Prepare for Starburst: A Farscape Rewatch Thread

[Falcon Horus]

I have been down with the flu so I haven't been in the mood to watch or review any Farscape. Hence why I'm behind again. I really keeping my title.

Anyhow...

Liars, Guns... Part III

Sorry, forgot the title.

Plan B to Z... instead of rescuing Jothee, they have to go and rescue John instead.
Never does the plan actually work the way it should, but they do pull it off in some bizarre way.

So, John gave himself up to Scorpius because he wants the chip out. Seriously, how uncomfortable was that iron ball-thing. Who even came up with that idea? Insane.

Anyway, lots of fighting and explosions. Worf dies. Poor Worf. John gets saved with his marbles sadly not really intact.

And... I can't actually remember the episode. But it was a good one.

[squirrely1]

Welcome back FH. Sorry to hear you've been sick. Just pitch in when you can, I always enjoy hearing everyone's different perspectives.

Season 3 Opener - Season of Death

Well I guess the most obvious death here is the death of John's white T-shirt Did you notice when he had the stand off with Head Scorpy he went from that white (innocent/naive) shirt to the black (I'm gonna kick your arse) shirt? Haha....jel you just have to admit there is a thing with the tshirt now Also you gotta love the Hell Yeah!! *crowd cheering sounds* I mean honestly it was pretty funny watching head Scorpy get OWNED!

So yeah actually I loved this ep for obvious reasons.... I'm sure you can guess them. When I first watched this ep I had to actually run back the "I Love You's" and that kiss several times it was just so rewarding and made all that pain of Aeryn's death just sink away. Finally they admitted their love and it wasn't under some other guise or under duress ...not one of them was possessed or dying or dead...it was the real thing. Only took 3 frelling seasons but we finally got it!!! But then Aeryn immediately pulls back and says "We will not act on it" I mean really? What else you gotta do in space? I get her reasoning but that was a little much even John ...was like COME ON AERYN!! Seriously? So here we go scrambling back to our respective corners. *grumbles*

Ok so I got that out of the way....just had to do that so jel could vomit and get it over with.

As for the rest of the ep, I really liked the fake diversion that Scorpy pulled. I think it would've been better had they waited an ep or two to reveal that. It kills me when they work so hard to pull some diversion like that and then reveal it in the very next scene.

I'm with Blue, loved Aeryn's look and how awesomely radiant she was even though she had no make up on and just came back from death. Amazing. Her long black flowing hair flying in the wind...no wonder John has this obsession with it. I didn't notice him touching her hair...I'll have to watch that scene again and take notice.

Sorry to see the Dynosian death She was a funny character... I wonder now what will Scorpy do the next time he needs a cooling rod tune up? I hope there is another doc like that who can help...wait....why do I care?

As for Zhaan...her sacrifice is so noble and I'm shocked that Stark didn't have words with her over the little kung fu move she did on him and then her giving up her life. I love the underlying message there that it's always a life for a life.

I can't think of anything else... I get shipper syndrome and can't hardly process much except for the awesome Aeryn/John bits and yes jel just go ahead and give me grief....I'm ready! *throws down hat* Let's take it outside....come on!!

[squirrely1]

Season of Death from the Companion Book

"I had to do an episode which started with Crichton brain-dead, Aeryn dead and Scorpius with what he wanted," director Ian Watson recalls. "The problem was to turn it around in forty-two minutes so that Crichton had what he wanted, and Aeryn was back from the dead!"

Although David Kemper jokes that he writes a fiendish cliffhanger for each season and leaves it to Ricky Manning to figure out how to resolve it, Kemper knew the mechanism by which Aeryn would be returned to life. However, as Ian Watson points out, "Farscape has killed so many people so many times who have then come back from the dead, it was a problem to bring Aeryn back believably."

"We knew that soon there was going to be the exit of another beloved regular character," Series creator Rockne S. O'Bannon says, "and we thought it was a great opportunity to pay for the return of Aeryn with something real, that would help keep the series grounded. yes, we bring Aeryn back, but we don't wave a magic wand, or have a big battle which is really difficult, and at the end everybody is huffing and puffing, but otherwise fine. We pay for Aeryn's return with a death, the sacrifice of another character who we really care for."

Claudia Black feels that Aeryn had a problem accepting what Zhaan had done for her. "When she actually comes out of the pod, she fires at the two soldiers who are threatening Zhaan and Stark, but she doesn't acknowledge what Zhaan's done. She looks at her and there's an ambiguous moment where she doesn't acknowledge her verbally at all, and just asks where the others are. She wants to avoid the emotion. She can't quite come to grips with Zhaan's spiritual world -- I suggested it was much more appropriate for Aeryn to say that Zhaan 'did a Unity thing' rather than say she 'did Unity with me'."

The return to the ice planet caused practical problems on set. "A snowstorm is a hard thing to pull off, but we got it working," Ian Watson explains. "We experimented with different types of material to blow for snow, and settle on finely chopped shopping bags, to products a type of plastic-y stuff that's blown out under gets of air." "Imagine three days of having that blown in your face!" Ben Browder comments.


To film the scenes where Rygel administers CPR to the dying Tocot, Mat McCoy "was the most uncomfortable he's ever been," Tim Mieville believes, because "we had to get someone underneath the puppet to do that. Mat had to get his hand in at a really weird angle." Having the same actor playing Tocot the Diagnosian and Plonek the Scarran also caused one minor problem -- getting Thomas Holesgrove to kill himself! "In the morning I was in the Tocot costume," Holesgrove recalls, "and at the end of the session we did the first shot of him getting zapped. Then in the afternoon I went into the Scarran suit and did the shots with the Scarran's hand. They had a stand-in as Tocot for the actual shot."

Returning to reprise his role from 'Die Me Dichotomy' was Hugh Keays-Byrne as Grunchlk. "He's one of those legends of bad guy acting." Ian Watson enthuses. "I was quietly told by the producer not to have too much spurting blood in the scene where Scorpius makes him bite his finger off," he adds. "It can deny the show the correct time slot. We shot and cut two versions of it -- the fairly tame version which is in the final edit, and another one where he actually holds his finger up in front of him, and it's just squirting blood gratuitously, like a Monty Python sketch!"

[squirrely1]

Suns and Lovers

All I gotta say is....Poor D'Argo. Although....do you think he sorta had this coming? I mean lately he has been pushing Chiana away. All throughout looking for Jothee (when the chase got close) he really was focused on that. Not that I blame him, but then he just seemingly never really got back in the groove with Chiana. He just continued to take her for granted and then was oblivious to her needs. Not even thinking when he more or less threw Chi and Jothee together...yeah it was a disaster in the making.
I think the affair with Jothee did show that Chi has really changed and grown though. She knew it was wrong and really felt guilty for it. I think the old Chiana would've just had the sex and then blew it off like it was all in a hard days work. We know that Chi definitely sees sex differently now...more of an expression of love ever since her romance with D'argo. So if anything good came out of this, it showed us how much Chi has grown and it gives us a chance to whump on D'argo as he works through this angst and forces him to work hard again to get back the girl. I think that makes for great storytelling.

Although at the end I call foul that Chiana was just using Jothee...that seemed pretty convenient but meh.....I guess they didn't want to completely sabotage Chi and D's relationship.

I didn't really care for the rest of the story with the other characters. It was confusing as to what was even going on and well I have to comment on the whole John/Aeryn conversation on ...."Oh we can just have sex" You'd think as a shipper I would've like that...but actually that sorta cheapens their relationship. I was glad that John blew her off about it. If you watch Claudia and Ben at the end when John mentions "what about those body fluids?" Claudia about cracks up there. I think Ben botched the line....he was supposed to say "What about those Fluid levels?" Because Rygel comes up and says "Fluid Levels?" really emphatically so the Body Fluids doesn't fit and the look and Claudia's face...she's Claudia there...not Aeryn.

That is about all I can say about this ep.

[jelgate]

Season of Death

I am drawing a blank on this one. Mostly because I don't know what to say. It kind of feels like going through the motions of setting us up for the season. We have these stories to tell so lets quick solve all these problems. For one Grunchick grosses me out. I just want to say that. Also Scorpy eating John's brain also grosses me out. Their is so much for me to process as this episode has so many side stories working together. The big one for me is Zhaan and Aeryn. We all know what is coming. (shut up SQ). So I see this as the start of that. It might be a little far fetched that Zhaan can revive the dead but I let it go because of the terrible price that it takes for this to happen. I think they saved the burnt out Moya for the end scene. As I say countless times, I'm not aesthetics person but I like the look of Zhaan with Stark at the end. I think it shows how bad it is for her. Their is even a Scorpy story. Besides the gross part I mentioned. I think we see more of his sadistic side. He seemed to take great joy in controlling Grunchik's mind. Especially the part where he made Grunchik bite off his own finger. I do have to say his escape was kind of predictable. Of course, we knew he wasn't going to die from Talyn. That would be too anticlimactic especially with the red shirt bragging about his great piloting skills. The final part that I remember is John. This is the part is I didn't care for the most. Its a let go through the motions type story. I didn't feel any depth like the other characters. First rescue the Dignosian since she is the only one ( or is it he) I will give a funny mention to John beating up Harvey and the first appearance of the dumpster. As soon as that is the random Scarran to fight. I do find it interesting that the Scarran's vulnerability is the cold like the Peacekeeper's weakness is the heat. I thought it was a nice parallel to why they hate each other. I would mention the John Aeryn stuff at the end but I'm sure SQ has already analyzed it to death. I don't have any more to say about this episode. Its okay but not one of my favorites

[jelgate]

Suns and Lovers

Remember back to those S1 episodes that had a simple plot to show the character moments? That is what this episode felt like to me. The story of religious fanatics being outraged about a space station being built on a holy site seems to me like not a Farscape. story. As usual it was for us to explore the characters. For once John was probably seen the least so I really like this episode because it explores our aliens. So I am going to do this little differently and groups by characters and maybe bring up the plot. This story kind of reinforces Aeryn's stance on the previous episode that she is distancing herself from John. I think their is guilt there. She knows what Zhaan did to rescue her and Aeryn feels responsible, thinking her emotions are what caused her to die the first time. We (or at least I) have said multiple times that Aeryn's story is to learn what is to do be less cold. Part of feeling for others is knowing it comes with risk. I know I am analyzing a lot from one scene (I think SQ is affecting me) but that is my thought of it. Besides that the rest of the Aeryn exploring sewer pipes is boring and honestly makes me yawn a little. Now lets go on to the big part of the story. In that view, we are fighting again SQ. I completely disagree with the D'Argo and CHiana breakup. A mature woman ( yes I know that doesn't describe Chiana) would understand the need for a father wanting to see his child. I don't give any excuse for Chiana. Yes I know its her character flaw to have fun and not talk serious but if something was bothering her she should have said something. I really feel for D'Argo in this episode. If it had happened to me, I would have been just as upset and as hurt. That said I think John was right in both instances. First in how he tells Chiana and Jothee how stupid they were. Also in telling D'Argo this isn't the time to mourn. I think he would be the kind of person who would sympathize with D'Argo and help him get over what has happened. But we have a maniac trying to blow us up. Speaking of the maniac, I don't have much to say of this. So I am going to channel FH's simplistic reviews (miss you lemining). Maniac plants tracker for storms to kill space station. Our DRDs track the signal to maniac who magnetizes to station. We trick her into escape pod.. She escapes and magnetizes to hull of Moya. We jettison and Pilot has random evil laugh

Special mention to Stark to babying Zhaan. I know she didn't like it but to me it was just to personify how much he cared for her and didn't like to see her in pain. Also I kind of thought Jothee leaving was a little random. He spent all this time to find his father just to leave because they were fighting. Although I did like the foreshadowing with the Interon and Jool

[squirrely1]

Suns and Lovers From the Companion Book

"Justin had read the book The Perfect Storm, and loved it," David Kemper recalls. "When it came to start working on his episode, he said he wanted to do a storm, because it's a great visual. It turned out to be one of those fun episodes to pull together, because it's early in the year, and you're not too worried about things. We wanted to get Crichton and Aeryn back on track."
"Without knocking it, this is a stock Farscape episode where you have really queer things going on," Andrew Prowse agrees. "But the emotional core of the story is D'Argo being betrayed. Anthony Simcoe did a great job with that. He gave D'Argo an extraordinary dignity through the discovery of his son's affair with Chiana. From the first scenes where he smells something, to the final poignant moments when he overhears the two lovers saying their goodbyes, it never feels mawkish and you willingly go with him. I also think that relationship between Jothee and Chiana really worked, being scary and fraught with danger. It was almost Romeo and Juliet-ish, with them in an environment that could have killed them, and I think that actors pulled it off really well."

Gigi Edgley enjoyed shooting the betrayal scene with Simcoe and Matt Newton. "When you hit those really big, important scenes, you've got to almost tear them apart, dive into them, swim around for a bit and get yourself nice and wet, then get out and dry yourself off!" she enthuses. "You can't just dabble, 'in and out', because you never really feel that fulfilled after you finish the scene. Originally, the writers wanted Jothee to stick around a little bit longer," Edgley adds, "but Matt has had real success in Australia, and he's been kept busy elsewhere."


"The logistics of that episode were enormous," David Kemper recalls. "The space station was a lot of work, but it was a masterpiece," Andrew Prowse adds. "Production designer Tim Ferrier was very anxious to show off his wares, and it marked the beginning of the CG house, Animal Logic, really hitting their stride.

"The Moya skin set was very cool," Prowse continues. "It's the first time we've really been outside Moya and interacted with her. Tim did a great job with the set, but shooting on it was not simple. We shot most of it with a remote camera and a crane, looking down, to avoid having to do too much CG afterwards."

The tunnels also caused practical problems. "They were filmed with a hand-held camera, by Danny Baterham," Prowse says. "There was a lot of water and rubbish on the floors, so just walking around took a lot of concentration." Not being able to move at great speed affected Claudia Black. "The hardest thing was playing the high urgency without being able to move quickly, which felt very awkward," she remembers.

David Kemper loves the repartee between Crichton and Aeryn "Claudia did this great business in the tunnel where she and Ben are teasing each other," He recalls. At the time though, it puzzled the actors. "Neither Andrew, Ben nor I could understand why Aeryn offers herself to Crichton and he turns her down," Claudia Black says. "My immediate reaction was that he would say yes," reasons Ben Browder, "But essentially it becomes a bit of a power play. Aeryn wants to have her cake and eat it too, and pretend that things aren't as they are. He's hitting the ball back into her court and saying, 'You're going to have to admit you really like me, and then you can have me!'"

'Suns and Lovers' marked the first time that Thomas Holesgrove was heard as well as seen. "Being able to use my voice was terribly exciting," He recalls. "I used a very 'la-di-dah' British accent on set, but then the director asked me to dub it in an Eastern European accent."

[jelgate]

Self-Inflicted Wounds Pt 1: Coulda Woulda Shoulda

I have said before how hard it is to review multi part episodes. Some just flow more naturally that's its hard to separate while others have a to be continued slap on to connect episodes. This is the former instead of the latter. I struggle reviewing this episode because so much is only halfway done. The plot and character moments are halfway through. I feel like John gets a bed rep for this episode. Yes wormholes is John's obsession and blind spot but I have a hard time blaming him for what happened. It was Pilot showed us a wormhole and a few seconds later a ship collides with Moya and now the two are merged. I'll admit I got confused a little at times about the science of this one. I understand the collision cause the ships to merge and the fact the two ships are caught on the edge of the wormhole. If we accept this then the whole module scene makes little sense to me. How in the frell could John fly his module around the wormhole when they can take you anyway? I don't think it was explained well enough. Even with them running around of finding a way to save Moya their are plenty character moments. But before we get their, I have say their isn't much of plot progression Someone here once said the Moya crew takes a trial and error method of frelled up plans until one works. That is what happens here. We try so many technobabble plans until the point we give up and say we have to abandon Moya. Of course the Pathfinders are behind the dying of Moya but I 'll cover that more when I get to part 2. Most of us have seen Farscape all the way through (I am not 100% certain on blue) We all know what is coming in the next episode. Yes I know you want to mock SQ but wait until tomorrow. I really get the feel Zhaan is saying goodbye. Their are many examples. Two however come to mind to me. One is when she is telling Stark hoTw he must go on. Their love was short lived but it speaks to me when Stark mentions the evil in his heart and how Zhaan still believes in him. But the greatest is when Chiana is crying and Zhaan comforts her about Chiana about loving Moya but not wanting to die. That was a great scene to watch to the two saying goodbye. Speaking of Chiana. I kind of glossed over the D'Argo and Chiana scenes. I kind of though we had already explored this in the last episode and I thought Chiana got what she deserved. I did laugh when Rygel asks how Jool knew Chiana was a whore. Which brings us to the last point. I kind of love Rygel's vindicitive side. He got what he deserved in John breaking his nose but I kind of love how he selfishly tells Jool what happened to her cousins to get revenge. It shows how he goes to no end for what he wants. Speaking of Jool, I have never really liked her character. I think the twining arc really makes her suffer. We don't see a lot of her with the back and forth between Moya and Talyn. That said it hard to object to her actions. John is responsible for two of her cousin dying even if she was snoobish. I don't think we ever learned how she is related to humans. Special mention to the John and Harvey scene where he doesn't like the dumpster. I feel like I may have missed a few things but I can't remember what

[Falcon Horus]

Die Me, Dichotomy

Or more accurately, the one where John goes off the deep end and channels his inner Scorpius.

They have found a healer for Moya, and it's possible he can help John get rid of the chip as well.

Sidenote: the healer is another example of fantastic creature building.

Grunschlick, or whatever his name, is an ugly creature and an opportunist. He clearly doesn't care about anything or anyone else, other than himself and maybe the healer. After all, without the healer he wouldn't have an income.

So, the healer has a steady supply of organ and tissue donors, willing or otherwise, and there's a near perfect match to fix John's brain after the chip has been removed. Which, I might add, takes up a huge portion of his 10% if you ask me.

However, before the healer can perform his task. John goes bat**** crazy, exposes his inner Scorpy and pretty much kills Aeryn.

That whole sequence of Aeryn dying and the following funeral is very beautifully done, and I really enjoyed that. It's very serene and well... beautiful. Job well done everyone (acting wise, music, the setting, and the likes).

And then afterwards John goes through with the surgery that could potentially kill him, but without Aeryn he's lost. And that's when all goes to hell in a handbasket cause who shows up -- none other than Scorpy himself to get in everyone's way, leaving John without a healer and talking jibberish.

[Bluemeany]

We jettison and Pilot has random evil laugh

I love Pilot’s random evil laugh! He doesn’t get as many psychotic moments as the rest of the crew, which only makes them more badass when he does cut loose or snap. Maybe being cooped up indoors is starting to get to him?

At the time though, it puzzled the actors. "Neither Andrew, Ben nor I could understand why Aeryn offers herself to Crichton and he turns her down," Claudia Black says. "My immediate reaction was that he would say yes," reasons Ben Browder

Yeah, I’m with them on that. Crichton wouldn’t turn her down. And I don’t buy the power play thing either. I guess the whole space station is exploding and there’s a countdown and everything. But that doesn’t usually stop them.

[Bluemeany]

Self-Inflicted Wounds part 1

To my mind, the least effective two-parter in the whole series. I do like the idea of having the two ships crash and merge into one another. Both crews have something to lose: no one is totally the villain.

But agreeing with jel: this one is a little heavy on the technobabble. They even have Aeryn say to Crichton: “Did you understand that?” and he mumbles something about Star Trek and not to worry about it.

And I’m usually fine with that approach and the writing just bare face bullsh**ing the science to get to the emotional payoff. But this episode doesn’t really seem to have one. Probably because all of that is in part two.

Jool wakes up. I’d like everyone to know my hair is naturally like that (the curls not the changing colour). I just wash it and it forms in ringlets. Takes ages to straighten.

Is that Earth that Zhaan sees out the window? It appears that way, but looking closely I think it has two moons.

I’ll go further than Jel and say that Crichton is a real jerk in this one. A major conflict of interest is understandable but it’s more the hypocrisy. He isn’t straightforward with himself and others about why he’s doing certain things. Rygel may be openly self-interested, but at least he’s honest about it.

Really like Pilot vomiting on Stark. The comic splatter is exactly right.

I will say that I think Aeryn in particular is written well in these episodes. More on that in part two review, but she’s very in control and aware of what’s actually going on. Her talk with D’Argo is nicely done.

From an editing pov: there’s some nice stuff. Although a lot of the wormhole CGI is recycling from earlier eps (mainly Blood Runs Clear from the looks of it). The serpent is cool though – nice monster, like proper ancient Greek saga/ Odyssey stuff… which I guess is just what Farscape is anyway.

I did like the Rygel/Crichton exchange re. the wormholes: “Can these things take us home?” “In a heartbeat: if you know where you’re going”. That’s the really Crichton’s problem now isn’t it? He’s just not realised it yet. By the end of the season, home is definitely not where he thought it was.

Oh, and is it bad for me to admit that I didn’t recognise The Three Stooges? I mean I got that it was meant to be a photo from some old earth TV show given the dramatic music. But they’re not that big in the UK. I don’t think I’ve ever seen even a clip of them. Laurel and Hardy, or the Marx Brothers yes definitely. Three Stooges not so much.

Most of us have seen Farscape all the way through (I am not 100% certain on blue )

I thought I had until last week! I think I must have somehow accidentally skipped Suns & Lovers the first time through. But who knows, maybe there is another unseen Farscape episode coming up… I kind of hope there is tbh

[Falcon Horus]

Running behind due to unforeseen personal circumstances. Probably won't catch up until after next weekend, when I'm at a local convention for two days and will have little time for other things (I'm a member of a prop/set-building group so busy days).

Only two seasons later and that’s where we are. NCIS is like on season 14 or something ridiculous and nothing ever changes.

Seems like you and I have been watching a very different NCIS cause in 14 seasons plenty has changed.

(miss you lemining)

I'm still here...

[squirrely1]

Self Inflicted Wounds - Part I Could'a, Would'a, Should'a

Well you guys have all done a great job so far. I don't really have much more to say....yeah yeah yeah, jel will mock me now and say yeah right!

But seriously, Like what jel and I think Blue said this....trying to review half of a 2 parter is difficult since everything is left hanging...literally. So why is it lately every TBC is always a close up on Browder's face? But that look....props to Browder for emoting one of the best WTF is that type of looks a person could muster without actually saying it. I do love the alien serpent thing. Is that a worm cuz they're in a worm hole? *rim shot* Either way I'm with you guys on this one. The science is lost on me. Yeah jel poke your fun...I really don't think it's due to my 3 brain cells this time, I just think they needed to throw some science in there to make it somewhat believable but they made it so ambiguous and use just so much technobabble that no one would even be able to follow it to see if it did make sense. I can usually forgive that...after all I am a Doc Who fan but this seemed a little over the top and unneeded. Again I will agree with jel on why John even needed to go out into his module to collect data. All the tech these guys have and they don't have probes? I mean honestly it seemed really risky to do that...but again John is so drawn to wormholes he was chomping at the bit anyway. I thought the alien collection device which seemed to be an upscale viewfinder seemed a bit hokey that it would get all these pics that seemed to be from someone's photo album. Not sure why they used the 3 Stooges for Earth either, but there you have it. Maybe they were short on time and didn't want to get copyright permission so they used something so old it was Public Domain? IDK but either way I just think it was a bit trite. The scenes with Harvey though at the Drive in with the beer I enjoyed. I think its hilarious how John can threaten him with the dumpster and it seems to sneer at him as if to give warning. While I enjoyed the Harvey scenes they seemed a bit oddly placed or almost forced. I never really noticed this ep being so schizophrenic before but seriously it has CRAZY written all over it. Not crazy like in 'Won't Get Fooled Again', but crazy for hopping around all bi polar like!

We have so many little plot points happening that it seems almost unmanageable. We have the introduction of a new character: Jool, we have our ships colliding with an Alien species, we have Moya and Pilot dying, we have some of the alien crew dying, we have the introduction of a worm hole serpent creature, we have John and Sparky going on a space flight and they get into a "dog fight" of their own, John breaks Rygel's nose...correction "slits". Then if that wasn't enough we have Zhaan dying and trying to continue to work to save the others in the process of all their battles and dying all the while she's trying to say goodbye to everyone. PHEW!
I did love her scene with Chiana. It was very touching and let me just say that I do feel for Chi even though she had this coming but I also loved D's attempt to comfort her. Backing up I loved the convo between D and Aeryn. Very real and I think Aeryn sums it up nicely in that they are 'Just kids'. Although D wants no part of reconciling right now so we'll have to wait and see how that turns out. Aeryn's concern and asking D'argo to help her keep an eye on Crichton realizing that 'he is blinded by wormholes' I agree with Blue on this that Aeryn does seem to be the most level headed one in this ep.

Question: Did Crichton seem a little more "brainy" in this ep to you guys? I mean he's an astronaut and has to know his science and stuff but to me he seems to be just a little bit more heady....could it be that the little bit of cerebral fluid he got from that really super smart cousin added alittle bit of intelligence to John? What do you guys think? Jool talked about that donor being a brilliant scientist or something...did you catch that?

Speaking of Jool...yeah she is annoying. I never really liked her all that much. And that scream So very disturbing

Ok I'll stop now...go ahead jel and say it...I rambled on and on....again.

[squirrely1]

Self-Inflicted Wounds - Part I From the Companion Book
warning there are some part two spoiler-y bits... I spoiled it for that reason.

Spoiler:

"In February 1998, Rockne O'Bannon and I were coming up with more ideas for the show," David Kemper explains. "One I had was, 'A ship comes out of another dimension, but it hasn't fully resolved its form, and it comes flashing through our ship. We get merged with them --what the hell just happened?"

'Self-Inflicted Wounds' went through numerous changes during pre-production, mainly as a result of Virgina Hey's departure. "Originally Zhaan survived," Kemper reveals, "but then the story had to become about giving one of your good characters a magnificent ending." Although he feels it got diluted in the final version, Kemper also "wanted to explore how innocent people ended up dying because of their encounter with us. Neeyala's people weren't villains. They weren't trying to kill us. She could have wiped us out, but she didn't, and she died because of it. That's Farscape, and that's also the real world -- I wanted to deal with the irony and capriciousness of death."

"Two-parters are always really tough, because they tend to be bigger stories with big emotional arcs," Tony Tilse explains. "David wrote a huge script, which came with its own logistical problems." One of these was the requirement for a large snake. "David was always very keen to have a wormhole beast; a scavenger that cleaned up all the refuse in the wormhole," Tilse says. "It was one of the few times we had a completely computer-generated monster. It's always interesting for the cast, with the director trying to describe what this creature will look like, because all we had were some drawings. The creature was still in development." To help the actors on set, the Creature Shop created a basic prop: "an open-mouthed thing with sharp fangs," Claudia Black recalls. "But in the end, it was one of the most incredible effects I have ever seen."

Having directed Victoria Longley before on another production, Tony Tilse enjoyed the chance to work with her again. "We spent an afternoon discussing how these creatures spoke, with the lisp," he recalls. "We looked at the body language, and the way they walked -- they had a lizardy feel to them."

Team Rygel had fun with the scene where the Hynerian joins Crichton in a tour round the wormhole. "It was cramped, sure," Tim Mieville says, "but when it's a very small set like that, we can get our controls right there, so we feel very much part of it. It was a full-on scene that ended up being quite violent."

Mieville is full of praise for Paul Goddard's performance opposite a rather sick Pilot. "Paul had a vomit gun about a foot away from his head," he recalls. "To be able to deliver those lines, knowing that he was about to get a face-full of intergalactic carrot chunks, was tremendous!"

The writers felt it was the right time for Crichton to be reminded of home. "Everyone jumped in with ideas for what it was going to be that Crichton saw from Earth," Kemper remembers: "I Love Lucy, Mr Ed, The Marx Brothers. Finally, I said that it had to be the Three Stooges. I wanted a specific clip where they're all together and Curly gets abused, because I knew that Scorpius was going to ask Crichton why it is always the innocent that bear the brunt for our dreams and ambitions."

Well there we go.

[Bluemeany]

Question: Did Crichton seem a little more "brainy" in this ep to you guys? I mean he's an astronaut and has to know his science and stuff but to me he seems to be just a little bit more heady....could it be that the little bit of cerebral fluid he got from that really super smart cousin added alittle bit of intelligence to John? What do you guys think? Jool talked about that donor being a brilliant scientist or something...did you catch that?

Maybe the doc removing all memories of American politics automatically raised his IQ 20 points?

I think so many people have messed with his head... the ancients, Scorpius, the doc, Harvey... it’s hard to tell anymore what is natural to Crichton. The super smart brain donor cousin is a good theory.

They also mentioned last week that Harvey and John’s personalities are blurring: so maybe Crichton’s acquired some Scorpy science too, along with a deep obsession with wormholes and the ‘ends justifies the means’ attitude that comes with it?

Personally, I view it as totally natural Crichton. I think he’s always been obsessed, risk-taking and ambitious right from the start. And the science is always there it’s just uber-focused knowledge on wormholes so only surfaces when they’re around. You don’t design, build and fly your own spacecraft away from your loved ones with a good chance of death without being a bit of a smart, stubborn bastard.