Was anyone else dissapointed by "Crichton Kicks"?

[HumanReaction]

I know that it was Kemper's intention to confuse us, and to leave us in the dark, but I found it extremely hard to follow everything in "Crichton Kicks".
Firstly, they still have those weird fadeouts that first popped up in "Dog With Two Bones". These happened after the hound took a chunk out of Crichton's leg (what happened to the thing after that? Did Sikozu chase it off?) and after it took Sikozu's hand (why didn't it kill her afterwards? She screamed loud enough for it to hear her). I don't like the fadeouts, and they were one of the things that made me suspect that nothing that was happening was real. I'm not sure that I like this turn in direction that Farscape is taking, but that's minor.
Really, I expected more from "Crichton Kicks". Once again, I watched a season opener that seemed rushed and jam-packed with too much stuff for its own good (as was the case with Premiere, Mind the Baby and Season of Death)... except that not that much was happening in "Crichton Kicks". I didn't really like it, which was sad, becuase I had gone to the trouble of avoiding all spoilers and such beforehand.
-HR

[Cattivo]

I agree that is was hard to follow at times. It's going to take a few watchings on tape before I fully understand everything that happened, or reading internet episode guides because I can't rewatch it until wednesday. I felt the same way regarding your point mentioned in the other thread about not having a clue about how Chiana didn't get shot. That scene was totally confusing. However, it was still a good episode. I enjoyed much of it, laughing at many humorous scenes. My main complaint is that it should have been better as a season premiere. While it succeeded in some points as a premiere, others gave me an empty feeling, even though I still liked the episode.

[PilotLite]

Hate to disagree, but Chrichton Kicks was awesome in my book.

I was picking up things on the 3rd viewing that weren't obvious in the first, but that's one thing I like in an ep.

As far as the fadeouts go -- I remember something similar at the end of the S1 episode "A Human Reaction", and we know what happened with that (or maybe not all of us do -- I won't spoil it here .) But, not showing us everything gives the writers more opportunities to slip things by us that turn out to be important later. I don't really think that's what's happening in CK, but if they only used the fadeouts when they were trying to slip something by us, then it would be too obvious, wouldn't it?

I can see, though, that if you don't like that sort of thing, why this ep would be disappointing.

-PilotLite

[Tetsuo]

I can say that i loved it. Would rate it 8 or 8.5 out of 10. Maybe more, maybe less, will have to see it a couple times again until a final decision.

My fears of a possible reset didn't come true, thanks TPTB for that one. Lets just wait to see how the "pregnancy" side-plot (or main plot?) wraps up. I still believe that it's not true at all, and that it were some kind of Harvey trick too keep John focused and alive. But i dont know if he, Harvey, has the powers for that kind of thing. So, it may be true after all.

About the "beach" scenes, i got no problem at all with them. I think that John made all that up so that he wouldn't go crazy for real (and I can't tell how close he is from that). It was like a secret-hideout. The place where he could try sort things out between him and "his-Aeryn" (the same one from his Earth dreams in DWTB). It's nice to see that FS still trying to not forget its past ("what's done is done, and can't be undone" to quote Zhaan/Aeryn). Also, i think it was another John's "one thing that kept him alive" and "Hope, is all that i got" (to quote two of his lines) kind of thoughts.

When he could be with some of his friends again, he probably didn't need that anymore. He had other things to think about, other people to talk to, to worry about, ...

One thing that i liked a lot, but also made it a lot harder for the understanding, was the amount of Johns "human non-sense". I guess that i haven't seen so much in the same episode since CDM. If it keeps up that way, i think that the "Translator Microbes" will have to get an update, because nobody will understand a word that he says.

Other than that, i missed Aeryn, Dargo, Moya, Pilot and Jool a lot. Don't know what will happen to them, and am worried about who will still be a regular, and who will not (considering the opening, Jool is the only one that *seems* to be gone, at least for now). Sorry Stark, but i'm not gonna miss you that much. I knew Scorpius would still be there, more than any other character.

Ah! 1812 must became a regular! (but i'm almost sure it won't).

Talking about the opening, what i would expect from this season: John seems that finally feels at home in the UT (he is not "lost" anymore), despite the fact that he was left behind by his old friends he still consider them as friends ("this ship of scape prisoners..my friends"), Scorpius won't became another Crais (he is still "dangerous"), Grayza will be the "bad-girl" (the "powerfull" one...like anyone had a doubt), the whole "twin-john-incident" will have major influence during this season (there are lots of scenes from the "Twin-John" saga), we may see the Scarrans a lot more often ("i made enemies"), and probably a lot of other things that i couldn't see in the opening, but were there for sure.

One question: that first scene with John and Aeryn, when she is crying is from from "Season of Death"? (just to make sure that there is no TJohn and Aeryn "shipper" scene in the openning)

One last thing about the opening, that i consider worth mentioning, is the fact that there is only "one voice" now, instead of the "two voices" of the S3 openning (like if there were two Johns, the Earth one and the UT one. Guess which one still there?

My worries about this season vanished a little after this ep, thought im not sure yet. I will be sure after the next too episodes, which seems that will do the job that "Nerve/The Hidden Memory" did for season S2/S3, i mean, the begging of a long saga that will, probably, wrap up by the end of S5. And i don't know anything about the next two eps, besides the fact that they are a multi-part (and that means something big is about to happen, like every other multi-part: "John meets Scorpius", "John loves Aeryn, Aeryn loves John", "Neural Chip Removal/Jothee Rescue", "Zhaan's Death", "TJohn's Death" and "The end of the Scorpius Saga").

Thats it for the first view. Hope it gets better after the next ones.

--
Tetsuo
http://geekbunker.org/tetsuo/

[HumanReaction]

>I agree that is was hard to follow at times. It's going to
>take a few watchings on tape before I fully understand
>everything that happened, or reading internet episode guides
>because I can't rewatch it until wednesday. I felt the same
>way regarding your point mentioned in the other thread about
>not having a clue about how Chiana didn't get shot. That
>scene was totally confusing. However, it was still a good
>episode. I enjoyed much of it, laughing at many humorous
>scenes. My main complaint is that it should have been
>better as a season premiere. While it succeeded in some
>points as a premiere, others gave me an empty feeling, even
>though I still liked the episode.

You're right on target with the "it should have been better as a premiere" claim. Scape seems to have major problems with its premieres, however - all of them just move too damn fast.
For me, lots of the humor fell flat, especially when John taunts the hound. Thank god for Rygel - he makes an excellent rabbit!

[HumanReaction]

Wow! Nice first post ^^^ better than mine was!
I wonder if we're going to zoom back to the pod in another episode, after John realizes that Dog With Two Bones and Crichton Kicks are all in his head!
No... that would be evil. I don't know where they're taking the show, and am trying to remain non-skeptical... this is the first episode that I've seen on TV, and the first time that I've been caught up with everyone (well, second - I got the 19-22 eps before everyone else here in the U.S.) - I don't have the reassurances of all of my fellow fans telling me that it gets much, much better than this.
-HR

[SpacePPoliceman]

Farscape likes to skip things that are uninteresting an unimportant. I have a roommate who at the end of AHR was upset, because they didn't show how Crichton got back to Moya. Same kind of thing when Stark was suddenly gone at the end of S1. Same kind of thing with the fade-outs. They had other things to do, rather than deal with a five minute sequence of Sikozu scrambling for an escape route.

And I REALLY don't understand all this confusion about Chiana not getting hit. She didn't get hit because they all missed, just like they had been missing for the entire episode.

I didn't think CK was disappointing at all. It may not have resolved much from DWTB, but in all honesty, the only thing that could have been resolved in DWTB (and not feel contrived) was how Crichton got himself unstranded. This ep was a great launching point for the rest of the season.

[Jeeves]

I think the main point to CK was to introduce the new redhead, personally... that is what it seemed to me.

Anyone else notice the redhead walking around in the background of each of Crichton's Baywatch visions?

[HumanReaction]

That's what it seemed like to me - a launching pad for Sikozu, who I guess has to replace Jool.
No, I didn't notice her in the background - I'll look when I download and watch it again, since I also need to figure out whether or not I'm justified in my rantings.
Anyone have any idea when Dani's posting a review, or at least a synopsis?
-HR

[Chi_fi_Eagle]

>But, not showing us everything gives the writers more opportunities to slip things by us that turn out to be important later.

I agree, like I posted elsewhere, I think because we have two years ahead which are already guaranteed, some liberties will be taken by the writers. With over 24 episodes to write and knowing pretty much where you are and where you want to go, new villians, stories, gaps, anything can be done because there will be plenty of time to get finished. Granted this will lead to some episodes which will be hard to follow, some packed with soooo much info and subtleties that some will hate, some will love and some will just be in AWE (Awefully Wonderful Episode watched multiple times). This is what I call Farscape and just reading this thread makes me Love it even more.

done in PA

[tlsmith]

Jool was in the preview for next week, so she isn't gone.

I also didn't much like this ep., but only because I didn't know what the frell was going on! I'm sure it will be better once we get some more info in later eps. I did think it was cool how Shikozu could defy gravity, though.

Tammy

[Tetsuo]

I'm not sure if the main point was to introduce Sikozu. There were lots of other "unaswered questions" that got its answers during this ep, to mention a few:

- DWTB was not any kind of dream, everything (besides the Earth dreams, of course) took place.
- How did John survive.
- The return of Chiana and Rygel
- The real Grayza-threat (the wanted beacon)
- Chianas power upgrade and side-effects

Of course that introducing Sputnik was a important issue, but i dont think it was the most important one (the episode could be almost the same without her).

I had the same impression about Sikozu walking around during the beach scenes.

--
Tetsuo
http://geekbunker.org/tetsuo/

[HumanReaction]

Who is Sputnik? Sikozu?

[Tetsuo]

Yes. John called her that way.

--
Tetsuo
http://geekbunker.org/tetsuo/

[Cattivo]

>And I REALLY don't understand all this confusion about
>Chiana not getting hit. She didn't get hit because they all
>missed, just like they had been missing for the entire
>episode.

The confusion is over how she used her powers to not get shot. It seemed she slowed down time instead of seeing the future, but she didn't react by trying to dodge the shots. That's why it's not over the simple explanation of "they missed." Besides, it was almost point blank range.