Unrealized Reality

Hey everyone!

Last week we got bathroom humor and cross dressing. This week we get Einstein and advanced space-time theory. Only Farscape... Anyway welcome to this week’s review of "Unrealized Reality", the episode that is NOT the season finale no matter what those commercials on SciFi say. This is eppy 11, there will be 11 more episodes for the season in January. The season, and these reviews, are just going on hiatus. So sit back, relax, and remember that this contains HUGE HONKIN’ spoilers for this eppy, and most ideas are my own. Farscape is just more fun to watch with Lynn!

Overall:

• TalynCrichton discovered how dangerous wormholes are by blowing up a Scarran Dreadnought. MoyaCrichton discovers the same by almost screwing up reality.

• When David Kemper writes an eppy, you’re sure to spend most of it going "Huh?" just trying to keep up with what’s going on. I’m never sure if that’s a good or bad thing, but it certainly makes for an interesting if twisted episode. There wasn’t much plotwise going on, it’s mostly a science lesson for us and for Crichton. After enough Relativity to make even Steven Hawkings want to take a nap, Crichton is made the universes most unwilling wormhole cop and sent on his way. Unfortunately that way isn’t the way he wanted to go, and instead of Moya we get Earth...who knows WHEN on Earth either.

And we’re left with 4 1/2 months to discuss what’ll happen when "To Be Continued" continues.

And Crichton:

• After much discussion it was decided that pain from the Pilot episode flashbacks that was the same as the original timeline doesn’t count. However any new pain from unrealized realities counts since they really did happen, and could have become real if Crichton had stayed. Thus we end the first half of the season on another WACKer eppy as Crichton gets kicked in the groin and has his neck snapped by Aeryn, smacked hard enough to draw blood by D’Argo/Jool, and generally had a lot of unpleasantness from traveling through wormholes and dimensions in just a space suit. This eppy gets a Realized Pain Rating.

At least he didn’t die...well, really die.

The Science Lecture: Since most of this episode is devoted to explaining the science and art behind wormhole travel, I think it’s only fair we take a moment and try to figure out just what the heck we learned.

• Every event happens in a specific place in a specific time. Thus movement through space is also movement through time, and visa versa.

• Accounting for time is more important than accounting for space as landing in the right place at the wrong time can create a new reality by changing the past. Going forward in time is OK, but going backwards causes ripples in time that drastically alter reality.

• Traveling through wormholes requires knowledge of where and when you are, and where and when you want to go. The Destination (both in space and time) is key to ending up in the correct spot. These Destinations give off signatures, like signs on a highway, that lead you to the correct space and time. John can pick up the signatures, but only of Destinations he recognizes. He can only read the signs on the highway for places he’s been to before. John must have foreknowledge of the Destination in order to reach it.

• If you return to a place before you have left (i.e. go back in time) you miss the correct exit on the highway, you miss the Destination. You can end up changing reality by changing events that have already happened, but this can be fixed. If you ignore the ripples and fix the first thing you can that goes wrong, the rest should fall into place. Time will sort itself out if given the chance. You may not get to the present in the same exact manner, but it SHOULD end up being the same present. Remember "...Different Destinations"? After the whole eppy the end result was the same, lasting peace, but the way that happened was different.

• Every Destination is surrounded by a number of unrealized realities, universes that don’t exist yet but are similar to the Destination sought. Unless John hits the Destination, he could end up in a reality that was previously unrealized, but once suck there that would become his reality. So accuracy is key.

The Good:

• A few questions have finally been answered, like why Moya was sucked down a wormhole at the end of last season and what exactly happened to her. We also finally see someone from the crew discovering John’s drug problem, and how Aeryn is learning all of that English.

• Chiana makes a wonderful point to Aeryn in the beginning. It’s not the language of English or the language of wormholes that Aeryn needs to learn to get Crichton back. Not to sound corny, but it’s the language of love.

• THANK YOU D’ARGO for making sense about the drugs. It was good to see him crush the drug, not giving into John’s addicted rhetoric about it being none of his business. Perhaps now we can put this whole drug thing to rest?

• "I wouldn’t have risen to Dominar if I wasn’t good at recognizing things before they happen."
  "You were deposed in a coup lead by your own cousin."

• "Oh Hell, I’m getting that ‘going to the Island of Misfit toys’ thing. Or just waiting for the Titanic. Well, as long as this whole deal doesn’t end up with me as an old man."
  ...trust Crichton to reference a cheesy stop-motion animation Christmas special, a horrible blockbuster movie, and 2001: A Space Odyssey in the same breath!

• "Either stop pointing guns at people or get a bigger gun!"

• The flashbacks/re-lived realities from the Pilot were a trip, especially getting to see John look the way he did four years ago (down to the wardrobe and hair!). And especially fun to see him changing history in subtle ways, getting annoyed with re-living events and moving things along.

• And then the unrealized realities were also disturbingly amazing to watch. We end up with beings all mixed up in events that never happened. Cudos to the whole cast for their double rolls. Everyone did an outstanding job becoming another character. In some cases, like Aeryn/Claudia as Chiana or Chiana/Gigi as Noranti, it was so close as to make it almost impossible to tell who was really playing the part. In other cases where physically it would be impossible to play so close it was done with all the spirit and intent of the character and yet almost humorously played in body language. We get Sikozu/Ralee as Stark, Rygel/Jonathan Hardy as D’Argo, D’Argo/Anthony as Jool, and Noranti/Melissa as Rygel! On top of that Pilot is played with a wonderful edginess that’s more like Crais. No wonder Crichton spends a few minutes in that last Reality just marveling at everyone!

• The "interviews" with past friends and family were interesting, funny, disturbing...and who knows what was actually true. They start off unrealistically wonderful, in praise of John as almost a saint. Then turn degrading, unrealistically horrible, slamming John as an abhorrent person. The truth is somewhere in the middle, but the point was made.

• Love Crichton going to kick ‘Einstein’ and being surprised when it works! Then offering him a hand up in apology.

• Mind-Bending Moment: Harvey/Scorpious/Wayne as Jack Crichton with a slight southern accent, the same earnest warmth and a bit of Scorpy growl.

• "You failed me in Art. Not to mention 3rd grade English...and I still do not understand the proper use of a comma!"
  ...you and me both, John!

• "Fear is the correct answer."

• "But I am not Kirk, Spock, Luke, Buck, Flash, or Author Frelling Dent! I am Dorothy Gail from Kansas."
  ...although in many ways Crichton is Author Dent. A guy plucked from Earth against his will, thrown in with a motley band of beings he didn’t choose to be with, forced to tag along and survive adventures in strange places he has no knowledge off, all the while wishing he could simply go home again. Although that fits for Dorothy as well.

The Bad:

• John ignores simple common sense and previous encounters with wormholes that have gone awry and hangs around an open wormhole in nothing but a SPACE SUIT?! Why the frell didn’t he go out in the Farscape, or a transport pod, or Lo’La, or Aeryn’s Prowler? Oh wait, because then most of this eppy wouldn’t have happened. I hate it when smart characters do stupid things simply for plot purposes.

The Nitpicky:

• So has Crichton abandoned creating wormholes with the Slingshot maneuver while there’s a solar flair?

• I got so distracted by the familiar names in the "Guest Starring" list at the beginning that the first run through I missed most of what Crichton was saying.

• I saw ‘Einstein’ without eyes and thought he just quicksilvered his eyeballs.

• Harvey knew about time, space and wormholes because he’d been implanted to remove the information from John’s brain and had succeeded. John shouldn’t be asking HOW Harvey knew, but WHY Harvey never mentioned anything to help John along, especially when Harvey was pushing working on wormholes all the time anyway.

• So Crichton is now the next Wormhole Cop? Is that his new purpose in life, keep others from using and abusing wormholes? Will the Ancients ever actually remove the information from his mind? If he does a good job will they want to?

• Yea, so Crichton is back at Earth. But he’s floating all the way in orbit with nothing but a space suit on. How the frell is he supposed to get down?!

"My name is John Crichton. I am not your pawn." -Crichton

Lauren (OboeCrazy)
SACCer #1: The Most Vocal Defender