Farscape Rewatch: Season of Death (3.01, Part 2)
Wiki summary: With the chip removed, John's speech is restored using a donor held in stasis near death, raising ethical issues. A Scarran in stasis is released and attacks John and D'Argo. Aeryn is revived at considerable cost to Zhaan.
The season opener presents Scorpius possibly at his most gruesome and villainously impressive, between literally eating John's brain (only in Farscape...) and keeping his cool once he realises he's stuck on the planet for a few more hours with people who all want him dead and if he leaves, he'll inevitably be run down by Crais who wants him even more dead, in the end outwitting Crais by using his pilot's overconfidence. In stark contrast, the Neuralclone now works as both comic relief and emotional release on a Doylist and Watsonian manner, i.e. after all the devastating blows John can feel he scores a victory against Scorpius and avenge Aeryn (whom the Neuralclone did kill as far as anyone knows and intended at this point). This is truly the beginning of the Harvey character as we come to know him, and from this point onwards, Wayne Pygram plays the two differently. It also provides the writers for any number of playful pulp fiction or genre referencing scenarios in John's head, starting with the dumpster here. What I had forgotten was that because he's listening via Grunchlk, Sorpius thus learns at this point already his neural clone is still in John's head. I had misremembered he only finds that out near the end of s3.
Another thing that had faded in my memory before this rewatch was that the donor through whom John's operation gets finished is actually killed by his shipmates. Now you could take Grunchlk at his word that these people were dying anyway, but then again, Grunchlk. And if Aeryn can come back... I can't decide whether this is as dark as the arm removal from Pilot was back in the day, darker, or less dark, but no one other than John seems to mind at the end of the episode.
The episode itself is suspenseful and resolves the big cliffhangers from the previous finale, but Zhaan between the s2 finale and this episode having hit on the idea to resurrect Aeryn via sacrificing her own life still sticks out like a sore thumb as artificial plotting caused by the actress wanting to leave. Also, there' that fatal sentence that still stiicks in my throat, in reply to Aeryn's "why": "Because I love you, and more importantly, John loves you", followed by urging Aeryn to live again for John's sake. It's hard not to see a straight line from there to the way John and Aeryn were written in s4 (as far as I recall, it's been many years), with the angst having become melodrama, and the rest of the ensemble no longer having their own stories but functioning as Greek Chorus to the lead pairing, not to mention Aeryn seeing John as her sole purpose in life. This isn't yet the case in s3 as far as I recall, but this scene really is a big warning sign.
Since I don't like to complain without making a constructive suggestion: here's how I'd have written Zhaan out: given in s2 many of her attempts to find a peaceful solution to the problem du jour ended in her having to use violence anyway, she realizes this will not change as long as she lives the fugitive life on Moya, they come across planet X which because of plot MacGuffin Y is protected from PK detection but urgently needs a priest/healer, and Zhaan decides to stay there. I realize this would conflict with the writers' desire to keep Stark as a regular, but he could be separated from Zhaan by plot MacGuffin Z, and/or first stay with her then go after Moya because he's learned of danger Omega, or whatever. Basically: while sacrificing her life for Aeryn is ic for Zhaan, the not so sub text that Aeryn's life is more important than Zhaan's because Aeryn is the love interest, not because Aeryn is an interesting character whose journey hasn't finished, feels as wrong as ever to me.
Lastly: new credits! No more insane military commander; instead John's voice over considers staying and also whether or not humanity is prepared for the wonders and terrors of his new world. I must confess the s3 variation of the credits is possibly my favourite, with Lani Tupu and Wayne Pygram now both in them.
The Other Days This entry was originally posted at https://selenak.dreamwidth.org/1424204.html. Comment there or here, as you wish.
The season opener presents Scorpius possibly at his most gruesome and villainously impressive, between literally eating John's brain (only in Farscape...) and keeping his cool once he realises he's stuck on the planet for a few more hours with people who all want him dead and if he leaves, he'll inevitably be run down by Crais who wants him even more dead, in the end outwitting Crais by using his pilot's overconfidence. In stark contrast, the Neuralclone now works as both comic relief and emotional release on a Doylist and Watsonian manner, i.e. after all the devastating blows John can feel he scores a victory against Scorpius and avenge Aeryn (whom the Neuralclone did kill as far as anyone knows and intended at this point). This is truly the beginning of the Harvey character as we come to know him, and from this point onwards, Wayne Pygram plays the two differently. It also provides the writers for any number of playful pulp fiction or genre referencing scenarios in John's head, starting with the dumpster here. What I had forgotten was that because he's listening via Grunchlk, Sorpius thus learns at this point already his neural clone is still in John's head. I had misremembered he only finds that out near the end of s3.
Another thing that had faded in my memory before this rewatch was that the donor through whom John's operation gets finished is actually killed by his shipmates. Now you could take Grunchlk at his word that these people were dying anyway, but then again, Grunchlk. And if Aeryn can come back... I can't decide whether this is as dark as the arm removal from Pilot was back in the day, darker, or less dark, but no one other than John seems to mind at the end of the episode.
The episode itself is suspenseful and resolves the big cliffhangers from the previous finale, but Zhaan between the s2 finale and this episode having hit on the idea to resurrect Aeryn via sacrificing her own life still sticks out like a sore thumb as artificial plotting caused by the actress wanting to leave. Also, there' that fatal sentence that still stiicks in my throat, in reply to Aeryn's "why": "Because I love you, and more importantly, John loves you", followed by urging Aeryn to live again for John's sake. It's hard not to see a straight line from there to the way John and Aeryn were written in s4 (as far as I recall, it's been many years), with the angst having become melodrama, and the rest of the ensemble no longer having their own stories but functioning as Greek Chorus to the lead pairing, not to mention Aeryn seeing John as her sole purpose in life. This isn't yet the case in s3 as far as I recall, but this scene really is a big warning sign.
Since I don't like to complain without making a constructive suggestion: here's how I'd have written Zhaan out: given in s2 many of her attempts to find a peaceful solution to the problem du jour ended in her having to use violence anyway, she realizes this will not change as long as she lives the fugitive life on Moya, they come across planet X which because of plot MacGuffin Y is protected from PK detection but urgently needs a priest/healer, and Zhaan decides to stay there. I realize this would conflict with the writers' desire to keep Stark as a regular, but he could be separated from Zhaan by plot MacGuffin Z, and/or first stay with her then go after Moya because he's learned of danger Omega, or whatever. Basically: while sacrificing her life for Aeryn is ic for Zhaan, the not so sub text that Aeryn's life is more important than Zhaan's because Aeryn is the love interest, not because Aeryn is an interesting character whose journey hasn't finished, feels as wrong as ever to me.
Lastly: new credits! No more insane military commander; instead John's voice over considers staying and also whether or not humanity is prepared for the wonders and terrors of his new world. I must confess the s3 variation of the credits is possibly my favourite, with Lani Tupu and Wayne Pygram now both in them.
The Other Days This entry was originally posted at https://selenak.dreamwidth.org/1424204.html. Comment there or here, as you wish.