Reviews: Farscape S4

4x01: 'Crichton Kicks'

That was bloody brilliant.

When I say it was bloody brilliant, I mean it was bloody brilliant. I'd say it's one of the top five episodes I've seen (bearing in mind that I'm only up to 'PK Tech Girl' on my S1/2 odyssey, of course). Why? Because damn, it was fun. Mad Robinson Crichton was fun. The 1812 DRD was fun. Old lady Pilot was fun. Chiana was fun. Everyone bouncing around on ropes at the end was fun.

Plus, a Slaughterhouse Five reference.

More seriously, it was a great season premiere. The first episode of Farscape I ever saw was 'Season of Death', which was more about resolving the cliffhanger than it was about starting the new season. Unsurprisingly, it didn't work for me, but I don't like that type of cliffhanger resolution (as used this year, for example, by Smallville) even when I've seen part I. The close of 'Dog With Two Bones' was much more open-ended, which meant that 'Crichton Kicks' could be much more relaxed; there was time to be reintroduced to the characters, rather than just plunge straight into the action. Sure, we don't know what's up with D'Argo or Aeryn or Moya and Pilot; but there's time for that later. This was a good, solid standalone that set the stage for the season. And did I mention that it was fun?

(It makes me optimistic about 'Deep Down', as well, because 'Tomorrow' was a very similar sort of cliffhanger to DWTB - the pieces can be picked up one at a time and dealt with properly, there's no rush.)

Random things:

• What the hell is going on with Chiana? How do future-flashes suddenly become the present slowing down?
• Sikozou (sp?) - I like her. She's smart. Wonder how long she'll be around for? I'm a bit dubious about her linguistic abilities, mind. But the gravity thing is fab.
• John is taking all this pretty hard. He's shaven off his beard (surely the worst hair to grace spec-F TV since Angelus' wig), and he's said goodbye to his fantasy-Aeryn, but even so...I'm not sure he's OK.

4x02 and 4x03: 'What Was Lost, parts I and II'

The Farscape writers are getting better at these multi-part episodes, you know. In the past, I've felt that the two-parters either have far too much going on ('Infinite Possibilities', especially 'Daedelus Demands'), or too little ('Self Inflicted Wounds'). The pacing within episodes has sometimes been jerky, as well, something which has not been helped by the use of Flash Gordon style literal cliffhangers.

Here, though, the cliffhanger is still literal, but in a different sense - and for my money, it works much better. It's not that it lends part one a sense of closure, but the ending feels appropriate - it's a confirmation of the story that's being told, rather than involving some monster that suddenly appears out of nowhere to generate tension ('Self Inflicted Wounds', again). And overall, the pacing is just generally much better; there's a touch too much padding in 'Resurrection', perhaps (the final twist with the creature from the black lagoon was somewhat redundant), but for the most part WWL feels like 'a feature-length Farscape', rather than two episodes that happen to follow on from one another. I think this, in case anyone was wondering, is a Good Thing.

(The episodes look a million dollars, too - the widescreen doesn't hurt, but the use of colour saturation is very effective. And that shot of the temple at the end; well, that's a proper sensawunda kick and no mistake)

An awful lot happens in these episodes - setting the stage for the rest of the season, I presume - and it's hard to know what's important and what's not (which is good). Some of it I like, some of it I don't. To start with the negatives first: Grayza. She's tacky, she's charmless, she's dull...I don't like her. Braca is interesting, but I could not care less whether we see Grayza again. Her interaction with Crichton was, at times, painful to watch. Also on the 'bad' list is D'Argo and Jool. Don't get me wrong, I'm ecstatic that Jool is leaving (or at least reducing her role), I just didn't buy the relationship because it developed offscreen, and without some kind of hint I can't understand what anyone would see in Jool. Oh, and the science was ludicrous, but I've pretty much decided that Farscape works much better if you take it as fantasy rather than SF.

Of the good, though...there's a lot, actually. The female pilot broke my heart - she was great. Sikozou is still kinda bland, but Noranti is rather fun - mad in a good way, unlike, say, Stark, who was mad in a really annoying way. And poor Crichton - between Noranti and Grayza, he was doped out of his mind for a good portion of the episode. I wonder if those bug-things he sniffed are addictive? (The one niggle I have about the new characters is that they're both women - the crew is starting to look a little unbalanced, and it would be interesting to see a new guy have to try to break into the Crichton/D'Argo dynamic).

I loved the handling of Scorpius. Not because I wanted to see him beaten and degraded - that was unpleasant to watch - but because it was all so off-hand. It was a sidebar to the main story, not an important plot point. I only wish I could believe he was really dead, because that would be a great way to handle a character death.

I like the pacing of the season, so far, as well. Knowing fandom, I'm sure that at this point there was bitching about "where's Moya?" and "where's Aeryn?", but I'm quite happy to wait for the answers to those questions to turn up on their own, as long as there's interesting stuff happening in the meantime. And 'What Was Lost' was nothing if not interesting.

4x04: Lava's A Many Splendored Thing

See now, this was a filler episode. And as filler episodes go, it wasn't bad, I suppose; a lot of the humour was a little too broad for my tastes (I've never been a fan of Rygel's wacky body chemistry, for instance), but there were some nice touches. The most interesting thing from my point of view is comparing the characters to their S1 states, since I'm watching the two seasons in parallel. Crichton in S4 is a brash, swaggering bucaneer of a man. He's just cool. And, OK, so he's hardly a timid mouse in S1, but there's a definite sense that he feels out of his depth, and is struggling to get a handle on things. It's an interesting change. One slightly disappointing thing is that he doesn't seem to have picked up any alien traits; where D'Argo, especially, seems to be absorbing Crichton's cultural references, I'm not sure I can ever recall Crichton saying 'Frell' (for instance). I may be wrong, however. If anything, though, he seems to be making even more pop-culture references than he did in S1; I suppose you could argue it's something that goes along with keeping his confidence high.

Other than that, not a lot else to say. Nice to see John using his brains to solve a couple of problems ("ergo, rocks will work"), Noranti is still great, the villain of the week was wearing a cycle helmet...probably the best thing about it was the message from Moya at the end. If it had all finished and been wrapped up as 'just another adventure', I think I'd be disappointed; as it is, I'm eager to sit down and watch the next episode.

4x05 and 4x06: 'Promises' and 'Natural Election'

The short version: I'd say both of these fall somewhere between LAMST and WWL on the quality scale. I didn't feel either of them were anything really special, but they were both fine, solid episodes. S4 is shaping up nicely.

I didn't realise until sat down to think about it, though, quite how many questions 'Promises' managed to raise, whilst at the same time being frustratingly vague in the answers it gave to outstanding unknowns. For instance: Aeryn's sojourn. There has to be more there than we've been told, else I don't buy her attitude to Scorpius. I can buy that she feels she owes him, but after all he's done I'd still expect him to be far less ready to trust him than she apparently is. Who is Scorpius' spy on Grayza's command carrier? I'd feel a little cheated if it's someone we haven't met yet, but I think that's the way it's heading, since I can't see it being Braca, and none of the other peacekeepers on that carrier seem to have names.

And speaking of Scorpius...couldn't we have kept Harvey, instead? I mean, ok, after 'Infinite Possibilities' it was pretty much a given that the other Harvey would have to go at some point, but even so. The real Scorpius isn't half so much fun, and I'm going to miss those fantasy sequences.

(And what's up with Pilot not being able to remember what happened? Or claiming to not remember - for some reason, I'm inclined to believe Noranti on this one).

One thing I like a lot is the idea that Moya and Pilot want a captain. It makes sense, and it's an interesting way to change the group dynamic. My initial guess was that soeone other than Crichton would get the captaincy to start with, and then Crichton (being the natural leader) would end up taking over later. On reflection, I'm not so sure about that; D'Argo does need a role at the moment, some kind of purpose, so now I'm tending towards the idea that it's more of a long-term position. Either way, I suspect I'm going to enjoy the next few episodes for this development alone.

I'm not so happy about the pregnancy. If it was established in an earlier episode that I haven't seen that peacekeepers can be pregnant for seven years then that's one thing, but I got the strong impression it was supposed to be a new revelation. I don't like it one bit; adding new biological traits whenever the writers feel like it is a tad too convenient. Having the father being someone we've never met - or worse, being someone we've met but didn't know that Aeryn had slept with - would also not go down well. There's also the fact that if she's been pregnant for that long, why on earth did she only just realise? Questions, questions. Guess the only thing to do is watch more episodes and see how it all pans out.

4x07: 'John Quixote'

I had the beginning of this review all planned out, you know. I watched the episode on Saturday, and was just waiting for a quiet moment to sit down and type up my thoughts. "Ben Browder," I would have said, "is shaping up to be a pretty decent writer. First 'Green Eyed Monster', and now this."

Thing is, a copy of the latest SFX dropped through my letterbox this morning. And their spoiler-zone review begins thusly: "Sorry, but this really is in the running for worst episode of Farscape ever. And remember, I'm the guy who raved over 'Scratch 'N Sniff' and 'Revenging Angel', so I demonstrably have no gripe with concept episodes. But 'John Quixote' is a purely gratuitous exercise; let's be weird for weirdness' sake." This, naturally, surprised me somewhat, so I had to go back and check my opinions. Had I miissed something obvious, some gaping flaws?

And the answer is...no, I don't think so. I don't think 'John Quixote' is weird for weirdness' sake. Quite the opposite, I think; for me, the episode is a useful insight into Crichton's character - his idealism in casting Aeryn as the princess, and his arrogance in assuming the game was about him. That second item was my favourite thing about the whole episode - that it was Stark's game, Stark's princess. And I was never a fan of Stark, but here he worked fantastically well for me, because I felt he fitted the scenario to a t. And then, of course, there's the wonderful closing scenes in which John decides that he's had enough - that he can't deal with it all any more, that he wants a way out. Looks like maybe that drug addiction might go somewhere, after all.

To be fair, there are problems elsewhere in the episode. Parts of it do look unfortunately cheap; I like the cardboard-cutout fantasyland, but the interior locations left something to be desired (particularly the car park). I could also have done with some more explanation about the game itself; I get that it was built from Talyn-John's memories, but I'm not clear as to why Stark did it, or who he found to help him. I mean, I get that he wanted to bring back Zhaan, but why upload all of John's memories as well? Finally, the fact that it's all a game disappoints on one key issue: Aeryn's behaviour. When the idea of Scorpius slaving people to his mental state raised its head , I thought 'of course! That's brilliant!' - but it was a fakeout. Overall, though, a lot of fun.

Other random things:

• Am I right in thinking that was PK Tech Girl making an appearance? If so, kudos to Mr Browder for putting that in.
• I liked the use of split-screen.
• I really, really liked the Scorpius suddenly became a credible threat. So much so that I'm almost willing to forgive the fact that it was a fakeout.
• The writing in blood was nicely grim.
• Possibly the third greatest elevator ride in SF history (after 'Reprise' and H2G2, of course).
• Line of the episode: The one about Crichton naming his sword 'Cameron' or 'Una'...

4x08: 'I Shrink, Therefore I Am'

I thought this one was a mixed bag. The plot was nothing we haven't seen before, which meant the episode relies on the incidental moments and revelations to hold the viewer's interest. Some of these worked; the Crichton/Scorpius interplay was, as ever, entertaining. Some of them didn't; in particular, I was disappointed by the lack of explanation for the shrink ray. When Sikozou started babbling (quite correctly) about how what was happening was impossible, I got all excited; I thought maybe we were going to get a genuine SFnal twist. But nothing more was made of it; turns out it was just a throwaway line, in effect saying "we know this is impossible - but we're going to do it anyway." I can deal with Farscape doing things that are clearly impossible; I don't hold it to hard SF standards. But when it promises to hold itself to hard SF standards and then doesn't, I get disappointed.

I'm a little confused as to why we've suddenly got a new breed of Scarrans (apart from the fact that it would seem to cut down on the work for the prosthetics department). The revelation that they were spying on the Peacekeepers was nice, but beyond that - well, why was he there? What was special about him? Why would a member of the ruling class be a spy? The same goes for Chiana's amazing slo-mo vision. It just seems to keep popping up without really going anywhere. I can't even remember if it's unusual for her species, or whether it's even been discussed. All of which sounds a bit harsh, so I should point out that I did enjoy the episode; it just felt a little too much like filler.

4x09: 'A Prefect Murder'

For some reason, this one reminded me of 'Thanks For Sharing'. It's been a long time since I saw that episode, so I really couldn't say why I get this feeling, but it's definitely there. And like 'Thanks For Sharing', I thought 'A Prefect Murder' was a good, solid episode. It's frustrating, though; the writers keep on teasing us, promising revelations about the ongoing story. First Aeryn's false reason for saving Scorpius' hide, and now an episode which doesn't actually tell us anything about Aeryn's time as an assassin, despite having ample opportunity to do so. I hope there's a good pay-off to all this waiting, because it's getting frustrating. That aside, though, the rest of the episode worked for me. Especially the weird-ass structure at the beginning - that was just, well, neat. Oh, and was the priest guy being voiced by the guy who normally does Rygel, or was that just my imagination?

4x10 and 4x11: 'Coup By Clam' and 'Unrealised Reality'

Forget 'Coup by Clam'; it's awful. Stupid, lazy, crass, and dull. It has no redeeming features; it is simply worthless. So forget it, and consider 'Unrealised Reality' instead. Because 'Unrealised Reality' is pure, shining, lustrous gold.

It's the sort of episode that makes it all worthwhile; the sort of episode that makes you fall in love with a show all over again. It's just great storytelling. There are answers, about the ancients, about what happened to Moya at the end of S3. There's continuity - the reference to '...Different Destinations' has to be my favourite. And there are questions. Because damn, does it move the goalposts. By the end of the episode, Crichton has control of wormholes. In principle, he can go wherever - and more significantly whenever - he chooses.

Anywhere, anywhen. That's an insane degree of power, and it's something that conventional TV wisdom says you Just Can't Do, logical conclusion of existing plotline be damned. But they've done it. Just at the point where I was starting to wonder whether season four was ever going to go anywhere, they've changed the landscape so dramatically that anything could happen. My personal guess, given the number of times the one limitation - don't go somewhere before you left - was stressed, is that right now Crichton is floating next to an unrealised earth from before he ever left.

Of course, they could choose to play it safe. They could slap further limitations on what Crichton can do. In fact, I suspect they'll probably do just that - I think to a certain extent they'll have to, if only because a being with godlike powers doesn't make for a very easy protagonist to write. But I hope they don't restrict him too quickly, or too soon. I'd love for Crichton - or even the whole of Moya - to become lost for a while in time, as well as space. Or to have a series of episodes take place on an alternate earth. Or to go back to the coin toss in 'Dog With Two Bones' and see an entirely different version of how things could have panned out. If they want, they can reconstruct the entire show from the ground up. There are wonders to be seen here. Let's see 'em.