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shadowkatFinished church listserve editing, will wait until tomorrow to send - because some people wait until Thursday to send stuff that should be added. Work is crazy busy.
Ah, and Farscape. There's an unwritten rule in tv - that if you have a male and female lead, they are not permitted to be happy together or get together for any length of time - because we, the audience will get bored of a happy couple and wander off to better climes. To an extent this is true - conflict is more interesting. As a result, a lot of TV writers fall into all sorts of cliches attempting to find ways to keep their two leads apart. Some make sense, most feel contrived. My favorite is - "she or he is presumed dead! And really isn't, instead they lost their memory and are elsewhere". I sort of like that one. My least favorite is - the attempted rape or sexual violence - that's been overused by soap operas (all of the soap operas have done that one at least once.). Then there's the old - misunderstanding - ie. one or the other can't get up the courage to confess their true feelings, so the other one leaves thinking their affections aren't returned or they appear to die thinking it. (I've grown bored of that one and find it highly frustrating).
Farscape actually finds an innovative way to keep their leads apart. After bringing them together romantically. They do a really interesting twist on he's dead but not really, which I've never seen done before and works brilliantly. So much so, that by the end of S3, I really can't imagine how the two romantic leads could ever get back together again. And it is organic to the plot and theme.
What happens is they double the male lead or clone him - so there are two John Crichton's - have same DNA, same makeup, same memories, separate but equal. Twins. Yet, unique individuals - so not clones. There is no way of knowing which is the copy. Neither is a copy and both are. One of the two goes off with Aeryn, had a romantic arc, and dies heroically. She mourns him. This one knows things about her the other doesn't - about her mother, and her father. They have an almost perfect relationship. The ideal. He dies. And he does it after his issues are resolved. The other one, stays behind and his relationships with D'Argo and the others are deepened. But his issues are not resolved. He doesn't get the neural clone - Scorpie that has become a part of his subconscious removed, and the ancients don't unlock the formula for wormholes for him. Nor is he asked to heroically save the world and he doesn't get the girl. Aeryn comes back and when John reunites with her, she can't look at him or speak to him - his ghost, the ghost of the other John Crichton, the Crichton he actually saves in an earlier episode - by donating his blood, otherwise the guy would have died, stands between them. She, as Kar D'Argo states, now sees the remaining John as the copy. But it is much more complicated than that - Aeryn tells him that she can't watch it again. She knows what he'll do. He will give his life for the universe, just like he did before - he'll die for his cause. And she can't watch it. She can't watch him go on his suicide missions. It's too painful.
Her grief is wrenching her apart. She loves and resents him at the same time. He has ruined her life - taken her away from her calling, her work, what she knows. Yet, has he? And in a way, the wormhole knowledge tormenting him and the villian pursuing him are direct results of his choice to save her life - she knows this deep inside and that just makes it all the more painful. What keeps these two characters apart is organic to the characters, the plot, and the general theme of the series - it doesn't feel as contrived. They are star-crossed, because they come from different worlds - she is a warrior and a fighter pilot, and he is a scientist and pacisfist/an explorer. He yearns towards knowledge and breaking new boundaries, she prefers the rules, the boundaries. They both love to fly - but one fights and one wishes to negotiate.
As the series moves forward - like magnets - they pull one another across to their side, he pulls her towards compassion, science, negotiation, exploration - and she pulls him towards, fighting, and becoming a warrior. She moves to the light, as he moves to the dark.
And somewhere in the 3rd season, Aeryn begins to feel lost, who am I, she wonders. All ties to the Peacekeepers - her race, her calling, her home, her family/friends such as they were are broken. Sure she may have been a heartless thug, but she was a happy heartless thug. Was it all bad? And what of her parents? What are peacekeepers? She was taught to believe they kept peace.
But they don't. And John Crichton too begins to feel lost - who is he and what matters. Going home back to his life on earth? Or his life here - with Aeryn, with his friends? Can he really go home again? Does he really want to? And if so, can he take Aeryn and the others with him?
And if he does, does he expose his home and his friends to untold dangers? Also, what if the result of the scientific discovery, his innocent little experiment that he was so proud of and was his way of being like his father - is a weapon that destroys worlds, the universe? What risk knowledge - is it worth the risk? And what should he die for? The answers aren't as clear as we'd like. Crichton tells Aeryn in Wolf in Sheep's Clothing, S3 - that he doesn't know what to do. Should he help Scorpie/Peacekeepers and save the universe from the Scarrens, or should
he destroy the technology and knowledge - preventing anyone from having it? Should he kill himself? It's what his other self did, Aeryn states. But, Crichton responds, he didn't have all the information. And that is part of the theme - information. What makes the two Crichton's different - when they split up, one with Aeryn/Stark/Rygel/Crais and Talon, and the other with Chiana/Jool/D'Argo/Pilot and Moya - is their experiences and the information they receive. One Crichton resolves his conflict with the ancients - finds out what the ancients want, that the ancients did find a homeworld and left someone behind to seal the gap, protect them. And no, they don't know Crichton has this knowledge - if they did, he'd be dead. This Crichton also knows about Aeryn - she admits she needs him, tells him about her mother and father, about her relationship or lack thereof with Crais. He wins her. He knows her intimately - in ways the other Crichton doesn't. And this Crichton knows about Furlough and that Furlough is willing to kill anyone or anything for a buck - an arms dealer - who sells to the highest bidder, regardless of the price. It's like what happened in the episode Thanks for Sharing - where one Crichton goes down to the planet deals with the royal family and gets blown up, comes back injured - and has to fill in the other, his double, the one left on Moya - on what happened.
And how the one on Moya handles it - is different, in some respects darker. This guy doesn't know the sister - who had set up the meeting - and doesn't react to her, he knows not to trust anyone. The story shows how experience changes us, informs us. How one piece of additional information can change how we may or may not react to something. Crichton on Moya benefits from Crichton on Talon's experience. Yet, he's not a copy. Yet, he wonders if he is.
[ETA: Please note this post is only about the episodes leading up to S3 Farscape. I haven't watched S4 yet, and I don't remember any of it, really, except the very last scene. So please don't spoil me. Farscape unlike most sci-fi and tv series - is a novel for television. You cannot watch it out of order and figure out what is going on. It wouldn't make sense. There are a few, but very very few episodes - that you can watch on their own. I think maybe three or four - and they aren't the best. ]
Ah, and Farscape. There's an unwritten rule in tv - that if you have a male and female lead, they are not permitted to be happy together or get together for any length of time - because we, the audience will get bored of a happy couple and wander off to better climes. To an extent this is true - conflict is more interesting. As a result, a lot of TV writers fall into all sorts of cliches attempting to find ways to keep their two leads apart. Some make sense, most feel contrived. My favorite is - "she or he is presumed dead! And really isn't, instead they lost their memory and are elsewhere". I sort of like that one. My least favorite is - the attempted rape or sexual violence - that's been overused by soap operas (all of the soap operas have done that one at least once.). Then there's the old - misunderstanding - ie. one or the other can't get up the courage to confess their true feelings, so the other one leaves thinking their affections aren't returned or they appear to die thinking it. (I've grown bored of that one and find it highly frustrating).
Farscape actually finds an innovative way to keep their leads apart. After bringing them together romantically. They do a really interesting twist on he's dead but not really, which I've never seen done before and works brilliantly. So much so, that by the end of S3, I really can't imagine how the two romantic leads could ever get back together again. And it is organic to the plot and theme.
What happens is they double the male lead or clone him - so there are two John Crichton's - have same DNA, same makeup, same memories, separate but equal. Twins. Yet, unique individuals - so not clones. There is no way of knowing which is the copy. Neither is a copy and both are. One of the two goes off with Aeryn, had a romantic arc, and dies heroically. She mourns him. This one knows things about her the other doesn't - about her mother, and her father. They have an almost perfect relationship. The ideal. He dies. And he does it after his issues are resolved. The other one, stays behind and his relationships with D'Argo and the others are deepened. But his issues are not resolved. He doesn't get the neural clone - Scorpie that has become a part of his subconscious removed, and the ancients don't unlock the formula for wormholes for him. Nor is he asked to heroically save the world and he doesn't get the girl. Aeryn comes back and when John reunites with her, she can't look at him or speak to him - his ghost, the ghost of the other John Crichton, the Crichton he actually saves in an earlier episode - by donating his blood, otherwise the guy would have died, stands between them. She, as Kar D'Argo states, now sees the remaining John as the copy. But it is much more complicated than that - Aeryn tells him that she can't watch it again. She knows what he'll do. He will give his life for the universe, just like he did before - he'll die for his cause. And she can't watch it. She can't watch him go on his suicide missions. It's too painful.
Her grief is wrenching her apart. She loves and resents him at the same time. He has ruined her life - taken her away from her calling, her work, what she knows. Yet, has he? And in a way, the wormhole knowledge tormenting him and the villian pursuing him are direct results of his choice to save her life - she knows this deep inside and that just makes it all the more painful. What keeps these two characters apart is organic to the characters, the plot, and the general theme of the series - it doesn't feel as contrived. They are star-crossed, because they come from different worlds - she is a warrior and a fighter pilot, and he is a scientist and pacisfist/an explorer. He yearns towards knowledge and breaking new boundaries, she prefers the rules, the boundaries. They both love to fly - but one fights and one wishes to negotiate.
As the series moves forward - like magnets - they pull one another across to their side, he pulls her towards compassion, science, negotiation, exploration - and she pulls him towards, fighting, and becoming a warrior. She moves to the light, as he moves to the dark.
And somewhere in the 3rd season, Aeryn begins to feel lost, who am I, she wonders. All ties to the Peacekeepers - her race, her calling, her home, her family/friends such as they were are broken. Sure she may have been a heartless thug, but she was a happy heartless thug. Was it all bad? And what of her parents? What are peacekeepers? She was taught to believe they kept peace.
But they don't. And John Crichton too begins to feel lost - who is he and what matters. Going home back to his life on earth? Or his life here - with Aeryn, with his friends? Can he really go home again? Does he really want to? And if so, can he take Aeryn and the others with him?
And if he does, does he expose his home and his friends to untold dangers? Also, what if the result of the scientific discovery, his innocent little experiment that he was so proud of and was his way of being like his father - is a weapon that destroys worlds, the universe? What risk knowledge - is it worth the risk? And what should he die for? The answers aren't as clear as we'd like. Crichton tells Aeryn in Wolf in Sheep's Clothing, S3 - that he doesn't know what to do. Should he help Scorpie/Peacekeepers and save the universe from the Scarrens, or should
he destroy the technology and knowledge - preventing anyone from having it? Should he kill himself? It's what his other self did, Aeryn states. But, Crichton responds, he didn't have all the information. And that is part of the theme - information. What makes the two Crichton's different - when they split up, one with Aeryn/Stark/Rygel/Crais and Talon, and the other with Chiana/Jool/D'Argo/Pilot and Moya - is their experiences and the information they receive. One Crichton resolves his conflict with the ancients - finds out what the ancients want, that the ancients did find a homeworld and left someone behind to seal the gap, protect them. And no, they don't know Crichton has this knowledge - if they did, he'd be dead. This Crichton also knows about Aeryn - she admits she needs him, tells him about her mother and father, about her relationship or lack thereof with Crais. He wins her. He knows her intimately - in ways the other Crichton doesn't. And this Crichton knows about Furlough and that Furlough is willing to kill anyone or anything for a buck - an arms dealer - who sells to the highest bidder, regardless of the price. It's like what happened in the episode Thanks for Sharing - where one Crichton goes down to the planet deals with the royal family and gets blown up, comes back injured - and has to fill in the other, his double, the one left on Moya - on what happened.
And how the one on Moya handles it - is different, in some respects darker. This guy doesn't know the sister - who had set up the meeting - and doesn't react to her, he knows not to trust anyone. The story shows how experience changes us, informs us. How one piece of additional information can change how we may or may not react to something. Crichton on Moya benefits from Crichton on Talon's experience. Yet, he's not a copy. Yet, he wonders if he is.
[ETA: Please note this post is only about the episodes leading up to S3 Farscape. I haven't watched S4 yet, and I don't remember any of it, really, except the very last scene. So please don't spoil me. Farscape unlike most sci-fi and tv series - is a novel for television. You cannot watch it out of order and figure out what is going on. It wouldn't make sense. There are a few, but very very few episodes - that you can watch on their own. I think maybe three or four - and they aren't the best. ]
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no subject
Date: 2010-07-08 02:10 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-07-08 04:45 pm (UTC)And this time, not just her, but her and her child. Does she even want this child? A child by a human man, who is dead, with an exact double who is alive? Does she want to be a mother?
She doesn't know and she can't think with him around. While from his perspective - he's just gotten her back. He's had to spend months without her. And he has been a bit lost, gone a bit nuts - she's his touchstone, what keeps him grounded and sane. Without her - he obsesses about wormholes and goes nuts inside his own mind. She saves him from himself. And he fears that he lost her already to his other self. That finale blew me away. Actually the whole season did - with a few exceptions, there's about two or three really bad episodes. But that appears to be another unwritten rule of tv - you'll always have two or three bad episodes. (Meltdown (silly - a little Stark goes a long way), Eat Me (saved solely by the great plot-twist it sets up), and Scratch n' Sniff (which was just offensive, although also sort of saved by Frances Buellor - Browder's wife, who astonishes me with her range.))
Imagine what BTVS would have been like if Whedon worked that closely with his actors? If Gellar and Marsters were permitted to collaborate? Granted it may not be fair to compare the two - since Browder and Black had more experience, and in Australia there's no star system or hierarchy like there is here.
no subject
Date: 2010-07-08 04:20 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-07-08 04:26 pm (UTC)Please note that this post was supposed to be solely on Season 3 Farscape. While I did watch S4 way way back in 2004, I don't remember much of it. Any more than I remembered any of the other episodes. I only vaguely remember the gist of it or general plotline but it is quite vague and most likely wrong. Please don't spoil me on it!