Farscaping across the universe...
Due to the current and horrendous lack of new spaceships on the telly, I'm doing a Farscape rewatch. Lovely Farscape was chosen on the grounds that there are lots of spaceships, and I haven't watched it in any sort of order since it was first on the telly and that was approximately forever ago (or ten years, at least. I was still at school anyway.)
So I shall blog about it until the inevitable point where I forget to keep watching.
101 Premiere
I want to say this was dull but functional, except that would be a fib cause I'm not actually bored. I mean, it's not terribly exciting - though pilots rarely are - but stuff happens, it looks good, no-one annoys me and THERE ARE PRETTY SPACESHIPS. I miss spaceships. I don't know why telly won't make new proper sci-fi. It's very bad of it.
Crais is a bit rubbish. After a couple of epiosdes in I realised the only reason I have to think of him as The Big Bad Guy is Crichton's monologue in the title sequence. And "insane military commander" seems a bit of a dubious descrption for a dude who's just a bit pissed off you killed his brother, so wants some good old-fashioned blood vengeance. Also bit distracted by a doctor I recognise from Casualty being his first officer.
Aeryn is awesome. That first scene with her is obviously nicked from Cally's intro in Blake's 7 and it's a fine choice to steal from. There are no scenes with her that don't make me go yay. And her expression as they discover she tried to nick a fork is smashing.
Still love Crichton's first look at Zhaan and D'Argo - I think that scene was what sold me on the show the first time I saw it. His confusion and disorientation, combined with them not speaking English, and the none-too-shabby costuming and make-up does make it feel like, yes, we are very very far away from Kansas now. And the Australian accents help. Space is normally so full of Americans that the sheer novelty of hearing another kind of voice dominate does a neat job of adding to the Not!StarTrek tone.
102 I, ET
And the Not!StarTrek thing does feel like something they're trying to emphasise in these first few episodes. I, ET has a plot that's been done in Trek numerous times: first contact with an alien species. But here Our Heroic Human does a lot of fibbing, threatening and being sneaky instead of worrying about cultural contamination.
And, bless, Crichton's reaction to stepping onto another world for the first time is rather lovely. And then he goes and compares it to Dagobah. And it seems I'm a lot less judgey about his pop culture references than I used to be. When I was a teenager my reaction was "omg, Crichton, obv they don't know what these things are and your "explanations" are not helping since those are more refs they clearly don't know. STOP BEING A TWIT." Now, I get it: they give him some control, something that he - the silly primitive human - knows all about that no-one else does, and they're something he can hold on to that's his, that's home, when he's surrounded by a universe of other cultures, completely cut off from his own.
This is another episode where I want to say it's dull, cause it kind of is, but I'm not bored. I think cause I'm less concerned about the plot, and more interested in seeing the characters and how they interact at this early stage, and none of that disappoints.
There is an annoying child, but I'm trying to ignore him. The scientist is alright though, and the lols!dramaticirony of her first meeting with Crichton, where they're both actually new to aliens and interstellar space travel is a bit good.
Aeryn and D'Argo bitching at each other in a tree is proper great though. And it's nice seeing two 'warrior' characters being contrasted even if I really don't care about Luxans, I assume cause they're too much like Klingons for me. Though they do have tentacles. Which is an improvement.
Best moment: Crichton kissing the scientist goodbye and her amused "wtf was that?" reaction.
103 Exodus From Genesis
TEETH-BRUSHING WITH A GIANT MAGGOT. Awesome.
I used to think Rygel was annoying, now I think he's hilarious. And I'm still really judgey at anyone who complains about the puppets, cause they look great, dammit. Both Rygel and Pilot.
So this is another plot Trek's done: poor misunderstood alien isn't trying to kill them all, it's trying to survive. I don't think Starfleet would be too judgey at the outcome - they only kill some of the alien's kids and some Peacekeeper dudes. And then the alien goes off to be all sparkly in space and there's a lovely ending with Crichton and Aeryn looking out at how pretty it all is.
The Peacekeeper troops have some ridiculous eye make-up on in this. I don't think we see that again.
And Zhaan and Crichton have some nice character stuff, with Zhaan being Wise Alien Priestess to John's Omg How Do I Cope With These Crazy Dudes. Which is nice cause really if there wasn't *someone* onboard offering Crichton some sympathy and friendship, it would seem a bit much for him to cope with.
104 Throne For A Loss
And here's the first hints that there's more to Zhaan than Wise Alien Priestess (her elegant fighting skills followed by "soft, yes; weak, no" is a smashing moment), hurrah! Like most of the first season, this was filed in my head as "boring" but that's a horrid lie. There's more not!Trek as Zhaan tries to help a young man free himself from an addiction to drugs that let him shoot a cool gun and feel awesome, with him repeatedly telling her "no sermons" and there's a trust and a friendship of sorts established between them. Alas forty-five minutes of telly is not enough therapy to stop him returning to the shiny drugs!weapon once he leaves her.
Meanwhile Rygel is amazing. (Especially with his next-door cellmate who actually *is* a rubbish puppet, but has an awesome line in condescension.) He does escape attempts and bluster and being a right self-absorbed git - but an entertaining one. Which is the most important thing
Aeryn and Crichton have a lovely argument about PLANS. I like plans. Aeryn's is always the same one: let's go in shooting. But this time she also conks Crichton over the head and kidnaps him cause he won't let her do her plan. I LOVE AERYN.
And there's more Aeryn and D'Argo bitching where they bond over how rubbish Crichton is, and a rather neat moment where D'Argo's bat'leth turns out to be a space-gun as well. And they get to be A Team. I do like these three together - it makes D'Argo less boring.
Best episode so far.
105 Thank God It's Friday, Again
Our heroes save an enslaved planet, hurrah! And stop some Peacekeepr weaponry getting made! And I don't think anyone even dies in this. Possibly someone gets burned by Rygel's explosive, um, piss. And the planet's already suffered massive ecological damage. But other than that, it's quite cheery this episode.
Apart from the worm in the belly. Unless you're a Trill, I don't approve of that sort of thing, and even then I don't want to *see* it. I'm squeamish, dammit! Pander to me, telly.
The Luxan hyper-rage thing is a bit silly, and kind of Klingon-y in its OTT aggressivesness for no particular reason. But there is some very lovely character development with Aeryn. She does science! And it was very difficult for her! But she did it and she won at it and now she is the great of all scientists! And Pilot also makes a confession to her, having told her in a previous episode how strange it is to have a Peacekeeper close to him and not be afraid of her, he now admits he finds science tricky too to make her feel better, and he has to constantly do a heck of a lot of it. This is just making me really not look forward to that episode where they chop off his arm, cause omg, DON'T BE MEAN TO PILOT HE LOVES AERYN.
So first five episodes over, really enjoying it. More than I expected to too. One thing I've noticed is that I'm never left asking, "Yeah, but where are the women?" The main cast is two male, two female, and there's been pretty much gender parity in guest stars too. And every species where we've seen more than one member, at least one of them's been a woman. I wish more telly was like this.
So I shall blog about it until the inevitable point where I forget to keep watching.
101 Premiere
I want to say this was dull but functional, except that would be a fib cause I'm not actually bored. I mean, it's not terribly exciting - though pilots rarely are - but stuff happens, it looks good, no-one annoys me and THERE ARE PRETTY SPACESHIPS. I miss spaceships. I don't know why telly won't make new proper sci-fi. It's very bad of it.
Crais is a bit rubbish. After a couple of epiosdes in I realised the only reason I have to think of him as The Big Bad Guy is Crichton's monologue in the title sequence. And "insane military commander" seems a bit of a dubious descrption for a dude who's just a bit pissed off you killed his brother, so wants some good old-fashioned blood vengeance. Also bit distracted by a doctor I recognise from Casualty being his first officer.
Aeryn is awesome. That first scene with her is obviously nicked from Cally's intro in Blake's 7 and it's a fine choice to steal from. There are no scenes with her that don't make me go yay. And her expression as they discover she tried to nick a fork is smashing.
Still love Crichton's first look at Zhaan and D'Argo - I think that scene was what sold me on the show the first time I saw it. His confusion and disorientation, combined with them not speaking English, and the none-too-shabby costuming and make-up does make it feel like, yes, we are very very far away from Kansas now. And the Australian accents help. Space is normally so full of Americans that the sheer novelty of hearing another kind of voice dominate does a neat job of adding to the Not!StarTrek tone.
102 I, ET
And the Not!StarTrek thing does feel like something they're trying to emphasise in these first few episodes. I, ET has a plot that's been done in Trek numerous times: first contact with an alien species. But here Our Heroic Human does a lot of fibbing, threatening and being sneaky instead of worrying about cultural contamination.
And, bless, Crichton's reaction to stepping onto another world for the first time is rather lovely. And then he goes and compares it to Dagobah. And it seems I'm a lot less judgey about his pop culture references than I used to be. When I was a teenager my reaction was "omg, Crichton, obv they don't know what these things are and your "explanations" are not helping since those are more refs they clearly don't know. STOP BEING A TWIT." Now, I get it: they give him some control, something that he - the silly primitive human - knows all about that no-one else does, and they're something he can hold on to that's his, that's home, when he's surrounded by a universe of other cultures, completely cut off from his own.
This is another episode where I want to say it's dull, cause it kind of is, but I'm not bored. I think cause I'm less concerned about the plot, and more interested in seeing the characters and how they interact at this early stage, and none of that disappoints.
There is an annoying child, but I'm trying to ignore him. The scientist is alright though, and the lols!dramaticirony of her first meeting with Crichton, where they're both actually new to aliens and interstellar space travel is a bit good.
Aeryn and D'Argo bitching at each other in a tree is proper great though. And it's nice seeing two 'warrior' characters being contrasted even if I really don't care about Luxans, I assume cause they're too much like Klingons for me. Though they do have tentacles. Which is an improvement.
Best moment: Crichton kissing the scientist goodbye and her amused "wtf was that?" reaction.
103 Exodus From Genesis
TEETH-BRUSHING WITH A GIANT MAGGOT. Awesome.
I used to think Rygel was annoying, now I think he's hilarious. And I'm still really judgey at anyone who complains about the puppets, cause they look great, dammit. Both Rygel and Pilot.
So this is another plot Trek's done: poor misunderstood alien isn't trying to kill them all, it's trying to survive. I don't think Starfleet would be too judgey at the outcome - they only kill some of the alien's kids and some Peacekeeper dudes. And then the alien goes off to be all sparkly in space and there's a lovely ending with Crichton and Aeryn looking out at how pretty it all is.
The Peacekeeper troops have some ridiculous eye make-up on in this. I don't think we see that again.
And Zhaan and Crichton have some nice character stuff, with Zhaan being Wise Alien Priestess to John's Omg How Do I Cope With These Crazy Dudes. Which is nice cause really if there wasn't *someone* onboard offering Crichton some sympathy and friendship, it would seem a bit much for him to cope with.
104 Throne For A Loss
And here's the first hints that there's more to Zhaan than Wise Alien Priestess (her elegant fighting skills followed by "soft, yes; weak, no" is a smashing moment), hurrah! Like most of the first season, this was filed in my head as "boring" but that's a horrid lie. There's more not!Trek as Zhaan tries to help a young man free himself from an addiction to drugs that let him shoot a cool gun and feel awesome, with him repeatedly telling her "no sermons" and there's a trust and a friendship of sorts established between them. Alas forty-five minutes of telly is not enough therapy to stop him returning to the shiny drugs!weapon once he leaves her.
Meanwhile Rygel is amazing. (Especially with his next-door cellmate who actually *is* a rubbish puppet, but has an awesome line in condescension.) He does escape attempts and bluster and being a right self-absorbed git - but an entertaining one. Which is the most important thing
Aeryn and Crichton have a lovely argument about PLANS. I like plans. Aeryn's is always the same one: let's go in shooting. But this time she also conks Crichton over the head and kidnaps him cause he won't let her do her plan. I LOVE AERYN.
And there's more Aeryn and D'Argo bitching where they bond over how rubbish Crichton is, and a rather neat moment where D'Argo's bat'leth turns out to be a space-gun as well. And they get to be A Team. I do like these three together - it makes D'Argo less boring.
Best episode so far.
105 Thank God It's Friday, Again
Our heroes save an enslaved planet, hurrah! And stop some Peacekeepr weaponry getting made! And I don't think anyone even dies in this. Possibly someone gets burned by Rygel's explosive, um, piss. And the planet's already suffered massive ecological damage. But other than that, it's quite cheery this episode.
Apart from the worm in the belly. Unless you're a Trill, I don't approve of that sort of thing, and even then I don't want to *see* it. I'm squeamish, dammit! Pander to me, telly.
The Luxan hyper-rage thing is a bit silly, and kind of Klingon-y in its OTT aggressivesness for no particular reason. But there is some very lovely character development with Aeryn. She does science! And it was very difficult for her! But she did it and she won at it and now she is the great of all scientists! And Pilot also makes a confession to her, having told her in a previous episode how strange it is to have a Peacekeeper close to him and not be afraid of her, he now admits he finds science tricky too to make her feel better, and he has to constantly do a heck of a lot of it. This is just making me really not look forward to that episode where they chop off his arm, cause omg, DON'T BE MEAN TO PILOT HE LOVES AERYN.
So first five episodes over, really enjoying it. More than I expected to too. One thing I've noticed is that I'm never left asking, "Yeah, but where are the women?" The main cast is two male, two female, and there's been pretty much gender parity in guest stars too. And every species where we've seen more than one member, at least one of them's been a woman. I wish more telly was like this.