Farscape First Watch: I, E.T.

This episode opens with an alarm going off inside the ship. (The ship is apparently named Moya. I thought it was Moira, but wikipedia corrected me). Considering that at the end of the last episode, everyone was on edge and hating each other, I was surprised that something that's merely annoying like an alarm sort of brings everyone together. I would have expected a lot more suspicion--especially suspicion of Aeryn. (I totally got in this episode that her name was something like "Erin" but had to look up the spelling).

Turns out there is a peacekeeper device on the ship that is signaling their position to the peacekeeper forces. And since Moya is alive, removing it will cause her extreme pain and could even kill her. (Which would be bad for the occupants of the ship to say the least.)

Pilot, the pilot of the ship, explains that there is a substance that would dampen Moya's pain, but its a forbidden cargo for her type of ship because it can mess with their functions. But they need it if they're going to get rid of the device.

They head to a nearby planet where John suggests they land--to the surprise of everyone else. Pilot admits it is possible and Moya thinks they can do it, so the ship lands. But the planet is basically Dagobah (seriously, this was my immediate thought), and like Luke's X-Wing, the ship sinks into the muck.

John, Aeryn, and our Klingon friend--who is named Ka D'Argo according to wikipedia--head out of the ship to find the substance they need. (I think its called clorium). John and Aeryn have a discussion where John compares the planet to Louisiana and Dagobah. (Can I just say it's excellent when a show makes me think of something and then the writers acknowledge it should have made me think of that!) John explains that Dagobah is where Yoda lives, and Aeryn is like who is that? John answers that he's a green alien who trains warriors, and Aeryn accepts that as if its real and serious. I love that!

While they're out and about, some inhabitants of the planet show up (though our crew is hidden) and start a manhunt because an alien spaceship just landed on their planet. The crew seem surprised the planet is inhabited. One would think they could have scanned the planet for lifeforms, or at least signs of civilization, but apparently Moya doesn't have that kind of capability.

Aeryn and Ka D'Argo distract the manhunt group, sending John to find the clorium (which he can find because he has a tricorder). John follows the tricorder reading to a barn where he is essentially caught by a little kid. The little kid gets his mom (like any sane kid would) but before his mom can get there he basically tasers John, because he's scared.

Turns out the kid's mom is essentially a SETI employee. She's one of the people on her planet looking for alien life. So she's both excited and scared to meet John.

John convinces her he's a peaceful scientist with a broken ship whose trying to find his way home. All technically true. The kid can't believe that an alien would be lost, but we viewers are used to that idea; hence the name of the episode. John is E.T.

The mom makes dinner for them, and John's tricorder goes crazy. Turns out the seasoning she's using for the meal is actually the clorium John needs. (Also, I loved the mom's little spiel when she was offering John the meal. She basically says she doesn't know if he can eat, needs to eat, or what she's offering will be toxic to him, but it seems impolite to do otherwise).

John is really excited because he found the clorium; however, his plans are foiled when the military shows up. John has to hide in the kid's room.

Aeryn and Ka D'Argo are both wondering where John is at this point. Ka D'Argo sends Aeryn backs to the ship and he goes to find John. When Aeryn gets back to the ship, she finds that they've already started trying to get rid of the device, without the painkiller. The priestess is trying to take away some of the ship's pain but she can only take so much. And the little dude on the flying chair is the one crawling around cutting away the device.

Back in the house, the mom is able to set up a radio/video chat device for John to contact his ship. She says it's broadcasting on a lot of frequencies which leads me to wonder why the military doesn't pick up the conversation. Anyway, Pilot updates John, and the mom is amazed because Pilot is so alien looking.

Then Ka D'Argo shows up at the farmhouse and tries to fight the military. They capture him, and mom sees this as a chance for John to escape. John, though, refuses to leave Ka D'Argo behind.

Mom expresses surprises that Ka D'Argo is so violent when John claimed to be a scientist, and John fesses up to the whole escaped prisoners thing. Really, John? I mean I know its good to tell the truth, but this is a scenario where I wouldn't have. Because why should mom help escaped prisoners? I would have said something like "even scientists need bodyguards." Seems plausible to me.

Anyway, Mom devises a plan. She shows the head military guy the video of Pilot's half of his conversation with John and then lies to the general about where the video originated from, thus sending him off on a goose chase. John then overtakes the last two guards left and sets Ka D'Argo free.

The kid is really excited and shakes Ka D'Argo's hand, which is really cute. John then says goodbye to mom by kissing her on the cheek, which is completely surprising to her and she's like "This is how you say goodbye?" I liked it.

John and Ka D'Argo get back to the ship. The priestess has passed out from all the pain, the little guy in the chair was disconnected the device, and Moya is in all sorts of pain. But they sprinkle the clorium around and make Moya feel better.

Strangely, despite the earlier concerns that clorium is a forbidden cargo because its bad for the operation of ships like Moya, they are able to take off from the planet.

Mom and kid watch the ship take off from their porch. Well, the kid fell asleep and Mom watches with a smile knowing she helped John get off the planet.

All in all, I really liked this episode. It was cute, and John played the lost alien trying to get home perfectly. Every SF show has this kind of episode, and I think Farscape pulled it off nicely. So the second episode of Farscape gets two thumbs up from me. Though I'm still having trouble with the character names.

Farscape First Watch: Premiere

Today is our first Friday in the Farscape First Watch! Woohoo!! Unsure what this is? Check out this post. But basically, I've never seen Farscape before, so I'm chronicling my first watch of the show. Basically, I'm going to summarize the episode with my feelings and reactions!

We start out with Commander John Crichton, who is an "IASA" astronaut. What IASA stands for, I had to google. It's apparently the "International Aeronautics and Space Agency." Is this a rename of NASA because for some reason they didn't want to use the name of a well known oft used government agency? Possibly. Is this the future and NASA has morphed into a true international organization? I doubt it, because John's father who we meet shortly was an astronaut who walked on the moon and knew Yuri Gagarin, so his father was in his prime in the 60's. My parents weren't even in double digits of age in the 60's and it's 2012, so I doubt this is the future considering how old John's father looked. Another possibility is that it's an alternate Earth: same time we're in now, things just developed differently. This is possible. However, we didn't really spend enough time in this Earth to really determine the truth.

Anyway, John is getting ready for his third time in the shuttle (another reason why it's not the future, they're still using such outdated technology). Strangely, a mission control guy helping him out is a friend from childhood. Why? I have no idea. This adds absolutely nothing to the story, since the emotional connection of a friend can't compare with the emotional connection with his father who works there also and is there to see him off. So, yeah, pointless, not to mention unrealistic friend. (No way to childhood friends would end up as an astronaut and a mission control guy. No way. Trust me on this. I worked at Kennedy Space Center.)

John takes off in the shuttle and when we get to space it is revealed that his experiment is a spacecraft he designed. As if ONE SINGLE person could design a spacecraft. Right. Because John Crichton is an expert in propulsion, structures, avionics, computer engineering, electrical engineering, and every other subset that goes into designing a spacecraft.

While John is in his specially designed vehicle so he can prove a theory--a theory I couldn't quite understand. Is he just slingshot around the planet? Was that a cutting edge theory when this show was created? Because now that's pretty much how every satellite going out to the boonies of the solar system gets where its going. If there was something particular about his theory, I couldn't figure it out.

His friend down in mission control sees a strange electromagnetic wave heading towards John's craft as he's trying to do his maneuver. (Another faux pas. Once launch is over, control of a space mission is given over to Houston. It doesn't stay at Kennedy. But that's besides the point. Let's also forget that every wave is in the electromagnetic spectrum, so...yeah. Mysterious EM wave? What part of the spectrum?) This strange occurrence throws him into what is obviously a wormhole and John finds himself in the middle of a space battle, without Earth in view. So he's definitely traveled some distance away from the Earth, and knowing wormholes in sci-fi he could also be in the future. Though I suppose its also possible that he's in a future where the Earth is merely destroyed, hence it's lack in the field of view of the craft.

Anyway, one of the small fighters hits John's craft, which is doing nothing at the moment, and gets thrown off course and into a nearby asteroid--blowing up. At the time this seemed unimportant. Just another fighter dead in this weird space battle.

The small fighters are attacking a much larger ship, which for some reason attaches a tractor beam to John's ship and pulls him in. And yet no one is there to greet him when he arrives except for a strange little roomba looking thing. John follows the roomba to the bridge where he meets several non-humans. They apparently brought him aboard because his ship is strange and they wondered if it could help them. (Seems a sketchy reason to me. Not to mention, since this is a group of people who live in an obviously spacefaring society, you would think his craft would seem retro or just wrong, not advanced and special).

The attack ends and the fighters leave, though I'm not sure why. Something about a device attached to the outside of the ship. Before all the fighters can leave, the crew of the ship John is on captures one of the fighters.

John is knocked unconscious. The most humunoid aliens hold a conversation from which I took two facts: (1) the Klingon-esque guy is young but doesn't feel like it because he's a warrior and (2) the blue chic is some kind of priestess.

When John wakes up he's naked and in the brig. The small alien who floats on a platform like Yoda's in Episode 1 talks to him and John realizes he's not alone in the brig. A heavily armored person is also there. Turns out its a woman who is a "peacekeeper", the people who were attacking them, who look human but apparently don't recognize the word when John says that's what he is. She's apparently brainwashed into being a peacekeeper, firmly believing everything the peacekeepers stand for.

The aliens on the ship are apparently escaped prisoners. They head towards a nearby planet where a colony lives, and it seems EVERYONE heads down to the planet, leaving the prisoners alone on the ship. (Except possibly the engineer, who we never see except in communications with the main crew). So of course, alone, John and the peacekeeper girl escape. Using a fork. Such fancy technology these spacefaring people have.

They take her ship down to the planet, because she's intent on recapturing the prisoners and she told him the peacekeepers might help him get home. The aliens realize the humans have escaped. The priest alien heads back up to the ship with the Yoda-flying seat alien leaving the Klingon-like alien behind. He then jumps the humans, but then the peacekeepers show up. Turns out the guy that died when he hit John's ship was the brother of the head peacekeeper.

And for some reason peacekeepers who brainwashed Claudia Black (who's fictional name I don't know) didn't brainwash the head peacekeeper enough to not make him take obviously stupid revenge on something that couldn't have been stopped. John's ship was obviously not attacking anyone. His brother obviously accidentally hit it.

The Klingon, Claudia, and John are taken captive by the peacekeepers. Turns out because Claudia spent so much time with John she's been irreversibly contaminated, which is something that makes a lot of sense. If the peacekeepers rely on brainwashing to keep people like Claudia around then over exposure to people who could make her realize she's been brainwashed would be a bad thing for the peacekeepers. I really liked that touch.

John is able to overtake his two guards and get a gun and the keys. He sets the other two three and convinces them all to head back to the ship of the escaped prisoners (our main aliens). Claudia is hesitant, but John and the Klingon make her realize if she stays she's dead. The Klingon doesn't want to take her, but John convinces him to. So all three go back to the ship.

The priest is glad to see them all. The Klingon threatens John. The Yoda-chair dude tries to steal John's stuff. And of course Claudia is still mostly brainwashed. So basically we're given the impression that John is completely alone on this ship.

John makes a recording for his father, promising he'll try to find a way back home, while fixing one of the ship's roombas. The episode ends.

I really wish that end had contained a better sense of John's loneliness. He's in a strange land, all alone, with no real hope of getting home. I don't expect him to be broken (yet), but I do expect him to be really really sad. I expected a little break down and I think the ending would have been more satisfying, made him seem more realistic. I get he's a determined astronaut, but still! He's in a ship with escaped alien prisoners and a peacekeeper who thinks they should all go back to jail. No one has heard of Earth though the peacekeepers look human. Heck, no one has heard of humans. This is ALIEN. And that should be scary and frightening, even for an astronaut.

Anyway, I did like this first episode, though the names of none of the characters (aside from John) stuck with me. I hope they do a better job of getting the names across in the next episode.

The New Schedule!

So I've been thinking about what the schedule should be for a few weeks now. I've had several ideas for different series of posts but was unsure which series could be long term for the schedule. And then a couple of things hit me. So without further ado, here it is:

Monday: Writerly Thoughts

This is the day where I'll discuss topics that relate to my writing, writing in general, and books. This should be a familiar series to anyone who has read this blog for a while. Check out other posts labeled writing or writer to know what I mean.

Wednesday: Women of the Bible

We all know one of my New Year's Resolutions is to have a steady quiet time. I really suck at this sort of thing. I've had this women of the Bible book for a really long time. It's a devotional that focuses on a different woman of the Bible each week. So in order to create an accountability for myself, I will post about the woman of the week every Wednesday, my thoughts about her story like how it relates to my life or things I struggle with or more esoteric aspect of the story.

Fridays: Farscape First Watch
So tor.com has several show re-watches running, where someone watches The X-Files or Star Trek: The Next Generation and analyzes the episodes with knowledge of the entire series and society as it is now. These re-watches are fantastic--I've read the entire Star Trek one--and I would eventually like to do something like that for Stargate: SG-1, my favorite show of all time. However, I am also trying to meet a New Year's resolution of getting in shape (so I can survive the zombie apocalypse). The only time I managed to work out regularly was when I told myself I could only watch Buffy the Vampire Slayer if I worked out while watching it. This was my first watch of Buffy, so the episodes where brand new and surprising--and able to completely distract me from the fact that I'm working out.

Sometimes I like to think I've seen every Science Fiction TV show out there, but the truth is that simply isn't true. Whether its because I didn't get the channel or because I was too young for the content of the show, there are several SF shows I haven't seen, one of which is Farscape. So I've decided that is to be the show I'll watch while I work out.

I know absolutely nothing about Farscape other than the actors who play Valla and Cameron Mitchell from the later seasons of Stargate: SG-1 are the stars of the show. Because I'm coming from such a blank slate on the show, I think there is something to be said to chronicle my initial reactions and thoughts, whether they be first impressions or exclamations at how the plot unfolds.

If I only post Farscape episodes on Friday it will take us a long time to get through the entire series. However, for now it will only be Friday because I have no idea how I'll like the show and I don't want this to become the rant against Farscape blog. As I get into a blogging routine, I hope to one day expand to blogging every day of the week, except Sunday, and then I'll probably post two Farscape episodes a week. But for now, it's once a week.

So that's the new schedule! I hope you guys enjoy it! First Farscape post will be Friday, but otherwise things will start up on Monday!