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Winter, but warmed by Farscape
It's suddenly winter! Two weeks ago it was hot outside and I was still in summer clothes. One day my Mpeg (car MP3 player) even refused to work because it was too hot. It's now plummeted to mid-winter temperatures: 15C inside right now, and as low as 5C overnight outside according to Greg's new weather station which has electronically tracked the decline and fall of summer. I don't mind too much though as it's fine and sunny again. I'd like winter if it stayed this way.
Anyway. I've now watched all of Farscape. Wow. I'm sorry it's all over. Some thoughts on the later part of S4 and The Peacekeeper Wars follow.
Good
Regardless of the relative numbers of points that appear here, it really was mainly excellent. I loved almost all of it.
I was delighted to see Stark and Harvey again. I do love that line "I told you not to smoke in my head" and Harvey being Einstein, and dying at the end in the 2001 bed.
Stark comforting Pilot, and Noranti comforting Stark: poor, troubled Stykera. Awww.
I love the whole explanation of the Peacekeepers' origin and name and why they so resemble humans.
Yay, amphibian Hynerian! It was a creative way of getting Aeryn and John back, and I realise how much I've come to love Rygel since the beginning. Actually, I love them all except Jool, and even then I was sad to see her go--wherever it was she went to).
Grunshlk! I like Grunshlk. I hope he survived.
Chiana feeding Stark and calling him Starky (Vila's name for him in the RPG!) though it didn't quite make up for kicking him earlier.
The SFX were amazing, everyone but Sikozu looked like themselves, and the Eidolons kept up the tradition of inventive aliens. Seriously cool stuff and that wormhole weapon was seriously scary.
Stark taking off his mask and, when I thought he was going to shine his light on John as he did when they first met, instead being all healed over. I didn't see that coming and it gave me a real shiver of delight. It does make me question the nature of Stykera though: are they damaged Baniks? I'm so glad he's found peace at last. [hugs the poor guy] And leaving his mask with Crichton seems to imply he'll be back. Go in peace, Starky, and live the life you deserve.
This goes in Good because I like things to end well, but the ending was a bit too perfect. Given the people we've met throughout the series, there isn't going to be peace. Maybe between the Scarrans and Peacekeepers, but they'd need a lot of Eidolons to cover the rest of the utter bastards in the galaxy. And it was a bit too soppy for my taste too. But hey, it beats a cynical or tragic ending any day.
I want more. On the DVDs they say they hope to do feature films. I hope so.
Bad
Bizarro world. Firstly my logic revolts (as it always did for DS9) as how, given that their universe is so different that the races are blended and changed, can they possibly exist as individuals we know? I hated seeing them die the first time, but Crichton's plan to get the knowledge from Sikozu-Stark by killing Aeryn-Chiana was horrible and utterly repellent, even if he couldn't do it when it came to the crunch. It was still his idea though and I hold him responsible. Was Chiana alive the first time? I can't remember. Because he justified it by saying they'd die in an arn anyway, but maybe now that he and Scorpy arrived early and possibly changed their future, they won't. The whole thing really troubles me and I lost a lot of sympathy and liking for Crichton after that.
Stark. OK, I can see why they forced Stark to accept the Eidolon priest's memories and it turned out to be a very good thing, but there was no excuse for all the other physical abuse. Chiana had no reason to kick him when he was grovelling in front of the Eidolons, and all that hitting was uncalled-for, except possibly in Aeryn's case. He was trying to help D'Argo and I don't care if he was dying; there was no reason to hit him. Bastards.
Wouldn't Stark have known D'Argo and Chiana were still alive in space?
Sikozu. Now I can buy her perhaps agreeing to carry a tracer in the hopes the Scarrans might keep their agreement (and Staleek did in fact feel honour-bound to keep his to John in S4) but she also fought well for the others so maybe she had no choice about the comms and didn't know it would be used against her friends.
Argh! Sikizu's makeup--why? Everyone else looked like themselves, but I could only recognise her by her voice. I liked her hair, but why remove all her red mottled bits, shave off her cute blonde eyebrows, and give her clown's ones? That's just bizarre and totally illogical. I'm a very visual person and it irritated the hezmana out of me every time I saw her.
Them not giving Grunshlk a gun and just leaving him there helpless with Sikozu. And why, anyway? Was that a ploy to make it look as if they were all still there? If so, it didn't work.
Jool can't have got any with the possibly celibate priests but I can't see her jumping all over John like that. I hope they all went into another time-bubble. I didn't like her but they all deserved better.
There wasn't enough Noranti.
They didn't use Chiana's new eyes enough.
Have I mentioned how much I hate birth scenes? (I'm dreading the inevitable one on Lost.) Do they show them to cut the world's population? Ugh.
Why on earth or elsewhere would Chiana go to Hyneria? The only reason she was going there in the first place was because D'Argo wanted to. She'll go fahrbot out of boredom.
Puzzling
How did Rygel know the Stark we first saw was a bioloid? And how could the copy beam energy onto Scorpy (not that they showed it at all clearly)?
I thought Sikozu had been genetically modified to kill Scarrans, but according to the extra features on the DVD, she's a bioloid too. This might explain some of her behaviour in PKW but I don't buy it.
Is Grayza a full-blooded PK? The blue contours on her face, neck, and lips actually make her look half-Nebari. Knowing their thing about purity, she must be a PK, but she doesn't look like one. Eh, perhaps the loomas mod had side-effects.
If the Eidolons are so peaceful and advanced, why did they crystallise John and Aeryn?
If the baby was turned into crystals like the rest, how come Rygel didn't vomit them up to be reconstituted with John and Aeryn? It growing independently inside him wasn't logical. Yeah, so I'm a nitpicker.
Whose baby is Grayza carrying? There's a whole other story there for a sequel (and yes, I know the actor was pregnant). It could be John's or Braca's or probably several others'. Now the Scarrans were going to somehow extract wormhole knowledge from the foetus's DNA, so presumably Grayza has the same plans. Will she succeed? Does little D'Argo have that knowledge hidden even though John's lost it?
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I don't mind her punk style, but preferred the S4, yes.
And yeah, the soppiness disgusted me too, plus the fucking obsession they had about the baby. And the obsession about a marriage ceremony. And the fact that the baby was a boy. I would've preferred a lickle kickass Aeryn jr., to be honest.
Anyway, I didn't hate it. Grunchlick (sp?) was fab, and so was Rygel. I had *no* idea the first underwater scene was *CGI* and not a puppet, because I had been so used to the puppetry that I just thought "wow, that's some cool puppet work right there".
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I really yelled at John for his utter obsession with Aeryn and the baby at the expense of everyone else. The way they were the centre of others' attention smacked a bit of those PGP I so dislike where everyone orbits Avon. And I really thought it would be a girl; I was disappointed with that too.
The CGI stuff really was magnificent. I didn't realise underwater Rygel wasn't real either till I saw the extras. The scenes they showed being filmed proved just how much is added with CGI or other effects. I liked the music too, though it was very Star Wars in some of the battle scenes.
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And I yelled at John/Aeryn too! It's like everything revolves around the SHIPPING! And yeah, that happens so much in fanfics based on ensemble shows, GRRRRR. Canon is to blame, but yeah. Still crap.
And yay, I wasn't the only one about underwater Rygel! It's the combo of models/puppetry/CGI that gives the best results anyway. I think all were in agreement about that when Mat Irvine and Gaspode and a few others held that panel on CGI vs. model work at Redemption. *cough* partially because I contributed by waffling about how CGI is not easy (so many people still think it's just click that and point that) and that you need physical models to render 3D wireframes of them *anyway*. A point that Irvine was trying to explain as well. Yay for models.
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And Crais is still the father, damn it.no subject
Sadly, Stark and Sikozu had story arcs that I suspect would have been shown in an S5, but had to be cut for... weddings and babies. I still maintain Sikozu's role in PKW could likely be a very interesting mirror to Crichton's role; another person making the best of a bad set of choices to protect something more important when backed into a corner, and then losing the ganble instead of winning. But there really wasn't enough development of Sikozu to know.
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But I'm glad that the miniseries was made, and I'm hopeful that there will be more. Perhaps, now that they've got the birthin' out of the way, they'll send Bubs off to
be subverted byAunty Noranti, and Aeryn can get back to being Aeryn.no subject
Yeah, the whole wedding and baby thing took up far too much screen time. :-(
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I've got a thought that the names might be early Eidolon researchers who found and brought back the early humans for genetic modification. The six planets might have been research facilities/colonies for different variations on the basic prototype, which could also explain the close Human/Interon connection.
In Prayer, John used Scorpius, yes. It wasn't an accident - he knew Chi or D would never take the step that might be necessary - but that Scorpius could do anything to achieve the goal. And only John bears the guilt for that, because Scorpius won't, and won't feel it, in any event.
John's obsession with Aeryn at the expense of everyone else, literally, reminds me of ST:3, The Search for Spock. Except Kirk's crew volunteered, all of them. Kirk's decision was noble; John's is obsession, and it is not pleasant to see at all.
It took considerable time to forgive him for WSS. And the fact that he shot bioloid-Aeryn before that? What if he'd been wrong, and she was just brainwashed? Then he's taken even further down by causing/allowing the deaths of Rygel/Noranti, Jool/D'Argo and Chiana/Aeryn. They may not be real to him, but they were alive and he caused all of their deaths in order to find his lover. Damned selfish and obsessive.
Yet, I love him still, because everything he does is something that could happen - none of it's out of the blue, out of character. The changes in him are built up gradually and well. It's perfectly clear how he's fallen so far from the blue-eyed boy in Season One to the terrorist in Season Four.
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Nice point about the Interons. I suppose that would have been brought out in a fifth season.
John's is obsession, and it is not pleasant to see at all.
No. It's the major reason for the slightly bad taste in my mouth I was left with when it was all over. Others are Sikozu, Chiana's OOC decision to go to Hyneria alone, the almost constant abuse of Stark, and my total disbelief in peace. The Eidolon effect only works when they're glowing, there aren't many of them, and the galaxy if full of nasty types, some of whom even prey on their own (not looking at any blue-green planets in particular).
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Thank you. Yours is the first I've looked at because I'm far too lazy to go back and find all the spoilers I avoided back then. I'll look up Astro's review though.
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I didn't have any problems with the birthing scene per se, but did wonder where her trousers went, and also loved the line 'shooting things makes me feel better', which I felt was a very Aeryn response.
Struck me as odd also, the first time round, but I've just been thinking about it, and now think it's a very Chiana choice, for the following reasons:
I agree she will get incredibly bored, and I predict that she would probably throw Rygel's attempts at generosity back in his face before she flounces off into the universe again, but I think she would go with him in the first place because she's depressed and looking for a quiet place to retreat to.
I further predict that had we got more of the series, there would have been a spin off, called "Chiana's Grand Solo Adventures".
Also, Chrichton's fanaticism was one of the things I liked about the writing, because he was only ever a normal guy just trying to get along, and the circumstances drove him nuts. To pretend he might have been able to stay sane, might have been fun, but I think would have removed an element of realism from the series.
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I think all your reasons for Chiana are right, but it's still the wrong decision for her. She might need to lick her wounds for a while, but I think she's an adrenaline (and other hormones) junky and won't stay long. I bet she leaves with some of the state treasury too, and maybe Rygel will even let her do so as a gift. :-)
My major objection to Crichton's obsession with Aeryn at everyone else's expense was what he did to the bizarro universe crew. That was unforgivable. I could actually understand the wormhole weapon stuff even if it was seriously scary.
As for body functions, the mini started with vomit! I'm glad there wasn't any more graphic stuff in the birth scene because those squick me enough already. I regard the whole process as an offence against women. [shudder] You're right about D's death though. Frankly, it dragged. I was more shocked when he and Chiana died in Eat Me.