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Posted By: ZimNova Mar 09, 2003 - 03:05 pm

I anyone ever asks what Farscape is "about", pull out this episode and say; "This is part 86 of a 88 part story that took over 4 years to tell but sadly was never finished.

Killer episode without doubt.
The different Scarrans represent the seperate castes. You'll note the higher up the power structure the more "flat faced" they appear. Minister Akhna [Ben's RL wife Fran Buller] looks the furthest removed from the long necked Scarran type who are almost always soldiers. Jenek is somewhere in the middle as was Emperor Staleek [dig that red mohawk eh!] One thing is all the males are big.

I have to comment again as the costuming, make-up, extras and the elaborate sets were fantastic, if that expense may have been one of the contributing factors between Vivendi/Universal & EM-TV/Henson while trying to hammer out a deal to produce season 5? That level of quality is expensive and we already know that the deal fell through over a mire $10 million [AU]. It's a shame because no one else doing television SF is anywhere near Farscape in reguards to the overall production quality and arc driven storytelling.

When I first saw Crichton with the nuke I couldn't help but think of old "nuke 'em Sheridan" from Babylon-5 and that entire scene with all the heavy players present, Akhna, Staleek, Grayza, Braca and the head Charrid was a real hoot! How cool is it that naive Earthboy John from season one is now holding all the power elite in the major conflict over control of the UT's at bay while strutting back and forth shouting out colloquialisms they can't hope to understand? As John says in his journey logs; "After getting my a$$ kicked from one end of the uncharted territories to the other I was finally getting some frelling respect".

There was ton of stuff going on in WSS: HTK. It was neat how they wrote the characters using their natural skills, Ka D'argo drinking with the Charrids etc., to weave together the plan to play the dislike the Charrids & Kalish have for each other into an uprising. But wait, it kept getting better. Sikozu a biomachanoid??? Stark has gone over to the dark side and is working with the Scarrans? Scorpius has been working for himself the whole time he's been aboard Moya since "Promises"?, go figure.
We've been fooled because Crais started out bad but after being linked with Talyn and having many conversations with former PK Aeryn Sun he came to see the error of his PK life even making the supreme sacrifice to save the others. Scorpius on the other hand has no redeeming qualities. Ka D'argo was right all along. They should never have allowed Scorpius aboard Moya!

Thoughts on Stark.
We've seen over time that Stark can do wonderful things as a Stykera. We've also seen that he can go looney and lose it.
Remember Crichton saying to him in *Liars, Guns & Money Pt.1: A Simple Plan*; "Work now, Freak later"?
He has lusted after Aeryn even while being attracted to Zhann demonstrating a loss of emotional control.
I had the feeling that only Zhann was helping him keep it together at all. Also don't forget he hinted at having a "dark side" to Zhann which he was struggling to control within himself and at the time that statement filled me with dread. He was also able to come back from being "dispersed" in *The Ugly Truth*, then his mask caused the time travel in *Different Destinations*. Now that's extraordinary power.

My theory on Stark's appearing in H2K has two parts.
The main one is he has crossed over to his dark side driven by the loss of all those Banik slaves in *Liars, Guns & Money Pt. 2: With Friends Like These* combined with his overwhelming desire for revenge against Scorpius for having ordered it, then being pushed over the edge with the loss of Zhann. He blaims Crichton for Zhann's death [the game in *JQ*] and by extension possibly the whole of Moya's crew by default? He may have been led finally into madness by the frustration of not being able to save/find Zhann over the last cycle.
The second part is Stark is not working with or for the Scarrans at all but just using them by telling Staleek he can "cross over" Scorpius, thus gaining any knowledge of wormholes for the Scarrans, to gain access to Scorpius so he can kill him.
Gotta love a show that keeps one guessing at every turn eh?

Posted By: Nomad Mar 09, 2003 - 05:02 pm

Wow, you said a lot. You are absolutely right. Totally awsome! Scoroius was being or pretending to be a spy for the Scarran empire but is actually out for himself afterall. I coulod not quite understand why Scorpi had to take control at the end to save them. Didn't it seem that they would have gotten away without Scorpis jumping inj?