Phase 3, Challenge 3 - Bringing Home The Reason
Season One:
Premiere: “That’s Big…. That’s really big….!” Says John, voicing the thoughts of the viewer as he gets pulled inside the strange alien ship with absolutely no idea as to what might happen next. Seldom on a Sci Fi show have I had such a squee-ful moment as this. It’s even rarer that I’ve had one in a first ep of something, or one which has stuck with me for so many years…. That feeling of having NO FRELLING CLUE as to what might happen next. This show was definitely not like your dad’s sci fi.
Back and Back and Back to the Future: I wondered how long I could hold off in this challenge without indulging in OBRHG-worship. Not long, as it turns out. I was good: I resisted the urge to comment on the ‘cell-scene’ in Premiere, I resisted the urge to comment on OBRHG hot, red-cheeked and under the shower in EFG. But I couldn’t let The Awesome Abs go by without comment. Normally I’m not bowled over by a six-pack on a jirl, normally the most I am is jealous (I do abs exercises pretty much daily and don’t have a 6 pack), but this time, this jirl…. See what I mean: Even Zhaan cant help but stare!
Season Two:
LATP:
“You were tongue!” What can I say that hasn’t been said already? OK, so the trilogy started seemingly badly with a moment that screamed ‘so, this is going to be another show that never gives the fans what they want on the shippy front, huh?’ It’s the X-files all over again, or so I thought. But then the trilogy ends with THAT scene, and we all have to go and take a cold shower. The only problem was, come next episode, we’re back to the “shippy cold war….” What the frell?
And, of course: “I know. It hurts. (Dregon whimpers affirmatively) Do you want it to not hurt? (Dregon whimpers affirmatively again) Well, next time...hold on to the FRELLING WALL! “ Just Aeryn at her awesome best.
Won’t Get Fooled Again: What an amzing ep…. Comedy, tragedy, mind-frelliness, Scorpius/Harvey at his devious best, an exploding Scarran head… and Crais in red high heels carrying a poodle. This ep truly has it all. And although Aeryn really isn’t in the ep, we do get Dr Bettina Fairchild and we get to see John, albeit in his subconscious, grovelling at her feet and we also get THAT tongue thing. And I’ve just realised, we never do find out whether Aeryn can actually do that with her tongue, or if it is just wishful thinking from John.
Season Three:
Season of Death: I had a long, painful wait for this ep. I was a ‘first-showing-watcher’, you see, and I didn’t frequent fandom web pages back then, so I had to wait about 7 months and 2/3rds of an ep before I found out Aeryn wasn’t actually dead. Imagine how hard it was not to leap off the sofa and punch the air when she stepped out of her coffin to rescue Zhann and Stark! And then we get not one but two great make-up scenes, one on the planet, the other on Moya. Plus the rest of the ep and characters are all fabulous, too. Even Grunchlik, who I cannot stand, is thoroughly watchable in this ep.
The Choice: Rygel is Awesome. Crais is Awesome. Xhalax is Awesome. Oh, and Aeryn is… miserable. And, rarely for her, drunk, too. The plot would be grown up enough if it was just Aeryn trying to come to terms with John’s death, but mix in her mother trying to kill her and it notches things up to a different level. The absolute high point of Farscape for me.
Season Four:
ACOD: For me, this is about the best ep in Season 4, and one of the best eps in Farscape’s entire run. There is not a single scene or microt in this entire ep which is not perfect, from a frustrated Sikozu tapping her foot on command through to Rygel and Chiana discussing John, Aeryn and who to feel sorry for. Yet, even amongst all this awesomeness, two scenes stand out for me: Sikozu and John facing off, and then John and Scorpy….the deal with the devil, who it seems can hardly believe that what he has been chasing after for three cycles finally seems to be within his grasp. If only Sci Fi shows could win acting awards….
And all this without OBRHG really being in the ep. Extraordinary.
We’re So Screwed: In the closing eps of season Four the show really found it’s Mojo. OK, so the sets were largely recycled, but who the frell in their right mind is looking at the sets during this fast paced, action and emotion-filled three parter? Yes, there are gaps in the story telling, but I’m fine with that as a disproportionate number of my favourite fanfics of all time are set during this story arc, and they fill in the gaps. I hope, if we had gotten a Season 5, this is the sort of thing we would have been treated to week in week out.
PKW:
Bearing in mind how much I loved the action, excitement and revelations in WSS, you might think I would have chosen moments like that from PKW. But no, the two standout moments for me are both J/A shippy. I didn’t pick the reintegration, simply because I didn’t know about PKW at all till I saw the DVD case, and from the moment I saw the DVD case I knew that John and Aeryn would survive their little mishap in Bad Timing. No, the first moment I have chosen from PKW is discussing baby names on Arnessk. Aeryn has got John so sussed by now she knows exactly which buttons to push to tease him, and she does it so well. She’s grown so much from the jirl whose idea of playful banter was a swift pantak jab.
And so we come to my last chosen scene - the baby-naming. This was, of course, the last scene of Farscape - probably the last scene of Farscape ever. And at last, after 88 episodes and one miniseries of angst and peril, we get the A-Plot of the entire show resolved. OK, so other plots weren’t as happily resolved, I understand and sympathise for fans of those characters. But when you consider just this scene on it’s own as the final scene of a 5 year show…. Well, last scenes of a long running TV shows simply don’t get much better than this.
So, that's a handful of reasons from me. Oh, and not forgetting the hotness, the leather, and the blowing things up... ;-)
