I Heart Farscape, Part One: Big Trouble in Little Crichton
Well, I've been mulling over a Farscape post for some time now, and I've decided that unless I provide an in-flight meal and Stadium Pals to everyone, I certainly can't expect anyone to sit through all my endless gushing.
Really though, I'm going to make a concerted effort to keep my commentary to WHY I love the show so much, instead of just prompting people to ask me why I haven't yet made a proposal of matrimony to the show. (Because you can't marry a show, it's illegal silly...)
Aside: By the way, I can't believe Stadium Pals even exist. Only in America are there people so lazy that they'll voluntarily wear something that will allow them to pee themselves so they don't have to get up. And don't worry ladies; they make one for you too. Gross. I must say though, they do have the best tagline ever: "When you gotta go, but you wanna stay."
As Kenny Banya of Seinfeld fame would say: "It's Gold, Jerry! Gold!"
So, I've decided to divy up my love for Farscape into several posts. Otherwise, I'll never do it, and/or you'll never read it.
I've also made an oath to keep these musings as spoiler-free as possible. While I would like to get specific in order to most accurately convey my feelings, I'll try and hold my tongue with hopes that someone watching this falls in love with Farscape as I did.
Which, by the way, is the only way I can possibly justify these posts as not being COMPLETELY self-indulgent. Yeah, ya see? Yeah, I'm trying to bring good TV to others, see? Lay off me, Copper.... :)
And, begin...
Please be aware that my "reasons for loving Farscape" are not in any priority order; it's just whatever I think of and want to write about at the time.
So, I can sum up Reason #1 simply by stating the title of the 3-part Finale of Season 4:
"We're So Screwed."
The crew on Farscape is never really sure about what they're doing, they're always in really big trouble, running from someone or something that's a lot bigger and stronger than they are, and barely getting away.
(By the way, Farscape is big fans of crazy 3-parters. Every season ends with one, and there are additional multi-part episodes peppered throughout each season. While there are certainly episodes that some deviate from the series' "main plot," pretty much every episode has some impact on the story and is revisited in some way later on; and some of those "tangent" episodes actually end up becoming much more important than you might think; but that's another post. :D)
This feeling of "being lost" is a constant touchstone in the series; both literal and figurative.
The lead role, John Crichton, played by Ben Browder, is a galactic fish-out-of-water. He's the only human around and he's REALLY far from home; despite some aliens looking very human, (okay.. they couldn't put EVERYONE in a wacky suit; but you'll be glad to know that only one perennial "regular" of the crew, besides Crichton, looks totally human) and, silly as it sounds, that adds to the empathic bond you start to feel for him.
He's a bright guy, but almost everyone and everything he encounters is technologically superior to him, so he has to brazenly jury-rig and wing it with just about everything he does; the result is a very amusing mix of MacGuyver and Han Solo; with some pop-culture references thrown in for good measure.
(I'm sure this will part of an "all the little things" post at some point, but hearing Crichton quote some commercial or something, and it kind of gets lost in translation with the aliens to the point where only we, the viewer, "get it," is pretty neat in an inside joke kind of way.)
The Han Solo reference is not a coincidence. I've already declared my love for the original Star Wars Trilogy; and the "We're So Screwed" phenomenon, at least vis a vis the sci-fi genre, might have originated with Lucas's Harrison Ford movies, both Star Wars and Indiana Jones.
Harrison Ford is just SO good at simultaneously conveying the danger and absurdity of being in REALLY big trouble. Ben Browder must've studied Ford, because he's got it down, and Crichton gets in a LOT more trouble than Han and Indy put together.
Consider the scene from Star Wars when the Millenium Falcon gets brought aboard the Death Star and the small band rescues Princess Leia. They employ some pretty silly strategy, mock up Chewbacca as a prisoner, and head down to the Detention block. When they arrive, they're facing the wrong way in the elevator, and everything goes bad after that... after the firefight, Han tries to cover it up:
HAN: (trying to sound official) Everything is under control. Situation normal.
INTERCOM VOICE: What happened?
HAN: (getting nervous) Uh...had a slight weapons malfunction. But, uh, everything's perfectly all right now. We're fine. We're all fine here, now, thank you. How are you? - CLASSIC!
INTERCOM VOICE: We're sending a squad up.
HAN: Uh, uh, negative. We had a reactor leak here... now give us a few minutes to lock it down. Large leak...very dangerous.
INTERCOM VOICE: Who is this? What's your operating number?
(Han blasts the comlink and it explodes.)
HAN: Boring conversation anyway... (yelling down the hall) Luke! We're going to have company!
That exchange, is of course, followed by them getting completely trapped in the Detention Block, and the Princess has to save their asses by blasting a hole in a grate and telling them all to jump into the garbage chute; where they all almost die again.
Another perfect example of the phenomenon is in Return of the Jedi, when ANOTHER rescue attempt gets completely botched; this time when they try to save Han from Jabba's palace. After they get discovered and captured, they bring everyone in front of Jabba for his decree; Han can't see (hibernation sickness from being frozen in carbonite) but he hears Luke's voice and asks,
HAN: "How we doin'?"
LUKE: "Same as always.."
HAN: "That bad, huh?"
Those Star Wars moments are completely reminiscent of what the Farscape crew faces nearly every episode.
Despite the obvious reasons of enjoying this for the "omygod, look what just happened to them.. well, what the hell are they going to do NOW?" factor, I think I like the "We're So Screwed" phenomenon so much because it's so different from other sci-fi TV series, like Star Trek.
The Enterprise is the Federations's flagship; the most powerful ship in the armada of a powerful faction in the known Universe. And even though they still get screwed over and almost blown up nearly every episode, they have all manner of photon torpedoes, force shields, and deflector dishes to do pretty much anything with.
Moya (The ship in Farscape) is a living beast of burden, with no weapons, and her crew are escaped prisoners being pursued by the armada of a powerful faction of the known Universe.
(Don't worry, that's all first episode exposition stuff.)
So, to sum up WHY the "We're so Screwed" phenomenon is so appealing to me, I guess I'd have to say that, on an unconscious level, I really respect the writers of the show for apparently painting themselves into a corner so many times, only to surprise you with how they get out of it; or sometimes, shock you by having them NOT get out of it.
Really though, I'm going to make a concerted effort to keep my commentary to WHY I love the show so much, instead of just prompting people to ask me why I haven't yet made a proposal of matrimony to the show. (Because you can't marry a show, it's illegal silly...)
Aside: By the way, I can't believe Stadium Pals even exist. Only in America are there people so lazy that they'll voluntarily wear something that will allow them to pee themselves so they don't have to get up. And don't worry ladies; they make one for you too. Gross. I must say though, they do have the best tagline ever: "When you gotta go, but you wanna stay."
As Kenny Banya of Seinfeld fame would say: "It's Gold, Jerry! Gold!"
So, I've decided to divy up my love for Farscape into several posts. Otherwise, I'll never do it, and/or you'll never read it.
I've also made an oath to keep these musings as spoiler-free as possible. While I would like to get specific in order to most accurately convey my feelings, I'll try and hold my tongue with hopes that someone watching this falls in love with Farscape as I did.
Which, by the way, is the only way I can possibly justify these posts as not being COMPLETELY self-indulgent. Yeah, ya see? Yeah, I'm trying to bring good TV to others, see? Lay off me, Copper.... :)
And, begin...
Please be aware that my "reasons for loving Farscape" are not in any priority order; it's just whatever I think of and want to write about at the time.
So, I can sum up Reason #1 simply by stating the title of the 3-part Finale of Season 4:
"We're So Screwed."
The crew on Farscape is never really sure about what they're doing, they're always in really big trouble, running from someone or something that's a lot bigger and stronger than they are, and barely getting away.
(By the way, Farscape is big fans of crazy 3-parters. Every season ends with one, and there are additional multi-part episodes peppered throughout each season. While there are certainly episodes that some deviate from the series' "main plot," pretty much every episode has some impact on the story and is revisited in some way later on; and some of those "tangent" episodes actually end up becoming much more important than you might think; but that's another post. :D)
This feeling of "being lost" is a constant touchstone in the series; both literal and figurative.
The lead role, John Crichton, played by Ben Browder, is a galactic fish-out-of-water. He's the only human around and he's REALLY far from home; despite some aliens looking very human, (okay.. they couldn't put EVERYONE in a wacky suit; but you'll be glad to know that only one perennial "regular" of the crew, besides Crichton, looks totally human) and, silly as it sounds, that adds to the empathic bond you start to feel for him.
He's a bright guy, but almost everyone and everything he encounters is technologically superior to him, so he has to brazenly jury-rig and wing it with just about everything he does; the result is a very amusing mix of MacGuyver and Han Solo; with some pop-culture references thrown in for good measure.
(I'm sure this will part of an "all the little things" post at some point, but hearing Crichton quote some commercial or something, and it kind of gets lost in translation with the aliens to the point where only we, the viewer, "get it," is pretty neat in an inside joke kind of way.)
The Han Solo reference is not a coincidence. I've already declared my love for the original Star Wars Trilogy; and the "We're So Screwed" phenomenon, at least vis a vis the sci-fi genre, might have originated with Lucas's Harrison Ford movies, both Star Wars and Indiana Jones.
Harrison Ford is just SO good at simultaneously conveying the danger and absurdity of being in REALLY big trouble. Ben Browder must've studied Ford, because he's got it down, and Crichton gets in a LOT more trouble than Han and Indy put together.
Consider the scene from Star Wars when the Millenium Falcon gets brought aboard the Death Star and the small band rescues Princess Leia. They employ some pretty silly strategy, mock up Chewbacca as a prisoner, and head down to the Detention block. When they arrive, they're facing the wrong way in the elevator, and everything goes bad after that... after the firefight, Han tries to cover it up:
HAN: (trying to sound official) Everything is under control. Situation normal.
INTERCOM VOICE: What happened?
HAN: (getting nervous) Uh...had a slight weapons malfunction. But, uh, everything's perfectly all right now. We're fine. We're all fine here, now, thank you. How are you? - CLASSIC!
INTERCOM VOICE: We're sending a squad up.
HAN: Uh, uh, negative. We had a reactor leak here... now give us a few minutes to lock it down. Large leak...very dangerous.
INTERCOM VOICE: Who is this? What's your operating number?
(Han blasts the comlink and it explodes.)
HAN: Boring conversation anyway... (yelling down the hall) Luke! We're going to have company!
That exchange, is of course, followed by them getting completely trapped in the Detention Block, and the Princess has to save their asses by blasting a hole in a grate and telling them all to jump into the garbage chute; where they all almost die again.
Another perfect example of the phenomenon is in Return of the Jedi, when ANOTHER rescue attempt gets completely botched; this time when they try to save Han from Jabba's palace. After they get discovered and captured, they bring everyone in front of Jabba for his decree; Han can't see (hibernation sickness from being frozen in carbonite) but he hears Luke's voice and asks,
HAN: "How we doin'?"
LUKE: "Same as always.."
HAN: "That bad, huh?"
Those Star Wars moments are completely reminiscent of what the Farscape crew faces nearly every episode.
Despite the obvious reasons of enjoying this for the "omygod, look what just happened to them.. well, what the hell are they going to do NOW?" factor, I think I like the "We're So Screwed" phenomenon so much because it's so different from other sci-fi TV series, like Star Trek.
The Enterprise is the Federations's flagship; the most powerful ship in the armada of a powerful faction in the known Universe. And even though they still get screwed over and almost blown up nearly every episode, they have all manner of photon torpedoes, force shields, and deflector dishes to do pretty much anything with.
Moya (The ship in Farscape) is a living beast of burden, with no weapons, and her crew are escaped prisoners being pursued by the armada of a powerful faction of the known Universe.
(Don't worry, that's all first episode exposition stuff.)
So, to sum up WHY the "We're so Screwed" phenomenon is so appealing to me, I guess I'd have to say that, on an unconscious level, I really respect the writers of the show for apparently painting themselves into a corner so many times, only to surprise you with how they get out of it; or sometimes, shock you by having them NOT get out of it.
posted by Frange at 3:18 PM
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