My tweets

• Sat, 12:10: 3 of 5 stars to Doctor Who by Jonathan Morris http://t.co/jWWendZo1L
• Sat, 23:30: RT @NASA: Where will you be on April 22, #EarthDay? Post a #selfie of using #GlobalSelfie. More: http://t.co/JVCLulLSBq http://t.co/wsrI2Qg…
• Sat, 23:31: RT @rcooley123: How The Supreme Court Just Legalized Money Laundering By Rich Campaign Donors http://t.co/wKn6ZRth6u via @thinkprogress
• Sat, 23:31: RT @theprospect: Why are Wal-Mart profits so huge? Low wages = high rates of public assistance to Wal-Mart employees (that's how) http://t.…
• Sat, 23:31: RT @mmfa: Right-wing media increasingly oppose parents spending more time w/ families. About all that "family values" stuff... http://t.co/…
• Sat, 23:31: RT @_youhadonejob: I'm not sure Disney has got a grasp on the concept of pirates. http://t.co/HCc3AkJNwZ
• Sat, 23:31: RT @didikins4life: AMERICA...MEET YOUR NEW OWNERS... #UniteBlue #PDMFNB #p2 #LibCrib #ows #Kochsuckers http://t.co/TKepsKZori
• Sat, 23:32: RT @GeorgeTakei: From a fan. This plainly wasn't thought through. #McMice #ARealSqueaker http://t.co/34kt4NDXWa
• Sat, 23:33: RT @conradhackett: Richest 10% in US take larger slice of economic pie than in 1913, at peak of the Gilded Age. http://t.co/HLaQd6TmAb http…
• Sat, 23:33: RT @tkdmike: THE ORIGINAL DEATH PANEL. #rnc @GOP http://t.co/M3zyXHolss

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Farscape Season 1 DVD Review

This was originally published on my Tumblr, one year ago.

• Series:  Farscape


• Season: 1


• Format:  DVD


• Creative Team:  Rockne S. O’Bannon, Brian Henson, Henson Productions


• Cast:  Ben Browder, Claudia Black, Virginia Hey, Anthony Simcoe

Farscape was a series that frustrated me to no end when it originally aired, running first in first-run syndication, where it was impossible to find, and later on the Sci-Fi channel (which I didn’t have access to at the time), Farscape was a show I wanted to watch but couldn’t.  Farscape also had bad luck for it’s first DVD release - it was sold by episode, not by season set.  This made the show prohibitively expensive to buy - and collecting it would also take up too much space.  In short, the only series I’m willing to buy that way is original (classic) Doctor Who - and that only because the original stories were movie length.

Farscape is one of the most unique SF programs I’ve seen.  The only analogies I can compare it to are: Blake’s 7 and a role-playing adventure game like D&D but set in space.  Like Blake’s 7, the characters are all fugitives, throw together, who don’t trust each other - and may even sell each other out for the right price/motivation.  Like a adventure game, the characters are a priest, a warrior, a thief/deposed king, a warrior/romantic interest, and The New Guy (tm), however, the setting isn’t medieval Europe, or a hidden cave system, but deep, deep space.

In the pilot, John Crichton, an astronaut and scientist is performing an experiment in Earth’s orbit in a one-man capsule.  It goes horribly wrong, and John is shot through a worm-hole.  He’s picked up by a living ship, called Moya, with it’s convict crew who are in the midst of an escape attempt.  John’s shot up with translator microbes allowing him to understand his very strange, alien shipmates.  His shipmates include:  D’Argo — a Lexan Warrior, who’s still young for his species, although at first he seems the tough “shoot first” type, later he turns out to have a heart and to be completely innocent of his accused crime of murder.  Zhaan is a priestess, though her encounter with Moya’s crew is already turning her down a darker, more violent path.  Zhaan is also a living, breathing, thinking, talking plant - who’s bright blue.  Rygel the 16th, Dominar, is a deposed despot and thief - he’s also small and green, and normally gets around on a floating throne chair.  Though he looks Yoda-like and cute — he can be a nasty bugger.  Pilot is built into the ship and pilots Moya - translating between the ship’s needs and the crew’s commands.  Finally, Officer Aeryn Sun looks Human but she is a Sabacean, and a Peace-keeper (law officer).  In the pilot, she’s accused of desertion and “irreversible contamination” and has  no choice but to join John and Moya’s crew of escaped prisoners.  At first the others see Aeryn as an enemy (they all were, after all, at some point, all prisoners of the peacekeepers), but Aeryn proves her mettle and loyalty.

Farscape has a very unique look, in part because of the work of the Jim Henson creature shop (run by Brian Henson).  The aliens, both regulars and the many varied guest creatures are very different.  This show does not, like Star Trek or Stargate, merely stick funny ears or a funky face mask on an actor - and call them alien.  The aliens all look very different and have different reactions to things.  Aeryn is extremely sensitive to heat - prolonged exposure can even produce ‘the living death”, a condition of mental debilitation like Alzhiemers.  Zhaan is a living plant - who even experiences “photogasms” when exposed to high levels of radiation or sunlight.  These types of examples make the universe of Farscape feel strange and alien.

John Crichton, in the first season, is shown to be a scientist, not only with the ability to figure things out or build stuff, but with an intense curiosity about the new world he finds himself in.  Where one or more of his shipmates might want to shoot something, John often asks questions and tries to figure out what something that looks like an alien or monster might want.  He has, in a strange way, a “Doctor-ish” quality.

Overall, I enjoyed the first season of this show that I missed the first time around.

Farscape Season 2 DVD Review

This was also originally posted to my Tumblr.

Farscape Season 2

ADV Video Releases

10 Discs / 22 Episodes in set

Cast:  Ben Browder, Claudia Black, Anthony Simcoe, Virginia Hey, Gigi Edgley

I didn’t enjoy the second season of Farscape as much as the first; however, there were some excellent episodes.  I’ll discuss what I didn’t like first, then get on to the specifics of what I liked.  Whereas in the first season, John Crichton had been a scientist and explorer, someone who’s innate curiosity often allowed him to see situations differently than the rest of the beings on Moya, in the second season, John is much closer to becoming just another soldier.  No longer wearing parts of his IASA uniform, John now dresses like a Peacekeeper.  And as good as Ben Browder looked in the floor-length black duster, by halfway through the season - I wanted the old John back.  There are also far less creatures in season two, and more humans, or human-like aliens. I missed the creatures!

However, I did really like “Look to the Princess” — John’s willingness to sacrifice everything because of the situation was refreshing, and showed his, I hesitate to say moral, but his moral thinking and upbringing.  When he’s told an entire star-system’s well-being depends on him marrying the princess - he does so.  And when he finds out he’s the father of the princess’s child (thru’ in-vitro fertilization, basically) he’s willing to give up everything and be frozen for 80 years to raise his daughter.  However, the re-set button is pushed (Crichton won’t survive the freezing process again).

The four-episode finale’ — “Liars, Guns, & Money” parts 1-3 and “Die Me, Dichotomy”, were truly, truly, awesome.  And, it explained why Crichton had been acting so strange throughout the entire season.  Crichton was slowly going insane due to a neural chip implanted in his head by Scorpius.  Scorpius being a half-Scarran/half-Sabacean hybrid who is, himself, obsessed with obtaining “worm hole technology” from John.  The problem is, John accidentally fell through the worm-hole.  Though he has some theoretical knowledge of the subject - he truly doesn’t understand worm-holes, and he certainly can’t control them.  It’s a bit like asking Dorothy to re-produce a tornado on the spot.

However, I’d challenge anybody who thinks Ben Browder isn’t a good actor to watch the end of Season 2 of Farscape. Browder has the ability to play a man who is truly going insane without overacting or making fun of the character.  It’s something to watch.

I have the ADV DVD version of Farscape.  The DVDs for the most part only put two episodes per disc.  This is annoying — I’m used to three or four.  Also, for the last set, the episodes are out of sequence on the discs.  I watched “Die Me, Dichtomy” before “Liars, Guns, & Money” and was extremely confused — I ended up having to re-watch it in it’s proper sequence as the last episode in the season.  Also, stretching the show to ten discs takes up a lot of space (especially in the double-wide cases).  I ended-up re-packaging the discs in slim-line cases, but the more compact season 1 is a much better design, and still protects the discs.  OTOH, I received sets 2-4 as a gift from a friend, so I can’t really complain.  I’d just recommend not buying this version, but rather the more compact “complete season 2” version.

Overall, since the season both explained John’s odd behavior, and ended on a cliff-hanger leading into season three, even with the changes from season 1, I still think Farscape is an unusual, highly watchable, and excellent series.

Recommended!