Mind the Baby

Hi everyone! Welcome to this first News from the SACC for Season 2! Wow...who would have thought a year ago we’d be this far! WARNING!: This review contains huge honkin’ spoilers for Mind the Baby. If you haven’t seen MtB yet then be warned, you will be spoiled!

Overall:

• It doesn’t really matter when this episode was SUPPOSED to air, it’s obvious this was ment at a “wrap up” to the 4 part arch that ended last season. I believe it succeeded on a very interesting level...the arch clearly showed how much the entire crew of Moya, and Crais, have changed over the season. MtB almost highlights each of the major changes all our hero’s have achieved, and in my mind those changes are almost more important then the actual plot going on. Crichton and Crais I’ll discuss a bit later...but just looking at the others: Chiana, who would have been on a transport out of there without a second thought sticks with Moya when times are tough. Rygel, who claims to care for no one has a “slight” case of the intons when he discovers half the crew still alive. D’Argo and Aeryn go though a very similar change; both were incredibly reserved in showing emotions (except anger) at the beginning of the series....now D’Argo easily expresses his feelings for an ex-PK he couldn’t stand at first, and Aeryn spends much of the episode crying or smiling! Zhaan is the most interesting change...we don’t know yet what happened to her while they were away, but I’m not surprised that (believing that many friends may have just died for her) she has decided to make the most of her life by advancing herself to the next level....it wasn’t that long ago she wasn’t even a priest anymore!
• It will be exciting to see where the writers and actors take these characters this season!

Crichton:

• Well I am pleased to report a very positive start to season 2 on the OCB front...all we have is a Zhaan Zap, and even that didn’t look to bad! I give this episode a Starting On The Right Foot Rating!
  
• And he didn’t die!

The Good:

• Part of what makes this episode great is the wonderful job Claudia Black does. I think half the reason Aeryn is much more open about her feelings is because of her friendship with Crichton, but I also think being the Great Aunt to Talyn helped give her that extra push to really open up. Claudia takes the new emotions she gets to play with and runs with them! From the angry protectiveness when fighting with D’Argo and Crichton, to the motherly gentleness when talking with Talyn, to her eyes brimming with tears when she realizes they may loose the baby, to the smiles she gives at the end with Crichton, this is a great show for Claudia! Bravo!
• D’Argo "I have eyes as well, and they are very pleased to see you alive!"
• During the first argument scene Aeryn, D’Argo and Crichton have, watch as some shots have pipes running on the top and bottom of the screen giving it a letterbox movie feel! And also at the end of that scene, just as Aeryn storms off, a black bar (some kind of pipe) separates the side of the screen that D’Argo and Crichton are on from Aeryn. I really think that was a visual representation of the two sides our hero’s are on! 
• "As John once said, I would rather go down on a swing!"
  "Swinging...I would rather go down swinging." (hmmm...anyone else think for a moment they were listening to Teal’c and Jack? :-) )
• I love the startled, shocked look Crichton gets when Aeryn yells at him that first time!
• Nice to see the writers haven’t forgotten about the defense screen from the Zelbinion...even if it took them a while to remember!
• Go back and watch all of season 1 (go on!:-) )...especially Crais’ hair. It starts off all nice and “contained”...then as he goes crazy it starts to fall apart...and now that he’s back to being sane it’s all nice and “in control” again. That's a nice parallel to his behavior. 
• In the It’s The Little Things Department...whenever Aeryn speaks to Talyn she touches him fondly...another motherly reaction.
• Rock Paper Scissors?? LOL!
• "How many times have you and I been close?"
  "Just the once"
  "No no no...not THAT kind of close!"
• Gotta love the return of D’Argo’s STUN TONGUE!
• Chiana could give the micro-machine’s fast talking guy a run for his money with that little speech to Zhaan! Bet she would rock singing “I Am The Very Model of a Modern Major General”!
• During Crichton’s Mid-life Crisis speech, watch Crais. He becomes more and more confused as he can’t understand what Crichton is saying, and his face finally settling on "What the HELL are you talking about?"
• More Ghostbusters? "I know I know...I should have called, but I was in the neighborhood so I dropped by to say hi."
• Well Crichton is a southern gentleman, and probably not Jewish, so I’ll forgive him for not putting enough spit in “Chutzpah”! :-)
• I love/hate the scene with Crichton and Crais on Talyn. I love it because it’s so incredibly well done and such a powerful scene. But at the same time I get this pit in my stomach watching Crichton. Anyone who thinks he’s over the Aurora Chair only need to watch this scene and have their minds changed! His laugh is almost manic, his jokes very sarcastic, and the casual way he’s ready to die quite scary in my opinion. I think Crichton has always been willing to lay down his life to help save another (especially one he cares about)...but never this easily. In the past few episodes he’s mentioned being willing to die, or ready to die, or not scared of death several times. Scorpious may have helped create a much more dangerous enemy.
• It’s good that Crais has fixed his hair...it makes it much easier for Crichton to grab his ponytail when dragging him off of Talyn!
• Ya gotta love Pilot’s reactions when Chiana and Rygel are considering leaving Moya to save themselves.
• When Chiana does her little Peter Pan imitation to greet Crichton, all of my friends I was with on Friday for the premier went “WOAH!!!!” And at PhillyCon I was laughing so hard I was crying when we all came up with how that was filmed: “Now Ben, you stand here and we’re going to throw Gigi at you from across the room!"
• You can tell Moya is as pissed off at Crais as the others... watch that little DRD slam into his head over and over!
• Only sweet, wonderful, dangerous D’Argo could play Rock Paper Scissors with himself and be LOOSING! :-)
• When Aeryn says to Zhaan that she thinks Zhaan is being selfish, I love how Zhaan hesitates with her singing crystal thing!
• "Let’s get that boy some guidance before he turns into a full blown Menendez brother!"
• It’s fun to see, when the defense-screen blows up, that Ben gets the chance to be flung at Gigi this time! :-)
• Anyone else think the “That would complete the symmetry nicely” line from Crais was something a writer actually said during a planning session?
• Speaking of symmetry, I love how they use the same shot of the doors closing on Crichton when he’s saying goodbye to Aeryn at the end that they used in FT only with the roles reversed!
• Wow...no wonder Crichton got off scott free this episode, Aeryn took the beating! But she can sure give out as good as she gets!
• Gotta love Scorpy’s Needle Ball of Doom
• So you’ve gotta wonder if Crais is commanding Talyn, or if Talyn is controlling Crais...

Random Evil Thought:

• I was absolutely convinced when everyone was trying to figure a way to calm down Talyn without sending over Crais before the PK’s arrive, that Crichton was going to jump into Farscape 1 and fly off to distract Scorpy. It would have worked...Scorpy would have gone after him and left the Levithians alone, and with the Carrier leaving Aeryn and Moya would have been able to calm down Talyn a lot easier. I found myself almost sighing in relief when it didn’t happen!

The Bad:

• It’d be real nice to SEE how Zhaan, Chiana, Rygel, Moya and Pilot got away from those Sheyangs at the beginning instead of reading about it in the Journey Logs.
• It’d also be nice to know about Zhaan’s "trial"...although I must admit this is the only obvious sign there was supposed to be another episode slated to go first.
• Scorpius "Either they have no plan, or are about to implement one." Well you could say that about ANYONE!

The Nitpicky:

• Added Dialogue: Crichton “Come on D’Argo, break on through...to the other side!” D’Argo (suddenly waking up) “FOOTBALL PRACTICE!”
• So Scorpious is powered by neon AA batteries? And what happened to Niem?!
• MiSTing moment: Zhaan swipes her crystal wand in the air, a ringing noise sounds, and I say "Come in!"
• Anyone else concerned for a moment that Talyn’s "Hand of Friendship" was going to grab Crais in the...ahem...mivoinks?
• Added Dialogue: Pilot (to Aeryn and Crichton snuggling on the floor) "Can the two of you go find a room? I’m trying to work here!"
  

"I love you"
"What?"
"I love you"
"Oh yes I did hear it the first time! "- Zhaan and Aeryn
Lauren (OboeCrazy)
SACCer #1: The Most Vocal Defender 
TAC, TAR12, FA10.5 and FBBHB