On Farscape losing its innocence (plus service announcements)

[bimo]

Yesterday was the day we watched Farscape 1.18 to 1.20, the three episode demarcation line consisting of "A Bug's Life", "Nerve" and "Hidden Memory" which so clearly announces the show's official loss of all innocence. And, good grief, can I tell you, even if you are able to brace yourself against the raw emotion being portrayed in these eps because you already know what's in store - the violence, the pain and the madness, Ben Browder's grand tour de force on the Aurora Chair - absolutely nothing of it fails to hit home.

What I failed to notice, though, during my first viewing about eight years ago and which now strikes me as all the more obvious is how much these elements are actually just the logical consequence of a long consecutive series of little steps and decisions, each of them adding level upon level, layer upon layer. Seemingly harmless details like the gradual introduction of Farscape-specific vocabulary such as "frell", "dren" or "fahrbot". The repeated probing of characters' borders, the things D'Argo, Rygel, Aeryn, Zhaan and Chrichton are truly capable of doing and the things they are not. Oh, and of course we have the continuous theme of mental and physical violation that has been there as an undercurrent practically ever since day one, sometimes played more humorously like in "Thank God, it's Friday. Again", sometimes as serious and chilling as can be like in "Durka Returns".

So much for Farscape, now for the service announcements...


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Technical Problems and Online Presence LJ/DW:

While I'm able to receive LJ comment notifications again and despite recent problems will continue to stay present on LJ for various reasons, I thought I should let people know that communicating via Dreamwidth is more than welcome. I've been happily crossposting from my DW account for quite a while now and check my DW reading list about as regularly as I ckeck my LJ.

Planned Holiday Absence:

August 16 to August 26 (Scotland, Outer Hebrides and Glasgow). In the extremely unlikely case that any of you should be geographically close enough to meet up with us during that period, please let us know. We'd be delighted :-)

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Comments

[kathyh]

When we first watched Farscape we made the massive mistake of thinking "oh, they're just puppets!" and that Crichton was just a Captain Kirk clone. It would be difficult to have been more wrong *g*.

Have a lovely time in Scotland. I've never made it to the Outer Hebrides or, indeed, Glasgow, so I'm very envious. You may be in midge season so take repellent!!

[bimo]

When we first watched Farscape we made the massive mistake of thinking "oh, they're just puppets!"

I think I would have been very likely to make that mistake myself, if I hadn't had the advantage of selenak sitting next to me during my fist few episodes. Even after all these years her introductory words regarding Rygel and Pilot still ring in my ears *g*

Rygel, with all his flaws, is a fantastic character in his own right and I often find that his chemistry with the "real actor" characters is fascinating to watch, in particular the scenes he's got with Zhaan and Chiana.


You may be in midge season so take repellent!!

Thanks for the warning! Packing some midge repellent might proof rather wise, and while we've already made a huge list of the things we need to pack, midge repellent had not been on it so far.

[kathyh]

I tend to remember midge repellent as they eat me alive. If there was only one midge left in the whole of Scotland it would find me and have a feast!

I think by the end of watching Farscape I had actually forgotten that Rygel was a puppet!