Season 1, Episode 2: “I, E.T.”
** out of *****

“Aquatic? That’s water, not mud! Mud is…mud! You can’t breathe in it. You can’t move in it. It holds you, it grabs you, it sucks you down! You want to know about mud? I KNOW about mud!”
“The guy knows mud.”

This is one of my least favorite episodes of the season. My absolute least favorite is–well, I’ll mention that when we get there. Any guesses? The Peacekeepers put a LoJack on Moya, so our favorite group of escaped prisoners take her down into a nearby planet’s swamp to muffle the signal and search for a numbing agent that will allow them to cut the LoJack out without killing Moya[1]. Along the way, John gets caught by an alien mother and son who get their first ever close encounter with what they view as “alien” life. It’s an interesting reversal, with John being pretty much just a week or so ahead of the woman in terms of discovering she’s not alone in the universe (and he seems to be really amused at the irony) but the episode’s rather mundane setting (the house has venetian blinds and a Persian rug!) makes things feel rather bland. Plus the kid bothers me.

Still, it’s not all bad. Mary Mara, the actress playing the alien woman Lyneea, brings a lot of life and wonder to her role. We’re also treated to a lot of good character development. I like Rygel’s mud-panic (quoted above) as well as the turn that while he doesn’t much like being shoved into small spaces, what’s really bothering him is that he might screw up because he’s not used to having to do things like that himself.[2] Aeryn’s showing some vestige of loyalty to the Peacekeepers in her conflict about helping escaped prisoners–or is she just homesick and regretting having gotten herself into this mess? Her walls are up for pretty much the entire episode, though she does bond just a tiny, tiny bit with D’Argo as they bicker in a tree and make fun of Crichton. Zhaan gets to show off her pa’u pain-sharing (and coach Rygel through a tough time the way only she can do), and Pilot gets a lot more to do. We see some of his feelings for Moya, the responsibility he places on himself as her bonded pilot, and–for those of us who know about their past–hints of his feelings of inadequacy and guilt over how good of a match he is for her.

Oh, and Crichton continues to be physically assaulted by the Uncharted Territories, from getting headaches and weird facial twitches from the signal to getting blasted numb by an alien stunner.[3]

Final Line(s):
“Don’t tell me you’re going to miss that rock.”
“No, not that rock.”

Other Comments:
This episode features the first instance of “hezmanna” and the first time we hear Crichton’s voice-over in the opening.

How do Lyneea and her son understand Crichton without translator microbes?

[1] Moya is scared. If I ever get around to making a Farscape drinking game, it would involve drinking every time Moya is scared. Or in pain.

[2] He also bites (and eats! Gah! I’d forgotten that!) a chunk out of Aeryn’s forearm when she tries to send him back in. This is so very much NOT the Muppet Show!

[3] I do find it a little amusing in that Crichton likely draws on alien visitation movies from Earth in spinning a story to Lyneea about having selected her when he really just wants to charm her to avoid being turned in.

Season 1, Episode 1: “Premiere”
*** 1/2 out of *****

“Compassion? What is compassion?”
“Compassion? What, you’re kidding, right? It’s a feeling you have when you see someone else’s pain and instead of taking advantage of their weakness you help them?”
“Oh, I know this feeling.”
“Yeah, well, it is a fairly common human feeling.”
“I hate it.”

Perhaps the least imaginatively titled episode of Farscape[1], it nevertheless managed to get the series going on a creative enough note to hook me the first time I saw it. Now that I’m re-watching, the opening shot of John Crichton watching the sun rise behind the Space Shuttle at Cape Canaveral feels iconic to me, given how much we seem to see it later in the series in flashback form. The orange sky at sunrise somehow lends a bit of an alien feel to things already.

Because they only had an hour to work with, the episode doesn’t have much time to get us into the Uncharted Territories. After a few brief moments with (the eventually doomed) D.K. and some good character moments establishing John’s relationship with his dad[2] (with some “something big is about to happen!” subtext that’s only a little heavy-handed), John’s up in the Farscape module and about to try an experimental slingshot maneuver.[3] Then, before you can say, “That’s not a space helmet!”, some “sort of wave” hits the module mid-maneuver and knocks it into a wormhole that flings John across the galaxy into the middle of a big ol’ space-kerfuffle where he commits the grievous sin of floating there and causing Crais’s brother to swerve into an asteroid.

The rest of the episode introduces us to Moya’s “crew” (such as they are), hints at their interpersonal conflicts and separate agendas, and sets up Crais’s personal vendetta that will drive the show for most of the first season. Along the way we’re treated to some darned high-quality FX[4] as well as set design that I’d never really seen anything quite like at the time. On my first viewing, I especially loved Pilot’s den, and, for me, it still holds up.

John spends much of the episode in a state of either terror or amazement as he tries to get his bearings–something that arguably (and, I think, realistically) continues for the rest of the season. Everyone else gets a good bit of starting characterization, too–at least enough to catch my interest–save for D’Argo and Pilot. Pilot gets a little with an occasional frustrated grunt directed at the others, but he’s mostly just functional for this episode. But the fact that he’s something of a non-standard-looking alien for TV adds a little, too. D’Argo comes off as a bit one-dimensional: just a Klingon with tentacles.[5] Zhaan feels Zhaanish from the start. At her most confident. She’s complex: Caring, mature, but playful and, given her imprisonment and comment about being her planet’s “leading anarchist,” likely dangerous beneath the surface.

Officer Aeryn Sun[6] first appears to be only a space-Nazi antagonist. Her first action on-screen is to beat John up in almost annoyed fashion (with Aeryn, beating up John is kind of a defining character trait), but she also shows sticks up for him with Crais later, which gets her deemed “irreversibly contaminated” and shows that she’s got a bit of conflict going on under the surface, too. And Rygel…well, Rygel’s Rygel. Arrogant, scheming, and remarkably expressive for a puppet. He also farts helium for some reason.[7]

By the end, they escape into starburst with the help of the Farscape maneuver. As the episode comes to a close, John tries to come to grips with his situation. Death threats from D’Argo, theft threats from Rygel[8], and warnings about Crais and trusting people from Aeryn serves to let us know that everything in the Uncharted Territories is very weird and very dangerous. While John may be out of immediate danger, he’s still adrift in unknown waters.

Final line:
“And there’s life out here, dad. Weird, amazing…psychotic life. In technicolor. You know those rattlers in the stomach we talked about? Well I got ’em now.”

Other comments:
At one point Crais tells Lieutenant Teague to “peel back the image” in order to let them see through the Farscape module’s opaque canopy and John’s helmet. And you thought CSI’s “zoom and enhance” was nuts. Then again, alien tech. Also, Crais looks like he’s wearing a bicycle seat on his head.

[1] I could have sworn it used to be called “Pilot,” which would’ve been a little more clever.

[2] Though we’ll see Kent McCord numerous times over the next few seasons, this is, technically speaking, the last time we’ll see Kent McCord playing Crichton’s father for a long while. …And it was a trout!

[3] Given John’s character’s knowledge of geek culture, I suddenly wonder if he was inspired by Captain Kirk’s preferred method of time travel in coming up with the idea in the first place.

[4] Something true about the whole series. Occasionally the background puppets/creatures can look a bit stiff. On the other hand, seeing the giant merchant in this ep who looks like a Starcraft hydralisk on a promo was the thing that got me to tune in way back when.

[5] We’ll later learn that the tough Luxan warrior gig is something of a façade D’Argo’s putting on, though the meta-explanation is that this is a pilot episode and both the actors and writers are still figuring some things out.

[6] “Special Peacekeeper commando, Ikarian company, Plaizar regiment!”

[7] How his body produces a noble gas is something I’m sure people on Earth would like to find out. (Hey, he’s a dominar and he farts noble gasses. It’s been over a decade and I just now got that. Think it was intentional?)

[8] Rygel’s smile as he floats away after asking “Are you a sound sleeper?” is one of my favorite moments of the episode and proof that Farscape knows how to make those puppets real.

Farscape is one of my favorite shows, hands-down. I’ve never seen anything on TV quite like it. It boasts incredible production values (with a few exceptions), complex characters who bleed, writers and actors who care, and the ability to turn regular sci-fi concepts on their ear. It also features some of the most amazingly expressive puppets that allow the show to go far beyond Star Trek’s usual wrinkly-forehead alien selection (no offense to Star Trek, but its strengths are elsewhere).

After recently running into this article on Tor.com where Emily Asher-Perrin calls it “one of the greatest science fiction series ever created,” I realized that it’s been a few years since I actually sat down and watched it. So, inspired by a rewatch thread of Babylon 5 on RPG.net, I’m going to attempt to do so and take you all along for the (possibly rambling and long-winded) ride. I’ll be rating on a purely subjective 5-star scale, including my favorite quote(s) of the episode at the start, and the final dialogue line at the end. So, without further ado, can I get a “HELL, YEAH?!”

Episode 7: “PK Tech Girl”
Episode 8: “That Old Black Magic”
Episode 9: “DNA Mad Scientist”
Episode 10: “They’ve Got A Secret” 
Episode 11: “Till the Blood Runs Clear”
Episode 12: “Rhapsody in Blue”
Episode 13: “The Flax”
Episode 14: “Jeremiah Crichton”
Episode 15: “Durka Returns” 
Episode 16: “A Human Reaction”
Episode 17: “Through the Looking Glass”
Episode 18: “A Bug’s Life”
Episode 19: “Nerve”
Episode 20: “The Hidden Memory”
Episode 21: “Bone to Be Wild”
Episode 22: “Family Ties” 

Season 2:

Episode 1: “Mind the Baby”
Episode 2: “Vitas Mortis” 
Episode 3: “Taking the Stone” 
Episode 4: “Crackers Don’t Matter”
Episode 5: “The Way We Weren’t”
Episode 6: “Picture If You Will” 
Episode 7: “Home on the Remains” 
Episode 8: “Dream A Little Dream” 
Episode 9: “Out of Their Minds” 
Episode 10: “My Three Crichtons”
Episode 11: “Look at the Princess, Part I”
Episode 12: “Look at the Princess, Part II”
Episode 13: “Look at the Princess, Part III”
Episode 14: “Beware of Dog”
Episode 15: “Won’t Get Fooled Again”
Episode 16: “The Locket”
Episode 17: “The Ugly Truth”
Episode 18: “A Clockwork Nebari”
Episode 19: “Liars, Guns, and Money, Part 1”
Episode 20: “Liars, Guns, and Money, Part 2”
Episode 21: “Liars, Guns, and Money, Part 3”
Episode 22: “Die Me, Dichotomy” 

Season 3:

Episode 1: “Season of Death”
Episode 2: “Suns and Lovers”
Episodes 3 & 4: “Self-Inflicted Wounds”
Episode 5: “…Different Destinations”
Episode 6: “Eat Me”
Episode 7: “Thanks for Sharing”
Episode 8: “Green Eyed Monster”
Episode 9: “Losing Time”