Farscape Rewind: Episode 1.17

[Mr. Infamous]

Ok so first off as the more astute of you have no doubt noticed I've been doing these updates every other week instead of every week as originally planned. This is because I'm lazy, and to give everyone as much time to get caught up and to appreciate the episodes as much as possible of course, and beleive me we're going to need all the time we can get to appreciate this next one.

This week's episode is "Through the looking glass" an episode where we're bombarded with irritating noises and weird lights while the crew runs around like chickens with their heads cut off eventually solving the canned problem of the week and getting on with their lives as though nothing happened.

If you're looking for an episode that can be skipped with absolutely no consequences what so ever to your enjoyment of future episode then look no further. In fact come to think of it you should skip it. Yeah that's right I'm telling you to skip it. Not seeing this will actually make the episodes after it seem better by virtue of not carrying any of this one's bland aftertaste in with you. This isn't even an episode like Jeremiah Crichton where I'd actually suggest you watch it just so you can balk in amazment at just how horrible it actually is. This one is just, I guess you'd call it useless. Yep, useless is a pretty good word to describe it. It's not painfully bad, like some of the ones that have preceeded it, it's just so canned and generic and boring that there's really no reason for it to exist at all. Even the trivial tech point about how Starbust doesn't actually happen instantainiously was already made in an earlier episode.

Since your skipping this episode I'm going to go ahead and just tell you the one noteworthy thing that happens in it right now. There's a couple of dinner scenes at the begining, and especially the end, that show how much closer the crew has become over the time we've been with them. There, that's it. Ok there's also a few pretty funny jokes strewn around in there but not funny enough to make sitting through this entire thing to find them worthwhile.

I actually watched this one quite a while ago, before some of the more recent ones I've reviewed infact, and since I have no intention of watching it again this review's going to be a bit leaner and meaner than those reviews of weeks past.

Basically what happens is pilot fucks up a starburst and as a result the ship splits into 3 "alternate dimension"" ships, a red, yellow and blue one. The various crew members of course get seperated into the various alternate dimensions. John's the only one to really get a handle on what's going on, an inexplicable and unecessary monster appears to inject some artificial drama, then they fix the "technology gone wrong" and the episode ends.

That's pretty much it. There's a lot of running around in hallways with funny camera angles, a LOT of irritating noises and lights and no real substance behind any of it. You could take this episode out of Farscape, drop it straight into Star Trek TNG or Voyager, and so long as you swapped out the characters, deleted the comedy, and added the word "phase" to the description of the problem you could never tell the differance. This isn't really a "Farscape episode" then, what it is is just a standard formulaic pulp sci-fi offering that could literally be the product of some sort of prewritten script template with only the names of characters and locations left blank to be filled in.

The central plot here is the same tired old "technology gone wrong" plot seen in so many sci-fi shows where the crew's technology fails or breaks down in some weird way and the episode is then spent "dramatically" working toward the inevitable "and so then we fixed it" reset button that will constitute the conclusion.

So basically you're going to sit and watch your neighboors fix their car for an hour or so and you're not allowed to help or really learn anything from it because their car runs on Mongolian applesauce and all their tools are labelled in gibberish and covered in glowy lights, oh and halfway through a monster shows up for some reason.

If that sounds like a fun time to you then by all means dive on "through the looking glass".

Final verdict: Absolutely blatant filler episode.

[Rustydogz]

Originally Posted by Mr. Infamous

Ok so first off as the more astute of you have no doubt noticed I've been doing these updates every other week instead of every week as originally planned. This is because I'm lazy, and to give everyone as much time to get caught up and to appreciate the episodes as much as possible of course,

It will take us approximately 3.19 years to finish rewatching the series.

Originally Posted by Mr. Infamous

This week's episode is "Through the looking glass" an episode where we're bombarded with irritating noises and weird lights

True, that noise on the one environment was irritating. And it was supposed to be irritating, but I was puzzled by their choice of eye irritation, ear irritation, and ... euphoria, as the three side effects. There didn't seem to be any logic behind that writing.

Originally Posted by Mr. Infamous

while the crew runs around like chickens with their heads cut off

Yes, Crichton was the only one who did any good, although Aeryn did get a good line or two when she knew the required control sequence. This was very much a "Crichton is THE hero of the series" episode.

Originally Posted by Mr. Infamous

eventually solving the canned problem of the week and getting on with their lives as though nothing happened.

Not entirely canned, and they go on with their lives like that every week. Though one could argue that they are wiser for the experience, and more appreciative of one another and of a good feast. The discussion of splitting up is long forgotten, and Chiana is more a part of the crew and less a solo operator by the episode's end.

Originally Posted by Mr. Infamous

This isn't even an episode like Jeremiah Crichton where I'd actually suggest you watch it just so you can balk in amazment at just how horrible it actually is.

I would never suggest someone watch Jeremiah Crichton. I would have suggested they leave it off the new dvd release. Instead they piled on the commentaries. I believe they have four people commenting on Jereimah Crichton on the new disc. Sad, really.

Originally Posted by Mr. Infamous

it's just so canned and generic and boring that there's really no reason for it to exist at all. Even the trivial tech point about how Starbust doesn't actually happen instantainiously was already made in an earlier episode.

The motif of an alternate dimension, or even of a ship being trapped in an alternate dimension, is oft-used in sf, but it still has a lot of life and possibilities left in it. Star Trek in particular used the idea often. Sometimes it was the ship stuck in another dimension, sometimes they used the transporter beam as a weird dimensional-type place where strange things could happen. I think they went to this well too often, but at the same time several of their best eps used this motif.

"Through the Looking Glass" gave Farscape's take on this type of story, basing it in their own idea of Starburst, in Moya and Pilot's established incompetence, and in the personalities of the various characters. Farscape did previously establish that starburst did not happen instantly, but having done that they of course had to base an ep around the fact, or there was no point to it.

Originally Posted by Mr. Infamous

There's a couple of dinner scenes at the begining, and especially the end, that show how much closer the crew has become over the time we've been with them. There, that's it. Ok there's also a few pretty funny jokes strewn around in there but not funny enough to make sitting through this entire thing to find them worthwhile.

I thought the dinner scenes were some of Farscape's best writing. I would recommend the ep only for that.

Originally Posted by Mr. Infamous

since I have no intention of watching it again this review's going to be a bit leaner and meaner than those reviews of weeks past.

Certainly meaner.

Originally Posted by Mr. Infamous

John's the only one to really get a handle on what's going on, an inexplicable and unecessary monster appears to inject some artificial drama, then they fix the "technology gone wrong" and the episode ends.

John is the viewpoint character, the star, of the series, and this ep lets us know that it isn't really an ensemble cast.
The monster turns out not to be a generic monster. The claw marks evoke the claw marks of Forbidden Planet. But it turns out that this 'monster' is not attacking, it is trying to communicate. It is in fact the guardian of this dimension, or space between dimensions. Yes, we have had aliens with misunderstood motives previously, but that is just part of drama. If they did that every ep it would become annoying, but they don't. And I don't recall another sf story that used this particular approach to a dimensional entity.

Originally Posted by Mr. Infamous

That's pretty much it. There's a lot of running around in hallways with funny camera angles, a LOT of irritating noises and lights

Maybe too much running around, but really they had no way to avoid it given the 'four Moyas' idea.

Originally Posted by Mr. Infamous

and no real substance behind any of it.

If you mean substance as in some philosophical point about life or the unverse or the nature of reality or human existence, then no. But this is space opera, rarely will there be such a point. If you mean character development, the characters are written consistently to the established personalities, they do 'come together' more closely as a group, and Chiana is more firmly established as part of the crew instead of an outsider who is not allowed to speak her opinion.

Originally Posted by Mr. Infamous

You could take this episode out of Farscape, drop it straight into Star Trek TNG or Voyager, and so long as you swapped out the characters, deleted the comedy, and added the word "phase" to the description of the problem you could never tell the differance. This isn't really a "Farscape episode" then, what it is is just a standard formulaic pulp sci-fi offering that could literally be the product of some sort of prewritten script template with only the names of characters and locations left blank to be filled in.

As a story type, there are several that this and other shows use. The 'ghost ship', the 'tech gone wrong', and so on. I would put this in a category of ships stuck in an alternate, or in between, dimension(s). They can work if well done. Ok, some find this more formulaic than I did. I thought was nicely paced, gave some good plot reversals, and was guided by the personalities of the characters, rather than the characters being inserted into standard formula roles.

Originally Posted by Mr. Infamous

The central plot here is the same tired old "technology gone wrong" plot seen in so many sci-fi shows where the crew's technology fails or breaks down in some weird way

A viable story source provided the writing is good. I thought this ep was written well enough. The characters were certainly more consistent then we have seen them for a while. I would rate it above average for the episodes we have seen so far.

[Mr. Infamous]

Originally Posted by Rustydogz

It will take us approximately 3.19 years to finish rewatching the series.

Well maybe if 10 days didn't pass between me posting threads and discussion of the episode actually begining such drastic measures wouldn't be necessary.

I don't know, I'm trying to strike some kind of a balance here. I figured when I started than once a week would be ample time to go into each episode, since that's how they aired, and yet it seemed like the discussions were often starting late and/or getting cut off and people were saying they were falling behind in viewing them.

I'd prefer to do them once a week if possible like I did originally, but maybe also some other people would want to do reviews so we could have two or more episodes a week, or two or more episodes every two weeks for example. It's not like I'm trying to claim some kind of monopoly over starting Farscape episode threads here.

What about shorter more generalized reviews that don't take as long to read as oppossed to the more scene by scene approach I'm taking now?

True, that noise on the one environment was irritating. And it was supposed to be irritating, but I was puzzled by their choice of eye irritation, ear irritation, and ... euphoria, as the three side effects. There didn't seem to be any logic behind that writing.

I just found it really hard to get through this one period and this certainly didn't help.

Yes, Crichton was the only one who did any good, although Aeryn did get a good line or two when she knew the required control sequence. This was very much a "Crichton is THE hero of the series" episode.

How utterly useless the rest of the crew seemed to be in this was another major problem I had with the episode. Between a PK commando, a Luxon Warrior, an 800 year old psychic and a human astronaught who do you think would be most useful here. I can barely remember what Zhaan and Dargo even did in this episode.

Not entirely canned, and they go on with their lives like that every week. Though one could argue that they are wiser for the experience, and more appreciative of one another and of a good feast. The discussion of splitting up is long forgotten, and Chiana is more a part of the crew and less a solo operator by the episode's end.

I pegged it as canned because this "ship breaks down/indeterminate exotic space disaster" is easily one of the most overused starting points for sci-fi episodes. The story is always the same and resolves the same way. Everyone runs around thinking they're going to die for an hour, usually in the dark and/or crawlspaces, then they push the reset button.

I would never suggest someone watch Jeremiah Crichton. I would have suggested they leave it off the new dvd release. Instead they piled on the commentaries. I believe they have four people commenting on Jereimah Crichton on the new disc. Sad, really.

Do they apologise for it, cause they should. This one might have been boring, forgetable and cliched but it'll never compare to Jeremiah Crichton for sheer awfulness.

The motif of an alternate dimension, or even of a ship being trapped in an alternate dimension, is oft-used in sf, but it still has a lot of life and possibilities left in it. Star Trek in particular used the idea often. Sometimes it was the ship stuck in another dimension, sometimes they used the transporter beam as a weird dimensional-type place where strange things could happen. I think they went to this well too often, but at the same time several of their best eps used this motif.

The fact that they lay that down beside the even more cliched "ship breaks down" plot is certainly not helping matters, especially since aside from irritating noises and coloured camera filters they didn't really do anything useful storywise with the alternate dimensions. John just runs from one to the other like he's solving a puzzle level in a videogame.

I thought the dinner scenes were some of Farscape's best writing. I would recommend the ep only for that.

It's a shame that they appear in this ep because those scenes really are good for showing just how much closer they've all gotten as a group by now, where as before they were all suspicious of one another and "look out for number one" was the rule of the day.

Certainly meaner.

Thinking about the possability of having to rewatch this because I couldn't remember a lot of the smaller details made me pretty angry.

John is the viewpoint character, the star, of the series, and this ep lets us know that it isn't really an ensemble cast.

That's fine but that doesn't mean all his companions have to be helpless dufuses who'd probably drown in their own saliva without him being there. To make another videogame analogy this episode gave me the feeling of one of those horrible escort missions some games have. You know where you have to go around saving all your "friends" or hostages or something because they're to stupid to help themselves or even run away from gunfire.

At least none of the supporting cast in this one walked straight out into automatic weapons fire though, causing John to scream and throw his controller.

If you mean substance as in some philosophical point about life or the unverse or the nature of reality or human existence, then no. But this is space opera, rarely will there be such a point. If you mean character development, the characters are written consistently to the established personalities, they do 'come together' more closely as a group, and Chiana is more firmly established as part of the crew instead of an outsider who is not allowed to speak her opinion.

I just meant substance as in something that'll make me forget about the existance of the fast forward key while I'm watching it. I literally couldn't wait for this to end while I was watching it, as in constantly checking the clock to try and estimate how much was left.

A viable story source provided the writing is good. I thought this ep was written well enough. The characters were certainly more consistent then we have seen them for a while. I would rate it above average for the episodes we have seen so far.

With any overused trope like this before you start writing it I figure you should ask yourself. "Am I going to actualy do anything with this or am I just basically going to regurgitate someone elses story with my characters and setting".

They key to making these types of overused plots still pass muster is to put some sort of original spin on them or give them some new level of importance not ordinarily found. Take the BSG episodes when the Galactica developed stress fractures in her structure. It served not only to directly force Adama to accept Cylon aid out of love for his ship, a major character point, but the damage also prooved to be ultimate unfixable and eventually led to a really nailbiting scene in the finale where you see the entire ship buck and shudder on the verge of tearing itself apart.

This on the other hand was just the standard TNG/Voyager recipie here. Some suppossed disaster occurs and in an hour it's resolved with no lasting consequences to ship or crew.

It's basically "filler episode writing 101".

[Rustydogz]

Originally Posted by Mr. Infamous

I'd prefer to do them once a week if possible like I did originally, but maybe also some other people would want to do reviews so we could have two or more episodes a week, or two or more episodes every two weeks for example. It's not like I'm trying to claim some kind of monopoly over starting Farscape episode threads here.

One problem is that while you are getting many views, almost no one is commenting. It is more fun if more people contribute. You do a good job. We do not need others doing reviews, we need them responding.

Originally Posted by Mr. Infamous

What about shorter more generalized reviews that don't take as long to read as oppossed to the more scene by scene approach I'm taking now?

No, I like this approach.

Originally Posted by Mr. Infamous

I just found it really hard to get through this one period and this certainly didn't help.

Despite this ep's flaws, I was entertained.

Originally Posted by Mr. Infamous

How utterly useless the rest of the crew seemed to be in this was another major problem I had with the episode. Between a PK commando, a Luxon Warrior, an 800 year old psychic and a human astronaught who do you think would be most useful here. I can barely remember what Zhaan and Dargo even did in this episode.

It could have been any or all of the characters accidentally discovering 'doorways' into all the other dimensions, but they stuck with Crichton as the obvious, and sole, viewpoint character.
D'Argo found a nifty facemask. Zhann realized she still thought of herself as a priest and put her vestments back on (foreshadowing her future decision). But yes, they only did what Crichton told them to and nothing else. I prefer a more ensemble approach myself.

Originally Posted by Mr. Infamous

I pegged it as canned because this "ship breaks down/indeterminate exotic space disaster" is easily one of the most overused starting points for sci-fi episodes. The story is always the same and resolves the same way. Everyone runs around thinking they're going to die for an hour, usually in the dark and/or crawlspaces, then they push the reset button.

Yes, but it is such a useful starting point. The difference is in the characters and in the writing. I have seen some excellent sf and some very poor sf that used these same motifs.

Originally Posted by Mr. Infamous

Do they apologise for it, cause they should. This one might have been boring, forgetable and cliched but it'll never compare to Jeremiah Crichton for sheer awfulness.

I don't know, I haven't listened to the commentaries on the Starburst Edition because it would mean watching the ep again.

Originally Posted by Mr. Infamous

That's fine but that doesn't mean all his companions have to be helpless dufuses who'd probably drown in their own saliva without him being there.

Yes, the ep would have been improved by giving the other characters more to say and do.

Originally Posted by Mr. Infamous

With any overused trope like this before you start writing it I figure you should ask yourself. "Am I going to actualy do anything with this or am I just basically going to regurgitate someone elses story with my characters and setting".
They key to making these types of overused plots still pass muster is to put some sort of original spin on them or give them some new level of importance not ordinarily found.

Certainly. I have seen better examples of this story-type, but I didn't hate this one either.

Originally Posted by Mr. Infamous

This on the other hand was just the standard TNG/Voyager recipie here. Some suppossed disaster occurs and in an hour it's resolved with no lasting consequences to ship or crew.

Trek was good at that. Cookie cutter sf. Interchangeable episodes.

Originally Posted by Mr. Infamous

It's basically "filler episode writing 101".

I give it more credit then that. I thought the humor, the floating brain with the job of repairing breeches in the dimensions, the dinner scenes, and so on, lifted the ep into the realm of enjoyable. But I am not arguing it was great sf, just an above average ep of the eps so far this season.

[Mr. Infamous]

Originally Posted by Rustydogz

One problem is that while you are getting many views, almost no one is commenting. It is more fun if more people contribute. You do a good job. We do not need others doing reviews, we need them responding.

Thanks, I'm not sure how much of the views are accounted for by things like google spiders and the like but it definately would be nicer to have more active participation every week. That was the goal in starting this whole thing but Thyme and I might just have come up with a plan that could help in this area.

No, I like this approach.

Well you'll love the new wall of text I just posted then.

I deliberately tried to keep that one a bit briefer when I started though, I don't know what happened.

Despite this ep's flaws, I was entertained.

Well in the end that is what entertainment is for.

Yes, but it is such a useful starting point. The difference is in the characters and in the writing. I have seen some excellent sf and some very poor sf that used these same motifs.

I didn't see anything particularly noteworthy about this take on it. I'll gladly overlook a cliched or overused premise if they do something interesting with it in the end, this didn't. It just went through the motions.

I don't know, I haven't listened to the commentaries on the Starburst Edition because it would mean watching the ep again.

Can't argue with reasoning like that.

I give it more credit then that. I thought the humor, the floating brain with the job of repairing breeches in the dimensions, the dinner scenes, and so on, lifted the ep into the realm of enjoyable. But I am not arguing it was great sf, just an above average ep of the eps so far this season.

That's one way to look at it I suppose. Myself not being as optimistic however, I ended up approaching it more as having to endure the rest of the episode just to get to the few good things in there.

Maybe I need more "positive energy" in my life.

Maybe Zhaan can bring it to me.