, so there you go.

 

That's probably the difference then......couple my dislike of her character most of the time with the fact that she was such a central part of those episodes and that's probably the largest reason I didn't care for them as much.

The funny thing about Granny is that I liked her fine in Dog with Two bones. I liked how she was introduced and what part she played in that episode. It really wasn't until "What was Lost" where she went around blowing crap in John's face all the time and getting him hooked on the "forget Aeryn" drugs that I started to dislike her. It's really unfortunate because I think she started out having the same sort of potential that Zhan always had with the crew........a voice of wisdom, insight, spirituality...

 

Yeah, Talyn's/Crais's sacrifice is indeed epic, and a death truly hero-worthy for the both of them. I do like that the command carrier didn't just immediately explode, but went through a 'death throe' as it was so succinctly put.... it allowed for some really impressive scene work, especially the 'water on the stairs' bit, which, if you listen to the commentary for that scene, almost didn't work because they had only one shot at it, and apparently, Scorpius' shoes have no traction whatsoever, so if Wayne Pygram had taken a spill walking those stairs, the whole scene would have been ruined.

Really impressive stuff, though...

Yeah, Farscape is good at making the big, action heavy stuff a bit removed from the season ender, leaving the finale's to be taken up by the emotional sucker punches. I like that about the show, personally, since it keeps things from seeming too crowded at the end of the season. What, in most shows, you'd see as a five minute denouement after the pyrotechnics, Farscape likes to do as a whole episode... Season 4 will end much the same way, if that's not too much of a spoiler.

 

Say, how and when did Scorpy find out that Moya had a child? Chrichton didn't know that she'd delivered when he was in the Aurora chair, did he?

 

I really like that too, that the main climax of the season doesn't happen at the last second but gives some time to what happens after.

However I disliked the last episode of season 3 and the first couple from season 4. It's just I don't care, it's really sad.

 

You know, I don't really have much of a problem with 'Chrichton Kicks'. I agree that most of the other starting eps of Season 4 are a bit weak, and 'Chrichton Kicks' does have its problems, but, of the standalones in S4, it's probably my favorite, which is too bad, because I really wanted to like 'John Quixote', but, in the end, it's just a bit too zany in the wrong sort of way... 'I Shrink, Therefore I am', wasn't too bad, either, but it's the kind of episode that would have been better in Season 2, as the tone doesn't really work as well, I think, at this point in the series...

But yes, unfortunately, the beginning to S4 is very, very rocky... some weak eps, and several new characters that no one ever really gets into (though Sikozu has her fans). Season 4 smacks way too much of network meddling derailing the show, which is fortunately remedied by the halfway mark, but I think the weak opening is likely what contributed to Farscape's untimely end on SciFi...

 

Just to give you an idea, it isn't until Episode 5 "Promises" that you really get anything nearly as good as what you saw in the previous season, and Episode 11 "Unrealized Reality", the season midpoint, before you get to anything epic... fortunately, though, past the midpoint, it's pretty much unbroken awesome straight through the finish...

Although, I'm going to dissent from most of the posters here in saying that my least favorite eps from Season 4 are probably Coup By Clam and A Prefect Murder... Personally, I put 'Prefect' at 'Meltdown levels of suck... almost, but not quite...

 

I love love love "John Quixote." It's one episode from Season 4 that I constantly find myself rewatching. There is just so much more going on in that episode that you don't really realize until you've seen it a few times.

 

Does Peace Keeper Wars feel like any type of conclusion or is it one of those "we are stilling hoping to get another season after this" feel going on.

 

Last time I watched the Peace Keeper wars right after finishing season 4 it felt a natural progression of things and provided some definite closure. Not so much that things couldn't continue if they wanted to, but where they left things provided enough closure where you could be content if no other Farscape ever appeared.

Also, count me in as another person who loved John Quixote. Awesome episode. Loooved Aeryn's southern drawl with a lisp accent.

 

Oh no, PKW definitely provides closure for all the major storylines of the show. If they wanted to make more, I'm sure they could come up with something, but I think PKW serves as a fantastic finale.

I mean, PKW wasn't even made until 2 years after Farscape had been canceled. They certainly weren't planning to make any more.

 

You never know. Manny Coto made Odyssey 5 seven or eight years ago, I think it was 2002. It was canceled after several months when only 13 episodes aired, a few years later they showed the rest, I think that was 2004. A few years after that the DVD came out, 2006. On the pilot episode he gives a commentary along with Peter Weller, the perfect time to explain where the show was heading, why the Earth want boom. Instead he only explained a little bit about what a second season would have brought because he still thought someday he could tell the story! He was nuts! I want to know why the fucking Earth imploded!

 

All right, PsychoPere, I'm about to pass you in my rewatch. Starting "Dog with Two Bones" right now. Get a move on!