Farscape: Exodus from Genesis   Rewatch 
July 10, 2015 4:26 PM - Season 1, Episode 3 - Subscribe

Moya is invaded by spawning space bugs, which produce clones of the crew. To complicate matters, a Peacekeeper retrieval squad arrives and Aeryn begins to suffer heat delirium. [via]
posted by [insert clever name here] (12 comments total) 2 users marked this as a favorite
 
Lot of cool stuff in this one, especially that observation pad they only use a few times in the series. One thing that always bothered me is that they never put Aeryn into her Prowler and turn on the AC.
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 6:35 PM on July 10, 2015 [3 favorites]


I think this is the man Crichton really wanted to be the entire series, but Scorpius just wouldn't let him take a peaceful way out. I love that he lets the Peacekeepers go at the end, the killer instinct isn't there yet.

I also like that at the end the queen only acknowledges Rygel, since he's the "leader" of Moya's crew to her, lots of growth for him just since the pilot.
posted by hobgadling at 6:55 PM on July 10, 2015 [1 favorite]


Oh! Farscape rewatch?! I am down!
posted by brundlefly at 12:14 AM on July 11, 2015


I love Rygel's arch from I, ET and this. He becomes a person to me here, not a puppet, first when he's sweating in the innards of Moya and wielding a tool again in the last episode, and then psychs himself up to enter and speak with the Monarch in this one. His little feet! I wish we saw them more, but I don't think they ever showed them again?

The dentic creeped me out sooo much the first time I saw this, it was a reoccurring nightmare for a while... Now it actually seems like not such a bad idea, to be honest.

Re-watching this, it's a bit distracting that they use "hours" instead of "arns" in this episode - something I hadn't noticed the last time I re-watched it.
posted by gemmy at 2:58 PM on July 11, 2015 [3 favorites]


I broke down and got the box set. It's been far too long! The comment on an earlier episode about the sound mix quality was spot on.

This one's pretty good. One of the things I really notice about watching Farscape now is the physicality of it - whether it's Crichton being repeatedly beaten up, the body horror stuff, even Fake Zhaan barfing. Farscape loves body stuff. It's not afraid to go there. It's also really funny. Rygel and Crichton get some great lines in this ep, D'Argo's lumbering attempts to be in charge, Zhaan is quite witty too. Even Aeryn gets a nice gag at the end, at Crichton's expense of course. I think they really lucked out on bringing this team of actors together. Browder is fantastic and Virginia Hey brings this really nice quality to Zhaan - not quite zen, but calm and caring. Mostly.

The Peacekeepers - I remember thinking at the time, 'that's a stupid weakness' but it makes sense now. Of course, that doesn't explain the penchant for dodgy eyeliner... I think it was just that one team. Special Fashion Commandos.

And we get to see the start of Aeryn and Pilot's story, which develops so nicely over the seasons and was one of the unexpected things for me. And Aeryn and Crichton starting to dance round each other already, of course.
posted by along came the crocodile at 9:53 AM on July 12, 2015 [2 favorites]


The Peacekeepers - I remember thinking at the time, 'that's a stupid weakness' but it makes sense now. Of course, that doesn't explain the penchant for dodgy eyeliner... I think it was just that one team. Special Fashion Commandos.

Egads, since the eyeliner went kaput almost the second after they finished filming this episode (I think), I had completely forgotten about it and was likewise, completely startled by it, "What...? Really?! WHO MADE THIS DECISION?!"

I concur absolutely with the Aeryn in her ship complaint above, I was mildly distracted the entire time by this lack of action. At the worse, they have space suits on the ship, why not put her in one of them and crank on the life support or even have her sit in the air lock with the doors open? It serves the purpose of making the very tough Aeryn vulnerable and highlights that just because the Peacekeepers look human, they're not....but it requires some self inflicted Jedi Mind Tricks to forget all the alternatives.

Last episode there was a comment on the music. I had the same problem with this episode, it just wasn't very good (next episode it improves). Same goes for the weird decision to use slow-mo for a variety of scenes, generally involving the duplicate copies of our crew. Not a fan of that, either.

Despite these complaints, I generally enjoyed the episode and take a refresher in the idea that most of the complaints fall to the wayside, first season experiments forgotten.

I did love the nice touch of revealing who was a dupe by the inability to open/lock a door setup by Jon's own mishap at the very beginning.
posted by Atreides at 7:22 AM on July 13, 2015 [2 favorites]


Farscape loves body stuff

For me, the focus on the gritty and visceral was part of what tied the show together. It's SFX were not just grounded in practical effects, but that reflected the show's emphasis on being grounded in a sort of practicality such that "food cubes" could become plot points. We're still talking about a 3 foot amphibious space tyrant arguing with an astronaut who feel through a wormhole, while living inside of a space whale, true, but there's an emphasis on realism inside of the fantastic setting.
posted by Panjandrum at 2:42 PM on July 13, 2015 [2 favorites]


a 3 foot amphibious space tyrant arguing with an astronaut who feel through a wormhole, while living inside of a space whale

This is almost as perfect a description of Farscape as Warren Ellis': One American's descent into Australia's S&M scene.
posted by hobgadling at 4:17 PM on July 13, 2015


Farscape's fondness for bodily fluids has always been something of a selling point for me, although I got wigged out by the one episode where they do THAT THING WITH THE EYE.

The Sebacean weakness to heat is a crap weakness, especially given some things we learn about them much later on in the series. I figure it's a tradeoff for the strength and long lifespan.
posted by suelac at 6:58 PM on July 13, 2015 [1 favorite]


Farscape does do the body stuff very well, but all the best examples come much later on. It's a big contrast with, say, TNG where the doctors perform surgery by waving glow sticks over a body, and Scorpius getting a regular checkup by unscrewing his head.
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 7:59 PM on July 13, 2015


The Sebacean weakness to heat is a crap weakness, especially given some things we learn about them much later on in the series. I figure it's a tradeoff for the strength and long lifespan.

I might be totally misremembering this - it's been so long - but I was left with the impression it was a control mechanism on the part of certain entities? Maybe that's my own headcanon though.
posted by along came the crocodile at 11:34 PM on July 13, 2015


I don't think it was ever explicitly stated that thats where the heat delirium came from, but thats a decent headcanon, its one of the only things that makes sense.
posted by hobgadling at 5:57 AM on July 14, 2015 [1 favorite]


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