Prepare for Starburst: A Farscape Rewatch Thread

[squirrely1]

Senility could be misdiagnosed as ADHD

not even.... I've had it since I was a kid. But I do have more ADD.....but I do jiggle my foot all the time... I have to constantly be moving.

[jelgate]

This was not meant to be a serious discussion. The comparison was only about lack of focus which ends there

[squirrely1]

well la de da! I don't see how you got Nooranti for me then....she's actually pretty smart with her little decoctions.

[jelgate]

Thanks For Sharing

This is a strange one. And not in a good way that Farscape is weird. Its obvious this is the setup for the twining arc. It kind of reminds me of why I hated BSG. They had some good episodes but they also had these buildup episodes where nothing happens. Farscape doesn't go that far. We get this planet of the week story thrown in to get some kind of story. It seems hollow to me as its clearly a space filler to get exposition on the twinning arc. So, lets talk about the planet before we get to the other part. This just feels kind of pointless. We have a compound that will help Tayln. Too bad everyone wants to hit on Chiana. I can't even fault her this time. She wasn't even flirting. The whole thing becomes a political battle between brother and sister for control of the father's empire (I feel like FH with my synposing). Their are some interesting bits. I for like the alien lie detector. That is something new. I also enjoyed how the twining angle was used to trick people into thinking John was unharmed. Largely this story is uneventful and repetitive. For one we have done these kind of stories before where the Moyans (Copyrighted SQ) get involved in a power struggle on the planet. For that reason I am more interested about the PK Retrival Squad and the twins. The other part I did quite love. I think this episode goes to lengths to answer the question we have been asking. They are both John. That is such a hard fact that I love seeing the two Crichetons argue. I'll be honest I have a hard time remember which one is which. I sympathize with Aeryn when she doesn't remember which one is which. Speaking of Aeryn, is it wrong of me to say that I loved her scenes with Crais? For better or worse, the twinning arc is really about her more than anyone. And I kind of like how we see glimpses of her mother in that recording. I think the care Crais has for her in trying to protect her is genuine but their is too much bad blood between the two. I think we also see how the Hand of Friendship is damanging when we get the Talyn medicine and Crais goes nuts. Their is a lot of forshadowing in this episode. I think funny moments go to when Crais mentions living quarters aren't fully developed on Talyn and Rygel will have to bunk up with Stark. Their will be my and your side. I remember thinking the random planet as just that. I find it interesting that the PK retrival squad was behind it all. We all knew of the fake double side and that the daughter was behind it all. I for one was not expecting the alien parasite. But it never becomes clear what the point was. They could of killed Talyn instead of weakening him

[squirrely1]

Crud... I was trying to get this in ....sorry this is late... I'll do my laps later.

'Eat Me' From the Companion Book

"I loved the script when I read it," director Ian Watson enthuses. "The thing I liked about season two was that it had a lot of eccentric one-off episodes, and 'Eat Me' was reminiscent of those. It's a fantastic, hard tough, dark episode written by a new writer who himself is an eccentric individual."
David Kemper recalls that Matt Ford, who combines fronting rock band MGF with his writing work, asked to do an episode about cannibalism. "We knew we wanted to split Crichton, but we didn't know how," He explains. "We came up with the idea of the villain trapped on a ship who twinned people, so that he would have a bigger food source. But if you twinned people enough time, then cellular structure degenerated to a degree that the person was no longer viable. It was our second dark episode in a row."

True to the overall theme of the 'Season of Death', 'Eat Me' sees a number of the crew killed. "Kaarvok drives a spike through D'Argo's head, and the audience is wondering what happened!" Kemper says, "They must be pretty sure that we haven't killed off a second lead character two weeks after Zhaan...So we revealed the truth to everyone except Crichton, who doesn't know until the end."

"The good thing about this episode is that it's a horror show," Watson maintains. "All the characters are pushed to their extremes. They all have to be taken to the point of really believing that they are going to die on this ship -- this mouldy, rotten carcass of a Leviathan is where they will finally die."

Gigi Edgley reveled in the challenges posed to Chiana in this episode. "Both Chiana and Gigi had an awesome time experimenting," she recalls. "It was the first really juicy invitation to let Chiana come out and play. I am a hopeless romantic for dark scripts that challenge the chracter to explore a multitude of boundaries."

Playing the scene where Jool creeps out of the pod on her own spooked Tammy MacIntosh so much that "The sound guy said that I was so frightened that he couldn't hear my footsteps--all he could hear was my heartbeat! I really enjoyed that fear factor, and revealing the lack of hope -- the despair that Jool felt inside, rather than just having this brash, cover-up attitude all the time."
Simcoe was bodily dragged around the corridors of the other Leviathan, Rovhu. "I still tease Ian Watson about that," Simcoe says. "We got to the set, and of course you can't drag D'Argo around, not because I am big and heavy, but because of the practical problems of the prosthetics. I had to use my stomach and my neck muscles to lift my head slightly off the floor all the time. It was outrageously difficult and really tiring. I said to Ian, 'You didn't really think this through, did you?", and he called me obstructionist! The cheek!"

Sean Masterson and the Pilot team had a chance to experiment with Rovhu's Pilot. "I worked with Mario Halouvas inside the body to make the movements a lot more violent than our Pilot's movements," Masterson explains. "Generally Pilot rolls around at his console in a nice gentle way, and there's never anything staccato, abrupt or sharp. This Pilot had been tortured so much that it was actually changing his characteristics."

"You've got an exceptional set of circumstances in 'Eat Me'", Ben Browder points out. "Crichton is in a horror film, and he knows he's in a horror film. But he can't figure out how to get out of it, and it's getting worse and worse. Up to that episode, I think he was coping alright. But after that, well..."

[squirrely1]

Thanks for Sharing

Nice review jel...and you covered most of what I was going to say....but yeah yeah I will probably drivel on about some more stuff. I like how you mentioned in your review that the twinning arc is really more about Aeryn. So true! I love how it really gives her a chance to sort through her feelings and come to some breaking points which will be revealed later. One John got her moving towards the "you can be more" ...but two Crichton's just pushes her that much harder. It's almost like a dog with two bones....she doesn't really know what to really do with him now so I think she focuses on herself for a change and I do love the whole Mother aspect coming into play for her. This is some heavy duty issue she's pushed back for so long, it's nice to see her facing it and willing to do whatever it takes to remain loyal to her friends.

I love also the way Moya John (that is my copyright jel!) grieves over losing Aeryn there at the end. I think they really handled that well. Many times when shows try to do this they sort of slight one of the twin characters and so as a result you don't get emotionally invested in the "throw away" twin, but I loved how Farscape carefully developed each Crichton twin so we would become equally attached to both of them. It was a tricky and very inventive way to do it. And I have to say this is a shippers delight because the John/Aeryn relationship in a sense has been reset. Because it's awkward for them. I think again back to Aeryn, she doesn't know really which one to be intimate with and I think she has to come to grips with that. So you get to see Talyn John (SQ copyright) with Aeryn and watch how that relationship begins to blossom again. But we also get some great angst as Moya John is grieving the loss of her and that relationship. If you just step into Crichton's head space, could you just imagine (they both share the same memories and feelings for Aeryn) So they would both now be vying for Aeryn's affections. That would be one hell of a predicament to me in. Poor Johns!

Ok so you knew I'd go on and on about the shippery bits. So on with the rest.... I didn't mind that it was sort of a set up ep with a pointless planetary struggle, it gave our characters a chance to grow a little and as jel mentioned I loved the swapped twin Crichton trick and the crab/alien in your face lie detector was really cool too. I also enjoyed the Crais/Aeryn stuff...it adds to the angst of it all. I think Crais really loves Aeryn and I sort of feel for him cuz he doesn't stand a chance, especially with not one but TWO Crichton's running around. After all Aeryn can......DOUBLE HER PLEASURE!!! HAHAHA *hands jel the barf bucket*

Ok I couldn't resist that. I better stop there. That will give FH and Blue something to talk about.

[Bluemeany]

Yeah, I agree with jel: this is a bit of a set-up episode. Necessary I suppose, but I just want to get onto Green Eyed Monster.

Still, from a vidding pov a couple of the shots are a nice colour. Two-tone orange and blue for the planet. Plus footage of young Aeryn is useful.

And I think I will adopt “Work now, freak later…work now, freak later…” as my mantra in life.

Speaking of Aeryn, is it wrong of me to say that I loved her scenes with Crais? For better or worse, the twinning arc is really about her more than anyone.

Yeah, you’re right. We get double the Crichton but its ends up being Aeryn’s storyline. She is the one who is going to have to a choice.

I also enjoyed how the twining angle was used to trick people into thinking John was unharmed.

See these are the advantages of being a twin I was talking about: convincing body double/ alibi/ compatible organ donor.

"You've got an exceptional set of circumstances in 'Eat Me'", Ben Browder points out. "Crichton is in a horror film, and he knows he's in a horror film. But he can't figure out how to get out of it, and it's getting worse and worse. Up to that episode, I think he was coping alright. But after that, well..."

Bloody hell, up until this point he’s been “coping alright”? He was begging D’Argo to kill him about eight episodes back! Not to mention screaming out the star spangled banner when crawling about on the floor.

[Bluemeany]

Green Eyed Monster

Another one of my favourite episodes A nice Othello set up, with 2001 sort of vibes. I like the idea of the jealous little ship quietly maneuvering and flushing crew members it doesn’t trust into space.

Or in this case, out into a Budong.

This is a beautiful episode if you’re a vidder. Lots of very long running shots that move from red to green and back again. And a sort of slanty/weird angle way of filming inside Talyn’s mind. That’s before we even get on to the (several) John/Aeryn heartfelt/jealous brooding scenes.

Actually, the costumes and shots might be aping 2001 a bit…there’s lots of close up of Crichton’s eyes through the visor, the cool spacesuits. Plus more circles and lights than normal. Maybe not. SQ’s does your book say anything?

I like that Aeryn is particularly competent and in control in this one. Crichton is…well, less so. “Aeryn’s pretty pissed at me but she kind of likes me” could basically be the tagline for the entire show. They should have added it to the ‘ My name is John Crichton…’ intro in the titles.

I thought it was interesting that we got a scene in the middle where it’s Crichton, rather than Aeryn, who is all defensive ‘cause they’re worried about being abandoned. Usually it’s the other way around. “You can finally re-join that PK family you’ve been pining for ever since we’ve met” is the flip side of Dog with Two Bones where Aeryn tells him to frell of back to Earth like he’s wanted to since the beginning.

Stark is also great in this one, going all ‘chief dramatist’ and scaring Talyn. Although Talyn, with what he does to Crais, is scary himself. And John making star-charts is a neat idea. It’s a nicer hobby than weapons or wormholes. It’s what a human in space should be doing.

My favourite line is from Aeryn’s speech at the end, “You are like a plague John Crichton and you have ruined my life. And yet I keep coming back”. A very relatable feeling.

[jelgate]

Green-Eyed Monster

This isn't about SQ's jealousy of me. We really need to talk about that BTW. This is another one of those character episodes. I kind of feel the Buddong eating Talyn is just a means to create tension for the characters. Its really quite simple. We get eaten. Then we are using cesium to cause an explosion to make the Buddong vomit us. This is really all their is. Its kind of classic Farscape to show us a simplistic plot to give us character interaction. I also think it has a premise behind a premise. On first glance its about resolving the tension between John and Crais. At this moment of the show I think we can agree that Crais has changed. If you can't, then I call you blind. At the same token, its hard for a person like John to ignore the fact that Crais did try to kill him for a year. Kind of a big deal to forgive. A large part is these two getting past their differences. They are never going to be friends but I think this episode is about the two seeing past their differences and working together. If you think about the majority of their bickering is because of Talyn's meddling. We'll discuss this later. I bet SQ see this as some big kind of male testestorone thing because of Aeryn's which one is bigger line and her obsession. But its not. It goes back to the theme we talking about last week. With two Crichetons, you would think its about John. But the Talyn episodes are largely about Aeryn. Crais and John are a metaphor. I have talked constantly about how Aeryn's story is about leaving the Peacekeepers and as John put, "Be something more." Its not like Crais is about to join the Peacekeepers. He does represent of being part of something bigger in helping Talyn and helping other. Their is an interesting study about Nazis and how propaganda was used to sway the Germans to backing Hitler's ideas. But I'm going off topic. Its hard for Aeryn to not go back on what is easy like a pseudo-Peacekeeper life. John on the other hand is for Aeryn to go more on a life of freedom and personal choices. Blue's quote says it best on how John ruined her life and yet she always goes back. Yes Aeryn lost a lot when she was irreversibly contaminated. But look what she gained? Finally the episode brings more insight into Talyn. I don't know Art but what I like about the twinning arc is seeing the interior of Talyn more. I think in previous episodes, all we saw was Command. Their is also his personality. I think it paints a better light of his child like nature. We seem him get petty. Talyn is the real green eyed monster. We think its John or Crais but its really Talyn who doesn't like John because he is not a Peacekeeper. Like I said earlier he mantipulates the whole thing because he has the power to do so. That is what makes the Levithian so dangerous. He has incredible power but he is only a child. I think I have rambled enough. One final say is to Stark and Rygel. They don't do much so they are attached more to the plot and not the charactization. So they provide the humor. I love when Stark says, "My Mother sucks what?" and Rygel throws up on him

[squirrely1]

I just watched Green-Eyed Monster and had to rush down here because I love this ep! Yes yes jel get your barf bucket ready!!

I agree with both Blue and jel's assessments of this ep and really what more can I say? But as you know, I will find something to ramble on about. I really need to get in here before y'all make your posts so I have something pseudo intelligent to talk about.

First let me just say I think this is the first ep that Ben Browder has written. It is interesting too that it's the first ep that we have sort of a real cameo on just a portion of the crew. I guess Chi, D, Jool, Moya John aka the Moyans... Yes I used it jel ....they had the week off.

Like jel mentions this has been long in coming this final once and for all stand off with Crais. But let me say that I don't totally agree with your assessment. I do think it is largely about Aeryn and her choices in life. But Crais does represent that PK life and nothing more. Even though he has gone rogue of sorts and yes I agree he has changed, he still represents that PK life in this episode. He gives us a glimpse that he really cares for Aeryn and wants to keep her there with him and form a sort of bubble in Talyn and keep her in it. Blue maybe that is what all the circles are for. I haven't read the Companion Book yet...that will be next, but I think Crais' only mission in life now is to get Aeryn on his ship and keep her there....and get rid of anything else that may be standing in their way, including John. I can't completely blame Talyn in this. Where do you think Talyn got his emotions and ideas from? It was from Crais. Crais even admits his emotions were causing the back bleed and I think the Green-Eyed monster started out as Crais and then Talyn ran with them trying to live out what Crais has wanted all along. Crais was able to keep his emotions and urges about Aeryn in check but Talyn was not, so he just took those feelings of jealousy and rage against John and ran with them unchecked. So yes Crais has moved on or learned to deal and cope with his feelings and emotions about John and Aeryn, but Talyn has not. So yes I loved how they show Talyn as an inexperienced child having a tantrum and acting out on these urges that the adult mind (well most adults...jel is an exception) can learn to filter out irrational and unreasonable or even fantasy ideas that you may have for a fleeting moment but never act on them, Talyn took those very seriously.

But enough of the psycho analytical babble.... I loved how they did use Aeryn taking the whole neural interface with Talyn as a sort of pseudo bond (marriage) between Crais and Aeryn with Talyn as their child and John pretty much resorts himself that he's lost Aeryn at that point especially after his tirade at her. I love how he slumps at the door and calls himself an "idiot". As for the PK chip and the faked footage. You know.... I want Talyn's vid editing skills. LOL So yeah I just wonder how he did that...he has stowed away some pirated copy of photoshop laying around the ship? Interesting.

The fact that they set up this sort of meaningless plot as jel mentions doesn't bother me so much and I loved that they brought back the Boodong. Sometimes when we have these one off eps it is really to enrich this world and I do love that they will then frequently pull back from a previous ep a concept shown in an earlier and build on it. We can remember the vileness of the Boodong and that raises the stakes all of a sudden without alot of time spent talking about that. That is good writing and it again draws on the power of continuity of a series like this.

As for the ending. I had to actually run it back a half dozen times because again I don't have subtitles and when Aeryn calls John Crichton a plague I couldn't catch it at first due to her accent. But when I finally heard it and props go to Claudia for nailing that scene it's quite possibly one of Aeryn's most heart wrenching scenes.. I love the simplicity and honesty of it and for Aeryn that is HUGE! For her to admit that to him and really put herself out there like that ...that really does show a great amount of growth for Aeryn. Then when John shares with her the star naming and that she is always in the center.....wow ... as a shipper that is better than the "I Love You's" scene. As they do then pull back from the kiss and the star blinks and their embrace becomes like a cosmic imprint...you can't get anymore epic. I'm sorry....*hands everyone little barf buckets* I couldn't call myself a shipper if I didn't mention that moment!

But you know in all this what pains me more is knowing that Moya John will never have that memory or have that shared experience with Aeryn. That is both the beauty and the agony of this twinning arc. That every memory that Aeryn has with Talyn John is precious in it's own right, but they will never be shared with Moya John.

One final thing is poor Paul Goddard. He is always getting vomited on. LOL Talk about obsessions...I think Farscape producers had this think about vomit.

[squirrely1]

Green-Eyed Monster From the Companion Book

Ben Browder and David Kemper were in the middle of a British SCI FI Channel Internet chat in September 2000, when the executive producer suddenly announced that the series star would be penning an episode for the third season. "Ben sent me a private e-mail asking what I was doing! Well, I'd read a couple of the feature film scripts Ben had written, and I knew he had a writer's instinct inside," Kemper explains. "We gave him endless amounts of notes and rewrites on 'Green Eyed Monster', but he just kept going. He wrote every word of that script himself."

"I find that when I'm writing, I play the scene in my head." Browder comments. "But I really noticed that when I walked on set, It was like I was hearing the lines for the first time. I would find myself in the middle of rehearsal drying up a lot more than anyone else, and I wrote the damn thing!"

Executive consultant Carleton Eastlake is full of praise for the episode. "It was one of my favourite scripts of the year," he says. "I thought it was just wonderful the way it handled this romantic triangle, and the subconscious tensions that are maybe being acted out through Talyn, together with a very fresh and very tight action story."

"Part of the drama of 'Green Eyed Monster' is that Aeryn can't understand why Crichton is acting like such a complete doofus," Claudia Black points out. "The whole episode is structured ambiguously, so that at the beginning you're not sure where your sympathy sould lie. Is Crichton being jealous or is there a conspiracy?"

Tony Tilse approached the story as "a good old-fashioned submarine drama. These people are trapped in this ship, and it's claustrophobic. There was a hothouse of emotion going on." The scenes with Stark and Rygel acted as comic relief, and Tilse used them to maintain the emotional balance. "But that comic element can be destructive to the overall mood," he warns. "it can be annoying if all you want to do is get back to that main story, so it was really important that we didn't spend too much time there."

In his script, Browder referred to 'Tilsie-vision' when describing the distinctive look that he wanted for Talyn's point of view. "I had to come up with a practical way of doing that, so I resorted to my old favourite method," Tilse explains. "We use handy little video cameras and then treat them in post -production. We ramped up the colour to give it a lovely kind of floating energy, and you can then warp the edges of the image. I think Martin Connor, the editor, had recently seen 2001: A Space Odyssey again, (There you go Blue!) and he put a lot of those ideas in there." The live Budong was created by Animal Logic. "We couldn't see the whole of it, because even the CG department couldn't cope with the full length of a Budong," Tilse jokes.

Before 'Green-Eyed Monster' was filmed, the Talyn bridge set was rebuilt. "It was a functionality issue," David Kemper explains. "When you've been shooting in there for a year, there are things that work and thing that suck. We didn't redesign the ship, just the way the set was constructed -- where the camera team could turn around or what you could do with certain sections."

By this stage, the producers knew Talyn's destiny in 'Into the Lion's Den'. "We began the process of laying that in place," Kemper says. "We had Talyn acting on his own, trying to hurt Crichton and make his 'dad' get the girl."

Claudia Black recalls a "nice little plug for my film career. When Aeryn's trying to shoot the torpedo, she says 'still nothing -- pitch black'. But I wasn't giving myself a shameless plug--Ben was!"

"We still took a pretty liberal approach to the text," Browder concludes. "But at least we had the writer on the set with us each day!"

Dang... I was going to mention that bit about Aeryn saying "Pitch Black" in my review and I forgot...I noticed her saying that and wondered if it was related to her movie....I guess now we know!

[jelgate]

Losing Time

One problem with the twinning arc is that I don't think the writers knew what to do with Moya John. Remember my point of how attached they are to the John/Aeryn ship. Anyway, these Moya episodes don't seem as well thought out and written as the Talyn ones. Anyway ranting over (You thought me well SQ) this episode is not that good. My biggest compliant is this episode is kind of a rehash. Aliens possessing our heroes has been done before. Its really not that different from A Bug's Life. The first time it was a parasite virus that possessed Aeryn. This time its Chiana's turn to be possessed. Its really the same thing with just different technobabble. This time its an energy creature. Their are some good bits. I liked the early part where we see John flipping out. It makes me wonder if John is still a little crazy even though the chip has been removed. The acting for the intervention table was fantastic. It was great showing them around that table twice to show us how the energy rider inhabited all the Moyans. After that it gets dull. It becomes the chasing around Moya with an infected Pilot until we discover the starburst chamber. Now I thought that was cool to discover a different area of Moya. Helps shed us a new light on how starburst is achieved. And of course we know the alien infecting Pilot is going to want to stay. Its so cliché that I saw it coming a mile away. I also knew the starburst chamber was going to be used to expel the alien from Pilot. It was so predictable and dull. The high points is that this episode answers the question why Jool was not sick in the stasis pods and her cousins were. I also recognize that this episode is the start of Chiana's special abilities which I always loved about her development. The Scorpy scenes seem kind of random and inserted into as
a foreshadowing note. I love the fact it highlights why Scorpy is so obsessed with wormholes. Kind of reminds me of the Manhattan Project of World War II. Some good moments but overall I don't care for this episode.

On an non-review note, I will most likely be taking next weekend off. I bought the whole Farscape series for $50 on eBay. It might not arrive until next Monday because I wouldn't pay for fast shipping. If it comes sooner I'll be there but I might not

[squirrely1]

Losing Time

Ok so I'm really late with this one. I actually thought I was on schedule so I was literally Losing Time too! LOL

What struck me about this episode initially is that it really makes no sense. Even though like jel mentions the cool effect at the "intervention table" I think they would've realized they had fallen asleep or had some physical effects to the time speeding up. Sweating, heart racing, etc.... having to pee really bad, severely hungry, etc....so I call foul on that one. But despite the obvious science-y issues with this ep unlike jel, I sorta like this one. (Jel just cannot be pleased! He finally gets a non Aeryn/John ep and he's still not happy!) So for me, even though it's been done before (alien infection) I think it gives us a premise to learn some cool new stuff about our characters.

1. Scorpy's Addictions? - We know that Scorpy has the obsession with wormholes and now we know why. You almost can sympathize with him in his reasoning that if the Scarrans attack they have the potential to wipe out all the Sebacean life. I sort of now get his obsession with it. His means however remain disturbing to the point what is with this sleep/memory/brain probe table thingy? And the injections? Ok so this is not explained in this ep but at least we get some new nuggets with regard to Scorpy and in a sense starting to build a tiny little bit of empathy for him. Notice I said tiny little bit? We know this transformation of our stance about Scorpy has to change and I think this is the ep in which we start to see this. (Speaking of transformations this is also the ep in which Chi develops a new skill which we will see later)
Either way I loved to see how Scorpy assigned the ego pilot in the next test trial after discovering the goo remains from the first trial. It's also interesting to note that the relationship between Bracca and Scorpy is also more defined in this ep. We get the full sense that Bracca is completely 100% loyal to him and he will go to the ends of the universe because he "Does not question he serves". Please, I have never liked spineless Bracca for this reason....he is a little twit and reminds me of a little loyal lap Chihuahua dog. Honestly shaking in his boots while serving the master. *eye roll*

2. Moya's Innards Revealed - The Starburst chamber was cool. We get to see a place that is both fascinating and intriguing because when they are there....Pilot can not sense them there or is blind in that area. Which I find odd, but ok. Maybe I heard this wrong, someone correct me but the Starburst chamber is maybe so close to Moya's neural nexus or whatever you want to call it....Brain? That even Pilot cannot tap into that? I thought that was really interesting.

3. Alien Sex - Ok you know I'm gonna talk about this...me and the sex...hahaha.. I absolutely loved the scene with John and Chi (first off this is a bit of a Chi/John shippers delight) Yes yes I will admit I sort of ship them. SHUT UP!! But it's because they have incredible chemistry together. I love the bit when they are in the Starburst chamber and she wants a sip of John....haha....he is like having this orgasm and then it happens again...he's like "Oh this is gooooood..." all the while folding over in ecstasy and he gets up and tells Chi not to move..she's like "How will I know you'll be back"....he says... "I'm I man ....I'll probably be back in 15 minutes" I cracked up when I first watched this scene! Yes it's a tad sexist but I like John's honesty there and I enjoyed the scene even though Chi was basically infected with the alien at that point. Later, John is like, "Ok the sex was great....I'll give you that...but we are not talking about that.." Or something. I just wondered why if that Energy Rider loved Chi's body so much why it decided to leave it. I guess it was because Chi would eventually die.

4. Tallip is the real Evil Alien - See I didn't find it predictable as jel did..since I was actually thinking that the real evil alien here was the Energy Rider as they set it up to be...when in fact the ER was the benevolent one and Tallip was the evil one. I thought it sad that they had to kill the ER in order to find that out.

5. Pike DRD a Conduit to Moya - This concept was really cool. John finds a way to talk to a DRD to interface with Moya. Very clever and you really start to feel for this little guy by the end. But tell me if I'm wrong I don't think DRD Pike made it out of the Starburst chamber in time. Another sad death as a result of their plan to purge the true alien off the ship. I think this set up again another little nugget for us in which John will adopt another DRD in the future to serve a special role for him.

6. Jool is Cool? NOT! - I found it disturbing her characterization in this. One moment she is pointing a gun at Chi ready to kill her? Or whatever she thinks she's going to do to her...and then the next moment after the Tallip tasting she is cradling her in her lap and comforting her? That was such a 180 I got whip lash. Maybe it was because Jool could relate to what Chi had gone through with the tasting but still....thought it was too drastic. BTW I kinda see a little spark between Jool and D'argo...if she hadn't been so annoying I could've seen a ship develop between them...but nah.... I like Chi and D together too much for that. Just thought I would mention it.

7. More Reveals....Seeds planted... I think this ep was all about planting seeds to be harvested later. So it does play out like a foundational ep, not so much great on it's own but it's strength comes in on setting things up for the future. Like why John can survive re-entry from a wormhole and a Sebacean cannot and why maybe John bled and the others did not. Maybe that truly does all account for John's special-ness which again is why Scorpy remains so obsessed with John. They needed a reason for Scorpy to continue on his relentless pursuit of John. Now that he's got the neural chip back ....and presumably all the wormhole data he still needs John to further analyze why they cannot seem to get things to work for them.

All in all a solid ep, fun and a petri dish for future plot points. I also enjoyed the character moments.

[jelgate]

I think we all behind. I still have to do Relativity before I am caught up. Incubator was suppose to be today

[squirrely1]

I think we all behind. I still have to do Relativity before I am caught up. Incubator was suppose to be today

did I put in the wrong disk? Whoops! *runs to check scheduled*

Edited: Nevermind....I'm ok...I just was really late as I thought with Losing Time. Next up Relativity for me too.