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shadowkatProcrastinating, again.
I swear Farscape is an addictive tv series - it sucks you in and you just can't stop watching it. Also the dialogue is so good (and often hard to decipher because it's fast and spoken with heavy accents and with music and other sounds over it) that I'm constantly flipping back or rewinding.
Great line yesterday:
Crichton to his arch enemy Scorpius who he has tried to kill numerous times: What does it take to kill you? Kryptonite? Superbullet? Buffy?
Also, I'm liking the reintroduction of Aeryn into the show better than I remembered, possibly because I realize that we are almost entirely in Crichton's point of view.
And he has been separated from Aeryn for a very long time almost an entire year, possibly longer. He wasn't with her on Talyn. He's been separated from her longer than she has from him. From his perspective she left him right after he got cloned, right after she told him that she'd chosen not to feel, because it was safer, and shut herself off from him. When she comes back again, four months later, she's even more shut off from him emotionally. Shuts him out completely. Then everyone leaves and Crichton is alone with an old and dying Leviathan and a bunch of DRD's. He's so lonely, that he befriends one of the DRD's and calls him 1812 - after the Tsch. Overture that he's taught the DRD to play, a reference to the Napoleanic Wars - specifically Russia's defeat of Napolean, immortalized by Tschaviosky. (Thanks go to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
revdorothy for the reference.) A considerable amount of time has passed - we aren't exactly told how long, not sure Crichton knows and it is his pov that we are in. He grew a full beard, his hair is longer, and he has written formulas across the ship, when we see him again in Crichton Kicks. And in his visions of Aeryn - she's six months pregnant. When his friends meet up with him again - they've had a lot of adventures - the fuel in Rygel and Chiana's pod ran out, D'Argo had started a relationship with Jool and was working with Jool and Niavitri (Wrinkles)- an old mystical woman who'd joined the crew in Dog with Two Bones, on an architectural dig with Jool's people. They meet up and travel together for at least half a month, before reaching Moya, finally. And it's at that point - around episode five, that Aeryn reappears with Scorpius in tow.
From Crichton's pov - Aeryn has been away for a year and a half. And she left him. She stopped trusting him. When she returns - she doesn't tell him all that much. Except that she got the heat delirium and Scorpius has saved her. And makes him promise not to kill Scorpius. He also learns that she got the sickness - invading a planet and assinating their their leaders - a righteous cause, which is never quite explained. Except that these people - the ones she killed, had killed millions and had biological contaminants. (Another war reference). She refuses to give the names of those she worked with or for. Crichton is able to save her life and destroy the enemy pursuing her in PRomises - but when he asks if she has anything else to tell him. She shakes her head. Until he mentions that he knows she is pregnant. In the next episode - Aeryn reveals to Chiana that she isn't sure it is even Crichton's child.
(Stupid move - considering Chiana sucks at secrets and immediately tells D'Argo, and D'Argo much like Chiana - first loyalty is to Crichton. All those months that Aeryn was away, Chiana and D'Argo were with Crichton.) Aeryn is the outsider again, no one completely trusts her.
Least of all John. So Crichton finds out both secrets from someone other than Aeryn, not only that - finds out everyone else knows before he does.
This leads up to an important scene between the two characters:
Crichton: in a relationship, like the relationship we are not currently having, an important ingredient is trust.
Aeryn: I think by now, I would have earned your trust.
Crichton: Oh I trust you with my life, but I can't trust you with my heart. You don't trust me, Aeryn,how can I possibly trust you?
Aeryn: I'm sorry. What can I do?
Crichton: Go away or stay, just get your story straight.
In S3, Aeryn and Crichton resolved the trust issue on Tayln in Green-Eyed Monster. Where she opened her heart to him and he opened his to her. Their relationship was built completely on trust, they confided in one another. When that John Crichton died in her arms, Aeryn shut herself down. She tells John in the scene above that she no longer sees a distinction between him and the other Crichton, somewhere along the line she decided they are the same man.
She doesn't know who the child's father is - because Sebastian Women who are in the military are breed to be able to carry an embryo up to 7 cycles (years) before the baby begins to grow or change. You need to find a surgeon to activate the child. She'd gone to do that and find out the DNA, that's partly why she had to leave - but she hadn't gotten that far, so no, the child is not growing. It's just an embryo. And she didn't know about it until the Command Carrier.
That's when she found out. It could be Crichton's kid or someone she slept with 4 years before she met him.
But, from Crichton's perspective - she didn't trust him enough to tell him any of this - and may well not have if it weren't for Chiana. Aeryn closed herself off from this Crichton, broke his heart, and now he's trying to shut her out to protect himself. And it makes perfect sense.
As for Aeryn - her current trajectory is echoing her mother's. Her mother bred a pilot and became an assasin after losing the man she loved and giving birth and putting the child first.
Both Aeryn and John are struggling with their own dark night of the soul. At the end of S2 and Beginning S3 - Aeryn/John and D'Argo/Chiana are together, both are broken up by the end of S3 and beginning S4 for a loss of trust. The break up of John and Aeryn is more interesting in some respects, because neither really do anything to cause it - it is just a gradual progression of events and to a degree their own fears and desires keeping them apart.
Meanwhile, we have the continuous war and peace metaphors. 1812 is one. Another is the biological contaminant. The wormhole technology - which bears a resemblence to the hydrogen bomb or nuclear technology. The secret in John Crichton's head, which he has managed to unlock is the dark edge of his own personality. It is a weapon capable of destroying worlds, and a means to go home.
And, Scorpius has joined them on board Moya, seeking asylum. Stating his purpose is to safeguard John, more importantly the info in his head, against their mutual enemies.
As Crichton puts it: What is it with you peacekeepers? You hunt us down, then turn around and decide to come aboard and seek aslym, what are we - a bed and breakfast to you, with free HBO?
First Crais, now Scorpius, and both through Aeryn, which he realizes has become his achillees heel.
Okay, off to do something else.
Great commentary on the John Quixote episode - which also bolsters my respect for Bowder - who wrote it. Claudia Black asks him how he found the time - because he is the lead and they work 30 hour days. He said on weekends and in the middle of the night. In this surreal episode, the actor references fairy tales, subverts them, as well as numerous science fiction references.
Max Headroom shows up at one point. As does a reference to the Tardis. He also breaks the Fourth Wall at least twice. It's a brilliantly written episode, and a collaborative piece. In the commentary - he makes it clear that as a tv writer you have no control. The script goes through numerous changes, the actors, etc play with it. And as a writer - it works best in tv if you work with everyone involved, ask for their input, what the actors would like to do,
what would challenge them. That the problem with long-running tv shows - is boredom. People start to get blaze, and stop challenging themselves...and phone it in. You need to keep the energy up and it helps if you allow for input and see what everyone is capable of, how they want to push the barriers. And you have to keep doing it. Oh, and this episode features one of the best directors of the series, Australian Director Rowan Woods, naked, painted blue, and looking like Zhan.
I swear Farscape is an addictive tv series - it sucks you in and you just can't stop watching it. Also the dialogue is so good (and often hard to decipher because it's fast and spoken with heavy accents and with music and other sounds over it) that I'm constantly flipping back or rewinding.
Great line yesterday:
Crichton to his arch enemy Scorpius who he has tried to kill numerous times: What does it take to kill you? Kryptonite? Superbullet? Buffy?
Also, I'm liking the reintroduction of Aeryn into the show better than I remembered, possibly because I realize that we are almost entirely in Crichton's point of view.
And he has been separated from Aeryn for a very long time almost an entire year, possibly longer. He wasn't with her on Talyn. He's been separated from her longer than she has from him. From his perspective she left him right after he got cloned, right after she told him that she'd chosen not to feel, because it was safer, and shut herself off from him. When she comes back again, four months later, she's even more shut off from him emotionally. Shuts him out completely. Then everyone leaves and Crichton is alone with an old and dying Leviathan and a bunch of DRD's. He's so lonely, that he befriends one of the DRD's and calls him 1812 - after the Tsch. Overture that he's taught the DRD to play, a reference to the Napoleanic Wars - specifically Russia's defeat of Napolean, immortalized by Tschaviosky. (Thanks go to
revdorothy for the reference.) A considerable amount of time has passed - we aren't exactly told how long, not sure Crichton knows and it is his pov that we are in. He grew a full beard, his hair is longer, and he has written formulas across the ship, when we see him again in Crichton Kicks. And in his visions of Aeryn - she's six months pregnant. When his friends meet up with him again - they've had a lot of adventures - the fuel in Rygel and Chiana's pod ran out, D'Argo had started a relationship with Jool and was working with Jool and Niavitri (Wrinkles)- an old mystical woman who'd joined the crew in Dog with Two Bones, on an architectural dig with Jool's people. They meet up and travel together for at least half a month, before reaching Moya, finally. And it's at that point - around episode five, that Aeryn reappears with Scorpius in tow. From Crichton's pov - Aeryn has been away for a year and a half. And she left him. She stopped trusting him. When she returns - she doesn't tell him all that much. Except that she got the heat delirium and Scorpius has saved her. And makes him promise not to kill Scorpius. He also learns that she got the sickness - invading a planet and assinating their their leaders - a righteous cause, which is never quite explained. Except that these people - the ones she killed, had killed millions and had biological contaminants. (Another war reference). She refuses to give the names of those she worked with or for. Crichton is able to save her life and destroy the enemy pursuing her in PRomises - but when he asks if she has anything else to tell him. She shakes her head. Until he mentions that he knows she is pregnant. In the next episode - Aeryn reveals to Chiana that she isn't sure it is even Crichton's child.
(Stupid move - considering Chiana sucks at secrets and immediately tells D'Argo, and D'Argo much like Chiana - first loyalty is to Crichton. All those months that Aeryn was away, Chiana and D'Argo were with Crichton.) Aeryn is the outsider again, no one completely trusts her.
Least of all John. So Crichton finds out both secrets from someone other than Aeryn, not only that - finds out everyone else knows before he does.
This leads up to an important scene between the two characters:
Crichton: in a relationship, like the relationship we are not currently having, an important ingredient is trust.
Aeryn: I think by now, I would have earned your trust.
Crichton: Oh I trust you with my life, but I can't trust you with my heart. You don't trust me, Aeryn,how can I possibly trust you?
Aeryn: I'm sorry. What can I do?
Crichton: Go away or stay, just get your story straight.
In S3, Aeryn and Crichton resolved the trust issue on Tayln in Green-Eyed Monster. Where she opened her heart to him and he opened his to her. Their relationship was built completely on trust, they confided in one another. When that John Crichton died in her arms, Aeryn shut herself down. She tells John in the scene above that she no longer sees a distinction between him and the other Crichton, somewhere along the line she decided they are the same man.
She doesn't know who the child's father is - because Sebastian Women who are in the military are breed to be able to carry an embryo up to 7 cycles (years) before the baby begins to grow or change. You need to find a surgeon to activate the child. She'd gone to do that and find out the DNA, that's partly why she had to leave - but she hadn't gotten that far, so no, the child is not growing. It's just an embryo. And she didn't know about it until the Command Carrier.
That's when she found out. It could be Crichton's kid or someone she slept with 4 years before she met him.
But, from Crichton's perspective - she didn't trust him enough to tell him any of this - and may well not have if it weren't for Chiana. Aeryn closed herself off from this Crichton, broke his heart, and now he's trying to shut her out to protect himself. And it makes perfect sense.
As for Aeryn - her current trajectory is echoing her mother's. Her mother bred a pilot and became an assasin after losing the man she loved and giving birth and putting the child first.
Both Aeryn and John are struggling with their own dark night of the soul. At the end of S2 and Beginning S3 - Aeryn/John and D'Argo/Chiana are together, both are broken up by the end of S3 and beginning S4 for a loss of trust. The break up of John and Aeryn is more interesting in some respects, because neither really do anything to cause it - it is just a gradual progression of events and to a degree their own fears and desires keeping them apart.
Meanwhile, we have the continuous war and peace metaphors. 1812 is one. Another is the biological contaminant. The wormhole technology - which bears a resemblence to the hydrogen bomb or nuclear technology. The secret in John Crichton's head, which he has managed to unlock is the dark edge of his own personality. It is a weapon capable of destroying worlds, and a means to go home.
And, Scorpius has joined them on board Moya, seeking asylum. Stating his purpose is to safeguard John, more importantly the info in his head, against their mutual enemies.
As Crichton puts it: What is it with you peacekeepers? You hunt us down, then turn around and decide to come aboard and seek aslym, what are we - a bed and breakfast to you, with free HBO?
First Crais, now Scorpius, and both through Aeryn, which he realizes has become his achillees heel.
Okay, off to do something else.
Great commentary on the John Quixote episode - which also bolsters my respect for Bowder - who wrote it. Claudia Black asks him how he found the time - because he is the lead and they work 30 hour days. He said on weekends and in the middle of the night. In this surreal episode, the actor references fairy tales, subverts them, as well as numerous science fiction references.
Max Headroom shows up at one point. As does a reference to the Tardis. He also breaks the Fourth Wall at least twice. It's a brilliantly written episode, and a collaborative piece. In the commentary - he makes it clear that as a tv writer you have no control. The script goes through numerous changes, the actors, etc play with it. And as a writer - it works best in tv if you work with everyone involved, ask for their input, what the actors would like to do,
what would challenge them. That the problem with long-running tv shows - is boredom. People start to get blaze, and stop challenging themselves...and phone it in. You need to keep the energy up and it helps if you allow for input and see what everyone is capable of, how they want to push the barriers. And you have to keep doing it. Oh, and this episode features one of the best directors of the series, Australian Director Rowan Woods, naked, painted blue, and looking like Zhan.