FarscapeWeekly
eZine
¤ ¤ 13-Aug-02 ¤ ¤
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Site News
Farscape News
Did you know?
Quote of the Week
Free Cool Stuff
Recurring Characters
Repeat Performers
The Score
Upcoming Episodes
Ratings
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I'm way behind on my reviews again (still?). However, I do have a wonderful new article by SciFi bboard and alt.tv.farscape newsgroup regular GutPageant, in which she explains her vision of what is happening in Season 4 so far. If everything seems familiar, it's not a coincidence: Season 4 -- Deejay DK's Mega Master FS Remix casts this season in the light of trends in Electronica. She presents a compelling and well-documented theory.
As part of posting GutPageant's article, I had the opportunity to upload several old reviews, in-depths, and positively ancient WROCS columns. WROCS are the beginning of my Farscape writing career, the "Weekly Roundup of Cool Stuff". The style is a lot more casual than in my reviews, and they're not as well-organized as the much-later In Depth columns, but they are very detailed. The best thing about reading all this old stuff? It was all written about the time the episodes were first broadcast, so it's like a tiny time machine, taking us back to Farscape's youth. I had fun with them, I hope you do, too -- so click on those links!
"Congratulations
from FarscapeWeekly.com!"
If you get an email with that subject, it means your name was
selected from the subscriber list to receive a free copy of The
Official Farscape Magazine. The next drawing is August
15, for Issue #7. We'll have a drawing next month for
Issue #8; a mailing glitch with ExpressMag has me chomping at the
bit to get it. It's already out in the bookstores.
Again, and still -- it will be a while before all the old stuff gets put back up. I will continue to post new content as frequently as possible. If there is any old content you'd like access to, just send me an email and I will set you up with direct links.
Please feel free to forward this eZine to anyone you feel it may interest. If you would like to subscribe, unsubscribe, or change your subscription address, send an email "subscribe" in the subject line.
For a glimpse at the site's history through March 2002, take a look the eMail Update Archive and see how far we've come.
For comments, questions, or submissions, eMail jhedman@alum.mit.edu.
Available now. Buy it.
I know, it has nothing to do with Farscape, but
still. You really should buy it.
Simon and Schuster Interactive's Farscape: The Game goes on sale today, August 13. Stay tuned for opinions and other information. You can still download the demo at PC Gamers' Farscape:The Game page, which is awesome.
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I have no idea how long this has been here, but there's an amazing interview with Anthony Simcoe over on the BBC's Cult TV Farscape page. It's awesome, as is, of course, Anthony. They've even posted some video clips.
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Did you know...
Celtic
influences were pervasive in last week's episode, "A Prefect
Murder". Guy Gross's score had
a Celtic flair, and he even worked in a few bars of the wistful
tune Loch Lomond, following
Crichton's recitation of the familiar lines,"You take
the high road, and I'll take the low road." What's
striking about this particular song, and Crichton singing it, is
that it is a song of loss, for the lyric continues: ...me and
my true love will never meet again. That's in direct
contrast to how John reaches out to Aeryn in the final scene, and
Aeryn's acceptance of his gesture.
But the
Celtic feeling wasn't just in the music: visually, Celtic motifs
were employed. The triangular pattern repeated on the palace
walls was very similar to the Celtic trinity knot.
In some circles, the knot is
said to symbolize strength and unity, which would make it fitting
indeed for the Prefect, the unifier of the Clans, and his castle.
Others say it symbolizes the Celts'
belief that everything exists at three levels: physical, mental,
and spiritual, or perhaps earth, sea, and sky; later, the
Christian Holy Trinity. Unfortunately, it's not that easy: many
scholars agree that any symbolism behind ancient Celtic knotwork
is hard to attribute, especially given knotwork's use in borders
and filler areas. This article by Stephen
Walker gives some fascinating background on the historic uses of
Celtic knots. "Celtic Triangle 1" in
cast paper by Kevin Dyer, shown left, screen capture from "A
Prefect Murder" by Dallascaper, available on FarscapeFantasy, shown
right..
There was also a Celtic flavor implied in the political structure of the planet, its organization into Clans. Even the most casual foray into the history of Scotland will show, however, that the Scottish Clans are not so much about big-picture politics. Scotland historically was made up of four smaller kingdoms, within which the Clans dwelt. You can find out anything, and I do mean anything, you want to know about Scotland here.
The last link to anything Celtic in "A Prefect Murder"? Crichton's tortured imitation of James Doohan's beloved Scotty, brilliant and beleagured engineer of the starship Enterprise, of the classic Star Trek series.
Update on last week's miniaturization treatise: many readers emailed me about the 1957 film The Incredible Shrinking Man, which, amazingly enough, did not show up on IMdb in the search results for "shrink"! Most agreed that it was a visually powerful movie, especially considering the effects available when it was produced. A couple of folks mentioned the tv series Land of the Giants, but that doesn't meet the criteria: normal-sized people being shrunk; Land of the Giants gives us space travellers who land on essentially Giant World. This theme was used in the original Twilight Zone series' "The Invaders"; Agnes Moorehead starred as a terrified farm woman struggling to protect herself from tiny alien invaders. The TZ patented twist ending? The miniature aliens were from Earth. It was a nearly wordless episode and very well done -- certainly worth watching if you happen to catch it on SciFi during late-night channel-hopping.
Quote of the Week:
"Hit me harder, you big
sissy."
--
Crichton to D'Argo, , "A Prefect Murder"
Free Cool Stuff
Return
with me to FarPark!
Sean McArdle originally
conceived the delightfully goofy idea of merging Farscape
and South Park. Who can forget his Scorpius
(shown at left) ? When Sean retired from FarParking after
creating his gallery of eight
characters, I feared we'd never see any of the newer characters
in this whimsical light.
Well, artist Nancy
(NMCrichton on the Ultimate Farscape bulletin board) has stepped
up to fill the void, and has created an entirely new gallery of FarParked
characters including Stark, Pilot, and Jool. Nancy's devotion to
David Franklin's Braca has led her to create not one but two
versions of her FarParked Braca, first as a lieutenant, and then
as a captain (shown at right). I hope you enjoy Nancy's work as
much as I do.
Look for an updated version of the Who's Who, featuring all the FarPark characters, coming soon!
Have you found some free cool stuff? Do you have some free cool stuff you'd like to share? Send an eMail!
No Recurring Characters this week. What are recurring characters? They're folks we've seen before, who pop up again, and sometimes, again and again... like, for example, Furlow, who we first met in "Till the Blood Runs Clear" in the first season, and ran into again in "Infinite Possibilities" in season 3.
No Repeat Performers this week, either. Repeat performers are the versatile actors who've appeared in more than one episode as different characters. Thomas Holesgrove is currently the record-holder (in fact, I used to do a TH watch, because for a while there he was in every single episode, or at least it seemed that way), but there are a surprising number of "guesties" who can't resist the opportunity to return to Farscape. The fan favorite? My guess would be the petite and energetic Francesca Buller, who just happens to also be Mrs Ben Browder. She was the bone-eating calcivore M'Lee in "Bone to Be Wild", the traitorous servant in "Look at the Princess", and drug-dealing Raaxil in "Scratch'n'Sniff".
The Score
through "A Prefect Murder": 52/74
Allies: 11, Enemies: 19
The Score remains the same.
I don't think the natives are particularly fond of the Moya crew,
but neither do I think they are actively hostile to them. Sure,
there's some residual gratitude towards them for discovering the
plot to foment war and thwarting it, but that's not the same as
being willing to go to bat for them should they ever find
themselves in trouble. Wait, there's the young Prefect who has
that thing for Sikozu... he'd be useful, I suppose -- but he's
only prefect for half a cycle, so he's hardly someone we can
count on, is he?
What is The Score? It's an attempt to quantify just how well, or how poorly, our crew is doing as they traverse the Uncharted Territories, and now, Tormented Space. We count up the number of conflicts and assign points for the ones we win. We also keep track of who is on our side, and who we've ticked off enough to know that they'll be gunning for us should our paths ever cross in the future. Attitude flows freely here. One great thing about the Score is that you can get a feeling for the entire run of the series just by reading it from the bottom up.
Upcoming Episodes
check
local listings for airtimes
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8/16 Coup by Clam- new
8/23 Unrealized Reality - new
Apologies on getting the title of last week's episode wrong, but I think it was a common mistake. Most people just aren't expecting "A Prefect Murder." The pun thing is cute, but not that cute.
SciFi's ScheduleBot still shows TBD for this week's episode, even though the Farscape info page itself has been updated.
There will be no new episode the weekend of 8/30, Labor Day Weekend. SCIFI traditionally runs movies that entire weekend. Throughout September, the SciFi Channel will be running double doses of newly-aquired Stargate SG-1, including a chain reaction September 27. Traditionally SciFi schedules movies and specials in October, so it's looking like it will be November before we see anymore Farscape.
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source: SCIFI Channel's schedulebot
Ratings
time series charts of first airing ratings for all 4 seasons
Updated
through "Natural Election"
First airing ratings for all 4 seasons
Crichton Kicks 1.6
What Was Lost, pt 1 1.1
What Was Lost, pt 2 1.3
Lava's a Many Splendored Thing 1.4
Promises 1.1
Natural Election 1.2
(ratings are share of SciFi's total households)