The second of Farscape's gender team episodes catches up with the ladies on their shopping trip to a budget mandated dead Leviathan. Redressing Moya's sets for the location was probably a necessary measure with so much money clearly having been spent on makeup and costume, a category in which this episode is certainly impressive.
Season Four, Episode Sixteen: Bringing Home the Beacon
Francesca Buller, wife of Ben Browder, returns once again, once again playing a different character. This time she's the memorable Scarran military leader Ahkna, though her outfit suggests something more like Dominatrix Queen. In fact, according to the Wiki, she wore thigh-high boots with two-inch stiletto heels from Sydney's House of Fetish. A pity you can't see her legs in any shot!
A few shots of her from the waist up are the best we get from director Rowan Woods whose tendency to overuse close-ups is sadly in evidence again. But Ahkna's secret meeting with Grayza (Rebecca Riggs) is still pretty cool. We're permitted to watch the two trying to out-dom each other gracefully while negotiating intergalactic politics.
Aeryn (Claudia Black) and Sikozu (Raelee Hill) watch from the rafters, the two pragmatists making a nice team. Meanwhile, Chiana (Gigi Edgley) and Noranti (Melissa Jaffer) are dealing with the two locals they made a deal with for a sensor scrambler of some kind for Moya. Again, the makeup budget is on display when Chiana and Noranti get genetically modified to go incognito.
Chiana looks a bit like she did in "Taking the Stone" while Noranti looks kind of like a caricature of Casey Kasem. Of course they make out at one point to throw off pursuers. Noranti has a lot of business about making drugs from spit and Chiana kisses people to get what she wants. That can be fun but I wish this season had more for Chiana to do. Another episode exploring Nebari culture would have been nice and certainly a few exploring Chiana's character, like "Taking the Stone", would have been a big plus. I think back also to episodes like "My Three Crichtons" or the first part of season three that explored her free sexuality for intelligent and emotional stories. The throwaway gags are fun but there could be so much more to Chiana.
Unlike "Mental as Anything", this episode doesn't completely devote itself to one half of the crew. The male characters return for the last ten minutes and Crichton (Ben Browder) has time to solve a problem with his trademark craziness--a pretty sensible reaction when it turns out Aeryn isn't who she appears to be. It turns out she's a bioloid created by the Scarrans in what appears to be a big taupe vagina. Appropriate, I suppose.
. . .
Farscape is available now on Amazon Prime.
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
Episode 12: Look at the Princess, Part II: I Do, I Think
Episode 13: Look at the Princess, Part III: The Maltese Crichton
Episode 14: Beware of Dog
Episode 15: Won't Get Fooled Again
Episode 16: The Locket
Episode 17: The Ugly Truth
Episode 18: A Clockwork Nebari
Episode 19: Liars, Guns, and Money, Part I: A Not So Simple Plan
Episode 20: Liars, Guns, and Money, Part II: With Friends Like These . . .
Episode 21: Liars, Guns, and Money, Part III: Plan B
Episode 22: Die Me, Dichotomy
Season Three:
Episode 1: Season of Death
Episode 2: Suns and Lovers
Episode 3: Self-Inflicted Wounds, Part I: Would'a, Could'a, Should'a
Episode 4: Self-Inflicted Wounds, Part II: Wait for the Wheel
Episode 5: . . . Different Destinations
Episode 6: Eat Me
Episode 7: Thanks for Sharing
Episode 8: Green Eyed Monster
Episode 9: Losing Time
Episode 10: Relativity
Episode 11: Incubator
Episode 12: Meltdown
Episode 13: Scratch 'n Sniff
Episode 14: Infinite Possibilities, Part I: Daedalus Demands
Episode 15: Infinite Possibilities, Part II: Icarus Abides
Episode 16: Revenging Angel
Episode 17: The Choice
Episode 18: Fractures
Episode 19: I-Yensch, You-Yensch
Episode 20: Into the Lion's Den, Part I: Lambs to the Slaughter
Episode 21: Into the Lion's Den, Part II: Wolf in Sheep's Clothing
Episode 22: A Dog with Two Bones
Season Four
Episode 1: Crichton Kicks
Episode 2: What was Lost, Part I: Sacrifice
Episode 3: What was Lost, Part II: Resurrection
Episode 4: Lava's a Many Splendoured Thing
Episode 5: Promises
Episode 6: Natural Election
Episode 7: John Quixote
Episode 8: I Shrink Therefore I Am
Episode 9: A Prefect Murder
Episode 10: Coup by Clam
Episode 11: Unrealised Reality
Episode 12: Kansas
Episode 13: Terra Firma
Episode 14: Twice Shy
Episode 15: Mental as Anything
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