gloomyMore Farscape. "P.K. Tech Girl" and "Thank God It's Friday Again."
1x05, "PK Tech Girl" (17 April 1999)
In which Moya and her crew discover a derelict dreadnaught, Claudia Blacks' cheekbones are beyond perfect, and futuristic hand lamps look exactly like the ones you can buy at Sears from Black & Decker.
Rygel has lovely eyes. I wonder if anyone's ever told him... without being paid. Amd you know, one thing I love about this show is that John's incomprehensible cultural references are passed over as lightly as the incomprehensible cultural references of all his crew mates. They have no cultural context in common.
It's cool.
"How disappointing that other scavengers have robbed us of our glory." Heh. So dry.
Amazingly enough, this episode has something many Farscape episodes do not. Which is to say, a plot. (It's also got some shiny shiny characterization.)
Peacekeepr with an Australian accent. Drink!
"I try to save a life a day. Usually it's my own." I miss the sheltered John of first season, the one who believed in decency and negotiation and reaching out to people. Poor John; what he got to become was a one-man illustration of the horrors of war and the impact of culture shock. You never could have gotten this show made in America; John would have had to remake the society he found himself in ("What these people need is a honky Earthling!") rather than being crushed into an entirely new shape by the world he found himself in.
"For a priest, you certainly have a very flexible morality."
"They always wind up surviving. And liking each other."
"We have such fiction also."
"It's a small universe."
Foreshadowing, drink!
Zhaan's costuming makes me happy.
Deep One fight!
And Aeryn standing around helplessly while John and the tech Gilina work their butts off--her frustration is lovely. I love the epiphany moment when she realizes that maybe techs are more useful than warriors, and just as brave.
"Sorry for interrupting." Aeryn, I love you.
And Rygel, torture survivor, works nicely. Heh. "I'm here. You're not." Drink! ...ooops, wrong show.
"If you die here, John, I die too."
Foreshadowing, drink!
"How come nobody tells me this stuff? How come nobody tells me they spit fire?! AERYN!"
John's great big bluff, and Aeryn's Errol Flynn are love. John's starting to learn that acting like a crazy monkey gives the aliens pause....
"Sorry about the mess."
"Life? Sucks." Thematic statement! Drink!
"What would it be like to go home then?" Yes. Everybody's lost their home. And none of them can ever go back, as we--and they--will eventually learn. There's a thing in this show where you can't EVER go home again. (Well, you can. But they've turned it into a convenience store, John would point out.)
Farts:
Bodily fluids: Rygel loogie! (food and Farscape do not mix.) Sometimes you can definitely see tha Kermit the Frog DNA in that Hinerian. MORE Rygel loogie! Flaming spit! Shay-yang guts!
Random muppets: Shay-yang! These would make great Deep One muppets.
Worldbuilding weirdness: Hey, glimpses of Peacekeeper society and social ranking, and the difference between a Peacekeeper and a Sebacean. Ah, a SF show in which alien societies have complexity and internal conflicts, in which humankind is not special or chosen but utterly insignificant in the grand scheme of the universe. You never would have gotten this made in America.
Deaths of named characters:
1x06, "Thank God It's Friday Again" (23 April 1999)
In which D'Argo gets cranky with John, and breaks things, and John hides very well. Also, the planet of the Space Hippies wanders in from Star Trek.
"The day that they prove that is the day that I let Parmolian meat-hounds tear all the flesh from my bones." Oh, hush, Aeryn, you know you love the monkeys. If you didn't, you wouldn't be trying to learn human slang.
D'Argo in his pajamas. D'Argo has a Murphy bed! To go with the '70's crash pad! All he really needs is the chest rug.
"I suppose we will have to wait."
"Ooo. Yah."
John and Zhaan groping one another in their sleep. Because, as we all know, you can't 'ship Farscape. It handles all that work for you.
It's the opposite-of-mind-control space worms! "Tomorrow is a rest day." Ahh, land of sly social commentary...
Hee. And Aeryn, slowly discovering that she has a brain. That's an aspect of this show that I really adore: that people, cast into unfamiliar situations, find themselves growing to suit the situation.
This episode does tend to drag a bit. I think it could have used 32% more actual plot: unfortunately, one figures out what is going on a bit too fast, and there's a bit of a dead spot in the middle.
"You're trading in your pulse rifle for the junior chemistry kit!"
"That is a healthy dream." I love a priest who will tell you that growing up to be a warrior is all right.
Actually, the D'Argo and Zhaan bit at the end of this episode always makes me sniffy.
Farts: Rygel is merely belching, so far.
Bodily fluids: explosive Hinerian pee; Hinerian snot! Hinerian sweat!; Human puke! (offscreen)
Random muppets:
Worldbuilding weirdness: Why is Zhaan getting undressed behind a screen? Is it just out of courtesy for John's mammal sensibilities? And why aren't the immune people putting worms in everybody they can grab?
Deaths of named characters: