Farscape: Back And Back And Back to the Future

My Farscape rewatch continues (after a bit of a break through December) with "Back And Back And Back to the Future." The fifth episode produced, this is the first one filmed in the "American style" as opposed to the "Australian style" for series, in that all the production effort focused on the single episode as opposed to the filming of two simultaneously. I'm not certain there is any difference apparent to the casual viewer, but to me,it seems as if character development takes a strong step up to the forefront of the show.

The episode opens, as they often do, with an alien space craft disintegrating amidst a strange green cloud. The crew of Moya rescue two survivors in a shuttle--Ilanics, a race that is a genetic offshoot of Luxans. D'Argo immediately feels kinship to them, and pledges to help the elderly male, Verell, and his female companion, Matala. Crichton, checking the shuttle for any other survivors, gets zapped by strange green glowing energy and begins to experience strange time-loops, like deja vu set to stutter. D'Argo is hot to trot for Matala, not having enjoyed female companionship for many years, and gets all esprit de corps when he learns the Ilanics and Luxans are at war with an invading race known as Scorvians. Crichton's flash-forwards grow progressively more disturbing, starting with Matala sexually assaulting him and culminating with her killing pretty much everyone on board Moya, Crichton included. His attempt to discuss the situation with D'Argo only generates hostility and jealousy from the Luxan, while Zhaan and Aeryn are skeptical. Aeryn, though, doesn't like Matala and invites her to a "friendly" martial arts sparring match. Aeryn essentially kicks Matala's butt, to the point Matala responds with a scorpion-like hand-strike that leaves Aeryn paralyzed in the workout room. When Aeryn recovers, she finds Crichton and Zhaan in conversation--one Crichton experiences over and over. Aeryn reveals Matala is a Scorvian in disguise, exposed by her distinctive hand-strike. Crichton finally convinces them of the accuracy of his future flashes by finishing their sentences before them and generally predicting everything that happens moments before it does. They uncover that Verell is a weapons expert, and has harnessed a singularity to use as a weapon against the Scorvians--and Matala is a Scorvian spy intent on stealing it.

Most future courses of action result in the deaths of Moya's crew, or even the destruction of Moya by the captive black hole weapon aboard the shuttle. As a Scorvian ship approaches to collect the weapon, Crichton has a flash-forward in which he overhears D'Argo telling Matala he has not revealed to his companions on Moya the true crime for what he was initially imprisoned by the Peacekeepers for. Once back in the present, Crichton confronts D'Argo with this information--which D'Argo has revealed to nobody at this point--proving his time-jump story. Reluctantly, D'Argo joins Crichton in confronting Matala, who stabs Verell and flees D'Argo and Crichton. She gets into the shuttle and flees to the approaching Scorvian ship, but Verell, in his last, dying act, remotely triggers the singularity which consumes both the shuttle and Scorvian ship. Moya escapes via starburst.

Commentary: This is an interesting episode in many ways. As I mentioned above, character takes center stage more than it has in previous episodes. D'Argo, apart from the arrogant bluster, is shown as vulnerable and isolated. His character deepens considerably, although his true crime is not revealed. The fact that he has a secret burden is fascinating. He also develops an unwilling bond with Crichton, since Crichton was astute enough not to "out" D'Argo's secret with any other crew around to witness, thus preserving a portion of D'Argo's private dignity. The appearance of the Ilanics further defines the broad universe of Farscape, laying out alliances and a sprawling interrelated universe of widely- and closely-related species. And while the Moya crew is just as dysfunctional as ever, the classic Jim Henson theme of "family is what you make it" shows up pretty overtly here for the first time. D'Argo is quick to abandon, or at least sideline, his crewmates on Moya for a race that is historically and genetically closely allied with his own. But this alliance of blood turns on him and leaves him vulnerable--it is the uneasy friendships he has forged on Moya (namely Crichton, but also Zhaan and Aeryn) who really have his back when the chips fall. Also, Crichton unambiguously takes command of the situation for the first time.

Quote of the Episode:: D'Argo: "Crichton, I am normally unaffected by females during a crisis... it is just... it has been so long..."
Crichton: "Now that, I understand. Man, do I understand."

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Friday Night Videos: Chicken Ranch edition

Last week I reported that Larry L. King had passed away, the legendary Texas writer who penned the Playboy article that later became the Broadway hit, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas. In one of those sad cosmic coincidences, Charles Durning, who portrayed the sidestepping Texas governor in the film version of the Broadway musical, died this past week at the age of 89.

Durning's career is too vast and varied to go into here, and his life outside of acting is fascinating, indeed. But in getting back to The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, I feel compelled to point out that Durning, performing the scathingly funny political satire "The Sidestep" in the august halls of the state capitol building, provided one of the few bright moments in an otherwise disappointing film. For anyone who has seen the live play, the reason is obvious--"The Sidestep" is one of the few elements of the musical that the filmmakers didn't dramatically alter in some fashion. Apart from the changing locations and special effects, what you see on the screen is pretty close to what you'd see on stage. That's pretty telling.

And yes, I like to think that somewhere, Durning is giving Dolph Briscoe pointers on a few dance moves while Larry King and Edna Milton watch with amusement.

Previously on Friday Night Videos... Eartha Kitt.

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Chicken Ranch report no. 31

This post is coming several days late, but the kids are out of school for the holidays and I'm riding herd on a bunch of things. Not least of which is a two-day cleanout of my office, during which most of the time I couldn't reach my computer. That's my excuse.

Larry L. King has died. The Washington Post, as always, has a well-done obituary up. Matt Schudel, the author of the piece, is the same journalist who wrote up Miss Edna when she passed away in February--the same fellow I spent several hours on the phone with, exchanging many emails on the topic. This is fitting, as King called the D.C. area home for pretty much the past 40 years even though he's always been the iconic Texas writer.

If it weren't for Larry L. King, it's doubtful I'd have written my Chicken Ranch book at all. Hell, it's likely nobody would remember the Chicken Ranch today, other than old timers and Aggies. Back in those dusty August days of 1973 in the aftermath of Marvin Zindler's closure of the La Grange brothel, King came down to Texas to do a little hell-raising in Austin and pounded out a quick article for Playboy with the fanciful title of "The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas." Fast forward a couple of years, when actor/director Pete Masterson and songwriter Carol Hall decided the "Whorehouse" article would make a good basis for a musical comedy, and brought King on board. Despite clashing egos and visions, the unlikely play picked up steam and became a Broadway hit, earning a couple of Tony Awards before spawning a somewhat bastardized movie starring Burt Reynolds and Dolly Parton.

The upshot is that everyone knows about the Chicken Ranch these days, even if nobody knows what actually happened for true in La Grange back in 1973.

Sadly, I never got to interview King for my book. This wasn't for lack of trying. He's one of the first people I approached on the subject, and before all was said and done, I'd probably mailed a dozen letters to him (I had his phone number, but chose not to intrude on him so directly). King, you see, had been in failing health for a number of years, and spent part of 2007 in a coma after one particularly nasty illness. The good folks at the Wittliff Collection at Texas State (which archives King's papers) were great help to me, and gave me access to his relevant letters and writings. Also, King's book on the play and history surrounding it, The Whorehouse Papers, proved invaluable. I eventually talked with his collaborators, Pete Masterson and Carol Hall, but never King himself.

It's a pity. I'm certain King would've given me some of the great quotes for which he's notorious. Once King, Masterson and the rest of the creative talents behind the Broadway hit were forced out of the film production, King unloaded during an interview with Maxine Cheshire for the Washington Post:

“I think Burt Reynolds wants to make Smokey and the Bandit Go to a Whorehouse," groused King. "Apparently, they don't intend to follow our script at all and Dolly's said to be writing her own songs. I see only a tenuous connection between Whorehouse as we did it and the mess they're concocting in Hollywood. I doubt whether I'll even go to see the film version of the son of a bitch, though I may send my lawyer so she can take my name off if it's as bad as its potential."

"Will Dolly wear her outlandish wigs?" Maxine asked.

"I suppose she will," said King, "and probably Burt will wear his, too. I understand they're both bald.”

For the record, King was not invited to the movie's red-carpet premiere. Big surprise that, eh?

As for me, there is little to report on the book front. The current publisher has informed me that they remain interested, but (there's always that "but," isn't there?) they are not willing to make me an offer now. They might in the future, or they might not. They're not rejecting my book, they're just putting me in limbo. Which is not my ideal situation going into the new year, now, is it? The good news, if you can call it that, is that they've told me I can shop the book around while they dither. Since Random House and every other big publisher these days don't accept unagented submissions, it's back to the agent-go-round for me. I wasted a significant portion of 2011 shopping the book around to pretty much every competent non-fiction agent out there with nothing to show for it. It is baffling to me how hard a sell this book has proven--nobody seems to recognize the interest in the Chicken Ranch that exists. I certainly know, because I see the traffic on my stat counter and get the random emails and comments on my blog. But August 2013 is going to roll around and every newspaper and TV station in the state is going to run stories on Marvin Zindler and the closing of the Chicken Ranch, and a golden opportunity for promotion will come and go, unexploited. Heck, put me in the MSC bookstore at Texas A&M on a football Saturday, and I guarantee I could move 500 copies of the book on the spot. Seriously.

This is a book that will sell itself, and never go out of print. If I can just convince someone to publish the damn thing in the first place.

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Friday Night Videos

Here's the late, great, Eartha Kitt with her signature holiday staple, "Santa Baby". I couldn't find an original-era performance of this song, but she still rocks it pretty hard in her golden years. Besides, when she intros it with "I used to have a lot of fun with this song... then Madonna sang it," how can you not love her?

Previously on Friday Night Videos... The Kinks.

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Friday Night Videos

I maintain that the Kinks' "Father Christmas" is one of the best holiday songs ever. Certainly tops in the rock era. So here are Ray, Dave and the rest of the boys performing on a German television show for your entertainment. Poor Mick. I wonder what kind of bet he lost to have to wear the Santa suit?

Previously on Friday Night Videos... The Beach Boys.

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365 / 40: Sting

So, remember how I mentioned in yesterday's photo that I'm a huge fan of passion flowers/passion vines/passion fruit? Well, one aspect of growing passiflora is the fact that several species of butterfly lay their eggs on it, and their larvae eat the passion vines as their only food source. Passiflora generate a natural form of cyanide in their foliage as a protection against being eaten, but these caterpillars have evolved to absorb that poison and use it as a defense mechanism to prevent them from being eaten. They've got little black spines all over their orange bodies to drive the point home. Normally, they're harmless. Just brushing or touching one isn't harmful (unlike bushing an asp/puss caterpillar, which is excruciating). However, if you happen to bump into a fritillary caterpillar with any force, and those spines are actually jammed into the skin, well, the effect is not pleasant. This is my leg today, after an encounter with a caterpillar two days ago. You can still make out the puncture marks where the individual spines impaled me. So let me serve as a lesson to you: Don't try this at home!

Camera: Canon 7D
Lens: Canon EF 100mm 2.8 macro

Lisa On Location Photography

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365 / 39: Late-Season Passion

Yesterday, after sorting through the issues surrounding my eldest daughter beating up a misogynistic boy (see previous 365 post by Lisa) I went outside to bring in several passion flower vines. Passion flowers are something of a hobby of mine, and most around the Blaschke house are native or hardy species that live in-ground throughout the year. But I have several that are cold-sensitive. Two are passiflora edulis the tropical species grown commercially that passion fruit juice and fresh passion fruit come from. They'd grown up into a large pomegranate bush on the side of our house, and I had to prune the passis back to get them untangled. As I was doing this, the big, green fruit in the image below dropped to the ground. A nice, fat, passion fruit. I hadn't realized any of the sparse flowers that bloomed this year were pollinated. It's a shame, because given a few more weeks, this one would turn deep purple and be delicious. As it is, the fruit is unripe and actually poisonous. Then, I happened by the pecan tree in our front yard, where another passion vine grows. This one, "Incense," is a hybrid that stays out all year. Despite several attempts to hand-pollinate it over the years, the few fruit it's produced have been uniformly hollow and small. But I found this small yellow fruit lying on the grass, and it felt unusually heavy. I tore it open to find it full of seeds. I figure the Edulis provided the pollen, rather than one of the other species (as they haven't flowered much this fall). I'll pot the seeds to see if any interesting hybrids sprout.

Late-season passion fruit are something of a tease. Next year, though, I expect them to produce fruit all summer long.

Camera: Canon 5D mark III
Lens: Canon EF 24-70mm 2.8 L

Lisa On Location Photography

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