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Captain Hornblower
Rates the Farscape Episodes
The Captain gives "Constellation of Doubt" a rating of:
2 Moyas
Captain's Rating Scale:
5 Moyas-one of the best episodes
4 Moyas-an excellent episode
3 Moyas-a good episode
2 Moyas-a fair episode
1 Moya-a not so fair episode
0 Moyas-a poor episode
Review:
"Constellation of Doubt" was a very interesting episode
for its balanced mixture of satirical and serious social commentary
on how human society and the media might react to the visitation
of Moya's crew to Earth. This kind of a story has a history going
back some years now in the science fiction television genre. The
X Files did some episodes like this. Babylon 5 did this kind of
story several times as well with provocative genius. This Farscape
episode adds a well done chapter to that legacy.
As mentioned before, what is so well done with the presentation
of this story is that it is a mixture of the satirical and the serious.
The media tabloid program Crichton is watching about the crew's
visit to Earth (using his nephew's video taped footage), and intertwined
commentary from various "experts", often times makes one
laugh with the absolute stupidity of what humans are saying about
characteristics of Moya's crew. The best example was Rygel supposedly
trying to corrupt and weaken humanity with subliminal messages to
consume more fat and sugars.
At other times, the thought processes of the commentators could
actually be taken rather seriously. Sometimes they were right on
in their assessments, such as Chiana being a troubled teenager in
much of her personality (that's a pretty good description of at
least one side of her persona). Once or twice, with differing opinions
from different commentators, I suspect even we the audience could
not say for sure who was right and who wasn't. One clear case of
this was the debate about whether Chiana was coming onto Crichton's
13 year old nephew at one point-I still am not sure if she was or
not.
What is so startling is how realistic the reactions in the tabloid
show were. The media sensationalized the visit, the government covered
parts of it up, crackpots came out of the woodwork, certain actions
of the aliens were misinterpreted, and everyone from scientists
to military men to sociologists to religious clerics weighed in
on things. All very well done and well written into a story that
does make one think about our society and just how advanced we really
are as a people.
So why doesn't this episode get a higher rating? The simple, frustrating
answer was that the story was so poorly placed in the context of
the overall storyline of the series at this point.
If this was an episode of Enterprise or Stargate SG-1, then it really
wouldn't have mattered much where they placed this story in the
order of the episodes. Those shows don't really have multi-episode
storylines going on, at least ones that aren't meant to be multi-seasonal
storylines. Farscape, for better or worse, has become a more arch-oriented
show, with multi-episodes storylines that run as a current through
the episodes. Thus, attention must be paid to the multi-episode
plots in story placement, for it does have an effect on the enjoyability
of the individual episodes.
What was so off about the placement of this episode is that the
audience is distracted by one overriding question-how is Crichton
going to get Aeryn back from the Scarrens? Even though the reason
why Crichton was watching the tabloid show in the first place was
to try and figure out where he had heard the name of the Scarren
base where Aeryn is being held, the messages of the documentary
itself are still easily perceived by the viewer as unimportant noise
at this point in time. Throughout this episode, as I viewed the
documentary program Crichton was watching, I kept saying "I
don't care about this right now, I want to know how they are going
to find Aeryn." For an episode that is meant to make one think
more deeply about the social commentary being presented, this sort
of distraction is bad, and hurts the story of the episode and the
impact of the commentary presented.
Since Babylon 5 did this sort of episode three times, it is good
to draw a lesson from that experience. Each time such a media/social
commentary story was used, it was done so in an episode placed at
such a point in the show's storyline where it wasn't a distraction.
In each case, there was a lull in the overall story arch of that
season, and thus the audience was not distracted by other concerns
with the show's characters and story.
It was a mistake to put this wonderful, thought provoking story
in the middle of this new storyline just introduced in the previous
episode. Aeryn's imprisonment by the Scarrens, and the efforts of
the crew to get her back, were too much of a concern not to distract
from what this episode itself had to say. If the producers had positioned
this story in an episode right after "Terra Firma", and
before introducing the new storyline with Aeryn, it would have been
much better placed and much easier to enjoy and consider for its
intellectual interest. "Constellation of Doubt" would
have definitely gotten a 3 Moya rating, maybe even a 4, if not for
the incredibly poor timing in its presentation.
Thus, with the blunted impact of what this story had to say intellectually,
and the rest of the story (Crichton's trying to recall where he
heard the name of the base before) mildly interesting, the episode
is only deserving of a 2 Moya rating. But, in the future, when the
results of the search for and rescue of Aeryn story is seen after
upcoming episodes, and one can go back and view this episode again
with this as of yet unrevealed knowledge in mind, the story of the
episode might be fully appreciated, and the rating could be raised.
What did you think of "Constellation of Doubt", or this
review? Feel free to share your thoughts. Feedback is always welcomed.
Captain Hornblower
Keeper of Jenavian's Jewel Gun
Worshiper of Aeryn's Remarkable Vessel
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