Seriously, when has sci-fi ever given this much?
"Taking the Stone" begins with a busy Crichton (Ben Browder) blowing off Chiana (Gigi Edgley) while she's clearly in pain and in need because he's preoccupied with repairing a piece of equipment. Hurt, Chiana runs off to a planet where a group of nihilistic youngsters make risky jumps off a cliff, hoping they're caught by a force field that's possibly activated by taking a stone before they jump. Crichton attempts to apologize and talk some sense into her but Chiana is too hurt, determined to jump because she thinks she has nothing more to live for. Will Crichton convince her that her life is worth living because he cares about her? That's the essence of the episode.
What's beautiful about it is that it illustrates why Farscape works. Watching it the second time around, I cared nothing at all about the stone plotline and it's resolution, and more about how Crichton goes out of his way to save his friend and how Aeryn (Claudia Black) goes out of her way to help because she cares about him. Heretofore we've seen that Chiana stays with our heroes because she knows they're good people and Crichton cares about her, having saved her life in the past. As soon as that seems to have ended, she lays the whole thing bare: logically speaking, why SHOULD they stay together? They don't know where any of this is going. They're being hunted at every turn. Why should they stay? How and why did they even become friends in the first place?
The answer is simple: they stay because Crichton cares about them, and their adventures teach them to care about each other.
This is a universal truth about our existence. Intelligent organic beings NEED each other. They live when they care for one another, and that caring is what inspires people to push through, no matter how hard it gets. Without that, there really is no logical reason to keep going when the going gets tough. We do it because we care about our fellow beings, and that makes all of the difference.
Pretty heady stuff for a show rife with laser guns and alien Muppets, no? ;)
"Taking the Stone" begins with a busy Crichton (Ben Browder) blowing off Chiana (Gigi Edgley) while she's clearly in pain and in need because he's preoccupied with repairing a piece of equipment. Hurt, Chiana runs off to a planet where a group of nihilistic youngsters make risky jumps off a cliff, hoping they're caught by a force field that's possibly activated by taking a stone before they jump. Crichton attempts to apologize and talk some sense into her but Chiana is too hurt, determined to jump because she thinks she has nothing more to live for. Will Crichton convince her that her life is worth living because he cares about her? That's the essence of the episode.
What's beautiful about it is that it illustrates why Farscape works. Watching it the second time around, I cared nothing at all about the stone plotline and it's resolution, and more about how Crichton goes out of his way to save his friend and how Aeryn (Claudia Black) goes out of her way to help because she cares about him. Heretofore we've seen that Chiana stays with our heroes because she knows they're good people and Crichton cares about her, having saved her life in the past. As soon as that seems to have ended, she lays the whole thing bare: logically speaking, why SHOULD they stay together? They don't know where any of this is going. They're being hunted at every turn. Why should they stay? How and why did they even become friends in the first place?
The answer is simple: they stay because Crichton cares about them, and their adventures teach them to care about each other.
This is a universal truth about our existence. Intelligent organic beings NEED each other. They live when they care for one another, and that caring is what inspires people to push through, no matter how hard it gets. Without that, there really is no logical reason to keep going when the going gets tough. We do it because we care about our fellow beings, and that makes all of the difference.
Pretty heady stuff for a show rife with laser guns and alien Muppets, no? ;)