![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
thedeadlyhookSo the one good thing about all this confined-to-bed nonsense is that I've been able to give my full attention to the Farscape marathon which I've been trying to get through since... well, too long. Special thanks again to ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
danceswithwords for the disc loans - dear, you've really made my down time bearable.
I'm getting a better feeling now for which parts of the series I caught the first time around and which ones I missed - I seem to have caught scattered bits of Seasons 1 and 2, almost none of S3, and all of S4. Not sure why the gaps, other than to guess that maybe at that time I was too caught up in BtVS to notice another show. But S3 is, of course, where the series really gets seriously plotty and super-expanded in terms of cast, so now at least I know why I was so confused when I came in as to what the hell the deal was with Crais and Talyn and why my memories of Zhaan were so dim. The way the opening narration changes in S3 really feels portentious to where the series was going at this point - "should I stay / protect my home... Earth is not prepared for the nightmares I've seen... but then you'll never know the wonders I've seen." Crichton at the crossroads.
A few things that have jumped out at me so far. (Spoilers, here and there, pretty much for the whole series):
Hybrids, Hybrids, Hybrids
I may have said this before, but the whole series really seems to be about the hybridization theme, two species recombining to create something new. So many of the characters are half-breeds of one or another, or end up somehow contaminated or "modified" - Talyn and Crais, for example. Genetic hybrids, such as Scorpius, or D'Argo's son Jothee, are another thread, and on that note...
The Crichton and Aeryn 'Ship
...is key to the whole series' concept. I love that. Since the whole show revolves around the idea of embracing the alien, finding commonality and compromise, the Crichton and Aeryn relationship is a key vehicle to talk about the show's themes. It's not there just to be pretty. It's the hub on which everything turns.
I remember when I finally started watching the series regularly in S4, I had the strong impression that it wasn't so much a one-hero show as a two-hero show - Crichton and Aeryn as equally weighted protagonists. And that makes sense in terms of structure too - to support the hybrid theme, we need to see both sides moving toward each other. And there's a nice sense of closure in ending the series with Aeryn giving birth to their hybrid child.
Mirror, Mirror
There's a line in the episode "Meltdown" where John says to Aeryn (I'm paraphrasing), "you know, for somebody who used to look down on this kind of [tech] work, you're pretty good at it." It's a fair assessement, too. Aeryn is a soldier who turns out to have the heart of tech (no coincidence, probably, that the one other girl in this universe we really see Crichton attracted to was the "P.K. Tech Girl.") Conversely, Crichton is a tech who, over the course of the series, becomes more of a solider in response to everything he has to cope with... and he's not too bad at that either. I'm seeing two things at work here: adaptation to survive, and also that sort of movement-toward-understanding as people work together, such as the way we discover more about Zhaan and D'Argo as the series goes on. These two also serve as mirrors of each other to some extent: the peaceful priest with a berserker inside, and the warrior who dreams of family and a farm.
My Side, Your Side, My Side, Your Side
And then there's Stark. Stark is markedly NOT a hybrid - he doesn't even have the option of compromise. He "helps you cross over," one side to another. Even visually, he's divided in half, with a dividing line right down the middle of his face - dark/light. Even his name, Stark, is about contrast. That he's also totally looney supports the hybridization theme - because Stark can never be either one thing or another, he's inherently unstable.
Moya and Talyn
Moya the female ship, Moya the mother. Talyn the hybrid, weapons-bristling, the boy-ship, the son. Visually, Moya is all earth tones and rounded shapes, Talyn is all lurid primary colors and high-contrast graphics. Suspiria in space. (The Peacekeepers in general seem to have their design and lighting sense art-directed by Dario Argento.)
The crews of the two ships, once split up, showcase these differences too. On Moya, the vibe is overwhelmingly female: there's a squabbling sisterhood of sorts with Chiana and Jool; D'Argo, who's already been well established at this point as a warrior cum big cuddly teddy bear. Plus Pilot, the empathic carer, and Crichton. Aboard Talyn, the atmosphere is masculine: the antogonistic brothership of sorts between Crichton and Crais; more antagonism with Crichton and Talyn; Starck and Rygel are mostly involved with squabbling with each other, a mirror-image to Chiana and Jool; Aeryn is the only female.
Even more interestingly, the characters on Talyn seem more complete unto themselves, more secure in who and what they are, or at least about what they want; in comparison, those on Moya come off as being lost, drifting, missing something vital.
The Two Crichtons
Much is made of how the two Crichtons are identical. Yet, separated, they begin to drift into separate zones. Crichton A, aboard Talyn, has what he wants most - Aeryn - while Crichton B, onboard Moya, ends up feeling more aimless, arguing with D'Argo and being the guy everyone still looks to for advice even though he feels less qualified to give it than ever.
I find it especially interesting that it's the Crichton on Talyn who finally gets the relationship breakthrough with Aeryn, because, I think, the environment on Talyn is so wholly macho. Unlike on Moya, Crichton is the odd man out on Talyn. He's the low guy on the totem pole to everyone but Aeryn.
But in this macho enviroment, Aeryn thrives. She's surrounded by people she either feels superior to or at least more than a competent match for, in a role that fits with her Peacekeeper training. I get the feeling Aeryn feels more comfortable reaching out to Crichton on Talyn because he's the vulnerable one. It's a relationship of equals, but Aeryn is perhaps more equal here: she makes committments that on Moya would've felt too risky. Without people like Zhaan or D'Argo or Chiana around to make her feel insecure or competitive or uncomfortable with her own self-image, Aeryn can say "I love you," she can express PDAs, she can promise to go to Earth with John. And notably, she can also put a gun to John's head and honestly mean to kill him when she believes he's being taken over by the Scorpius clone, but when John dies from radiation, a situation completely out of her hands, it nearly breaks her.
Bluffer's Game
How many Farscape plots revolve around two aliens appearing and the cast has to figure out which one of them is lying and which one is telling the truth? (Often enough, both are lying.) But that's life in the Farscape 'verse - an extended poker game of subterfuge, bluffing, bluster and overt fakery. So many episodes revolve around role-playing, around fitting the characters into new roles, shifting their positions in relation to each other. Crichton turns out to be surprisingly good at bluffing, right from the start, and with the Scorpius clone in place, he gets even better at it. Harvey becomes Crichton's own internal magnified bullshit detector - he pops up as part of John's subconcious to red-flag deception, to play up John's own instincts. By the time we find out that Scorpius himself has a sort of built-in lie detector, it aligns perfectly with what we already know about how the Scorpius brain clone works as part of John's mind.
Utterly Random
The continuity on this show is awesome.
The flower that we see in Scorpius' quarters in "Incubator" is indeed the same flower that appears late in Season 4, as the origin of the Scarrans' intelligence. It's also shown growing on the planet where Scorpius' mother was captured - possibly the entire reason why the Scarrans were there in the first place?
In the "Infinite Possibilities" two-parter, Jack the Ancient tells Aeryn specifically to stay out of the bay where he's going to be working with radiation. I think that it's being hinted at that she's pregnant already.
I can't let go of my impression of "The Ancients," in their true appearance as comical-looking insectoid puppets, as an homage to the classic Star Trek episode "Catspaw," where illusionist aliens who turn out to be pathetic little marionettes. Granted, the Ancients here are at least almost human-sized instead miniature, but... the impression still lingers. Ditto the impression of the Ancient guardian figure in a suit who reminds me of The Tall Man in Phantasm.
There really is a lot of vomiting in this series.
In the episode where Pilot is possessed, he chucks up something like that green pea soup Linda Blair lets fly in The Exorcist and the slime that's dumped on people's heads in that Nickelodeon show.
Rygel's blood is like the goo in those green glow sticks.
In "Revenging Angel," Jool emerges from the guano chamber in Moya's depths holding D'Argo's blade like the Lady of the Lake. The, er, alien batshit lake.
danceswithwords for the disc loans - dear, you've really made my down time bearable.I'm getting a better feeling now for which parts of the series I caught the first time around and which ones I missed - I seem to have caught scattered bits of Seasons 1 and 2, almost none of S3, and all of S4. Not sure why the gaps, other than to guess that maybe at that time I was too caught up in BtVS to notice another show. But S3 is, of course, where the series really gets seriously plotty and super-expanded in terms of cast, so now at least I know why I was so confused when I came in as to what the hell the deal was with Crais and Talyn and why my memories of Zhaan were so dim. The way the opening narration changes in S3 really feels portentious to where the series was going at this point - "should I stay / protect my home... Earth is not prepared for the nightmares I've seen... but then you'll never know the wonders I've seen." Crichton at the crossroads.
A few things that have jumped out at me so far. (Spoilers, here and there, pretty much for the whole series):
Hybrids, Hybrids, Hybrids
I may have said this before, but the whole series really seems to be about the hybridization theme, two species recombining to create something new. So many of the characters are half-breeds of one or another, or end up somehow contaminated or "modified" - Talyn and Crais, for example. Genetic hybrids, such as Scorpius, or D'Argo's son Jothee, are another thread, and on that note...
The Crichton and Aeryn 'Ship
...is key to the whole series' concept. I love that. Since the whole show revolves around the idea of embracing the alien, finding commonality and compromise, the Crichton and Aeryn relationship is a key vehicle to talk about the show's themes. It's not there just to be pretty. It's the hub on which everything turns.
I remember when I finally started watching the series regularly in S4, I had the strong impression that it wasn't so much a one-hero show as a two-hero show - Crichton and Aeryn as equally weighted protagonists. And that makes sense in terms of structure too - to support the hybrid theme, we need to see both sides moving toward each other. And there's a nice sense of closure in ending the series with Aeryn giving birth to their hybrid child.
Mirror, Mirror
There's a line in the episode "Meltdown" where John says to Aeryn (I'm paraphrasing), "you know, for somebody who used to look down on this kind of [tech] work, you're pretty good at it." It's a fair assessement, too. Aeryn is a soldier who turns out to have the heart of tech (no coincidence, probably, that the one other girl in this universe we really see Crichton attracted to was the "P.K. Tech Girl.") Conversely, Crichton is a tech who, over the course of the series, becomes more of a solider in response to everything he has to cope with... and he's not too bad at that either. I'm seeing two things at work here: adaptation to survive, and also that sort of movement-toward-understanding as people work together, such as the way we discover more about Zhaan and D'Argo as the series goes on. These two also serve as mirrors of each other to some extent: the peaceful priest with a berserker inside, and the warrior who dreams of family and a farm.
My Side, Your Side, My Side, Your Side
And then there's Stark. Stark is markedly NOT a hybrid - he doesn't even have the option of compromise. He "helps you cross over," one side to another. Even visually, he's divided in half, with a dividing line right down the middle of his face - dark/light. Even his name, Stark, is about contrast. That he's also totally looney supports the hybridization theme - because Stark can never be either one thing or another, he's inherently unstable.
Moya and Talyn
Moya the female ship, Moya the mother. Talyn the hybrid, weapons-bristling, the boy-ship, the son. Visually, Moya is all earth tones and rounded shapes, Talyn is all lurid primary colors and high-contrast graphics. Suspiria in space. (The Peacekeepers in general seem to have their design and lighting sense art-directed by Dario Argento.)
The crews of the two ships, once split up, showcase these differences too. On Moya, the vibe is overwhelmingly female: there's a squabbling sisterhood of sorts with Chiana and Jool; D'Argo, who's already been well established at this point as a warrior cum big cuddly teddy bear. Plus Pilot, the empathic carer, and Crichton. Aboard Talyn, the atmosphere is masculine: the antogonistic brothership of sorts between Crichton and Crais; more antagonism with Crichton and Talyn; Starck and Rygel are mostly involved with squabbling with each other, a mirror-image to Chiana and Jool; Aeryn is the only female.
Even more interestingly, the characters on Talyn seem more complete unto themselves, more secure in who and what they are, or at least about what they want; in comparison, those on Moya come off as being lost, drifting, missing something vital.
The Two Crichtons
Much is made of how the two Crichtons are identical. Yet, separated, they begin to drift into separate zones. Crichton A, aboard Talyn, has what he wants most - Aeryn - while Crichton B, onboard Moya, ends up feeling more aimless, arguing with D'Argo and being the guy everyone still looks to for advice even though he feels less qualified to give it than ever.
I find it especially interesting that it's the Crichton on Talyn who finally gets the relationship breakthrough with Aeryn, because, I think, the environment on Talyn is so wholly macho. Unlike on Moya, Crichton is the odd man out on Talyn. He's the low guy on the totem pole to everyone but Aeryn.
But in this macho enviroment, Aeryn thrives. She's surrounded by people she either feels superior to or at least more than a competent match for, in a role that fits with her Peacekeeper training. I get the feeling Aeryn feels more comfortable reaching out to Crichton on Talyn because he's the vulnerable one. It's a relationship of equals, but Aeryn is perhaps more equal here: she makes committments that on Moya would've felt too risky. Without people like Zhaan or D'Argo or Chiana around to make her feel insecure or competitive or uncomfortable with her own self-image, Aeryn can say "I love you," she can express PDAs, she can promise to go to Earth with John. And notably, she can also put a gun to John's head and honestly mean to kill him when she believes he's being taken over by the Scorpius clone, but when John dies from radiation, a situation completely out of her hands, it nearly breaks her.
Bluffer's Game
How many Farscape plots revolve around two aliens appearing and the cast has to figure out which one of them is lying and which one is telling the truth? (Often enough, both are lying.) But that's life in the Farscape 'verse - an extended poker game of subterfuge, bluffing, bluster and overt fakery. So many episodes revolve around role-playing, around fitting the characters into new roles, shifting their positions in relation to each other. Crichton turns out to be surprisingly good at bluffing, right from the start, and with the Scorpius clone in place, he gets even better at it. Harvey becomes Crichton's own internal magnified bullshit detector - he pops up as part of John's subconcious to red-flag deception, to play up John's own instincts. By the time we find out that Scorpius himself has a sort of built-in lie detector, it aligns perfectly with what we already know about how the Scorpius brain clone works as part of John's mind.
Utterly Random
The continuity on this show is awesome.
The flower that we see in Scorpius' quarters in "Incubator" is indeed the same flower that appears late in Season 4, as the origin of the Scarrans' intelligence. It's also shown growing on the planet where Scorpius' mother was captured - possibly the entire reason why the Scarrans were there in the first place?
In the "Infinite Possibilities" two-parter, Jack the Ancient tells Aeryn specifically to stay out of the bay where he's going to be working with radiation. I think that it's being hinted at that she's pregnant already.
I can't let go of my impression of "The Ancients," in their true appearance as comical-looking insectoid puppets, as an homage to the classic Star Trek episode "Catspaw," where illusionist aliens who turn out to be pathetic little marionettes. Granted, the Ancients here are at least almost human-sized instead miniature, but... the impression still lingers. Ditto the impression of the Ancient guardian figure in a suit who reminds me of The Tall Man in Phantasm.
There really is a lot of vomiting in this series.
In the episode where Pilot is possessed, he chucks up something like that green pea soup Linda Blair lets fly in The Exorcist and the slime that's dumped on people's heads in that Nickelodeon show.
Rygel's blood is like the goo in those green glow sticks.
In "Revenging Angel," Jool emerges from the guano chamber in Moya's depths holding D'Argo's blade like the Lady of the Lake. The, er, alien batshit lake.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2006-04-24 08:56 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-04-24 09:07 pm (UTC)But in short, I recommend it highly. The opening seasons have a high proportion of Star Trek-esque adventures, but as time goes on it gets more and more interesting with the sci-fi pondering and interior brainscapes and fantasy eps. Nifty.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-04-24 09:53 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-04-24 08:57 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-04-24 09:08 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-04-24 09:58 pm (UTC)But not tonight.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-04-25 06:44 am (UTC)It was awesome and filled me with a desire to watch the series. I don't know who any of the characters are but I want to know more about them, especially about the girl with the grey skin and the hair like a mop.
Perhaps not enough to go out and buy the DVDs, however, especially as I've got vast numbers of unwatched episodes of other shows recorded (including most of the last season of 'Doctor Who' and the two episodes of this season so far) and not a lot of free time in which to catch up.
Maybe one of our Sci-Fi channels will repeat 'Farscape' one of these days. Although mainly they occupy themselves with repeating 'BtVS' and 'Angel' over and over again. Even the twentieth showing of a 'Buffy' episode still gets better ratings in the UK than anything else in the genre other than 'Doctor Who' itself, 'Red Dwarf' seasons 1-3, or 'Futurama'.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-04-25 10:27 pm (UTC)But yeah, it's a goodie. Even the standard adventure episodes in the early seasons are interesting and sort of surreallly art directed. Totally worth it, if you get the chance.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-04-25 09:15 am (UTC)::pats self on back::
::pulls a muscle::
(no subject)
Date: 2006-04-25 10:28 pm (UTC)::pats you on the back::
::offers you salve for your muscle pull::
(no subject)
Date: 2006-04-25 09:55 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-04-25 10:29 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-04-25 10:32 am (UTC)What I did want to say, though is that you might consider posting this at
(no subject)
Date: 2006-04-25 10:31 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-04-26 08:26 am (UTC)I know I'm looking forward to seeing what you have to say while I watch for the first time (much as I did while watching BtVS!).
(no subject)
Date: 2006-04-25 10:45 am (UTC)One of the things I find really fascinating about Farscape is that it's an Odyssey story set to the tune of The Wizard of Oz, but that the definition of what home is changes over time. At first, John thinks of Earth as home, but eventually he thinks of partnership with Aeryn and family with her as where he belongs. There's the wonderful sense of dislocation in "Terra Firma," that this is what John has been working toward for so long and he just doesn't fit in anymore, things have shifted too much.
And I think the fact that this shift was already getting underway at the end of Season 2 is part of why MoyaJohn seems to lost; he's focusing on the thing that has gotten him through everything so far, the search for home, but the piece of the puzzle that he needs, Aeryn, isn't there, and it's not really enough to sustain him.
I'm really enjoying your thoughts, especially on hybridization. The show deals a lot with identity, with the parts of it that may be plastic and the parts of it that are immutable, and I think it uses racial or genetic identity as a shorthand for a lot of those issues. I'm so glad you're getting so much enjoyment out of the DVDs, and I hope your back continues to improve.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-04-25 10:44 pm (UTC)At first, John thinks of Earth as home, but eventually he thinks of partnership with Aeryn and family with her as where he belongs.
Season 3 really seemed to be building consistently toward bringing that idea to a head, of him being pushed to make a choice between those two. I think that's why Stark started to stick out for me as a charcter (My Side! Your Side!) and why I had such respect for the Two Crichtons plotline - I mean wow, way to externalize that internal conflict! Two Johns to show the two conflicting lines of thought.
The show deals a lot with identity, with the parts of it that may be plastic and the parts of it that are immutable, and I think it uses racial or genetic identity as a shorthand for a lot of those issues.
Yeah, I really think that's it. I mean, most of the hybrids are not what you'd call entirely successful - they're faulty, like Scorpius or Talyn, or have self-image isues, like Joffy, but there's a certain amount of drive and vigor inherited through the hybrid process that makes them unique, so it's a tradeoff. In a sense, they seem like cautionary tales for John and Aeryn, who are undergoing their own modification processes by embracing each other. Giving birth to something new is tough.
Thank you again, so much, for the loan. We're almost done, finally! And same wishes for you on the back problem - god, it sucks, doesn't it? I'm really starting to fear aging. I'm not ready yet for my body to turn on me like this.