Unable to face a future without Aeryn, having lost his ability to speak, and still a target of Scorpius, John is a helpless bystander as his crewmates search for some means of healing his body and soul...

So I can go ahead and watch this now?

Did anyone ever say you couldn't?

No, but I was waiting until you posted up the thread. I wasn't sure when we were going to start the season 3 rewatch as you had said you wanted to watch DMD again :P

Like I said, nobody stopped you. :P

Harvey: "Death is the only sensible course, John. For everything there is a season, a time to be born, and..."
John: "A time to die, yes, yes, yes. The Devil quotes scripture."

If nothing else, you have to admire Farscape's honesty. For a season that is riddled with so much death and destruction there could not be a more aptly named curtain-raiser, or a more prophetic quote from the Book of Ecclesiastes.

After closing out its second year with one of the very best finales seen on any series, the show steamrolls into the new season with so much impetus that it is almost hard to catch your breath. It's a storming opening episode that covers an awful lot of ground - possibly a little too much, but who's complaining?

Okay, so there are a few liberties taken with the dramatic license of Die Me, Dichotomy: neither Aeryn nor Tocot are actually dead. Even though that episode did such a superb job of tugging the heart strings and leaving John in such a hopeless situation, I don't think any of us doubted that this would be the case. To be fair, Aeryn's survival is somewhat more plausible than that of Tocot: in DMD we were informed that the Diagnosian would die if he inhaled the same microbes through his nose and mouth at the same time, which surely had to be the case when Scorpius exhaled in his face. Still, at least they have the decency to have Rygel turn on the sterilisation field before performing mouth to mouth on the stricken doctor otherwise that really would have been a double-whammy. :lol:

Aeryn: "Have you come to reassign me?"
Zhaan: "I have come to take you back."

If Tocot's revival is one of the physical, Aeryn's is very much of the spiritual kind, with Zhaan effectively rescuing her soul. It's a beautifully executed sequence that keeps the mumbo-jumbo to a minimum yet leaves us in no doubt that there will be price to pay. What isn't so clear is why, if Aeryn rejects Zhaan's offer because of that cost, she revives suddenly, just in time to save Zhaan and Stark. It's never explained, just left to us to assume that the ritual had already gone too far for Aeryn to stop it. And she doesn't even say thank you before heading off after Crichton.

This episode proves that the handholding between Jothee and Chiana was more than just a moment of comfort at a very distressing time. It was obvious that there was a connection between them, but the level of Chiana's betrayal of D'Argo is amplified by the fact that it is with his son. Is there any doubt that there will be repercussions further down the line?

John: "Can I get a 'Hell Yeah!'?"

Now whilst other people might groan at Aeryn's survival and then the fact that an echo of Scorpy's neural clone is still present in Crichton's brain despite the success of the operation (effectively returning us to a point before the events of DMD), I actually think this latter item is a masterstroke. Of course, it would be impossible to say exactly why without presenting spoilers as evidence. The sequence where John, at Stark's urging, puts Harvey in his place (in a dumpster, no less) lets us know that Crichton is going to be the master of the situation from now on. The madness is gone, but the presence of Harvey - and, therefore, Scorpius - remains an ever constant threat which gives the season much of its drive and direction.

As for Scorpius himself, he's just as bad as ever. He uses the same implanting device he used on John to plant a chip in Grunchlk's head that allows him to control the revolting alien, as exhibited in one brilliant sequence where he controls Grunchlk's movements. He gives the order to have Zhaan executed, sends an overeager subordinate to his death in order to fake his own death, and discovers that the Scarrans have gone as far as to plant one of their own in Tocot's cryo-storage to await the half-breed's return. And, in the end, he gets away with exactly what he wanted: the neuro chip with the wormhole knowledge, and with a new Gammak base awaiting the information.

The latter stages of the episode deal a lot with sacrifice: Crichton wants to take the bodies of two Interions back to Moya after the body of one of their comrades was used to provide brain fluid for his operation; and he and Aeryn admit their love for each other, but she is unprepared to act upon it because of the price Zhaan has paid to bring her back to life. This could have been a groan-out-loud moment - "Oh God, they've found another way to keep them apart" - but in this case it does make a strange kind of sense. Aeryn doesn't want to be responsible for anyone else's death, and she is concerned that becoming involved with Crichton may lead to exactly that kind of situation. The question is, how long will she stick to her guns?

A mention for Crais, too, who spends much of the episode wanting to avenge Aeryn's death. The fact that he thinks he has done this at the end of the episode is rendered rather hollow by our knowledge of Scorpius's survival.

The episode looks a million dollars. Along with the brilliant new title sequence and theme tune comes a step up in visual quality and special effects. The show looks and sounds better than ever before.

A brilliant start to a fabulous season.

Can I get a "Hell, yeah!"? :lol:

mmmmh, new titles, not so keen on the music, not really a drastic improvement over the original :unsure:

Not sure what to make of Aeryn's resurrection either, it seemed to be plausible, cept the whole refusing Zhaan's offer and then hey ho, saving Zhaan and Stark (whispering: is this a CPD :unsure:)

How could Aeryn not be dead, she drowned, there really isn't any coming back from that, though I'm grateful. loved Crichton's reaction to seeing her. Boo hiss to the admitting love and then turning Crichton away. I do understand, just makes me angry :angry: :cry: :cry: It's Bangel all over again :cry: :cry:

Interesting to see Scorpy's reaction to the presence of a Scarran, can't recall seeing Scorpy running scared before :lol: :lol:

mmh, the other 'dead' guy, I don't know about you guys, but I can't believe Scorpy's breath is minty fresh. Shouldn't that have killed him, for sure :unsure:

This is all sounding really negative, sorry, loved the ep, but you have to pick a little :lol:

Jothee and Chianna :x Ungrateful whelp, and what a bitch :o

I'm surprised by Crais's reaction a little, I knew he had feelings for Aeryn, but avenging her death like that, smacks of a love triangle, but I'm guessing after the speech to Crichton, that would be a no-no then.

Overall, glad to see Farscape kicking off season 3, at the same pace as the season finale eps before. (granted, with a bit of a glazed eye over a couple of the aforementioned ;) )

oh, and add the neural clone STILL in place, with the aforementioned glaze :lol:

It's a bit iffy, but then these things always are :lol: . I'm guessing hypothermia and then freezing her the moment before death, which was the nature of Tocot's business and would no doubt be the writers' get-out-clause. I'd be interested to know what would have happened to her had Zhaan not revived her: just imagine Aeryn's body being harvested for other operations... :o :x :lol:

God, yes! Nitpicking is fun! :lol:

Totally with you on that one, but you can rely on Farscape to bring a new twist to it. And then another. And then another. And then... :lol:

A big, resounding YES! :lol: Unless Scorpy's breath is fresh and minty... :unsure:

It's a masterstroke, I tell you, a masterstroke! :lol:

You didn't like the new theme music, Lisa? :o :( It's much more up tempo and exciting than the original. I always crank it up to annoy the neighbours - it's got a really dramatic opening and closing thump which I love. The new voiceover's very clever, but to tell you why would only spoil it. Remind me about it later down the line. ;)

The voiceover I don't really mind, but I'm not a fan of the music used on Farscape, it's just a personal view, don't worry Steve. I am so NOT in a position to critisise, considering my vast back catalogue, of cheerfully agressive music :lol: :lol:

We can have a personal view? :unsure: I didn't think that was allowed... :lol: ;)

Finally got round to watching this :thumbsup:

Love it!!

Nothing to add.

Totally agree, It looked fantastic. Love the look of this episode, is it just me or are the costumes/creatures/effects on this show the best you've ever seen. They look so real and earthy as well as being completely bizarre. I think I remember reading that they treat each episode as a movie. How good would a Farscape marathon look at the cinema??? :thumbsup:

I agree, Alex - I think it would look incredible. The quality of the image and the direction, especially once it went widescreen in season 4, was outstanding. For me, at least, Farscape is the only tv series that has come even close to matching the diversity of alien and costume design that has been in the Star Wars movies. And there's a lot of leather. :lol:

:thumbsup: This scene was disgustingly good. We don't have much sympathy for Grunchlk but even so the relish that Scopius shows at being in control goes to show how psychotically evil he can be, anything to reach his goal. Really well acted. It also hi-lights the danger that John is in from Scorpy, he has to be the nightmare villain of all time!

I certainly think he's the best villain ever to grace a tv screen, with the Mayor and Angel not far behind. :)

:D There are a few similarities with the Major, both eloquent and both trying to control their anger, boiling under the surface.

Except Scorpy isn't quite so obsessed with personal cleanliness. :lol: :lol:

:lol: :lol: Eww a certain S4 episode just came to mind. :lol:

:lol: :lol: :lol:

A cracking season opener.

It was difficult seeing anything living up to expectations after Die Me Dichotomy, but Season of Death does pretty well. I don't think there's been too many season finales quite as f*cked up as DMD, in terms of Aeryn being dead, Crichton's brain hanging out, unable to speak and just wanting to die. How to put all of the pieces back together again......

With B5, the Shadow episodes of the first 2/3 seasons always meant something special, and so with Farscape, the same is true of episodes with Scorpius revolving around his search for the wormhole technology. If you took Scorpius away from the series, it's probably half as good as it is when he's there. As villains go, I'd have to agree, he's one of the best. Certainly Crais in the first season was nowhere near as intimidating or frightening as Scorpius is now.

Back to the episode; another appearance by the Scarrans, and they're after Scorpy ?? Interesting. He didn't look exactly pleased to hear of a Scarran presence did he ?? :lol:

There were some fine character moments, particularly with Aeryn and Crichton, but also between Zhaan and Stark.

The neural clone story takes another twist, although it was good to see Harvey get his ass kicked. In the dumpster you go :lol:

Nice twist with the diversionary tactic towards the end with Scorpius sending the prowler back to the command carrier. I'd wondered how he was getting out of the situation. Typically Scorpius :thumbsup:

A decent start to the season.

The relationship between him and John is one of my favourite aspects of the series.

You can obviously guarantee that the main arc is going to advance when he's around, although I feel duty-bound to mention that some (not all) of the very best episodes were ones in which Scorpy didn't appear at all, or - at most - only in Harvey form.

I think, now, that by rationing his appearances it served to build up the tension for when he was there, which made his appearances all the more imposing. :)

Yeah I can see how that works. Take a look at the Borg on TNG, they were only ever in 6 episodes but became the show's greatest ever nemesis.

As you say though, Farscape has another ace up it's sleeve though with Harvey. He's there, but not really there. :thumbsup: