All I want to say is, I never really liked Stark. After this episode, I like his character a whole lot more.

This was by far the weirdest episode ever.

"NONE SHALL PASS!" -- Rygel as the Black Knight

NITS:

>> How did this game come into the possession of Crichton and Chiana? Sure is convenient that they just happened to pick this thing up.

>> A major revelation near the end of the episode is that the game is only accurate up through TalynJohn's death in "Infinite Possibilities, Part 2: Icarus Abides". (Hence no Sikozu or Noranti) However, in the middle of the episode, Crichton and Chiana end up back on Moya where Scorpius has escaped. But they find out that they are still in the game. If they are still in the game, how does the game know that Scorpius is on Moya now? If the game can read John's mind in the present, why can't it project Noranti and Sikozu as well?

COMMENTS:

>> Scifi.com had this to say regarding this episode (written from Crichton's perspective): "Incredibly, this game was based on my memories. When the other Crichton, my twinned self, was dying, Stark mystically eased his passage, absorbing that Crichton's memories in the process. After Stark left to search for his dead, beloved Zhaan, he apparently sold his — and my — memories to a game designer named Yoti. And Yoti turned Stark's neural template into Super Mario Crichton." I think this could have been made clearer in the episode.

>> Virginia Hey was not listed in the credits but appeared in the episode anyway. That took me by surprise!!

>> It took me awhile to notice that the ogre was really Crais! LOL.

>> RYGEL AS THE BLACK KNIGHT!! HANDS DOWN MY FAVORITE SCENE!! OMG!! ROFLMAO!!

>> Interesting twist that Zhann is the princess. I didn't see that coming. Very cool.

>> Is this a foreshadowing of Stark's return. I can see Crichton opening up a major can of whoop-a$$ on Stark for this little adventure.

>> Overall, I thought this episode was very funny. The Monty Python scene was enough to make this an excellent episode in my opinion. The ending with John walking past Aeryn was disturbing, but I think it was supposed to be. We are left to wonder if Crichton took Granny's drug or not.

NEXT WEEK: Honey I Shrunk the Crew.

See ya later
TUE

What a trippin' reunion episode! Wonderful, wonderful to see Zahn again, which leads me to hope that she may appear in other eps this season (I can't believe she would make the trip down to New Zealand/Australia just for one little bit part in one episode). By the way, she is listed in the end credits as a Special Guest Appearance. Obviously, TPTB didn't want us to know she would be in the episode.

The Jool/D'Argo scene with him eating beans (or something) out of her torso reminded me a lot of the Troi-cake from TNG.

I loved, LOVED the scene where John ran down Rygel with the Flower Power VW bus. It was great to see that muppet squished flat to the pavement. I have to think the entire cast and crew was having a good time with this episode.

I agree with TUE's comments about the info on Scifi.com. Without knowing all that about the game designer, it looks like Stark made up this whole game on the slim, outside chance it might wind up in Crichton's possesion (of course, Stark is so wierd he might do that anyway!).

I can't help but think that Sikoyuz's (sp?) fascination with Scorpius is going to get everyone into big trouble by the end of this season.

And finally, after everything that happened in "Lava's a Many Splendored Thing," would you trust Granny as your cook? I would have a hard time with that.

It’ll be a long time til I get to see this episode, but having read the synopses of events on a couple of websites, I shall be very disappointed if at one time or another John doesn’t look into a mirror and say, “Duane Dibley??!” ;-)

Yes, but will he have the orthapedic sandels, lunch thermos and big teeth?

And the animal footprint chart and the triple thick ... um, never mind ;-)

Ye know, they're going to have to make whatever the writers that write Farscape take before writing these eps. There's definitely got to be something illegal about it.

Wholeheartedly agree with everyone else that the Rygel as The Black Knight scene was the best...as soon as I heard the "NONE SHALL PASS!" a little voice in my head thought "Uh-oh".

The Zhaan thing caught me off guard as well, was a nice touch. I did however recognise the Man-Zhaan as one of the pre-Zhaan Zhaan character designs.

I’m sounding like a broken record, but the explanation would have helped a bit here as well. I /was/ left with a bit of “What the hell was THAT about” feeling at the end and wondering if it WAS the real Stark or not.


Theres a danger now though. The weirdness is starting to get really weird...granted, this episode is one I'd show someone (because its d*mned difficult to explain) just /why/ Farscape is to different from everything else...and theres a danger it could go too far and end up ruining the show.

From SpottedKitty:
I’m sounding like a broken record, but the explanation would have helped a bit here as well. I /was/ left with a bit of “What the hell was THAT about” feeling at the end and wondering if it WAS the real Stark or not.

Before finding out the intent, I thought it was an actual trap set up by Stark. From his explination of merging with the memof ories twinned Crichton en route to the afterlife, what I interperted was the garbage that is American Culture and Stark's instability coupled with Crichton's feelings for Zhaan pushed him to revenge. I was thinking the game was intentionally supposed to target Crichton. I'm really hoping the Game Stark mimiced the feelings of the real Stark. I was thinking Stark would make a grand new personal antagonist for Crichton, one that would have been complicated whether Zhaan came back or not, since even if she came back the rivalry wouldn't go away, only intensify unless Zhaan magically hated Crichton. I want someone who hasn't been won over by Crichton's charms/importance as part of the crew. Where is vindictive Harvey when you need him?

Is anyone else bothered by the fact they the creators of this show seem to enjoy dressing D'argo up in colorful leiderhosen and sweaters?


Was that a southern accent that Claudia was trying to do? Even when she wasn't lisping, it was pretty awful.

It looks like most people liked this episode. I have to say I hated it. Unlike previous comedy episodes like Won’t Get Fooled Again and the inimitable Revenging Angel, this felt forced and painful. It ripped off too many other comedy shows, and not in a tactful tip-of-the-hat way, I felt. As well as the Python stuff, there was also blatant ripping-off of Max Headroom, and the whole concept was taken directly from Red Dwarf’s Better than Life game (including them thinking they were out of the game when they were still in it) and instead of putting the unique Farscape spin on these ideas, it just flat copied them. I’ll admit that the Rygel “None shall pass” routine was a delight, together with Crichton’s announcement, “I am Arthur, King of the Britons, and this is my loyal vassal, Patsy,” but the rest of it just didn’t work as far as I’m concerned.

At first sight of Gilena, John pronounces her name with a hard ‘g’ while Chiana pronounces it ‘Jilena’. At the moment I can’t remember which is the correct pronounciation.

Stark with hair was really rather dishy!

Was the first male Zhaan played by Anthony Simcoe? I couldn’t decide – it sounded like him but he seemed to be too bulky.

This is the second time Claudia has attempted to speak in an American accent and failed dismally!

After recent events in British news, I did laugh out loud at the unintentionally funny line, “He’s just an incorrigible liar … and the butler.”

I did think that it was obvious that they were still in the game when Aeryn on Moya was showing just a little too much cleavage – but then they came out of the game and she was wearing the same top!

As others have said before, it was a lovely touch of TPTB to put Ginny Hey’s name at the end so that there was no warning that she’d be in it. And even though I knew she would be (one of the downsides of being moderator here!), I still filled up when she appeared.

A few more thoughts on second viewing:

Ben Browder wrote this episode!!! After Green-Eyed Monster, this was a disappointment.

My hearing’s getting worse – this time both John and Chiana called her Jilina so I don’t know why I heard different the first time!

Who was the male Zhaan? I now realise it wasn’t Anthony Simcoe but he was sometimes dubbed with D’Argo’s voice and then Stark’s. Has Rowan Wood played a character in the series before or was he a complete newcomer?

Harvey the butler reminded me of someone all through the first viewing but I couldn’t work out who. I finally twigged it this time: it was the very pointy nose with the red blob on the end of it that reminded me. He looked like one of J F Sebastian’s soldier toys in Blade Runner. Was that the intention, or was he meant to be Pinnochio?

It really was obvious that John was still in the game when, on Moya, he wrote all those calculations with his own blood. He could never have shed that much blood without passing out! And how did none of it get smudged as he walked over it?

TUE commented above that if the game can read Crichton’s mind enough to project Scorpius aboard Moya, why can’t it create Sikozu and Noranti? I agree that that was a bit clumsy, though I suppose if I’m feeling generous I could suggest that the game can only react to things said aloud but can’t actually pick up images from John’s mind. Hence it reacted to John saying to Chiana that Scorpy was potentially causing trouble on Moya, but it couldn’t know what the two women looked like.

And I still filled up when Zhaan appeared! But I didn’t like the episode any better second time around.

Rowan Wood has directed numerous Farscape episodes.

"Back and Back and Back to the Future", "A Bug's Life", "The Choice", "A Clockwork Nebari", "Die Me, Dichotomy", "Dream a Little Dream", "Home on the Remains", "A Human Reaction", "The Locket", "Nerve", "Out of Their Minds", "Taking the Stone", "Thank God it's Friday. Again", "Won't Get Fooled Again"

Interesting that they teamed up Crichton with
Chianna in this one instead of Aeryn.

Well, interesting episode. I guessed that they were already in the game before it happened but didn't realize that it was the wrong Chiana until the scene.

Anyone notice that the digital Stark was wearing his mask on the left side rather than the right?

The whole siutation on "Moya" was just too weird. I kept wondering why Scorpy would want to return to the Command Carrier, why Scorpius apparently sounded like Sikozu, why Aeryn betrayed John, what the h*ll happened to D'Argo. It all became too obvious when Aeryn told John to leave everyone and just come with her.

Rygel getting bowled over by the van was GREAT!!!

And seeing Zhaan again was nice. She looked different. Maybe it was the makeup. Or maybe Virginia or something.

I thought that Claudia's accent was really bizarre but then considering where they were it kind of added to the overall strangeness of the situation.

Was that first area supposed to look like the Gammak Base, 'cause it didn't.

This is my all time favourite episode of Farscape.

The episode did not so much rip anything off, rather Ben Browder paid homage to several different sources. Max Headroom, Monty Python, Don Quixote, they all got their due. Also, the concept of still being inside the game is hardly original: see Star Trek TNG - Ship in a Bottle for an example.


If you pay careful attention, you'll notice that the game only creates things that it hears from Crichton:

-When he thinks he has exited the game, John calls D'argo and asks what has happened with Scorpius. The game then creates a situation where Scorpius is on board wreaking havoc.

-D'argo says that *a* command carrier is approaching, referring to Scorpious', but John interprets it as being Grayza's.

-John says that Scorpius is sounding just like Sikozu, and Scorpius says only "Perhaps" since the game has no idea who Sikozu is.


The whole princess thing with Aeryn and Zhaan was developed throughout the third season. After Zhaan died, Stark told Aeryn that he appreciated her "hovering". It became even more clear in 'Meltdown' when John told Stark "Aeryn is my Zhaan!" In 'The Choice' Stark deludes himself into thinking that Aeryn really likes him.

It is really interesting to see how each character in the game is a mixture of how Stark and TalynJohn saw them. D'argo is an oversized pretty boy with both Jool and Chiana demanding his attention; Aeryn is a stuck up princess who doesn't seem to care about anything, least of all whether she is with Crichton or Crais; Crais is a grunting ogre; John is "the most notorious criminal in the known universe"; and Stark himself is the one who saves the day.


Having John teamed up with Chiana has quite a bit of precedent. They paired off to save the ship in 'Through the Looking Glass' which was only her third episode. She was his alien servant in both 'A Bug's Life' and 'Nerve'. They worked together once again in 'A Clockwork Nebari'. He gave her the nickname "Pip" way back in 'Looking Glass' for this very reason.

...

Incidently, a game based on the game in this episode would be awesome. Levels could include the Zelbinian, the Gammak Base, The Shadow Depository, the Leviathan from 'Eat Me', Scorpius's command carrier, etc.

"Harvey the butler reminded me of someone all through the first viewing but I couldn’t work out who. I finally twigged it this time: it was the very pointy nose with the red blob on the end of it that reminded me. He looked like one of J F Sebastian’s soldier toys in Blade Runner. Was that the intention, or was he meant to be Pinnochio? "

Having finally seen this one on DVD, that red blob on the end of Harvey the butler's nose is a leaf, and the end has the cut rings of a tree. I'm going with Pinnochio. Creation wanting to be real. Makes sense to me.

Such a WEIRD episode....