Semi-liveblog: Farscape, S1 E1-2
Jan. 24th, 2022 10:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
primeidealStory time: lurking on an anonmeme I heard some people posting about character/ship dynamics in the early-2000s SF series Farscape which seemed very relevant to my interests. I then searched a different site to see if any of my gamer friends were into it, and sure enough, one of them really was. But Battlestar Galactica was a miss for me, and I wasn't super interested in purchasing a new streaming service...until Wheel of Time came along and I figured I had to give Prime Video a chance for that. Well, Farscape is on Prime Video, so I decided that, when I was slightly less busy with writing deadlines (ha), I'd at least try an episode or two and see if it was my thing. I have been spoiled for various plot developments so don't worry about spoilers if you choose to engage.
Episode 1: There's not a lot of exposition with the Earth stuff, just "NASA pilot decides to test a theory, oops, he's in space now." Which is good, I don't want to get bogged down! The lost human, John Crichton, is a scientist whose father is also a famous successful astronaut, so I was a little wary of "oh no awkward father dynamics, not BSG again," but it's not a big plot point so far (although him missing his dad does come up later). He lands in the middle of several alien prisoners escaping their captives. The escapees don't know each other so there's time for them to do some infodumping, Guardians of the Galaxy origin-story style. There's Ka, the warrior who served many years in the depths of the fearsome prison planet, and Pa'u, the priest(ess). Contrasts! Also there is Rygel, the spoiled rich alien who's useful for bartering, but really just wants to steal everyone's stuff and barter with it before he takes back his throne. Pilot only appears as a hologram. Moya, the semi-sentient ship, doesn't really communicate directly (so far anyway). The translation barrier is overcome by Crichton getting translator microbes injected into his brain ("why didn't you have that done at birth, you know, like a normal planet?"). Which, just given all the pandemic and vaccine stuff of the last couple years, I can only imagine how Earth humans would react if we developed translator microbes to colonize the brain.
Crichton accidentally kills the brother of Peacekeeper Officer Crais, who is very angry and wants revenge, but somehow doesn't even bother to mention his brother's name, which feels a little cold. We get the first mention of the "starburst" maneuver which Moya uses to escape the fleet early on--it takes out a random Peacekeeper scout, and Rygel mentions that it makes him motion sick. When they're trying to escape at the end, John is like, "why don't we just do that again?" "It's not that easy, she has to build up her energy levels first."
My friend had warned me that a lot of the dynamics would be John as the fish out of water, and I was kind of worried that it would be "incompetent human is somehow the center of the plot while everyone else who is more interesting gets dragged around him," but so far so good. John's reactions are realistic--first glimpse of the big alien spaceship: "That's big. That's really big. Oh hell." And then trying to find a star chart so he can map where he is and compare it to his knowledge of the galaxy. And solving the problem by using his knowledge of gravity flybys from the beginning! The whole "stop, let's pause this rescue to bring along the cute woman I just met and who really doesn't like any of us" was a little contrived, but oh well.
-"You fart helium?" "Sometimes, when I'm nervous or angry."
-"Compassion? Yes, I know that feeling. I hate it!"
-One of the first alien beings John meets is a cute baby roomba who he patches up at the end. There's really no better way I can describe it than "cute Roomba that looks like someone's pet, not a sentient alien." Which is a fine way to describe a robotic being now, but this was released in 1999!
"Our scouts are the finest and most efficient predators in the galaxy!" "Oh we have creatures like them, too. They're called linebackers."
"It takes me ten minutes to open the damn door." I think John is speaking to something pretty universal, as it were! Even without going to space I've had new jobs that felt like this.
Evil space bugs, wah. :( John is braver than me, I feel like even if I'd had Pa'u giving me the pep talk I would be very grossed out by giant space bugs.
Pa'u prays for the deceased bug and then dives into studying its DNA, a woman of many talents!
Sebaceans like Aeryn are sensitive to heatstroke and eventually lose their memory and lapse into a "living death" which leads to mercy kills. I expect this to be the kind of thing that doesn't get a callback but I'm just gonna...put a thumbtack here for...worldbuiling reasons.
And then it turns out they are space bug CLONES, what a tweest! That cut to "commercial," yowzers.
Is this John I see settling the problem with diplomacy and negotiation? Yesss, nice one.
And then here come the Peacekeeper pursuers, oh no, this is gonna be a lot for a 49-minute episode. And of course they're sensitive to the heat so the gang can play that against them! The tables turn.
And Rigel gets to channel his ancestor to be negotiation guy, d'aww.
After two episodes it's way too early to make a call, but I am enjoying this so far, and John seems like a realistic bewildered but talented scientist guy, so thumbs up, and I'll keep watching! Not sure how frequent the liveblogs will be, I don't want to spam. But we'll see.
Episode 1: There's not a lot of exposition with the Earth stuff, just "NASA pilot decides to test a theory, oops, he's in space now." Which is good, I don't want to get bogged down! The lost human, John Crichton, is a scientist whose father is also a famous successful astronaut, so I was a little wary of "oh no awkward father dynamics, not BSG again," but it's not a big plot point so far (although him missing his dad does come up later). He lands in the middle of several alien prisoners escaping their captives. The escapees don't know each other so there's time for them to do some infodumping, Guardians of the Galaxy origin-story style. There's Ka, the warrior who served many years in the depths of the fearsome prison planet, and Pa'u, the priest(ess). Contrasts! Also there is Rygel, the spoiled rich alien who's useful for bartering, but really just wants to steal everyone's stuff and barter with it before he takes back his throne. Pilot only appears as a hologram. Moya, the semi-sentient ship, doesn't really communicate directly (so far anyway). The translation barrier is overcome by Crichton getting translator microbes injected into his brain ("why didn't you have that done at birth, you know, like a normal planet?"). Which, just given all the pandemic and vaccine stuff of the last couple years, I can only imagine how Earth humans would react if we developed translator microbes to colonize the brain.
Crichton accidentally kills the brother of Peacekeeper Officer Crais, who is very angry and wants revenge, but somehow doesn't even bother to mention his brother's name, which feels a little cold. We get the first mention of the "starburst" maneuver which Moya uses to escape the fleet early on--it takes out a random Peacekeeper scout, and Rygel mentions that it makes him motion sick. When they're trying to escape at the end, John is like, "why don't we just do that again?" "It's not that easy, she has to build up her energy levels first."
My friend had warned me that a lot of the dynamics would be John as the fish out of water, and I was kind of worried that it would be "incompetent human is somehow the center of the plot while everyone else who is more interesting gets dragged around him," but so far so good. John's reactions are realistic--first glimpse of the big alien spaceship: "That's big. That's really big. Oh hell." And then trying to find a star chart so he can map where he is and compare it to his knowledge of the galaxy. And solving the problem by using his knowledge of gravity flybys from the beginning! The whole "stop, let's pause this rescue to bring along the cute woman I just met and who really doesn't like any of us" was a little contrived, but oh well.
-"You fart helium?" "Sometimes, when I'm nervous or angry."
-"Compassion? Yes, I know that feeling. I hate it!"
-One of the first alien beings John meets is a cute baby roomba who he patches up at the end. There's really no better way I can describe it than "cute Roomba that looks like someone's pet, not a sentient alien." Which is a fine way to describe a robotic being now, but this was released in 1999!
"Our scouts are the finest and most efficient predators in the galaxy!" "Oh we have creatures like them, too. They're called linebackers."
"It takes me ten minutes to open the damn door." I think John is speaking to something pretty universal, as it were! Even without going to space I've had new jobs that felt like this.
Evil space bugs, wah. :( John is braver than me, I feel like even if I'd had Pa'u giving me the pep talk I would be very grossed out by giant space bugs.
Pa'u prays for the deceased bug and then dives into studying its DNA, a woman of many talents!
Sebaceans like Aeryn are sensitive to heatstroke and eventually lose their memory and lapse into a "living death" which leads to mercy kills. I expect this to be the kind of thing that doesn't get a callback but I'm just gonna...put a thumbtack here for...worldbuiling reasons.
And then it turns out they are space bug CLONES, what a tweest! That cut to "commercial," yowzers.
Is this John I see settling the problem with diplomacy and negotiation? Yesss, nice one.
And then here come the Peacekeeper pursuers, oh no, this is gonna be a lot for a 49-minute episode. And of course they're sensitive to the heat so the gang can play that against them! The tables turn.
And Rigel gets to channel his ancestor to be negotiation guy, d'aww.
After two episodes it's way too early to make a call, but I am enjoying this so far, and John seems like a realistic bewildered but talented scientist guy, so thumbs up, and I'll keep watching! Not sure how frequent the liveblogs will be, I don't want to spam. But we'll see.
