Farscape Rewind: Episode 1.20

[Mr. Infamous]

Originally Posted by Rustydogz

The "Bannick Slave Race", apparently one of worse suffering victims of the PKs. I thought Stark had more to do, or at least more interesting things to do, than several of the other regular cast. One problem was that at the same time they added new characters they gave more scenes to John and Aeryn, so for the remaining cast, there was less time to divide between more characters.

Was it supposed to have been the Pks that enslaved them? Seems kinda weird that Scorpy would have had to pay for a bunch of them with Natira's money were that the case, but lets not nitpick episodes too far in advance I suppose.

I definitely agree about John and Aeryn stealing to much time from the other characters to. I get their their whole romance eventually became the center of the show and all but it really did start to be just too much toward the last season.

She didn't seem to like Crichton very much, and they did not have many scenes together, so her dialogue when they met up in PK Wars was odd.

I always felt they missed out on some great comedy potential by the fact that she never had any scenes with Scorpius. The combination of her superior attitudes regarding species, him having a major chip on his shoulder over the same thing, her likely being both terrified and disgusted by him, and him being more than willing to play to that could have really made for some great scenes.

The whole John/Jool thing from PK wars made no sense though. There was no hint what so ever that she was ever interested in him, if anything she showed more of a potential interest in Dargo.

That whole sequence of two or three episodes was a disaster.

It's a pretty dramatic contrast between the beginning and end of season 4 in general.

Sort of like Doctor Who.

Basically yeah.

I think she was a recent University grad, so early twenties.

I think she was also supposed to have something like 14 degrees despite her obvious youth to. Clearly the Interions must have the uncharted territories market cornered when it comes to diploma mills.

But think how perfect she would be for a Nebari story arc.

Honestly it's hard to imagine any story arc that couldn't be improved by having her around to look at, and a good character on top of it to.

[Rustydogz]

Originally Posted by Mr. Infamous

Was it supposed to have been the Pks that enslaved them? Seems kinda weird that Scorpy would have had to pay for a bunch of them with Natira's money were that the case, but lets not nitpick episodes too far in advance I suppose.

That is odd. They seemed to be general slaves. That point was never fully developed, but they were spoken of as though they had no home planet. So the PKs or someone else conquered them at some point in history and enslaved them all. It would be interesting to learn their background. Were they meant to be the galactic analogue to Africans or Central and South Americans, or Hebrews?

Originally Posted by Mr. Infamous

I definitely agree about John and Aeryn stealing to much time from the other characters to. I get their their whole romance eventually became the center of the show and all but it really did start to be just too much toward the last season.

My guess is that they saw the fans responding to the romance, so instead of just milking it, they let it dominate the show at the expense of almost everything else.

Originally Posted by Mr. Infamous

I always felt they missed out on some great comedy potential by the fact that she never had any scenes with Scorpius. The combination of her superior attitudes regarding species, him having a major chip on his shoulder over the same thing, her likely being both terrified and disgusted by him, and him being more than willing to play to that could have really made for some great scenes.

If he scared her enough to make her scream, she would have bent that metal cooling rod he put in his head.

Originally Posted by Mr. Infamous

The whole John/Jool thing from PK wars made no sense though. There was no hint what so ever that she was ever interested in him, if anything she showed more of a potential interest in Dargo.

It was as though the writers of PK Wars had never seen season four.

Originally Posted by Mr. Infamous

I think she was also supposed to have something like 14 degrees despite her obvious youth to. Clearly the Interions must have the uncharted territories market cornered when it comes to diploma mills.

Maybe she took a lot of those one month courses you used to see advertised on the back of matchbook covers, and counted those as degrees.

Originally Posted by Mr. Infamous

Honestly it's hard to imagine any story arc that couldn't be improved by having her around to look at, and a good character on top of it to.

It would have been cool to see her join the crew as cover to be an advance spy on the Nebari. But regardless, she had great presence in her brief role. A shame they did not find something for her to do in PK Wars.

[Mr. Infamous]

Originally Posted by Rustydogz

That is odd. They seemed to be general slaves. That point was never fully developed, but they were spoken of as though they had no home planet. So the PKs or someone else conquered them at some point in history and enslaved them all. It would be interesting to learn their background. Were they meant to be the galactic analogue to Africans or Central and South Americans, or Hebrews?

Lots of the alien species in this show had what seemed like potentially interesting back stories that were never explored. It's one of the bigger let downs of this and most sci-fi shows really. Only shows like Trek that have the advantage of being on forever ever seem to get around to actually fleshing out the back story to their alien civs and even then Trek was very hit and miss with how they did it. The franchise is more or less the source of the whole "one note alien culture" cliche.

My guess is that they saw the fans responding to the romance, so instead of just milking it, they let it dominate the show at the expense of almost everything else.

Likely, and I think a lot of shows also fall into that same trap. The trouble is though that you can only really keep a romance interesting so long before you start to get into things like ridiculous "break up/get back together" loops, or end up with a cast where everyone has bedded just about everyone else at some point.

If he scared her enough to make her scream, she would have bent that metal cooling rod he put in his head.

I actually remember bringing this up myself years ago when Scorpy first came on the ship. It seems entirely likely that her scream would at the least very seriously injure, or probably even kill him. His head is full of this metal apparatus that holds his cooling rods so even if the rods themselves didn't blow he'd end up with liquefied metal dripping into his brains. That's not exactly something that sounds particularly survivable.

The only thing that might save him is if the sound can't penetrate his skull and still remain loud enough to actually melt anything. Even if it could only melt his rig enough to prevent it from opening though he'd be in serious trouble

It would have been cool to see her join the crew as cover to be an advance spy on the Nebari. But regardless, she had great presence in her brief role. A shame they did not find something for her to do in PK Wars.

There were so many good guest characters on this show that you really could have had a much more dramatic crew rotation every season. Some fans wouldn't like it but personally I'd love having new characters coming in and old ones leaving constantly when it no longer made sense for them to stay.

[Rustydogz]

Originally Posted by Mr. Infamous

I actually remember bringing this up myself years ago when Scorpy first came on the ship. It seems entirely likely that her scream would at the least very seriously injure, or probably even kill him. His head is full of this metal apparatus that holds his cooling rods so even if the rods themselves didn't blow he'd end up with liquefied metal dripping into his brains. That's not exactly something that sounds particularly survivable.

I thought the size of that cooling unit was funny. When they showed it slide out from his skull, it was so long it would have to reach across his head once inserted, and it was so wide that it would fill most of his skull; there would be no room for his brain in there. It looked cooler making it so large, but it became laughable.

Originally Posted by Mr. Infamous

The only thing that might save him is if the sound can't penetrate his skull and still remain loud enough to actually melt anything. Even if it could only melt his rig enough to prevent it from opening though he'd be in serious trouble

I think there was a latter episode that posed just that problem.

Originally Posted by Mr. Infamous

There were so many good guest characters on this show that you really could have had a much more dramatic crew rotation every season. Some fans wouldn't like it but personally I'd love having new characters coming in and old ones leaving constantly when it no longer made sense for them to stay.

I would have enjoyed the variety, and it would have helped keep the show fresh. Probably a small core of regular players, but not five or six, perhaps three or four. And then three or four spots which rotated in and out over time. I have found that a typical tv show can handle seven or eight characters efficiently, but more then that and the show structure suffers, and beyond a few favorites characters are underused or disappear entirely for episodes at a time.