Exploring the Uncharted Territories: A Farscape Viewing Experience

[Pemmer Harge]

I don't mind Jeremiah Crichton, but it is very generic sci-fi (for which, read Star Trek). Who knew that Rygel being worshiped would lead to the villagers trying to kill him? That said, I did like how Rygel seemed to be genuinely disturbed by his ancestors' actions.

Durka Returns though, I like a lot. The plot isn't amazing, but it's well executed and the episode is exciting. The really cool part, of course, is the introduction of Chiana. I love how Gigi Edgley plays the character and I just think she added a certain something to the ensemble that made Farscape a better show.

A Human Reaction is one of those episodes (pretty common on this show), that I really shouldn't like. I mean, come on, this is so Voyager isn't it? As soon as they start killing off main characters, you just know what's happening isn't real or is going to be reset buttoned. But somehow, it works anyway. I guess that's the beauty of Farscape - it takes sci-fi clichés and uses them in such a weird and wonderful way that they seem fresh. Anyway, I really enjoyed this story. Seeing a glimpse of how Earth might react to John's friends was especially interesting and then you've got the John and Aeryn stuff and some stuff that'll be important down the line. In some ways, these last couple of episodes feel to me like the stage where Farscape really started to find its feet.

 

[Bonzo the Fifth]

- Rygel expresses some interesting thoughts for a (former) hereditary ruler in this episode. He loves to be pampered and wants to be kept in affluence again, yet the opinions he expresses here are pretty damn reasonable for a king, at least based on historical Earth examples. He surprises me once again, which is certainly a good thing.

The more you see of Rygel, the more you realize that he is truly a much kinder, wiser character than might be immediately apparent.

- Salis was creepy as hell. Is his demeanor typical of the Nebari, are they generally more like Chiana, or are they as varied as true individuals should be? (read: not the "all ______ are [whatever]" stereotypes Trek used for shorthand understanding ) I'm assuming the former, based on Chiana's comments to Crichton that her people would "cleanse the lot of you" if they catch up to Moya.

Chiana is certainly in the minority. Unfortunately, we never really see enough of the Nebari to be able to comment on the species as a whole.

[/QUOTE]

Yeah, Rygel is an interesting character, for sure. While he certainly has the arrogance and divine sense of entitlement that comes from being a monarch for so long, he's had a pragmatic, hard nosed view of the universe at large drilled into him due to over a century of imprisonment. He's arrogant, self-absorbed, and oftentimes a coward, but neither is he naive, ignorant, or stupid. He's learned things, hard lessons, and is not afraid to get his hands dirty, in any sense of the word. He just doesn't want to...


As for the Nebari, I'd say that we do see enough of them and their society to get a grasp on their behavior as a culture. They are a very monochromatic culture (Hell, look at their color scheme, black/white/gray... like a more sophisticated imagining of the Cherons from TOS), but, unlike the sometimes generic race descriptions of most SF, where it seems like the entire planet just one day decided to embrace a particular ideology or another, the Nebari's was by design. The Nebari have engineered their culture to get to this point, and from what glimpses we do get to see of it, this was not a process that many people agreed to go with. In many ways, the Nebari make the Space Nazi depiction of the Peacekeepers seem almost warm and fuzzy by comparison. The only real difference is that the Peacekeepers only force conformity and regimentization on their organization, not the entire Sebacean race. The Nebari seem to have forced this lifestyle on their entire civilization, which is, in many ways, far spookier, and shows just how dangerous even a simple wild child like Chiana can be for such a system, leading to her state when first introduced.

 

[Bonzo the Fifth]

I don't mind Jeremiah Crichton, but it is very generic sci-fi (for which, read Star Trek). Who knew that Rygel being worshiped would lead to the villagers trying to kill him? That said, I did like how Rygel seemed to be genuinely disturbed by his ancestors' actions.

Durka Returns though, I like a lot. The plot isn't amazing, but it's well executed and the episode is exciting. The really cool part, of course, is the introduction of Chiana. I love how Gigi Edgley plays the character and I just think she added a certain something to the ensemble that made Farscape a better show.

A Human Reaction is one of those episodes (pretty common on this show), that I really shouldn't like. I mean, come on, this is so Voyager isn't it? As soon as they start killing off main characters, you just know what's happening isn't real or is going to be reset buttoned. But somehow, it works anyway. I guess that's the beauty of Farscape - it takes sci-fi clichés and uses them in such a weird and wonderful way that they seem fresh. Anyway, I really enjoyed this story. Seeing a glimpse of how Earth might react to John's friends was especially interesting and then you've got the John and Aeryn stuff and some stuff that'll be important down the line. In some ways, these last couple of episodes feel to me like the stage where Farscape really started to find its feet.

I think the reason why it works is there in the title of the episode 'A Human Reaction'. Crichton doesn't just blindly accept the reality of things waiting to get mind-frelled. As soon as he realized something was seriously off the rails (which was, unfortunately, seeing Rygel trussed up like a biology experiment), he got the crap out of there and tried to do the best he could with what information he had. He acts the way you would expect a real person to react in these kind of situations. Kicking down the women's room door to hunt down the puppet masters of this scenario? Could you really see that solution come up in a Star Trek episode (no offense)? But it totally made sense, once he made the deduction. I think that's why Farscape was able to use some done-to-death plot setups but still manage a good story nonetheless... the plots were generic, but the reactions, the characters... they were genuine and real.

I agree that this is where the show really started to find its element... it also began a questioning of its own premise that I find rare in television: Is it necessarily the best thing for John to get home? Has he become 'irreversibly contaminated' by his time in the Uncharted Territories? Is Earth ready to deal with the fallout his return home and knowledge gained would entail? Mind-frell or no, how genuine were the reactions that were being extrapolated from John's mind? Would that really happen? Even more rare, we'll actually find the answers to a lot of these questions as the series goes on, but it's interesting that it's already presenting them this early in the run...

 

[label]

One so-so episode (Jeremiah) and two great episodes. A Human Reaction is one of the top 3-4 from Season 1 and one of the first times you really get a sense of how good the show might become and how right for each other John and Aeryn are.

Chiana finally makes it on board. And, let me second Temis's familiar battle-cry for more Nebari storylines. I would have much rather taken a 6 episode Nebari arc than the dren we got in the first 5-6 episodes of Season 4 and then dovetailed that arc right into the war arc they went with.

 

[The Nth Doctor]

I, too, lament the lack of follow up to "A Clockwork Nebari" but I also believe that if we had gotten the season 5 we were promised (yes, I'm still bitter), we would have seen more of the Nebari. Hopefully the comics will eventually get to them (although I know they're rather focused on something else right now).

 

[PsychoPere]

[...] A Human Reaction is one of the top 3-4 from Season 1 [...]

Right now, I'd say it's my favorite of the season so far.

Chiana finally makes it on board.

Yes, I've been very much looking forward to her arrival. She's so much fun in what I've seen previously.

[...] (yes, I'm still bitter) [...]

Long past time you got over it.


Through the Looking Glass
- Despite all the blows this crew can come to over disagreements, it's also good to see that they can sit down and have reasonable discussions from time to time, as they did in the teaser of this episode. Poor Chiana, though, not being allowed to get a word in herself, and I love the way Pilot nonchalantly says "Prepare for immediate starburst," leading to consternation among the crew.

- The show is doing a great job so far at making the various puppets feel real and imbued with genuine emotion, particularly Pilot in this specific episode. If Trek ever comes back to television, anyone involved in its production should be required to watch Farscape for inspiration on creating genuinely "alien" aliens, as the one in the starburst dimension was (hell, the movies could make use of that too).

- This episode is a fascinating "puzzle" that Crichton and company have to figure out, and the premise of Moya split between three different positions in space/time dimensions is quite interestingly explored - the differing colors between dimensions, the differing natures (sounds, etc.) of each and how those differences affect (or don't) the crew.

- As horrific as the experience must have been for her at the time, the DNA experimentation in "DNA Mad Scientist" continues to come in very handy here, with Aeryn already knowing the command sequences as soon as Crichton tells her the basic plan. I'm glad this show doesn't forget situations like that one that initially seem to be one-off concerns.

- This episode was an absolute blast to watch. Very intriguing concept, good character work, and just a lot of fun all around. "One Mipipippi" - 'nuff said.


A Bug's Life
- Damn, but did Crichton make a pretty convincing Peacekeeper. That captain's uniform looked pretty snazzy too.

- While I did enjoy watching Aeryn & Crichton-as-Peacekeeper interacting with the Marauder crew, I wasn't all that enamored with this episode as a whole, particularly after liking "Through the Looking Glass" so much. Many individual pieces worked fine, but I never felt it came together into a strong whole. The end scene of this episode did, however, make it eminently obvious, even if it wasn't before, how Crichton feels about Aeryn.


Nerve
- If I were one of the Peacekeepers at the Gammak Base, Chiana would definitely be an effective distraction. GiGi Edgley is a lovely woman and provides a quite entrancing performance.

- Yay! Gilina! Glad to see her again. Even though I like Aeryn a lot, and even though I've seen PKW, I still find myself wishing that a relationship between her and Crichton could work out.

- Wayne Pygram's delivery of the "That man - he is an impostor; seize him" goes beyond creepy to a level I don't even know how to describe. With only a few minutes of exposure to Scorpius as I type this, I can understand why he would present a more compelling long-term antagonist than Crais.

- With the revelation in this episode that the aliens in "A Human Reaction" gave Crichton unconscious wormhole information, I appreciate that episode even more, knowing that it has an ongoing impact on the series.

- This was another great episode, filled with enthralling, tense drama and not feeling a need to shoehorn in superfluous action. I also really liked the small character moments: D'Argo & Aeryn; D'Argo & Zhaan re: Aeryn; Crichton & Gilina; and Gilina & Chiana re: Crichton. Crichton's responses while in the Aurora Chair were suitably amusing in his defiance, and I'm very much looking forward to seeing more of Scorpius in future episodes.

 

[RoJoHen]

Did you really just watch "Nerve" and then stop?! You didn't immediately watch the next episode?

I am impressed. "Nerve" is really where the series finally starts to take off, and the next episode "The Hidden Memory" is also fantastic. Enjoy the rest of the season. "Family Ties" is my favorite finale of the show, though they're all absolutely phenominal.

 

[PsychoPere]

In my defense, what I was initially thinking was that I would take the next hour to do some reading, as I'm way behind on several different book series and I'd like to get caught up on at least one of them sometime in the near future.

However, I came back to this post specifically to delete my previous post, because I've now decided to watch at least through "The Hidden Memory" tonight. But you foiled that intention by replying!

Anyways, onward I go now...

 

[RoJoHen]

Sowwy.

 

[Skywalker]

Smart move. I've never been able to only watch "Nerve." I have to watch "The Hidden Memory" immediately afterward.

 

[PsychoPere]

Sowwy.

Just don't do it again, damnit!




The Hidden Memory
- I am really excited to see the baby Leviathan, especially since Pilot says it's "not a normal" one.

- I like this Stark fellow. He's quite amusing so far. "Scorpy!" "Who is she?" "That is the radiant Aeryn Sun." "How many Peacekeepers do you know on this base?" It's interesting, though, how many "mysterious"-type characters this one little living ship ends up with for crew.

- Oh, man. Gilina is brilliant, incriminating Crais by implanting a false Crichton memory into the Aurora Chair. That's truly inspired deviousness.

- It's quite delicious to see the tables turned on Crais, to see him suffering rather than hunting Moya and company. Couldn't happen to a more deserving man. It's also nice to see that someone in the PK hierarchy now knows how far off the reservation Crais has gone in his obsessive quest for Crichton and Moya.

- Poor Chiana, being forced into a confined space with Rygel...

- I don't know quite how to describe Aeryn's confrontation with Crais. It's gratifying, for certain, that she had a chance to tell him off, that she's come so far to realize that her previous life as a PK wasn't much of a real life in the first place. Claudia Black nailed that scene.

- I was impressed with Chiana's take-charge attitude when she had to help the baby Leviathan get out of Moya's birthing chamber. She hasn't been on board the ship very long, but she showed no hesitation and very little fear when she had to go down there. Based on this and what she wanted to say about DRDs in "Through the Looking Glass," I have to wonder if she's spent some time on a Leviathan in the past.

- As much as I appreciate the show presenting the characters with situations where they have to think their way out, sometimes one really does just want a good, old-fashioned firefight, and this episode delivered quite well in that regard.

- If you can't tell already, I really enjoyed this episode. It was a fitting conclusion to "Nerve."


Bone to Be Wild
- I enjoyed the verbal interplay between Crais and Scorpius throughout this episode, but Crais really should have realized much sooner than when he ended up on the floor of his quarters that he was inferior to Scorpy in a battle of wit.

- Zhaan's a sentient plant? That's... you know what, I don't know what to say about that other than "freaking cool." Especially that ability of hers to become invisible!

- Two crazy-looking new alien species for the price of one? WIN!

- I like the new set design of the baby Leviathan's command for the most part, though there does seem to be quite a lot of red in the layout. Watching Aeryn trying to bond with the baby was very touching.

- This episode felt a little bit like a let-down after the great two-parter preceding it, but I did like how neither M'Lee nor Br'Nee could be entirely trusted, and I particularly liked that the "more trustworthy" of the two was M'Lee, even though she presented the most direct threat to the lives of the crew.

- I started receiving very bad playback issues with my disc as soon as I hit the point where Moya/Pilot was asking Aeryn to name the baby, so I'm going to have to take it to a local store tomorrow to see if resurfacing will help. If it doesn't, I'm going to be in a bit of an annoying spot since I bought this set over a year ago and so won't be able to return it. And here I had been, planning to go ahead and watch "Family Ties" tonight too...

 

[RoJoHen]

The scene where Aeryn gets to tell off Crais is one of my favorites from the series. "And you know what I learned while I away from you? Everything I lost isn't worth a damn." Love it.

I enjoy "Bone to Be Wild," but yeah, it kind of interrupts the flow of final arc of the season. It's a solid standalone, but after "The Hidden Memory," I definitely want to see something a lot more important!

Good luck getting the disc fixed. You don't wanna miss that finale!

 

[RoJoHen]

And then the BBS hiccuped and died for a couple hours.

 

[The Nth Doctor]

Ladies and gentleman, we have a new Scaper.

I did nothing but grin while reading your last few posts, Pere (except I won't get over it because, as you know, I'm stubborn that way). It's genuinely exciting to see a new viewer experience all of these characters and events for the first time. The introductions of Chiana, Scorpius and Stark are all major highlights (the latter two are my favorite characters) and all I can say is buckle up and get ready for the ride of your life.

That all being said, with your strong enthusiasm about Gilina (yes, she was as brilliant as she was beautiful!), I'm surprised you didn't say anything about her abrupt death. "The Hidden Memory" was my second episode ("Nerve" being the first) and you can't imagine how crestfallen I was at the time. Didn't help that I had a huge crush on her.

 

[Pemmer Harge]

I enjoyed Through the Looking Glass a lot. Again, it's the sort of thing that could have been done on Trek, but by this stage Farscape was just doing it better and more imaginitively.

A Bugs Life was decent, but not as good as the last few episodes.

The real story though, is Nerve/The Hidden Memory which are just fantastic. The episodes really show the series exploiting its full potential and I think this is the best stuff we've seen so far on Farscape. No fat, just great storytelling and the stuff about Moya's baby is the icing on the cake.

Bone to Be Wild is OK, but it feels a bit odd to suddenly have the ongoing story arc relegated to B-plot in favour of aliens of the week like this.

 

[PsychoPere]

The scene where Aeryn gets to tell off Crais is one of my favorites from the series. "And you know what I learned while I away from you? Everything I lost isn't worth a damn." Love it.

A perfect line.

I enjoy "Bone to Be Wild," but yeah, it kind of interrupts the flow of final arc of the season. It's a solid standalone, but after "The Hidden Memory," I definitely want to see something a lot more important!

Bone to Be Wild is OK, but it feels a bit odd to suddenly have the ongoing story arc relegated to B-plot in favour of aliens of the week like this.

These quotes both sum up quite well why I found "Bone to Be Wild" to be a bit lacking. It wasn't the fault of the episode itself, but more its placement in the season. To add one more positive comment, however, I did like how carefully Moya and crew had to hide from Crais's command ship.

[...] with your strong enthusiasm about Gilina (yes, she was as brilliant as she was beautiful!), I'm surprised you didn't say anything about her abrupt death. [...]

I think the following quote will explain.

And then the BBS hiccuped and died for a couple hours.

I was headed back to the post to edit in a comment about being saddened by her death, after realizing that I hadn't mentioned it, but the board died and I went to bed instead after reading The Left Hand of Destiny, Book Two for an hour. In any event, yes, Gilina was both beautiful and brilliant, she could easily have been the "perfect" "alien" woman for Crichton, and I'm sad that she died, but at least she went out saving the man she had come to love.

Good luck getting the disc fixed. You don't wanna miss that finale!

I haven't taken the disc anywhere just yet, but Netflix has the series available on Watch Instantly, so I'm going to use that to supplement my discs whenever I have a playback issue. Now that I've seen the final scene on board the PK ship and know that M'Lee was indeed picked up by the PKs, I'm torn on whether or not I should feel sorry for them. They are the bad guys, but I'm not entirely sure if any of them - except for Crais - deserves the kind of death she would deal out.

 

[RoJoHen]

Now that I've seen the final scene on board the PK ship and know that M'Lee was indeed picked up by the PKs, I'm torn on whether or not I should feel sorry for them. They are the bad guys, but I'm not entirely sure if any of them - except for Crais - deserves the kind of death she would deal out.

You have to remember that we are seeing some very unique perspectives. Our main characters, as far as the PKs are concerned, are a bunch of criminals. Much like the Alliance on "Firefly," how can we say for such whether or not they're evil? Because a handful of thieves aboard Serenity tell us so?

 

[label]

A bugs life/Nerve/Hidden memory is the first trilogy of episodes that Farscape would be well known for and be so very good at doing. I loved the introduction of Scorpius. This was the first time that I got an inkling of how epic the series could be and excel at telling arc-based stories.

I liked Gilina, but wasn't upset that she died because I knew she was just another obstacle for John and Aeryn to be together. Crais getting what he deserved was awesome.

 

[Pemmer Harge]

You have to remember that we are seeing some very unique perspectives. Our main characters, as far as the PKs are concerned, are a bunch of criminals. Much like the Alliance on "Firefly," how can we say for such whether or not they're evil? Because a handful of thieves aboard Serenity tell us so?

Because they wear black leather and employ a guy named Scorpius who dresses like that!

 

[RoJoHen]

Yeah, but some of them are nice!