FarscapeWeekly Farscape Crichton Kicks episode review

Crichton Kicks
Season 4, episode 1

I had the pleasure of watching the Season 4 premiere at a viewing party. It's unusual for me to watch an episode with even one other person, so having a roomful of appreciative fans certainly put a spin on the experience. "Crichton Kicks" was a good party episode, in that it had plenty of action, attitude, and humor. And having several sets of eyes watching and several brains percolating helped us all figure out what the heck was going on in the rest of the episode. If you didn't have that luxury, you might well still be scratching your head about exactly what went on in the rope-and-pulley, shoot-'em-up scene. I'll do my best to help you out here.

First, though, a little background: when we last saw Crichton, he was alone in his module, staring incredulously at the empty space from which Moya had just disappeared. This episode opens with Crichton in his module, apologizing to "Pilot" and asking to be brought aboard, but the "huh?" moment only lasts a few seconds. We see that this "Pilot" is not Moya's Pilot, but Elack's. She's a dear old thing, somewhat prone to dozing off, and you can't help but like her right away. She and Elack had come to the Sacred Burial Space to die in peace and in the right place, so to speak. We don't know exactly how long Crichton has been aboard Elack, but he's had enough time to grow another shaggy beard (see "Jeremiah Crichton"; or rather, don't); this time he's got a moptop of curls to go along with it. He has spent a lot of time drunk but paradoxically productive. He has finally unlocked all the wormhole equations, and has scrawled them all over the walls and crates in Elack's cargo bays.

He has also adopted a DRD, painted it red, white, and blue, and taught it to play "The 1812 Overture" by Tchaikovsky, which is used to good effect throughout the episode, particularly in the closing sequence. 1812 isn't so much a DRD as it is a pet. Crichton is protective of 1812 but also relies on it for companionship and help with all those little things, like carrying his paint brush, spray-painting a "wall," or shooting a bad guy. Personally, I'm betting it was 1812 that cut Crichton's hair. We haven't seen a DRD with this much personality since little OneEye bit the dust back in "Losing Time" in the starburst chamber.

Elac, Crichton's new Leviathan home, takes a beating in this episode. First, he's rammed by "the new girl," Sikozu (Raelee Hill), and then again by the bad guys - Grudeks - her former employers, who are after her. The Grudeks also want to harvest Elack's neural cluster tissue, a very pricey delicacy. The rest of the plot revolves around the efforts to remove the Grudeks, with some of Crichton's imaginings woven in. These are the only scenes in which Aeryn (Claudia Black) appears; in all but the last, she is very, very pregnant, and still looks smashing in a bikini.

Back in the real world, Crichton's situation improves when Chiana and Rygel show up, fleeing from wanted beacons placed apparently everywhere by Commandant Grayza. Since we last saw Chiana (Gigi Edgely), her premonitions have morphed into something else entirely: a controllable ability to see the present in super-slow-motion, with apparently photographic memories of what was seen. Afterwards, though, Chiana is afflicted with literally blinding headaches, so she must be careful not to use this ability in situations where she is vulnerable.

Visually, this episode had some nice shots, particularly the Apocalypse Now shot of Crichton, with only his eyes visible, moving under the bridge at the bottom of Pilot's den, while white mist swirls all around. The crashes and pyrotechnics were up to the usual snuff, but I really didn't think much of the Brindz Hound, which I believe was Farscape's first ever all-CGI creature. Let The Creature Shop do the work on critters, guys. They do a much better job. Witness Elack's Pilot, who is wonderfully different from Moya's Pilot, in appearance (it seems Pilots get age spots) as well as mannerisms. Big, big kudos to Sean Masterson and "the pups" for their work on her. It can't be easy creating an entirely different personality when you're working the same machinery. Initially, I was irritated by the Grudeks, who seemed to be "forehead of the week" aliens. Then I noticed that they were just long-haired obnoxioius regular humanoids with small wavy-bladed daggers embedded in the skin of their foreheads. Now that is a spin on "forehead of the week" that we're unlikely to see anywhere else.

Sikozu herself is a nice visual. Crichton instantly nicknames her "Sputnik" for her spirals of hair, which she promptly unwinds. Her pale skin has several patches (cheekbones, abdomen) of silvery markings which were very reminiscent of Zhaan's; I wonder if she is a plant-evolved species? Other clues that she might be include her ability to regenerate her tissues, which is exactly the phrase that Zhaan used on the two occasions when she was injured, and also her emphasis on "smaller, lighter" physiology, which allows her to play Spider-Man (credit Tom Francis for that phrase) in the corridors.

The music in this episode plays an integral part, too, and so of course must be mentioned. Guy Gross confirms that David Kemper scripted in the Overture, and also wrote that he enjoyed scoring the "Switched On Bach"-style rendition that 1812 "plays". It is a triumphant piece, shouting about the glory of victory, and it's significant that Crichton selected it as his inspiration. You can't help but grin when you hear it. The only disappointment was not hearing it as the final credits rolled, when the soundtrack was pre-empted as usual.

Performances were strong throughout, although I know many detest when Crichton goes over the top. They blame Ben Browder and say he should be reined in. Director Andrew Prowse got what he wanted from the very talented Mr. Browder: a man who'd been cooped up alone on a dying Leviathan, drinking too much and thinking way too much. So, yes, Crichton was more than a little crazy (the ballet moves alone confirmed that notion), and it's going to take him a while to stabilize. Once again Browder shows us he's not afraid to make a fool of himself; his "human goat" routine rivals the waking-up-in-fishnets scene from "Scratch 'n' Sniff" for absurdity. In his more serious moments, in his imagined scenes with Aeryn -- and one hysterical appearance from "Harvey" -- we get to see how the situation is weighing on him. When he finally decides to move on, it works.

Raelee Hill and Gigi Edgely matched Browder's fine work. The two girls hate each other on sight, predictably, but Sikozu eventually comes around after listening to a captured transmission by the Grudeks, discussing her execution. This is where the rope-and-pulley scene comes in. Sikozu understands the Grudeks' operation, and can analyze their weaknesses and devise a plan of attack if she can get an idea of how they are deployed. Chiana can provide that with her "slow sight". The Grudeks are working near Pilot's central chamber, so they rig the pulley: Chiana goes up and sees what's going on, and reports to Sikozu. Sikozu tells Crichton what he needs to do to cause an explosion sufficient to take out the Grudeks, but not the entire ship. They were supposed to get Chi off the wire and attach a counter-weight to pull Crichton up so he could fire, but that went awry, and of course the two girls end up in a heap on the bridge, while Crichton is left to fall when the rope, previously shot, finally gives way. Rygel's half-hearted attempt to catch Crichton was priceless; Crichton lands in the same dark gooey bat-droppings that poor Jool had to crawl through to find D'Argo's qualta blade in "Revenging Angel." Fortunately for all involved, Crichton is now an excellent marksman and hits all three targets while avoiding getting shot himself.

Scenes like that undermined this episode; they were just too silly and unnecessarily complicated. Perhaps this is just Kemper's way of showing us how squirrely Crichton has become, but seriously: that the rope-and-pulley plan could actually ever work is such a long shot, why even attempt it? Don't they have binoculars or something? Maybe not, on Elack. Regardless of how much fun ensued, it just didn't make any sense. The scene in which Crichton eliminated the Brindz Hound has the same flaw: once the hound was anywhere near the membrane, all Crichton had to do was flick something at it, and the hound would've been sucked into space. Instead we're treated to way too much CGI-critter leaping after him but missing.

I liked many things about this episode: the introduction of Sikozu; John Crichton, mad scientist; Chiana and her new abilities; Elack's Pilot; Rygel, dispensing advice and never there when you need him; 1812 and "The 1812 Overture" are just some of them. But the weaknesses of the two main action sequences really take away a lot, too. Many viewers also complained of muffled sound quality, an intermittent problem that can seriously inhibit enjoyment or even comprehension of an episode. "Crichton Kicks" wasn't Farscape at its best, but if you can ignore the improbable nature of Crichton's plans, it's quite enjoyable.