setsuled

Last night's new Orville continued to both out-Star Trek current Star Trek and out-Star Wars current Star Wars. Written by Cherry Chevapravatdumrong, it had a very Star Trek premise but really leaned into an '80s Lucasfilm vibe. It was a delightful ride and I finished the hour feeling like I'd had a full course meal.

A lot of credit has to go Joel McNeely's score. Here's a man who's spent a career imitating John Williams, having composed the Shadows of the Empire score for the unique Star Wars franchise event in the '90s and then served as a composer on The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles. Last night's new Orville, "The Mortality Paradox", at times almost sounded like Jurassic Park or Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.

Not the least because of a very unexpected but very exciting plane crash sequence. This is part of a string of hallucinations encountered by some of the Orville crew on an alien planet. Gordon really shines in this episode, piloting that crashing plane and also, earlier, getting beat up by bullies in a phantom high school.

Seth MacFarlane was in full Shatner mode, yelling at their unseen tormentors to cut out the bullshit, he and his crew wouldn't be their playthings anymore. I appreciated it.

The end of the episode turns into a very Star Trekian high concept about the potential for immortals to become bored with immortality, featuring a cameo from Elizabeth Gillies. Anyone familiar with Star Trek would know early on what's happening but there were some genuinely clever arrangements of characters and circumstances.

The Orville is available on Hulu in the US and Disney+ in other countries.

Current Mood: busy
Current Location: An elaborate artificial reality
Current Music: "Not Yet Remembered" - Brian Eno and Harold Budd

I did get some Wrath of Khan vibes from Friday's new episode of The Expanse. I'd be surprised if Keon Alexander isn't basing his performance of Marco Inaros on Ricardo Montalban. But while I can believe Khan as the leader of a group of genetically engineered radicals, I still don't buy Marco Inaros as the leader of the whole Belter civilisation.

Even Filip (Jasai Chase-Owens) stood up to him after his embarrassing failure to destroy the Rocinante. I'll admit, that was pretty satisfying, but I still remember when this show's big selling point was its realism.

The whole trap Inaros set up for Ceres station doesn't quite make sense, either. Sure, it is now the responsibility of Earth and Mars to care for the people Inaros abandoned, and this looks again like allegory for occupying U.S. forces in the Middle East. But once again, the analogy doesn't quite work. There's no religion tying the people on the station to Inaros' mission so he's just going to look like what he is, a madman who promised them victory and then scarpered. Even if Avasarala (Shohreh Aghdashloo) can't get supplies to the people, the Earthers will have to work extra hard at being assholes for Inaros' PR plan to work.

It felt a little out of place, but I liked Peaches (Nadine Nicole) expressing remorse for the mentor she murdered a few seasons back. And Bobbie (Frankie Adams) and Amos (Wes Chatham) eating together was cute. I still don't want to see them fight.

The Expanse is available on Amazon Prime.

Twitter Sonnet #1506

Departing feathers speak of frozen birds.
Beyond a veil of static crawled the sky.
Assorted lights reflect in liquid words.
Distinguished bells adorn the bold and shy.
A question formed in strings of Christmas light.
To step beyond a sleigh we need a boot.
We never ask the snow to win a fight.
We never grew a man from twisted root.
Our stars engaged the liquid fabric coat.
Recalling paint, the model plastic grew.
Replacing trees, we built a giant boat.
Across the seas, we taught the natives blue.
On morning three the puppy played a horn.
Beneath the douglas fir a cup was born.

Current Mood: busy
Current Location: Space
Current Music: "From Sea to Shining Sea" - Johnny Cash

Although the absence of Alex continues to be a problem, I mostly enjoyed Friday's new episode of The Expanse.

I like the sub-culture of piracy among the Belters which borrows from romanticised visions of the golden age of piracy. The code of personal freedom extends to Drummer's (Cara Gee) crew being a dysfunctional polygamist family. Friday's episode saw a therefore tearful farewell to one of the members while they meet a pirate captain.

Meanwhile, Peaches (Nadine Nicole) is being slowly accepted among the Rocinante's crew. Even Holden (Steven Strait) calls her Peaches now. The scene where she and Bobbie (Frankie Adams) worked together was one of those cool, comic-bookish moments when two characters improvise coordinating their superpowers in a creative way. Holden chewing Peaches out for taking initiative didn't really make sense, though, which cut into the intention of the scene, which was to have Peaches glowing over the fact that Holden referred to her as a member of the crew.

I'm a little intrigued by the cattiness between Amos (Wes Chatham) and Bobbie. I can't remember if they had any kind of relationship before. I feel like they're being set up as lovers. I hope that doesn't mean they have to have a physical fight because there's no way the writers are going to be able to make it realistic (Bobbie would be required to win).

The Expanse is available on Amazon Prime.

Current Mood: busy
Current Location: Space
Current Music: "Cymbeline" - Loreena McKennitt

Whenever you're slogging through some seemingly hopeless, endless task, just remember the time on Doctor Who when the Doctor was stuck in a castle for billions of years. I found myself in the mood for the Twelfth Doctor episode "Heaven Sent" last night, an episode with an impressive, almost entirely solo performance from Peter Capaldi as he tries to work out the nature of his strange, shifting castle prison.

Following the death of Clara in the previous episode, the Doctor finds himself forced to deal with that loss while also dealing with his strange, solitary predicament. It's an appropriate story for grief with the two-fold sense of isolation in the absence of a loved one and the absence of anyone who can truly appreciate the depth of feeling in the loss.

Much of the performance, of course, is monologue, though in some of it the Doctor pretends to be talking to Clara in his mind. He remarks on how no-one remembers their birth or their death, a comment, like many other comments he makes throughout the episode, that will take on another significance when the mystery of the place is revealed.

A story about living with grief becomes a story about living with living as the Doctor discovers just how difficult his task is. The fact that it doesn't drive him mad is surely a testament to his fortitude. He claims at the end of the episode to remember all the time he spent in the prison in spite of a key point in the plot being that he constantly has to perform the same investigation over and over, make the same confessions over and over, because he doesn't remember. I wonder if the memories all came back in an instant at the end, which must have been like a cannonball to the head, or if he just discovered a part of his brain where they'd been accumulating.

I like the idea of the Doctor having to expend the energy of a past self to create a new self who is very like the old self, and I like that undergoing this process seems to cause a subtle, accumulating strain. In the modern conversation about the past needing to die to make room for a future, it's nice to see a story that shows, whether that's really necessary or not, the exchange is painful and comes with profound, incalculable loss. At one point the Doctor wonders why he can't just rest, just lose this once. I can hardly blame him for feeling that way which makes his success all the more admirable.

Current Mood: busy
Current Location: A tiny prison
Current Music: "Pulled to Bits" - Siouxsie and the Banshees

Assassination attempts, marriage, intrigue, the value of material possessions, the nigh-vacuum of space, and living spacecraft euthanasia are just some of the things that factor into one very busy episode of Farscape.

Season 2, Episode 12: Look at the Princess, Part II: I Do, I Think

This episode also has one of Aeryn's (Claudia Black) best lines. When a handsome local still won't stop flirting with her, she tosses away his vial of kissing sauce and says, "It's not you, it's me. I don't like you."

Aeryn's ongoing trouble with her feelings of attachment are backgrounded a little bit, though, as this episode focuses more on the attempts to kill Crichton (Ben Browder). The previous episode ended with some thugs using a weird ray to try to scramble his skull. This episode begins with an unexpected rescue by Prince Clavor's fiancée, Jenavian (Bianca Chiminello), who turns out to be a Peacekeeper agent sent to ensure Clavor (Felix Williamson) doesn't take power, which would give an edge to the Peacekeeper rivals, the Scarrans.

She must be a particularly good agent, too, since, in addition to her martial arts expertise (I bet she could even beat Bruce Lee!) we now know she managed to maintain her cover under the effects of the Scarran ambassador's (Thomas Holesgrove) heat ray.

This attempt on Crichton's life being foiled, he immediately stirs up trouble by not pretending Clavor hadn't been behind it, an unheard of breach of etiquette. This angers the woman Crichton's being forced to marry, Katralla (Felicity Price), until a floating sphere intrudes on their conversation with an attempt to kill both Crichton and Katralla together.

Rescued this time by Ben Browder's real life wife, Francesca Buller, playing the seemingly meek servant ro-NA, Crichton's soon after sent into orbit as per a scheme hatched by Rygel (Jonathan Hardy), who still commands an atypical degree of respect in this episode. He's even able to convince the Empress (Tina Bursill) his ideas are good.

The voice of Rygel, Jonathan Hardy, pulls double duty in this episode, also playing an ethereal being whom Moya and Zhaan (Virginia Hey) encounter. In a subplot unrelated to anything else in the episode, Zhaan is unsuccessfully attempting to prevent Moya's builders from decommissioning her--forcing her to commit suicide--because Moya's shown she's capable of giving birth to war ships like Talyn. This will be resolved in the third episode so it may be best to talk more about it then but in this middle episode it's perhaps the most thematically resonant portion in a story otherwise devoted to plot and action.

Though this episode has some really nice character moments for Crichton. Going into what turns out to be his very temporary exile from the planet, he has a conversation with ro-NA about material possessions, something ro-NA's people apparently don't believe in (though ro-NA herself will shortly prove to be a bit of an ill-starred maverick). I felt Crichton's pain as he suddenly realises he's millions of miles away from access to the nearest recording of Charlie Parker. Maybe all this contributes to the first proper instance of Crazy Crichton business.

Sure, he'd acted a bit loony in "Crackers Don't Matter", but he was under the influence of exterior forces. Here, arguably the strain of his new life finally gets to him when he realises Braca (David Franklin), holding a gun on him to keep him prisoner for Scorpius (Wayne Pygram), can't actually kill him because Scorpius needs him alive. Still, it's a gutsy move to do what Crichton does, effectively taunting Braca to kill him using quotes from Blazing Saddles and Aliens. He seems to have to untether himself from rational behaviour slightly, something he finds all too easy, and he develops it into a positive talent in future episodes.

This leads to some desperate EVA in which Crichton, without a helmet, uses a gun as a makeshift thruster, a bit remarkably similar to a scene in Cowboy Bebop (from the episode "Heavy Metal Queen"), though I don't know if it was an intended reference or just a coincidence. Though it's worth noting Spike Spiegel is also a big fan of Charlie Parker.

. . .

This entry is part of a series I'm writing on Farscape for the show's 20th anniversary. My previous reviews can be found here (episodes are in the order intended by the show's creators rather than the broadcast order):

Season One:

Episode 1: Pilot

Episode 2: I, E.T.

Episode 3: Exodus from Genesis

Episode 4: Throne for a Loss

Episode 5: Back and Back and Back to the Future

Episode 6: Thank God It's Friday Again

Episode 7: PK Tech Girl

Episode 8: That Old Black Magic

Episode 9: DNA Mad Scientist

Episode 10: They've Got a Secret

Episode 11: Till the Blood Runs Clear

Episode 12: Rhapsody in Blue

Episode 13: The Flax

Episode 14: Jeremiah Crichton

Episode 15: Durka Returns

Episode 16: A Human Reaction

Episode 17: Through the Looking Glass

Episode 18: A Bug's Life

Episode 19: Nerve

Episode 20: The Hidden Memory

Episode 21: Bone to be Wild

Episode 22: Family Ties

Season Two:

Episode 1: Mind the Baby

Episode 2: Vitas Mortis

Episode 3: Taking the Stone

Episode 4: Crackers Don't Matter

Episode 5: Picture If You Will

Episode 6: The Way We Weren't

Episode 7: Home on the Remains

Episode 8: Dream a Little Dream

Episode 9: Out of Their Minds

Episode 10: My Three Crichtons

Episode 11: Look at the Princess, Part I: A Kiss is But a Kiss

Current Mood: busy
Current Location: The boat
Current Music: "Night" Twin Peaks OST - Angelo Badalamenti

It's one of those perennial hazards of a sci-fi world--getting your brain switched with someone else's. On Farscape, it's just one more weird problem on a whole pile of weird problems.

Season 2, Episode 9: "Out of Their Minds"

While Zhaan (Virginia Hey) is aboard a hostile ship, dealing with some aliens who suspiciously resemble Skeksis from Dark Crystal, the rest of Moya's crew are scrambling to get the ship's scavenged defence screen up and running. When the Skeksis fire on Moya, the combination of energy from the hostile shot and the defence screen at 62% power results in everyone aboard Moya turning up in someone else's body.

There's something kind of sweet about Pilot in the body of Chiana (Gigi Edgley) patiently and sadly explaining to D'Argo in the body of Pilot (Lani Tupu) how to communicate with Moya. And Rygel in the body of Crichton (Ben Browder) is hilarious but I think the prize for acting versatility has to go to Claudia Black.

She never quite gets Crichton's American accent but her incredulous reaction when Chiana (Anthony Simcoe) and Aeryn (Jonathan Hardy) catch Crichton in Aeryn's body playing with said body is priceless. "I'm a guy. A guy. Guys dream about this sort of thing." Of course, women may as well--as Crichton suspects and is later confirmed, Chiana has been up to similar hijinks in D'Argo's body. A smirking comment from Aeryn at the end of the episode leaves the impression that a whole lot of sex occurred after the episode's close.

Black is also exceptional as Rygel when everyone's places are scrambled again later in the episode. Something about her big eyes, I think, helps convey his attitude. Though it's hard to top Rygel finding the need to urinate in Crichton's body and then, later, when finding a Skeksi he's leading around the ship suddenly needs to puke, saying grandly, "That's all right, we do that sort of thing all the time here on Moya. I just peed in the maintenance bay."

One thing the episode makes clear about the crew dynamics is that, despite the basic idea of there being no captain, by this point everyone seems instinctively to regard Crichton as being in charge. When a Skeksi comes aboard, everyone assumes he's going to want to talk to Crichton--when Zhaan needs information at the end of the episode, she won't listen to Crichton in Rygel's body, she'll only trust Aeryn in Crichton's body. Something Rygel remarks on with no small bitterness.

. . .

Season One:

Season Two:

Current Mood: busy
Current Location: A ship, a LIVING ship, full of . . .
Current Music: "Zeroes" - David Bowie

It's too bad Chiana's never seen or read Macbeth. Otherwise she might have known the portrait she picks up, which seems to tell the future, isn't the valuable artefact it seems to be for "to win us to our harm the instruments of darkness tell us truths, win us with honest trifles, to betray's in deepest consequence." And so, of course, it proves to be, even on Farscape.

Season 2, Episode 5(6): Picture If You Will

This episode is placed after "The Way We Weren't" in many episode lists but it was produced first and if you watch the two together it makes no sense for "Picture If You Will" to come after "The Way We Weren't". So if you're watching through the series, I highly recommend considering "Picture If You Will" the real fifth episode of the second season.

Chiana (Gigi Edgley), Aeryn (Claudia Black), and Rygel (Jonathan Hardy) are conducting some trade on a glass space station with a shady dealer as the episode opens. Rygel takes home a Hynerian tiara he's surprised to find is genuine and Chiana brings home the portrait. First it helps her find a missing favourite necklace and then it foretells a broken leg she gets when she trips over a DRD.

I love Chiana's outfit but I do kind of wish the characters changed clothes often enough to support the idea Chiana has a "favourite" necklace among others she wears from time to time. I bet this was mainly a budgetary issue, though, and maybe related to the logistics of applying makeup to Chiana, D'Argo (Anthiny Simcoe), and Zhaan (Virginia Hey). Crichton (Ben Browder) and Aeryn still have wardrobe changes often enough at this point though it's in this episode that I first noticed Aeryn wearing the leather vest with nothing underneath. I remember this as being her signature outfit for the rest of the series. Or maybe I just really like it.

But the heroine of this episode is Zhaan whose powers as a priest make her the only one equipped to deal with the malevolent portrait. It soon starts predicting fatalities for everyone and Chiana, D'Argo, and Crichton fall prey to deadly accidents. Or so it seems--in fact, they all end up trapped in what looks like a Man Ray painting.

And behind it all is none other than Maldis (Chris Haywood), the nigh-omnipotent being, first introduced in season one's "That Old Black Magic", who feeds on fear. And there's certainly plenty for the characters to be afraid of in this episode, much of it very effective. But once again its the moments of character interaction that make this show really shine.

Maldis, whom I've seen described as a more malevolent version of Star Trek: The Next Generation's Q, has some sadistically funny interactions with Crichton. The human's usual ability to keep psychological distance with his Earthly colloquialisms is undermined when Maldis returns them with the familiarity of someone who's been reading Crichton's mind for a long time--"No, [Zhaan] kicked my ass. And saved yours."

A moment between Zhaan and Crichton, where they telepathically communicate, refers back to a first season episode and is a nice bit to touch base with their relationship. This is also the first episode to make it really clear Chiana and D'Argo are attracted to each other and Crichton and Aeryn have a partly amusing, partly foreboding scene in the kitchen where Aeryn asserts how quickly she would get rid of some of the more useless members of Moya's crew, like Chiana and Rygel. Maybe Aeryn needs some more contamination after all.

. . .

Season One:

Season Two:

Episode 1: Mind the Baby

Episode 2: Vitas Mortis

Episode 3: Taking the Stone

Episode 4: Crackers Don't Matter

Current Mood: hungry
Current Location: Moya
Current Music: "Sophisticated Lady" - Duke Ellington

Now for another story about youth versus age. Or relatively young versus somewhat older. I'm not sure how old Chiana is on Farscape (the Farscape wiki doesn't know either) but it's pretty clear she's much younger than everyone else, maybe late teens. It's enough to make for a nice episode about two generations misunderstanding each other.

Season 2, Episode 3: Taking the Stone

We learn a little bit more about Chiana's past, namely that she had a brother she looked up to. I say had because she learns in this episode, thanks to an implant in her belly, that her brother has suddenly died.

Crichton (Ben Browder) blows her off when she says she needs to talk, not catching on that it's an urgent topic from her tone. So runs away and falls in with a gang of misfit youths, apparently about the same age as her, who live on an otherwise deserted planet. They live in caves below the tombs of their dead ancestors, one of whom Rygel (Jonathan Hardy) expeditiously robs.

This leads to an amusing subplot about cursed loot, though the funniest part is when Rygel discovers a worm in the decayed face behind a jewelled mask. Instead of screaming in horror, he gasps and says, "Bonus!" and promptly puts the critter in his mouth. We'll never have another Rygel.

Meanwhile, Crichton and Aeryn (Claudia Black) play Chiana's surrogate parents. Crichton is the dad who doesn't like the dangerous games she's been playing with her friends and Aeryn is the wiser mother who continually reminds Crichton his aggressive techniques are going to backfire.

Chiana directly tells him he's not her dad or her lover or even her "tralk". We return to the series' thematic premise about lost people bonding as a new kind of family--it's not unlike Rebel Without a Cause, really. One of the main problems with a new kind of family is that it lacks the reinforcement of tradition so when trouble arises there's no device to keep anyone from splitting when they feel like it, even if staying is ultimately in their best interest. We've seen this already with Talyn.

The episode also follows on from "Vitas Mortis" in contrasting physically appealing youth with unappealing age. Here, Crichton eventually discovers the "lost people"--people older than 22--among the tribe Chiana's fallen in with are people shamed into hiding because their flesh shows signs of damage from the local radiation.

The young dislike age because it reminds them of death, it's an indication that they might not be as indestructible as they think they are. The priestess in the previous episode was almost ready to sacrifice Moya just to forget about being old. In "Taking the Stone", the kids defy death with crude extreme sports, most prominently a free fall down a chasm only to be caught by a "sonic net" created by their own carefully tuned screams.

Use the wrong intonation and you're dead. And Chiana's raring to give it a go herself--no wonder Crichton's worried about her. But is she really disgusted by age or does she really want to kill herself or is there some other issue that Crichton just can't understand? It's a good episode for her character--not her best, but good, though I think anything Chiana touches is gold on Farscape.

. . .

Season One:

Season Two:

Episode 1: Mind the Baby

Episode 2: Vitas Mortis

Current Mood: tired
Current Location: The stone
Current Music: "Ascension" - VNV Nation

Nothing will come from nothing. On Farscape, that means you can't recapture your youth without sucking the life out of a living ship.

Season 2, Episode 2: Vitas Mortis

Actress Melissa Jaffar makes her first appearance in this episode. She returns as a regular cast member and different character, Noranti, at the end of season three. Here she plays a mysterious Luxan priestess on her deathbed, alone and far from home, living in a temple where Crichton (Ben Browder), D'Argo (Anthony Simcoe), and Zhaan (Virginia Hey) find her.

Our Moya trio are wearing their cold weather gear, adding to the sober atmosphere of the story.

Nilaam, the Luxan priestess, is the first Luxan adult we've seen aside from D'Argo (we briefly see his son in flashback and hologram in season one). At first, D'Argo is reluctant to help the woman with her dangerous death ritual but he's overjoyed when, after he's done so, she becomes young and beautiful, now played by actress Anna Lise Phillips.

Well, she's younger, anyway. The Luxan nose hood really doesn't do anything for me, your mileage may vary. It certainly turns D'Argo on and very quickly the two are in bed, having a sex marathon. Meanwhile, Chiana (Gigi Edgley) gets stuck in the laundry back on Moya. Are these things related?

I should back up and mention there's an earlier scene establishing Chiana doing laundry in this weird glowing fluid that apparently serves another function on Moya. I don't think I've seen a laundry scene in any other space opera. I could be forgetting one--in any case, it's rare, and I love seeing it here. There's an amusing moment too where Chiana's indignant because Aeryn (Claudia Black) expects her to wash Aeryn's clothes. I guess there's still a little Peacekeeper in Aeryn after all that she seems surprised the alien girl doesn't want to do the Sebacean woman's laundry.

Anyway, the glowing fluid solidifies, trapping Chiana, and the ship's hull starts to wither, causing hull breaches to pop up all over the place. It's some time and investigation before the cause is determined--during the ritual, Nilaam thought she was drawing on D'Argo's energy to restore her youth when in reality she'd tapped into Moya.

What do you do when you discover the lovely new life you've found as come at the cost of another being's suffering? Even Nilaam, a priestess, at one point rationalises that Moya is, after all, "only a ship!" D'Argo can't accept this, of course, being personally acquainted with Moya. At least he and Nilaam did have their brief time together.

. . .

Season One:

Current Mood: busy
Current Location: A pool of detergent
Current Music: "Lay, Lady, Lay" - Bob Dylan

Crichton storms off of Moya in an extraordinarily infantile mood on Farscape only to witness the big ship take off without him. But that's just the beginning of his troubles.

Season 1, Episode 14: Jeremiah Crichton

Natalie Mendoza, future star of Neil Marshall's excellent The Descent, guest stars as a potential love interest for Crichton (Ben Browder). Crichton is beefy and handsome and he's inflamed the jealousy of another beautiful man with sculpted muscles, Rokan (Kevin Copeland), who belongs to the same tribe as Mendoza's character.

We find months have passed after the cold open and during the show's theme song and Crichton seems to have been living in paradise. He has beachfront property in a beautiful wilderness and his few neighbours are attractive and friendly. You can almost understand when he's kind of rude to D'Argo (Anthony Simcoe) when the Luxan and Rygel (Jonathan Hardy) finally show up to rescue him. Still, I think Crichton's pretty childish. We see that, surprisingly, it's D'Argo who'd been Crichton's advocate back on Moya and had insisted they continue searching for him.

Zhaan (Virginia Hey) is for abandoning the search and there's discussion about her abandoning the practices and codes of behaviour of a priest. Now freed from what she, at this point, apparently regards as phoney benevolence, she seems to be testing the waters of unabashed selfishness. Even Aeryn (Claudia Black) is more outwardly interested in seeking Crichton.

A lot of synopses spoil the surprise ending of this episode so I may as well talk about it--though, if you haven't watched this one yet, consider yourself warned now.

I guess if you live long enough in a Sci-Fi/Fantasy universe you're going to inspire an entire religion, which is what it turns out Rygel has done for the people of Crichton's paradise planet. Though it was actually Rygel X--our Rygel apparently being the sixteenth of that name--who sent out colonies with hidden devices that disabled their technology to keep them on their designated worlds--the same device which is now preventing Crichton's escape. This concept of a protagonist accidentally inspiring a belief system for generations does turn up in Science Fiction now and then, my favourite example being the Doctor Who serial called The Face of Evil. Mainly what I appreciated in "Jeremiah Crichton" was seeing actual evidence of Rygel's empire, something you'd think we'd see more of, though with the show's thematic focus on people forced to contend with life away from any cultural support for their self-perceptions, it makes sense that we wouldn't see any Hynerians or Hynerian subjects.

. . .

Current Mood: groggy
Current Location: A beach
Current Music: "I Wanna be Your Boyfriend" - Ramones

Aeryn's attempt to give Crichton flying lessons is interrupted by an invisible net and the usual unexpected physical intimacy in the first Farscape episode written by the prolific series writer Justin Monjo.

Season 1, Episode 13: The Flax

In an effort to make himself more useful, Crichton (Ben Browder) has been instructing himself on the biomechanical technology of Moya. Aeryn (Claudia Black) is giving him pointers on piloting a shuttle when the two run afoul of a big invisible sheet in space, stopping their craft cold. This is the "Flax" as the rest of the crew learns back on Moya when a mysterious visitor is brought aboard.

Staanz (Rhys Muldoon) is a shifty character who seems to have some kind of ulterior motive for telling the crew of Moya about the Flax, which his former cohorts, a group of pirates, use to capture their prey. At first, though, Rygel (Jonathan Hardy) is just happy to have someone to play some kind of crystalline board game with. I love Rygel's facial expressions in this episode.

One thing leads to another and Staanz drops his pants to reveal an apparent lack of genitalia. There's some sexual humour in this episode that doesn't really come off. It turns out the female of Staanz's species happens to look like the males of most other humanoid species which leads to a misunderstanding between D'Argo (Anthony Simcoe) and Staanz that isn't quite the effective punchline it's meant to be. But I did kind of enjoy the build up to it, featuring D'Argo and Staanz on Staanz's craft, trying to track down the wreckage of a Luxan ship. The two characters actually do have pretty good chemistry.

Beyond the sexual element, though, there's an interesting aspect to the presence of Staanz and the other pirates in that a contrast is presented between the criminal misfits aboard Moya and the more genuine, dedicated variety of thieves. When they discover Staanz is wanted by the Peacekeepers, Zhaan (Virginia Hey) points out to D'Argo that they're obviously in a position to know the Peacekeepers are given to hunting people who don't really deserve it. But D'Argo remarks that some people really do. Which of course contributes to the sense of urgency in the need for the former prisoners aboard Moya to establish their identities and their worth; there's no reliable external social authority to establish it for them.

Meanwhile, Crichton is compelled to teach Aeryn CPR when it becomes clear he's going to be unconscious for a while when repairs require the shuttle cabin to be depressurised. The part where he teaches Aeryn to lock lips with him is oddly skipped over--it feels like a scene was cut. We do inevitably get the scene where Aeryn is obliged to give Crichton mouth to mouth but no comment is made about the resemblance this bears to kissing. I wonder if there was a conversation about this cultural practice being another odd similarity between humans and Sebaceans. As we learn in the episode's climax, Sebaceans certainly do have this cultural practice in common with humans when Aeryn and Crichton give in to the heat of a moment of apparent imminent death. Those two are so cute.

. . .

Current Mood: rushed
Current Location: A net
Current Music: "Reflections" - Johnny Cash

"The Road Not Taken", last night's season finale for The Orville written by David A. Goodman, followed up on the previous episode to explore an alternate timeline. It has some particularly nice chase sequences and a really credible premise, but conceptually it was a bit redundant and a let down compared to how good last week's episode was. Still, it wasn't bad.

Spoilers after the screenshot

We join an alternate Ed (Seth MacFarlane) and Gordon (Scott Grimes), scavenging and barely staying one step ahead of the Kaylons, who rule the universe because Kelly (Adrianne Palicki) wouldn't go on a second date with Ed. Lucky for them, the Kaylons seem to be worse shots than Imperial Stormtroopers--even worse than Imperial Stormtroopers on Rebels, and that's saying something.

I was surprised to see a few Star Wars references last night, including a door that looked quite a bit like the one belonging to a certain shield generator on the Endor Moon. And then Yaphit's (Norm McDonald) head popped out like the eye droid at Jabba's palace. That was maybe the funniest moment in the episode which was low on laughs.

Kelly chooses a sexy top to meet up with Ed. Coincidence? Maybe not, though obviously it's too late to fix things. Goodman comes up with a plausible explanation for why the Kaylons took over just because Kelly wouldn't go out with Ed--they didn't get married so they didn't get divorced so Kelly didn't get Ed a command so Claire (Penny Johnson Jerald) didn't feel compelled to join the Orville crew (Ed being captain apparently being what made her feel she was "needed"). So Claire and her kids didn't establish the relationship with Isaac (Mark Jackson) that made Isaac betray the Kaylons. Which is the closest we've finally gotten to addressing Isaac's motive for that crucial action. He's always so certain about everything, I seriously want to know how he squares that with himself.

As plausible as it is, I thought it was a bit unfair of Ed to guilt trip Kelly over her decision to change the timeline. So she didn't want to pursue a relationship that was doomed to failure. Is that really so unreasonable? Though, then again, "failure" might not be the best way to describe their relationship.

Alternate timeline Alara (Halston Sage) makes a surprise appearance but doesn't stick around long enough to make an impression. I suspect the scene was shot much earlier in the season, probably before Jessica Szohr was cast as Talla, which would explain why she's not with the away team at that point. A confrontation between the two would've seemed like an obvious thing to have. But since, later, Ed uses the "jar of pickles" line with Talla, I wonder if it was the production crew's way of underlining Alara's been replaced.

The score was pretty good and I loved the shot of the Orville at the bottom of the ocean. But it proved once again the pattern of the season--really good episodes about relationships interspersed with poor to decent action/adventure episodes. Hopefully, if their new Disney masters permit them to return, the Orville will strike a better balance next season.

Twitter Sonnet #1229

With linking arms the people took themselves.
Beneath a cloak of coats the shoulder's bare.
In ancient limbs a tree supports the elves.
A loop of cookies circles round the stair.
A group of clues determined tact for now.
Above the sheets a message caught the wind.
Persistent spray engulfed the rocking bow.
And swinging lanterns canvas lit to mend.
A winding clock was silent near the cash.
A boat of wine conducts a standing cat.
Suggested breeze was spoken round the sash.
A gentle word was whispered 'neath a hat.
Beneath the garden ancient pools would flow.
At night a pair of waiting eyes would glow.

Current Mood: tired
Current Location: Underwater
Current Music: "Loving You" - Elvis Presley

I liked last night's new Orville but I admire its intentions more than its execution. Written by Joe Menosky, "Sanctuary" combines and reconfigures many contemporary issues to allow the viewer to contemplate the fundamental ideas and concepts with hopefully as little prejudice as possible. More than ever, I feel critical thought needs to be stimulated and this is a very classic Star Trek way of doing it. Personally, though, I always liked it better when Star Trek writers avoided allegory entirely; I'm of the opinion fantasy fiction comments best on current issues when the writer just organically hits on them while trying to discuss personal preoccupations.

This is certainly the most Star Treky pedigreed episode of The Orville, in any case. Menosky has written many episodes of The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, and Voyager, and has even cowritten an episode of Discovery. "Sanctuary" was directed by Jonathan Frakes and had two guest stars with a prominent history on Star Trek, Marina Sirtis and Tony Todd. Appearances by F. Murray Abraham, Rena Owen, and Ted Danson make this a very strong cast indeed.

Spoilers after the screenshot

The show finally comes back to the surgical sex change forced on Bortus' (Peter Macon) and Klyden's (Chad L. Coleman) offspring in an unexpected way when Bortus discovers another Moclan couple, visiting the ship, are secretly carrying an infant female Moclan they're taking away from their homeworld.

In a later scene where Ed (Seth MacFarlane) sits down with a group of admirals, the issues are thoughtfully explored--who are the people tampering with the children against their will, the ones forcing the sex changes on them or the ones forcing them to remain in a biological condition that will make them fugitives from their own culture for the rest of their lives? Of course, we all love women (at least me and all my friends do) so naturally we're going to be predisposed to side against the people who want to force an entire species to be male. This would seem like a no brainer except there are existing cultures that consider women to be biologically and mentally inferior. If the episode really wanted to discuss the issue, it ought to have included a real contrary argument--the boys' club Moclans just seem vaguely stubborn and ornery. Even in a scene where Klyden confronts Bortus while the latter's having lunch with Kelly (Adrianne Palicki), nothing is really accomplished except that Bortus points out Klyden's behaviour reflects his dislike for a two gender culture. There needs to be some discussion as to the value people like Klyden see in this tradition or it's not really going to be a conversation.

We're still long overdue for an episode that fleshes out Kelly as a character but I liked the way Frakes shoots her in this episode. Frakes shows again how adept he is at creating tension and excitement in cuts between bridge interiors and ship exteriors. Steadycams sweeping around an anxious Talla (Jessica Szohr) naturally flow with shots of the Orville nose to nose with a Moclan war ship.

It's nice how the conflict with the Kaylon continues to influence events--no controversy exists in isolation and any action the Union takes must take into account Moclan weapons are necessary to fight the Kaylons. Ed argues that if they don't help the Moclan women they would be ignoring their values. The counterargument isn't said, though--what good are those values if they get everyone killed? They're both vitally important points.

Current Mood: tired
Current Location: A nebula
Current Music: "Aguas de Marco" - Tom Jobim

Farscape indulges in a Groundhog Day style time loop plot which may remind viewers of Edge of To-morrow/All You Need is Kill in that it involves the protagonist repeatedly glimpsing his own demise (the episode predates the Japanese novel but came six years after the Harold Ramis movie). An episode with a few plot points that feel only halfway thought through, it's still pretty good.

Season 1, Episode 5: Back and Back and Back to the Future

The danger of attempting to conform to a specific cultural identity again manifests as D'Argo (Anthony Simcoe) abruptly switches from wanting to ignore the survivors of an exploding spacecraft to wanting to help them entirely because the survivors belong to a species traditionally allied with the Luxans, D'Argo's species. D'Argo, whose crime we learn in this episode was even more shameful than the killing of a superior officer, jumps at the opportunity to prove he's a good and true Luxan through and through. It's motive enough to make him ignore every piece of evidence that the survivors might be dangerous.

An older man named Verell (John Clayton) and young woman named Matala (Lisa Hensley) are the only survivors. In inspecting the vessel, Crichton (Ben Browder) is hit by a strange green energy discharge and afterwards finds himself randomly, temporarily transported to moments in the near future. At first, several of these involve Matala, whose overtly seductive manner comes off a bit like Rue McClanahan, sexually assaulting Crichton. The episode's explanation for these scenes is a little vague though not as inexplicable as a bit of information D'Argo imparts in Crichton's absence that Crichton nonetheless seems aware of when trying to convince D'Argo of his time jumping. But maybe the pleasure viewers and writer Babs Greyhosky took in Crichton's ravishment made up for any inconsistencies.

For those attracted to women who are looking for some fan service, Aeryn (Claudia Black) has a temporarily bare midriff in this episode thanks to a kind of unflattering crop top that doesn't last very long. But she also has my favourite line in the episode--in a meeting between her, Zhaan (Virginia Hey), and Crichton, Crichton, beset by another future assault vision from Matala, is compelled to leave the room, muttering, "I'm just gonna get some air." Aeryn, indignant and confused, says, "We have air in here! What is the matter with him?"

. . .

This entry is part of a series I'm writing on Farscape for the show's 20th anniversary. My previous reviews can be found here:

Episode 1: Pilot

Episode 2: I, E.T.

Episode 3: Exodus from Genesis

Episode 4: Throne for a Loss

Current Mood: hungry
Current Location: Moya
Current Music: "Across the Universe" - The Beatles

Being a Dominar isn't all it's cracked up to be and two very different prison experiences are contrasted in the fourth episode of Farscape. It's a thoughtful, exciting episode with mud, chemical addiction, incidental spooning, and more mud.

Season 1, Episode 4: Throne for a Loss

Again, the original broadcast order is different from the proper episode order. If you're watching on Amazon Prime, which has the episodes in broadcast order, you can find the proper order on Wikipedia here. "Throne for a Loss" makes more sense as a follow-up to "Exodus from Genesis" because this way we see Rygel (Jonathan Hardy) go from a victory and personal assertion of his identity as a ruler to being captured and held for ransom because of that identity.

Thinking they're meeting some traders, the crew of Moya are instead met with an attack by the Tavlecs, a group of pirates who specialise in kidnapping intergalactic royalty. Rygel finds himself buried up to his armpits in mud in a cell next to another ruler, someone who looks a bit like Cthulhu.

Meanwhile, one of the Tavlecs is held prisoner aboard Moya where Zhaan (Virginia Hey) takes charge of him and shows him a very different experience. This is where we get to see Zhaan as a priest and we get to see how her maturity distinguishes her from the other characters. While Crichton (Ben Browder), Aeryn (Claudia Black), and D'Argo (Anthony Simcoe) spend the episode bickering about how to save Rygel--or whether they should even bother--Zhaan conducts a carefully coordinated rehabilitation of the Tavlec boy who's chemically addicted to a device mounted on the forearm which functions as gun, shield, and stimulant.

The boy writes her off as "soft and weak" to which she somewhat amusingly replies that she is soft but by no means weak--in fact, she displays greater than average physical strength, something that allows her to take control of the situation at any moment.This strength allows her to pick and choose when to administer her soft side. When he tries to shock her by showing his naked body, she replies by showing him hers, divesting the situation of the tension of repressed sexuality and also bringing another dimension to the show's blurred boundaries between psychological and biological.

Zhaan also uses moments of calculated trust, allowing the prisoner moments of freedom, to provide an environment that might allow a personality free from chemical addiction to emerge. Her methods have mixed results but this thread in the plot keeps you with her perspective and I find myself invested in her success or failure.

In the more action oriented parts of the episode, chemistry between Crichton and Aeryn is starting to become more obvious. I was amused to see how many times the two hide from gun shots in ways that just happen to look like cuddling.

. . .

This entry is part of a series I'm writing on Farscape for the show's 20th anniversary. My previous reviews can be found here:

Episode 1: Pilot

Episode 2: I, E.T.

Episode 3: Exodus from Genesis

Current Mood: busy
Current Location: A planet
Current Music: "I've Got You Under My Skin" - Charlie Parker

Oh, Barclay, worried about a silly little thing like having his entire body disassembled and reassembled remotely. "Realm of Fear", the second episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation's sixth season, has a nice script by Brannon Braga, one I rather like for being from the point of view of a character whose fears are both irrational and rational. The special effects and perhaps direction apparently didn't meet with Braga's approval, though. He's quoted on Memory Alpha as saying;

I envisioned a scarier episode where the creatures in the transporter were a little more frightening, but then again what a tall order to the effects guys, "Make it amorphous, but terrifying." What does that mean? It's easy to write that, but difficult to visualize. I just wanted you to feel scared with this guy and you never really did.

It's gracious of him to take the blame like that. I'm not sure how the effects people in 1992 could've done better than they did on their budget. Maybe instead of worm puppets have scary humanoids? Maybe if they'd brought in David Lynch as special guest director.

This is my favourite Barclay (Dwight Schultz) episode. The nervous, semi-regular character on The Next Generation who made appearances on Voyager, I usually found him a little too broad but he's just right here. Schultz plays Barclay's anxiety as completely on his sleeve and it works; maybe a little more emotive than the TNG characters usually are but I've certainly known people in real life who are even less successful at holding it together.

Troi (Marina Sirtis), La Forge (LeVar Burton), O'Brien (Colm Meaney), and all these evolved Federation people are so nice and patient with Barclay as he talks about problems with the transporter that have been solved for centuries. But even he never imagined it could have worms.

I love the scenes where he's worrying alone about it, where he asks the computer for symptoms of "Transporter Psychosis" and immediately assumes he has it. What a prophetic bit of writing for people self-diagnosing with sites like WebMD. The end of the episode doesn't really make any sense but it's a nice journey to get there.

Current Mood: busy
Current Location: An energy field
Current Music: "Les sucettes" - France Gall

There were lots of great character moments in last night's new episode of The Expanse, an episode that used a series of good scenes to show overlapping political, personal, and social issues and the unpredictable ways they play off each other.

Spoilers after the screenshot

There were two someones in the kitchen with Naomi (Dominique Tipper) in two separate scenes that contrast with each other in a nice way. Both are scenes where someone tries to make peace with her, one more successfully than the other. First Alex (Cas Anvar) offers her some food, this coming after a scene where he finally hears back from his wife on Mars.

This was a scene that showed why Cas Anvar is one of the standout performers on this show as the rapid sequence of emotions that pass through him after his wife has told him she's left him are completely clear. So his motive for making peace with Naomi is also clear--he's suddenly realised, without Mars and without his wife and kid, his misfit shipmates on the Pinus are the only family he has. I like that he still made it clear that he's still furious about Naomi for giving up the protomolecule, but there's a basic human need that transcends that. It's a very sweet scene.

The episode began with another Martian, Bobbie (Frankie Adams), in a nice, dialogue-free scene that establishes her own feelings. With a relaxed smile she sits down, happy to be in the familiar Martian surroundings, until she sees the defaced Martian flag and she's furious.

Despite her own experiences that have cut her off from Mars, the symbols are too personal for her, and it's especially a cruel shock coming when she was feeling a sense of peace at being some place, somewhat like home.

Feelings of family and loyalty are too deep rooted and complex to be cast aside even for very clear logical reasons. The other person to have a scene with Naomi in the kitchen is Avasarala and it was a pleasure watching Shohreh Aghdashloo and Dominque Tipper doing a scene together. Outside the more restrictive political scenes and voluminous costumes, Aghdashloo seems to be taking the opportunity to give a more physical performance, her poses simultaneously theatrical and reminding me a bit of Marlon Brando.

She gives a very political line to Naomi about how she understands that not all Belters support the actions of the OPA--it's a familiar line one might hear from someone talking to an Irish person about the IRA or a Muslim about ISIS. There's insight in it and maybe a real effort at sympathy but of course it's patronising and Naomi demonstrates why with her angry reaction--she might not agree with OPA all the time but there's a history of personal and philosophical dialogue that Avasarala's political speak is tone deaf to.

The episode also featured some nice moments of nuance with two of its more villainous characters, Mao (Francois Chau) and Errinwright (Shawn Doyle). Even Mao has a moment of conscience after he, like Alex with his shipmates, has a transference of familial connexion, in his case to Prax's daughter. And in his case, he does allow his personal feeling to influence his policy decision.

Errinwright, meanwhile, shows he really is as conflicted as he seemed last season. He's clearly shaken by the over two million people who died because one Martian missile got past Earth's defence systems. Then he does something really petty with that feeling and goes and tells Anna (Elizabeth Mitchell) that it could've been avoided if the president had had firmer resolve--implying that it was she who swayed him. It's unclear if Errinwright's insinuation is right but we see by the look on her face that Anna knows he could be. And Errinwright walks away with a bitter smile at the knowledge that he's spread some of the misery. So he's not a total psychopath--he does feel bad about people dying--but he's too weak not to abuse others for his own pain management. I think he's an asshole, but then, it's hard to imagine what it would be like feeling responsible for two million deaths.

There were also some nice scenes on the UNN flagship. I love those classic space opera corridors. I definitely like the more complex lighting after the endless blue of the Pinus/Rocinante.

Current Mood: busy
Current Location: A theoretical landscape
Current Music: "After the Gold Rush" - Neil Young

The Expanse returned last night and hit the ground running. The first episode of the third season picks up directly after the events of last season's finale, running with some great tension in the Avasarala and Bobbie scenes while on board the ship we've come to know as the Rocinate there's more of a slow burn as the crew digests changes, surprises, and questionable decisions.

Spoilers after the screenshot

While the show's a cut well above the SyFy Channel's usual mediocrity, its biggest flaw is that most of its cast seems to be the usual stock of unimaginative performers, a problem that's not likely to get better now that Steven Strait is a producer. But his character, Holden, didn't have a whole lot of screentime last night, most of the drama centring on Naomi (Dominque Tipper) and Alex (Cas Anvar), both of whom are played by actors giving slightly more interesting performances than the others.

We have the irony of Alex emphasising the importance of a sense of family in the crew coming with the revelation (or reminder? I honestly can't remember if we knew this) that he's neglecting a family back home on Mars. This nicely adds to the tension of whether or not this crew of misfits are really doing the right thing, especially now that Naomi has made the highly contentious decision to give the protomolecule to Fred Johnson (Chad L. Coleman), a decision she seems to have made peace with even if no-one else on board likes it.

Elsewhere in the solar system, people are engaging in strenuous activity despite abdominal wounds. At Fred Johnson's Tycho station, one of the series' many wonderful hard boiled dames, Drummer (Cara Gee), is doing upside-down crunches with an open wound above her belly. It's too bad her commitment to her abs isn't shared by a commitment to her arms which look as thin as vermicelli noodles. I feel like I'm going to want to see her throw a credible punch at some point, I'm enjoying the energy the actress is putting into the role.

The physically much more believably badass Bobbie (Frankie Adams) is meanwhile overseeing the shit still going down on the ship where Avasarala was trapped last season. It's so nice to see Shohreh Aghdashloo again, one of the shining points not just on The Expanse but in television in general. She didn't have much to do in this episode where Bobbie and Cotyar (Nick E. Tarabay) were doing most of the moving and shaking but it's fun watching Avasarala keeping up her moxy well out of her element. I hope we don't have to go too long without seeing one of her trademark gorgeous costumes.

I was a little disappointed Cotyar's gut wound hadn't finished him off between seasons, he's definitely vying with Steven Strait for the show's title of dullest actor. Bobbie has a really effective EVA sequence though and the tension in her suit just about running out of power works marvellously.

It's good to have this show back and I look forward to next week.

Current Mood: hungry
Current Location: Space
Current Music: "Bad Girl" - New York Dolls

Last night brought "Krill", the first episode of The Orville not written by Seth MacFarlane and the first written by someone who used to write for a Star Trek series, David A. Goodman. Having worked on four episodes of Star Trek: Enterprise as well as having been a writer for Family Guy and Futurama--the famous Star Trek parody episode--Goodman seems ideally suited for The Orville and "Krill" was pretty good, featuring genuinely tense action sequences, some thoughtful moral dilemma, and comedy.

Spoilers after the screenshot

The episode begins with one of the funnier moments on the series so far as crewmembers are delighted that Bortus (Peter Macon) seems able to eat any and everything. Mostly, though, the comedy was one of the weaker aspects of this episode--Gordon's (Scott Grimes) references to 20th century car rental companies not being particularly funny, though I don't necessarily think it's an anachronism. Who's to say 20th century commercials aren't considered classic art of some kind in the future? Despite this, I really enjoyed the chemistry between Ed (Seth MacFarlane) and Gordon.

The Krill actually remind me of the new Klingons on Star Trek: Discovery--they both seem more like vampire Cardassians than Klingons though the vampiric angle is a little more literal on The Orville with Gordon actually calling them space vampires. The differences in the shows' budgets is clear from this similarity; the ships, costumes, and makeup for the Discovery timeline Klingons being for more beautiful and intricate. But as in other points of comparison, The Orville outstrips Discovery with better writing and the Krill's motives are much clearer, being a religious crusade founded on a belief in racial superiority. I'm still not clear on what the Discovery Klingons expect to get from war with the Federation.

Ed's moral delimma is much clearer, too. By the end of the episode, he asks the very natural question, what the hell else was he supposed to do but wipe out the whole crew who were bent on destroying a defenceless human colony? Yet the point that the children he went out of his way to save are likely to grow up hating the Union goes to show that a victory to-day puts the ultimate goal of peace that much further away. This may have been what Discovery was trying to say with Michael killing the leader of the STD timeline Klingons.

Twitter Sonnet #1043

In silent thought the pocket watch debates.
As steeping tea observes automatons.
A molten tide in labs in truth abates.
Solutions sleep within the arced batons.
Without a further car the train relents.
In facts escaping out the spout was steamed.
No celery the sortied troop laments.
Or salary o'er metal wig the dreamed.
To-night the frosted window breaks the page.
Untimely ink reforms to blackest sheets.
The linking numbers walk for love and rage.
The rhythmic heart returns on reddest beats.
The hour pins describe an arcing day.
A lantern lit in green illumes the way.

Current Mood: hungry
Current Location: 寺
Current Music: "Red Right Hand" - Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds

Many people seem to feel that the second episode of The Orville, "Command Performance", which aired last night, is an improvement over the first episode and in some ways I agree. It had the first moment that really made me laugh thanks to a cameo by Jeffrey Tambor and Holland Taylor as Ed's parents. The scene takes the fractious relationship between Deanna Troi and her mother and pushes it to the higher comedic pitch Orville allows by having them discuss Ed's colon over the main viewer. Yet even this scene doesn't sabotage the reality of the story as a similar moment in a parody might--I believe Ed might have parents who embarrass him this much. And this represents what might be really interesting about the show if it can get through some growing pains, though I might settle for it becoming more of a straight forward space opera--that stuff tends to land more on the show than the comedy stuff does.

I think one of the reasons this episode represents an improvement is actually the directing--surprising given the first episode was directed by Jon Favreau. Robert Duncan McNeill, who played Tom Paris on Star Trek Voyager and who directed several episodes of that series, brings even more of a Star Trek feel to The Orville. The beats at the beginning especially, with an establishing shot of the ship followed by a low momentum scene in Ed's office felt exactly like the beginning of so many Voyager, Deep Space Nine, and Next Generation episodes. This episode was again written by Seth MacFarlane and it made me even more eager to see how the show might be with a teleplay by a Star Trek writer.

"Command Performance" combines two relatively familiar plots--humans getting caught in an alien zoo and someone taking command for the first time--you could cite TOS's "The Menagerie" and Data's subplot in TNG's "Redemption" along with many other examples. In this case, the human zoo plot is used to put Ed (Seth MacFarlane) and Kelly (Adrianne Palicki) in a locked room together to hash out some of their relationship issues. It was a nice scene, it helped Kelly feel like more of a character, especially thanks to a nice, open, conversational performance from Palicki, and it really gave a sense of the two of them having had a relationship. The story about the opera and Ed being so high he believed he would be paralysed if he sat still too long was funny in a fairly authentic way.

The other plot centres on the ship's security chief, Alara (Halston Sage), who has to take command in the absence of Ed and Kelly because the normal third in line, Bortus (Peter Macon), has laid an egg and must sit on it for twenty one days, an idea which sounds like it'll be explored more in the third episode. I liked Alara's plot, especially the scene where she rushes down to the shuttle bay after an accident that's ripped an impressive hole in the deck. I found myself really caught up in her anxiety about responsibility and there's also a nice conversation between her and Dr. Finn (Penny Johnson Jerald) about the burden of command.

Maybe this means I'm getting old but I wish Alara was played by an older actress. I think in the first episode it's established that Alara's species matures faster but I would have liked to have seen some evidence of this in the episode. Her taking the tequila shots from the replicators was a nice bit of humanising but it would have been nice if she'd had a moment where she really showed there was an older mind inside that body. I think there've been some complaints about a young actress being in this role purely for sex appeal. I don't have anything against sex appeal myself, even if it stretches credibility--it is fantasy, after all. But it would have been nice if I could buy into her character a little more. On the other hand, maybe I'm thinking of this as too much like Star Trek--this isn't the flagship so maybe a really young security officer isn't far fetched at all. Halston Sage does a decent job in the role--I found her halting delivery a little distracting but I think she's doing it to sound alien.

Less impressive is Penny Johnson Jerald as Dr. Finn. Jerald is actually a Star Trek veteran--she played Cassidy Yates on Deep Space Nine, but unfortunately I'm only reminded of how boring I thought that character was, largely because of Jerald's lacklustre performance. But I don't know, maybe she'll grow on me. I liked her reference to Obi-Wan Kenobi, I only wish the name had slid off her tongue a little more naturally. I'm still looking forward to the next episode.

Current Mood: busy
Current Location: The bridge
Current Music: "I Can't Stand Up for Falling Down" - Elvis Costello and the Attractions

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Entries tagged with sci-fi

Where Somewhere is Gone Before

Another Bad Day for Belters

Super Space

Interminable Progress of the Doctor

Never Get Off the Boat

A Mile in Someone Else's Brain

Don't Trust Strange Pictures

Death and the Stone

Accidental Vampirism

Kicked Out to Paradise

Invisible Flight Barriers

The New Old Orville

Talking About It by Not Talking About It

All You Need is the Ground Edge of the Time Loop Day

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Just Get On the Disintegrator with Everyone Else

Someone's In the Kitchen with Naomi

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