Farscape Rewind: Episode 1.15

[Mr. Infamous]

This week on Farscape rewind, Durka returns, an episode that helps us shake off some of the stink of Jeremiah Crichton by actually being good.

The episode starts out by showing us another downside to Moya's pregnancy, lousy starburts, only this one's even lousier than usual since upon exiting the dimension of starburst or whatever, they find themselves on a collission course with another ship with inevitable results. Now this won't be the last time we'll see an extended starburst like this but I think it is the first time so it's worth pointing out here that despite the impression that a lot of the rest of the series gives starburst apparently isn't something like BSG's jump drive. That's to say it's often talked about speed doesn't seem to come from the fact that it can cross huge expanses of space by disappearing at one end and just reappearing at the other in an instant. This was something of a surprise to me because up until rewatching this episode here that's basically how I remembered it working myself.

So Moya crashes into the other ship, a small pod of some kind, and though she takes no damage herself the pod gets crunched up prety bad. John seems to suggest they just flee the scene since he's not sure his Leviathan insurance is paid up to date, but pilot insists on stopping to exchange information. They pull the pod aboard, we're told it's literlly a glass cannon with some sort of big scary weapon on it despite it's apparant fragility, and we get to find out why the episode's called "Durka Returns". As the crew makes their way down to the hanger bay to greet whoever or whatever's inside the pod with pulse rifles in hand, we find out that the pod's pilot is none other than Salto Durka, former captain of the Zelbinion, who's now returned... get it. Small universe.

Rygel of course reacts as expected by horking a loogie all over Durka's mug and we get to meet the other two people on Durka's ship, Salis and Chiana. Chiana is some kind of criminal apparently and Salis is evidently some kind of bounty hunter or cop that's arrested her. It's not really clear exactly what Salis' formal title is, all we know is that it's his job to bring Chiana back to the Nebari government for what's called mental or mind clensing. Nebwhati you mght be thinking, well yeah, these two are called Nebari, and not only are they big fans of mind clensing and talking in calm creepy voices (well Salis is) but they've also apparently cured Durka of his psycopathic douchebag streek, or so Salis claims. If you like the Nebari here, and I do, enjoy them while they last because after this they're only in one more episode, one of the greatest missed opportunities in the series as far as I'm concerned. I personally like them a lot more than the Scarrans, who we'll be seeing a lot more of as later badguys, mainly because they're actualy differant from the PKs where as the Scarrans are by and large just an uglier nastier version of them on steroids.

Salis here assures Rygel and the others that Durka won't actually relapse into murdering them all and using Rygel as a speed bag. While the crew is naturally skeptical Salis tells them they spent over 100 cycles mind clensing Durka, a process during which one evidently doesn't age, and as such they've eradicated all anti social behavior.

Rygel floats off in disgust and we get to meet Chiana next, opening the door to one element of this episode's story that I always found somewhat suspicious. Salis is the only one here who's real deal "official" Nebari, Durka is a reprogrammed former criminal of a military enemy and Chiana is likewise a criminal. Doesn't Salis want better backup than Durka while he's out hunting fugitives? This says to me that either Salis is supremely confidant in Nebari mind clensing techniques or there's something fishy going on here.

Salis and Durka haul Chiana off to one of the old PK prison cells on Moya while naturally refusing to tell anyone what her crime was, a surefire sign that it's bullshit, which is what she tries to convince John of a moment later of course.

Salis gets a good line here where he asks John if he's ever been stung by some sort of exotic alien plant, "they to present an intriging exterior" he says, warning John that while Chiana seems all cute and innocent she's actually a dangerous criminal. With John's previous experiance with creatures like Matala it's basically the perfect thing for Salis to say to put some serious doubt into him, so when monochrome Elvis here goes at zapping Chiana via her remotely controlled shock collar John actually waits all of 2 seconds before interjecting himself into things. Salis smacks him down pretty good though, by reminding him that he's already crashed into their ship and screwed up their mission and asks him if he now intends to appoint himself arbiter of their justice system as well. It's nice to see this because, creepy bastard that he is, Salis does have a point. John is an alien outsider who's known them for all of 5 minutes and in this time he's already convinced he knows Chiana's true nature better than they do. Some shows would just take that as fact and run with it where as at least here we do get to see the other side presented. For all John knows Chiana really could be some sort of deadly seductress assassin or something, and playing on people's sympathies so effectively like this is exactly why she's considered so dangerous.

Of course then you've got to ask yourself why such a "dangerous criminal" only gets two guards put on her, but hey, maybe they're the only ones that survived taking her.

Next we follow Salis elsewhere on Moya where he's now explaining to Zhaan how mind clensing works. Zhaan is naturally put off by the whole idea so Salis tells her to go ask Durka how great it was and Dargo stays behind to ask Salis how many warships the Nebari needed to bring down the "once thought invincible" Pk carrier Zelbinion. Salis says none, that they have no warships, and it was just one of their standard host vessals that engaged the Zelbinion, much like the ship that's coming to pick him up. I suspect this is a situation a lot like how the Star Trek Federation "has no warships" just a bunch of "explorers" that just so happen to outgun the warships of their neighboors, but it's none the less pretty impressive. I've always figured myself that the Nebari likely had a higher tech level and better quality ships than either the PKs or the Scarrans but that the more limited size of their empire still made them militarily inferior overall, and thus kept them out of large scale direct conflict with either. It pretty much fits with how few Nebari you see around to, where as you see Sebaceans everywhere and even Scarrans more than once pre season 4, despite the relative makeup costs. I also figure they're a lot more internally focussed.

Next we see how Rygel's planning to deal with this situation as Aeryn catches him with a knife and a plan to go after Durka with it. We get another good Aeryn subplot here as her and Rygel compare notes on Durka. Aeryn, again despite her removal from the PKs, still holds him in high esteem since he's something of a cultural hero as we learned earlier in PK tech girl. Rygel responds to this by saying she's been fed proppoganda and that even though it turns out Durka didn't off himself this does prove that he deserted his ship in a time of crisis like a coward. Aeryn tells him to leave the visitors alone and takes his knife away.

Aeryn goes to Durka himself next, almost appearing like a giddly little fan girl, until he burts her bubble in the worst way by telling her that not only did everything he did as a Peacekeeper not matter but that he also faked his death and deserted the Zelbinion in an excape pod pretty much exactly like Rygel just speculated he did. It's interesting to note here to that apparently the Zelbinion was attacked because it had violated Nebari territory. It's interesting because it shows just how willing they are to get nasty if it comes down to it. What propably happened here was Durka wanted to test his reputation even further against even bigger game so decided to go fuck with the Nebari, so they disappeared him to send a message. The thouroughness of what they must of done is pretty impressive, since despite this ship being a cultural icon the Pks never learned of its fate, or Durka's until over 100 years after the fact. Salis said earlier that the Nebari couldn't "help" all of the PKs on the Zelbinion because they resisted, so it's not too hard to infer what became of them. It's interesting also that Salis knows so much about the Zelbinion incident. Either he was briefed on it when he became Durka's handler or he might have been around when it originally took place, suggesting that Nebari might be another long lived species like Hynerians or Delvians.

John goes back to talk to Chiana some more and she gives a frankly pretty cryptic and evasive description of her alleged "crimes" which doesn't really help her given her situation. I can accept this though because I imagine she's been pretty heavily conditioned into simply not trusting people with information, even when it's to her advantage to lay it all out in plain sight. This scene ends with a good little shot of Chiana sort of smiling at the camera when John falls for the old "prisoner freakout" trick and goes into her cell to comfort her. I like this because it's clearly meant to make you think that Chiana is yet another "evil alien in disguise", which by this point is hardly an unexpected outcome. Just about every alien they've met so far, especially those of the female variety, has had some kind of devious hidden agenda and Chiana here seems like a prime candidate to be the next one in line, playing on John's human sympathies to get out of her cell and go ruin everyone elses day somehow.

John goes to interview Durka next, to find out more about the mind clensing Chiana told him about, but before he can get very far Rygel decides to try and blow Durka up with a homemade bomb of some kind but comes closer to killing John than the ex Pk captain. All he manages to accomplish is to unscramble Durka's brains, and though nobody will believe him at first, it's made fairly obvious here with Durka trying to strangle him before passing out again. I had to ask myself here though, if 100 years of mental clensing can be undone by one moderately severe bump on the head why bother at all. They can't be removing core personality traits and replacing them like they claim, all they really must be doing is sort of wallpapering over the mess and hiding it. The real Durka's still in there, and Salis is certainly lucky he didn't get to meet him when the initial ship collission presumably knocked them around. Durka doesn't wear a zap collar like Chiana does and I wouldn't fancy Elvis' chances vs a brutal ex Peacekeeper sadist and his desperate prisoner in close quarters. Of course it's also probably better for Chiana that things didn't go down this way as I don't imagine Durka's follow up plans for her would have been much preferable to mind clensing.

Rygel gets dragged away while protesting that Durka's been uncleansed and we see Salis going to investigte if Chiana had anything to do with the bombing. He finds her still cuffed in her cell though so presumably he's satified that she didn't. Chiana makes a pretty heavy handed attempt to seduce him here with predictable results, more zapping. I've got to give special mention to the actor that plays Salis to. He's not around quite long enough to be one of the show's major guest stars but until rewatching this I'd forgotten just how perfectly he nails this role. He gets another great scene following shortly after this one with Zhaan where he's explaining to her how Rygel will now of course be handed over to him and the big scary Nebari ship of doom that's on its way. Zhaan flaty refuses so Salis ups the ante by suggesting that she to could do with an "adjustment". Zhaan advances on him aggressively and stares him down in response and he responds only with "my point exactly" and walks away. You start to get the definate sense here that Salis is not simply going to be content to take Chiana and go. When that super ship arrives he's going to attempt to "help" everyone on board most likely.

Back in her cell Chiana manages to break out of her cuffs using some kind of pick that I don't remember seeing her get her hands on. She happens upon Rygel first, and tries to strike a deal with him (the poor foolish girl). Rygel of course backstabs her, yelling to high heaven over the coms that she's escaped the first chance he gets. Might have been better to wait until she'd left the room Ryg, but who am I to question a master.

Now the hunt is on with everyone guarding airlocks and searching hallways for Chiana. Durka manages to trick Aeryn into leading him to the command, where he promtly proceeds to show his true colours by smacking the shit out of her and going to work on compromising the ship. I had a bit of trouble believing that Durka here could actually pull off this sort of hacking/bypassing type work given Aeryn's previous attitude toward work like this. If you remember it was back near the begining of the series in episodes like Thank God it's Friday Again, and others where she either insinuated or openly stated that Pk soldiers don't do tech work. She even seemed disgusted by the idea like it was beneath her. Now here we see Durka, a PK captain, getting his tech on to such an extent that even pilot can't stop him. Now maybe PK attitudes were differant in Durka's time or he learned this as part of his Nebari "reeducation", the fact it's being done on a biomechanoid Leviathan that virtually no Pk should be familiar with certainly doesn't help sell it though.

Presumably parallel to these events the episodes great mystery also goes down, who killed Salis. The episode never fully answers this question, giving the viewer the choice between Durka and Chiana as they both give deliberately vague non answers when asked about it. This is probably my single favorite part of the episode. A lot of other shows would just take the easy way out here and make it look like Chiana had done it until Durka was revealed to be uncleansed, then have him gloat about it and take credit. That's not what happens though. Instead the episode leaves us with this unanswered question of whether or not the crew is actually bunking with someone capable of basically cold blooded murder motivated by revenge. Salis isn't armed at any point in this episode with anything other than the zap collar Chiana sheds, and the non answer she gives when asked about the murder later makes you think that if she did off him it certainly wasn't out of any kind of last resort self defense.


Back on the command deck it's torture time for Rygel again as Durka lays out his various instraments and prepares to go back to work on the little guy, first he needs a haircut though, hard to argue with him on that point. One thing I felt that was always missing from this whole dynamic between these two however is why Durka seemed to hate Rygel so much. I get that Durka's suppossed to be a sadist (and a pretty hilariously over the top space Nazi cliche) but it also seems to me that he has some deeper more specific hatred for Rygel personally. I don't know if it's just a complete and utter contempt for Hynerians or even non Sebaceans in general, but he seems posatively disgusted with the fact that Rygel is even alive and seems to want to make him suffer solely for that reason. In this particular episode though he actually seems more concerned with escaping recapture by the Nebari, it's obvious he's terrified of them. That doesn't mean he won't take any excuse he can to torture people as part of that goal though, as we see when he starts to go after Aeryn, planning to burn holes in her face while the com channel is open in hopes of "motivating" the other crew members to restore the starburst he thinks they've compromised. In an extremely rare moment of what could I suppose only be called heroism, Rygel distracts Durka's attention onto himself with an epic verbal smackdown that runs down all the ways in which Durka is a failure. He wraps it up by telling Durka that the ship is pregnant and therefore can't starburst, meaning that no matter what he does the Nebari are still going to get him in the end. Durka's got one last thing to try though, baby killing.

While this has all been going on though John's been trying to get Chiana to help them and after a short tussle in the cargobay manages to convince her to join team Moya. Yep, if you're watching the series for the first time here I hope you like Chiana because you're in for another 3 1/2 seasons of her plus a movie. Yep that's right, Chiana was originally planned as just another guest character introduced in the fifteenth episode here, but the producers liked her so much they made her into a series regular. Learning of how this went down is what gave me the hope that was unfortunately crushed with season two's Natira.

Anyway Chiana's part of the plan is to lure Durka into the cargobay so John can wack him with a giant space hockey stick, but it turns out Durka's to smart to fall for that so they decide to blow him up instead. Yep, Durka's plan is to fly the original Nebari pod outside and use its big scary cannon to kill Moya's baby somehow. Why Durka thinks that a Leviathan with a giant seeping hole blasted into its internal organs is more likely to be able to starburst than a pregnant one isn't clear, and we never get to find out, since John uses one of Rygel's homemade bombs to provoke Moya into violently expelling the pod, and damaging it further in the process. Thus the episode ends with Durka's worst nightmare becoming a reality for him. He's floating in a disabled ship with both his Nebari overseer and their prisoner gone and with the Nebari host ship coming to pick him up.

Closing up the episode Aeryn gives Rygel his knife back and thanks him for being a little green badass, and we see Chiana be more formally welcomed into the crew. These early episodes sort of flirt with the idea of Chiana as a potential love interest for John but we'll have to wait and see how that develops rather than just have me spew spoilers all over the place I suppose.

All in all "Durka Returns"; despite perhaps one of the most unimaginitive titles in Farscape history, is a pretty solid episode, definately top teir for season 1. We get a new series regular, a decent story, get to actually see Durka in action, Rygel gets some key development, and we get introduced to a new set of extremely creepy badguys in the Nebari, personified by the excellent character of Salis, that will sadly see little to no further development in the series. On the downside though the introduction of Chiana in this episode pretty much marks the point at which Zhaan will become progressively less appealing as a character in general, loosing all of her early run alien sensuality, and largely being delegated to doing random supporting scientific tasks and being inexplicably bitchy all the time.

Final Verdict, definately not an episode to be missed.

[Rustydogz]

Originally Posted by Mr. Infamous

starburst apparently isn't something like BSG's jump drive. That's to say it's often talked about speed doesn't seem to come from the fact that it can cross huge expanses of space by disappearing at one end and just reappearing at the other in an instant. This was something of a surprise to me because up until rewatching this episode here that's basically how I remembered it working myself.

It seems like a lesser version of the BSG drive. Something closer to the "warp drive" of Trek. It is better for an sf show, in a way, because it allows for story ideas that take place inside of 'warp space' or whatever.

Originally Posted by Mr. Infamous

So Moya crashes into the other ship, a small pod of some kind, and though she takes no damage herself the pod gets crunched up prety bad. John seems to suggest they just flee the scene

I don't remember that. Really? haha. What was the his motive in the story? It seems out of character for Crichton. Are the writers just randomly assigning dialogue to characters?

Originally Posted by Mr. Infamous

If you like the Nebari here, and I do, enjoy them while they last because after this they're only in one more episode, one of the greatest missed opportunities in the series as far as I'm concerned.

Yes, they developed a good character/race concept, then abandoned it. They did the same with Chiana actually; making her an intriguing character in her first few episodes, then diluting her personality and her role until she was a one-note character.

Originally Posted by Mr. Infamous

I personally like them a lot more than the Scarrans, who we'll be seeing a lot more of as later badguys, mainly because they're actualy differant from the PKs where as the Scarrans are by and large just an uglier nastier version of them on steroids.

True. I never thought of them that way, but yes I see that now. They were a good species concept, but they became over-used as the Nebari (and others) became under-used.

Originally Posted by Mr. Infamous

While the crew is naturally skeptical Salis tells them they spent over 100 cycles mind cleansing Durka, a process during which one evidently doesn't age, and as such they've eradicated all anti social behavior.

See Demolition Man for more details on the process.

Originally Posted by Mr. Infamous

Rygel floats off in disgust

Rygel's acting is easily the best of the cast, in this ep.

Originally Posted by Mr. Infamous

Doesn't Salis want better backup than Durka while he's out hunting fugitives? This says to me that either Salis is supremely confidant in Nebari mind clensing techniques or there's something fishy going on here.

He seems that confident. Many of Durka's skills would be intact, just bent toward Nebari goals.

Originally Posted by Mr. Infamous

Salis smacks him down pretty good though, by reminding him that he's already crashed into their ship and screwed up their mission and asks him if he now intends to appoint himself arbiter of their justice system as well. It's nice to see this because, creepy bastard that he is, Salis does have a point. John is an alien outsider who's known them for all of 5 minutes and in this time he's already convinced he knows Chiana's true nature better than they do. Some shows would just take that as fact and run with it where as at least here we do get to see the other side presented.

He does have a point, and a story is always better when both sides have an argument. But Cricton was objecting mainly to the torture. Later on Salis wants to cleanse Rygel, and hints that the others may get the same treatment, so Salis is willing to interfere in other species' cultures, making him a hypocrite.

Originally Posted by Mr. Infamous

Of course then you've got to ask yourself why such a "dangerous criminal" only gets two guards put on her, but hey, maybe they're the only ones that survived taking her.

In real life, how many bounty hunters go after dangerous fugitives? One, two, maybe three in rare instances. And Chiani is no Trinity. Two guys could easily bring in one little girl.

Originally Posted by Mr. Infamous

Dargo stays behind to ask Salis how many warships the Nebari needed to bring down the "once thought invincible" Pk carrier Zelbinion. Salis says none, that they have no warships, and it was just one of their standard host vessels that engaged the Zelbinion, much like the ship that's coming to pick him up. I suspect this is a situation a lot like how the Star Trek Federation "has no warships" just a bunch of "explorers" that just so happen to outgun the warships of their neighboors, but it's none the less pretty impressive.

It is impressive, and reinforces the idea that they are hypocrites, like the Federation. It is one of the subtle hints the ep gives us in the first few acts that gradually turn us against Salis and in favor of Chiana and Rygel's point of view. Well, subtle for an hour long tv show.

Originally Posted by Mr. Infamous

I've always figured myself that the Nebari likely had a higher tech level and better quality ships than either the PKs or the Scarrans but that the more limited size of their empire still made them militarily inferior overall, and thus kept them out of large scale direct conflict with either. It pretty much fits with how few Nebari you see around to, where as you see Sebaceans everywhere and even Scarrans more than once pre season 4, despite the relative makeup costs. I also figure they're a lot more internally focused.

That's a good story rationale. Internally, the producers probably didn't like Nebari as much as we do, and thought of them only as a one or two ep villain.

Originally Posted by Mr. Infamous

Next we see how Rygel's planning to deal with this situation as Aeryn catches him with a knife and a plan to go after Durka with it. We get another good Aeryn subplot here as her and Rygel compare notes on Durka. Aeryn, again despite her removal from the PKs, still holds him in high esteem since he's something of a cultural hero as we learned earlier in PK tech girl. Aeryn tells him to leave the visitors alone and takes his knife away.

It is nice how they mentioned Durka a few times in an earlier ep or two, establishing his 'reality' before he appeared in an episode.
Even given Aeryn's being a fan of Durka, it is funny/odd how she threatens to kill Rygel if he doesn't stop threating to kill people. She knows he was held prisoner for many years, and tortured, but she still acts like Rygel is morally wrong. She can be such an ass sometimes. This is possibly a result of her Sebacean/Peacekeeper upbringing, teaching her that other species do not deserve the same rights or treatment as Sebaceans.

Originally Posted by Mr. Infamous

What probably happened here was Durka wanted to test his reputation even further against even bigger game so decided to go fuck with the Nebari, so they disappeared him to send a message. The thoroughness of what they must of done is pretty impressive, since despite this ship being a cultural icon the Pks never learned of its fate, or Durka's until over 100 years after the fact.

But there is no message unless the Peacekeepers knew what happened. So keeping it a mystery eliminates any usefulness as a message.

Originally Posted by Mr. Infamous

John goes back to talk to Chiana some more and she gives a frankly pretty cryptic and evasive description of her alleged "crimes" which doesn't really help her given her situation. I can accept this though because I imagine she's been pretty heavily conditioned into simply not trusting people with information, even when it's to her advantage to lay it all out in plain sight.

Yes, this was a nice bit of early Chiana character development.

Originally Posted by Mr. Infamous

playing on John's human sympathies to get out of her cell and go ruin everyone elses day somehow.

That blasted little brain!

Originally Posted by Mr. Infamous

Rygel decides to try and blow Durka up with a homemade bomb of some kind but comes closer to killing John than the ex Pk captain.

I thought more would be said about this later. He knew John was in the room so obviously was intending to kill them both.

Originally Posted by Mr. Infamous

I had to ask myself here though, if 100 years of mental cleansing can be undone by one moderately severe bump on the head why bother at all.

A bit of goofy story logic. Ill thought out.

Originally Posted by Mr. Infamous

They can't be removing core personality traits and replacing them like they claim, all they really must be doing is sort of wallpapering over the mess and hiding it.

Nice, but it doesn't excuse what is sloppy writing.

Originally Posted by Mr. Infamous

I've got to give special mention to the actor that plays Salis too. He's not around quite long enough to be one of the show's major guest stars but until rewatching this I'd forgotten just how perfectly he nails this role.

A terrific actor who did an excellent job nailing the character perfectly. One thing: I assumed that Chiana's bent posture, neck movements, arms at odd angles, was meant as typical Nebari posture, making the species 'alien'. But Salis does none of that. Either the actors or the director has to get the actors together and work this sort of thing out ahead of time.

Originally Posted by Mr. Infamous

Durka manages to trick Aeryn into leading him to the command, where he promtly proceeds to show his true colours by smacking the shit out of her

And once again Aeryn gets beat up, easily.

Originally Posted by Mr. Infamous

and going to work on compromising the ship. I had a bit of trouble believing that Durka here could actually pull off this sort of hacking/bypassing type work given Aeryn's previous attitude toward work like this.

It is impressive though.

Originally Posted by Mr. Infamous

Now here we see Durka, a PK captain, getting his tech on to such an extent that even pilot can't stop him.

Well, Pilot isn't good for much.

Originally Posted by Mr. Infamous

Now maybe PK attitudes were differant in Durka's time or he learned this as part of his Nebari "reeducation", the fact it's being done on a biomechanoid Leviathan that virtually no Pk should be familiar with certainly doesn't help sell it though.

It was mentioned at some point in the series that Levithians were common transport ships, and that Peacekeepers routinely slapped those control collars on them.

Originally Posted by Mr. Infamous

Presumably parallel to these events the episodes great mystery also goes down, who killed Salis. The episode never fully answers this question, giving the viewer the choice between Durka and Chiana as they both give deliberately vague non answers when asked about it. This is probably my single favorite part of the episode. A lot of other shows would just take the easy way out here and make it look like Chiana had done it until Durka was revealed to be uncleansed, then have him gloat about it and take credit.

Yes! verrry well done. I have slammed them for some sloppy writing and direction, and I will give credit where it is due. This was subtly written and very nicely directed. The sly look Chiana gives Crichton is perfect. Very smoothly done scene. This is a small example of how this show could tilt a typical way of telling a story, or a standard sf concept, to an odd angle, and find a new, interesting way to present the material. It is what this production team could do when they were interested.

Originally Posted by Mr. Infamous

One thing I felt that was always missing from this whole dynamic between these two however is why Durka seemed to hate Rygel so much.

That is left to our imaginations. In this case I think it works better that way. The audience can imagine any horror or past trauma or conflict that they think is suitable.

Originally Posted by Mr. Infamous

In an extremely rare moment of what could I suppose only be called heroism, Rygel distracts Durka's attention onto himself with an epic verbal smackdown that runs down all the ways in which Durka is a failure. He wraps it up by telling Durka that the ship is pregnant and therefore can't starburst, meaning that no matter what he does the Nebari are still going to get him in the end.

Rygel is on top of his game this episode. The best lines, the best acting, once again he (his 'controllers'?) outshines his castmates.

Originally Posted by Mr. Infamous

Yep that's right, Chiana was originally planned as just another guest character introduced in the fifteenth episode here, but the producers liked her so much they made her into a series regular.

It would have seemed odd to go through all that trouble throughout the ep, then have her escape, just to be shot down by Durka two scenes later.

Originally Posted by Mr. Infamous

Anyway Chiana's part of the plan is to lure Durka into the cargobay so John can wack him with a giant space hockey stick,

So since he's left the bridge to search for the baby the door is now open. John and Chiana can just walk in and free Aeryn and Rygel.

Originally Posted by Mr. Infamous

Yep, Durka's plan is to fly the original Nebari pod outside and use its big scary cannon to kill Moya's baby somehow. Why Durka thinks that a Leviathan with a giant seeping hole blasted into its internal organs is more likely to be able to starburst than a pregnant one isn't clear,

That sloppy writing/ conceptualizing monster is back.

Originally Posted by Mr. Infamous

and we never get to find out, since John uses one of Rygel's homemade bombs to provoke Moya into violently expelling the pod, and damaging it further in the process.

He must have read the manual on how to make them at some point in between talking to Chiana.

Originally Posted by Mr. Infamous

Thus the episode ends with Durka's worst nightmare becoming a reality for him. He's floating in a disabled ship with both his Nebari overseer and their prisoner gone and with the Nebari host ship coming to pick him up.

He's ready for them now. They don't stand a chance.

Originally Posted by Mr. Infamous

All in all "Durka Returns"; despite perhaps one of the most unimaginitive titles in Farscape history, is a pretty solid episode, definately top teir for season 1. We get a new series regular, a decent story, get to actually see Durka in action, Rygel gets some key development, and we get introduced to a new set of extremely creepy badguys in the Nebari, personified by the excellent character of Salis, that will sadly see little to no further development in the series. On the downside though the introduction of Chiana in this episode pretty much marks the point at which Zhaan will become progressively less appealing as a character in general, loosing all of her early run alien sensuality, and largely being delegated to doing random supporting scientific tasks and being inexplicably bitchy all the time.

Then Chiana too, becomes less appealing as they dilute her character. This episode is one of the better eps for season one, despite a few flaws in writing. It is a decent story, and its main strengths are the new characters and Rygel.

[Mr. Infamous]

Originally Posted by Rustydogz

It seems like a lesser version of the BSG drive. Something closer to the "warp drive" of Trek. It is better for an sf show, in a way, because it allows for story ideas that take place inside of 'warp space' or whatever.

I prefer it this way to. The BSG style drive, while a nice departure from the usual, introduces a lot of conceptual problems into the setting, namely problems of how you defend against it. BSG just sort of ignored this issue but theoretically there's nothing stopping you from just warping in with your ships, firing off a bunch of nukes, then just warping off before any sort of defenders even know you're there. You could even build missiles with the same drive and just warp them straight from your silos to their targets.

Very, very nasty tech for surprise warfare that drive is, especially against stationary targets like planets where you always know what their position is going to be.

I don't remember that. Really? haha. What was the his motive in the story? It seems out of character for Crichton. Are the writers just randomly assigning dialogue to characters?

Yeah I just rechecked it. Zhaan suggests it first but he jumps right on board and even tries to talk pilot into it because "our record with guests isn't exactly good". It's nice to see him learning but yeah, pretty dickish time to start.

Yes, they developed a good character/race concept, then abandoned it. They did the same with Chiana actually; making her an intriguing character in her first few episodes, then diluting her personality and her role until she was a one-note character.

Yeah eventually she just became "the horny one". In this episode you actually get more the sense that she's not so much slutty as she realizes the value of her sexuality as a survival tool for manipulating men. Really bad simplification of that down to "yeah so she's the space skank". I still don't know where the hell all the bullshit they did with her in PK wars came from either. Talk about spinning right off into the weeds. They were so far off with that one that it comes accross as looking more like Sci-fi just demanded they utilize white contacts on one of the main characters somehow.

True. I never thought of them that way, but yes I see that now. They were a good species concept, but they became over-used as the Nebari (and others) became under-used.

The Scarrans mainly got as big as they did because of their connection to Scorpius and his motives. I just wish they'd done something a little differant with them than "yeah so they're basically uglier PKs. The Nebari by contrast offered the chance for some sort of really sinister type of growth via forced cultural assimilation. Basically they either seduce or bully smaller powers near their borders into joining with them "for the greater good" in defense against powers like the PKs and Scarrans, then totally zombify them over the course of a few generations under the guise of making them stronger and better protected from hostile outsiders.

See Demolition Man for more details on the process.

Wonder if he came out knowing how to knit to, or if hairstyling was set up as his special talent judging by those silky flowing locks.

Rygel's acting is easily the best of the cast, in this ep.

Hardy was really one of the best actors the show had, in the top three for sure.

He seems that confident. Many of Durka's skills would be intact, just bent toward Nebari goals.

It does reveal a weakness in the Nebari though. If they really are this confident in their flawed mind cleansing techniques then what other flaws technologies might they also be institutionally overconfidant in. It gives me a real old style Soviet Union vibe here. Salis is told by his superiors that mind cleansing is perfect, that it can not fail or be undone. He doesn't question it of course because that's the "official stance" and if he did it would likely be grounds for his own mind cleansing.

He does have a point, and a story is always better when both sides have an argument. But Cricton was objecting mainly to the torture. Later on Salis wants to cleanse Rygel, and hints that the others may get the same treatment, so Salis is willing to interfere in other species' cultures, making him a hypocrite.

...but he's not interfering, he's only "helping". This is pretty much exactly the core of what makes them such great villians.

In real life, how many bounty hunters go after dangerous fugitives? One, two, maybe three in rare instances. And Chiani is no Trinity. Two guys could easily bring in one little girl.

We'll see later on in this season how the Pks do it. Granted I know that Chiana would in actuality be more than well enough handled by two people, but I mention it because it just opens another hole in Salis whole "dangerous criminal" story. If she was really as dangerous as he tries to act why such a light guard.

It is impressive, and reinforces the idea that they are hypocrites, like the Federation. It is one of the subtle hints the ep gives us in the first few acts that gradually turn us against Salis and in favor of Chiana and Rygel's point of view. Well, subtle for an hour long tv show.

I still remember that one episode of TNG where they all get their memories (and presumably political indoctrinations) erased and have to figure out who they are and what they're suppossed to be doing from scratch. When they pull up the Enterprise schematics they all immediately agree that they're clearly the crew of a warship.

That's a good story rationale. Internally, the producers probably didn't like Nebari as much as we do, and thought of them only as a one or two ep villain.

The best reason I can figure why they weren't expanded on more was that they didn't just want "grey humans" as their main badguys after they'd already done the PKs who were just straight up stock humans. That and the Scarrans being so hooked into Scorpy of course.

It is nice how they mentioned Durka a few times in an earlier ep or two, establishing his 'reality' before he appeared in an episode.

Yeah, they even showed his face way back in PK tech girl.

Even given Aeryn's being a fan of Durka, it is funny/odd how she threatens to kill Rygel if he doesn't stop threating to kill people. She knows he was held prisoner for many years, and tortured, but she still acts like Rygel is morally wrong. She can be such an ass sometimes. This is possibly a result of her Sebacean/Peacekeeper upbringing, teaching her that other species do not deserve the same rights or treatment as Sebaceans.

I figure that's exactly what it is. It's so deeply ingrained into her thinking still that she doesn't even realize she's constantly defaulting to thinking of Sebacean lives as being inherently more valuable than alien ones. She should post on gateworld.

But there is no message unless the Peacekeepers knew what happened. So keeping it a mystery eliminates any usefulness as a message.

I figure there would be a "they went over there and never came back woooo" type of story from whoever saw his ship last. The PKs could never prove the Nebari did it of course, but they would know that was a sector near their territory, suspect their involvment, and be more than a little creeped out by the fact that they were so easily capable of it.

I thought more would be said about this later. He knew John was in the room so obviously was intending to kill them both.

That's a good point I rather missed actually. It really gives you an insight into just how much he must have hated him.

Nice, but it doesn't excuse what is sloppy writing.

Oh I don't excuse sloppy writing. I point it out because it shows how what the Nebari think and are told mind cleansing does doesn't really match up with reality. It shows how even "party men" like Salis are still fed propagandised bullshit about how great the establishment is, potentially to their own fatal detriment. In this case Salis never knew he was riding around with a man who was literally just one bump on the noggin away from reverting into a xenophobic, sadist with military experience and training. In other words someone who not only could overpower and kill him, but would instantly want to, and likely in the worst, most horriffic, and drawn out way he could think of.

A terrific actor who did an excellent job nailing the character perfectly. One thing: I assumed that Chiana's bent posture, neck movements, arms at odd angles, was meant as typical Nebari posture, making the species 'alien'. But Salis does none of that. Either the actors or the director has to get the actors together and work this sort of thing out ahead of time.

From what I recall in the one other episode of the series that has Nebari in it the Nebari female does move like Chiana. Maybe it's a female thing?

And once again Aeryn gets beat up, easily.

Yep, by a 160+ year old naval officer who spent the last 100 of those years learning how to knit via Nebari mind tapes.

She's got to be the shittiest "commando" ever trained. I'll bet even Grayza could clobber her ass, and probably without even popping a nip on accident.

It is impressive though.

Maybe the Nebari thought teaching him how to maliciously compromise starship systems would be an important step in his rehabilitation.

Well, Pilot isn't good for much.

He's great as emergency food.

It was mentioned at some point in the series that Levithians were common transport ships, and that Peacekeepers routinely slapped those control collars on them.

Yeah but you don't usually expect to see officers like Durka digging around inside bioship guts often enough that he'd know exactly what to do here. Maybe he builds little model leviathans in bottles as a hobby?

Yes! verrry well done. I have slammed them for some sloppy writing and direction, and I will give credit where it is due. This was subtly written and very nicely directed. The sly look Chiana gives Crichton is perfect. Very smoothly done scene. This is a small example of how this show could tilt a typical way of telling a story, or a standard sf concept, to an odd angle, and find a new, interesting way to present the material. It is what this production team could do when they were interested.

I think it's a really good example of them taking an overused plot device and just saying to themselves "but what if this happened instead". They do this quite a bit, the most obvious example being the two John's we'll see later. Any other show would have discovered some way to expose the "fake" then killed him off.

They wrote half a season with no one knowing who the real John was or if either of them really was more real than the other.

It would have seemed odd to go through all that trouble throughout the ep, then have her escape, just to be shot down by Durka two scenes later.

That's probably the way she would have went yeah, failing to lure Durka into that trap so he just shoots her in the back in front of John.

So since he's left the bridge to search for the baby the door is now open. John and Chiana can just walk in and free Aeryn and Rygel.

Haha yeah, I didn't even realise that. All Chi needed to do was draw Durka away so John could sneak in behind him and untie the others, unless Durka had something set up to let him know if this was going to happen. He caught Dargo trying to sneak in in a somewhat similar way afterall.

That sloppy writing/ conceptualizing monster is back.

I guess we can just assume that he's in such a panic mode now to escape from the Nebari that he's not really even thinking straight anymore.

He's ready for them now. They don't stand a chance.

We actually do get to find out what became of him later. I could never make sense of it at all. It seemed like a really shitty way to just ram him into a story for no good reason and probably the cheapest villian death in the show, right up there with Ahkna in PK wars.

[Rustydogz]

Originally Posted by Mr. Infamous

I still don't know where the hell all the bullshit they did with her in PK wars came from either. Talk about spinning right off into the weeds. They were so far off with that one that it comes across as looking more like Sci-fi just demanded they utilize white contacts on one of the main characters somehow.

Oh yes, those white contacts. I believe in the DVD they talk about those contacts like they are some great story concept they came up with. She was supposed to develop weird vision super-powers or something like that. Into the weeds is right. They should have watched the early Chiana episodes and reminded themselves of what they had lost.

Originally Posted by Mr. Infamous

The Scarrans mainly got as big as they did because of their connection to Scorpius and his motives. I just wish they'd done something a little different with them than "yeah so they're basically uglier PKs. The Nebari by contrast offered the chance for some sort of really sinister type of growth via forced cultural assimilation. Basically they either seduce or bully smaller powers near their borders into joining with them "for the greater good" in defense against powers like the PKs and Scarrans, then totally zombify them over the course of a few generations under the guise of making them stronger and better protected from hostile outsiders.

The emphasis on Scarrans made sense, but it was too much. If not a few less Scarran episodes, then they should have dropped a few of those 'Insane Space" episodes and written something good featuring the Nebari, the Delvians, and a few of the other under-used peoples they invented. For example, another story about the Kalish underground may have been interesting. I know they planned something like that for season five, but there was room in season four.

Originally Posted by Mr. Infamous

It does reveal a weakness in the Nebari though. If they really are this confident in their flawed mind cleansing techniques then what other flaws technologies might they also be institutionally over confidant in. It gives me a real old style Soviet Union vibe here. Salis is told by his superiors that mind cleansing is perfect, that it can not fail or be undone. He doesn't question it of course because that's the "official stance" and if he did it would likely be grounds for his own mind cleansing.

Actually, Canada is like that in many ways.

Originally Posted by Mr. Infamous

We'll see later on in this season how the Pks do it. Granted I know that Chiana would in actuality be more than well enough handled by two people, but I mention it because it just opens another hole in Salis whole "dangerous criminal" story. If she was really as dangerous as he tries to act why such a light guard.

As we learn in 'Chronicles', four bounty hunters was not enough to bring in Riddick, but five was good. I think Salis was insinuating that Chiana was like the Catherine Deneuve character in 'Repulsion'. Basically what you suggested earlier. And she did try to break Crichton's skull with that hockey stick.

Originally Posted by Mr. Infamous

I figure that's exactly what it is. It's so deeply ingrained into her thinking still that she doesn't even realize she's constantly defaulting to thinking of Sebacean lives as being inherently more valuable than alien ones. She should post on gateworld.

Big Sebacean fans there, are they, or is that how they view themselves?

Originally Posted by Mr. Infamous

From what I recall in the one other episode of the series that has Nebari in it the Nebari female does move like Chiana. Maybe it's a female thing?

Maybe, but it seems more than a little incongruent.

Originally Posted by Mr. Infamous

Yep, by a 160+ year old naval officer who spent the last 100 of those years learning how to knit via Nebari mind tapes. She's got to be the shittiest "commando" ever trained. I'll bet even Grayza could clobber her ass, and probably without even popping a nip on accident.

Even stranger, she is the one who trained Crichton, who never loses.

Originally Posted by Mr. Infamous

Yeah but you don't usually expect to see officers like Durka digging around inside bioship guts often enough that he'd know exactly what to do here. Maybe he builds little model leviathans in bottles as a hobby?

I doubt modern naval commanders know how the control panels work inside, and less so the engines.

Originally Posted by Mr. Infamous

I think it's a really good example of them taking an overused plot device and just saying to themselves "but what if this happened instead". They do this quite a bit, the most obvious example being the two John's we'll see later. Any other show would have discovered some way to expose the "fake" then killed him off.

They were clever that way when they put their minds to it. I wonder if the clever ideas were mostly from the same three or four people? The two Johns: I both liked and dislike that idea and its execution.

Originally Posted by Mr. Infamous

They wrote half a season with no one knowing who the real John was or if either of them really was more real than the other.

I thought they had decided they were identical, like two amoebas after one splits.

Originally Posted by Mr. Infamous

Haha yeah, I didn't even realize that. All Chi needed to do was draw Durka away so John could sneak in behind him and untie the others, unless Durka had something set up to let him know if this was going to happen. He caught Dargo trying to sneak in in a somewhat similar way after all.

DArgo was in an access tunnel, the other was the front door to the control room. The ol' tin cans filled with water balanced on top of the door trick, maybe. But really, it was a plot hole they hoped to pass by without notice.

Originally Posted by Mr. Infamous

We actually do get to find out what became of him later. I could never make sense of it at all. It seemed like a really shitty way to just ram him into a story for no good reason and probably the cheapest villian death in the show, right up there with Ahkna in PK wars.

He gets a quick 3 second cameo. Cheap indeed, a false cliffhanger, a fake plot turn, a shallow misdirection. A waste of a good character.
.

[Mr. Infamous]

Originally Posted by Rustydogz

Oh yes, those white contacts. I believe in the DVD they talk about those contacts like they are some great story concept they came up with. She was supposed to develop weird vision super-powers or something like that. Into the weeds is right. They should have watched the early Chiana episodes and reminded themselves of what they had lost.

To their credit they did at least foreshadow it a bit, that didn't save it from being a really nonsensical story direction for her though. What possible reason was there for her to suddenly develop precongnitive psychic powers.

The emphasis on Scarrans made sense, but it was too much. If not a few less Scarran episodes, then they should have dropped a few of those 'Insane Space" episodes and written something good featuring the Nebari, the Delvians, and a few of the other under-used peoples they invented. For example, another story about the Kalish underground may have been interesting. I know they planned something like that for season five, but there was room in season four.

This is all the more true considering how many just plain bad one off episodes there were in season 4. You could have easily done the Kalish resistance one, background eps for Noranti, Sikozu and Grayza, and probably still had room to bring the Nebari back in.

Actually, Canada is like that in many ways.

Well there are certainly a few people I wouldn't mind locking away in a secret mnd clensing tube for 100 years or so.

Big Sebacean fans there, are they, or is that how they view themselves?

Substitute Human for Sebacean in Aeryn's thinking and you describe a fairly sizable contigent there.

Maybe, but it seems more than a little incongruent.

I personally just figured Salis was stiffer because he was one of the "obediant zombies".

Even stranger, she is the one who trained Crichton, who never loses.

Did she ever actually train him? It always seemed to me like he basically just learned how to win fights with various professional soldiers by magic.

Maybe Dargo taught him, Dargo seems to have a much better track record from what I can remember.

They were clever that way when they put their minds to it. I wonder if the clever ideas were mostly from the same three or four people?

I figure it's like that on pretty much every show, that's why it's sometimes fun to watch them all break up and go their own ways after a show ends. You can see who was bringing the real talent then.

I thought they had decided they were identical, like two amoebas after one splits.

Yeah, that's what the ended up with, seperate but equal. No original and no copy.

He gets a quick 3 second cameo. Cheap indeed, a false cliffhanger, a fake plot turn, a shallow misdirection. A waste of a good character.
.

I really never got why they just flushed him like that. Not only did it not make any sense for him to be there given the distances involved they basically just reintroduced him to the story to kill him seconds later. It's like they got that rubber head in the mail and just simply had to find a way to work it into the show somehow.

[Rustydogz]

Originally Posted by Mr. Infamous

To their credit they did at least foreshadow it a bit, that didn't save it from being a really nonsensical story direction for her though. What possible reason was there for her to suddenly develop precongnitive psychic powers.

Someone was a big fan of 'Eyes of Laura Mars' and similar movies.

Originally Posted by Mr. Infamous

This is all the more true considering how many just plain bad one off episodes there were in season 4. You could have easily done the Kalish resistance one, background eps for Noranti, Sikozu and Grayza, and probably still had room to bring the Nebari back in.

Yes, that's what I was getting at. There were many poor eps they could have thrown out. Although I liked the series, and would have enjoyed seeing a season five, I have to admit that it was beginning to come apart at the seams in season four.

Originally Posted by Mr. Infamous

I personally just figured Salis was stiffer because he was one of the "obediant zombies".

Perhaps it was meant as a class thing.

Originally Posted by Mr. Infamous

Did she ever actually train him? It always seemed to me like he basically just learned how to win fights with various professional soldiers by magic.

In that 'alternate universe ep' he told her "I was trained by the best." Of course, it is an sf standard motif that Earthmen are invincible.

Originally Posted by Mr. Infamous

Yeah, that's what the ended up with, seperate but equal. No original and no copy.

I had just assumed that was so after the 'two John's' argument. Perhaps I just guessed correctly, but it seemed to me that is what they established by the end of that scene, or at least that episode.

Originally Posted by Mr. Infamous

I really never got why they just flushed him like that. Not only did it not make any sense for him to be there given the distances involved they basically just reintroduced him to the story to kill him seconds later. It's like they got that rubber head in the mail and just simply had to find a way to work it into the show somehow.

He would have made an excellent recurring villain. He did the 'evil military commander' thing much better than Crais. What season was the ep in which they killed off Durka? Maybe the producers suspected Farscape would be canceled, so they just dumped the character, knowing they would never use him again.