1x09 DNA Mad Scientist

Our Deconstructing Moya post from 2010:
http://farscape.madeoffail.net/episodes/episode-1-09-dna-mad-scientist/

Some fresh thoughts:
Definitely fitting that I began my metaphor about the bursting emergence of Farscape'­s peduluming alien scrotal sack in our writeup of the episode that debuted the word "frell" into the lexicon.

This is Farscape. No longer are aliens just some dude standing around stiffly in purple body paint. No, NamTar is a looming bondage kangaroo with stilt legs, fabric finger extensions, and an eerie facelift around the constantly peering eyes of his huge, inquisitive face. No longer do we just have a flourishing Shakespearian actor in contact lenses. No, Kornata is a twisted figure of flesh gone wrong with a uselessly gigantic hand straight out of "Everlong". This is an episode were people voluntarily let a stranger stab them in the eyeball with a needle in the hopes of finding a map home, then brutally maul and maim one of their own when the price of that map is revealed, and further turn on themselves when a catch is discovered. And this isn't our leads hanging back and watching as the chaos unfolds. No, they're the ones in chaos, as this is where the show begins subverting its own status quo. We expect Rygel to cheat and scheme, but we haven't yet seen him so thoroughly have the upper hand on everyone else, luring them into traps, flipping their bargains and threats back on them, almost seeing his machinations through to the crashing end. For all the talk of warrior codes and honor, D'Argo isn't Worf, isn't Teal'C. He's a blunt weapon who will tell you straight to your face that he's not sorry he lopped off your limb, and he'll do it again if the situation again called for it. He's not noble. But nor is he ruthless. He's just honest. Painfully honest. And plays a lovely guitar.

And then there's Zhaan. Chronologically, yes, we got a taste of her darkness in "That Old Black Magic", but here, she's buried the conflict. She never expresses regret, she never questions her choices or actions. She IS ruthless and conspiring and manipulative, and while the last episode revealed she had some skeletons in her closet, this tells us any trust we put in her role as the ship's den mother should be taken with many a grain of salt. Even in the end, when John is forced to shut it all down, you'd expect D'Argo to make his hissy noise and fly into a rage. But he just stands there stoically, the loss of hope dawning on him, as Zhaan is the one who snarls out in anger. This is an important milestone because it sets in motion what the characters in Farscape will become. Everyone is both a hero and a villain. Everyone will make bad calls for messy reasons. Everyone will lash out and turn on each other. Everyone will stew in regrets, but go on making more bad calls to come. This allows us to defy standard dynamics, as characters break the molds they've been establishing and reveal the lines between them are blurrier than we thought. John and Aeryn are somewhat removed from that by circumstance in this episode, but just wait, they'll have their chance in the blacklight too.

This is the creators, just as things are starting to settle, breaking things and seeing what comes out of the collision. And they'll break it again. And they'll break it again. Not out of malice or spite, like lesser shows can get when they just start trolling their audience. But because it's a hard world living on the fringes and status quos aren't as easy to find as syndicated scifi programming will often suggest.

Even John and Aeryn's blooming romance comes out of existential dread. Neither has the same chance to go home as the others currently do, and they're left with the very real possibility of being stuck with each other. John is in a drunken sulk over another fleeting glimpse of hope being snatched away, with the empty promise of taking Aeryn home with him one day. And Aeryn looks at this man she'll eventually be the OTP with, and she instantly bolts down to the mad scientist in the hopes of getting another option. In a way, the show punishes her for it, thrusts this experimental mutation upon her for daring to cross the fates of the plotting gods. Which is odd in how it seems to contradict the plotting gods discarding of their own fates. And as they come together, you can see John is attentive to her. Sees she's in distress, he wants to find a way to help, and she just wants him to leave her alone as she's drawn to Pilot, the only friend who can understand what she's going through. This is oddly how relationships work, that you don't always run into the hands of your soulmate, that they aren't always the thing you need in every moment of distress. Sometimes their attempts to help just further the distress, and you can see that in Aeryn's continued breakdown as her reveal to John finally comes because she just can't avoid it anymore.

I'm running way off track and digging way too far into this, but god damn I really love this episode. The technical science and morphing effects don't make a lick of sense, but it keeps things lively and wild. I love how calm NamTar is, never really lashing out in violence, because between his regenerative powers and situational one-upsmanship, he doesn't need to. I love the reveal of what he is and where he came from, and what he's ultimately returned to before John's boggled eyes. On an interesting note, NamTar was played by Henson workshopper Adrian Getley, who only had a few on camera performances as far as I can tell, but carried on in makeup design and as a concept modeller for effect studios, working on designs for the likes of the first two Harry Potters, 28 Days Later, Event Horizon, and even worked on the Batsuit for The Dark Knight.

In further behind the scenes notes, this is director Andrew Prowse's return after the pilot, with him continuing to use a swaying camera and a wide lens to great alien effect. I just learned about his earlier films Driving Force and Demonstone, which look like a lot of fun, and definitely need to check out both. This is surprisingly the only episode for writer Tom Blomquist, a veteran of Riptide, A-Team, and Walker Texas Ranger, who was also one of the main writers and producers of the 90s Swamp Thing tv series. Given how much I see this story was reworked, and how heavily O'Bannon and Kemper were involved in honing scripts at the time, I'd be curious to learn how much of Blomquist's draft remains.

This is a great episode because, as many a Farscape will come to do, it leaves our characters with a mess they're still trying to figure out how to clean up. They've reached a resolution, but it comes with consequence and fallout, and the steady amassing of baggage, and oh how I remember some of the messes we'll leave them hanging on.