Faaaarscape!
Sep. 29th, 2011 03:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
next_to_normalTime to start the Farscape reviews!
I watched Farscape when it initially aired in the same primetime block as Sliders, which was, at the time, my favorite show in the universe (this one or any other). I kind of lost track of Farscape when Sliders was canceled, though whether because I was boycotting the SciFi Channel in protest or because I just didn't have enough of a reason to tune in anymore, I don't remember. From what I can tell, I'd seen season 1, but very little (if any) of season 2, given that I remembered Chiana, but not so much with Scorpius and Stark. I recall liking it, but not being terribly impressed, which also makes sense if I only watched the first season, since it is, on its own, somewhat less than impressive. (Having seen the whole series now, I'm kind of in awe of how well-done the character arcs are, right from the beginning.) It's a little cheesy, a little too on-the-nose with all the "HEY GUYS THESE ARE ALIENS LOOK HOW DIFFERENT THEY ARE" commentary, and there's a significant absence of logic in some of the plots. But the first season is clearly just laying the foundation for future awesomeness (and, you know, the first season, when you watch it the second time, is better than the third season...), which is to say, I tried to keep this spoiler-free forsnickfic, who is watching Farscape for the first time, but thoughts on how certain events fit into larger arcs kinda kept creeping in. Mostly, though, it's general overview and episodes 1-9 of season 1.
"Did you ever have one of those days when life just ain't what you thought it was gonna be?"
aka John Crichton, the unsubtle astronaut
So, we start right off the bat with the anvilicious foreshadowing. Crichton feels like a big change is imminent in his life. His dad tells him that he'll be a hero and "it'll be the last thing you ever expected." Then he says John can give him back his good luck charm "tonight." GEE, I WONDER WHERE THIS IS GOING.
Shockingly, Crichton gets sucked into a wormhole and deposited clear across the universe in the midst of aliens. Betcha didn't see THAT coming, eh? And then, just in case you missed the point here, we will hammer it home EVEN FURTHER in the next episode by making John the alien to people living on another planet and seeing himself in their reactions.
But actually, it's a good introduction to the series, because one of the major underlying themes is about seeing yourself in others. It is all about finding common ground with strangers and building these connections, learning from each other, accepting the ways you are the same and valuing the ways you are different. So it actually sorta makes sense? It's just not the most subtle thing in the world.
I have mixed feelings about Crichton's role in the early episodes. I was chatting withsnickfic and she remarked on how unrealistic it is that the guy who's the most out of his depth of anyone turns out to be the hero so many times. And she's like, "how is it he's the main character, when there are all these other characters who are more interesting things?" I do agree that there's an unfortunate sense of "the audience needs a white male human POV" through which the series is filtered, but oh man, she doesn't know what she's in for with Crichton and his interestingness. :)
On the other hand, there are some benefits to being the fish out of water, and Crichton uses them to his advantage. He's usually the one to come up with a solution that no one else would've thought of, like submerging Moya in mud to muffle the Peacekeeper beacon. It's not that he's smarter than everyone else. He simply doesn't know that landing Leviathans on planets isn't normal. Thinking outside the box comes naturally for him because he has no idea where the box is.
"You fart helium?"
aka Hey, look, there are aliens on this show!
I was kind of surprised to discover, on this rewatch, that D'Argo and Zhaan were my least favorite characters. Maybe because they were so not human, they (and Rygel) stuck out most in my memory. But I also recall way back in the day, when I wrote Sliders fanfic (shut up), Zhaan was the inspiration for a species the gang encountered in a parallel universe. Not exactly the same - they were Delphinians, bipedal creatures evolved from dolphins, not plants - but the blue skin and the wise spiritual guide thing came from Zhaan. So, you know, I was kind of left with the idea that I liked Zhaan, haha.
Not that I dislike her or anything. Just that I find her and D'Argo to be too much like stock characters, which stands out in the midst of complex characters like John and Aeryn, and later Chiana, Scorpius, and others. One of the things I love about John/Aeryn is the gender-bending involved. Aeryn is a full-blown action hero, battle-hardened and unsentimental, while John the scientist (and this show draws such a distinct line between soldiers and scientists in the beginning and then blurs it all to hell) is the one who wears his heart on his sleeve. In contrast, D'Argo and Zhaan start out very gender normative. The male character is the violent one with hyper-rage issues, and the female character is the peaceful one, the spiritual healer/mother figure for the others. It doesn't get more textbook than that.
Of course, all the characters gain more depth as the series goes on. Heck, D'Argo's already more complicated; we just don't know it yet. The "all Peacekeepers should die" rhetoric makes sense, what with the whole oppression and imprisonment thing, but we'll eventually find out that he married a Sebacean. He'll never have warm fuzzy feelings for them or anything, but spending this much time with Aeryn forces him to acknowledge that not all Peacekeepers are cut from the same cloth. And while I was never invested as much in that story as I was in John and Aeryn moving toward one another from opposite directions, it's still a good story.
But Zhaan, I find, has nowhere to go. Nearly all the characters become better people because of what they've gone through and the influence they have on each other. Zhaan never really does, which I think is partly because she assumes she's already better than everyone else. She tends to be self-righteous and superior, and claims to be peaceful but sometimes is just passive-aggressive. And, I mean, y'all know that I am vice president of the Serial Killer Lovers Anonymous club, so I clearly do not get hung up on characters' moral failings. I just need the show to acknowledge it, and I feel like Farscape doesn't, really. She's just a freakin' priestess with the patience of a saint. I would've loved to see a Dark Willow-type arc for her - and the foundation is there, she's an anarchist and has the capacity to be ruthless and you don't want to mess with her when she's pissed off. She is totally ripe for a great downfall to humble her (religious figures who lack humility are a pet peeve of mine), but they never quite get there. It all feels very safe.
Rygel is his own special brand of despicable, but he's supposed to be despicable, and that's the difference. The narrative acknowledges that you're not really supposed to like Rygel because he's petty and self-absorbed and has delusions of grandeur and pretty much zero sense of loyalty. At least he's straight about it. He's not ashamed of his bad qualities, and he doesn't try to hide them under a veneer of goodness. When he cuts off Pilot's arm, he doesn't bother trying to justify it. He wants to go home, and he'll do whatever it takes, end of story. That's why Zhaan and D'Argo bother me so much more than Rygel in that episode, because of course Rygel would be that selfish. But Zhaan and D'Argo purport to be better than that. It also doesn't hurt that he's pretty great for comic relief (especially when paired up with Chiana or Stark). And I might as well take this opportunity to give the Henson people a shout-out for some fabulously lifelike puppets. I am constantly impressed at the emotion they are able to convey, both Rygel and Pilot. Sometimes I forget that there aren't actual people faces under there.
"You can be more."
aka John/Aeryn is my OTP (no one is surprised)
I wasn't actually a John/Aeryn shipper the first time around. I can recall thinking that they were clearly the endgame couple, but wasn't really invested in it. But this time when I watched, I was shipping like mad from the word "go."
I love the immediate bond between John and Aeryn. Okay, granted, there was that bit where she tried to choke him with her thighs first, but by the third episode, there's already an incredible amount of trust there for a human completely out of his depth and a Peacekeeper conditioned not to trust anyone who's not a Peacekeeper. Then again, maybe it's because they're the only two species on this ship that look alike, that they look at each other and see themselves. But already, Aeryn is asking John to mercy-kill her if the Living Death takes her. She is trusting him with that. Of all the people on this ship - most of whom would be more than happy to kill her - she is asking him. And he already cares so much for her that he looks like he's going to cry every time he thinks about it. Not that he wouldn't be deeply moved, whoever was dying - he is, at this point, still overwhelmingly full of compassion, hasn't yet become brittle and hard and put up the walls to protect himself - but it's clearly a step beyond that because it's Aeryn. And because she's who she is, because she's trained never to show weakness, this vulnerability in his presence, while it can't really be helped, is a huge step for her. And he recognizes that, acknowledges the depth of her as a person. She's not an emotionless robot after all. She can be more. Maybe he's already in love. Maybe he's just clinging to the one thing that's familiar. Either way, the connection has been forged.
And within the first half of the first season, we're already seeing Aeryn become more: "What I had to do up there was like a field strategy exercise, only the enemy wasn't trying to kill me, the enemy was a puzzle, and there were lots of different pieces and independently, separately, they didn't make any sense, and I had to think it through really hard, and I had to work it out and try different combinations of putting things together and then finally I worked out what had happened, and I worked out what I had to do." Aeryn, who sniffed, "That's tech stuff," the work of the inferior non-infantry Peacekeepers. Aeryn, who comes to share Pilot's DNA and becomes the Leviathan Whisperer for both Moya and Talyn.
Aeryn becomes the PK Tech Girl, while John becomes a soldier. Moving toward their opposites, just like everyone on this show. Rygel, the epitome of greed and self-preservation, on more than one occasion makes sacrifices and risks his life for others. Zhaan, the anarchist priest who built her spiritual peace upon a foundation of anger and violence. D'Argo, the warrior who longs to settle down and raise a family. This show, you guys. It's all about reconciling the opposites, finding a way to survive being both more and less than what you are. Either you find the balance or you self-destruct.
I watched Farscape when it initially aired in the same primetime block as Sliders, which was, at the time, my favorite show in the universe (this one or any other). I kind of lost track of Farscape when Sliders was canceled, though whether because I was boycotting the SciFi Channel in protest or because I just didn't have enough of a reason to tune in anymore, I don't remember. From what I can tell, I'd seen season 1, but very little (if any) of season 2, given that I remembered Chiana, but not so much with Scorpius and Stark. I recall liking it, but not being terribly impressed, which also makes sense if I only watched the first season, since it is, on its own, somewhat less than impressive. (Having seen the whole series now, I'm kind of in awe of how well-done the character arcs are, right from the beginning.) It's a little cheesy, a little too on-the-nose with all the "HEY GUYS THESE ARE ALIENS LOOK HOW DIFFERENT THEY ARE" commentary, and there's a significant absence of logic in some of the plots. But the first season is clearly just laying the foundation for future awesomeness (and, you know, the first season, when you watch it the second time, is better than the third season...), which is to say, I tried to keep this spoiler-free for
snickfic, who is watching Farscape for the first time, but thoughts on how certain events fit into larger arcs kinda kept creeping in. Mostly, though, it's general overview and episodes 1-9 of season 1."Did you ever have one of those days when life just ain't what you thought it was gonna be?"
aka John Crichton, the unsubtle astronaut
So, we start right off the bat with the anvilicious foreshadowing. Crichton feels like a big change is imminent in his life. His dad tells him that he'll be a hero and "it'll be the last thing you ever expected." Then he says John can give him back his good luck charm "tonight." GEE, I WONDER WHERE THIS IS GOING.
Shockingly, Crichton gets sucked into a wormhole and deposited clear across the universe in the midst of aliens. Betcha didn't see THAT coming, eh? And then, just in case you missed the point here, we will hammer it home EVEN FURTHER in the next episode by making John the alien to people living on another planet and seeing himself in their reactions.
But actually, it's a good introduction to the series, because one of the major underlying themes is about seeing yourself in others. It is all about finding common ground with strangers and building these connections, learning from each other, accepting the ways you are the same and valuing the ways you are different. So it actually sorta makes sense? It's just not the most subtle thing in the world.
I have mixed feelings about Crichton's role in the early episodes. I was chatting with
snickfic and she remarked on how unrealistic it is that the guy who's the most out of his depth of anyone turns out to be the hero so many times. And she's like, "how is it he's the main character, when there are all these other characters who are more interesting things?" I do agree that there's an unfortunate sense of "the audience needs a white male human POV" through which the series is filtered, but oh man, she doesn't know what she's in for with Crichton and his interestingness. :)On the other hand, there are some benefits to being the fish out of water, and Crichton uses them to his advantage. He's usually the one to come up with a solution that no one else would've thought of, like submerging Moya in mud to muffle the Peacekeeper beacon. It's not that he's smarter than everyone else. He simply doesn't know that landing Leviathans on planets isn't normal. Thinking outside the box comes naturally for him because he has no idea where the box is.
"You fart helium?"
aka Hey, look, there are aliens on this show!
I was kind of surprised to discover, on this rewatch, that D'Argo and Zhaan were my least favorite characters. Maybe because they were so not human, they (and Rygel) stuck out most in my memory. But I also recall way back in the day, when I wrote Sliders fanfic (shut up), Zhaan was the inspiration for a species the gang encountered in a parallel universe. Not exactly the same - they were Delphinians, bipedal creatures evolved from dolphins, not plants - but the blue skin and the wise spiritual guide thing came from Zhaan. So, you know, I was kind of left with the idea that I liked Zhaan, haha.
Not that I dislike her or anything. Just that I find her and D'Argo to be too much like stock characters, which stands out in the midst of complex characters like John and Aeryn, and later Chiana, Scorpius, and others. One of the things I love about John/Aeryn is the gender-bending involved. Aeryn is a full-blown action hero, battle-hardened and unsentimental, while John the scientist (and this show draws such a distinct line between soldiers and scientists in the beginning and then blurs it all to hell) is the one who wears his heart on his sleeve. In contrast, D'Argo and Zhaan start out very gender normative. The male character is the violent one with hyper-rage issues, and the female character is the peaceful one, the spiritual healer/mother figure for the others. It doesn't get more textbook than that.
Of course, all the characters gain more depth as the series goes on. Heck, D'Argo's already more complicated; we just don't know it yet. The "all Peacekeepers should die" rhetoric makes sense, what with the whole oppression and imprisonment thing, but we'll eventually find out that he married a Sebacean. He'll never have warm fuzzy feelings for them or anything, but spending this much time with Aeryn forces him to acknowledge that not all Peacekeepers are cut from the same cloth. And while I was never invested as much in that story as I was in John and Aeryn moving toward one another from opposite directions, it's still a good story.
But Zhaan, I find, has nowhere to go. Nearly all the characters become better people because of what they've gone through and the influence they have on each other. Zhaan never really does, which I think is partly because she assumes she's already better than everyone else. She tends to be self-righteous and superior, and claims to be peaceful but sometimes is just passive-aggressive. And, I mean, y'all know that I am vice president of the Serial Killer Lovers Anonymous club, so I clearly do not get hung up on characters' moral failings. I just need the show to acknowledge it, and I feel like Farscape doesn't, really. She's just a freakin' priestess with the patience of a saint. I would've loved to see a Dark Willow-type arc for her - and the foundation is there, she's an anarchist and has the capacity to be ruthless and you don't want to mess with her when she's pissed off. She is totally ripe for a great downfall to humble her (religious figures who lack humility are a pet peeve of mine), but they never quite get there. It all feels very safe.
Rygel is his own special brand of despicable, but he's supposed to be despicable, and that's the difference. The narrative acknowledges that you're not really supposed to like Rygel because he's petty and self-absorbed and has delusions of grandeur and pretty much zero sense of loyalty. At least he's straight about it. He's not ashamed of his bad qualities, and he doesn't try to hide them under a veneer of goodness. When he cuts off Pilot's arm, he doesn't bother trying to justify it. He wants to go home, and he'll do whatever it takes, end of story. That's why Zhaan and D'Argo bother me so much more than Rygel in that episode, because of course Rygel would be that selfish. But Zhaan and D'Argo purport to be better than that. It also doesn't hurt that he's pretty great for comic relief (especially when paired up with Chiana or Stark). And I might as well take this opportunity to give the Henson people a shout-out for some fabulously lifelike puppets. I am constantly impressed at the emotion they are able to convey, both Rygel and Pilot. Sometimes I forget that there aren't actual people faces under there.
"You can be more."
aka John/Aeryn is my OTP (no one is surprised)
I wasn't actually a John/Aeryn shipper the first time around. I can recall thinking that they were clearly the endgame couple, but wasn't really invested in it. But this time when I watched, I was shipping like mad from the word "go."
I love the immediate bond between John and Aeryn. Okay, granted, there was that bit where she tried to choke him with her thighs first, but by the third episode, there's already an incredible amount of trust there for a human completely out of his depth and a Peacekeeper conditioned not to trust anyone who's not a Peacekeeper. Then again, maybe it's because they're the only two species on this ship that look alike, that they look at each other and see themselves. But already, Aeryn is asking John to mercy-kill her if the Living Death takes her. She is trusting him with that. Of all the people on this ship - most of whom would be more than happy to kill her - she is asking him. And he already cares so much for her that he looks like he's going to cry every time he thinks about it. Not that he wouldn't be deeply moved, whoever was dying - he is, at this point, still overwhelmingly full of compassion, hasn't yet become brittle and hard and put up the walls to protect himself - but it's clearly a step beyond that because it's Aeryn. And because she's who she is, because she's trained never to show weakness, this vulnerability in his presence, while it can't really be helped, is a huge step for her. And he recognizes that, acknowledges the depth of her as a person. She's not an emotionless robot after all. She can be more. Maybe he's already in love. Maybe he's just clinging to the one thing that's familiar. Either way, the connection has been forged.
And within the first half of the first season, we're already seeing Aeryn become more: "What I had to do up there was like a field strategy exercise, only the enemy wasn't trying to kill me, the enemy was a puzzle, and there were lots of different pieces and independently, separately, they didn't make any sense, and I had to think it through really hard, and I had to work it out and try different combinations of putting things together and then finally I worked out what had happened, and I worked out what I had to do." Aeryn, who sniffed, "That's tech stuff," the work of the inferior non-infantry Peacekeepers. Aeryn, who comes to share Pilot's DNA and becomes the Leviathan Whisperer for both Moya and Talyn.
Aeryn becomes the PK Tech Girl, while John becomes a soldier. Moving toward their opposites, just like everyone on this show. Rygel, the epitome of greed and self-preservation, on more than one occasion makes sacrifices and risks his life for others. Zhaan, the anarchist priest who built her spiritual peace upon a foundation of anger and violence. D'Argo, the warrior who longs to settle down and raise a family. This show, you guys. It's all about reconciling the opposites, finding a way to survive being both more and less than what you are. Either you find the balance or you self-destruct.
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Date: Sep. 29th, 2011 08:32 pm (UTC)I LOVE YOUR THOUGHTS. THEY ARE SO SO RIGHT.
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Date: Oct. 2nd, 2011 05:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Sep. 30th, 2011 12:36 am (UTC)no subject
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Date: Oct. 2nd, 2011 05:52 pm (UTC)