Season 1, Episode 8: “That Old Black Magic”
***1/2 out of *****

“What is the matter with her?”
“You called her a warrior. You could not have cut her more deeply.”

Crichton runs afoul of a powerful mystical being called Maldis with a ginormous black ruff who pits him against Crais in a fight to the death. Zhaan digs into her violent side to find the means to face Maldis herself, getting help from a red-skinned priest shopkeeper who’s nice enough to be kind of a dick in order to make us not mind that he dies at the end.

Okay, first of all, I like Maldis, so I like this episode. In a sense, his power makes him Farscape’s answer to Q from Star Trek. I know a lot of fans don’t much care for him[1], but as far as I’m concerned his presence makes for two good episodes. I suspect, if Zhaan had stuck around, Maldis would’ve turned up again, but without her to deal with him, there’s really no one else who can[2] without bringing in a one-episode throwaway character. (Come to think of it, that would’ve been a great way to bring Zhaan back for another episode.)

This is the first time we’ve seen Crais since the premiere. He’s already showing signs of being a little cracked from his obsession. It would’ve been interesting to have a Crais-focused episode prior to this to show how things have been for him as he struggles to find Moya and comes up empty, but as that would mean an episode without any of the regular cast, that’s not really something they could do during the first season while they’re trying to establish the show. On the other hand, this episode does do a good job of showing where he’s at now, if not precisely how he got there. The fact that Crais was a conscript from a farming colony rather than a volunteer adds another layer to his character.

The fact that John empathizes with Crais’s grief adds a layer to John, too[3]. John keeps trying to make peace with Crais, giving Crais multiple chances to change his behavior. It’s a core aspect of his character. Sometimes (i.e. in other episodes, with other characters) it pays off, but Crais’s constant refusal pushes John to accept the kill-or-be-killed situation.[4] The “good man pushed too far” is a role John finds himself in a lot in this series, isn’t it?

While John and Crais are undergoing The Maldis Experience[5], Zhaan spends much of the episode struggling between finding a way to fight Maldis and still keep her inner peace. It’s a good struggle, and one she’ll continue to struggle with, but in this episode it’s slightly flawed in that there’s a difference between fighting someone who’s hurting others, and inflicting pain on an innocent two-headed bird[6]. Yeah, yeah, slippery slope and all that, I get it, but there’s room for shades of grey there that no one seems to acknowledge.

For Maldis’s failure, he does manage to achieve one goal: giving Crais’s vengeance a booster shot. Crais snaps Lieutenant Teague’s neck to keep from being called off of the chase, and he’s now in even deeper than he’s been before.

Last line:
“I’m…I’m sorry.”

Other Comments:
I’m sure I’ll say this many times, but the CG establishing shots for the planets Moya visits are really freaking top-notch.

The idea that Maldis can’t be killed, only dispersed, will not only be used for Maldis but also for Stark later on (though Maldis will return from his re-coalescence in far better shape than Stark does).

We learn that Crichton lost his virginity to Karen Shaw in the back of a 4×4; a throw-away detail that’ll be repurposed to amusing effect in Season 4…

[1] I can only guess that some people don’t like mysticism in their sci-fi. I suggest these people stay away from Dune and Star Wars (okay, Star Wars is arguably fantasy, but…)

[2] Stark? No, Stark’s mind is already shattered enough without Maldis sitting on it. He’d crack like a walnut under a budong.

[3] Not that it’s enough to get through Crais’s desire for vengeance just yet, but it’s a start.

[4] “So you’re done talking to him?” “Yeah! All done!”

[5] Sounds like a band name. “The Maldis Experience: Featuring Haloth!”

[6] Or Rygel, whom no one ever much seems to mind hurting…

Season 1, Episode 7: “PK Tech Girl”
***1/2 out of *****

“They spit fire? How come nobody tells me this stuff? How come nobody tells me they spit fire? Aeryn!”

Moya discovers the wreck of the Zelbinion, a legendary Peacekeeper command carrier and the ship on which Rygel was first imprisoned for 100 cycles. In checking it for supplies and maps, they find Gilina, a Peacekeeper tech from Crais’s ship and the only survivor of her squad after a Sheyang scavenger attack. As Rygel confronts his fear of the place and John and Gilina try to get into each other’s pants, the Sheyangs return and do their best to make a general flaming nuisance of themselves.

While I like this episode, I’m finding it difficult to find things to say about it. I think part of it is that I remember liking it more than I did on the rewatch. I suspect my remembering it as being better is likely to do with how many Farscape elements it sets up. Gilina will return, the Sheyangs will return, Durka has an entire episode devoted to his return… We get the Zelbinion’s defense screen, which will be with us for quite a long time.[1] We also establish that someone wiped out an unsinkable Peacekeeper command carrier, which creates a nice little Chekhov’s gun used to establish how dangerous the Nebari can be later on.[2]

The Sheyang ship bears something of a resemblance to Regula One from Wrath of Khan. The Sheyang themselves look interesting (sort of…fire-breathing turtle-slugs), but it’s a shame they didn’t have enough in the budget to make their mouths move realistically.[3] We don’t see much of these guys throughout the series, but Teurac does return to play a reasonably significant role in a rather enjoyable three-parter in season two.

We learn that Aeryn’s whole unit was demoted after her defection, and they can only be reinstated upon her death. So that’s all happy and stuff. We also learn that Moya’s afraid of fire. I’m shocked, I tell you! Shocked!

Last line:
“I stand corrected.”

Other Comments:
Nice atmosphere on the Zelbinion. One rather expects someone to get snatched up by a xenomorph.

[1] In various states of (dis)repair.

[2] It’s just a shame they never had much time to develop that particular plot thread. I often wonder what they’d have done with it in Season 5.

[3] My episode rating would’ve likely been higher if they had.

Season 1, Episode 5: “Back and Back and Back to the Future”
*** out of *****

“He says he is experiencing the future.”
“The future? He can barely function in the present!”

So it’s a bad idea to store a piece of a black hole in your glove compartment. It’s almost as bad to stick your hand into it. (Seriously, Crichton, even in episode 5 you should know better than to touch the sparkly green light!)

This episode isn’t great, but it was good enough to hold my interest the first time, as I recall. It doesn’t hold up too much to repeated watching, however, as figuring out what’s going on is a great deal of the episode’s charm. Nevertheless, the tone is actually a rather creepy, mostly because, like John, we don’t know what’s going on at first, and then when he does find out he’s the victim of “temporal dislocation,” everything he thinks of to try doesn’t seem to work. It clearly disturbs John, and Browder really sells that to the viewer.

So what’s it about? Moya rescues to Ilanic scientists named Matala and Verell. They’re genetic cousins to Luxans and at war with a race called the Scorvians[1] (er, Ilanics in general are, not just these two). But as it turns out, Matala’s a Scorvian spy, because hey, D’Argo’s not allowed to be happy, right?

Their presence affects D’Argo profoundly, from bending over backwards making sure Verell is comfortable to getting territorial over Matala’s affections. Like, really territorial. He even goes so far as to stab Crichton in the stomach in one particular future-flash. One can’t blame him TOO much. He’s been in jail and she’s the first compatible female he’s seen, really–plus I’m sure he misses others of his kind, even if the Ilanics are only “genetic cousins.” We also learn that he’s not been truthful about his reason for being a prisoner in the first place, and hints at his current situation being more complicated than he lets on.[2]

So D’Argo gets the most development, as does Crichton as he tries to figure out just what the hell is going on. Pilot gets almost nothing. Rygel spends most of the episode eating.[3] Aeryn’s mostly just Aeryn, though she does have a small role to play, figuring out that Matala’s a Scorvian. As for Zhaan, she’s the first to notice something feels out of balance with Moya. Zhaan takes it upon herself to question Verell and get to the bottom of it. With this and her helping take Moya’s pain in I, E.T., she’s already sliding into her role as Moya’s unofficial protector.

And speaking of Aeryn’s role, the martial arts form that Aeryn and Matala practice is rather kooky. Or maybe just bad. It seems to be brawling punctuated with flamboyant and pointless arm waving. (Scorvian “neuro-strike” notwithstanding.) Though I’m no expert. It also seems odd to me that Matala would be so foolish as to use her neuro-strike in such a way if it’s such a big indicator of her true nature. But hey, nobody’s perfect.

And damn, but Matala’s voice is irritating, both in tone and cadence. I’d forgotten that completely. It does a nice job of making her seem a little alien, but…it’s annoying.

Last line:
“Now that, I understand. Man, do I understand.”

Other Comments:
This is the first episode where D’Argo’s eyes are not green. In the first four episodes, Anthony Simcoe wore contact lenses, but they wound up irritating his eyes (I think he was actually briefly hospitalized), so they dropped that. I think he looks better without them anyway–or maybe I’m simply used more used to seeing him without them.

[1] And Crichton being Crichton, he will of course at one point refer to them as “Scorpions.”

[2] This is also the first mention that D’Argo’s building a shilquen, though we aren’t told what that is just yet…

[3] I wonder if the puppeteers needed a rest.

Season 1, Episode 4: “Throne for a Loss”
***3/4 out of *****

“If you must address me, do so as ‘Your Supreme Eminence.’ Which you should be doing anyway.” [1]

Rygel gets kidnapped and ransomed by the some aliens called Tavloids[2] who use specialized drug-injecting armband weapons. Had Rygel not swallowed an important gemlike circuit vital to Moya’s propulsion (note to the crew: pick up a spare on the next commerce planet!), he likely would’ve been left behind.

This is my favorite episode up to this point. Not too high of a bar yet, I admit, but it’s got a decent enough plot, action, humor, good character beats, non-humanoid aliens and, unlike I, E.T., a sufficiently alien-looking world. It’s curious how such a simple thing as tinting the leaves blue can have such an effect. All in all, very Farscapey. Especially because after all of the running around and fighting, John finally winds up getting Rygel back with a “Stop! We’re too pathetic to pick on!” argument.

I think my favorite bit is the B-plot (or maybe it’s more accurately the A.5-plot.) Zhaan helping the young Tavlek deal with his drug withdrawal and trying to get him to quit the gauntlet is an interesting show of how compassion and strength aren’t mutually exclusive things.[3] It truly seems to surprise the boy that she cares and doesn’t hate him.[4] In what we’ll discover is typically Farscape fashion, the boy doesn’t wind up listening, but Zhaan’s efforts are no less laudable for that.

This episode also gives us a couple of D’Argo firsts: He shows his Qualta blade is also a rifle[5], and we find out that you have to beat the crap out of an injured Luxan until the blood runs clear or he’ll die. How that particular quirk survives the evolutional process, I have no idea.

Last line:
“No sermons.”

Other Comments:
This episode has some weird alien-techno music punctuating some of the action, much like the pilot; it’s a hallmark of early episodes.

John has a plan, and it actually works! (Strange, especially given how unlikely it would be that D’Argo would happen to knock himself unconscious on a table.) Of course, he makes up for it later by accidentally overloading a pulse rifle when he’s trying to figure out how to shoot it…

I was going to rate this one 4 stars, but took off a quarter of a star for D’Argo’s line, “My head is pounding like a “Maxzillian Pilater Day parade.”

[1] I was originally going to use John’s Wile E. Coyote line, because it’s easily one of my favorite lines of the entire series. But that’s in the video clip, so I get to have my cake and eat it, too.

[2] TavLEKS!

[3] “Soft, yes. Weak? No.” If there were a Crew of Moya yearbook, I’m pretty sure this would be Zhaan’s quote.

[4] The scene in which she disrobes and shows him that he’s unable to shock her is classic Zhaan.

[5] One does wonder why he didn’t use it last episode, especially when he was scavenging a pulse rifle from the commandos.

Season 1, Episode 3: “Exodus from Genesis”
*** out of ***** 

“Rygel is NOT my sovereign!”
“He is today.”

I’ll start with something I keep meaning to mention in each of the last 2 episodes so far but keep putting off: I have a love-hate relationship with the theme music. It’s obviously linked to a show I love, so I like it by association, but that cat-yodeling or whatever at the end really drives me up a wall. Thankfully they tune it down in later seasons, but it’ll be a while before we get there.

This episode starts out with a bit of everyday Moya life. Rygel paints, while D’Argo teaches Crichton some Uncharted Territories dental care.[1] But things kick in soon after as Moya hides in a debris field to escape Peacekeeper detection and picks up a bunch of big-ass space bugs (who call themselves the Drak, and remind me a little of the Rachni from Mass Effect) that crank Moya’s temperature in order to breed. Tempers flare (no pun really intended) as the crew tries to figure out how to bring the heat down before Aeryn succumbs to Sebacean heat delirium. Complicating matters are the facts that the bugs can turn into replicants of the crew (complete with identical clothing) and a quintet of Peacekeeper commandos [2] decide to join the party.

This is the episode gives us our first look at Sebacean heat delirium. It’s curious how this particular weakness got into a race that we find out way down the road was actually bred to be a soldier class. I figure either it was an intentional Eidalon attempt to make sure they wouldn’t get out of hand, or it was something that developed later because the original genetic tampering decayed without maintenance over the centuries. But it makes for an interesting aspect of Scorpy’s character later on, too, so I’ll forgive.

This is a decent first season episode. It’s something of a standard sci-fi plot, but what makes this episode good—as seems to be the case with most Farscape episodes, so I’m going to have to watch that I don’t continually repeat myself here—are the character moments. Zhaan’s all over this episode, getting good moments with Crichton and Rygel especially. This is also the second episode in a row in which Rygel’s forced into a confined space to take care of something. But he also gets to play the regal diplomat. [3] Meanwhile, John chafes under not being cut any slack by the others as he adjusts to this new word. He also works on cracking Aeryn’s shell, and D’Argo begins to admit some concern for Aeryn’s welfare. As for Aeryn, she actually smiles for a moment! I can remember Claudia Black at some point mentioning how they’d decided that she wouldn’t smile too often for a while so that when she does, it really makes an impression.

Last Line:
“You know, all things considered, there are worse ways to end a day.”

Other Comments:
I like that John’s reaction to first seeing the Drak bug is to jump off the floor and get as far away as possible in rather non-heroic fashion. (Though he does capture one afterward.)

The Drak look pretty decent. The CGI is apparent when they’re up and walking on their legs, but not distractingly so. The moment when Rygel walks, however, is…less convincing.

Crichton tries to use the replicants as an excuse to get the commandos to tell Crais he can’t be killed and scare him off. Judging by the upcoming episodes, this has absolutely zero effect.

[1] “Never. Swallow. The dentic!”

[2] All of whom wear weird eye make-up–the only time we see this in the series. Either this is an idea they dropped (thankfully), or this particular squad of commandos just decided, “What the hell. Mascara.”

[3] Of course, he has to walk into a Drak birthing sac to do so, but diplomacy can be a slimy business sometimes.