FARSCAPE Revisited Mini-caps / Season 3, Episodes 13-16

Farscape mini-cap time! May want to bring some decent funeral attire for this one…

Stewart here…and fair warning, some spoilers lie within…

Hey, fellow travelers of the Uncharted Territories, its time for some mini-caps on Farscape.

“Scratch ‘N Sniff”

The crew of Moya gets some downtime (more like kicked off by Pilot for a few days), and come back talking about how much their forced shore leave sucked.  Maybe “sucked” is a harsh term for D’argo and Green Crichton getting drugged and ripped off, while Jool and Chiana may be milked for some alien narcotic, but I think it qualifies.  Funny to hear that this episode was made into a flashback-esque comedic tale rather than a linear story in post-production, but it works here.  It’s certainly one of the more lighthearted episodes of season three, which is good for what comes up afterwards.

“Infinite Possibilities”

“Part 1: Daedalus Demands”

The Ancient who looks like John’s dad appears of Talyn to get Black Crichton’s help in finding out who has unwrapped wormhole technology.  Scorpius hasn’t, and John hasn’t, which leaves a surprising suspect: the mechanic Furlow from season 1’s “Till The Blood Runs Clear”.  This wouldn’t be bad news, except she’s selling the tech to the highest bidder, namely the Scarrans.  Uh oh.  Also, Black John decides to get rid of Harvey from his brain.  Spoiler: Harvey loses.

“Part 2: Icarus Abides”

Black John gets Ancient Jack to unlock the wormhole secrets in his mind to build a weapon to stop the Scarran invasion force.  But he pays a big price for it, namely, that he gets irradiated and dies in Aeryn’s arms.  Outside of being a really sad but triumphant end for Crichton (there’s still one of him kicking, so no worries of a Farscape-less Crichton from here on in), it’s a nice plot development that affects the rest of the season in a dramatic way.

“Revenging Angel”

D’argo gets pissy with Green John about the new mysterious Luxan ship on Moya, and puts Green John into a coma.  Green John does have a plus to being comatose: being stuck in a dreamworld of cartoons and cartoonish scenarios against D’argo.  Being in a coma might be better than D’argo trouble, being his ship might self-destruct and blow up Moya.  After the tragic end of “Infinite Possibilities”, this was a nice change of pace which brings plenty of funny.

Farscape: The Animated Series follow-up? I’m just saying its an idea that might be worth pursuing…

So, we get some wonderfully off-kilter episodes of Farscape in-between a pivotal and heartbreaking two parter.  After this, we finally get the gang back together from their separate adventures and start into the final arc of the season, being John versus Scorpius.  Get ready for this bout, sports fans.

–I just love the touch of the lounge-y music from the episode carrying on into the credits.  Of course, now I got it stuck in my head, but…

–Another appearance by Ben Browder’s wife in the show as Raxil.

–I can only guess how much practice it was to pull off that fire ball stunt Chiana does.

–John in shear black stockings.  That must interest someone.

–“Does this guy scream ‘Vegas’ or what?”

–“I’m older!  Show some respect!”

–“Obfuscation” seems to be universally translatable.  Good to know.

John Crichton stars as Frankenfurter in an off-galaxy production of the Rocky Horror Picture Show..

–Man, Rygel’s really good with firing giant cannons at people.

–And Harvey dies for one Crichton, and then Anicent Jack bites it too.

–Lots of dune buggy shootouts in this two parter.  I feel like I’m watching a less expensive but slightly better in quality version of a similar scene in Star Trek: Nemesis.

–Unless I’m wrong, this is the last we see of Furlow in the series.

–Look, I know one Crichton is still alive, but still that final scene with Aeryn and dying Black Crichton gets me every time.

–“Don’t worry about me.  I never felt better.”

— I’m curious how some of the women cartoon Aeryn imitates are recognizable to kids today.

–An episode where Jool spends her time covered in Levitathan parasite dung?  Works for me.

–The response to Crichton following the rulebook of Captain Kirk when it comes to revenge: “That was a television show, John.  And he made those Priceline commercials.”

–“I’m here..to..ummm….rescue…you?”

–Pilot’s answer to being so smart: “I don’t get out much, so I read.”

Correct tombstone, just for the wrong Crichton.

NEXT TIME:  Aeryn deals with her loss by facing off with her mother for the last time in “The Choice”, the crew reunites and deals with a band of Peacekeeper prisoners in “Fractures”, and Crichton’s moves to meet with Scorpius get interrupted by unexpected robbers in “I-Yensch, You-Yensch”.

RIP, John Crichton. Long live John Crichton. (I mean, we just lost 50% of the 200% of Crichton this season).

Tags: Farscape, Mini-caps, Stewart, Television