User Reviews

Feeling fed up and wanting some space to himself Crichton goes out for a spin in his module; unfortunately for him he picks the moment Moya decides to unexpectedly starburst! Luckily for him he manages to find a habitable planet where he finds a humanlike population. After three months there he has come to believe that he will spend the rest of his life there; he doesn't realise that far from abandoning him the rest of the crew have been searching every suitable planet they could find. During his time on the planet Lishala, the chief's daughter, has come to like him; much to the chagrin of Rokon, the man who thought he would one day marry her. He and his friends attack Crichton just as D'Argo turns up; he manages to save Crichton but this buts him in danger too... that is until the locals set eyes on Rygel; they seem to believe he is their god! It turns out that their ancestors were part of the Hynerian Empire but they lost there ability to travel in space after a previous Dominar installed a device to neutralise any power source on the planet. At first this seems like the break they were looking for... until they learn Rygel must fulfil certain prophecies or face death as a false god!

This wasn't a bad episode but did suffer somewhat from having the crew divided for much of the time; Zhaan and Aeryn were left with little to do back aboard Moya, there is also less action than usual and some of the special effects aren't up to the usual standards. The story was a bit too cliché; Rokon getting jealous of Crichton and over-reacting wasn't surprising nor were his mother's actions to encourage him to get Crichton out of the way. Some amusement was provided by having them mistake Rygel for their deity and it was nice to see that he denied being a god; I'd have expected him to relish the idea! Overall it was okay but not one of the more memorable episodes.

Problematic racial undertones aside, this is a well-paced Dances with Wolves analog. The crew spends months searching for Crichton after he goes out for a drive and is left behind in a freak starburst accident. Unlike the crew of previous episodes who showed no qualms about abandoning or betraying each other at the drop of a hat, this time the rest of the gang spends months searching for him only to find him marooned on an alien Hawaii. Internal alien politics and religion take over from there.

Rigel does almost all of the heavy lifting in terms of saving everybody from the backwards alien locals. Just as Crichton and D'Argo are about to be executing by a spear-wielding native in one of many scenes that has aged extraordinarily poorly, Rigel finds himself hailed as the aliens' god on account of his odd similarity to a religious monument. He basks in it briefly, but ultimately does the right thing by disabusing the natives of their beliefs (their religion being a corruption of Rigel's own peoples' propaganda) and bringing the gang home safely.

The religious element is complicated but has a decidedly Who Watches the Watchers feel to it. The personalities behind the alien politics and religion are well-defined. In true Farscape style we have a crisp understanding of many layers of the aliens' culture and legal system without even realizing it; this is one of many episodes where the writers show a real talent for breathtakingly fast-paced worldbuilding.

All told a competently crafted episode with little action but strong dialog and great humor, particularly for Rigel whose screen time has been lacking of late.

I loved this show, and I loved Season 1 of this show. It's where it all begins. Crichton is only being chased by one obsessed Peacekeeper Commander, the Drama with Aeryn has not started yet, and he's still wearing his IASA Jumpsuit. His 'White Death Pod" has not yet been upgraded with Moya's hardware, and the relationships between Moya's crew are just developing.

So this entry on Crichton's dictation machine (I imagine Jack Crichton listening to this after picking it up from Tranquility Base after "Bad Timing") is a nice Lull in what is to become the PooStorm of the Uncharted Territories and Tormented Space.

The Music is still being done by SubVision which I liked a lot more than Guy Gross (Although Guy re-Subvisioned the main Theme and made it better), so there is that, and this chapter has some nice musical swells.

So Crichton has a Beard for the first time in Farscape. This is a Crichton that has not gone Bugsputz because of Scorpius' Neural Clone or Einstein's Wormhole Implantation. He's just Trapped in the Butt- End of Space with a Sebacian Chick that likes black leather, A miniature Napoleon Bona-Helium-fart, a Blue Arsed B****, The Lake of the Long Tongue, and a guy wearing a clam-shell on his head. Chiana has not yet shown her Eema.

But even Crichton can only take so much, he has to give it a break - When Moya burps and Crichton is trapped on a Butt-Planet. It's a nice rural scene, but Crichton gets sucked into Local Chieftain's Daughters advances and Religious Politics. No matter how much he keeps to himself, the trouble always comes Runnin'.

Eventually Moya comes back: Ka D'Argo and Sparky do an "Away Mission" but there is some Energy field that just... Sucks!

This one is actually for Rygel the XVIth, Displaced Dominar of Hind- Endia. We forget that it's a puppet and Jon hardy is adding his lines in later. Rygel is THAT REAL. But is Rygel just spouting Heliumfarts, or can he really be a true Sovereign?

Masata, Rise up and lead us to the Light!

Of all the hit and miss first season, this is the weakest episode. While it is okay this it has none of the series clever reworking of a sci-fi staple.

The characters stand still, as does the developing plot. Some of the effects are very poor and everything is rather predictable. While a riot of colour the indigenous people are very boring and stereotypical. The witch doctor is the obvious villain and the village chief just looks bored in a role where his character seems powerless.

In the mean time the female characters have very little to do on Moya

It is an obvious nod to the movie Jeremiah Johnson (a favourite of Ben Browder apparently) but just goes nowhere and is quickly forgotten.

The trope used is just so cringe-worthy. The 'men' have something to do and the 'women' mostly wring their hands. Crichton starts off by acting like a big baby for no discernible reason and hardly changes. I've enjoyed several episodes ok, but nothing is really gripping yet. I quick google search for 'When does farscape get good' says Ep19 of Season 1. So I'm willing to slog through a bit, but boy does this episode make me want to pack it in.