ALL SCI-FI

[Pow]

I was terribly disappointed that Virginia Hey was forced to leave the show due to her make-up issues, David.

It was a wonderful role and Virginia performed it beautifully.

For Me, Farscape was one of those rare TV series where I really enjoyed the ensemble cast and loathed seeing anyone having to exit the show.

I've watched other sci~fi TV shows and with them I found that I really did not care if a particular cast member would leave the show. It usually wasn't due to their acting abilities; it was that their character wasn't all that interesting to me. Might have been the fault of the writing, who knows?

But I got a kick out of the entire cast on Farscape, even the ones that came later like Chiana, Jool, and Sikooza.

[Pow]

Zhaan is a Pa'u priest of the ninth level. She is able to share others' pain and relieve their suffering by the laying on of hands and kissing. Her blood is white and has soothing properties.

Ka D' Argo is thirty cycles old, which is young for his species, the Luxan. He has seen two battle campaigns.

Luxans are a brutal and uncivilized race, indiscriminate in their deployment of violence. They have hyper-rage which can send them into a berserk state when fighting an enemy.

D'Argo possess a Qualta Blade weapon which serves as not only a deadly sword but can be used as an energy rifle.

He can stun people with his incredibly long tongue.

Zhaan is amazed that D'Argo has survived imprisonment working on the 93rd level of the Kemlach mines on Meeka 7. There the punishment is notoriously brutal and few live through it.

D'Argo has rings through his collarbones that were used in conjunction with chains because the Peacekeepers found that arm restraints on the Luxan warrior were not enough.

[Krel]

It was revealed in the show that Zhaan's people, the Delvians are plant, not animal, which shocked John. One of the results is that she can get drunk from bright light.

One of my favorite episodes is "Crackers Don't Matter". I am convinced that the episode was done to have Crichton do a Frazetta pose with Dargo's Qualta blade. They should have turned that image into a poster.

David.

[Pow]

"Back and Back and Back to the Future," Episode #3 April 2, 1999.

Moya rescues two scientists, Matala and Verell. They are Ilanics, a race who are at war, and they are developing weapons. On their pod they have managed to isolate a Quanum Singularity aka a Black Hole.

Data File: Ilanics are distant genetic cousins to D'Argo's race, the Luxans.

Scorvians are the race at war with the Ilanics.

Scorvians can perform a neural stroke which is a fighting maneuver they use in hand-to-hand combat.

The design on the floor of the gym where Aeryn & Matala fight is the Peacekeeper logo.

[Pow]

"I, E.T." Episode #4, May 7, 1999.

Moya was fitted with a Paddac Beacon by the Peacekeepers---it's designed to go off when it doesn't receive its regular signal from the Control Collar. In order to muffle the signal Moya lands on an unknown world and submerges into a bog.
The beacon is attached to her Primary Neural Nexus, and the operation to remove it could be painful enough to kill her unless they can find an anesthetic substance called Clorium on this strange planet.

Meanwhile Moya, who was not designed to land upon a planet's surface, is now being crushed by her own bodyweight due to the gravity. Even if the critical Clorium is able to be located and Moya successfully operated on, can she lift back off this world and return to the stars?

Trivia: When Leviathans (Moya's species) are young they play with a planet's gravity in order to see how close they can come to it.

There are six cargoes that Leviathan's are strictly forbidden to carry, one of them is Clorium.

In the pilot episode we see Crighton injected with translator microbes which accumulate around the base of the brain. These microbes allow different aliens with different languages to understand each other's native language.

The microbes were injected into John by Moya's DRDs (Diagnostic Repair Drones)---small yellow robots that maintain the ship.

I thought that the idea of having such a thing as translator microbes was quite clever in allowing the varied species on Farscape to be able to communicate with one another.

The DRDs were also an idea whose time has come. For years I watched various television show involving space ships or space stations. Nary a robot in sight on any of 'em.

We see here and now in the 21st century how robotic technology is swiftly evolving. So it is totally inconceivable that they are absent on so many series throughout the decades science fiction shows have been on.

I get that such real life special effects props at one time could be a nuisance by not working properly or breaking down. This would be too time consuming (time=$$$) in the breakneck speed for shooting TV shows each week.

However, now with much more sophisticated technology that shouldn't to be as problematical for shows. Or a production could resort to utilizing CGI for their robots.

Any futuristic sci~fi series nowadays doing without any presence of robotic tech is seriously faulty.

The crew of Moya all wear communication badges on their clothing so they can be in contact with each other.

This idea of communication badges worn on apparel was first seen on Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987~1994).On that series the crew of the Enterprise wore the star ship's I.D. pin on their uniforms.

So no points for originality for Farscape on that concept, but at least the Farscape communicators were a different shape from the Enterprise version.

[Krel]

[Pow]

This I did not know regarding Ultraman badges, thanks Krel.

I always liked the communication gizmo on the collar of the uniforms in Walt Disney's The Black Hole.

[Krel]

[Bud Brewster]

[Pow]

I admired the wrist communicator created for the Enterprise crew in Star Trek: The Motion Picture.

Very nice design but they returned to the familiar flip-up communicator in subsequent films with the original cast.

Yeah, I also enjoyed seeing the flip-up iteration back in action; but the wrist version was pretty cool.

[Bud Brewster]

[Pow]

"Exodus From Genesis" Episode #5, March 26, 1999.

A massive cloud of space bugs infests Moya and begins to raise the temperature.

Moya has a terrace that is open to outer space but is protected via a force shield so that the crew can go outside.

Dentics are an insect species which clean your teeth by eating bacteria and food particles.

The Drak are a hive insect species with a queen (Monarch) and drones (aggregate). They live in outer space but require heat to give birth. They are able to replicate other life forms perfectly, which helps them to infiltrate space ships.

This episode is a 'bottle show' meaning it takes place entirely on board Moya with no new sets having to be constructed. Brian Henson said that 'bottle shows' were often his favorite type of episode. He says that since Moya is a living being, it's unpredictable how she works.

The visual effects team recalled that this episode was incredibly difficult to do. Attempting to give the CG space bugs the characteristics of a living swarm is really hard.

Equally hard was the digital removal of the wires and rods used to operate the alien creatures.

[Krel]

[Pow]

Also, unlike the original flip-up communicators from the TV show, the wrist communicator had the function of being able to make direct contact with the main computer on the Enterprise.

[Krel]