Farscape Episode 1.01: “Premiere”
Sep. 13th, 2011 02:36 am![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
chavalah.livejournal.com posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
scifi_rewatchFarscape’s “Premiere” is one of those episodes that may look better in hindsight than it does while watching it. Part of my assessment has to do with the 20th-century, cable CGI…looks like big budget films and HBO have ruined me. :”>
But where Farscape may struggle, just slightly, in special effects it makes up for in story, which is the important thing, after all. Granted, some matters in the premiere felt a little rushed. But for the time allotted to them, the writers did a wonderful job in forming characters, and the actors did their part in fleshing them out. “Premiere” is a wonderful first step, laying down the question “what comes next?”
We open on Cape Canaveral, rocket ship lined up in the glinting sunset. From across the water, a man in a breezy polo shirt astride a convertible looks apprehensively at the scene. This is John Crichton’s Luke Skywalker moment, on the brink of adventure.
Cut to the next day—John is getting suited up in his IASA getup, and we meet his boyhood friend, DK. The two of them have formulated a theory about using Earth’s gravity to “slingshot” into space, and John is out to test it. John’s dad, Jack Crichton, intrudes on the scene for a father/son talk…we learn through compact dialogue that though they’re both astronauts, Jack saw himself as a pilot where John is more of a scientist. Still, Jack’s proud of his boy for going off to prove his theory. He imparts some advice, unwittingly his last for awhile—John has to “be his own hero” and it’ll likely be “beyond anything you’ve ever expected.” Dad’s good luck charm in hand, John goes to take off.
We get some NASA footage, I believe, and then the Farscape module, which we learn from a news report voiceover was designed by John himself, begins its journey. Everything is routine until some “electromagnetic interference” starts clogging up communications. Jack and DK order John to abort, but before he can, he’s swept up, module and all, and swallowed by a big, blue bolt of light. The two men on Earth (plus the rest of the flight team, I imagine,) stare out dumbfounded.
John is screaming his way through a rollercoaster of blue light, but it deposits him peacefully back in space…alien space. John continues to talk to Canaveral, but he gets no answer. Instead, he gets some small, fast, fighter ships flying ahead. Not something you’d see on Earth! Cue the opening montage, complete with aliens we haven’t met yet, but John’s dialogue isn’t interposed on top since he hasn’t really begun his journey yet.
We get back to John sitting pretty in his module. One of the fighter ships clips his wing and goes careening into an asteroid to explode. This will become important later. But for now, John’s attention, and mine as well, are captured by ethereal Moya. Even in iffy CGI, she’s beautiful. As John is caught in the tractor beam and pulled inside, the cathedral-like interior and the spooky music reminds me of the disquieting feeling I had in 1999. With John, we’re stepping into a new world beyond our understanding.
The first thing John sees upon landing is a little DRD, Moya’s machine helpers, with electronic antlers sticking out. :P So cute…and bewildering. I have to love Ben Browder’s face as he watches the little guys inspect the module. Then one of them points a tiny gun in his face and propels him along to command, where two very distinct aliens, one blue and one with tentacles, have their backs to us. They are speaking in alien tongues that sound very alien, like sounds a human’s mouth can’t make. Then tentacles turns around in fury and blue lady looks serene; and we get our very accurate first looks at Ka D’argo and Pau Zotah Zhaan.
D’argo responds to John’s “hi” by grabbing the human by the neck and snarling at him in his alien language. John isn’t able to make any of this out until a DRD injects his foot with something, and we slowly hear the speech come back to English. Translator microbes…perhaps the very best way sci-fi has come up with to explain how alien species might be able to understand one another.
D’argo and Zhaan want to know if they can use John’s ship to escape the battle outside. We learn that Moya is a prison ship, the aliens are prisoners and the “Peacekeepers” outside are their captors. We also meet our puppet crew, Pilot and Rygel, both of whom I still find easy to accept. I especially like Rygel’s apt introduction… he leans in close to John and whispers “I look after you now…you look after me later!”
D’argo, Zhaan and Rygel were on their way to a lifers colony, but the little puppet slug was able to swipe some access codes from a droid and help facilitate phase one of their escape. Phase two comes when D’argo pulls out some wires and the control collar that binds Moya to Peacekeeper control is suddenly lifted. The ship goes into lightspeed (called “starburst” in Farscape)…but not before unwittingly taking a Peacekeeper fighter (called a Prowler) with them!
Back on a Peacekeeper command ship, the man in charge, Captain Crais, debriefs with his staff about the mission. He finds out, through footage, that his brother was the one in the Prowler that John clipped, and he demands to see the dude’s face. Uh oh. Two seconds in alien space and you already have an enemy, Crichton.
He has his fill of enemies on Moya as well. When Rygel spits goo on him, he sputters “What is the matter with you…people?!” which earns him getting Tongued unconscious by D’argo. Yeah, it’s as awesome as it sounds. :P He wakes up naked in a cell with a strange creature that looks like an engorged black bug until it starts taking it’s armor off. We then see that it a human…or humanoid female…underneath.
John’s face visibly relaxes as he pulls on his clothes and goes to shake her hand. The female responds by knocking him around and keeping him in place with the rather raunchy shot of her crotch in his face. :P “Rank and regiment now!” she demands. “And why are you out of uniform?”
Turns out she is Officer Aeryn Sun, the Prowler pilot who got sucked into starburst. She automatically assumes that John is her own species, Sebacean, but Zhaan comes along to confirm that after doing some (thankfully unseen) tests on John, they found strange bacteria and know he’s of a different race. Meanwhile, I just want to point out that while John and Aeryn were getting…not so cozy in their cell, we were privileged to a great scene between sultry Zhaan and stammering D’argo where they explained their crimes (violent anarchist and murderer of commanding officer) and we see that beneath their exteriors, they have complex backstories. Rygel’s is straightforward—a deposed ruler—but he makes up for it in hilarity. “I’m Rygel the sixteenth, dominar to over 6 billion people. I don’t need to talk to you!”
Over green food cubes (John and Aeryn are still chained,) Pilot explains about the new planet they’re coming up on, and Zhaan and D’argo interrogate an uncooperative Aeryn on Peacekeeper presence there. It turns out they need fresh supplies for the ship…more than supplies it’s actually medicine, keeping in mind that Moya is alive and she was actually hurt when the control collar came off. I love the never-ending exploration of humanity on this show.
I’m not so in love with our first alien planet, which looks like some Trekker geek’s basement. :P John and Aeryn are left in their cell, but they manage to escape since our stalwart human had hidden a fork in his sleeve. He also theorizes that he entered this part of the universe through a wormhole, which he tells to a completely disinterested Aeryn. Once they’re free they radio Crais and take her Prowler down to the planet to wait for him.
Pilot informs the others of recent events. Zhaan and Rygel take their shuttle back to Moya, but D’argo stays to recapture John and Aeryn as prisoners. Before he can make a move, though, Crais and his men are on them. I should pause to say that the good Captain broke protocol by coming after these guys himself. It’s pretty obvious that his fury over his brother’s death has led to this…not the first time that John will cause Peacekeepers to go crazy *zips lips!*
Well, why don’t we start immediately with Aeryn, who defends John to Crais. :-O Sure she calls him too incompetent to deliberately attack them, but she’s trying to save his life! Instead, she is named “irreversibly contaminated” by spending too much time in an unknown alien’s company. John returns the favor by telling Crais that they haven’t spent much time together, but our humanoids and D’argo are screwed.
…until a particularly daft Peacekeeper is distracted by Jack’s “lucky charm,” allowing John to bop him over the head and steal his gun. “Don’t move!” he shouts. “Or I’ll shoot you with…little, yellow bolts of light!” A mild start to the Crichtonism’s (earlier John did mention “close encounters my ass,”) but it’s nice to witness.
D’argo and Aeryn are both anxious to be freed themselves, though Aeryn’s giving mixed messages. John wants all of them to escape on Moya, but D’argo doesn’t want a Peacekeeper and Aeryn professes that she wants to stay and fulfill her duty, even if it’s death. “You can be more,” John tells her, an iconic line.
Ultimately, John’s modicum of power and the Peacekeepers firing at them forces the two warriors to agree to his demands. They return to Moya on the Prowler…and run into their next problem; how to escape? Moya must rest before performing another starburst.
Enter John’s theory about using a planet’s gravity to “slingshot” into space! He starts writing furiously on the ground since the aliens haven’t heard of “paper.” :P I have to say…it’s a nice way to close out this relatively unimportant plot point that cements John as a slightly less incompetent person in everyone else’s eyes. :P Aeryn is forced to fly Moya manually since she’s the best pilot. And as Moya bounces off the planet and slingshots into space, we get one of the most memorable action scenes from the opening sequence. …and Moya and crew are free! Conveniently traveling to the Uncharted Territories, where Peacekeepers have no jurisdiction.
In the closing scenes, D’argo polishes his Qualta blade and Zhaan meditates in the nude. John brings his bags to his new quarters but is intersected violently by the Luxan, who commends him for having a “Warrior’s heart” for shaking him off. This doesn’t stop the man, though; he grabs John again and growls, “I don’t know who you are or where you came from, but if you threaten my freedom, I’ll kill you.” …not exactly an auspicious beginning!
From the shadows, Aeryn remarks that Luxans are a “brutal race,” but John’s having difficulty seeing how that’s worse than the Peacekeepers. Aeryn is dismissive with him, offering just one kernel of advice on this Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (to blatantly steal: ) “if you want to survive, choose your allegiances carefully.” And even then, you never know! :P
After brushing off one of Rygel’s many attempts to rob him, John is finally able to make a friend…with a DRD, whose antenna he fixes with blue tape! Aaaw. He sets up his recorder to tape messages to his dad…saying he’s alive, surrounded by aliens “in Technicolor” and all those fears they talked about before the launch…well, he’s got them now. :-/ Poor John.
Amazing to remember him this innocent, and at such odds with the highly distrustful crew of Moya. Of course this is the logical place for them to start, and with time we may see how relationships will change. But I will leave that for later recaps! I hope you enjoyed my inaugural one!
___
But where Farscape may struggle, just slightly, in special effects it makes up for in story, which is the important thing, after all. Granted, some matters in the premiere felt a little rushed. But for the time allotted to them, the writers did a wonderful job in forming characters, and the actors did their part in fleshing them out. “Premiere” is a wonderful first step, laying down the question “what comes next?”
We open on Cape Canaveral, rocket ship lined up in the glinting sunset. From across the water, a man in a breezy polo shirt astride a convertible looks apprehensively at the scene. This is John Crichton’s Luke Skywalker moment, on the brink of adventure.
Cut to the next day—John is getting suited up in his IASA getup, and we meet his boyhood friend, DK. The two of them have formulated a theory about using Earth’s gravity to “slingshot” into space, and John is out to test it. John’s dad, Jack Crichton, intrudes on the scene for a father/son talk…we learn through compact dialogue that though they’re both astronauts, Jack saw himself as a pilot where John is more of a scientist. Still, Jack’s proud of his boy for going off to prove his theory. He imparts some advice, unwittingly his last for awhile—John has to “be his own hero” and it’ll likely be “beyond anything you’ve ever expected.” Dad’s good luck charm in hand, John goes to take off.
We get some NASA footage, I believe, and then the Farscape module, which we learn from a news report voiceover was designed by John himself, begins its journey. Everything is routine until some “electromagnetic interference” starts clogging up communications. Jack and DK order John to abort, but before he can, he’s swept up, module and all, and swallowed by a big, blue bolt of light. The two men on Earth (plus the rest of the flight team, I imagine,) stare out dumbfounded.
John is screaming his way through a rollercoaster of blue light, but it deposits him peacefully back in space…alien space. John continues to talk to Canaveral, but he gets no answer. Instead, he gets some small, fast, fighter ships flying ahead. Not something you’d see on Earth! Cue the opening montage, complete with aliens we haven’t met yet, but John’s dialogue isn’t interposed on top since he hasn’t really begun his journey yet.
We get back to John sitting pretty in his module. One of the fighter ships clips his wing and goes careening into an asteroid to explode. This will become important later. But for now, John’s attention, and mine as well, are captured by ethereal Moya. Even in iffy CGI, she’s beautiful. As John is caught in the tractor beam and pulled inside, the cathedral-like interior and the spooky music reminds me of the disquieting feeling I had in 1999. With John, we’re stepping into a new world beyond our understanding.
The first thing John sees upon landing is a little DRD, Moya’s machine helpers, with electronic antlers sticking out. :P So cute…and bewildering. I have to love Ben Browder’s face as he watches the little guys inspect the module. Then one of them points a tiny gun in his face and propels him along to command, where two very distinct aliens, one blue and one with tentacles, have their backs to us. They are speaking in alien tongues that sound very alien, like sounds a human’s mouth can’t make. Then tentacles turns around in fury and blue lady looks serene; and we get our very accurate first looks at Ka D’argo and Pau Zotah Zhaan.
D’argo responds to John’s “hi” by grabbing the human by the neck and snarling at him in his alien language. John isn’t able to make any of this out until a DRD injects his foot with something, and we slowly hear the speech come back to English. Translator microbes…perhaps the very best way sci-fi has come up with to explain how alien species might be able to understand one another.
D’argo and Zhaan want to know if they can use John’s ship to escape the battle outside. We learn that Moya is a prison ship, the aliens are prisoners and the “Peacekeepers” outside are their captors. We also meet our puppet crew, Pilot and Rygel, both of whom I still find easy to accept. I especially like Rygel’s apt introduction… he leans in close to John and whispers “I look after you now…you look after me later!”
D’argo, Zhaan and Rygel were on their way to a lifers colony, but the little puppet slug was able to swipe some access codes from a droid and help facilitate phase one of their escape. Phase two comes when D’argo pulls out some wires and the control collar that binds Moya to Peacekeeper control is suddenly lifted. The ship goes into lightspeed (called “starburst” in Farscape)…but not before unwittingly taking a Peacekeeper fighter (called a Prowler) with them!
Back on a Peacekeeper command ship, the man in charge, Captain Crais, debriefs with his staff about the mission. He finds out, through footage, that his brother was the one in the Prowler that John clipped, and he demands to see the dude’s face. Uh oh. Two seconds in alien space and you already have an enemy, Crichton.
He has his fill of enemies on Moya as well. When Rygel spits goo on him, he sputters “What is the matter with you…people?!” which earns him getting Tongued unconscious by D’argo. Yeah, it’s as awesome as it sounds. :P He wakes up naked in a cell with a strange creature that looks like an engorged black bug until it starts taking it’s armor off. We then see that it a human…or humanoid female…underneath.
John’s face visibly relaxes as he pulls on his clothes and goes to shake her hand. The female responds by knocking him around and keeping him in place with the rather raunchy shot of her crotch in his face. :P “Rank and regiment now!” she demands. “And why are you out of uniform?”
Turns out she is Officer Aeryn Sun, the Prowler pilot who got sucked into starburst. She automatically assumes that John is her own species, Sebacean, but Zhaan comes along to confirm that after doing some (thankfully unseen) tests on John, they found strange bacteria and know he’s of a different race. Meanwhile, I just want to point out that while John and Aeryn were getting…not so cozy in their cell, we were privileged to a great scene between sultry Zhaan and stammering D’argo where they explained their crimes (violent anarchist and murderer of commanding officer) and we see that beneath their exteriors, they have complex backstories. Rygel’s is straightforward—a deposed ruler—but he makes up for it in hilarity. “I’m Rygel the sixteenth, dominar to over 6 billion people. I don’t need to talk to you!”
Over green food cubes (John and Aeryn are still chained,) Pilot explains about the new planet they’re coming up on, and Zhaan and D’argo interrogate an uncooperative Aeryn on Peacekeeper presence there. It turns out they need fresh supplies for the ship…more than supplies it’s actually medicine, keeping in mind that Moya is alive and she was actually hurt when the control collar came off. I love the never-ending exploration of humanity on this show.
I’m not so in love with our first alien planet, which looks like some Trekker geek’s basement. :P John and Aeryn are left in their cell, but they manage to escape since our stalwart human had hidden a fork in his sleeve. He also theorizes that he entered this part of the universe through a wormhole, which he tells to a completely disinterested Aeryn. Once they’re free they radio Crais and take her Prowler down to the planet to wait for him.
Pilot informs the others of recent events. Zhaan and Rygel take their shuttle back to Moya, but D’argo stays to recapture John and Aeryn as prisoners. Before he can make a move, though, Crais and his men are on them. I should pause to say that the good Captain broke protocol by coming after these guys himself. It’s pretty obvious that his fury over his brother’s death has led to this…not the first time that John will cause Peacekeepers to go crazy *zips lips!*
Well, why don’t we start immediately with Aeryn, who defends John to Crais. :-O Sure she calls him too incompetent to deliberately attack them, but she’s trying to save his life! Instead, she is named “irreversibly contaminated” by spending too much time in an unknown alien’s company. John returns the favor by telling Crais that they haven’t spent much time together, but our humanoids and D’argo are screwed.
…until a particularly daft Peacekeeper is distracted by Jack’s “lucky charm,” allowing John to bop him over the head and steal his gun. “Don’t move!” he shouts. “Or I’ll shoot you with…little, yellow bolts of light!” A mild start to the Crichtonism’s (earlier John did mention “close encounters my ass,”) but it’s nice to witness.
D’argo and Aeryn are both anxious to be freed themselves, though Aeryn’s giving mixed messages. John wants all of them to escape on Moya, but D’argo doesn’t want a Peacekeeper and Aeryn professes that she wants to stay and fulfill her duty, even if it’s death. “You can be more,” John tells her, an iconic line.
Ultimately, John’s modicum of power and the Peacekeepers firing at them forces the two warriors to agree to his demands. They return to Moya on the Prowler…and run into their next problem; how to escape? Moya must rest before performing another starburst.
Enter John’s theory about using a planet’s gravity to “slingshot” into space! He starts writing furiously on the ground since the aliens haven’t heard of “paper.” :P I have to say…it’s a nice way to close out this relatively unimportant plot point that cements John as a slightly less incompetent person in everyone else’s eyes. :P Aeryn is forced to fly Moya manually since she’s the best pilot. And as Moya bounces off the planet and slingshots into space, we get one of the most memorable action scenes from the opening sequence. …and Moya and crew are free! Conveniently traveling to the Uncharted Territories, where Peacekeepers have no jurisdiction.
In the closing scenes, D’argo polishes his Qualta blade and Zhaan meditates in the nude. John brings his bags to his new quarters but is intersected violently by the Luxan, who commends him for having a “Warrior’s heart” for shaking him off. This doesn’t stop the man, though; he grabs John again and growls, “I don’t know who you are or where you came from, but if you threaten my freedom, I’ll kill you.” …not exactly an auspicious beginning!
From the shadows, Aeryn remarks that Luxans are a “brutal race,” but John’s having difficulty seeing how that’s worse than the Peacekeepers. Aeryn is dismissive with him, offering just one kernel of advice on this Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (to blatantly steal: ) “if you want to survive, choose your allegiances carefully.” And even then, you never know! :P
After brushing off one of Rygel’s many attempts to rob him, John is finally able to make a friend…with a DRD, whose antenna he fixes with blue tape! Aaaw. He sets up his recorder to tape messages to his dad…saying he’s alive, surrounded by aliens “in Technicolor” and all those fears they talked about before the launch…well, he’s got them now. :-/ Poor John.
Amazing to remember him this innocent, and at such odds with the highly distrustful crew of Moya. Of course this is the logical place for them to start, and with time we may see how relationships will change. But I will leave that for later recaps! I hope you enjoyed my inaugural one!
___
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}