Farscape in review: "Unrealized Reality"
Jun. 28th, 2005 09:27 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
wisdomeagleWatched "Unrealized Reality" last night as a reward for making it through Monday. If I watch one episode from my new DVDs every night, I'll finish on Thursday night -- and Friday night I'm going to New York to watch crack!anime and Hornblower and whatness.
Before I buckle down and NaNo, I'm going to squee about "Unrealized Reality" a bit -- but first a PSA. If you haven't seen Farscape -- WATCH IT. Season 1 starts slow. It gets better. It gets *really* better. John is a bit of a twat at first. He, too, gets better. A LOT better. And do yourself a favor -- watch unspoiled. I only saw S3 unspoiled (and the end of S4, and PKW), and I do regret that. So everyone: watch Farscape. End PSA. Begin spoilers.
[spoilers through the end Peacekeeper Wars]
O.M.G. SO GOOD. UR is a classic example of an episode that rewards regular watchers, fangirls and boys, and geeky fen who marathon the whole thing because damn is this episode strong with the continuity. Girl and I once rewatched it right after watching the Premiere, and it's made even more brilliant in comparison/with the scene that's -- you know. "What is WRONG with you people -- tongue." SQUEE!
I capped my way through the ep and ended up with 49 caps. It was hard to cap -- there's a lot of John on the iceberg being angstful, which is all in the changing facial expressions and the tics and the omgJohnlove. I love John's dialogue, always, forever, and there are some eps when he's just on (on crack, that is.) This is one of them. "There are millions of me running around out there living millions of pathetic lives?"
Crais is teh_sexx, but VH in a skullcap is not as hot as VH with head shaved. Made me sad. I miss Zhaan. And the bits where DK (character, not exec producer) showed up I was like aww, pet pet. I have a crazy DK fetish and there should be more angstful John/DK fic out there cos dude. But in truth, he's not all that interesting a character.
The bit where they put everyone in someone else's makeup -- frelling weird. Some general thoughts on how well that worked:
-Wayne Pygram as Jack was absolutely perfect. Faked the Texan accent (and I loved how both Jack and John in that scene were so much more redneck than they really are -- and "I don't think I'm still a virgin"! Hee!) and let just enough of his real accent/Scorpy's accent creep in there to make it ultra-creepy and cool. And the imagery is just... O.M.G. They went there. Scorpy-as-Harvey has been adviser/mentor/guide to John for 2 years and that arc, just damn. And then Scorpy-as-Jack. Is just so... good! I think that you could see the cameramen in WP's sunglasses, though.
-Claudia Black as Chiana -- I think that part of the problem is that they're all too damn good -- the make-up people, presumably the director, but especially the frelling goddess-like goodness that is CB. Because she was Chi. Inside and out. The Girl tells me she didn't actually realize it was CB and not Gigi until the second or third time watching; I only got it the first time because she told me. Of course, Farscape rewards repeated viewing and there are so many nuances and lines that are just tossed off that you need to watch many times to just get everything that's going on. "We tried your plan. It failed. This is mine."
-Anthony Simcoe as Jool -- tooooosupercute, but didn't really fit the tone of the ep. Because the scene with everyone in each other's makeup was the climax of the ep, moving really fast, John was panicking, and the cuteness of Anthony Simcoe squealing like a girl was just... not appropriate? Or like, I don't know whether to laugh because it's cute or cry because OMG D'Argo (played by Rygel and voiced by Jonathan Harvey) just killed Chi... and... yes. It was a very confusing scene and will doubtless take many rewatchings to figure out what was going on.
-My favorite though is Raelee Hill as Stark. She doesn't sound especially like Paul Goddard, but why should she? I think she does manage to get Stark's personality and just go with it -- and it was great to see Stark again, regardless of who played him. And the excellence of crossing female-to-male in this case makes me sad that the male-to-female Anthony Simcoe as Jool seemed so much less on. But anyhow, I love Stark. "My love your love my love your love --"
But what really makes this episode utterly fabulous is the intercutting of clips and the skillful use of archived footage and the way they just pull out all the stops, everything -- and how what is, basically, a think piece about John becomes something far more, a recap of where we've been so far -- which is exactly what you should do before plunging into the climax of one of your main series arcs -- but not a traditional clip show so much as... well, a character study of John. Who he could be, who he was, the countless ways he could have been, the things that scare him most, the memories he cherishes -- everything.
The scenes that reprise the Premiere are... fabulous. Because it's not just about how John is now more knowledgeable about his crewmates, but because he loves them -- and he remembers that moment of meeting with perfect clarity (he knows the dialogue by heart) and somehow sees how he got from there to here. "No offense Buckwheat, but you couldn't take care of a chia pet."
And of course my shippery heart exploded with glee at the reprise of the scene in the cell -- "what you should ask is how I know you have a birthmark on the sweet spot on your hip." And "You had me at hello." O.M.G. They are the OTP. And much as they are indeed The Canon Het and very much so and there's also a sense of "destined to be in any 'verse," especially in this ep, which I dislike, they are... they just are. Perfect.
But I love this episode. The structure, the way it stands in the middle of the season -- this is John's arc in anutshell wormhole, and the iceberg is just perfect, just perfect. Because we're falling from Tormented Space back to Earth, and on the way we recall who John is, the people he's met, the tragedies he's had, everything he's been -- he earns his way back to Earth. And the writers earn theirs. We get the nice shot of Rygel's body from "A Human Reaction," and recall that it's on his home planet that he can do the most damage and then -- we're off, down another wormhole. This is the exposition we'll need for "Kansas" and really beyond, since we recall that John is utterly capable of frelling things up.
And he's scared. And the way -- BenBrowderisGod -- that Ben Browder conveys that growing fear -- it's really John's arc of the show, his growing sense of fear at how badly he can mess things up, but it's especially his arc of this episode, and Ben Browder plays it so well, so subtly, so richly. It makes me cross my fingers for his future projects and I hope -- I hope -- they use his talent like they ought. Hear that, TPTB?
Hmm, oh yes! Might as well get the Braca!squee out of the way, since you knew it was coming -- BracaBracaBraca! Was sad because he wasn't subbing to Scorpy, and John/Braca, ehh, not my thing, not even with Scorpius in the middle, but I know that "Kansas" is next so I was not too sad. But he had some adorable expressions, which I know because I took about five caps of his thirty-second appearance. Um.
Was interesting how little Aeryn actually showed up in this episode. There was the bit at the beginning with Aeryn and Chiana and Aeryn trying to learn English and reading John's notes and the word "existential," which John used later in the ep when he asked Einstein, "Don't get existential on me, but why am I, why are we, here?" So nicely tied together, there. But anyhow, the beginning of this episode was like, hmm... the whole episode was woven together nicely but it was very chaotic and lots of important stuff was happening all at once which makes it hard to analyze outside of the major arcs that are flying through it.
1. Aeryn is trying to win back John? Or understand John? "Learn the language of wormholes." Learning English.
2. D'Argo finds out about the distillate of laqua. (And oohhh, another one of my favorite lines in all of Scape. "Does it work?" "It keeps the edge off -- when I double the dose." Oh yes. My crazy, whacked-out OTP.
3. Sikozu and Scorpius having their little Moment Of Het (Scorpy can be forgiven, since Braca hasn't come back to him yet). Which admittedly is cute. I took two caps of this scene. I have a 'thon request that includes Sikozu whom I don't like (*cough* interferes with slash OTP *cough*), but perhaps watching the middle of this season will help me get her. Ohhh! On spell-checking, remembered something else from this scene where Scorpy tells Sikozu she's the most important right now and she says, "Excepting Crichton," and he goes "always excepting Crichton," or something and it's soooo cute! Scorpius/John (in that order so Z. doesn't have a heart attack) is my secondary slash OTP.
4. Rygel telling Pilot that soon they'll be able to all get home.
So anyhow, many of these arcs will be immediately played out in the remainder of the trilogy, which is nice. And there are also in this episode some hints of events yet to come as far away as S5-that-wasn't/PK Wars. Specifically, John asking Einstein to take the knowledge out of his head and Einstein basically saying, "Maybe someday," and also (I just realized), in the climactic scene with all the cross-costuming, where Pilot tells Chi everything is broken because of the modifications Crichton made -- shades of the final wormhole weapon?
(And, le sigh, I wish again that PKW had ended as it promised to with John unconscious and Aeryn angsting over him. le SIGH.)
Oh! Before I segue into my "Kansas"-anticipation-squee, I totally forgot about my favorite part.
"I am not Kirk, Spock, Luke, Buck, Flash, or Arthur frelling Dent. I am Dorothy Gale of Kansas." I've said it before. I'll probably say it again many, many times. But John is my hero. John is my big damn totally-unlike-me-in-every-particular hero, because he is DOROTHY. And he is lost and he is homeless and he wants only to get home and he meets friends -- in technicolor -- and he falls in love but he's searching for home and at the end of "Unrealized Reality" he finds it. And this is the point at which I wished I had seen 'Scape unspoiled since that scene -- that scene where John sees Earth and it's real, and somehow it just has to be real since we've just come through this wormhole and John's figured out how to click his heels together and there she is, the most beautiful thing he's ever seen because he is home.
And I love my show. And I wish there were some way to convey John's homelessness and his quest and his eventual homecoming and how it's all so beautiful and perfect and the larger-than-life metaphor of my very own existence and current angst and I love it, love it, love it, but the show itself is just so richly perfectly wonderfully true that there's nothing I can add except that during the very last scene when John smiles and reaches his hand out to Earth I was squeeing and bouncing and saying, "He made it home. He really made it home. He's really really really home!"
I just know that at some point during this arc, I'm going to start weeping.
WATCH SCAPE.
Before I buckle down and NaNo, I'm going to squee about "Unrealized Reality" a bit -- but first a PSA. If you haven't seen Farscape -- WATCH IT. Season 1 starts slow. It gets better. It gets *really* better. John is a bit of a twat at first. He, too, gets better. A LOT better. And do yourself a favor -- watch unspoiled. I only saw S3 unspoiled (and the end of S4, and PKW), and I do regret that. So everyone: watch Farscape. End PSA. Begin spoilers.
[spoilers through the end Peacekeeper Wars]
O.M.G. SO GOOD. UR is a classic example of an episode that rewards regular watchers, fangirls and boys, and geeky fen who marathon the whole thing because damn is this episode strong with the continuity. Girl and I once rewatched it right after watching the Premiere, and it's made even more brilliant in comparison/with the scene that's -- you know. "What is WRONG with you people -- tongue." SQUEE!
I capped my way through the ep and ended up with 49 caps. It was hard to cap -- there's a lot of John on the iceberg being angstful, which is all in the changing facial expressions and the tics and the omgJohnlove. I love John's dialogue, always, forever, and there are some eps when he's just on (
Crais is teh_sexx, but VH in a skullcap is not as hot as VH with head shaved. Made me sad. I miss Zhaan. And the bits where DK (character, not exec producer) showed up I was like aww, pet pet. I have a crazy DK fetish and there should be more angstful John/DK fic out there cos dude. But in truth, he's not all that interesting a character.
The bit where they put everyone in someone else's makeup -- frelling weird. Some general thoughts on how well that worked:
-Wayne Pygram as Jack was absolutely perfect. Faked the Texan accent (and I loved how both Jack and John in that scene were so much more redneck than they really are -- and "I don't think I'm still a virgin"! Hee!) and let just enough of his real accent/Scorpy's accent creep in there to make it ultra-creepy and cool. And the imagery is just... O.M.G. They went there. Scorpy-as-Harvey has been adviser/mentor/guide to John for 2 years and that arc, just damn. And then Scorpy-as-Jack. Is just so... good! I think that you could see the cameramen in WP's sunglasses, though.
-Claudia Black as Chiana -- I think that part of the problem is that they're all too damn good -- the make-up people, presumably the director, but especially the frelling goddess-like goodness that is CB. Because she was Chi. Inside and out. The Girl tells me she didn't actually realize it was CB and not Gigi until the second or third time watching; I only got it the first time because she told me. Of course, Farscape rewards repeated viewing and there are so many nuances and lines that are just tossed off that you need to watch many times to just get everything that's going on. "We tried your plan. It failed. This is mine."
-Anthony Simcoe as Jool -- tooooosupercute, but didn't really fit the tone of the ep. Because the scene with everyone in each other's makeup was the climax of the ep, moving really fast, John was panicking, and the cuteness of Anthony Simcoe squealing like a girl was just... not appropriate? Or like, I don't know whether to laugh because it's cute or cry because OMG D'Argo (played by Rygel and voiced by Jonathan Harvey) just killed Chi... and... yes. It was a very confusing scene and will doubtless take many rewatchings to figure out what was going on.
-My favorite though is Raelee Hill as Stark. She doesn't sound especially like Paul Goddard, but why should she? I think she does manage to get Stark's personality and just go with it -- and it was great to see Stark again, regardless of who played him. And the excellence of crossing female-to-male in this case makes me sad that the male-to-female Anthony Simcoe as Jool seemed so much less on. But anyhow, I love Stark. "My love your love my love your love --"
But what really makes this episode utterly fabulous is the intercutting of clips and the skillful use of archived footage and the way they just pull out all the stops, everything -- and how what is, basically, a think piece about John becomes something far more, a recap of where we've been so far -- which is exactly what you should do before plunging into the climax of one of your main series arcs -- but not a traditional clip show so much as... well, a character study of John. Who he could be, who he was, the countless ways he could have been, the things that scare him most, the memories he cherishes -- everything.
The scenes that reprise the Premiere are... fabulous. Because it's not just about how John is now more knowledgeable about his crewmates, but because he loves them -- and he remembers that moment of meeting with perfect clarity (he knows the dialogue by heart) and somehow sees how he got from there to here. "No offense Buckwheat, but you couldn't take care of a chia pet."
And of course my shippery heart exploded with glee at the reprise of the scene in the cell -- "what you should ask is how I know you have a birthmark on the sweet spot on your hip." And "You had me at hello." O.M.G. They are the OTP. And much as they are indeed The Canon Het and very much so and there's also a sense of "destined to be in any 'verse," especially in this ep, which I dislike, they are... they just are. Perfect.
But I love this episode. The structure, the way it stands in the middle of the season -- this is John's arc in a
And he's scared. And the way -- BenBrowderisGod -- that Ben Browder conveys that growing fear -- it's really John's arc of the show, his growing sense of fear at how badly he can mess things up, but it's especially his arc of this episode, and Ben Browder plays it so well, so subtly, so richly. It makes me cross my fingers for his future projects and I hope -- I hope -- they use his talent like they ought. Hear that, TPTB?
Hmm, oh yes! Might as well get the Braca!squee out of the way, since you knew it was coming -- BracaBracaBraca! Was sad because he wasn't subbing to Scorpy, and John/Braca, ehh, not my thing, not even with Scorpius in the middle, but I know that "Kansas" is next so I was not too sad. But he had some adorable expressions, which I know because I took about five caps of his thirty-second appearance. Um.
Was interesting how little Aeryn actually showed up in this episode. There was the bit at the beginning with Aeryn and Chiana and Aeryn trying to learn English and reading John's notes and the word "existential," which John used later in the ep when he asked Einstein, "Don't get existential on me, but why am I, why are we, here?" So nicely tied together, there. But anyhow, the beginning of this episode was like, hmm... the whole episode was woven together nicely but it was very chaotic and lots of important stuff was happening all at once which makes it hard to analyze outside of the major arcs that are flying through it.
1. Aeryn is trying to win back John? Or understand John? "Learn the language of wormholes." Learning English.
2. D'Argo finds out about the distillate of laqua. (And oohhh, another one of my favorite lines in all of Scape. "Does it work?" "It keeps the edge off -- when I double the dose." Oh yes. My crazy, whacked-out OTP.
3. Sikozu and Scorpius having their little Moment Of Het (Scorpy can be forgiven, since Braca hasn't come back to him yet). Which admittedly is cute. I took two caps of this scene. I have a 'thon request that includes Sikozu whom I don't like (*cough* interferes with slash OTP *cough*), but perhaps watching the middle of this season will help me get her. Ohhh! On spell-checking, remembered something else from this scene where Scorpy tells Sikozu she's the most important right now and she says, "Excepting Crichton," and he goes "always excepting Crichton," or something and it's soooo cute! Scorpius/John (in that order so Z. doesn't have a heart attack) is my secondary slash OTP.
4. Rygel telling Pilot that soon they'll be able to all get home.
So anyhow, many of these arcs will be immediately played out in the remainder of the trilogy, which is nice. And there are also in this episode some hints of events yet to come as far away as S5-that-wasn't/PK Wars. Specifically, John asking Einstein to take the knowledge out of his head and Einstein basically saying, "Maybe someday," and also (I just realized), in the climactic scene with all the cross-costuming, where Pilot tells Chi everything is broken because of the modifications Crichton made -- shades of the final wormhole weapon?
(And, le sigh, I wish again that PKW had ended as it promised to with John unconscious and Aeryn angsting over him. le SIGH.)
Oh! Before I segue into my "Kansas"-anticipation-squee, I totally forgot about my favorite part.
"I am not Kirk, Spock, Luke, Buck, Flash, or Arthur frelling Dent. I am Dorothy Gale of Kansas." I've said it before. I'll probably say it again many, many times. But John is my hero. John is my big damn totally-unlike-me-in-every-particular hero, because he is DOROTHY. And he is lost and he is homeless and he wants only to get home and he meets friends -- in technicolor -- and he falls in love but he's searching for home and at the end of "Unrealized Reality" he finds it. And this is the point at which I wished I had seen 'Scape unspoiled since that scene -- that scene where John sees Earth and it's real, and somehow it just has to be real since we've just come through this wormhole and John's figured out how to click his heels together and there she is, the most beautiful thing he's ever seen because he is home.
And I love my show. And I wish there were some way to convey John's homelessness and his quest and his eventual homecoming and how it's all so beautiful and perfect and the larger-than-life metaphor of my very own existence and current angst and I love it, love it, love it, but the show itself is just so richly perfectly wonderfully true that there's nothing I can add except that during the very last scene when John smiles and reaches his hand out to Earth I was squeeing and bouncing and saying, "He made it home. He really made it home. He's really really really home!"
I just know that at some point during this arc, I'm going to start weeping.
WATCH SCAPE.