Scorpius takes a neural clone of John on a little trip down memory lane, hoping to persuade him to assist in unlocking it. Meanwhile, a surprising bargain is offered to Moya and her increasingly cranky crew.

:thumbsup: I can't wait to watch this again, not that its a pleasant experience but it is a crucial episode regarding Scorpius.

Did you buy it, his story I mean. Is he telling the whole truth?

Now there's a question: how much of anything Scorpius says do you believe?

I may watch it tonight. :)

;) To be honest the first time I saw it I believed him and then I started to question. Why did he tell that story? What were his motives? To get the Wormhole technology and is there anything he wouldn't do to gain this knowledge, mmmm

I still don't know whether he is lying or not. Its certainly a whole new way of looking at his character though. :thumbsup:

Scorpius: "You know so little of me. Let's remedy that."
John: "Let's not and say we did."
Scorpius: "My earliest memory--"
John: "Oh, god..."
Scorpius: "--is pain."

I thought rewatching this episode and having it fresh in my memory before I posted might make things a little clearer in my mind, but the fact of the matter is that I still don't quite know what to believe. Can we ever trust Scorpius? Does he ever tell the truth unless it absolutely serves his purposes? Is that little smile that plays across his face in the final shot, as he strokes the Scarran flower (wow, brilliant continuity - I'd forgotten that!), one for the memory of his mother, or because it served his purpose in weaving this tale for neural clone Crichton?

It's a dangerous game, making your main antagonist sympathetic. Star Wars did it with Darth Vader to general derision (even though it didn't bother me), and Farscape dices with it here. The one thing that stops it from lurching into sentimental claptrap is that, firstly, it's so brutal a tale and, secondly, there is that nagging doubt about what is true and what isn't.

And therein lies the episode's masterstroke, imo. It plays both possibilities off against each other and comes out the other side with no-one knowing what Scorpy has told, allowing Crichton to still hate him, while his crew simply fear him. Brilliant.

Young Scorpius: "Water...please!"
Tauza: "You pathetic infant. Never use that word to me, again."

Of course it could be viewed as a cop-out, but I don't think any story that plays on child abuse and rape, without pulling any punches, can be described as such. This is a violent, almost malicious tale that can be very difficult to watch. Having said that, I would have liked to have seen more of it and dispensed with the Moya side of the story. The scenes of Scorpy's childhood are harrowing, as he is subjected to all kinds of Scarran torture. I wanted to see how he escaped, but that is told in mere seconds via a voiceover, and next we are years later as a youthful Scorpy seeks help from the Peacekeepers.

But at least there is some truth in what he tells neuro Crichton towards the end: his desire for the wormhole technology is not borne out of a desire to rule the galaxy on his own, but simply as a means of revenge against the Scarrans. He tells John that they will now stop until they are the only sentient species left.

John: "Sweet move. Join the army, get them to pay for your pet project."
Scorpius: "You think I want wormholes to betray Peacekeepers and to conquer the universe myself? I don't want power. I want revenge!"

On the other side of the story, Moya and crew come across one of Scorpy's scientists adrift in the Prowler in which she had attempted to solve the wormhole equations. It's an interesting dilemma for the crew, as Pilot and Moya deliberate whether to go with Linfer, but little more than a B story that adds some impetus to Scorpius' pursuit of Crichton. He still hasn't solved the mystery, and Crichton's brain still holds the key.

And there's the increasing tensions among the crew, and their need to get some shore leave. Hmmm, that could prove interesting. :ph43r:

And Braca rocks in this episode. :thumbsup:

Oh, I forgot, I'm supposed to be doing one sentence reviews from now on.

This episode's great.

There you go. :rolleyes: :lol:

:thumbsup:

No you're not supposed to be doing one sentence reviews and a good job too :lol:

I wonder. Being cynical I would say the latter. Its great though that we have to feel some sympathy towards Scorpius or at least some understanding even if its not all true we have seen it and therefore its going to be at the back of our minds. I never thought I would but they managed it and yet he also becomes even more fearsome and monstrous at the same time. Brilliantly done.

We also learn more about his physiology, wow his body is in torment and yet he has overcome and controlled it. Control is an essential part of this guy.

I didn't like the Linfer story much and like you the Scorpius scenes were far more compulsive. Can I just say Ewww as well.

I'll try to watch this again tommorow or maybe tonight :thumbsup:

:whip:

And where are the rest of the Scapers? Come on guys! :whip:

:tumbleweed:

Sorry still haven't rewatched it yet. :( I will later though

Get that boy off the PS2. I dunno, these people who sit around playing games all the time... :innocent: :whistling:

<_< Its my own fault I bought him Kingdom Hearts, yet another Crash Bandicoot game - Nitrocart which he already has on a demo but he wanted the full version and the latest PS2 mag with the demo games on.

Its going off soon though :rolleyes:

Get him you-know-what to play on the pc while you're watching tv. It won't scare him, honest. :ph43r: :lol: ;)

:lol: :lol: :lol:

Meanie. Probably wouldn't actually, its really bizarre things that do scare him, random non scary things.

Futurama had him freaked out yesterday, who knows.

The only thing when he is on the PC he keeps asking for help so I always get interrupted.

I'll feed him, that will buy me some time :lol:

:thumbsup: Finally

Couple of things I noticed this time.

Pilot positions Moya's DRDs in the exact same spot that he did when John first landed on Moya.

Also John has been playing with a ball since Scorpy first injected the neural clone device. We see it first in Beware of Dog I think and he does it again in this episode, D'Argo taking it off him. Its the first time I have noticed Scorpius playing with one too. This is a reflection of their joined psyches but who has the original habit is it John or Scorpy? Is it a symbol of the wormhole equations which also form a globe and their obsession with cracking the code?

Its our first view of Scarran females in this ep isn't it. Just as deadly as the males but no more intelligent. Scorpius fools her twice.

The ability that Scorpius has to read energy signatures is explained which Harvey uses to help John in Won't get fooled Again, also it explains how he can sense John as intruder so quickly in Nerve.

The crew is getting mightily fed up with John's interest in wormholes now and D'Argo even throws Zhan's death at John, cheap shot but he has a point. More of the girls fighting and D'Argo's suggestion at some down time to break Jool and Chi up.

I don't think that Pilot would have abandoned the crew even if they had sanctioned it however he disobeyed them three times in this episode, once by responding to Linfer, then allowing her prowler to dock and finally by letting her go. Things are starting to get a little tense.

We see just how much Braca wants Scorpius to succeed, the disappointment on his face when he sees the fried neural chip tells a story. He also of course is desparately trying to stay on the right side of Scorpy at the same time, he willingly burns his hands to change his coolant rod, a measure of his loyalty or perhaps ambition.

It is a little disappointing that we didn't see more of Scorpy's childhood or his mother which was really well done.

:thumbsup: And again EWWWW

Ah, but does he? It goes back to how much of his story we are to believe. As neuro Crichton is the only one hearing this, Scorpy could pretty much make up whatever he wants - no-one's going to know! :lol:

:rolleyes: OK point taken. :lol:

What about the ball, what are you're thoughts?

btw you do realise you are making me sit through Meltdown :( ok couple of good scenes but :( I thought I'd get it out the way :lol:

:lol: :lol:

I was just going to say "It sucks" and skip it! :lol:


As for the ball, hmmm. Well, it's definitely a Crichton thing, imo. :)

:sleeping: :o <_< :lol:

I don't believe it, frell it, it was worth it to see those scenes again though.

:lol:

So is that your review then? Do you want me to transfer it to the next thread? :lol: ;)

:lol: :lol:

More or less but I might have to go into a little more detail :lol:

You have got to watch it again to you know :lol:

Yeah, I know. I've only watched it right through once, and little bits and pieces other times. :)

:lol: I must admit I kept getting distracted, not hard during that ep.

You don't have to watch it again. :)

Yeah, I do!

Lisa, don't be too put off the next ep! :lol:

:lol: OK then, you're choice

Lisa its not good but you do get to see lots of John and Aeryn. :thumbsup:

You have to take the positive view: it's the only bad episode this season, and after it there's quality all the way to the finale. :thumbsup:

Blast, that was going to be the last line of my Meltdown review. :lol:

:lol: So you'll be doing an in depth review then :lol: :lol:

:unsure:

What do you think of the Scarran costumes. They look great from a distance to me but the lip sync doesn't quite w**k. Having said that I prefer the real thing to CGI.

The young Scorpius is done really well, very freaky yet pitiful, definitely a face in torment.

:thumbsup:

Definitely better than cgi. I think the Creature Shop improved them with each season. :)

:lol: Thats what I just said in the other thread :lol:

huh, you mean you could tell the difference.

Strange ep this one. I didn't particularly want to know the backstory on Scorpy. He's a bad guy ,we just want to know his badside, not the fluffy, 'nobody loves me' side

:unsure:

mmmh, it's like watching a government health warning on the perils of smoking, we know it's bad for you, we don't need the details, honest.

Again, it goes down to how much of his story we are to believe ;)

Maybe, it was a case of too much info for me.

Hopefully later on in the season, there may actually be a dividend for this ep. Sorry to be so negative, just didn't particularly like it :)

S'Okay, I do see where you're coming from. I must admit that I did worry that they might be trying to make the character a little too sympathetic, but I thought they carried it off well. Also, I do think they had to answer the question of how he came to be who he is, in that respect it was a necessary story, imo. :)

yeah I guess that makes sense, esp, since he's now a regular.

I know where you are coming from Lisa, its the same as Harvey, it does diminish his status as bad guy.

It is important though :)

Enjoyed this one. Scorpius is a great character and it's high time we got a little more background on him. Of course, whether any of it's true is another matter entirely :lol:

We've long since seen the Crichton/Scorpy clone story, so it's a nice spin to see the other side, with Crichton clone :)

It also provides a little more background, by extension to the Scarran/PK story, but did we really need to see Scorpy's conception :x