Prepare for Starburst: A Farscape Rewatch Thread

[jelgate]

I think I made a joke about what to punch Ben's wife

I don't like it because its gets confusing. Not Won't Get Fooled confusing although I think that is what they were going for

[squirrely1]

well she succeeded at being annoying cuz that is what the role called for but I just don't like the 'Joe Pesci' type of humor which is what they were going for.

I found this as I was Googling for Farscape Christmas and janageek on DeviantArt crochet's these amazing dolls. Just had to share. Apparently there isn't one for Aeryn or John though
http://janageek.deviantart.com/galle...%2F&q=farscape

[jelgate]

Infinite Possibilities

I combined this episode for two main reasons. One we are still behind. That is largely my fault as I am struggling to find the time lately. And apparently you people need to wait for my review first. Also I kind of find part one slow. Don't get me wrong. Combined I love this episode. I am however remembering the classic structure of building a story. If you don't know what that is SQ, go read a book or go ask the English department. Anyway, the problem with part 1 is that its mostly exposition. That pay off in part 2 but it makes part 1 kind of dull. Half the episode is just finding Furlow. Ancient Jack trying to kill John because he betrayed him only for Jack and John to reason it out that it wasn't John but someone before the Ancients ever gave John to knowledge. I love the look on Rygel's face when he sees the alien in Jack's memory. That look of horror about the Charrids and what they did to his people. Makes me wonder how many billions were killed. I also kind of found his torture hilarious as he seemed to take joy in interrogating the Charrid to find out the Scarrans were coming. I think its suppose to set an urgency (especially after they hack Furlow) since not much action is set in part 1. Really part 1 is about Harvey and getting rid of him. Since apparently he can't be there to have John's wormhole knowledge. I find it kind of dull to be honest and thought it was just added to justify two parters. Similar to how Crais once again get harmed early on so he can get on Talyn. This ironically (Yes I know what irony is) leads us to part 2 where things get more existing. And I am not talking about homicidal Rygel with his turret gun. Although that was quite funny. Their is more action going on. I don't recall Furlow being so self-centered in S1. Is that just me or did she take it up a notch in this episode? I think we got everything we wanted in this episode. John finally has the wormhole knowledge so obviously that is going to end badly for him. I think that is what makes the episode work. We finally get to see John's potential in him building the wormhole weapon. That and the double crosses. I think a major pillar in Farscape is trust and that half the time is the Moyans are unable to trust because the few people who they trust, stab them in the back. For some inconceivable reason we trusted Furlow and she killed Ancient John and then ran away with the weapon. The dune buggy scene made little sense to me. I never really understood why John and Aeryn spilt up. If I was the Charrid I would have ignored Aeryn and continued chasing John. Speaking of John, I know SQ finds the next scene sad. And it is but I don't think it bothered me since the Moya John is largely the same. Yes they became two different people for the most part they are the same as its only been a few weeks. I think if it was me I would have taken the Furlow's way and ran away. Someone else can be the hero. John was dead the moment he touched that device. He knew it which is why he was the one who had to fly the ship. I will let blue talk about the editing of the flight scene in watching the Dreadnaught being blown up. Their isn't much to say about that. The powerful stuff is the end where everyone says goodbye. Even if we have a another John its still a good scene to watch how sad everyone else is to say goodbye. I especially liked Crais considering they used to be enemies. I just don't think it is as powerful as character who died and don't come back. I didn't skip the Crais and Stark scenes. Their isn't just much to say. Its more for humor to see how much the two annoy each and to find funny ways for them to outwit a Scarran

[squirrely1]

Infinite Possibilities - Part 1 and 2

Finally jel....geeze! I was starting to forget the main story lines waiting for someone to post as I had already posted a few times in this thread about other stuff I didn't want to be spamming or anything!

Ok so where to start....???? Ok so dammit we knew that when John left that information with Furlow it would later become very important....well here we go. I never trusted Furlow for the way she more or less greedily forced John into leveraging that data back in S1 and again we now understand why the Module can safely transport species through a wormhole and why Scorpy's attempts failed...they lacked a "phase stabilizer". So again GO EARTH for having that technology which kept John alive so we could enjoy this series. LOL

So this part one is really all about ramping up the danger (realizing that now the wormhole tech and information about John's module has leaked out beyond their control and it is dangerously close to falling into the Scarran's hands) this had to happen IMO because just keeping that information contained in John's head would never provide a great enough risk to the galaxy, so I do applaud the writing team on how they could leak some data out there without giving it all up. They were able to ramp it up enough so that now there is a real threat to all species....especially that the Scarrans have swooped in and made an alliance with the Charrids.

Speaking of the Charrids....does anyone else find it convenient that when no one else has heard of a species it's always Rygel who points them out saying they slaughtered their race or tortured their race and many died....blah blah blah....makes you wonder just how the Hynerians have ever survived this whole time. HAHA dispite this convenience plot device, I do like how they wove Rygel into this whole thing...and again it does ramp things up for everyone including Rygel. I think it was important for Rygel to see the threat in order for him to put his own life on the line. Which I thought was pretty hilarious... the Rygel-In-The-Turret yes I'm copyrighting that and selling it for a much loved Christmas Toy this year!

Ok so part one was devoted to ramping up that threat and also for as jel mentioned luring Harvey out and ridding John of all remnants of the clone. When they showed John and Harvey on the Bumper Car Ride I immediately thought of Nuka World in my Fall Out 4 game....yeah yeah I know jel disses on me that I bring up these games that people may not know about but I enjoyed seeing that "creepy carnival" type scene...I thought it was really awesome they used that setting to have John/Harvey duke out their final moments. *sniff* I'm gonna kinda miss Harvey.....but what about the other John? More talk about the two John's in a moment....

Ok so now we have this impressive build up to the story tension...and yes jel just because I don't read I still know about story elements. We now know that the Scarrans actually got some of the knowledge before Aeryn and John could destroy the Furlow's computers so that ramped it up even more. This was necessary since they could just simply destroy the module...which could end the threat....but that would make for a dull episode....so by confirming the Scarrans received enough data to build their own phase stabilizer they have to now confront and destroy the Dreadnaught. This raised the stakes and sealed Talyn John's fate at this point. *sniff*

Hats off to Claudia in this ep, As we end on that awesome cliff hanger of her being choked by Scorpy John and she with tearfilled eyes holding her pistol to John's head. Thank goodness we don't have to wait a week any longer to see how this ends up and thankfully the ancient realizes it's a final last ditch effort for Harvey to kill them both. Oh gee Harvey don't tell me you are going to do that whole break up violence....of ..."If I can't have you, no one can" scenario are you? But apparently that is what he does. That could've been a horrible way for Talyn John to die...for Aeryn to be forced to kill him....some may think that was a missed opportunity, but thank gawd the writers had a better more impactful way.

Let's face it...we all knew this day would come....the day when the other shoe had to drop and Talyn John (or one of the John's) would have to die. It is still very sad and I still cry watching it. I want to spend the rest of my review here talking about he third very important element in this story and that is how the Death of Talyn John effects the story and more importantly how it affects Aeryn.

To me, when I first watched this series and I saw the death of this John I took the road that jel used and even though it was sad I mourned yet shrugged my shoulders and said well there is still another John for Aeryn to love. I sort of expected that Aeryn would do the same but if you really analyze how this John impacted Aeryn, you'll see how devastating this loss is for Aeryn and how that really does set back her character (almost a complete reset for her) back to Aeryn season 1. So much had transpired between Talyn John and Aeryn. They were acting out their love for one another and saying it and then at the end Aeryn agreed to go back to Earth with him once their business was finished when John admitted he could open a wormhole with the information in his head. One bit of business about that wormhole knowledge is I really liked how they made the release of that information in John's head much more intuitive rather than some "Matrix... I know Kung Fu" type of deal. I really appreciated that because I think if something were to happen in that manner that would be truly how it would happen...just sort of intuitively and come out as you just sort of do it not realizing it.

Back to Aeryn and John *hands jel the barf bucket* I mean I don't want to beat a dead horse here but, we all knew from the start that John in s1 told Aeryn she could be so much more...and he worked with her to open her up...finally here we have the completely open and vulnerable Aeryn who finally succumbed to John and let her guard down and allowed herself to love....even to the point of working through her mommy issues with this John version and allowing herself to love him despite seeing what her own mother went through she decided to completely shut that PK door and love him and even told him she would run away with him back to Earth. WOW that was huge. So this John opened her up, but on John's death bed he told her that she made him better and now he was at peace...he had no more Harvey or pain...so this version of Aeryn/John dealt with so much BIG stuff together that for him to die really did reset Aeryn almost all the way back. spoiled for upcoming episode info...

Spoiler:

I really didn't understand her reaction to the Moya John later she expresses once they are reunited...but now in thinking of all this history that Moya John will not know or have experienced with her...this is really a terrible tragic loss for Aeryn and now very understandable. Moya John is almost like a complete stranger to her and it would wrong to assume she can just pick up where they left off as he's like a twin brother at this point.

As for how this death will impact the story. We know that Moya John didn't experience the same things as Talyn John obviously so we shouldn't assume that now Moya John will have all this knowledge. So we can safely assume that a big part of that knowledge now died with Talyn John. Again this more or less reset John's character as well. This was also a clever way the writers could bring us to the brink of complete wormhole disaster and now in a sense reset the story as well. So it's a way to really refresh the fact that Moya John still holds the key to the Wormhole knowledge and now the Scarrans know it definately can be converted to a weapon as they experienced that first hand. So now the hunt is on even more for John and what he possesses. This was needed to raise the stakes and make John's knowledge even more valuable. Because without the chip or the clone they had to do something to make John still hold the key to making the wormhole work.
With that said I don't want to go on and on about it but all in all I think these episodes were critical to the story in the wormhole plot leaking out making it more of a threat, ridding Harvey from Talyn John's Mind....and how his death will impact Aeryn and the story. Great eps!

[Bluemeany]

Hey guys I see Christmas has arrived.

Infinite Possibilities

Epic double header this: love, death, mass destruction, psychotic Rygel-In-A-Turret.

That is a great idea for a toy btw SQ: it could project little bolts and everything. Bonus points if it emits helium.

A fair bit of this review will be me squeeing about how awesome these are for editing.

I mean visually, these episodes are great. Daedalus Demands has got all this action, explosions and shooting. Plus Harvey and Crichton messing about on dodgems and a roller-coaster. Icarus Abides has got all these lovely orange shot, a desert planet and the wormhole weapon swallowing the Dreadnought in rainbows.

Oh and the dune buggy chase: so cool. And those things roll like nobody's business so I can’t believe the production team are letting their actual actors do the driving Maybe it’s not as fast as it looks.

As jel mentioned, whilst I was sort of sad about Talyn-John’s death on first reviewing, I wasn’t that upset because it didn’t seem real with Moya-John still around.

I don’t think I was seeing them entirely as two separate people until a particular scene in Fractures (which I’ll write about when we get on to that episode). Then I did get a bit more upset about this Crichton dying, so re-watching again it has more of an effect because this time I see him as a separate, distinct John.

Both the radiation-poisoning and the actual death scenes are done very well. I love the little look up Crichton does before he bites the bullet and does the heroic thing.

We discussed much earlier in re-watch whether we thought John believed in God: it’s that bit that makes me think that maybe on some level he does. Although, I suppose it could equally be Jack, his real Dad or someone/something else he’s connecting too.

Crichton definitely knows there’s a strong chance he’ll die if he does the heroic thing. Furlow even says ‘always be the one to walk away while the hero dies’ like ten seconds before he goes for it.

I think that’s important, as I think the fact that the self-sacrifice was a deliberate act, even a heavily impulsive one, is why Aeryn reacts the way she does to Moya-Crichton. I think she’s angry with both Crichtons for the fact that they would do that and leave her.

Oh, and I love Stark’s line of ‘ I have no prayer for that’ after the wormhole weapon drops for the first time. Along with the fact that everything is silent: great soundtrack choice.

[jelgate]

You don't have to wait for me SQ. If you want to review episode then do it.

Revenging Angel

One of my earliest memories is sitting on my father's lap and watching the likes of Looney Toons, Tom & Jerry, and Popeye. So as you can imagine this is a favorite of mine. Although I realize I don't have a lot to say. I find that is a problem with these "crazy" episodes. They are fun to watch and they make me laugh but I find their isn't much to say about what is going on in John's head. Its just a bunch of funny jokes D'Argo constant trouble with a wormhole rock face makes me feel nostalgic. I laugh when John tells us to lock up the women and hide the friend chicken. I also laugh at the Scorpy bits like when he uses the defiblirator on John or when he does his eulogy for John. He may have been brain dead the moment Harvery met him. I could go on from now until bedtime about the jokes. Most of them I quite loved as this episode cracks me up but it just get repetive. The real story seems kind of weak. What causes John to play cartoons in his head is when D'Argo knocks him out. I get this hyper rage as this really has been a crappy year for D'Argo. I can even see him knocking out John by accident when he misses up D'Argo's ship. What I have a hard time believing is that he just throws his Qualtra blade to the bottom of Pilot's den. It just smells of we need some conflict on the challenges of this exploding ship. The ship is actually the part I like. You have all seen the bickering me and SQ have about the overuse of John/Aeryn. I loved this episode to show more on how D'Argo is still hurting. Farscape was never one to use the reset button. I can see a person who has been cheated on still hurting especially since he is around Chiana every day. That is why I liked the Jool/D'Argo scene. I'll be the first to admit I don't like Jool. But I see that scene as her trying to get the know the Moyans (Pay up SQ) and this scene was in the right direction of making Jool less arrogant. I think the problem with Jool is she never got much development. She was only around for one season. The twining arc didn't help either. In addition to the Jool scene, I like the cool ship. It was kind of epic when the computer says the ship is at D'Argo demand. Even though I thought the whole searching for the sword was kind of lame as a obvious it does have two shinning highlights. We get some foreshadowing that Chiana has ESP and poor Jool gets to crawl around in crap which is hilarious. Hilarious is probably the them of the episode

[Bluemeany]

Revenging Angel

Ah, another one of the crazy episodes: this, Scratch N Sniff, Won’t Get Fooled Again, arguably Crackers Don’t Matter and undoubtedly John Quixote seemed very out there when I watched as a kid.

Crichton in a coma. But with cartoons. Awesome.

Oddly, this one doesn’t seem as weird to me now though. I guess in the past fifteen years what’s common practice in TV has moved on a bit. I mean, Life of Mars and Ashes to Ashes both had lead character who were perpetually in a coma-induced fantasy worlds.

I love all the cartoons, particularly Crichton as Roadrunner and D’Argo as Wile E. Coyote. And Harvey’s eulogy, plus Crichton’s gravestone reading ‘Human, Astronut, Natural Born Loser’. Shout out to the costume department for Crichton’s ‘cartoon world’ shirt – I like that it’s bright colours, sketchy and kind of ‘child like’.

As Jel mentioned though, I don’t have much ‘deep’ to write about.

I think the fact that Crichton is using Kirk as a role model is a nice touch: believably what a space-marooned human being would use in his circumstances.

I also think Scorpius’s survival argument against Star Trek’s frequent ‘rise above your baser instincts’ moralising is a good one. The universe Crichton’s in (if not actively malicious) is basically uncaring and he has such impulses in him for a reason.

Although again, as mentioned in previous reviews, this is another example of Scorpius/ Harvey fundamentally not understanding what motivates Crichton. Right from Nerve, when he assumes John has come to the base to get wormhole tech (rather than to get medicine for Aeryn) Scorpy just doesn’t catch on.

From an editing pov: there’s obviously a lot of cartoon footage in this. Which is a bit useless, unless you’re going for a particular style. I personally like the aesthetics of Harvey in a funeral suit with lightening flashes, but again, it’s pretty video specific.

[squirrely1]

Nice Reviews guys....I'm gonna catch up...just been so busy the past few days, I've not even been home that much. YIKES! I'll try to make it up tomorrow.

[squirrely1]

Revenging Angel

I guess it's my turn.....I'll have to now sound very repetitive....jel put me in a cage and feed me crackers please!

But I'm gonna take the devil's advocate here and take the opposite stance. I don't like this ep. Yep I said it. *holds up protective shield* Jel you keep that TNT away from me!!
Don't get me wrong I love cartoons as much as the next guy. And I too like jel grew up watching these cartoons. (I honestly think jel is more my age and just pretending to be younger )

I honestly found the cartooning to be quite distracting and also out of place, almost to the point of being absurd. I mean just last ep I was bawling my eyes out over the loss of Talyn John and here we have some Roger Rabbit crazy going on? I just feel it minimalizes the build up of what we just went through with the loss of John and I'm dying to see how this will effect the Moyan crew. (Nope I'm not paying )

I get that the writers probably felt they needed to really lighten the mood, but I think it's because of eps like this coupled with 'John Quixote' that causes them not to get a real 5th season. I honestly think they went off the rails just a little too much here. Again, I respect the creativity, I respect the humor and the fact that they really did take a risk on this one. But for me, it just didn't do it for me.

So enough of the complaining. What I did like about it was the Jool scene. I thought that was such a genuine scene with her and D'Argo. spoiled for future eps

Spoiler:

I actually could've seen them possibly becoming a couple if Jool's character had been around longer. I don't exactly remember why she didn't stay. Does anyone know why Tammy had to leave the show? I sort of remember she got another gig, but I can't be certain. I guess I could google it but meh...I'm a tad busy right now. Maybe the companion book will have something to say about it later.

Ok so the other bit I quite liked was all the Chiana scenes. I have missed her. Seems we've been Chiana light as of late and I loved seeing her and John close and talking, working things out. I also loved her one off comment to D'Argo, "Why'd you give up on me" ....or something to that nature. I enjoyed the ship too. Thought it was something new for D'Argo to mess with. But I'm with jel on this one that he was like a 2 year old when he just threw his blade down. That was so stupid and actually jel thinks this ep's theme should be hilarious, I think it should be childish. That is what everyone was acting like a bunch of selfish, broodish brats. Everything from the girls arguing, to John and D fighting, to Head Scorpy and John bickering, to Jool...the list goes on. But I did enjoy (as a nice juxtaposition) the little talk Crichton had with Pilot about what should he do about the revenge or not revenge and how should he handle D'Argo. Loved it when Pilot got all therapist on John and told him (something I tell my students everyday) you don't play along they will eventually tire out. Great advice Pilot!

All in all I think it was, in my book anyway, a B episode....funny, quaint and creative, but just a bit daft!

[squirrely1]

Oh poopy doo... I forgot to type up stuff about Infinite Possibilities from the Companion Book. Whoops. Well here goes...

Infinite Possibilities Part I - From the Companion Book

"Rockne always said, 'Let's make sure we don't lose sight of people,'" David Kemper recalls. "He always saw Crichton and Aeryn as an epic, mythic love story." It's a love story that has a tragic conclusion at the end of this suitably epic two-parter.

"The ultimate moral choice for Crichton is either to go home and endanger the universe, or destroy his means of ever going home, sacrificing himself to stay and defend his friends," Carleton Eastlake explains. "David thought, 'Great!', because we had to kill one of the Crichtons -- so he could die doing just that."

The scope of the story came from Eastlake's interpretation of Scorpius's comment to Crichton that wormholes could be used to conquer worlds. "I could see that you could use them to sneak behind enemy lines, but what was dangerous about them other than that? Then I realised controlling wormholes meant that you could plant one in a sun, so you'd have a plasma cannon that could destroy worlds. I do know quite a bit about science, but who knows how that would actually work!"

During the planning stages, Kemper and the writing staff soon agreed that one episode would not give sufficient time to serve the various elements of the story. "Carleton was saying how this really should be a two-parter." Kemper recalls, "so I made the decision that it was a two-parter, and we re-worked it from that moment on."

One practical result of that decision was that two different directors handled the two halves of the story. "I shot the first seven days, and then Ian Watson did the second seven," Peter Andrikidis recalls. "We had a couple of scenes that crossed over, when Crichton turned into Scorpius again, and Ian took over from that point."

When the location for Dam-Ba-Da was selected, in the sand dunes south of Sydney, Eastlake realised that "it was gigantic, and there was no way that one person, or one Hynerian, could defend it. That's when I came up with the automatic cannons on the roof. We gave Rygel a big role, so that Crichton, Aeryn and Jack could have their scenes, and Stark and Crais could recapture Talyn --there was only Rygel left to hold off the Charrids." Team Rygel relished the opportunity . "Rygel got a gun!" Tim Mieville enthuses. "You had him looking in the distance and then looking close at the controls, which looked great and worked really well I thought."

Wayne Pygram initially looked forward to shooting at Luna Park, a funfair on Sydney's north shore that was about to be closed down. "I'd never been on a rollercoaster before," he says, "and I thought I'd be fine." However, fifteen or so takes later, "I was slowly starting to feel a bit funny," Pygram admits. "I was in the Michael Schumacher gear, and on one of the takes, I came out of myself, and looked down over the harbour, the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge, and it was beautiful. Then I got off -- and I wasn't feeling good at all. Sure enough, I found a garbage bin just in time..."

Luna Park was Andrikidis's suggestion. "The scene was supposed to be shot on the water at Homebush, but I thought that was boring," the director comments. "Getting on that rollercoaster was a great example of the writers running with an idea and enhancing it."

"We knew we were bringing back a couple of great guest actors - Magda as Furlow, and Kent McCord as the Ancient," sums up David Kemper. "We had a really good story -- but the key to it was getting to Crichton dying..."

[Bluemeany]

Revenging Angel

But I'm gonna take the devil's advocate here and take the opposite stance. I don't like this ep. Yep I said it. *holds up protective shield* Jel you keep that TNT away from me!!
Don't get me wrong I love cartoons as much as the next guy. And I too like jel grew up watching these cartoons. (I honestly think jel is more my age and just pretending to be younger )

I honestly found the cartooning to be quite distracting and also out of place, almost to the point of being absurd. I mean just last ep I was bawling my eyes out over the loss of Talyn John and here we have some Roger Rabbit crazy going on? I just feel it minimalizes the build up of what we just went through with the loss of John and I'm dying to see how this will effect the Moyan crew. (Nope I'm not paying )

I get that the writers probably felt they needed to really lighten the mood, but I think it's because of eps like this coupled with 'John Quixote' that causes them not to get a real 5th season. I honestly think they went off the rails just a little too much here. Again, I respect the creativity, I respect the humor and the fact that they really did take a risk on this one. But for me, it just didn't do it for me.

I get what you mean. I feel that way about John Quixote… a little bit too off the rails, a little bit too distracting and knowingly hyperactive. Being clever and being funny aren't the same thing. And sometimes the clever-randomness gets in the way of the story and the characters.

Revenging Angel though, in my view, stays just (and I do mean just) the right side of that line.

I guess there’s a law of diminishing returns though: Won’t Get Fooled Again, Revenging Angel and John Quixote all take place in Crichton’s head. They all have fantasy elements. He fights to wake up in all three of them…by Season 4, the weirdness is fun and everything but we’ve seen the set up before.

Won’t Get Fooled Again is the first and also the best. I think because the weirdness of that episode is balance by the fact that as an audience, we get returned to a very mundane, familiar setting. It’s sort of Earth, we know some of the rules.

And in Revenging Angel, it’s a weird cartoon world, but again familiar from childhood and we know some of the ‘Chuck Jones’ rulebook.

With John Quixote, don’t get me wrong there are loads of parts of that episodes that I love, but ALL the bits together in one go, it’s too relentlessly offbeat.

[squirrely1]

Infinite Possibilities - Part II from the Companion Book

"I needed the audience to absolutely, totally, one hundred per cent believe that this Crichton was the real one, "David Kemper says, "because it was true. And as soon as we were sure that they did -- I knew I could go ahead and kill him! I knew I wanted to let the audience fall in love with the romance, and let Crichton and Aeryn really be together. By the time you got to the end, you knew these two so loved each other, that you know he was real. This Crichton wasn't a mirage, it was our guy, flesh and blood."

Although Crichton's death overshadows the whole of the two-parter, the cast enjoyed working on the action sequences that permeated the story. "Running down the sand dunes and across these huge explosions was a real treat, but also a little scary as well," Lani Tupu recalls. "Ben ran so fast that he actually pulled his hamstring!"

Browder remembers all too well: "They sent me to a doctor, she asked me what had happened, and I explained that there was this bunker with a bunch of aliens, explosions going off everywhere, and I was carrying a gun in one hand, and a grenade in the other. I could see the doctor reaching for the psychiatrist's number -- I thought the production had told her I was an actor from a science fiction show!"

"A lot of the battle got moved outside and really expanded," Carleton Eastlake explains. "What was going to be a space battle between the shuttle and a Prowler turned into the dune buggy battle." Something which provided Browder and Claudia Black with a great deal of fun: "It was one of the best days of my shooting career," Black claims. "In one sequence, I had to stand up, untethered, while Ben was driving at over 100 km/h. Obviously his background in rally cars came in handy!"

Crichton's death allowed not only closure of the characters, but a foray into a danger not exclusive to the Uncharted Territories. "Crichton's demise was actually inspired by a real historical event -- the first death in the nuclear programme," Eastlake reveals. "He was the guy who saw the blue flash -- he was exposed directly to the radiation from a critical reaction. Not many people who see that blue light shimmer across a reactor with their unaided vision survive the experience."

And Crichton doesn't. "I think Claudia does particularly fantastic work in the deathbed scene," director Ian Watson says. "There's great work from Ben, too. You don't know when he dies. There's a three or four second pause where he ceases, and his eyes are still open. I told him that it would be really tricky for him to die with his eyes open, because we'd want to cut to him and he couldn't blink. We nailed it though, that moment when he actually dies. There's a fantastic cut from Crichton to Aeryn, and it's the moment when Claudia sees the light go out in his eyes and lets her grief overtake her. I think that five seconds of television is the finest work I've ever done on the show."

"Poor Ben," Black adds. "I was a blubbering mess in the scene, and I ended up covering him in snot and tears and everything -- it was quite unromantic. There's that shocking moment where she's not sure if he's gone or not, then closes his lids, and then she hesitates, puts her hands over her mouth and isn't sure what to do. I think I even shed a tear when I watched it back."

"When that John Crichton dies, it's a death that all the characters care about," Ben Browder says. "It affects not only Aeryn; Crais, Stark and Rygel are all profoundly affected. You'll never take that away from the characters who are present at the time, or from the audience. There's no cheat involved. It's not It's A Wonderful Life. We put the characters and the audience through the wringer, and took the show into an area storywise that most series will never go."

[Bluemeany]

Running down the sand dunes and across these huge explosions was a real treat, but also a little scary as well," Lani Tupu recalls. "Ben ran so fast that he actually pulled his hamstring!"

Browder remembers all too well: "They sent me to a doctor, she asked me what had happened, and I explained that there was this bunker with a bunch of aliens, explosions going off everywhere, and I was carrying a gun in one hand, and a grenade in the other. I could see the doctor reaching for the psychiatrist's number -- I thought the production had told her I was an actor from a science fiction show!"

Do we think that’s why Crichton spends most of Revenging Angel lying in a hospital bed? And the confrontation with D’Argo near the end has him on the floor surrounded by flames going “Argh, I think I broke my leg”?

I did think there wasn’t as much running about as usual in the episode…maybe it's just a coincidence though.

On another companion book point: I can't believe they were shooting a 50 minute episode every 7 days: that's incredibly fast , considering the sets and the puppets.

[squirrely1]

Do we think that’s why Crichton spends most of Revenging Angel lying in a hospital bed? And the confrontation with D’Argo near the end has him lying on the floor surrounded by flames going “Argh, I think I broke my leg”?

I did think there wasn’t as much running about as usual in the episode…maybe it's just a coincidence though.

On another companion book point: I can't believe they were shooting a 50 minute episode every 7 days: that's incredibly fast , considering the sets and the puppets.

Yes I agree. This crew has said repeatedly how incredibly dedicated everyone was on this show and how they all put in countless hours of work on this series especially in post production. They won all sorts of CGI awards and such and I think it was well deserved. I think alot of the time they were working on it as more of a exercise of creative passion and expression not so much for the compensation.

[squirrely1]

I decided to go ahead and scan in these few pages from the Script to Screen section. Enjoy... Spoiled for size

Spoiler: