Prepare for Starburst: A Farscape Rewatch Thread

[squirrely1]

Into the Lions Den - Part II: Wolf in Sheep's Clothing

This obviously is a great episode but I have a few nitpicky things about it that sorta bug me. First off why couldn't Jool just scream to melt the bars of the prison? I think they sort of dropped the whole shrill scream thing. Although she was screaming at one point I just see that as an inconsistency. The other thing is how amongst all the explosions and crew running around escaping Aeryn found a working Prowler and John his module in tact in order to get off the planet. There are people who have no way off and yet they can all safely get off. Finally that last stand off with Scorpy...it seemed almost too easy for Scorpy to just give in like that and tell John how to release the bracelet. That doesn't really ring true to me. You'd think he'd have wanted to preserve that link to John so he could hunt him down again and continue to pursue him for the WH knowledge that is still inside his head. *shrugs* We'll see.

So onto the good stuff.... sorry I just had to get that out of the way.

This whole ep was pretty much spent to break Scorpy down. I mean the Command Carrier pretty much symbolizes his strength of Command and now that has been completely destroyed. We know that Grayza is fast on his heels so in a sense Scorpius is now a broken man by the end of the ep. I think that was almost sad and I think it got to John as well. That last bit when he called out to Scorpy after he said he may not get off the ship.... I think John was almost contemplating allowing him to hitch a ride there. LOL I wonder what Head Scorpy would've said in that moment. I do want to make a comment on the Head Scorpy scenes all throughout these two eps... I quite liked them. I enjoyed the Chess, Checkers then Go Fish....shows again the symbolism that Scorpy is spiraling down to the point where he can no longer play Chess but is reduced to almost begging like in "Go Fish". I thought that was pretty insightful.

As for Crais. This honestly brought a tear to my eyes, not when Crais was delivering his speech to Talyn and saying his final line of "Starburst!" but it was when he was telling John the plan and Aeryn was there. I think this was the most poignant scene because it was a double whammy. Not only would Crais die, but Talyn as well. That had to hurt Aeryn too in that moment and honestly if it had been the Aeryn back when Talyn John was still alive, I don't know that she would've gone along with that plan...that was the softer side of Aeryn....she has toughened up considerably since then. But more on that in a moment.

Crais has had a tremendous character arc as jel pointed out and I for one do admire him for his heroic stoicism. What a cool way to take out that ship and I applaud the writers to coming up with such an awesome plan! Even Scorpy didn't get at first what Crais was doing...he immediately thought he was trying to escape and that was all the plan. I really don't think Crais double crossed the team. I think he had to do that in order to gain a level of trust with Scorpy, enough that he could get on board Talyn with enough of a distraction. I think that is also what lead to Scorpy believing that Crais went rogue and it was all Crais' doing in the end so Scorpy didn't really blame John or his other team for doing it. Because how could they have been in on it when they were all in jail and John was on board the module with him. That is why Crais did what he did. So the blame could be shifted to him. If Scorpy had thought John or anyone else of the Moya crew did that, he would've killed them all. So this was the only way by Crais seemingly ratting them all out. So RIP Crais....*sniff* You went out a hero!! *slow clap*

As for Aeryn. I sort of wish there could've been a better moment for those two to say goodbye. That is my only regret with this. And I think Crais was looking for that too. Aeryn just says.....well get going. She does however pat him on the cheek. I think that is about as soft as Aeryn can be right now...except with the children. If you noticed her actions in the garden with the girl trying to care for her wound and really show a level of compassion. When her old friend comes up and tells her not to make her soft. I think that scene was so important to show just how much Aeryn is still changed, despite her hard exterior shell she's put up since Talyn John's death. I think down deep this gives us hope that Aeryn is still soft inside, she is just sort of still shell shocked on the outside.

As for the ending, I guess everyone is setting up to go their separate ways which makes no sense....this is the part I hate, as it gives me BSG ending vibes and I know what's coming so I already have that lump in my throat forming....but more on that later....

[squirrely1]

Into the Lion's Den Part II: Wolf in Sheep's Clothing - From the Companion Book

"I read Rockne's script, and was blown away by it immediately," says director Rowan woods. "the first thing that came to mind was not just the epic nature of what happens in visceral terms, but also the drama, and just what's at stake here. Crichton's great speech at the end about 'one evil at a time' typifies it --the story is really about the consequences of a military mission on the peaceful people on the other side. At the end Scorpius, who's usually this heinous, evil figure, is melancholy and not vengeful."

"Once you're inside the Evil Empire, you realise that there's an ongoing ambiguity of good and evil," notes Ben Browder. "Crichton and Scorpius have come to respect each other as adversaries," David Kemper adds. "They've learned to look at each other in a new way. It didn't make sense that they'd hate each other for ever."

According to Kemper, O'Bannon called to say he was writing the best Farscape script he'd ever written. "We worked back and forwards with Ricky on episode twenty to make sure we took stuff and made it pay off in Rock's episode," Kemper adds. "We wanted to have the statue in the park fall through the ceiling into the corridor, to tie up that the park was on the ship. That didn't come off -- but that's where Rowan got the idea of the water."

"We only had one go at the waterwall," Wayne Pygram recalls. "When the producers and half the office staff are there to watch a scene, you know that something special is about to happen! There were chairs out -- it was like doing theatre. I didn't feel pressured, but suddenly I realised that all the tread had worn off my boot. The water was up to my knees, and I stepped on something on the floor under the water. I almost went over, but I knew if I did, the shot was dead, and we couldn't do it again! So I moved slowly and in a very deliberate way, which looked great, fortunately."

"The real key to that stunt is that we had our star right in front of the camera," Woods adds. "The wall explodes at the top of the staircase and several tons of water crash down towards our star!" The whole cast were caught up in the destruction of the command Carrier. "It reminds me of the Rudyard Kipling poem 'If'," Claudia Black says. "'If you can keep your head while all about are losing theirs...'" Anthony Simcoe's memory is somewhat more straightforward: "Blowing up that big ship was fun," he says.

Tupu enjoyed the nuances of his final scenes as Crais. "Just before I board Talyn at the end, there's a moment between Crais and Aeryn," he recalls. "They know exactly what's going to happen, but there's not much they can actually do at that moment other than briefly acknowledge that they like each other --there's something far greater pressing."

Ben Browder suggested that Crichton should attack Crais, rather than Scorpius as scripted, when he learns of the betrayal. "Crais is standing there unguarded, and all of John's friends are in custody. Crichton has got to say to himself that Crais has done it to them again!" Browder reasons. "He let Crais out, he trusted him, and he's screwed them again. Of course, Crais and Talyn redeem themselves in the final act for many of the things they'd done which weren't so heroic. But Chrichton misjudges Crais, and attacks him, which was the only course of action he could take."

"I told the producers to make it BIG," Kemper concludes. "And they apparently listened, because we spent a bunch of money on this episode! By the time you get to the end of the season everyone is exhausted, and the only way you're going to get something good out of them is to really challenge them. So we did. There were crowds, explosions, loads of CG, the emotional stuff for Crichton and Aeryn -- and Crais got his revenge. Poor Scorpius -- he never had a chance with both Crichton and Crais working against him."

[squirrely1]

Dog With Two Bones
***WARNING....This review may be rambly.....just saying. ***

You know jel is all prepared for me to be a gushy about this ep but as a shipper this is really a very bitter/sweet and sort of painful ep to watch.

It's only now when I watch that I know there will be a huge payoff so I can endure all this angst between John and Aeryn, but actually the first time watching this could actually put some shippers over the edge and cause them to literally jump ship. I think they almost went too far on this one with the angst. But then again if you are listening to the commentary and watched that bonus feature on the Season three recap by David Kemper you'd know that they actually gave Ben and Claudia a lot of leeway when filming this episode. I think alot of convincing had to be done in order to allow it to be filmed this way. I think Claudia came up with the coin toss which ultimately was sort of dumb, but these two do really seem to trust in "fate" So maybe that part makes sense. To me it really was pretty frustrating.


But more on that in a moment. I think this ep was really just a very large teaser for the shippers. To give them a mock wedding but then jerk the rug out from under them. That all in all is pretty cruel, but we know that by past experience the writers of this show know the value of "paying things off" so we'll have to give them the benefit of the doubt on this one.

I do like the A story if you can call it that where they are trying to put Talyn to rest. They never make any more mention of Crais which was troublesome, but I'm assuming they may have already had their own little memorial for him? Or maybe they didn't bother, but either way it would've been nice if they had shown the crew doing something for him as an homage.

Then what is with Nooranti just showing up? I think that was really odd and no one seems to really even care, not all that much. But it's clear she was needed in order for John to play off her with regard to Aeryn and he needed someone to help him further induce his visions or whatever so she was a necessary plot device and we'll just have to accept that she was left over from that whole Command Carrier evacuation mess. I too like the old woman even though jel wants to mock her and curse that poor character with the likes of me and the 3 brain cells. Poor Nooranti indeed. No one should have to live their life as a dumb, illiterate shipper squirrel rodent!

Anyway, it was actually quite sad when they had to put the other rogue leviathan down and I think they were all surprised at how easy and effectively D'Argo's ship could do it. Made them realize just how powerful that vessel was. They were like.... DAYEM!!

There wasn't really much else to comment on regarding that main plot so back to the whole John/Aeryn character plot. I actually quite liked their last scene and the anger they showed one another and I think that was so real and very raw. I could actually see that happening....so much passion can invoke very easily the flipside of that which is rage when you feel things are so out of control and if you've ever been in a heated argument with the one you love you should be able to relate. They don't say there is a thin line between love and hate for nothing.....because it's true. But it's still very painful to watch them struggle through this scene. As Ben mentioned on the commentary, that the kiss was so painful for him because of what Aeryn said....."the past" when he asked her "what does that taste like". That was such a slap in the face for John, but again only because he is caught up in a sort of bizarre jealousy of his other self, but in actuality he should feel almost a sense of hope there because at least she felt like it was so familiar to her as in how she felt with Talyn John, that would mean that she loves him (Moya John) the same as she loved Talyn John. But she's just in a place right now where she refuses to become vulnerable again, even if it means to say goodbye to him permanently. She actually already did that (in her mind) and she doesn't want to have to do it again. That would be almost equal to the torment John felt at reliving his mother's death in the Won't Get Fooled Again ep. I think she's so sure (in her mind) that eventually John is doomed to die that she just doesn't even want to bother trying to love him and hold onto him or become attached and involved again because she is so fearful of having to relive that scene again.

So yeah it's sad. Sad that they apparently lost the coin toss....so it seems even fate is against them. Not something a shipper wants to hear, John is now stranded in space (the goodbyes from his ship mates were very poignant BTW) I did think that was a brilliant way to do it. The wedding cut scenes were beautiful and heartfelt on one hand and gut wrenching on the other. I loved seeing how happy he was, but then when you contrast it to his agony of realizing that it would never work...and him coming to terms with that, it's just so painful. I had to cry when he talked about the dog with two bones. And at Nooranti's advice he finally made the decision to go after the one thing he really wanted and to have that disappear for him made it even more agonizing.

So we are left hanging...literally in space...John in his module..he has come completely full circle from the beginning in s1. So ...... I'm with John on this one...."You've Got To Be Kidding Me!!"

[Bluemeany]

*wanders back into thread after Christmas holidays*

Oh man... you guys have been busy:-) I'm so far behind now. Tell you what, I'll watch but not review in order to catch up and come up smiling for Crichton Kicks. No point holding up the thread.

I will say though, I do like Dog with Two Bones, particularly the exchange that SQ mentioned: " What does that taste like?" "Yesterday."Ouch. Painful. I'm also quite a fan of the coin toss as an image for the relationship.

While I'm here, I'm actually having a vidding problem you guys might be able to help with. I have a memory of a clip of Harvey driving a yellow JCB construction digger but I can't remember which episode it's from/ if it actually exists and isn't just my wishful thinking?

[squirrely1]

*wanders back into thread after Christmas holidays*

Oh man... you guys have been busy:-) I'm so far behind now. Tell you what, I'll watch but not review in order to catch up and come up smiling for Crichton Kicks. No point holding up the thread.

I will say though, I do like Dog with Two Bones, particularly the exchange that SQ mentioned: " What does that taste like?" "Yesterday."Ouch. Painful. I'm also quite a fan of the coin toss as an image for the relationship.

While I'm here, I'm actually having a vidding problem you guys might be able to help with. I have a memory of a clip of Harvey driving a yellow JCB construction digger but I can't remember which episode it's from/ if it actually exists and isn't just my wishful thinking?

I don't recall that. I recall a large semi truck involving Harvey but not a construction digger. Jel do you know?

You can go ahead and give your quick thoughts on these eps. Really it doesn't matter if you are behind. I would still like your thoughts on them. You could do a mini review.

[jelgate]

Cricheton Kicks

Yay 1812. He is one of my favorite DRD. Just look at how well he knows John and what he wants with the space pirates come about. Honestly, the episode isn't that great. I think the show goes through a reboot in S4. The story has changed on what John is doing. He lost some enemies and gained some new ones. We have a few new characters. So in esscence, this episode becomes like a pilot. It has to define our new characters and where we are going. So like all pilots, it has a lot on its plate. This episode is clearly trying to establish Sikozu as a character. She reminds me of those shady businessmen who will turn around and betray people if it will benefit them. And like all businessmen, Sikozu has a reason for why she did what she did that almost makes sense. A prime example is when Rygel and Chiana vilify her for having Scarran currency.Like I said, this episode is really has no plot but hunters chasing Sikozu around because she has something they want. And the point of this is to show us all these alien things she can do like walk on walls and reattach severed limbs. Because as you know that's cool and all. I don't want to sound too negative because I do like Sikozu, I just think not much happens in term of story especially until Rygel and Chiana show up. This is my point about the new plot. It establishes how the Moyans are criminals again and why Grayza is chasing us. I know it sounds the same but its not as Grayza doesn't care about wormholes. So her motives and justification is different than Scorpy. This episode also shows Chiana's ability has changed. Now she can't see the future, she just sees it in slow motion. I seem to recall that the writers used this ability and changed it a lot. So in the end that ability is what was able to incapacitate the hunters and their rabid dog. Like I said, its a simplistic story but its obvious this episode was used to tie some strings together and restablish a new story. I kind of love the look of Elack. We are so used to a healthy Pilot and Levithian that is was fun before in art form (Look at the decayed ship) and to see how feebile the Pilot is because of old age

[squirrely1]

Dog with Two Bones - From the Companion Book

"I wanted to wrap up the season with some flair," David Kemper states. "I wanted something that other shows just don't give you." To achieve that, Kemper went through weeks of what he describes as "torture". "I had a two-parter that would have ended this year but I could not make it work, because my 'B' story was Crichton fantasising about the wedding, and it kept wanting to be the 'A' story". Eventually, Kemper decided that "I'm going to give everyone the wedding. You read about lunatic executive producers doing something different at the last minute, and I felt really guilty. Rockne said, 'Just write a good script.'"

"We all wanted that episode to be something youi could remember," Andrew Prowse confirms. "It was really tough, but we wanted a climax as good as the end of season two." Kemper realised that he had already shown the 'physical' end of the season with the explosion of the Command Carrier in the previous episode, and now he could pay off the emotional arc. "I flipped the paradigm of having the 'A'story being the main narrative and the character stuff being the 'B' story, and came up with the story of the rogue Leviathan, which was designed to be simple."

The scene between Crichton and D'Argo that cuts from D'Argo's ship, the Growler, to the dockside and back, is one of Anthony Simcoe's favorite parts of the episode. "We worked really hard at making that work," he says. "there were lots of different versions, and we ended up improvising, using long lenses and long takes. Andrew gave us a lot of looseness to perform that."

The wedding sequences took two days to shoot. "It took a while. I thought the hotel management was going to throw us out!" Prowse admits. "When Pilot arrived at the location, it was all hands on deck to get him up the stairs," Sean Masterson recalls. "Pilot doesn't get out much as you know, so to mark the occasion, we let the special effects team rig some squibs on him for the first time."

"The wedding scenes seem like such a harbinger of doom," Claudia Black comments. "I went through the old costumes, and found Katralla's wedding dress from 'Look at the Princess' --I wanted there to be a quirky resonance there of that other woman Crichton has married ." Black contributed a number of ideas to the episode, including Aeryn's dying line. "We realized that even though it was the other Crichton who had said this, if this Crichton was dying, he would probably say the same thing, so he could give the line to someone dying in a fantasy," Kemper explains.

Kemper, Browder, Black and Prowse worked together on the critical final scene between Crichton and Aeryn. "We were looking for the elegant ending," Kemper says. "I wanted a mature dissolution to their relationship and to show that they have grown." "We needed to get to a point where Aeryn left the ship," Black continues. "I suggested to David that we should have a coin toss. I said it wasn't trivializing the decision -- it was so painful, they should let something else make the decision for them, because otherwise it would just hurt too much. David went with it, and I was really proud. That was the biggest contribution I've made to a story on Farscape."

Although the coin toss initially seemed a good way to close the season, there was more. Only four copies were made of the script page that continued the Old Woman's revelation to Crichton. "Nobody had a clue," Kemper says. "Even Ben didn't have the page until the very last minute. So they've separated, Aeryn is pregnant, Crichton finds that out, and on top of everything else, Moya gets swallowed by a wormhole. Andrew and I knew we had a final scene that worked!"

So at the end of the season, "they not only take away the girl, they take away everybody!" Ben Browder concludes. "He's left alone in space. Lost in his module, where he started off at the beginning of season one. Except this time, there ain't nobody nearby!"

[squirrely1]

Crichton Kicks

haha
Space pirates, spider woman, 1812 overture, a bearded Crichton that looks as though he's the insane Doc Emmett Brown, a reunion with Rygel and Chiana with her new and improved Chi Vision. SWEET!!

Honestly I'm with jel on this one, it's obviously establishing Sikozu as a character. I like her though unlike how I felt about Jool when she first came on..Jool was just annoying and I really never felt like Jool meshed that well with the crew. However with "Sputnik" I can see a certain playfulness she has almost like the Chiana character that I think helps to enliven the show a bit and finally serve to help bridge the loss felt from Zhaan.

Either way I think this ep is important because it establishes these things...

Crichton cracked wormholes - Ok so he had it then he lost it AGAIN...*Sigh* this is getting annoying but at least we know that he had it...will someone give this man some DAMN PAPER!! For Frell sake... I mean something that important he keeps writing it on everything but something a bit more permanent. Maybe they just don't have paper or pens for that matter. YIKES!

Scorpy is not in Charge and it's Grayza who is Tracking them - There is a nice little deleted scene that quite frankly I'm shocked they cut it out. It shows Scorpy talking with the new Captain Weasel Dick...you know his old first hand guy who now has switched camps to serve Grayza. It clearly shows just how frustrated Scorpy is when he basically no longer has command. I'm assuming they cut this for continuity because they were not at all focusing on Scorpy so it would have been an odd shift so obviously they will show us how he's lost command another way in another ep.

John has rebooted in a sense - so here we are, like Jel says, seemingly back to the beginning and he has his own (probably was white at one time) tunic on could that be giving us a symbolic representation that it is sort of the s1 Crichton that has the white shirt over the black one? Blue ...plug that into your tshirt analyzer and lets see what pops out? I think again there is something to this tshirt theory! But I think this time around and the reason that the white was over the black is John is back in a sense to his s1 self...again obsessed with worm holes but this time hiding something hence he has put the white over the black shirt... I think he wants to move on from thinking and obsessing over Aeryn but he just can't. As indicated when he is speaking with Rygel. You gotta love Rygel's advice that if the woman or lover keeps trying to ditch you..you take the hint. I think John is so stubborn though he is just really (bless his heart) trying to work through his Aeryn addiction...he keeps visiting her on the beach until he finally decides he's not going to come there anymore because it's not going to change anything and it makes him sad, and he mentioned the "new girl" Hmmmm interesting. Then notice in that last vision of Aeryn, she is no longer pregnant and she is being what appears to be visited by another man...so maybe Sikuzo will be that diversion that Crichton needs? We'll see. I think Rygel was trying to encourage him anyway...by say...go on...have some fun.

ChiVision - I already mentioned as did jel the new and improved vision that Chi experiences and it now comes with a cost. It blinds her which I figured they had to do something as if she could continue to "see the future" that would've gotten old and would've put them at such an advantage that it would've spoiled alot of the surprises and fun so they had to change it and now with this consequence of blindness it ensures that Chi won't be using it willy nilly...only when absolutely dire and necessary, when their lives depend on it....which could end up being quite frequently apparently.

Some other interesting notes: It was cool to see another older/dying pilot and leviathan. I loved 1812 and the music choice obviously the 1812 Overture and that beard was this time around Ben's real beard I remember reading somewhere. It may be in the companion book where I read that, but I don't read the companion book until after I do my review so it doesn't influence my own opinion or review of the ep.

Either way, nice ep and I can't wait until the whole gang is back together again!

[Bluemeany]

Happy New Year everyone:-) I hope you all have a great 2017.

Crichton kicks

Ah, this is the episode where we get the switch from 4:3 to 16:9 aspect ratio (basically widescreen). More cinematic yes, but a tad unhelpful for us vidders. Grumble, grumble moan, complain.

The best option is to crop/convert all episodes from now on into the ratio format of the first three seasons. This does mean you miss off the far left and far right of the screen. But if you don’t do it either your season 4 footage looks stretched OR your season 1 – 3 shots look squashed.

Count me in as another 1812 fan. He’s a good little DRD.

John’s gone mental in a different way from usual I think… a little too much alone time. I read a book earlier in the year from someone who was imprisoned in Colditz during the War. They said the first sign that a fellow POW was going stir-crazy was that they started to obsessively listen to classical music.

The 1812 overture plus the beard equals loopy.

Not to mention fantasising about all the women on the beach. And ( possible hair obsession alert) – does Crichton really need to keep stroking Chiana’s hair like that when he’s holding her back from throttling Sikozu?

Speaking of, I too quite like Sikozu as a character. It’s fun that she’s quite unworldly without being innocent. Lot of knowledge, total lack of worldly experience.

And in certain respects, it puts Crichton back into the same situation he had with Aeryn in season 1: trying to get through to a sort of woman/child who is so sure of the rules, her world and her superiority, who the suddenly finds herself exiled from her old life.

Although at least Crichton’s learnt. When a strange, but beautiful alien woman emerges from a crashed ship and/or space helmet DON’T automatically go up and say hi. Pull a gun on her first.

I like how Chiana’s angry with John in this episode. She’s clearly had a hard time during the season break. And it’s a good point that for pretty much all of the Moyans being associated with Crichton has made their lives if not worse then certainly more complicated. He is like a plague.

I saw a convention panel on YouTube when someone asked some of the actors that if their characters could have stopped Crichton coming through the wormhole, knowing everything that would happen after, would they have done? That’s a great question. Unfortunately, Claudia Black wasn’t there, but I’d actually be most interested in Aeryn’s answer to that.

From a vidding pov, previously mentioned aspect ratio irritations none withstanding, this is a pretty if darkly lit episode. All the messing about on the wires is handy. As is Crichton dancing around Moya. Plus in the ‘mud’ at the end they do an Apocalypse Now homage with John emerging from the abyss a la Martin Sheen.

Oh, and I agree SQ: what we now have is a fundamentally black-T Crichton, but he’s thrown a crazy/genius tunic over it. It actually really looks like ( go with me on this) the costume Charlton Heston wears when he’s playing Michelangelo obsessing over painting the walls and ceiling for the Sistine Chapel in The Agony and the Ecstasy.

He’s even grown the beard. Plus in the film he’s always whizzing up and down on rope and pulley systems…. I think the costume department might be trying to project ‘ tortured genius with a calling’ in their choices.

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[squirrely1]

YAY BLUE IS BACK!!! Happy New Year to you too! Glad you are back! I missed your very insightful reviews! I hadn't thought of the Charlton Heston Sistine Chapel thing but makes sense. That actually reminded me of the pulleys that were present....when did MoyaLike Leviathans come with pulleys? That seemed to be a rather convenient appliance already in place but I'll go with it cuz ....it's Farscape!

[squirrely1]

Crichton Kicks - From the Companion Book

"I thought Crichton being out there on his own for a long time was a good idea," Ben Browder recalls. "It gave all of our people a chance to develop. There was a mandate to reintroduce the series with season four. With the number of characters in Farscape, we had to give the new audience a chance to catch up. I think that's one of the reasons we started with Crichton alone and reintroduced the cast one by one."

Both David Kemper and Andrew Prowse describe Browder's performance at the start of the episode as some of the best work that the actor had ever done on Farscape, and certainly Browder was given plenty of material to work with, starting with his manic conducting of the red, white and blue painted DRD, 1812.

"Before I wrote 'Crichton Kicks', I went and bought six different versions of the 1812 Overture," writer and executive producer David Kemper explains," And I listened to it five to ten times a day for two months! I wanted the script to have the rhythm of the 1812 Overture. I let Tchaikovsky's music infuse itself into me."

The piece turns up through the episode. "I thought we'd need at least seven or eight instances of the 1812, but in fact I think there's only three playing," composer Guy Gross notes, "but even with only those three times, you get the sense this DRD has been learning how to play it. By the final time, it's practically as orchestral as Crichton has in his head."

At one point, Crichton yells at the Grudeks to get off the Leviathan -- in Klingon! "That wasn't scripted," Ben Browder explains, "I saw these guys and I thought they were Klingons! I got on the phone to Ricky Manning and said 'I've got to have some Klingon', He e-mailed me back with sound files and a pronunciation guide. I told Andrew Prowse, but I don't think I tole Raelee I was going to do it. Her reaction is pretty damn honest. Poor girl -- she shows up and all of a sudden I'm screaming in Klingon!"

Post-production supervisor Deb Perat nominates the episode as one of her favorites of the entire series. "It was well lit, and so well conceived in terms of the set and production design," she notes. "We built sever sets on that episode which we thought would be good, because they could be turned into regulation Moya Set," Production designer Tim Ferrier explains. We thought the double-storey set that was like a honeycomb, where the guys were cutting all the meat out of Elack, was now established in this particular physiological part of the Leviathan. If we wanted to, we could have reused it....but I don't think we ever did.

The visual effects team had to spend a great deal of time working on the Brindz Hound, which of course was not there on set for Ben Browder to work with. "The CG guys did a great job putting it in," Browder says. "Can you imagine how I felt on the day doing all that dodging the doggy stuff? It was great. When there's not another actor there I can really go off-piste. There's some really embarrassing stuff I tried! The great thing about Farscape is that I can put myself in Andre's hands and know I will not end up looking a complete dork!"

"Soup to nuts, it took a long time to put this together," Kemper concludes. "We were really proud of it."

[jelgate]

What Was Lost Part I: Sacrifice

Some episodes I remember clearly. Others I vaguely recall ever seeing. I remember that this planet plays a big impact in Peacekeepers Wars but I could not recall this episode that. So despite this, the two parter is like a first watch even though I have seen the whole Farscape series. I was saving the deleted scene everyone mentioned for this episode. I question why you would even put this in a previously if you are leaving it out of the episode. I also think their are plenty of scenes in Cricheton Kicks you could remove to show Scorpy becoming a prisioner. The beach scenes come to mind. Anyway, moving on. One thing that gets to me is that this episode is very disjointed. Their is a story her about the aliens that achieved peace between the Scarrans and Peacekeepers. However I feel like they were not clear in how a lot of thing happen. Its never clear how D'Argo and Jool met and how she also got off Moya. Its never clear how Norranti escaped her guards at the episode end to attack John. I could go on but like I have said before, rambling is SQ's thing. If we ignore, these problems then I actually like the episode. The mystery of the planet intrigued me and it has some nice character moments. I quite like the scene with D'Argo and Jool about how Jool should have defending the way Vella treated D'Argo. He has a point as discrimination is always wrong. I also love Nooranti, Yes I love how she always has good intentions but seems to screw it up in the end. She tries to help give John some clarity but in the end lets him see too much. It was always suggested that we were related to the Peacekeepers but never really explained. Its clear to me that mystery was too be explored more before the show got cancelled. A pity. As for the story itself, not a lot happens I say. As we are trying to solve the mystery of the probes Garzya. SQ's favorite villian by the way. I know she was creeped out by the leashing of Scorpy. I thought it was brilliant to show just how far he has fallen and given their dislike of one another I can easily see her degrading Scorpy like that. I also wasn't really turned off by the whole raping scene. Sure its disgusting but is it really any worse how other Peacekeepers kill people for minor transgressions. I'm looking at you S1 Crais. If you lack ethics I can see the value of bending a whole sex to your will. Finally, I don't care for the whole Nooranti killing scene. Yes I understand the reasoning, but it just seemed crazy Nooranti would help kill John not matter what he knows

[squirrely1]

What Was Lost Part I: Sacrifice

I have to agree with jel on this one again.....Damn...we're agreeing alot lately! I just think they tried to do too much in this one. It's like they broke off too much and couldn't quite get it all resolved and it's a two parter to boot! I also liked the fact that John recognized the Egyptian symbol and it was very intriguing as to the answer of the link between the Sebaceans and Humans. We will never know...that is a shame. I really think if they hadn't rushed this plot point and maybe been developing it throughout the season it wouldn't have seemed so out of place or rushed up, but this whole ep to me just seems thrown together.

About Grayza, I liked her much more as a villian the first couple times I watched but now she sort of sickens me. But like John responded...what she does to him was "better than what he (Scorpy) use to do to me". It repulses me every time I see how she is treating Scorpius and I just had to giggle when she says to John...go ahead and do to him whatever you want. John cooly replies with a ..."uh that's ok I can't think of anything better than that". Poor Scorpy
you honestly did just want to pet him and give him a Scooby Snack or something.

As for the rape scene. I think this was really edited down if I recall. So I think when they initially filmed it, it was alot more graphic, but they didn't show as much, which is probably a good thing I sort of remember a big upheaval in the fan community about the rape and how it sort of divided fans and blah blah blah. To me I didn't see it as anything worse than what John had endured in the Aurora Chair with Scorpy. Even though they played it as a rape and violation to John since after the fact we saw him sitting with his head tucked down and cradling himself on the rock face, John probably didn't feel as violated as they played it. Again as stated earlier I'm sure this form of torture wasn't nearly as violent and offensive as what he endured with Scorpy. Maybe it was a bit more embarrassing if anything since he had virtually no control over himself. That may be more the issue here with the 'rape' more than anything. I think it more or less pissed him off that he lost control of himself.

Is it wrong that I want to twist weasel dick's head off? Bracca just makes me want to snap him in half. I can't stand him and every time I watch this show over again my hatred of this character becomes even stronger.

As for Grandma....I had forgotten that at one point she put him to sleep and I kept waiting for John to wake up so it was really tough to figure out what was real vs dream and then you realize nothing was a dream and so yeah that was just a mess. I'm sure they had a nightmare editing this ep together because there are so many stories and elements going on here that it just doesn't work all that well. Yeah and as jel mentioned they used the deleted scene to set up a false previously ...that was a dirty trick and I guess it worked in a sense but I too would've liked to have spent an ep seeing how Grayza seized control and upset the apple cart so to speak. Back to Nooranti, I like her character too but I think right now we're not sure if we can truly trust her or not. That is why she did the kill John thing. I think she saw it as the only answer since the info in his head is what they are all after and he just knows too much and she sort of sees him as the dangerous weapon so to speak. I think once she knows him more and is able to bond with him she will want to protect him rather than throw him under the bus.


I thought the scenes with Chi and D'argo were touching and I just wish they would've given them more time to work out their relationship more. I have a feeling that Chi has been really trying to get back into his life and D'argo just ain't having it. Shame I thought him and Jool could've been cool, and maybe that was their initial idea hence why they paired them up and sent them off together, but with Jool leaving the show (I don't remember why Tammy McIntyre) left if she got another gig or if they wrote her out, but I'm glad it happened because I quite like D'argo and Chi together and it's been a long time for them to be estranged and it's heart wrenching to watch.

All in all a busy ep and like jel said some good character stuff but way too much thrown in and to much to fully process and appreciate that really never even went anywhere.

[jelgate]

You are just slowly realizing that my way is the correct way

[squirrely1]

what way?