|
|
FARSCAPE |
John Crichton - Ben Browder Aeryn Sun - Claudia Black Pa'u Zotoh Zhaan - Virginia Hey Ka D'Argo - Anthony Simcoe Crais - Lani Tupu Chianna - Gigi Edgley Scorpius - Wayne Pygram 
OTHER FARSCAPE SEASONS Season 1 Season 3 Season 4 The Peacekeeper Wars OTHER SPACE TRAVEL SHOWS Star Trek The Next Generation Voyager Enterprise Space:1999 Battlestar Galactica 
|
Mind the BabyFollowing the events that ended Season 1, Moya and her offspring Talynn are still hiding out from Scorpius and the Peacekeepers, whilst Aeryn tries to keep the news of the deal she struck with Crais secret from John. A struggle for control of the Leviathan warship breaks out. Before we can get on with the business of the new season there is the matter of the cliffhangers to be sorted out. This continuation of the story leaves some of the characters with little to do. Crichton and D'Argo are still recovering from the effects of exposure to vacuum whilst Zhaan spends pretty much the whole episode meditating. It is down, therefore, to the battle of wills between Crais and Aeryn for control of Talynn to carry the episode, which it manages to do quite easily even though the outcome is predictable since any other winner would alter the balance of Moya's crew significantly. TopVitas MortisD'Argo encounters an ancient member of his race who asks him to take part in a ritual to transfer life energies. It goes wrong, however, and the energy is transferred from Moya, who begins to age rapidly. Of all the FARSCAPE puppet aliens Pilot is the most effective and his concern here for Moya is palpable and makes the episode work. The Luxan stuff, by comparison is pallid and uninteresting. TopTaking The StoneChianna learns that her brother is dead and goes to a cemetary planet to symbolically bury him. There, she finds a group of people living beneath the surface on a form of narcotic mushroom. They must all throw themselves down a rock tunnel to certain death before they are 22 and only some are saved by the faltering sonic net at the bottom. Chianna is determined to jump and Crichton is determined to stop her. The evils of drugs and what they can make addicts do has been a subject for sci fi shows before, but this is an interesting version. The fact that the drugs make the young people feel invincible and want to throw themselves off high places is a far less clunky simile for what drugs really do than it might have been and the reaction of Crichton and his frustrations at being unable to force Chianna to save herself really echoes the struggle of real parents faced with real drug situations. It is not as worthy as it sounds, although the story is a lot more static than this show is used to and there is a lot more talk. It is, however, the first time that Gigi Edgley has been allowed to take centre stage and she is clearly up to the job. TopCrackers Don't MatterAn alien who promises to make Moya invisible to Peacekeeper tracking devices takes the ship into a region of space that affects the crew, heightening paranoia, anger and other negative emotions until they are all ranged against each and the prospect of their killing each other is very real. After a story about drugs we get a story in which everyone acts as though they are under the influence of drugs. This is a further indication of the unique voice that the show has developed for itself and even though it traps the characters within the confines of the ship, it is an effective and ultimately tense story. There are also some very funny moments, such as Crichton posing in full superhero pose in the most ridiculous outfit ever. The downside is the alien, which is unusually unimpressive. FARSCAPE's creatures are always bizarre, but usually well realised. This one never looks like anything other than a man with a badly animatronic head on. TopThe Way We Weren'tA piece of security camera footage shows that Aeryn was one of the Peacekeepers responsible for the death of Moya's first pilot. This causes consternation amongst the crew and leads to further revelations. Blimey! Now that was unexpected. FARSCAPE has produced some pretty good episodes recently, but nothing prepared us for this. A searing plot encompassing execution, love, betraya, guilt and remorse; complex emotions that are as unpredictable as they are believable; excellent performances from everyone, but particularly Claudia Black and the Pilot puppet (yes, you read that right). In the past it has been easy to dismiss the puppet characters of FARSCAPE as inherently unbelievable, but this has never been the case with Pilot. In this episode, the creature is utterly believable, utterly real and just as flawed as any of the more humanoid characters. The work that the operators have put in to get the performance out of animatronic is worth every minute as it is astonishing how emotionally true that performance is. The scene where Pilot's rage spills out into violent action is as shocking as if it were a human being doing it. Claudia Black also does her best work on the show to date, though she has rarely been called upon to deliver such depth of emotion. The guilt and remorse are the easy part, but there are also subtle hints at the anger of being accused of the crimes committed by a person she no longer is and also the hurt and being betrayed by the people she believed had forgiven her. The bond between Aeryn and Pilot might now be explained, but is none the less real for it. And let's not forget the writers who have marshalled together all of the show's backstory into a compelling and tightly woven narrative. With The Way We Weren't FARSCAPE has finally arrived as a science fiction show of worth. TopPicture, If You WillChianna accepts a portrait as a gift from a trader during a shopping trip only to learn that it apparently tells the future. The only future that it is telling, however, seems to consist of bad things. This episode starts off intriguingly enough with the painting that tells bad futures, but then descends into a fairly standard revenge story (featuring the energy vampire from That Old Black Magic. As the story descends into familiar territory, though the inside of the trap is sprung and proves to be very interestingly realised by the production team, saving the day. TopHome On the RemainsOut of food and with Zhaan turning into a danger through starvation the rest of the crew descend to a camp that is mining the body of one of the largest creatures in the known universe. There, they are sucked into the local political situation. This is a disappointingly straightforward and really rather dull episode that is predictable throughout and has nothing much to really recommend it. Zhaan giving forth flowers and deadly spores in OK, but the monsters in the mines are one of the show's less successful animatronic monsters whilst the special effects in the scene where Crichton hangs from Rygel's floating chair are poor indeed. TopDream A Little DreamZhaan recounts a tale of when she framed for murder and put on trial with only Chianna and Rygel to defend her. If the idea of a planet made up of 90% lawyers doesn't scare you then what will? Unfortunately, the rest of the episode is purely pedestrian and could have come from any space series, having no real FARSCAPE traits beyond the characters involved. One of the lesser episodes. TopOut Of Their MindsAn alien ship attacks Moya, but the defence shield saves everyone. Unfortunately, it saves everyone in everyone else's body. With Pilot no longer connected to the ship can the aliens come to terms with their new bodies and figure out how to get themselves back to where they started. The bodyswap idea isn't a new one and it ought to have provided a lot more fun than it actually does in this episode. Though the actors try to convey the different characters, they spend far too much time running around and shouting at each other to make the differences stand out. Ben Browder does a creditable stab at a Rygel impression and his performance of taking a pee in an unfamiliar body is almost as funny as the inevitable step that Claudia Black has to take as Crichton in Aeryn's body. The attacking aliens prove to be amongst the least believable that the show has come up with to date and seem to be variations on the design that the Henson company came up for the Skeksis in the classic DARK CRYSTAL movie. TopMy Three CrichtonsA glowing energy ball takes up residence on Moya, almost tearing the ship apart. It absorbs Crichton and then spits him back out along with another Crichton who is nothing but emotions and instincts and a third who is pure logical thought. One of them must return to the sphere and die for the others to survive, but how can that decision be made? Ben Browder has fun playing a furry neanderthal and a vulcan clone in a story that has been told before, but is still fun enough to pass the time agreeably. The splitting up of a person into their emotions and logic has been told almost as many times as splitting them into positive and negative sides and there is nothing new here beyond the performances of Browder. More interesting is the dilemma of who goes into the light when it becomes clear that there is no other alternative. How it all works out is somewhat predictable, but the choice still brings up some very interesting questions. TopLook At The Princess: A Kiss Is But A KissOn a friendly planet where everyone checks compatibility with a kiss, Crichton becomes embroiled in a political crisis after his DNA is found to be compatible with the princess of the ruling house. He must marry the princess to ensure the stability of the empire, something he is not keen to do, but since the alternative is to be handed over to Scorpius to have the wormhole information ripped out of his head, he reluctantly agrees. This is the first part of a multi-episode story and so moves at a slower pace than other recent ones, allowing the atmosphere and the plot to breathe a bit more. The extra time allows for the creation of a society that has rules which are hard to comprehend and which could never stand in real life, but the political intrigues are only too believable. Certainly more believable than the Skaren, another less than successful creature from the normally reliable Henson Company. There's a welcome return for Wayne Pygram's Scorpius, though, even if he isn't given much to do. TopLook At The Princess: I Do, I ThinkNow that he has agreed to marry the Princess, Crichton learns that he will have to live with her as a statue for 80 cycles before their rule can begin. Before that can happen, however, the conspiracies that are rife in the palace lead him to be kidnapped by Scorpius' men and then stranded on a shuttle in orbit that is about to be destroyed by robot probes. There is a lot of plotting going on in this episode, so attention has to be paid to keep up with the various schemes being played out. One thing is for sure, Crichton is once again jumping out of an airlock and surviving without too much in the way of aftereffects. This sequence is completely unbelievable, partly because of the spacewalking, but also because of his reaction to being kidnapped, which appears to be going utterly insane. It certainly feels completely out of character. More likely is the story of Moya, summoned home by her makers to be decommissioned since she was never meant to be capable of creating warships. This is the middle episode of three and so is the most unlikely to be satisfactory since it has neither a beginning nor an end and that's exactly what happens. TopLook At The Princess: The Maltese CrichtonCrichton's head is hacked off his statue, but it is rescued by a Peacekeeper undercover agent. Reanimated, he sets about bringing an end to the political scheming that has made his life a misery. Crichton has major feelings for Aeryn who clearly has major feelings back, so it is strange that Crichton jumps straight into the lake with the naked undercover agent. That's not the act of a man in love. Aeryn, though, has been taken right out of the plot, sent on a completely pointless rockclimbing trip for no apparent reason. Zhaan is not about to give up on Moya even if Moya has, not least because the ship's death also means his. This remains the more interesting strand. This has been the show's first three part storyline and it certainly felt as if the writers had to work hard to fill out the running time. This would probably have been much better edited down to two parts. TopBeware Of DogThere are tales of a parasite that eats ships out from the inside, leaving only shells. Chiana and D'Argo bring back a creature that is capable of tracking these parasites, but it appears to be more trouble than the parasite itself. There's something aboard. We don't know what. We don't know where. There are lots of shots of the crew moving around Moya's corridors looking for something, trying to build up the tension, but since the creatures that have been provided by the Henson Company for this particular episode are amongst the least convincing that the show has yet come up with, tension is very low in supply. The tracker is clearly supposed to be ugly, but in a cute way like ET was, but it's only ever going to please the younger audience members and the rest of the storyline isn't geared at them, so they're likely to be bored anyway. TopWon't Get Fooled AgainCrichton finds himself back on Earth, but all of his friends from Moya are also there, Aeryn as a doctor, Zhaan as a psychologist, D'Argo as a test pilot, Rygel as head of the space programme and Chiana as a groupie. He immediately knows that it's all in his head, but Scorpius shows up to point out that it's nothing to do with him, and that Crichton must resist, or he will go insane. Crichton first did the whole 'back on Earth' thing in A Human Reaction in Season 1, but this is sufficiently different enough to be intriguing, especially when Zhaan and the others start turning up. The revelation that Scorpius has implanted Crichton with his own personality so that he can 'guide' Crichton when necessary is quite a twist. Exactly who is behind the visions and why is a bit of a letdown, but it does allow for some fascinating imagery such as D'Argo, Aeryn and Chiana getting it down in a nightclub whilst Scorpius gets his groove going on the drums in the band. That's almost enough on its own for the whole episode to have been well worthwhile. TopThe LocketAeryn returns to Moya after a day's scouting mission only she has aged over a hundred cycles. Moya is locked in a time anomaly and only periodic breaks allow Crichton to follow Aeryn and grow old with her before finally going back to the ship to die in space. There are serious shades of STAR TREK THE NEXT GENERATION's episode The Inner Light in this episode, but that's fine since it happens to be one of our favourite episode of that show. Both Aeryn and Crichton get to live out whole lives and grow old together, even to the point of death and there is something rather sweet and dignified about it all. The ageing makeup for Claudia Black and Ben Browder is extremely well done and their performances as old people are genuinely touching, as if they had been together all those years. It is a sign of the show's utter confidence in itself that it is willing to have an episode that is based purely on the relationship between two characters in this way. There is, of course, a big reset button waiting at the end, but what happens before the button is, literally, pressed is some of the best stuff that the show has come up with. TopThe Ugly TruthCrais brings Moya's crew aboard Talyn to discuss the need to disarm the spaceship, who has become too violent for even Crais to control. When an arms dealer shows up to provide the non-lethal weaponry as an alternative, the ship is shot out of the sky, but who is responsible for firing the shot? The witnesses are called to give their differing accounts as to what happened. It's RASHOMON only FARSCAPE-style. Each of the crew members, including Stark who is on the ship at the time, gives a differing account of what happened that changes the view and tone of the event. It's an efficient time passer, but it's hard to get worked up about the fate of a bunch of arms dealers that we never meet and who belong to just about the ugliest race that the show has ever produced. TopA Clockwork NebariMembers of Chiana's race come aboard with a drug that makes everyone happy and malleable. Their target is Chiana's brother, who is not as dead as she was led to believe, but Rygel and Pilot are able to resist the drug and the Scorpius inside Crichton's mind helps him fight off the effects. Another plot that involves drugs and allows for a whole load of distorted views of the inside of the ship. The collars that bring pain to the wearer at the touch of a button and therefore ensure compliance are not a new idea and are seriously overused. Ben Browder's stoned surfer routine is the only real reason to watch this. TopLiars, Guns & Money: A Not So Simple PlanD'Argo's son is about to be sold into slavery and the only way to save him is to rob a Shadow depository of an awful lot of money. Stark, back from the dead, has the plan and the others put it into action, but they could not have counted on the arrival of Scorpius. A bank robbery storyline with these characters was always going to be a fun, if ultimately disposable episode, but it proves also to be the first in another multipart storyline with a nice cliffhanger. Crichton's declaration to Aeryn worries us, because usually a declaration like that leads to trouble. The main alien at the despository (nicely rendered) is a woman in a Sil suit from the SPECIES films. TopLiars, Guns & Money: With Friends Like TheseThe crew are shocked to learn that Scorpius has already bought the slaves in order to get his hands on D'Argo's son. This means that the money they have stolen is worthless, which is fine considering that a lot of it has turned into dangerous spiderlike creatures that are now running amok in the ship. In order to get D'Argo's son, the team attempt to recruit all the bad guys that they have annoyed in the past. Bringing back a whole load of characters from previous episodes might have seemed like a good idea at the time, but it causes the show to look backwards and some of those characters really didn't warrant a second visit. Also, since this is the middle episode of three it suffers from not really having a beginning and the ending is just a cliffhanger, but it is one hell of a cliffhanger. TopLiars, Guns & Money: Plan BCrichton is now in the hands of Scorpius, so the team use the mercenaries that they have recruited on a rescue mission for a different target. The set up is all over and now this is about the action-packed resolution. There is plenty of action, but it's really not very convincing on most levels, although the SPECIES alien reveals a new side to her hairstyle. TopDie Me, DichotomyThe crew take Moya to a doctor who might be able to heal her wounds and who might also be able to remove the chip from Crichton's head, but the Scorpius personality has completely taken over and tragedy will result. The second season finale of FARSCAPE is a cracker, full of action, special effects and shocking twists that will have a potentially lasting effect on all the characters. As for cliffhangers, well there don't come much better than having Crichton on the operating table with his brain hanging out as Scorpius walks into the room. But it's not just about the action and the storyline. Events turn in such a way as to provide a long moment for the characters to show their love for a departed comrade and it is a sign of how the show has grown that it is so moving. Top |
|
|
If this page was useful to you please sign our 
