“Enterprise”? “Andromeda”? “Firefly”? “Lexx”? Have these shows muppets? They do not!
“Farscape,” the only starship show that does not fear muppets, returns with new episodes Friday on the SciFi Channel. 4.2 arrives 10 p.m. Friday, June 14. Both episodes are reviewed below.
Here’s “Roj Blake” with the gory details:
Here’s “Roj Blake” with the gory details:
This review is based on a SciFi press tape that contains the first two episodes of S4. As a fan, and probably to the dismay of the AICN guys, I’m going to be a bit coy in writing about these episodes, as there’s really nothing as refreshing as watching a Farscape episode unfold without knowing too much about it going in. Additionally, the tape I viewed had not been decoded for Farscape’s all-new 16 x 9 presentation, so I had to watch it all kinda tall and skinny. In other words, I have suffered in order to bring you the information below.
4.1 "Crichton Kicks" by David Kemper
4.1 begins with a recap that ends with the footage of John floating in space from the S3 ender “Dog with Two Bones”...then we cut to the on-screen caption, "Some Time Later". The amount of time? Unsure, but enough time has passed for John to grow his hair fairly long, sport a thick, heavy beard, conquer wormhole theory and find himself bored, alone and in constant states of inebriation on a dying Leviathan named Elack. His only company is the ship's Pilot (who is very reminiscent of Katherine Hepburn) and a few of the DRDs - one John has painted red, white and blue and named "1812". In fact, Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture plays a sizable role throughout the episode. Before the opening credits roll, Sikozu crash-lands onboard Elack destroying the bulk of John's wormhole research in the process.
The episode seems designed, more than anything else, to introduce the character of Sikozu (Raelee Hill) and establish her relationship with Crichton. That Season 4 would begin by focusing primarily on the new girl seems to speak volumes about what the production team has in store for her later on down the road. I liked Sikozu quite a bit throughout the course of this episode. She's strong (big surprise there), smart, and quite the looker; she also possesses a pretty cool ability (which I'll not reveal here) that allows the cinematographers to get a bit crazy when it comes to lensing the scenes in which she uses it. Her physiology does not "allow for translator microbes", so while John is able to understand her, they both have to take some time out so she can (rather speedily) learn his language. Implausible maybe, but hey...this is Farscape. Kemper certainly doesn't waste any time abusing her in the same way he thrives on doing to the regulars.
The majority of the episode, outside of getting to know Sikozu, is spent telling a somewhat standard Farscape Cat and Mouse game between John, Sikozu, two of Moya's crew who appear about halfway through the story and some Grudek mercenaries who followed Sikozu to the diseased Leviathan. The Cat and Mouse game is nothing spectacular and more than anything else is again used to reveal facets of the new girl's character.
The greatest strengths of "Crichton Kicks" involve the subtle showcasing of how much our core characters have changed in the time they've been apart...and that's really all I'm going to say about that. Again, there are some things that are best left viewed fresh. I'm sure there's all kinds of Kemper shading that I just didn't pick up on with one viewing, but the great thing about the show is I'll see it all on subsequent viewings.
The story is not great by any means, but it does seem to do the one thing I suspected Farscape was going to do as S3 came to a close (and I'm going out on a limb by making this statement): It "reboots" the Farscape universe. As David Kemper has been quoted as saying "It'll be the same, but different" and that's as accurate a statement as anything I can come up with. I might even go so far as to say that an uninitiated person *might* be able to start watching Farscape fresh with S4, without too much problem understanding what's going on. This is, of course, easy for me to say knowing everything I know, but the show feels new. It doesn't feel like we're necessarily retreading old ground; that the saga is in some strange way starting over.
My biggest criticism involves a creature realised through CGI. It bears more than a passing resemblance to the animal from Alien 3. I like my Farscape populated with puppets. 'Nuff said.
Oh, and one more thing before I move on to Episode 2:
Claudia Black in a bikini.
4.2 "What Was Lost Part 1: Sacrifice" by Justin Monjo
OK, 4.1 was easy to write about. The less said about "What Was Lost Part 1", the better. Why? Because I was so utterly blown away by so many aspects of this episode that the fan in me refuses to ruin it for anybody.
SciFi's two-year commitment to Farscape has done more than just simply guarantee 44 episodes; they've obviously given the production team far more money to work with. The cinematography is unlike anything I've ever seen in the program's three-year history. It is truly cinematic in nearly every way, and I'm sure seeing it in 16 X 9 (as opposed to tall and skinny as I saw it) is going to add to the episodes craft ten-fold.
Monjo's script is precisely the kind of deep character shading at which he excels. Everyone is so incredibly well drawn (and in many cases, re-drawn) I was floating on a cloud after viewing this 45-minute installment.
Here's what I will tell you:
1. You'll feel sympathy for Scorpius by the end of this episode. What Monjo does to Scorpy in this episode is undoubtedly one of the cruelest, most demeaning things I've ever seen done to a recurring character on a television series, EVER.
2. Grayza's particular brand of evil makes Scorpy's seem tame and crude by comparison. This is a woman who thinks with her head, not her gut. In Scorpius, John had a worthy adversary with whom he could put up a good fight. It's going to be a much tougher battle with Grayza, especially if the production team can sustain what makes her so malevolent - and it's something that really only Farscape can pull off effectively.
3. Jool finally gets to be the character she's always needed to be.
4. The Old Woman/Noranti (or "Wrinkles" or "Granny" as she's dubbed by various characters) is somebody who will wreak more havoc for the crew of Moya and cause more change than any other shipmate has before her.
5. The production team simply must be indulging in hallucinogens before they begin the workday.
My only criticism of 4.2 is something that is still confounding me: in the "Previously on Farscape" tag at the beginning of the episode, there are two or three quick scenes that involve Grazya/Scorpy/Braca that I've never seen before; they certainly weren't in the final four of S3 and they weren't in 4.1 so I do NOT know where they came from, and yet they seemed somewhat necessary to the understanding of 4.2. I'm mystified. Perhaps this is some kind of weird SciFi frell-up that will be rectified by the time of broadcast.
Recently I chatted with some other Farscape fans about the possibility of the show “Jumping the Shark” in the future. If "What Was Lost Part 1: Sacrifice" is any indication of the overall quality of what we’re to be given over the course of S4 in terms of cinematography, characterization, effects, writing, acting, direction and the many other aspects that make Farscape the show that it has become, then there is simply no danger of this happening within the confines of the upcoming 22 episode block.
Roj Blake…teleport now!
