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Farscape: Revenging Angel

Oh, I'm chasing this guy...no, he's chasing me.
And now, on Farscape…

John goes Looney Tunes after D’Argo can’t control his rage.

To tell you the truth, I’ve never been a big fan of cartoons. Even as a child, I preferred live-action shows like Land of the Lost, rather than Scooby Doo. I do like a few of them, Dexter and The Power Puff Girls, come to mind, but usually when one of my shows does an animation episode, I’m not impressed. Fringe did one in their third season where animated Peter chased Olivia in her own mind, and while the story was interesting, the animation part kind of bored me. I did love the Monty Python homage in season five, though.

Anyway, back on Moya, Green Shirt John who is now Just John (Only John?), is blissfully unaware of the tragic event that has befallen the Talyn crew, and he is dealing with an unhappy D’Argo. In the beginning of this season, D’Argo found an ancient Luxan warship which he named Lo’La. Unfortunately, it is malfunctioning and about to self destruct, and D’Argo is acting like a complete jerk about it. He pushes John really hard which sends John into cartoon land. Well actually, John is dying of head trauma and is arguing in his mind with Harvey about revenge. Settle the score; that’s Harvey’s motto. John ponders that notion by thinking up some fight or flight scenarios with D’Argo, animation-style.

I did like the quick cuts between dreamland and the real world; that was the best part. Coma John being pushed down a corridor on a gurney by the bickering Jool and Chiana was pretty funny when he fell out; they just kept going, and D’Argo had to yell at them to stop. Having it meld into dreamland was cool when John casually gets up off the floor, talks to Jool for a bit, and then lays back down on the gurney so they can continue on in real time. That was a great scene and the assembled players were very amusing in it.

My other favorite part was D’Argo on that bridge, stalking Crichton, and then he's stepping on the rake, bucket, banana peel, and bear trap, then falling through the trap door. Jool searching through the muck of the neural cluster, Harvey’s eulogy of John, D’Argo finally getting control of his ship… I guess you can tell that the live sequences were what I really enjoyed.

Now about the animation: It was fine, but I liked it in small doses. Aeryn’s various incarnations were also fine, but again, not my cup of tea. Not that I drink tea. Claudia Black does a lot of voice work, especially in video games, and she does have a lovely voice. Don’t get me wrong; I do like this one, altogether it is an amusing interlude before things get really forked up.

The ending with John choosing love over revenge and a chagrined D’Argo trying to connect with him again; that was very sweet.

Space Oddities:

Watching this, one can tell that Anthony Simcoe is having a blast playing D’Argo in the dream scenes. If you watch any behind-the-scenes footage, Simcoe seems like quite the jokester.

Jool has a good scene with D’Argo in his ship. She actually starts being a lot more likable after this, I think.

Human. Astronut. Natural Born Loser.
John’s tombstone was great. It immediately made me think of this other great grave marker below.

She saved the world. A lot.
I’m not a fan of long dream sequences, which is why I love the fact that those parts were so seamlessly interspersed with the real-time action. I did love Buffy’s dream episode, "Restless." I don’t know why, but the part that made me laugh the hardest was when over the loudspeaker is heard: “The Demons have escaped. Please run for your lives.” Then Riley and Adam said, “We’d better make a fort, I’ll get some pillows.” Maybe it’s just the image of those two making a blanket and pillow fort together.

Cosmic Quotes:

John: “You’re very wise.”
Pilot: “I don’t get out much, so I read.”

Harvey: “Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to pay our final respects and to say farewell to our dear friend, Commander John Crichton, a schmuck. Mule-headed, reckless, and probably brain-dead before I met him.”

D’Argo: “I am not ancient Luxan; I do not speak ancient Luxan and I do not read ancient Luxan, because I am NOT ANCIENT LUXAN!”
Chiana: “And you’re not likely to become one, either."

John: “I’ve got plenty of reasons (to live).”
Harvey: “Then give me the Letterman List.”
John: “Earth, Dad, pizza, sex, cold beer, fast cars, sex, Aeryn, love.”
Harvey: “Well, we’re both dead.”

John: “God, I love science fiction!”

Overall, this is a very watchable episode. It is clever in its execution, and has funny sequences and witty dialog. It’s also poignant in that the remaining Crichton is pining for his Aeryn, but doesn’t know how damaged she is and what is to come. Th…Th…That’s all, folks.

Four out of Five banana peels.

Mallena loves her DVR, her Pug, anything in the sci-fi, fantasy, or supernatural genres, and her family.  Well, maybe not in that exact order.

5 comments:

  1. Is that a Memento reference in your caption? :-)

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  2. This wasn't my favorite episode either and for the same reason: animation just isn't for me, unless it's Beauty and the Beast or Yellow Submarine. But I remember how much I enjoyed the live-action bits. The entire cast had such a gift for comedy.

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  3. As you can probably tell, I love to reference as many favorite shows/movies as much as possible. Hopefully the review of this episode didn't get lost in the mix. I do like this episode a lot, it is fun to watch.

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  4. I didn't enjoy this episode at all, not least for the cartoons, which although based on Roadrunner & Wile E Coyote, just didn't work for me.

    The humour seemed rather forced, and it was hard trying to follow the story because of the animation jump cuts, Harvey and trying to understand D'Argo's rage.

    I'n all for lightening the load with good humour after a run of dark episodes, and that's why I enjoyed "Scratch & Sniff" so much. But here, the cartoons just killed the episode stone dead.

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  5. Im with Diane C on this one it did not work for me at all.

    It is my most disliked epsiode in the entire series, and although im up to it in my rewatch ive been catching up on commenting here and doing housework rather than submit to a second viewing.

    Im not a cartoon fan, as a child i always preferred live action over animtion (and muppets over cgi). The one exception was The Mysterious Cities of Gold, which was an animated series with a long arc and sparked a love of all things Incan, Mayan, Aztec and inspired travels to South America as an adult.

    The cartoon sequences were spot on as far as creating that road runner feel, but they felt too silly and made me want to hit fast forward. The only reason i didnt on first viewing was i was hoping in vain their might have been a hiddden gem or insight.

    I understand the prodcuers likely wanted a lighter episode to detract from the utter grief of its predecessor but this was less than sucessful in my eyes.

    ReplyDelete

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