The Worlds of Farscape (24 page)

We learn very damaging information about Aeryn's past in the episode “The Way We Weren't” (2.5). It seems that Aeryn had been aboard Moya before, but did not recognize her. Her lover Velorek had been given the task of bonding Pilot to Moya. But first Moya's original pilot had to be killed, and Aeryn was one of the squad assigned to the task. When her lover tells her that he has a secret plan, something he is hiding from Crais, Aeryn seizes the opportunity for advancement. She tells Captain Crais, thereby achieving her goal—prowler pilot. Crichton and the rest of the crew are horrified to learn of Aeryn's role in the previous pilot's death and in her betrayal of her lover. In this episode we are reminded of what Aeryn once was juxtaposed against what she is becoming.
¹³
Indeed, this episode continues the developing history of each character in the series as each of the beings on Moya's alien crew throughout Seasons One and Two are forced to confront the horrible things that they did prior to their sojourn on Moya.

Season Three episodes allow us to see Aeryn maturing even further, although we never see her resolve the guilt she feels over Zhaan's death. When Zhaan revives Aeryn (“Season of Death” 3.1), Aeryn tells Crichton that she shouldn't be here, to which he replies, “This is exactly where you should be. I love you.” And, even though she has never had a relationship that did not “end badly” (“The Way We Weren't,” 2.5), she finally tells him that she loves him too. During Season Three Crichton is twinned (“Eat Me” 3.6) with one Crichton
¹⁴
finally developing a sexual relationship with Aeryn that is truly built on equality and trust (probably a first on TV, with the possible exceptions of Sheridan and Delenn on
Babylon 5
and Mulder and Scully on
The X-Files
). Unfortunately for her, Crichton-Black dies and she must confront another relationship that ends badly. Crichton-Green has the job of winning her all over again and the season ends with her leaving for good, but neglecting to tell Crichton that she is pregnant (albeit by the twin).

In one interview with Claudia Black by Joe Nazzaro
¹⁵
the actor expressed delight over the ways in which Aeryn evolved over the course of the first three seasons of
Farscape
. “The first season was mostly establishing Aeryn as an action character, and since then, she's developed into someone who's crossed the line from being what we would think of as alien, to someone who's a lot more human. So it's opening up for me.” During the third season we finally see the sexual relationship between Crichton-Black and Aeryn consummated. But we also saw Crichton-Black die in her arms (“Infinite Possibilities Part II: Icarus Abides” 3.15), her slow descent and return from the madness of grief (“The Choice” 3.17), and her decision to follow Crichton-Green in his quest to stop Scorpius once and for all (“Fractures” 3.18). Aeryn has come a long way from her Peacekeeper upbringing, but she has not lost the skills that made her a successful soldier. Those skills were certainly needed in the trials ahead.

As for Claudia Black's opinions about Aeryn Sun, they were decidedly mixed. At the 2001 Farscape Convention in California, Black had this to say about Aeryn:

It's a privilege to be cast in strong female roles. I think [Aeryn] is actually damaged goods, so I reserve judgment as to whether she's a positive role model. She does make herself available to loss and pain, so I think she's a better role model now.
¹⁶

What Black apparently does not realize is, that is precisely why Aeryn is so positive. As we have seen, Aeryn has acted in ways that we would think horrific. Yet she has overcome those actions, in effect repented of them, and created something new, beyond what she was. She is still not completely healed; this is evident in the way that she cannot accept Crichton's love. At the end of Season Three, Crichton-Green asks her if she loves John Crichton, to forget that there were two and one died. Her answer is yes; however, she is still not ready to commit to the one that remains.

In some respects Season Four was not a good season for Aeryn. When she returns to Moya following a very long absence, she is with Scorpius (“Promises” 4.5). She tells Crichton that Scorpius saved her life and makes Crichton promise not to hurt Scorpius. Crichton agrees, but is puzzled and angered at Aeryn's actions. Why should she trust Scorpius, he wonders, when she will not trust the man who loves her? We learn of some of Aeryn's actions while she was separated from Crichton, and they were not pretty. She had worked as an assassin, contracting an almost fatal disease because of her actions (“Promises” 4.5). The Aeryn who returns has changed in many ways: she is certainly leaner, indicating a harsh existence away from Moya. She is also more confused than ever about her relationship with Crichton. It is true that Aeryn's feelings for Crichton have changed over the course of three years. She once only felt contempt for him, gradually developing a sexual awareness of him and recognizing his beauty, until finally falling in love with him (see, for example, “PK Tech Girl” (1.7), “The Flax” (1.13), “A Human Reaction” (1.16), “The Locket” (2.16), “The Green Eyed Monster” (3.8)). But her breeding continually gets in the way: she has been taught not to trust anyone, especially a non–Peacekeeper. As Lavigne notes, the Aeryn of Season Four is less a partner with Crichton than one of his followers; she is more or less at his mercy, although thankfully her guns are never far away, except when she has been captured by their enemies, which happens quite a bit in this season. That did not make me very happy, since it made her a helpless victim, one that Crichton had to rescue. Nevertheless, even during her intense torture at the hands of the Scarrans, she did not give up or give in. Her training allowed her to withstand the torture and her love for Crichton gave her hope that he would find a way to rescue her, and he did.

One other negative point about Aeryn's portrayal in Season Four concerns her makeup. When she returns to Moya after months away, she is much leaner than when she left; this is very evident in her face. Her hair is extremely long, the make-up artist's way of indicating exactly how long she was gone. However, throughout Season Four she wore much more make-up, and more obvious make-up, than in the previous three seasons—iridescent eye shadow and pink lip-gloss, for example. I do not know why they sexed her up like that and I did not like it very much. However, considering the ways that she acted during this season, harder and willing to do anything to protect Crichton and his wormhole knowledge, it might have been a simple ploy by the producers to show the dichotomy in her character. She is a woman. Her torture released her fetus from stasis and she will soon be a mother. But she is still a soldier and will protect her lover, her friends, and her way of life from conquest by the Scarrans.

Farscape
contained one of the most eclectic, exciting, and extraordinary groups of women ever depicted on a science fiction television series: women who were good and bad, positive and negative, and living on their own terms. Chiana was sexually promiscuous, young and playful, afraid but devious, unscrupulous and untrustworthy, yet quite resourceful and resilient. She eventually learned to trust the others, but she did not lose the essence of what made her so infuriating to the rest of the crew. Zhaan was sensual and spiritual, a healer with a restrained violence that she constantly battled and mourned, aware that all beings are a combination of bipolar attributes that must be blended for completion. Jool and Sikozu found that, when removed from the comfort and safety of their scholarly existences, they had much to contribute to the future. Not every decision either made was positive; nevertheless, each made her choice of her future space, and the rest of Moya's crew respected her right to make those decisions. Noranti continued to explore her spirituality and she and Chi became quite good buddies—Noranti's view of herself as an 18-year-old girl probably helped that relationship immensely.

Aeryn was hardened and battle-scarred, once lonely and afraid of relationships beyond her own combat unit. She overcame her earlier socialization to embrace parts of herself that she never realized existed, and indeed would have deemed unacceptable in a Peacekeeper commando. Aeryn grew beyond her Peacekeeper training and heritage, she too embraced a future that she never considered possible. From the woman who was born in space and planned to die alone in space (“Nerve” 1.19), she was challenged by her contact with Moya's crew to be more than she was, just as Crichton said. While some may not like the way that Aeryn's story evolved with Crichton's, that was the plan from the very beginning of the program, as soon as the producers saw the chemistry between Claudia Black and Ben Browder.
Farscape
was always a love story; Kemper never denied it, as did Chris Carter about Mulder and Scully. Since I am a heterosexual woman in a long-term egalitarian relationship, I am happy whenever I see any type of positive relationship presented on film. It happens so seldom. So I went along on
Farscape
for the wild ride and enjoyed all four cycles of the roller coaster.

Portions of this essay were originally published in my monograph,
Our Space, Our Place: Women in the Worlds of Science Fiction Television
(Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 2005). Used with permission.

1.
Mary Wollstonecraft, author of
A Vindication of the Rights of Women
(1792).

2.
I agree with Jung when he noted the spiritual distress of the general public and their tendency to look to the paranormal and the extraordinary to give meaning to their lives. He was writing this at a time when it appeared as if science and psychology had rendered all things normal. I would add known as well. While SF may be fantastic, certain elements of it have found their way into the consciousness of contemporary society, most notably UFOs and alien visitors, but also consider the popularity of vampires and zombies.

3.
Sargent is also a critic of male-dominated SF. She has written extensively on the problem. Furthermore, she has collected much short fiction by women authors in several well-edited volumes and has written her own fiction too.

4.
The panel I attended convened Saturday afternoon. Guests were Virginia Hey (Zhaan), Gigi Edgley (Chiana), and Rebecca Riggs (Grayza). See comments in my essay on love and sex in this collection.

5.
Farscape: The Official Magazine
, number 2 (Sept./Oct. 2001), interview with David Bassom, who quotes series creator Rockne S. O'Bannon's take on Jool's character, which is to basically give her a chance. Part of the negative reaction to Jool was that her character is “somewhat ineffective.... Because we're very proud of having such strong women on the show—all three of the regular female cast [Aeryn, Zhaan, and Chiana] have always been, in their own ways, very strong.”

6.
“Who's Jool?”
Farscape: The Official Magazine
, number 3 (Nov./Dec. 2001): 46.

7.
J. Sullivan, “Hill Power,”
Sci-Fi, The Official Magazine of the Sci-Fi Channel
8.4 (2002): 46–49.

8.
Paul Simpson and Ruth Thomas, “Chi Force,”
Farscape: The Official Magazine
(Jan./Feb. 2002): 15–18.

9.
Paul Simpson and Ruth Thomas. “The Aurora Chair” (interview with Virginia Hey).
Farscape: The Official Magazine
, (Jan./Feb. 2002): 20—24. Many people refer to Zhaan as a priestess because they believe that is the correct form of the noun, indicating the feminine case. However, Zhaan refers to herself as a Priest, for example in the episode “Look at the Princess, Part II: I Do, I Think” (2.11).

10.
See Ginn,
Our Space, Our Place
. SciFi Channel has apparently pulled their
Farscape
files from the web.

11.
G. Cox, “Samsara,”
Farscape: The Official Magazine
(Nov./Dec. 2001): 49–54. This short story explored one (rather unusual) future of Aeryn Sun, written before the series was canceled and O'Bannon wrote the story on Crichton and Aeryn's future (see Works Cited). The graphic novel series published following the series' demise provides great plots about just how special Aeryn actually is and I do recommend them (see Appendix C for specific titles).

12.
Interview with David Kemper,
Farscape: The Official Magazine
, number 2 (Sept./Oct. 2001).

13.
K. S. Hayes, “More Than a Peacekeeper,”
Farscape: The Official Magazine
, number 6 (May/June 2002): 15—17.

14.
To distinguish between the two Crichtons, Aeryn makes one wear a green shirt and the other black beginning in “Thanks for Sharing” (3.7).

15.
Joe Nazzaro, “The Aurora Chair” (interview with Claudia Black).
Farscape: The Official Magazine
, number 6 (May/June 2002): 10—14.

16.
“Fanscape,”
Farscape: The Official Magazine
(Jan./Feb. 2002): 9—11.

17.
Farscape: The Official Magazine
. This magazine ceased publication in 2003. It published a number of articles on the women of
Farscape
, including an article by Executive Producer David Kemper entitled “Ladies Rule!!!” (No. 4, Jan./Feb. 2002) that discussed the roles women played in the series, both on and behind the screen.

Aldiss, Brian W.
Billion Year Spree: The True History of Science Fiction
. New York: Schocken, 1974. Print.

Alexander, David.
Star Trek Creator: The Authorized Biography of Gene Roddenberry.
New York: ROC, 1994. Print.

Bainbridge, William S. “Women in Science Fiction.”
Sex Roles
8 (1982): 1081–1093. Print.

Barr, Marleen.
Alien to Femininity: Speculative Fiction and Feminist Theory
. New York: Greenwood Press, 1987. Print.