Geekually Yoked

(Housekeeping note. When I get in project mode, I go a little crazy. I could probably make a new entry in this blog every day, but I feel that might run counter to its stated purpose of keeping me grounded and mentally healthy. So, I’m giving myself a semi-weekly schedule of Sundays and Thursdays for new posts, if there’s anyone out there who would be interested enough to check back for new updates. That brings us to…)

DNA Mad Scientist 

Ah, the episode that saved Farscape. From what I understand (my DVDs are on loan at the moment, consequently I am re-watching the series via netflix sans commentaries), Farscape was on the chopping block–remember those mediocre-at-best first episodes?–until producers saw DNA Mad Scientist. Not surprising. This episode shows us a series not afraid to go dark with its characters in a way that remains refreshingly un-moralizing. D’Argo’s final scene with Pilot does not reveal a character who has learned some valuable moral lesson. He would make the same decision again in a heartbeat. However, he can still do his best to ease his companion’s suffering. Remember as well that this is pre-Firefly, pre-BSG space opera.  The notion of a fractured crew aiming for no purpose beyond the individual members’ survival was fairly risky. Not bad for an episode that was never given a proper title (DNA Mad Scientist was just the working title on the set, and the writers never got around to changing it).

Obviously, the pivotal moment here is the decision by Rygel, D’Argo and Zhaan to cut off Pilot’s arm in response to NamTar’s offer for genetic maps to their respective home worlds. (Side note, I did once watch this episode with my geneticist friend who had an understandably difficult time getting past the whole premise. Lets just accept that the episode at least works within the bounds of its own internal logic and not get to side-tracked with the actual science. Farscape is at its best as space opera/space fantasy, not strictly speaking science fiction). Back to Pilot’s arm. After a third of a season spent making us root for this band of misfits we are reminded in no uncertain terms that they are a loosely affiliated crew. At best they have a shared goal of survival. Beyond that, they have no trouble each pushing their own agendas.

Zhaan’s behaviour is the only one that doesn’t sit quite comfortably, I must confess. We have already seen her move to take away Moya’s pain in “I, E.T.” Zhaan is a protector, a nurturer. I find myself wondering if she really would have harmed another creature strictly to serve her own ends. That said, we also know Zhaan is pragmatic. I can see her excepting that causing Pilot temporary pain given the significant gain said pain would afford the rest of the crew. It has also been established the Zhaan is no wilting flower (spoiler? bad-dum…ching!)

In my last post, I mentioned Crichton’s desire to see himself as a morally upright voice in a world that has gone mad around him. As he says to Pilot — “I will never understand you people!” However, as quickly as two episodes from now we will see perhaps that D’Argo’s read of Crichton is all too accurate — when his chance for home appears he does not even consider whom he might impact by pursuing it. Crichton has been the white-clad innocent to this point, but we are beginning to see the chinks in his character. John has been holding himself together remarkably well to this point, all things considered. In light of his near break at the hands of Maldis in the previous episode, his depression is becoming more apparent. Drunk Crichton is sad Crichton.

Whenever most people talk about DNA Mad Scientist, the emphasis is typically on that darker element — the breakdown in our tentatively assembled crew. But what intrigues me is while on the one hand we have half the crew at eachother’s throats, we also see the opposite dynamic between Aeryn and John. The “B Plot” show two members of the team helping our and relying on one another in a more intimate way than we have yet seen.

(Related) Side-note #2: I was determined on this re-watch to pay attention to when Aeryn refers to John as “John” and when she calls him “Crichton.” I may be mistaken, but I do believe the moment the pair comes back looking for NamTar and Aeryn slips, “I’m losing it John” is the first time she calls him anything but “Crichton.” This more familiar form of address, along with John’s offer to bring Aeryn to earth, should he ever find a way home, does more than fill my shippery heart with glee. It shows us that, petty bickering aside, the members of this crew are forming relationships. Aeryn reveals this truth explicitly when she confesses her fear of being alone. One would think this ex-Peacekeeper would be only too happy to rid herself from the fugitives who destroyed her life. And yet, already, these former prisoners have become her default crew.

On the subject of Aeryn: Admittedly, “Exodus from Genesis” showed a degree of vulnerability. NamTar’s experiments, though, touches her on an existential level. One gets the impression that Aeryn may never have had much of a thought of herself as a unique person before this. It is perhaps the essential revelation that allows for her more significant growth going forward.  While DNA Mad Scientist devotes significant attention to the John/Aeryn relationship, you cannot overlook the dynamic between Aeryn and Pilot. In one of those first episodes (I forget which) Aeryn tells Pilot “we make a good team.” You can almost hear Aeryn’s voice crack when she challenges Zhaan and D’Argo about their mutilation of him. Now, she has shared Pilot’s DNA. One might argue Aeryn and Pilot are the first members of the crew to develop the first genuine, caring relationship.

This is where I find the cleverness of “DNA Mad Scientist.” Not merely in the risk it takes by depicting a crew divided by their own agendas. But at the same time indicating that they are a crew despite themselves. D’Argo qualta blade may have cut off Pilot’s arm, but D’Argo’s music will also soothe him. There will be plenty of times going forward when one character’s agenda (usually Crichton’s) will threaten the rest of the team, but there will also be moments when we see loyalty, devotion and deep bonds of friendship. DNA Mad Scientist–and Farscape as a whole–takes us to the dark place, but it does not leave us there.

Classic Lines:

“Lucky for you, you didn’t trade anything of real value to get it” — Oh, passive-aggressive Pilot, you’re the best!

“Blue-*ssed Bitch” — ‘nough said.

“Frell You!” — You know you have officially watched too much Farscape when “Frell” stops sounding ridiculous

“It’s a happy face.” “They’re food cubes.” “No, the cubes form a … never mind …” — That might be my favourite John and Aeryn moment from the first season. It’s just so perfectly on character, speaking to how close these two are becoming and how much they fundamentally do not understand each other. It might speak to how innocent and boyish Crichton remains at this point, but a part of me likes to think that after everything he goes through, there are moments when the John of later seasons would still try to make smiley-faced food for Aeryn.

With this pair of episodes, Farscape takes an undeniable step forward in quality. After five “monster of the week” adventures, we are now seeing events which will have more significant ramifications for our characters going forward.

“PK Tech Girl”

PK Tech Girl is is the first episode to approach what we might call a “meta-plot.”  Up until now, Rygel has been the least sympathetic member of our loosely-defined crew. With the introduction of the Zelbinian, though, we get a tiny hint at his back story–learning that Rygel suffered extreme torture for possibly centuries at the hands of the celebrated peacekeeper Durka. Seeing that fear play out in Rygel reminds us, again, what the Peacekeepers are capable of but also suggests that there may be more to our Hynerian dominar than meets the eye. Speaking of eyes–you gotta love the opening shot of Rygel’s eye staring in disbelief at the source of his previous torture. This is a great “in media res” opening shot, something that will become a Farscape signature.

As for Aeryn, we have known that she has longed to return to her Peacekeeper existence, but I don’t think until now we have seen the emotional depth of her isolation. Hearing that the rest of her unit were demoted because of her “contamination” could not have been pleasant for her. PKTG gives us our second “tag” scene with John and Aeryn (the previous one being in “Exodus from Genesis”), another element which will be repeated throughout the series due to the excellent chemistry between Ben Browder and Claudia Black. It is telling that John and Aeryn have their most meaningful connection to date over their shared sense of utter isolation from their previous lives. It’s also telling that even during this moment of mutual understanding Crichton’s Clint Eastwood reference brings out Aeryn’s “what are you talking about Crichton?” look, which we will see repeated oh so often. Confusion and moderate endearment all in one quirked eyebrow. This, along with Aeryn’s delightful outburst “In the beginning, I found you … interesting!” show us a character who is not void of emotions but simply has no capacity to process them, so she represses them. We will return to this point again.

I’m not sure PKTG develops Crichton’s character in the same way it does Aeryn and Rygel, but it certainly reinforces what we know about him. He is alone in a strange corner of the galaxy cut off from anyone and anything that makes sense to him. Crichton’s immediate attraction to Gilina speaks to how desperate he is to make a connection with someone. That he makes this connection with a conventionally feminine blond who stereotypically needs a big strong man to help her out when she gets something caught in her eye (*headdeask*) shouldn’t surprise us at this point.  John still sees himself as the upright, all-American hero (or at least, that’s what he aspires to be). John and Gilina’s shared interest in physics and engineering reminds us that Crichton is first and foremost a scientist. Alyssa Jane Cook deserves mention for investing Gilina with emotional depth and complexity in a very short amount of time, clearly displaying Gilina’s inner conflict as a Peacekeeper who nevertheless comes to feel sympathy for these fugitives (not to mention her connection with Crichton). And while I give her a hard time for being blond and nonthreatening to Crichton’s delicate male ego at this point, Gilina is one kick-butt PK Tech. I appreciate the mutual respect she and Aeryn develop by the end of the episode.

I didn’t really say anything about the Sheyang. I’ll leave that to Crichton: “They Spit Fire!? How come nobody tells me this stuff, huh? How come nobody tells me they spit fire?”

“That Old Black Magic”

I’m going to go out on a limb and say this is the most underrated episode in Farscape‘s first season. Admittedly, the “B Plot” with Zhaan attempting to recover her darkness (or something?) falls a little flat. Mr Red High Priest dude needs some acting lessons. And while I enjoy delving into the Delvian darkness, that will be better left to Rhapsody in Blue where it can be explored more fully. This episode has too much other work to do to give Zhaan’s conflict the space it needs and so it just doesn’t work.

Take all that away, though, and we have major character progress for our protagonist (if “progress” is ever the appropriate word to apply to John’s development over the series). Up to this point, John has encountered a range of specimens from the Jim Henson creature shop: Tavloids (“Tavlecks!”), Sheyangs. We even saw him getting unstuck in time in “Back to the Future.” But for the first time we see a real threat not just to Crichton himself but to his need for order in the universe. As we pointed out in PKTG, Crichton is a scientist. He also believes himself to be a fundamentally good person. Crichton always believes, up to this point, that reason and logic can provide a non-violent solution to any conflict. Remember Crichton berating Aeryn for taking a gun to her meeting with the Tavloids? That conviction now begins to crack for the first time.

This brings us to Crais. Much of what makes this first season hit-and-miss is that Crais just isn’t the most compelling villain. His obsessive need for to avenge his brother’s accidental death at the hands of Crichton provides a decent premise for why our fugitives are on the run, but it’s just not a hugely sustainable premise. Also, we don’t actually see Crais often enough for him to be a truly interesting antagonist. At least here we are reminded of the threat, and understand a little more about Crais how all-consuming Crais’s relationship with his brother really was (we’ll come back to that, too…)

But here’s what Crais’s character achieves in relationship to Crichton — and it’s taken me three times through this episode to really get it. Crichton–man of morals and reason–wishes Crais no ill will. He knows that if he can just reason with Crais they can resolve this misunderstanding. Here he gets the chance to do just that, and it means nothing. Crais doesn’t care. He will kill Crichton anyway. When that sinks in Crichton’s head, when Maldis (we’re just going to glance over him along with Red Priest Dude, ok?) convinces him it is kill or be killed, Crichton breaks. We actually get the first instance of what I am going to term the *Crichton Cackle* — John faces the absurdity of his situation and breaks, just a little bit. Not only that, he accepts Maldis’s terms. He is willing to kill Crais in that moment and he would have succeeded if the whole thing had not proven to be a mind game. This interaction with Crais destroys Crichton’s certainty in his ability to apply reason to this new world in which he has found himself. What will he have to become in order to survive?

Keep that simmering darkness in mind. It will be helpful next time when we encounter “DNA Mad Scientist.”

It’s not secret that the success of Farscape came about by random chance. Unlike the intricately scripted Babylon-5, for example, it’s pretty clear the writers of Farscape were flying by the seat of their pants for most of the show’s run. Many of the most brilliant developments in the series (as I’m sure we’ll address) were less well-planned plotlines and more blatant retconning. Well executed, but retconning nonetheless.

I bring this up just to highlight how far the first post-premiere episodes are from the insane roller-coaster ride Farscape would become by even the last half of the first season. If memory serves me right, it took me about six weeks of intermittent watching when I first discovered Farscape to get through the early first-season slog. “Ugh. I have nothing to do. I guess I’ll try another episode of Farscape…” It’s hard to pinpoint exactly what’s off about them. Is it just Crichton’s over-earnestness? A lack of humour that would later come to define the series? Monster-of-the-week stories that weren’t particularly compelling? Mostly I think it’s that Farscape‘s greatness came from the risks it took later on and the complex stories and relationships that were able to develop. They just haven’t had time to build that yet.

I really don’t have it in me to cover all of these episodes individually. So, lets just speed through these as best we can and take a look at: “I, E.T.”, “Exodus from Genesis”, “Throne for A Loss”, “Thank God it’s Friday,” “Back and Back and Back to the Future.” There is, however, some useful world-building in this batch: we discover Sebechean heat delirium, learn about the chakan oil that powers pulse pistols, and get the first hint that D’Argo was not entirely honest about the crime for which he claims to have been imprisoned.

So, while I have a notorious “watch/skip” list for Farscape (file titled “Rachel is a crazy person” in my documents folder) which I pass on to all my friends who start the series, if we’re going to do this right we can’t pass over them entirely. What’s good about them, then? Mostly it’s the little character moments.

“I, E.T.” gives us that wonderful moment where Zhaan agrees to take on all of Moya’s pain that she can bear. It is our first glimpse of a Zhaan who gives of herself for others, arguably her defining characteristic (as will become all too clear). Zhaan’s sacrifice also gives us a glimpse into the first, ever so subtle, cracks in Aeryn’s peacekeeper armour. Even at this point–and possibly despite her own better judgment–Aeryn genuinely does care about Zhaan and the pain she is about to endure. It’s not much, but it might be more concern that we were lead to believe she would be capable of, based just on the pilot alone.

“Exodus from Genesis” is clearly the strongest episode in the bunch (horrible eye make-up on our guest star peacekeepers notwithstanding). It takes a huge risk in showing a personal vulnerability to Aeryn very early in the series. She boldly declares to John–“Friends? Family? I want neither.” But within a few hours she is struck down by the greatest sickness known to her species, and her only hope is to plead from these same people she otherwise dismissed in hopes of a merciful death. In the audio commentary for the episode, Brian Henson said he thinks the moment where Aeryn makes John promise to kill her if the delirium takes hold is the moment John falls in love with Aeryn. A part of me feels like that comment (all due respect to Mr. Henson) does a disservice to so much of the John/Aeryn relationship which is about John looking to Aeryn for strength and protection. But, I take his point. This is the first moment when John sees that degree of vulnerability in Aeryn where she is emotionally approachable at all. And at this point in the series, John still clearly sees himself as very conventionally masculine, with all the baggage that brings to notions of romantic entanglement. Deconstruction of gender roles is part of what makes Farscape great.

Though it’s not a particularly good episode, “Back and Back and Back to the Future” as well shows us a version of D’Argo here that is not merely the “Warrior” archetype, but a rash, immature young man being led around by his … mivonks (to use some Farscape parlance). There will be ample time to discuss D’Argo later, but it’s worth mentioning that last scene between the human and the Luxan. Male bonding at it’s most primal? Also, I have never seen any reference to this in any discussions of Farscape I’ve encountered … But is it just me or does the whole “black hole weapon that can destroy a planet” plotline seem to be just the tiniest bit relevant to later developments in the series? I’ll just leave it at that.

However much or however little attention one pays to this initial run of episodes, it’s important at least to remember that they are there as we move further into the series. When we get to the darker events of the ensuing episodes, consider we had half a dozen episodes’ worth of character building and bonding going on with these characters. To channel my learning from seminary– we’ve been through our “Forming” and are solidly in the “Storming” stage of group dynamics. Keep that in mind when we get to “DNA Mad Scientist” next time!

Ok, so we’re doing this thing.

Sometimes, if you’re me, you get the need to do something kinda crazy. I am the person who wrote a PhD dissertation in 4.5 months, after all. And sometimes, you need a slightly self-indulgent project to embark upon as a respite from the pressures of keeping a small human alive and the care of souls. That’s pretty much the origins of the whole Geekually Yoked project (pre-baby). So, my friends, I am going to be blogging my current re-watch of Farscape (you can blame/thank Leeman for compelling me to take this on).

Sure, I might have done a comprehensive re-watch of the whole series back when Amanda was a newborn sack of potatoes (along with all of Babylon 5, and Community, and Call the Midwife … it was a really bad winter to get out with a baby, ok? Don’t judge me!). But there’s something about watching the story of Farscape unfold–or John Crichton’s mind unravel, depending on how you look at it–which makes it really hard for me just to sit down and watch a random Farscape episode. So, I figure I might as well just begin at the beginning again and whenenver I feel the need for Moya’s crew, just pick up where I left off. Along the way, I shall share my comments with you, dear readers. By which I mean faceless void of the internet. Also, so we’re clear, this is not going to be an episode-by-episode commentary or anything (if you want that, check out the AV Club). More, an outlet for me to gab about what fascinates me in the unfolding chaos that is the Farscape universe. Because if this podcast has taught us anything, it’s that Rachel has no shortage of thoughts on Farscape.

That brings us to the Premiere, in all of its John Crichton’s football-helmet wearing glory. I never know how to approach this premiere. It’s a perfectly servicable pilot. We get a good understanding of the characters, see how they all came to be aboard our fair living ship Moya, and get a sense of what will serve (at least initially) as the source of ongoing tension.

The real work of the Premiere, however, is introducing us to the central character of John Crichton.  And in that, we come to the question of intent vs. outcome in our interpretation of the text as offered us. I’ve made no secret of the fact that–rabid fangirl though I am now–I wasn’t all that into Farscape on my initial viewing. Largely because I just thought Crichton was bland, military-style, All-American good ole’boy in space doing a lot of “aw shucks” moments at the strange world he was encountering. Little did I know that John Crichton was absolutely, frelling insane. On repeat viewings, though, it’s precisely that stark contrast between the John Crichton of this premiere and the John Crichton of the Peacekeeper Wars that is so compelling. The premiere does not set up an episodic series about a bumbling human goofball who fumbles his way through the galaxy. Rather, the premiere (and indeed the whole early part of the first season) are the first chapter in the story of how that All-American hero will be utterly broken by the universe and will struggle to maintain some sense of his humanity. Did the creators of Farscape know the dark places to which they would take Crichton? I have no idea. But it is still a compelling narrative either way.

Authorial intentions aside, there are a couple moments in the Premiere which give tiny glimpses even at this early stage of a Crichton who is already ever so slightly unhinged. This is the Crichton who grabs a pulse pistol, aiming it at a Peacekeeper with the great line: “Freeze! Or I’ll fill you full of little yellow bolts of light!” He has no plan in that moment. He’s not even sure what kind of weapon he’s hold it or how it works. But this is John Crichton! There is no situation he cannot bumble his way into! The Crichton who is pig-headed enough to insist on bringing an irreversibly contaminated Peacekeeper on the run with fugitives. These are the qualities that will allow Crichton to survive all that will happen to him in the Uncharted Territories, even if the cost of survival is his sanity.

Tune in next time when we try to find something redeeming in any episode up to PK Tech Girl! Maybe we’ll talk about Aeryn. You can never talk enough about Aeryn…