The Worlds of Farscape (19 page)

2.
All quotes in this section are to be found in Robert J. Sternberg's book
Cupid's Arrow
. See Works Cited for the complete citation.

3.
Of course, some writers of speculative fiction, such as Octavia Butler, are more imaginative than others. Cinematic portrayals typically depict alien species engaging in “human” sexual activity given that the aliens are just humans in make-up. Yet, even characters rendered in CGI are decidedly human, with human sexual preferences. “Print” writers seem to be much more imaginative with respect to reproduction.

4.
We never learn whether homosexuality occurs among Peacekeepers. It is simply never mentioned in the entire series. However, it is not unheard of in this part of the universe and apparently not considered odd or abnormal when one considers a conversation between Crichton and D'Argo in the episode “Look at the Princess Part I: A Kiss is but a Kiss” (2.10). Crichton asks D'Argo to be his best man at the wedding. D'Argo, not knowing about Earth customs, replies that he is “with Chiana now.” His reply indicates that he perceives Crichton's statement to be a sexual overture. It also indicates that he practices monogamy and that he is not offended by Crichton's “suggestion.”

5.
When Crichton and crew travel back to Earth in Season Four, a teen-aged Crichton loses his virginity to Chiana (“Kansas” 412).

6.
When we see Grayza in
The Peacekeeper Wars
, she is heavily pregnant. A cryptic reference is made to the child's father. One of the comics also makes cryptic references to Grayza's child, a daughter. Rebecca Riggs was asked about this at the 2012 Dragon*Con in Atlanta. She replied that in her heart of hearts, she knows that the child is Crichton's. If so, then why didn't Grayza utilize her daughter's DNA to obtain the wormhole knowledge? After all, that is why Aeryn was kidnapped by the Scarrans in Season Four.

7.
Scorpius reveals his back story in several episodes of the series. The comics that feature Scorpius also provide more of the story. See Appendix C for complete publication details on these graphic novels.

8.
Kink sexual practices are those that extend beyond what is generally considered to be conventional sexual practices. Kink includes acts such as bondage, dominance and submission, and sadomasochism (BDSM), spanking, cuckoldry, and sexual fetishism. Practitioners of kink consider it to be a means of heightening the intimacy between sexual partners.

9.
One of the most unique plotlines during the first season revolves around Moya's pregnancy, certainly the first time of which I am aware that a space ship breeds. While Leviathans are physically bonded to a pilot, who controls their internal functions and provides navigation, the ships can breed. Moya, we learn, was part of the Peacekeeper experiment designed to create a hybrid, a Leviathan gunship. A male, the hybrid was named Talyn by Aeryn in honor of her father. Unfortunately for Moya, Talyn becomes increasingly unstable, eventually going insane.

10.
Immediately after Crichton's marriage to Katralla, they are rendered into statues, destined to remain in that state for 80 cycles while learning to rule the planet as Empress and Regent. Crichton is able to escape from the statue and change places with Tyno. Given that no one who knows Katralla or Tyno will be alive in 80 cycles, no one will know of the switch. Crichton gets away, and Tyno and Katralla will live happily ever after.

Battis, Jes.
Investigating Farscape: Uncharted Territories of Sex and Science Fiction
. London: I. B. Tauris, 2007. Print.

Buss, David M.
The Evolution of Desire: Strategies of Human Mating
. New York: Basic Books, 1994. Print.

Buss, David M., Randy J. Larsen, Drew Westen, and Jennifer Semmelroth. “Sex Differences in Jealousy: Evolution, Physiology, and Psychology.”
Psychological Science
3 (1992): 251–255. Print.

Buunk, Bram P., Alois Angleitner, Viktor Oubaid, and David M. Buss. “Sex Differences in Jealousy in Evolutionary and Cultural Perspective: Tests from the Netherlands, Germany, and the United States.”
Psychological Science
7 (1996): 359–363. Print.

Darwin, Charles.
The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex.
London: Murray, 1871. Print.

_____.
On the Origin of Species by the Means of Natural Selection, or Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life
. London: Murray, 1859. Print.

Ginn, Sherry. “Exploring the Alien Other on
Farscape
: Human, Puppet, Costume, Cosmetic.”
The Wider Worlds of Jim Henson:
Essays on His Work and Legacy Beyond The Muppet Show and Sesame Street
. Eds. Jennifer C. Garlen and Anissa M. Graham. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 2013. 228–240. Print.

_____. “For Women it's Love, for Men it's Sex: Evolutionary Psychology meets Science Fiction.”
Foundation, the International Review of Science Fiction
39 (2010): 28–38. Print.

_____. “Human, Alien, Techno—What Next? Evolutionary Psychology, Science Fiction, and Sex.”
The Sex Is Out of This World: the Carnal Side of Science Fiction
. Eds. Sherry Ginn and Michael G. Cornelius. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 2012. 221–237. Print.

_____.
Our Space, Our Place: Women in the Worlds of Science Fiction Television
. Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 2005. Print.

_____.
Power and Control in the Television Worlds of Joss Whedon.
Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 2012. Print.

_____. “Sexual Relations and Sexual Identity Issues on
Torchwood
: Brave New Worlds or More of the Old One?”
Essays on Torchwood: Reading the Rift
. Ed. Andrew Ireland. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 2010. 165–180. Print.

LeVay, Simon, and Janice I. Baldwin.
Human Sexuality
, 4th ed. Sunderland, MA: Sinauer, 2011. Print.

Simpson, Paul, and Ruth Thomas.
Farscape: The Illustrated Season 2 Companion
. London: Titan, 2001. Print.

Sternberg, Robert J.
Cupid's Arrow: The Course of Love Through Time
. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998. Print.

Sternberg, Robert J., and Michael L. Barnes, eds.
The Psychology of Love
. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1988. Print.

Yarber, William, Barbara Sayad, and Bryan Strong.
Human Sexuality: Diversity in Contemporary America
, 8th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2012. Print.

Jessie Carty

How do most people picture a writer? Perhaps as an eccentric old man with unkempt clothes and hair? Or a drunken young woman with black fingernails? These images have two primary things in common: abnormality and singularity. Those images, however, are not what I know of writers, most of whom are pretty “normal.” They are mothers, chefs, golfers. Most of them started out as avid readers who wanted to do what their idols—authors—did. Granted, my writing circle is an admittedly small and unscientific pool, but I cringe at the notion that writers automatically operate on the fringes of society.

As a writer (primarily as a poet) with introverted tendencies, I often work alone. Even as introverted as I am, however, I still work with other writers as first readers, editors, and collaborators. For example, I ran ideas for this essay by several different people before I even started to do my research. Then I had readers who could look through different versions before I sent it to the editor, who then had to work with the publisher to finalize everything. Of course this does not even touch on the number of times the piece had to go through revision. The ideas and words may start with me, but where do they go if I do not have anyone with whom to share them?

As I researched this essay I learned that, as with many television series, the
Farscape
writing staff had a very collaborative process which Ben Browder, Commander John Crichton to
Farscape
fans, joined during the third season of the show. Browder wrote two episodes for the series in which he starred: the Season Three episode “Green Eyed Monster” (3.8) and the Season Four episode “John Quixote” (4.7). Ben Browder describes writing a
Farscape
episode as such:

The story is broken [down] with all the other writers and then the script is subject to notes from all of the key staff. So you go through a process of writing, then rewrites and then more rewrites. It then goes through production, which says, “This and that can or can't be done,” for money or time reasons, meaning I have to go back and restructure an act or two. By the time you finish a
Farscape
script you've re-written every word at least three or four times. It's an exhausting and time-consuming process that our writers go through every day, every script, to make the episodes as good as they can be [Spelling].

Browder explains that he spent a lot of time in the writer's room between takes rather than spending time in his small trailer.
¹
I feel it is this small action that started Browder's journey towards the writing desk. Actors do provide feedback about their characters and the inner workings of the show,
²
but hanging out with the writers moved Browder from one layer of interaction, as an actor, to a second tier of collaboration as a writer.

Browder did not start writing his first episode of
Farscape
until filming began for the third season. After he received the story from the writing staff, Browder went through four or five outlines, often working in the early hours of the morning when his scenes were not being filmed, to flesh out his story with feedback from the other writers.
³
“Green Eyed Monster” opens with John Crichton in his room aboard Talyn, the hybrid offspring of the Leviathan spaceship Moya. Well, one version of Crichton is aboard Talyn. In episode six of Season Three, “Eat Me,” Crichton was “twinned” by a creature using cloning as a means of feeding itself.
⁴
Throughout Season Three we see the crew members separated and living on different ships—Moya or Talyn—as they continue to explore the Uncharted Territories looking for supplies, and perhaps a way home. Because of the twinning, even with the regular cast divided between the different ships, John Crichton's character is still able to appear in all 22 episodes of Season Three. As a matter of fact, he is the only character who does appear in all of the series' 88 episodes in addition to the final movie/mini-series.

In “Green Eyed Monster,” the audience's first glimpse of Crichton reminds one of the first time Crichton boarded Moya in the first episode (“Premiere” 1.1). After being transported across space in his experimental spacecraft
Farscape 1
, the first “aliens” he encounters are the DRDs, tiny robots that help maintain the living ship Moya. Crichton is initially frightened by the DRDs aboard Moya, but they become the first alien entities with which he can communicate successfully. Crichton's relationship with the DRDs aboard Talyn, however, is not as sunny. These DRDs are working to repair Talyn, but Crichton assumes that Crais, the first enemy he made in his new world, is purposefully sending the DRDs to bother him. Crichton allows his aggravations with Crais to surface and he blames his frustration on the DRDs' activity. However, it is not just the DRDs that are the cause of his frustration. Rather Crichton is jealous of Crais, for many reasons, but largely because Crichton is afraid that Aeryn will turn her affections to Crais, who is of the same species/race as Aeryn. He is not only a Peacekeeper, but a Sebacean as well, whereas Crichton is the only human being in this part of the universe.
⁵

When Crichton tries to confront Crais over the intercom about the DRDs and Winona (his weapon, which is also missing) he cannot reach the bridge. A failure to communicate arises frequently in this episode (and in the series as a whole). Crichton has to leave his quarters in order to confront Crais. It does not take long before Aeryn has to step in to separate the two. She tries to diffuse the situation by asking: “Talyn, you've seen them both naked. Perhaps you can tell us who's bigger.” Aeryn is the axis around which the three main male entities—Crichton, Crais, and Talyn—revolve in this episode. The only other prominent characters in this episode, in fact, are also male: Rygel and Stark. Testosterone, therefore, dominates the episode. (One could even argue that the budong the crew encounters is stereotypically male: only concerned with his survival and appetite.)

In the midst of the argument on the bridge, the crew realizes they are in danger of colliding with what they initially think is a moon. It is Crichton who realizes it is in fact a budong and not a moon. Talyn, who is still a young ship, does not react quickly enough to the threat and is swallowed. Crichton says: “Yo, Jonah! We have been swallowed, that is DOWN, and I for one do NOT want to be budong chow!” They do not want to be swallowed because they once encountered a budong: they know the insides of one can destroy Talyn and the people aboard him (“Home on the Remains” 2.7).

In a 17 June 2001 online interview Browder freely admitted pulling in the Jonah-in-the-whale motif:

There's nothing new in this universe, even in the Uncharted Territories, and I was vamping on a classic story. I love when we do that, whether it be a science-fiction standard or an old standard. And this is an old standard. This is biblical. I sort of swallowed that story and worked it into ours and got a chance to play on some relationships which I thought were interesting to explore [see note 3].

This is not the first mention of a biblical story, or in fact Jonah, in the series because Crichton explains to Aeryn in an episode early in the first season (“They've Got a Secret” 1.10) that the closest thing he can compare, from his world, to being inside Moya is the story of Jonah and the whale.