Farscape Rewatch: Bone to be Wild (1.21
Wiki summary: While on the run from the Peacekeepers, the crew of Moya takes shelter in a hollow asteroid that has a breathable atmosphere and is filled with flora. They soon discover that the asteroid is not as free of predators as they thought.
The main reason why I wanted to (re)watch this was the Aeryn subplot, but before I get to rave about it, let me say I had plain forgotten the Crais and Scorpius subplot was in this one. Somehow, in my memory their scenes got put in the season finale, and also Braca's debut in a speaking role. (I did recall Scorpius shows up at the end in the tag scene, but I thought that bit with M'lee was his only appearance.) I also had recalled this is where Crichton finds out Zhaan is a plant, but not that D'Argo was the one to advice M'lee to eat the PKs pursuing them. Some other details had been forgotten by yours truly as well.
Not, though, that the actress playing M'lee, Francesca Buller, was real life Mrs. Ben Browder, who will show up in future seasons in a variety of memorable one shot characters, too. She's good here, which is necessary as the script pulls off a double twist - first, the expected "this supposedly harmless creature is really the monster" one, and then "but wait, she can't help it, she's starving, and she's even trying not to eat our heroes, it's the other one who is cold bloodedly malicious". M'lee does have pathos, which makes it understandable that our heroes have compassion for her, though I have to say "have a go at the PKs instead" is basically handing over killing her to their enemies. (Since M'lee might manage to kill several of them but there's no way she can take out an entire Command Carrier, and as soon as these highly armed people realise what's going on, she's dead.) Mind you, of course this isn't the Star Trek universe where you can just replicate the food M'lee needs, but surely the Unchartered Territories have found a way to come up with some artificial calcium as well?
Since in retrospect Zhaan's plant nature seemed obvious for me and upon rewatch I spotted the show actually providing several broad hints through the season, Crichton's initial freak out seems a bit over the top, especially this late in the season when he's encountered far stranger things already.
Could be the last time Zhaan refers to the Luxan as "sweet D'Argo", since between seasons the writers seem to have ditched any D'Argo/Zhaan ideas.
Now, on to Moya. I love, love, love the Aeryn subplot here, from Pilot (and Moya) asking her for help (building on the special connection Aeryn has formed with Pilot through the season) to Moya asking Aeryn to name her offspring in the final scene. Technically speaking, Claudia Black does nothing but wander through a new set and touch parts of it through the episode, but oh, the emotion she shows. The baby Leviathan as a hybrid between Leviathan and PK technology as an equivalent to Aeryn herself right now, uniting what she wants to keep from her old life with her new one, and the expressions on her face as she talks to him - she's just so open and eventually happy, and we so rarely see Aeryn like this.
(There's the extra emotion of knowing what's in store for Aeryn and not yet named Talyn, but even without that, I love this subplot.)
The set designers using the PK coloring for the inside of the new ship while still keeping the round leviathan curves really does get the idea across, too.
Meanwhile on the command carrier: like I said, I had plain forgotten Crais gets a transition time between the Aurora chair and the finale as well. While watching, I wondered why the writers bothered, given the Aurora Chair experience should already have made it clear to Crais that there's no more future for him with the Peacekeepers, and given him a reason to hate Scorpius. Otoh, maybe not: given that the chair did reveal that the whole reason Crais was in it (Gilina's forgery) wasn't true. Also, Scorpius choosing to humiliate Crais by holding the Teeg knowledge over him and making him look powerless on his own ship for weeks as opposed to taking over in one fell swoop probably makes for extra hating when Crais could have excused Scorpius putting him in the chair to begin with as part of Scorpius doing his duty. And given Crais has spent a season hating on Crichton and making John's death his primary goal, the writers probably believed there needed to be some more build up for the momentous decision he's about to make.
Speaking Braca: something else I had forgotten was that Braca doesn't immediately 100% take to Scorpius, but has this scene with Crais where he sounds downright diappointed and let down Crais doesn't stand up for himself.
Early installment weirdness: Scorpius talking with a different voice when demonstrating his "physical superiority". To my knowledge, he never does that again (though I might misremember? Please correct me if so). At a guess, the writer hadn't completely decided on his backstory yet (i.e. the part where he's a Scarran/Sebacean hybrid rather than a full Scarran), and also they probably found Wayne Pygram to be far more effiently scary in his own voice, speaking softly, than if he's given electronic modulation.
Lastly: Scorpius' little speech about compassion at the end. Presumably just there as a funny punchline, given what the audience knows, but leaving aside Doylist considerations, I could see him meaning it. In that he knows what it's like to be helpless and tormented, and as long as (seemingly) helpless person X doesn't interfere with his plans, sure, why not help?
The other days
Now, the first season is about to end, and I'm enjoying this rewatch so much I want to continue. In season 2, the episodes I'd skip are "My Three Crichtons" and "Beware of Dog". What do you think? Anyone passionately interested in these, and/or wishing to skip over other episodes? This entry was originally posted at https://selenak.dreamwidth.org/1402660.html. Comment there or here, as you wish.
The main reason why I wanted to (re)watch this was the Aeryn subplot, but before I get to rave about it, let me say I had plain forgotten the Crais and Scorpius subplot was in this one. Somehow, in my memory their scenes got put in the season finale, and also Braca's debut in a speaking role. (I did recall Scorpius shows up at the end in the tag scene, but I thought that bit with M'lee was his only appearance.) I also had recalled this is where Crichton finds out Zhaan is a plant, but not that D'Argo was the one to advice M'lee to eat the PKs pursuing them. Some other details had been forgotten by yours truly as well.
Not, though, that the actress playing M'lee, Francesca Buller, was real life Mrs. Ben Browder, who will show up in future seasons in a variety of memorable one shot characters, too. She's good here, which is necessary as the script pulls off a double twist - first, the expected "this supposedly harmless creature is really the monster" one, and then "but wait, she can't help it, she's starving, and she's even trying not to eat our heroes, it's the other one who is cold bloodedly malicious". M'lee does have pathos, which makes it understandable that our heroes have compassion for her, though I have to say "have a go at the PKs instead" is basically handing over killing her to their enemies. (Since M'lee might manage to kill several of them but there's no way she can take out an entire Command Carrier, and as soon as these highly armed people realise what's going on, she's dead.) Mind you, of course this isn't the Star Trek universe where you can just replicate the food M'lee needs, but surely the Unchartered Territories have found a way to come up with some artificial calcium as well?
Since in retrospect Zhaan's plant nature seemed obvious for me and upon rewatch I spotted the show actually providing several broad hints through the season, Crichton's initial freak out seems a bit over the top, especially this late in the season when he's encountered far stranger things already.
Could be the last time Zhaan refers to the Luxan as "sweet D'Argo", since between seasons the writers seem to have ditched any D'Argo/Zhaan ideas.
Now, on to Moya. I love, love, love the Aeryn subplot here, from Pilot (and Moya) asking her for help (building on the special connection Aeryn has formed with Pilot through the season) to Moya asking Aeryn to name her offspring in the final scene. Technically speaking, Claudia Black does nothing but wander through a new set and touch parts of it through the episode, but oh, the emotion she shows. The baby Leviathan as a hybrid between Leviathan and PK technology as an equivalent to Aeryn herself right now, uniting what she wants to keep from her old life with her new one, and the expressions on her face as she talks to him - she's just so open and eventually happy, and we so rarely see Aeryn like this.
(There's the extra emotion of knowing what's in store for Aeryn and not yet named Talyn, but even without that, I love this subplot.)
The set designers using the PK coloring for the inside of the new ship while still keeping the round leviathan curves really does get the idea across, too.
Meanwhile on the command carrier: like I said, I had plain forgotten Crais gets a transition time between the Aurora chair and the finale as well. While watching, I wondered why the writers bothered, given the Aurora Chair experience should already have made it clear to Crais that there's no more future for him with the Peacekeepers, and given him a reason to hate Scorpius. Otoh, maybe not: given that the chair did reveal that the whole reason Crais was in it (Gilina's forgery) wasn't true. Also, Scorpius choosing to humiliate Crais by holding the Teeg knowledge over him and making him look powerless on his own ship for weeks as opposed to taking over in one fell swoop probably makes for extra hating when Crais could have excused Scorpius putting him in the chair to begin with as part of Scorpius doing his duty. And given Crais has spent a season hating on Crichton and making John's death his primary goal, the writers probably believed there needed to be some more build up for the momentous decision he's about to make.
Speaking Braca: something else I had forgotten was that Braca doesn't immediately 100% take to Scorpius, but has this scene with Crais where he sounds downright diappointed and let down Crais doesn't stand up for himself.
Early installment weirdness: Scorpius talking with a different voice when demonstrating his "physical superiority". To my knowledge, he never does that again (though I might misremember? Please correct me if so). At a guess, the writer hadn't completely decided on his backstory yet (i.e. the part where he's a Scarran/Sebacean hybrid rather than a full Scarran), and also they probably found Wayne Pygram to be far more effiently scary in his own voice, speaking softly, than if he's given electronic modulation.
Lastly: Scorpius' little speech about compassion at the end. Presumably just there as a funny punchline, given what the audience knows, but leaving aside Doylist considerations, I could see him meaning it. In that he knows what it's like to be helpless and tormented, and as long as (seemingly) helpless person X doesn't interfere with his plans, sure, why not help?
The other days
Now, the first season is about to end, and I'm enjoying this rewatch so much I want to continue. In season 2, the episodes I'd skip are "My Three Crichtons" and "Beware of Dog". What do you think? Anyone passionately interested in these, and/or wishing to skip over other episodes? This entry was originally posted at https://selenak.dreamwidth.org/1402660.html. Comment there or here, as you wish.