Catching Up: Farscape (episodes 13-15)

Farscape ran for four seasons and one series-ending movie. Halfway through Season 1 the show formally introduces us to the Crichton/Aeryn romance plot. Through a chain of clever sci-fi events and some formidable acting by Ben Browder and Claudia Black, the plot never went stale. The same can't really be said for just about every long-running romance in TV history. Whereas Sam and Diane on Cheers became something of a running joke and the limping epic that was Ross and Rachel on Friends is basically a stress test for story arc, Crichton and Aeryn managed to be compelling for the entire run of Farscape.

The Flax

Despite being a diehard fan of a science fiction show with a partially muppet cast, my geekiness is fairly limited. It was only thanks to a seasonal cold in the middle of college that I managed to see the first few episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation. Early in the game, John DeLancy's beloved character Q first shows up, trapping the Enterprise in what basically amounted to cosmic flypaper. A similar fate befalls a transport module containing Crichton and Aeryn in this episode. A team of pirates uses an energy field called The Flax to trap ships. Stranded together in a damaged vessel, Crichton and Aeryn get to spend some quality time together, including some pending death.

Meanwhile back on Moya, a humanoid alien named Staanz shows up to warn the crew about the pirates who are about to board the ship. Of all the one-off characters on Farscape, Staanz is my favorite. He (actually she) had so much potential to be an ongoing character, or at least an occasionally recurring feature. She's weird enough and special enough to have taken the space later filled by Stark, and I think her piecemeal ship could have been a fun element all on its own.

The episode closer is fairly predictable. Rygel outsmarts the pirates, Crichton and Aeryn make it back to Moya, and they get their first kiss, too.

Jeremiah Crichton

After a series of unpredictable events leaves Crichton stranded on a primitive planet for three months, the crew returns to find him living the life of a survivalist by a river that flows close to a tribal village. This won't be the last time in the series that Crichton gets left alone for a long stretch.

This episode has a pretty canned feel to it and I think it's one of the weakest from the first season. On the plus side, it does deepen Rygel's character a bit. When Moya's crew returns to the planet, the villagers welcome Rygel as a god. The usual antics ensue and Crichton comes very close to getting killed for the umpteenth time. Also, yet another alien woman falls in love with him. For those of you keeping score at home, that's three for the season (if you count Aeryn).

Durka Returns

Gigi Edgley's character Chiana was supposed to be a one-off who died at the end of this episode. Edgley's performance and her character's chemistry with the rest of the crew led the creators of the show to give her a multi-episode guest spot and eventually to fully integrate her as a main character. If Farscape had run for even one more season, I'm fairly certain that the show would have explored Chiana's backstory more fully. Her adventures with her brother Nerri would make an interesting comic book at the very least.

The main attraction of this episode is supposed to be Durka, the Peacekeeper who tortured Rygel, among others. The Nebari (Chiana's species) have a talent for altering minds, turning troublemakers into placid conformists. Chiana is the prisoner of some such reformers, while Durka is one of their so-called successes. Not surprisingly, things don't turn out that well. Durka manages to undo his brainwashing and turn into a sadist once more, holding the entire ship hostage after his Nebari captor is killed.

With Chiana's help and some quick thinking, Crichton manages to get Durka ejected from the ship, though he doesn't die. This allows for a very interesting fake-out later in the series, but I won't spoil that here.