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dangermousieFirst off, a bit of meta to finish off 'A Throne for a Loss.' I really find it so significant that this early John, even with the agression-enhancing gauntlet, still only fights to knock out, not to kill (as Bekesh notes). If John had that gauntlet in S4? Whoa, carnage. I also love that John gets what they need by basically baring it all, and being honest, admitting that they have no money, that Rygel is worthless. And he convinces Bekesh. There is something incredibly straightforward about John, something that sticks through in the darkest parts of his arc: the insanity of S2, the end of S3, the devil's bargain of end of S4. Something, somewhere in him, is still very (to use a very odd word) pure. And here, in ths ep, it's yet unhindered by the hardness and the darkness.
And this brings me to 'Back and Back and Back to the Future,' ep 1.05. It is not one of people's faves but I do like it.
The plot: Moya picks up two escapees from a ship that self-destructs. They are Ilonics, a race genetically related to the Luxans, so D'Argo is considerate. Especially so when he claps his eyes on Matalla, a female researcher. Problem? Yes. Crichton has been having future flashes and they prophesy Matalla-connected death to the entire crew.
Do you know what struck me the most? The weapon that Matalla and Verell develop is a Black Hole. Something that of course plays a crucial role in 'Peacekeeper Wars.' Only this time it's Crichton wielding it.
Another thing I noticed? How Crichton is imperceptibly getting harder. It's gradual but he is. We even see it a little in his clothes choice: it's not all beige now. He is wearing a black t-shirt. Soon, it will will be all PK outfit, and the beginning is here.
And also, this is the first ep where Crichton really gets his head screwed. Seeing the future (and in true Farscape fashion, it's a very unpleasant one) is getting him more and more edgy. When he says he might just be going crazy as he is overdue for it, I just want to put him in cotton wool and...oh. How ironic.
And this ep has hima lot more serious, a lot more intense, a lot more edgy. And also, in a typical Crichton fashion? Even when it seems he is helpless to change the future, he won't go along peacefully. He will make a willful, conscious choice (as is symbolized by his willfully breaking that mask of Zhaan after having flashes of it just falling, or his accidentally dropping it).
I also like that the crew is getting more and more cohesive in this one, and I love the scene of Aeryn and Matalla practice fighting (Aeryn was genuinely trying to be helpful earlier). I also have got to feel sorry for D'Argo. He wants to find honor, wants to feel he belongs, and being with Verell and Matalla offers it to him, however briefly. However illusory that offer might be, for a moment he is no longer an exile. I think that is what is truly seductive to him,even more so than Matalla's charms.
And of course, this is the first indication that whatever crime he was imprisoned for wasn't the one he told everyone. How much do I love that Crichton clears the room when he tells that to D'Argo (in order to prove that he does have flashes). I really love that he recognizes the immense privacy of that, that he doesn't bring it up in front of the others.
Just as I love that final brief exchange between D'Argo and John where D comes as close to an apology as he is capable at the time, and a justification and tells John that it's just been so long since he's been with a woman, that is why his head was turned. And John replies that oh, boy, he does know (poor John, it's going to get worse before it gets better ;P)
Also, in Aeryn and John terms, I love how we continue to see their rapport and also a mutual acceptance of each other's oddness. When he first met Aeryn, John did not get it at all (or vice versa). How could they, with no knowledge of each other's base? But that very utter lack of preconception (or a different version of preconception. By John that Aeryn is a person not a soldier-monster) allowed them to actually gradually work together. Aeryn is slowly learning that you can be more than a killing machine taking orders, and that compassion and care aren't always equivalent to weakness and John is her conduit to this. John? He is learning about Aeryn as well. He is learning that she is much more than a soldier, but that she is also a soldier (and a damn good one) and from a very different culture than not only him but the rest on the ship and that would lead to a different reaction from her on things. They are learning one another.
Of course, just as Aeryn will learn compassion and love and not always keeping your guard up, John is going to learn about cruelty and killing and pain, and the overall fact that the world is a brutal place. But he's been spared that for at least a little bit, yet. It is interesting that while initially it is John's company, care and love that in large part humanizes Aeryn, after certain point, it is love for Aeryn, it is Aeryn's love back that is the one thing keeping John himself human and (semi)-sane and not ompletely in self-destruct and take everything down with me mode. Aeryn's trouble is that she represses (she has been trained that way) and John's is that he feels too much.
He helps her find some of her innocence and then she turns around and returns the favor.
I have no idea how coherent this is as it's late and I am brain-dead but here it is.
In other news
And this brings me to 'Back and Back and Back to the Future,' ep 1.05. It is not one of people's faves but I do like it.
The plot: Moya picks up two escapees from a ship that self-destructs. They are Ilonics, a race genetically related to the Luxans, so D'Argo is considerate. Especially so when he claps his eyes on Matalla, a female researcher. Problem? Yes. Crichton has been having future flashes and they prophesy Matalla-connected death to the entire crew.
Do you know what struck me the most? The weapon that Matalla and Verell develop is a Black Hole. Something that of course plays a crucial role in 'Peacekeeper Wars.' Only this time it's Crichton wielding it.
Another thing I noticed? How Crichton is imperceptibly getting harder. It's gradual but he is. We even see it a little in his clothes choice: it's not all beige now. He is wearing a black t-shirt. Soon, it will will be all PK outfit, and the beginning is here.
And also, this is the first ep where Crichton really gets his head screwed. Seeing the future (and in true Farscape fashion, it's a very unpleasant one) is getting him more and more edgy. When he says he might just be going crazy as he is overdue for it, I just want to put him in cotton wool and...oh. How ironic.
And this ep has hima lot more serious, a lot more intense, a lot more edgy. And also, in a typical Crichton fashion? Even when it seems he is helpless to change the future, he won't go along peacefully. He will make a willful, conscious choice (as is symbolized by his willfully breaking that mask of Zhaan after having flashes of it just falling, or his accidentally dropping it).
I also like that the crew is getting more and more cohesive in this one, and I love the scene of Aeryn and Matalla practice fighting (Aeryn was genuinely trying to be helpful earlier). I also have got to feel sorry for D'Argo. He wants to find honor, wants to feel he belongs, and being with Verell and Matalla offers it to him, however briefly. However illusory that offer might be, for a moment he is no longer an exile. I think that is what is truly seductive to him,even more so than Matalla's charms.
And of course, this is the first indication that whatever crime he was imprisoned for wasn't the one he told everyone. How much do I love that Crichton clears the room when he tells that to D'Argo (in order to prove that he does have flashes). I really love that he recognizes the immense privacy of that, that he doesn't bring it up in front of the others.
Just as I love that final brief exchange between D'Argo and John where D comes as close to an apology as he is capable at the time, and a justification and tells John that it's just been so long since he's been with a woman, that is why his head was turned. And John replies that oh, boy, he does know (poor John, it's going to get worse before it gets better ;P)
Also, in Aeryn and John terms, I love how we continue to see their rapport and also a mutual acceptance of each other's oddness. When he first met Aeryn, John did not get it at all (or vice versa). How could they, with no knowledge of each other's base? But that very utter lack of preconception (or a different version of preconception. By John that Aeryn is a person not a soldier-monster) allowed them to actually gradually work together. Aeryn is slowly learning that you can be more than a killing machine taking orders, and that compassion and care aren't always equivalent to weakness and John is her conduit to this. John? He is learning about Aeryn as well. He is learning that she is much more than a soldier, but that she is also a soldier (and a damn good one) and from a very different culture than not only him but the rest on the ship and that would lead to a different reaction from her on things. They are learning one another.
Of course, just as Aeryn will learn compassion and love and not always keeping your guard up, John is going to learn about cruelty and killing and pain, and the overall fact that the world is a brutal place. But he's been spared that for at least a little bit, yet. It is interesting that while initially it is John's company, care and love that in large part humanizes Aeryn, after certain point, it is love for Aeryn, it is Aeryn's love back that is the one thing keeping John himself human and (semi)-sane and not ompletely in self-destruct and take everything down with me mode. Aeryn's trouble is that she represses (she has been trained that way) and John's is that he feels too much.
He helps her find some of her innocence and then she turns around and returns the favor.
I have no idea how coherent this is as it's late and I am brain-dead but here it is.
In other news
