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Posted By: ZimNova Aug 23, 2002 - 11:32 am

From TV Guide Online; "An interdimensional entity, convinced that Crichton's efforts to master the wormholes are a threat to the stability of the universe, targets the earthling for execution.

According to Farscape's fans Season Four so far is either creative genius or tedious mediocridy. Take your pick.
So now we come to the "summer finale", the SFC changed it from season finale on their web site but not on the tv ads., ep. 4.11.

At this point during Season One we were treated to *They've Got a Secret* [1.11], a choice stand alone episode. S-1 was a lot of fun for me because I was still getting to know the characters as was everyone else. All the stand alone's were a great way to introduce the characters and their relationships to each other after being thrown together by chance aboard Moya. Roaming around the UT's was a blast meeting new alien races.
The PK were major bad a**es with Crais a great villain. Then they added Chiana to spice up the series and how!

Episode 2.11 was the first in the *Look at the Princess* trilogy where we were firmly into a serious story arc involving Talyn, Scorpius, Scarrans, wormhole research, John in a pickle [again] and having to confront his feelings for Aeryn, Vs. doing the right thing for the rest of Moya's crew and some good background on how the PK command structure works which was also some of the best work Rockne, DK & co. have given us. There were new characters in the mix to help keep the series fresh too. Love or hate Stark & Jool they added greatly to the story.

3.11 was *Incubator* which was a decent wormhole story [remember Linfer?] and the backstory of the happy life of the young lad Scorpius which helped us understand why he is so tough and such a freknik.
We were again in the middle of a story arc to rival Babylon with Crichton having been "twinned" with one "equal but seperate" self dying, Aeryn an emotional wreck as a result, Harvey as a regular cast member and the role of wormholes in the coming conflagration with the Scarrans looking more like the key element that could turn the tide in favor of the PK's [if that's a good thing?].

So where are we at now? There has been little, well almost no, arc development outside of Grayza and Axikor as well as a host of unanswered questions left over from *DW2B*. This after almost half a season.
Only Scorpius as the wildcard member of Moya's crew adds to the progression of the arc.
Tonights episode should be da bomb if we are to stay interested through the coming 4 1/2 month hiatus but note it's not listed as Pt. 1 of any mini-arc.
Will this "interdimensional entity" be a member of Pathfinder Neeyala's race? or will DK & Co. throw a monkey wrench into where we might think the story is heading? I miss the Farscape of season's 1-3 and even though there have been some fine stories so far this season it's just not the same show for whatever reason. That reason to me is the absence of a solid story arc.

Posted By: fanuilh Aug 23, 2002 - 12:54 pm

So we are not alone in our disappointment.

I'm just hoping nobody pukes in tonight's episode. One more person vomiting on screen and I'm a dot.

Posted By: ZimNova Aug 23, 2002 - 07:25 pm

What an incredible fantastic beyond belief "clip" episode...This is without doubt the best of the best, the essence of Farscape to date.
There was so much going on it will take a week of reviewing my tape to understand the half of it!
Written by David Kemper, this is the Farscape I know and love.

It was good to see Zhann, Stark, Jool, Braca and a bunch of others from previous episodes to fill in the blanks as well as people that seem to be from the production staff talking about the characters and the show.....Woo Hoo.
Cutting edge, you bet!

Posted By: Gizmo_Goddard Aug 24, 2002 - 02:19 am

A query for fanuilh; just where precisely did you get that phrase "I'm a dot." And yes, I know exactly what it means and its origin.

__!_!__
Gizmo

Posted By: Bmat Aug 24, 2002 - 05:34 am

Those were production staff? I was thinking they were people from his past that we were supposed to recognize. Not that they couldn't have been production staff playing the ex-girlfriend and so forth.

Posted By: fanuilh Aug 24, 2002 - 09:59 am

That's what I thought, too, that they were people from John's past talking about him. It was interesting, using the "Biography" type of interview format to do that in, and how they seemed to change their opinions of him as time went on and realities fluctuated, I guess.... And Stark made me laugh for the first time ever. "The guy was an idiot." Now that, coming out of his mouth, was funny.

Took me a bit to realize they'd swapped actors between characters there at the end, things were happening so fast. I thought Claudia Black did a superior take on Chiana. Rygel as D'Argo (sp?) was hilarious. Sikozu as Stark, Granny as.... what?... she was sort of Chiana, too, at one point. Anyway, it hurtled by pretty quickly.

Gizmo, "I'm a dot" is an expression I picked up in the Air Force.

I thought we were going to get all the way through without anybody puking, but we didn't. It was, however, a flashback to a previous episode so I suppose I can't complain.

And now we get to wait until January, isn't it, to find out how John gets out of this mess.

Posted By: ZimNova Aug 24, 2002 - 08:46 pm

Well, well, well, so what do we have here?
I'll tell ya. It's like going from the sixth grade with *CBC* to an advanaced degree at MIT to study quantum theory with *UR*. And brother do I love quantum mechanics.

First off I want to get one short rant out of the way...those frekniks at the SFC ran SG-1 over about 1 1/2 min. for some reason so I missed the closing credits on tape which really pi**ed me off. Was that alien lame of what? [on stargate]

I loved this episode on every level and in fact have to say it represents the concept of what Farscape is all about to me without error, the soul of the show if you will.

Chiana's funny joke about Humans; "They can barely escape their own gravity".
As well as her advice to Areyn; "If you want to get him back, that's not the language you need to learn" were both first rate. That one line sums up the entire J/A relationship up to this point. Thank you DK.
I liked how Capt. Ka D'argo is concerned about Crichton's being hooked on Laka bud. A true friend.
Pilot; "He [Crichton] often jumps [about wormholes] to conclusions" is another example of how almost every line of dialogue has some bearing not only on this episode but on everything that has led to this point in the story arc.
The editing should earn a Emmy© because in all the scenes where there are flashbacks it's the editing and sound effects that make it work.

The discussions about wormholes, time, space and reality with the Superior Alien Being [SAB] elevate this one above anything being done in the sci-fi genre by any other series. Can I get a Hell Yeah!
This is heady stuff which I cannot began to cover in a short post but one effect, during all the "unrealized realities*, was to shoot my brain into high gear trying to remember where I had seen that scene before and try to make sense of how it related to the story. Thank goodness for VHS tapes for there is no way I could have put this all in perspective without watching it many times.

Great link between pathfinder Neeyala's implant into Moya and why, answered as last, Moya was taken at the end of *DW2B*. The SAB was looking for clues, [insert Robert Palmer song here] and Crichton.
Major UR's
Crichton and Chi as lovers...Woo Hoo!
Ex-girlfriend; "He was a cheap date, a lousy drunk and a redneck"...ROTFLMAO.
Aeryn kills John.
Crichton kills Sikozu. Man that was a great sequence plus that was shot on the PK command carrier sets. Well done.
John as a Scarran with Scorpy Scarran as dad? Bummer dude, no way man, this ain't happening man.
The drug statement from his minister? So maybe he has a weakness from his past life that made him an easy target for Granny with her Laka bud?
"My name is John Crichton, I'm not your pawn".

Good question that's being asked again and again. What is the nature of reality? I have to say I love this stuff.
Scorpius knew, how? About wormholes, Crichton, everything?
Also all the comments by cast members and the "others" from John's past [?] were absolutly amazing and added so much to my enjoyment of *UR*.

At the last was maybe the best part.
Aeryn as Chiana, Rygel as Ka D'argo, Sikozu as Stark, Chi as Granny, Jool as Ka D'argo, Rygel as Neeyala, Jool as Jool and all the killing and then Crais as John's best buddy???

Then John trippin' through the wormhole to Earth? Earth or another *unrealized reality*?

Posted By: Gizmo_Goddard Aug 25, 2002 - 01:27 am

About "I'm a dot!", I thought as much. I'm retired Navy with 1500 hours in F-14 Tomcats. It's a typical fighter jock saying which is an abbreviated form of "I'm a dot on the horizon." which loosely translated means "I'm outta here!" for the rest of the folks who were doing the "RCA-dog look".

On to the episode itself. I'm still suffereing from information overload trying to sort out all of the various iterations of realities. I didi pick up on the gradual narrowing of possibilities as the episode progressed (symbolized by the shrinking iceberg). At the end he was left with a single choice to make, but it seems that he inadvertently ducked down the wrong rabbit hole. This will be very interesting when we pick this back up.

As for the time screwup, blame the suits at Sci-Fi. They just had to roll a two-minute advertisement in front of "Stargate SG-1" for some upcoming movie event that they had scheduled, which threw everything else off. IDIOTS!!!!!!!!

__!_!__
Gizmo

Posted By: AspZelazny Aug 25, 2002 - 11:04 pm

Fascinating episode; most of the 'wows' have been said already (and I concur!) Gave us back the story-arc in spades. I've watched this one three times now; there are subtleties beginning to come out, but more questions too.

1)the commentaries from Earth-people ... where in 'the reality' did those come from? They weren't tripping down the wormhole; were they conjured up by 'Einstein'? They seemed to be a reflection of something changing (to belabor the obvious, I guess). At first they could have been purely reminiscences, but it became apparent that they were independent entities -- especially when Crichton understood that he could communicate with them directly. As the iceberg shrank, so did their opinion of him ... was that a ploy of the other-dimensional alien to rattle him (and eventually get him to understand that "Fear is the correct answer" OR was the change in their attitude a result of the errors Crichton made in his first trip down the rabbithole to 'Day One'?

Though he was eventually warned *Not to be in a timeline before he'd been there before* and that *Changes ripple outward* and to *Fix the first thing that doesn't seem right* -- he played fast and loose with the first reality, just another smart-aleck 'I've been here before' thing that he could wisecrack through ...

IF that was an error (forced upon him by the alien), then the progressive attitude changes by the Earth Chorus and the wildly looser reality-twisting that he was getting into may have all come from that. Object lesson for him? ... or was that a trap that was sprung?

2) Einstein initially declared that he wanted to kill Crichton; but later stated that he was willing to abide by the judgement of the 'Narc' that entrusted him with wormhole knowledge. Did anybody figure out what caused that change in attitude? And for that matter why Crichton wasn't just snuffed upon arrival? (other than the need to have episode 4.11 I mean) Ol' John wasn't giving much up in assurances or solicitude afterall.

3) Hey, here's a bit of trivia: doesn't it look a bit like Crichton's contact could have been the same race we knew and loved as the Prophets of Deep Space 9? I mean, remember the episode with Sisko down that wormhole? Same message: you corporeals are messing with our home -- bad karma will result; and they played with Sisko's reality, and threatened him as well. Sisko agreed, I suppose they figured that Crichton was just about as malleable.

4) the Cliffhanger ... well, if they could dispatch all the disasters ending season 2 in the first 15 minutes of season 3, what's to prevent them from just having John conjure up another wormhole out there in Earth orbit and whip himself back to Moya (what the heck, when you've got that kind of frequent flier card, what's to stop you?)? What would be more interesting would be to have him *somehow* -- you KNOW they could come up with a way -- to get down to Earth, and find out that the ripples have reached his history there, with any of multiple possible outcomes?

Posted By: Iznardi Aug 26, 2002 - 07:39 am

I agree that I am back on board with this episode, but there better be a lot more like it to keep me as a fan (especially with a four month wait). Once again, I felt they wasted at least four minutes of air time with yet another version of "Farscape dress-up and transvestism time" towards the end, when they could, instead, of been giving us more information about why the Ancients were worried and what they hoped Crichton would do.

Looks like everyone is worried about the Scarrans. I won't even try to guess how Crichton gets out of his current predicament, because I'm always wrong. If he does get back to Earth though, his first purchase should be a cell phone. He really needs one.

Posted By: Sindatur Aug 29, 2002 - 06:38 am

From Scifi Wire:

9:00am ET, 28-August-02

SCI FI Wraps Best Summer

The SCI FI Channel wrapped its best-ever summer, ending with a record 1.0 prime-time rating (741,000 households) for the month of August, the cable network announced. SCI FI ranked ninth on a household basis among all basic-cable channels for the month. Overall prime-time ratings for the summer (0.9 rating/698,000 households) were up 13 percent over last year, the network added.

Additional summer highlights:
•In key prime-time demographic ratings, SCI FI ranked fifth among all basic-cable networks in adults 25-54 (0.7) and seventh in persons 18-49 (0.6).
•In July and August, SCI FI ranked in the top 10 of all basic-cable networks in household ratings and in ratings and delivery of persons 18-49 and persons 25-54.
•Leading the charge was SCI FI Friday, a two-hour block of original series that included the original series Stargate SG-1 and Farscape. The block set a summer record for the channel, averaging a 1.4 rating (1.1 million households). That represented a 27 percent ratings increase over last summer's ratings average for the time period and a 46 percent increase in household delivery over last year.

Great, does this mean they're gonna be encouraged to think all the changes in their programming choices we hate did the trick, or will they actually look at where the advances came from and give us more of that programming. I honestly don't need to see Twilight Zone and Outer Limits episodes anymore, nor do I need to see most of their "B" horror flicks. I personally fell in love with the Scifi Channel for the Scifi (Aliens and space ships and stuff).

Posted By: ZimNova Aug 29, 2002 - 01:13 pm

Sindatur, all they care about are the ratings. Which is kind of funny seeing how in *JQ* John played a Max Headroom type character and of course MH was a great satire of the Network's obsession with ratings at any cost. I'm sure they understand that Stargate was responsible for the uptick on Friday nights.
I have to wonder though when we long time hard core fans are questioning the quality of some of the episodes in S-4 how many SG-1 fans stick with the SFC to watch Farscape? I can't get into SG-1 because it's too "common" a drama for me so can these Stargate fans get into "bizarre" Farscape stuff like *JQ* or *ISTIA* or *CBC*?

AspZ, I was thinking some more about all the possibilities that can occur when we start to twist our brains trying to figure this space-time stuff out.
Which is why Farscape is the dradest. [2] I think the reason the SAB did not kill Crichton outright was because he was testing John's character to see if he would take over being the caretaker of the wormholes after his "Ancients" booked off into another dimension, as well as warning him with; "fear is the correct answer".

The Superior Alien Being spoke of space and time as being interchangable, that is, anyplace has a space as well as a time and that wormholes were in a constant flux where any of them could have infinite possible exits.
"Why? Because space is actually space-time, and wormholes are the interstate highways of space-time" [John from Moya's journey logs].
Crichton has it seems the power to influence the outcome of transiting a wormhole, a unique talent indeed.
His greatest desire is to return to Earth so as the wormhole opens and sucks him in it appears that's where this wormhole took him.

I say "appears". Since all this was part of *UR* I have to wonder if DK & Co. are not playing with us as usual.
If it really is Earth the other thing I thought when I saw the title for ep. 4.12 *Kansas* was the Wizard of Oz, "Toto, I don't think we're in Kansas anymore".
This I believe could be an *Ouroboros* The continuous space-time loop as represented by the ancient mythos of the snake eating it's own tail.
Crichton could have come out in anyplace in space-time. As we have already seen in
*Different Destinations* space-time is fluid and a vary small change in a past timeline can have disastrous results for the future of that timeline.
Crichton says; "With one accident, I could destroy everything I love, and extra universes besides".

The best example I can think of is from Babylon-5 during *WWE Parts 1&2* where Sinclair leaves himself and Delenn a note from 900 years in his past [1360 AD] to take B-4 back in time to help win the first shadow war but first he has to travel to B-4 [in 2260] to stop an attack by the shadows [in 2258] who also know that past history to make sure B-4 survives so he can take B-4 back in time to help win the first shadow war....you get the idea. An Ouroboros.
Along the way he transforms into Valen, creates the Gray Council, the Minbari Caste system, the Anla'Shok and becomes Entil'Zah *The One*.
Is your head spinning yet? Mine is.

Posted By: Azziz Aug 29, 2002 - 01:38 pm

At least one of the characters on Earth talking about John was in the very first ep as John's best friend and co-worker. The dude who helped him design and build the Farscape.

Fun ep, wish I had taped it. Ah well.

Posted By: Nomad Aug 29, 2002 - 03:40 pm

Hey Azziz! Been awhile. I agree...wish I had taped it. I watched the second half first the waited till 12:00 to watch the first half and fell half asleep. Dang! I would probably had much more banter on this ep otherwise. You all did a great job expressing my views anyway. January...My @ss!