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Prepare for Starburst: A Farscape Rewatch Thread

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    Hope you all are still going to hop on and finish the re-watch. I am going to continue to plug along in hopes that you all join me.

    Prayer - From the Companion Book

    "Justin wanted to do a harsh, hard episode, that was tough to deal with," David Kemper says. "It was a very contained show, and one that gave Claudia a lot to do.
    Justin likes writing for her, and together they brought it home." "Claudia really went for it!"
    Peter Andrikidis remembers, "It was a pretty full-on episode. It was very focused, without too many visual effects. I prefer that kind of character-based, intense episode."

    Claudia Black would actually have liked the end result to have been even more extreme than what ended up on screen. "I didn't want it to be an absurd melodrama, where the audience would know that they were being taken on a roller-coaster ride," she explains. "It needed some legitimacy and some weight to it. But a lot of the more grotesque torture sequences were taken out."

    'Prayer' is an unusual episode, as the person driving the story is totally inactive. "That's such a difficult conundrum to deal with," Black notes. "Aeryn was tied to a bed! She's using her mind and her words to manipulate the situation, but she's incapacitated. It's very hard to be the lead protagonist when you've got probes in you, and you're writhing around, frothing at the mouth. In the end, you just start to use different parts of your body. You go with what you're given. It was all so difficult, given the constraints of the episode. She's being tortured throughout. Nothing really happens -- she can't escape, and she's being drugged!"

    Black also knew that the audience could be led to believe Aeryn's stories of other lovers, because she had deliberately kept an air of mystery about Aeryn's time away from the ship between seasons. "What she reveals in her hazed state could potentially still be possible," She points out. "It was strange after all these years of Crichton having loads of affairs and Aeryn being true to her man, that we suddenly saw these sequences of her with other men. If there was going to be a love scene, I wanted it to be as tender and real as we could."

    Tim Ferrier had the budget to create a large set for the cell, as it was going to be redressed for use in later episodes. "After tightening our belts for some considerable time. we loosened them a lot," he recalls. "One of my greatest pleasures on Farscape was designing torture implements! I presented the drawing of the torture bed for Claudia at the production meeting, and there was an awful silence until David said, "This is really scary!" Claudia was a good sport and got into it. It wasn't that uncomfortable: the whole point is to make it look uncomfortable when it's not."

    Peter Andrikidis was concerned that the scenes between Crichton and Scorpius in the alternate reality might jar with the dark nature of the Aeryn sequences. "So those became darker as well," he reveals. "Ben and Wayne took those scenes to the limit."

    The moment when Scorpius shoots Chiana/Aeryn in the alternate reality reinforces Scorpius as a villain. "It was important it was done that way," Browder notes. "It shows Scorpius's direct brutality. He has a singular focus -- and that's why Crichton went to him."

    Browder also finds the "Scarran breeding program, using whatever species they can get their hands on, hard and repulsive." David Kemper initially was against showing the abortion, "But Justin pointed out that it's not real. That I could buy -- as long as it's not real, and the audience realises we'er tricking them, that's okay. We're a tough show."

    "This episode was torturous, but it wasn't random or meaningless," Browder says, "It plays heavily into the series arc. Hopefully we didn't scare too many people off. But it's odd to think it's possible for us to scare an audience off by being too harsh, when there are shows like Oz and The Sopranos out there."

    "The episode had a lot of surprises," Andrikidis says of his final directing stint. "We always tried to push right to the edge, but this time everyone was pushing to break the boundaries!"
    Originally posted by jelgate
    This brings much pain but SQ is right

    Comment


      We're So Screwed - Part I: Fetal Attraction

      I'm plugging right along....hoping ya'll jump in ....soon.

      Ok so this ep was all about getting on board that Freighter....and well we know just how frelled up their plans go. Big ep for Nooranti and poor Rygel. He did really look disgusting with the skin sloughing look. I thought is was pretty insane that she actually had to infect Rygel and put pretty much everyone they are trying to save at risk I don't think she thought that through very well. I find it hard to believe she didn't have some handy dandy space epsom salts that could mimic skin sloughing but apparently not.

      Either way the plan worked. I enjoyed seeing Scorpy work with John as a sort of quasi team to try to talk their way through. It was interesting just how far Scorpy was willing to go and of course John abandoned him.....Don't think Scorpy thought that out very well. I think there at the end when John was grappling with the Harvey Vision..he was being guilted into returning for Scorpy so we'll have to stay tuned for that.

      All in all it was a great ep. I enjoyed the touching scene between D'Argo and Chi...and I can't wait to see them finally get back together again.

      Claudia did a great job and it was hard to watch Aeryn become so broken and break down and cry....don't think we've ever seen her this vulnerable. So hats off to Claudia for those great scenes. When she is finally on Moya and safe ....she just can't believe it..that look and her eyes as she is looking at John...really wanting to believe it's him and her eyes just pool with tears. Wow just amazing!

      The scene between Nooranti and Rygel and Nooranti teared up with the weight of what she had done and her asking forgiveness. That was one of her best scenes as well. It's amazing how while watching that you don't even once think of Rygel as a puppet. How all these actors can emote and work with the puppets to me is another testament to the talent this show has!
      Originally posted by jelgate
      This brings much pain but SQ is right

      Comment


        We're So Screwed Part I: Fetal Attraction - From Companion Book

        "I have always wanted to call an episode 'We're So Screwed' ever since the moment in 'Look at the Princess' when Crichton is dancing around crazily in the Jakench cockpit with Braca going, 'We're so screwed, man!'", says Andrew Prowse. David Kemper adds, "It's also a reference to Crichton's predicament. And yes, it was a reference to Farscape being cancelled by the SCI FI Channel." The subtitle for this episode came from another suggestion by Prowse, superseding Ricky Manning's idea of 'Foetus, Don't Fail Me Now'!
        "We were tired, and we ran out of time to make this episode more than it was," Kemper admits. "Sometimes you get caught. We had to shoot this in six days in order to make sure we had enough time to film the final three episodes. But David Peckinpah worked really hard on this, and it achieve what we wanted. Crichton desperately wants to go and rescue Aeryn, but he has to wait around for the right moment." "We're finally off to Scarranburg,"
        Ben Browder says. "This is a linking episode. Everyone is doing their hits and pieces,
        and the crew is reasonable intact and functioning."

        "I threaded the idea that Aeryn isn't sure whether the apparitions are real or not through the episode," Claudia Black recalls. "At the start, she's responding to what she thinks is Crichton, but then when that Crichton leaves, she doesn't trust the next one. When Noranti really is there, she doesn't trust her, and when Crichton does arrive, she refuses to trust that it's him. That earned the moment later on when she wakes up on Moya and asks if he is real. Aeryn wasn't really aware of what was going on when Crichton came to rescue her from the baby being taken."

        "Originally Crichton was going to rescue Aeryn with Noranti there," Kemper recalls, "and Ben just came in and stared at me until I said, 'OK -- just the hero saves the girl!' and then he smiled."

        The episode does give a lot of attention to Noranti, and Rygel. "Rygel's Technicolor vomit was amazing to see on the set," Fiona Gentile recalls. "The special effects guys surpassed themselves. We had a lot of trouble rigging it, because we weren't sure if we could get a tube up through Rygel's neck, and in the end it came out of the side. He sprayed the entire set -- it went on forever coming out red, pink and blue. They went through tones of dyed gelatine!"

        Mat McCoy also had a challenging time portraying the sick Hynerian. "We had a really good scene with Noranti," he says. "She's telling him that he probably won't die, but could,
        and Rygel is freaking out. We got some really nice action into that, as if he's scratching away maniacally at his neck. It was really hard to do, but it was well worth it because it really sold the idea he was covered in hives."

        "The end of the episode has one of the great performances of Farscape," Ben Browder maintains, "with Wayne Pygram as Nosferatu. I liked the fact we were bringing back the very fist pop reference that Crichton ever called Scorpius. Wayne thought his performance might be too big, but I thought it was spot on."

        "I came in on the second day of colour-grading the film," Deb Peart recalls, "and told Andrew I was going to play around with that last sequence, and make it look like a 1920's movie.
        We took all the colour out, and then added some scratches to it, and some shifts to the movement. It's the sort of thing that removes Farscape from normal television."
        Originally posted by jelgate
        This brings much pain but SQ is right

        Comment


          We're So Screwed Part II: Hot To Katratzi

          It's not to late to jump in here peeps! Ok so *hearing a big echo* Anyway ...

          This ep was all over the place...very serious yet Crichton was laying his pop reference bombs every 10 minutes it seemed....but more of that in a moment.

          We (as in the audience only) learned of a few things that the Moyans (ha ha I can use this since jel isn't here ) don't know........we learn that Sikozu is a Bioloid. We also find out that Scorpy has some history with the main Scarran Baddie in that he's worked for him as a spy for years. Hmmmm.....it seems that Scorpy has some deep secrets!!
          Oh one other thing I'd like to note is Ben's wife Francesca played the "Nice Hat!" Scarran Lady named Ahkna and I just had to laugh at the come on lines Scorpy said to her from inside the torture device.

          As such as found in the Farscape Transcripts:
          Ahkna: (wickedly solicitous) Where does it hurt Scorpius? Here? Or here? (the half-Scarran growls with agony and pants as she directs her heat ray against various parts of his body) Tell me what you know about wormholes, hm? (coaxing) Even the smallest secret - and I'll leave you in peace for an arn.

          Scorpius: (defiantly sadomasochistic as ever) I've been searching my whole life for a female like you. (he favors her with a lascivious snarl - and then arches backwards, screaming, as she returns his regard with the full force of her heat ray in his face)
          That is what I love about this show. LOL How they can even take torture to the next level.

          It's interesting that Sikozu shows her love of Scorpy in this ep when she scolds John for leaving the tortured Scorpy to fend for himself.

          I enjoyed also watching the political power play and their plans to brew up a civil war in order to cause a distraction. Surprisingly unlike most their plans that part seemed to work pretty much on schedule. However, the double crossing Scorpy was not part of their plan and once again John is caught unaware of just how devious he can be. I was almost convinced they were going to kill him when John and Aeryn were arguing over who should kill him. But alas that was just a ruse to ensure he didn't spill any wormhole information.

          As for John's most hilarious lines of the show....behold...again taken from Farscape Transcripts:

          Staleek: Then why are you here? (John rises and wings it)

          John: Because... I... am an American. And what does an American want? Democracy? CAPITALISM! I WANT TO SELL OUT AND SETTLE DOWN! FOR ONE DAY ONLY - IT'S A BLUE LIGHT SPECIAL ON AISLE 3! My wormhole technology - and - a free set of steak knives for all the tea in China. And anything you - can imagine - to pay - me.
          All of this seemingly funny little bits seem innocent and almost throw away lines but many of them we will learn will have big ramifications. Like when John tasted the flower and let it slip that those flowers grow in abundance on Earth:

          Ahkna: (surprised) You know of our delicacy?

          John: Bird of Paradise? Yeah Moms garden - dime a dozen. Did you come all this way to discuss botany?
          I have to also mention it was quite funny and cute (maybe a little sickening sweet) that John and Aeryn got to have some sweet intimate moments in this ep too! *hands jel the barf bucket* I think the time they did try to "get it on" in the flower garden was more a playful ruse than anything but the dancing in the elevator was sweet. It's obvious though they at this point knew the show was ending and had to try to cram some John/Aeryn goodness in there to make up for all the angst they put them through. I think that is what makes this love story work so well is the writers did balance out the angst with some real payoff for the John/Aeryn romance.

          But I digress....
          I liked that We got to see some returning characters in this as well. Stark was back...but like I said up there...he remained hidden from the Moya crew. He had his axe to grind with Scorpy and he did that quite well.

          We also saw a return of Braca those lines from John and Aeryn about...."Oh does Mommy know your here?" "Does Mommy know you're Scorpius' boy?"

          It was interesting that in the end Braca did save them. YAY for him....for now! He only gets one small brownie point for that.

          But again I wanted to point out some of the other hilarious John lines.....

          Grayza: I would like to make an addition to my offer. (she proffers 2 data films to them. John accepts them and eyes their inscrutable markings upon)

          John: I'll have the Kung Po Chicken. (to Aeryn, who's reading the films - she looks stunned) You want a spring roll?

          Grayza: Actually - they're a pardon from the Supreme Council. No Peacekeeper would dare violate them.
          then there is this....

          John: One riot - well done, hold the mayo - now!
          and this...
          Staleek: Your safety, guaranteed. In just a few arns.

          John: Bill Gates can't guarantee Windows - how you gonna guarantee my safety?
          That had to be the funniest one! I bet jel was cringing at all these.....I think they packed in as many of the American Pop references/wise cracks as they could possibly scrunch into one episode. But all in all I enjoyed it....and for a heavy ep with alot of stuff going on ...it really felt light....which is weird. But that's Farscape for ya!
          Originally posted by jelgate
          This brings much pain but SQ is right

          Comment


            We're So Screwed Part II: Hot to Katratzi - From the Companion Book

            "I can't think of another show that would attempt the number of prosthetic and animatronic characters we had in the big scene at the beginning of that episode," novice Farscape director Karl Zwicky maintains. "Just to get them all on set took hours, and we had them all in one shot!"

            "'Hot to Katratzi' was all about bringing in the Scarrans who were going to be the villains for the fifth year, "David Kemper points out. "In my world, the only way you can introduce villains properly is to have a scene where they are formidable, and our hero is formidable.
            That's why we had the great sequence at the start where Crichton jumps on the table.
            And our new villains have friction from the first minute, which we would have continued in the fifth season."

            "The writing staff came up with this stupendous scene," Ben Browder comments, "and we did four takes with Crichton yakking away. I wondered how I was going to pull it off.
            I knew there was going to be a room full of people, most of whom I didn't know because they were playing new characters, and I was going to make a complete pranny of myself."

            Browder adlibbed the line 'I am an American', "and I was so tempted to play the American national anthem in the score when he said that," Guy Gross reveals. "But I thought that might alienate the rest of the world, so I just wrote a few reasonably patriotic bars underneath that."

            "I liked the fact this episode had such strong central story to it," Karl Zwicky says. "Our hero has an atomic bomb strapped to him! In one of our endless five-hour story conferences,
            I told David that I was very happy with this core story. All the rest of the strands had the complexity that Farscape is famous for, but at its base it had a very simple idea."

            Some of those strands included the Charrid-Kalish civil war that Crichton sends D'Argo,
            Rygel and Sikosu out to foment. "There was a terrific little fight which they shot in no time at all," Andrew Prowse notes, while Gigi Edgley adds that "All the fight scenes in this episode with Chiana were tweaked because of the shooting schedules. I would have loved to have taken it further, and spent some more time on the physical work."

            The scene between Crichton and Aeryn in the elevator was largely worked out on the studio floor. "That's the beauty of Farscape," David Kemper says. "You have to allow your people to have free rein, and let them make things happen. When we let Ben do it, we have magnificence."

            Magnificent is a word also used regularly by cast and crew when referring to the Scarran Emperor, Staleek, who was introduced in this episode. When he realized Duncan Young would be returning later in the season, David Kemper ensured that in this first appearance,
            in 'I shrink Therefore I Am', Young's voice was digitized so that he could use his own voice for Staleek. "I think Staleek is Dave Elsey's crowning achievement," Andrew Prowse says.
            "It was scary just talking to him! All the Scarrans were fabulous -- we really got them right."

            "This episode had a very specific function in the story arc of this trilogy," Karl Zwicky points out, "and I was determined not to let it become an expositional set-up episode. There are major developments in terms of Scorpius being a spy for the Scarrans! That's a huge revelation in terms of the whole series: He's been a spy for ten arns!"

            "At the end of 'Hot to Katratzi', Scorpius looks for all the world as if he really does work for the Scarrans," David Kemper explains. "That reinvigorates the character. People were getting to complacent with him. He was on the ship; he was our friend. Nope-- Scorpius is working for himself, folks! We wanted everything stacked up against Crichton."
            Originally posted by jelgate
            This brings much pain but SQ is right

            Comment


              We're So Screwed Part III - La Bomba

              I really enjoyed this one! So the flowers ended up being a really big deal for Scorpy....so much so that he was willing to give up the wormhole knowledge for help in destroying the things. Very interesting. I loved when Crichton said......"I can't believe I left a bomb on the elevator" and Chiana replied..."You've done worse things!"

              It was interesting to note also how Scorpy ended up worming his way out of that apparent feigned attempt to hold John so he could not leave the station. That whole scene where you have Scorpy/John talking about the Scarran flowers and such superimposed against the John/Harvey scene that is washed out and almost noir-like was a great!

              Another great beat was when Braca relieved Grayza from duty....Go Braca.... I don't even like the man but that was brilliant!! Besides, Grayza was being a little *****! LOL

              As far as the rest...the elevator gag with the whole thing where they were drilling as they went was very interesting. I enjoyed that effect, but thought it was a bit hokey that they all managed to survive from the blast from the bomb. I mean that station was lit up ....so how they managed that had to close to a miracle....but ....I guess D'Argo swooped in just in time??

              Speaking of D...I enjoyed seeing that he and Chiana are back together again. I think that really settled her back down and it helped to put an end cap onto their relationship.

              All in all it was a good ep, lots of action. We can't help but know that Staleek is going to be really pissed off...if he survived. He, BTW, was one awesomely badass Scarran. The make-up department really hit that one out of the park, and his voice.. he's really scary.

              So we should expect some pretty heavy fall out after La Bomba!
              Originally posted by jelgate
              This brings much pain but SQ is right

              Comment


                We're So Screwed Part III: La Bomba - From the Companion Book

                "The whole idea of the flowers came from Wayne Pygram," Andrew Prowse reveals.
                "To his eternal credit, Wayne spent a lot of season four as Scorpius's 'keeper', making sure the character remained unique, removed and dangerous. He told David that he'd had an image of Scorpius in a field of burning flowers."

                "David ran with that image," Time Ferrier adds, "and came up with the whole concept that these flowers were what the Scarrans relied upon. We started having the Scarrans eating the plants much earlier on, but making no conversational reference to it until this episode"
                "Suddenly we had this huge twist," Prowse continue, "where Scorpius's agenda isn't really wormholes at all, but getting revenge on the Scarrans, using these flowers."

                But being Farscape, that twist was quickly followed by another. "Scorpius has manipulated Crichton to get him into the position he wants, but then finds he has miscalculated,"
                David Kemper says. "It was one of the first mistakes he's ever made -- and the dumb human who he's manipulated has to rescue him!"

                "There were exciting aspects to the script," Rowan Woods says, "but what was difficult was the elevator gag. You cannot take that premise too seriously, so we decided to force the Dr.
                Strangelove references on it, and mined the potential for absurd comedy and self-deprecation."

                "Part of the joy of Farscape is that we write it seriously," David Kemper notes, "but everyone understands when it's a comedy and you can get humour out of it." Browder is glad that "for the first time since the Crichton on Talyn died, Claudia and I were able to play. We had a constant by-play." "There was an interesting moment with Ahkna," Claudia Black adds, "where she makes an advance towards Crichton, and Aeryn intercepts. Ahkna walks out, and Ben improved something about 'She scares me', and I replied, 'I think it's the hat.'"

                Although 'La Bomba' was bringing a number of matters to a head, as Crichton detonates the nuclear bomb and destroys the matriarch plant, it was also setting the scene for the next episode, and the fifth year. "Crichton had to do something that really annoys the Scarrans,"
                Kemper says, "and by blowing up his base, you're pretty much assured Staleek is going to be pissed off! At the same time, Grayza has miscalculated Crichton and the Scarrans completely. She goes a little bit out of control, so Braca takes over. David Franklin has brought so much to Braca over the years, and I wanted to reward that with great material."

                Director and actors alike relished the 'NYPD Blue' scene in the first act, where Crichton is having a conversation simultaneously with Scorpius and Harvey. "We were almost into associative film making," Ben Browder comments, while Woods calls it "esoteric. In many ways it's one of the more intense end points to the story of Scorpius in Crichton's head,"
                Woods adds. "By the end, we have seven minutes of exposition given to you by two guys in two different realities. I think Harvey is one of the best ideas to come out of the show --
                it's freewheeling storytelling at it's best."

                "We were heading much more in that disjointed direction," Andrew Prowse says. "I love it when the editing is not dictated by naturalistic events, but by the emotional drive of the story, and the order in which you need to know the information." Prowse credits first assistant director Michael 'Bubba' Feranda and producer Lil Taylor for ensuring that everything came together in the chaotic days at the end of the year. "At this stage of every season, Bubba comes in and juggles all the pieces," Prowse explains. "His schedules are a work of art! Lil worked out what we needed in the scripts, and Bubba dealt with the logistics, They were amazing."
                Originally posted by jelgate
                This brings much pain but SQ is right

                Comment


                  Bad Timing

                  I wanted to keep plugging along with this while it's fresh in my mind. And next week my schedule get's a bit more complicated with starting "back to school" mode. So here goes.

                  I had forgotten just how brilliant this ep was. It was genius how it literally tied up a bunch of loose strands. It would have been perfect to leave it as is until that last few seconds when Aeryn and John were crystallized to bits. That was obvious a move to force a continuation so they could try to get the fifth season they really wanted in order to sum up the series properly. As it stood at this point though they still managed to sum pretty many of the loose strands up.

                  -Scorpy was found out to really mainly want revenge on the Scarrans more so than obtaining the wormhole tech. I find this hard to believe that at the last moment once the flower weakness is revealed that Scorpy only wanted this all along and not the wormhole knowledge. That was a hard pill to swallow...but ok...I'll play along. I think that for the first time it turns Scorpy's obsession of John/wormholes over to just basically leveling the score with the Scarrans. Yep he does have a very large axe to grind I will give you that....but to say that these flowers and revenge trump the wormhole agenda seems like we just threw away 4 seasons of crazy which really at the end of the day makes no sense. I think down deep Scorpy still wants that wormhole knowledge...if anything to keep it out of the hands of Grayza and the Scarrans. I look at it like the revenge is just icing on the cake.

                  So back to the other loose strands. I loved the bits with Stark...and just how they were able to literally highlight every character that was important in this show with their own little cameo appearance, and it all seemed to fit. How D got to sit with Crichton while he was crunching numbers and having their little man to man talk. Then you had the moment with Chiana and her urging Crichton at first to use sex to help clear his writers block. LOL but then later her encouraging him to not change his plan but to actually find a way to go through with the bubble piercing theory. I thought it genius on how they were able to bring Pilot and Moya into the plot. Everything from cutting him loose to having Granny there to ease their pain and preserve the neural links with gel. That was great. I loved the little Rygel bits too. Everything from him talking with Pilot to pull the truth out so it could be revealed that Pilot could actually help John achieve his goal.

                  So then cut to the Command Carrier and we have an important relationship forming between Scorpy and Sikozu and Scorpy allowing Braca to command. Braca got his due there.

                  Let's not forget the mind shattering and hilarious easter bunny suits in the middle of all this. Helping to jar John into realizing that Scorpy/Harvey was really just there as a diversion and he did always have his own agenda in mind. I think John needed to see that, Harvey and Scorpy while they did save John from time to time they ultimately only served their own agenda.

                  They even had a chance to bring Chiana's special ability into the picture which proved to be such a brilliant device not only to help Stark navigate Moya, (which they brought Stark's previous Talyn navigation experience in too which was awesome) but Chiana was blinded as a result, which put some added tension to the story. By her being blind later worked as a wonderful little beat when Aeryn and John were in the boat and Chiana was relying on D and Rygel to relay what was happening. That was a very successful and playful way to help ease what could've been a very sappy scene. (I'm sure jelgate was relieved at least ) Either way ... I loved it when D says..."He's giving her some sort of ring" and Chiana was like "He's proposing...." and D was like "Proposing what?" Chi: "Marriage!" and Rygel says, "Marriage?... IDIOT!!" and walks off disgustedly. I cracked up!! That was brilliant.

                  I think in this episode I experienced every emotion from laughter, to tears....tears of joy and sorrow and just the good old fashion feels!! I mean when John got to the moon and could call his father and how they were able to fit that in...I was like WOW....this ep is amazing!! That heartfelt scene with John's Father (Kent McCord knocked that out of the park) Just WOW! I genuinely teared up there. I was happy they got to tie up that loose end...and actually prior to that when John got out his recorder and began talking into it like he did at the beginning of season one...how wonderful to see this show go full circle!!

                  I felt this was a brilliant ep in how they were able to just squeeze so much into it and it make sense and it was such an amazing journey. Everything from the previously on Farscape, showing so many quick moving scenes from over the seasons to giving each character their due and tying up as many plot lines as they were possibly able to. Hats off to this crew and it again affirms just how creative this team is!

                  I feel so sad all over again that this show is over and there will be no more new material from this extremely talented cast. Seeing that last scene with the ring on top of the crystals with the TO BE CONTINUED... flashing on...then nothing. No musical score...just the credits running silently....it made such a statement. I'm so happy this crew got the opportunity to make the Mini Series; PK Wars. I hope that some of you will join me in watching it. I would like to watch it this weekend. As I want to sum this re-watch up once and for all before I have to get back to school.

                  So come one come all.....let's do this!!
                  Last edited by squirrely1; 04 August 2017, 12:35 PM.
                  Originally posted by jelgate
                  This brings much pain but SQ is right

                  Comment


                    Bad Timing - From Companion Book

                    "What I wanted to do at the end of the year," David Kemper explains, "was show two people who are destined to be together. They love each other completely, and they have said,
                    essentially, "This is it' -- you can almost imagine them quitting the superhero game.
                    Then thy're sandbagged by an alien who shoots them right at the moment of their greatest happiness! It's kind of like Farscape: Right when you feel you've got it under control,
                    somebody shows up and screws you."

                    Although no changes where made to the script during the shooting of the episode to reflect the cancellation of the series a few additions were made in post-production. The episode fades up to what the post-production script describes as "a high-speed kick ass retrospective of four fabulous Farscape series", taking two four-frame grabs from each of the preceding eighty-seven episodes before Ben Browder announces, 'And finally on Farscape'. The lack of music at the end was also a deliberate choice, to mark the show's passing. But otherwise,
                    it was business as usual, wrapping up some plotlines and setting others in motion.
                    "This is the way we've always done the show," Kemper says. "The two or three-parter at the end is the big action/adventure pay off, and the final episode is the first episode of the next season. It's always about emotion, not action, at this stage."

                    "The cold open is one of David's most interesting bits of writing," Andrew Prowse comments.
                    "You're not sure what the reality is until right at the end. You realise that the time frame is when they're throwing Scorpius off the ship, and everything else happened some time earlier."

                    Kemper tied himself down to certain scenes very early in the year. "While I was writing 'Unrealized Reality' "he recalls, "I had to write the scene for Jack and John in 'Bad Timing'.
                    I had to lock myself into the end of the year, because we had to film it while [the US-based] Kent McCord was in Australia. He was phenomenal. We spend half a season building up to that scene! The theme of this year is that Crichton realises he can't go home again.
                    He's been in the city too long he can't go back to the farm. All of his dreams of Earth are antiquated--it's time to come up with new dreams. Their conversation was the heart and soul of this episode.

                    'Bad Timing' ties together a lot of threads from earlier in the year. "Crichton works out the wormhole equations," Kemper explains, "Chiana's fears of going blind from the first episode wwere realised. She takes it upon herself to solve things because Stark is a raving lunatic,
                    and she goes blind. There are consequences in the Farscape universe."

                    Andrew Prowse likes the scenes between Scorpius and Sikozu on board the Command Carrier. "I think their little sex scene is very kinky," he notes. "Braca wasn't in that scene in the script, but I happened to be looking up in the window, and there was a fabulous reflection. I told David to go and stand there, and it really looked good!"

                    Ben Browder was the last actor to finish recording his ADR on the series, and ended up contributing some extra lines, playing the pilot who fires at Crichton and Aeryn in the final scene. "Michael Feranda, who has been feeding lines to the actors for three years, played the guy he's talking to," Deb Peart recalls," And we figured it was poignant that Ben should provide the voice of the guy who shoots Crichton." "I'd been preaching for a random drive-by alien shooting for some time," Browder adds wryly. "But I didn't realise it would be me!"

                    "We knew at the beginning of the year the places we were going to, and we got there,"
                    David Kemper concludes. "There's so much symmetry to this season, and so much closure."
                    Originally posted by jelgate
                    This brings much pain but SQ is right

                    Comment


                      Farscape - The Peacekeeper Wars

                      First let me just start off by saying that there is no companion book for this so this will be my last post. *sniff* I'm sad all over again that it's over. Always so depressed when something this awesome finishes, but I'll also say that this series has aged so well and it continues to look and feel awesome on rewatch. So I imagine that I will be re-watching again at some point in the future!

                      So onto the Peacekeeper Wars...

                      I don't even know where to start. At first I was a little awestruck at seeing our cast all together again, and I can only imagine when fans got the chance after waiting over a year since the last episode aired to be able to see this talented cast together again must've been magical! I for one felt a tad bit distracted by the opening scene of Rygel swimming around almost like a scene taken from Finding Nemo. He was swimming around finding and swallowing up all the John/Aeryn crystals and my mind started immediately trying to dismiss it as too hokey and far too scientifically impossible....I mean if he merely missed one tiny crystal or got one of Aeryn's mixed up with one of John's Who knows what would've happened...but either way... I found the opening a hard pill to swallow. BUT because I love this show so much and because I wanted to see the continuation of John and Aeryn's story I forgave the hokey nature of this and tried to push on. I felt like, being a scifi show they could've done something way cooler....like do some sort of time shift and make them avert the whole disaster all together...but I think they needed to advance the story 60 solar days so they could explain some the physical changes some of the characters went through. For one the very pregnant Rebecca Riggs as Grayza to start. Sikozu's short hair and Chi's new eyes. So they indeed needed a bit of a time skip. I think I would've rather they didn't even explain how they came together....but alas ...I was very happy to see Aeryn and John back together again!

                      So immediately we get the banter that you know you're back watching Farscape....in Farscape style.
                      As they draw their weapons towards the Eidelon's and hop up from their resumed kissing position.....
                      John: "You said yes!" Aeryn: "I did?" John: "60 days...any regrets?" Aeryn: "No it's going really well!"

                      I had to laugh. You knew immediately that it was going to be a fun but a very emotional journey!

                      I have so much to say about it, but ultimately I'll just sum up the bit that were important to me. Please if anyone else wants to jump in here and start a discussion on this please do...I would love to hear what others thought.

                      First off I feel like at the end of the day this story represents one of the best examples of a great ethical and moral dilemma of war and how it impacts people. How when faced with such impending complete and utter annihilation and total destruction of the world and that alone can be one of the only catalyst that forces people in power to make a truce. After all that was how our own history limited the make and use of weapons through SALT and NPT and so on. When people realize that there is actually nothing to gain from using a weapon capable of such mass destruction no one can win a war of that caliper. Ultimately that was the message here. And it was framed with those tender moments showing how it not only impacts our loved ones of our current generation but impacting future generations as well.
                      This works to jar each species who's primary goal at the core of their existence is to proliferate aka procreate, into the revelation that war at the most global and ultimate universal scale would cause complete mass genocide. That is the wake up call here the Scarrans and the Peacekeepers needed to see.

                      All that aside, I loved how it opened with a scene actually from the very end. With Aeryn voicing her monologue to John about how the fighting had stopped. You are immediately immersed and intrigued all at the same time wondering just what had happened. It was actually a bit frightening as to what was going to happen to our beloved characters.

                      But even with all the drama and thrill of action, there were many very funny bits. Some of the banter between John and Scorpy.....where John reduced to calling Scorpy "Lover Boy" lol. You just had to laugh and it was interesting to see them work together quite a bit in this! I enjoyed seeing John use Scorpy as a "Not Quite Human Shield" and John complementing him on his armor. Like John is just now noticing that....oh and speaking of just now noticing something. I had to laugh at the end when John made Scorpy beg and say pretty please with a cherry on top to get him to make the worm hole weapon. Then after he did and it was realized just what the hazmana was happening....Scorpy was like..."John This is Insane" and John says, "God....Four years on and you're just now getting that?" I actually laughed out loud on that one. LOL

                      I was quite shocked that Sikozu ended up betraying Scorpy, but we should've known. She was always about the welfare of her people. So I could sort of see that.

                      Brief appearances by Noranti and Jool were nice to see as well and that reunion with Jool and her apparent excitement to see John again was met with some folly by Aeryn and then Rygel popping up to say "Their having my baby!" LOL

                      Speaking of which I thought I would crack up with Rygel apparently experienced post partem depression. When he was found sobbing after the transference. Speaking of which (Sorry this is so stream of consciousness) but honestly that whole transference of the baby from Rygel to Aeryn was a bit much. But I guess they didn't want Aeryn hobbling around the set for the whole movie so they had to come up with a way to sort of hold off her pregnancy symptoms. I'm sort of glad in retrospect. While very much enjoyed the pregnancy and the delivery and think it's one of the boldest and unique things any scifi show has done and actually made it pretty realistic, I am glad that didn't end up too hokey or sappy. I think with shooting the delivery along side a battle scene was perfect to keep both guys and gals interested in the story and how it was playing out. I thought that was brilliant story writing.

                      I thought the humor of Aeryn during labor and delivery was very well done and I (being a mom and having gone through that process could relate) thought it was not too over the top and didn't draw out too long. I thought it was poignant and I loved how in the midst of all the war and fighting you could have this tender moment and it all worked!

                      I loved how Aeryn moved on and at first I thought that would be a bit too much but actually today women are in and out of hospitals so fast after having a child and if you have it natural I can imagine there would be minimal down time. I think because Aeryn was so fit and strong she was able to handle and her determination not to die and allow her baby to be harmed was what kept her moving. I think any determined mom would do the same thing if they had no other choice. I loved that she made a make shift baby wrap and kept firing her gun. I think the Aeryn character was able to show her vulnerability, softness and feminine side of becoming a mom but yet continuing to be a soldier was very well done. I applaud both Claudia and the writing team for that.

                      I also loved the line when Aeryn was first very scared of being a mom how she mentioned that 3 was a very scary number. That really struck a cord with me personally. I remember after having my first child in the hospital and just before my hubby and I were ready to leave to take our boy home and a real sense of trepidation and fear came over me like ..."gee can I do this?" It was really scary, and now all of a sudden instead of just being my hubby and I, now we have this little life that we are completely responsible for. I mean being in the hospital with all the nurses who can help you and and they can give you advice and they are only a push of a button away, but now it's all on you...you have to take this forward and it seems very daunting. But then once you hold your baby and really look into their eyes and know that no matter what you will never let anything happen to them and you will just do it....somehow you will find a way. I loved it in this show when Aeryn said that at the very end.
                      When she came in the room when John was laying there and she was holding the baby and she says....
                      You know, it's strange.
                      It almost took me losing
                      this little one
                      to fully understand
                      motherhood.
                      And I love it.
                      And all of a sudden
                      three is not such
                      a scary number.

                      Read more: http://www.springfieldspringfield.co...acekeeper-wars
                      I love that little revelation there because it showed just how much Aeryn had changed. That she not only embraced motherhood but she could see herself for the first time in this family with John. Something an earlier Aeryn would've never accepted.

                      Now leaving the baby there with an unconscious John was a bit worrisome, but I think Aeryn knew it would be what John needed to jar him out of his catatonic state.

                      I loved the ending as well when they named him Little D and held him up the stars to say they are all his (except Aeryn's) and that was his playground.

                      I am truly saddened that they never got a web series off the ground or another short movie since this was something truly special. But truth be told I think that is why it continues to be so special, just like the Star Trek series and even BSG, it is special because there are limited editions of it and people then thirst for it. I think if there were 10, 11, 12, .......seasons, it would have lost something special. I think it's perfect the way it is. There was talk of making a new movie and to continue on with Little D as an adult or whatever, that would be cool, I think they could pull that off and I'd be very delighted in another Farscape adventure.....bring it on!!

                      That's all I have for now.....please jump in if you have your own thoughts!
                      Last edited by squirrely1; 06 August 2017, 03:54 PM.
                      Originally posted by jelgate
                      This brings much pain but SQ is right

                      Comment

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