A Snurcher's Guide to Farscape


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Production No. 103

Best Viewed As 1.3

Aired As
1.2 (US)
1.5 (UK)

Original Airdates
26 Mar 1999 (US)
10 Jan 2000 (UK)

Ratings
1.3 (US)
2.70 (UK)

Exodus from Genesis
Abbreviations: EFG
Alternate Titles: (none)

Wassup? · Backstory · Reactions · Annotations · Microbes · Quotes · Cast & Crew


Writer: Ro Hume
Director: Brian Henson
Guests:
Damian de Montemas.........Melkor
Jodie Dry..................Kyona
Geoff Barker...............PK Commando #3 (uncredited)
Chenoeh Miller.............PK Commando #4 (uncredited)
Tai Scrivener..............PK Commando #5 (uncredited)
Complete Credits


Wassup?

Some like it hot...

The crew does their best to dodge a Peacekeeper Marauder, while playing unwitting incubator to a galactic insectoid species. Ever open-minded, our heroes are willing to host the colony's queen while she spawns. There are just two little problems: the queen sets Moya's thermostat to a level that may well destroy Aeryn, and that Marauder isn't leaving the area anytime soon.

Synopses

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Backstory

Instead of toothbrushes, the crew uses dentics, a grub-like organism, to manage their oral hygiene.

Sebaceans lack the gland necessary to regulate extreme thermal increases. John's comment about them being cold-blooded is funny, but inaccurate -- their metabolism is not dependent on an external heat source, but rather is unable to tolerate thermal extremes. According to Aeryn, Sebacean Heat Delirium begins with an impairment of short-term memory and motor function, followed by long-term memory failure and a state known as the Living Death (the personality dies, but the body lives on). This is the only time Sebacean kills their own, for mercy. D'Argo says he has seen Peacekeepers so afflicted beg for their own death.

John got beaten up in the seventh grade by Eddie Marx, because he fought fair (and evidently Eddie didn't).

The Drak live in space, requiring heat only to spawn their young.

John attended JFK High School.

Moya has a Terrace, a small deck area on her external hull, whose atmosphere is apparently protected by some sort of force field, providing the crew with a "back porch", and an unobstructed view of the stars.


Reactions

Questions

  1. Who provides the voice of Monarch (the queen Drak)? Is it an electronically altered Virginia Hey, or a voiceover by another actor?
  2. The crew presumably cannot put Aeryn into a transport pod and remove her from Moya's overheated environment, because the Draks have blocked the access points. But if this is the case, how do the Peacekeepers gain access from the Docking Pad to Command?
  3. What's up with the paint/tatoos on the Marauder's commando crew? We haven't seen Peacekeepers so decorated at any other point in the series. What is the image on their bare shoulders? (Is it a Marauder sillouette?)

Observations

  1. John makes a nice transition in this episode, from feeling like a derided outcast at the beginning, to having begun to prove his mettle to D'Argo and Aeryn at the end.

Bloopers (none)

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Annotations

The title is, of course, a play on the titles of the first two books of the Old Testament.

John: [after using the dentic] "It's kinda minty."

A reference to various American television commercials for toothpaste, which promised to leave users with minty fresh breath.

John: "How fast can they go?"
Aeryn: "Hetch seven.
John: "Hetch seven? [That] thing's a Hyundai -- why don't we stop playing hide and seek and just smoke 'em?

Hyundai is a Korean manufacturer of economy automobiles, which are marketed in the United States. Whatever their product's actual quality may be, they have frequently been the target of derisive humor.

John: "D'Argo, the giant ouija board says, uh...optimum plus 3."

Ouija boards have been available since 1890, and are used as either (depending on your viewpoint) a parlor game or a method of communicating with the spirit world. John may have chosen the term in this case because Moya's controls still seem somewhat mysterious to him.

John: "Oh, I am trying, but you know, with Aeryn and D'Argo, it's like everything's a test. It's like I'm in some never ending frat hazing at Alien U."
Zhaan: "Frat...hazing?"
John: "Next planet, I'll rent you a copy of ANIMAL HOUSE."

John Landis's ANIMAL HOUSE, the ultimate frat movie.

(The part of the above quote following "everything's a test" appears only in the longer version of the episode available on DVD/VHS.)


Translator Microbe Report

Command Moya's bridge area, where control functions not restricted to Pilot are centered
Marauder Peacekeeper combat transport ship; carries a crew of five commandos and can reach speeds of hetch seven
Advance Pattern Decca attack plan of Marauder commandoes
Aggregate collectively, the Drak replicants
Bellian Yard Rat a rodent with a high rate of reproduction: "spitting out replicants like a Bellian yard rat"
Congelation Coils a portion of Moya's environmental controls, used to control heat
Consumables Refrigeration Unit Leviathan equivalent of a fridge
Cray-spun Shimmer Weave luxurious fabric of which Rygel would like new clothes
Dentic a grub-like, non-edible organism used for oral hygiene in place of a toothbrush
Draks interstellar insectoid hive species with telepathic and chameleon-like capabilities; requires heated environment for reproduction cycle
Fa-pu-ta exclamatory remark, probably vulgar
Fopooter derogatory name: "Some fopooter is going to pay for this!"
Genesis the Drak spawning process
Heat Delirium an adverse reaction to extreme heat in Sebaceans, culminating in the Living Death
Ion Backwash Chamber location on Moya, consisting of a large room with four access points, on Tier 7
Living Death irreversible heat-induced coma in Sebaceans, in which higher nerve functions are destroyed but the body survives
Optimum Plus/Minus measure of temperature (Leviathan); optimum plus three feels hot to Aeryn, while D'Argo says it's a mild Winter morning for Luxans
Prism Laser Saw cutting tool
Spirit Painting something Delvians do for recreation
Squag an extremely hot location or substance: "hotter than squag"
Terrace, the external observation deck on Moya with a protected (habitable) environment, visually exposed to space
Trinkas Bath Rygel takes a three-hour one of these to clean himself of the Draks' blue excretions
Yotz expletive analogous to hell: "What the yotz was that?"


Quotables

"No, no, no, no, absolutely not, just get out of my face!"
"Don't be a coward! You say you want to clean your teeth!"
"Brush them! I want to BRUSH my teeth!"
"But to manually clean your teeth as you describe is highly inefficient."
"That's too damn bad, you're not sticking that freakin' maggot in my..."
[D'Argo shoves the dentic in John's mouth]
"What's it doing?"
"Cleaning all the excess bacteria, and food particles."
[John starts to swallow]
"NEVER swallow a dentic!"
- John Crichton, D'Argo

"It's kinda minty..." - John Crichton

"It's a Marauder. Five-man crew. Highest level of training. Success measured by body count." - Aeryn Sun

"How fast can they go?"
"Hetch seven."
"Hetch seven? [That] thing's a Hyundai -- why don't we stop playing hide and seek and just smoke 'em?"
- John Crichton, Aeryn Sun

"D'Argo's right."
"Well of course he is, Ms Sun, he's been here longer."
- Aeryn Sun, John Crichton

"I'm sure your world has no force so ruthless, so disciplined."
"Oh, we call them linebackers...or serial killers; depends on whether they're professional or amateur."
- Aeryn Sun, John Crichton

"Look, you're not in this alone. Everybody on board has had their lives derailed from what they thought they were gonna be. Should be. We're stuck together. And as as long as we are, we might as well be..."
"What? Family? Friends? I want neither."
"Somebody's got to be there when you need it."
"No offense, Human, but what can I possible need from you?"
"Well, I dunno...manners...personality...stock tips..."
- John Crichton, Aeryn Sun

"The others treat me like some kind of Earth idiot." - John Crichton

"Wait, Crais and those other bastards chasing us are cold-blooded, literally?"
"It's a weakness not enough of them die from."
- John Crichton, D'Argo

"It is strange to be so close to a Peacekeeper I do not fear... That is a compliment." - Pilot

"Before the Living Death takes hold, you have to be prepared to kill me. Promise."
"No, not a chance."
"You said I'm not alone. A friend would do this for me. Family would do it swiftly."
- Aeryn Sun, John Crichton

"It's just you and me."
"Actually, it is just me...and you."
- John Crichton, D'Argo

"You ever have one of those days, when life just ain't what you thought it was gonna be?"
"I killed you."
"I'm still here."
- John Crichton, Melkor

"You know, I always thought that lesser life forms were useless, just something to be squashed."
"Yeah, it's humbling when you realize that...[realization dawns]...you're not talking about the Draks, are you? ...Fine. Well, on behalf of lesser lifeforms everywhere, I accept the...compliment."
"Could you have kept your promise?"
- Aeryn Sun, John Crichton


Comments from Cast & Crew

Ben Browder, May 11, 1999

  • Moderator: <nolram> to <Moderator> Did you really put that dentik in you mouth and is "John Crichton" planning on putting any other strange objects in his?

    BenBrowder: yes I put the dentik in my mouth....but... I did not swallow....John never planned to put the dentik in his mouth anyway

David Kemper (& Ben Browder), September 23, 1999

  • Moderator: <Dalequan> to <Moderator> Why can't you swallow a dentic?

    DavidKemper: Not so funny, actually. You will learn more about this next season, however, think of a scorpian with a poisonous tail.

David Kemper, January 27, 2000

  • Moderator: <AMuse> : Forgive my assumption, but most people who work on Farscape are not Americans? Do cultural things sometimes hit a rock in the road, a joke that doesn't translate well, because of diff's between Yanks and Aussies?

    DK: Very astute. Very, very astute.
    DK: In the beginning, there was just Rock, myself, Ricky Manning, and the best Brit in the world,
    DK: Pete Coogan.
    DK: We were working on Ep. 3 of the first season, "Exodus from Genesis."
    DK: We delivered the script. The lead Drak was called "The Sultana." A fancy name
    DK: for Queen (actually, the female of "Sultan"). Anyway, we were notified that in Oz,
    DK: "sultanas" are RAISINS. Like, in "Sultana Bran" cereal. For real.
    DK: So we changed the title.
    DK: In final answer to your Q: The other -- and arguably most important Yank in terms of interpreting
    DK: the work onto thw screen, and then to you -- Ben... what's his last name?
    DK: Browder! I think, Browder.
    DK: Anyway, Ben led us all into "being Australian." He adapted first, and we all
    DK: followed. Now -- there's almost no friction or mistakes, because everyone on the show
    DK: has bonded as a family, and we work quite well together.
    DK: A brief pause to thank Producer Sue Milliken and Line Producer Tony Winley (names you should
    DK: know!), for the generous atmosphere that allows everyone's best work to come forward.

Dominar Rygel XVI, February 17, 2000

  • Moderator: <PhantomComputer> to <Moderator>: Rygel, How did you receive your diplomatic skills? Were you trained or does it come naturally to you?

    Rygel: trained by my father
    Rygel: after a great many cycles
    Rygel: he challenged me to a test to see if i had learned well
    Rygel: he was very surprised to be thrown into prison

Farscape Wrap Day Extravaganza, July 26, 2001

  • Moderator: <Jayce66> to <Moderator>: 'Lo, Tim! What is the status of Moya's "Terrace" from "Exodus from Genesis"? Will we ever see it again in the series?

    TimFerrier: That set was very difficult to shoot, therefore it's unlikely we'll see it again.