Lava's a Many Splendored Thing

Lava's a Many Splendored Thing
Written by Michael Miller
Directed by Michael Patterson

Original Airdate: June 28, 2002

Plot: The crew is forced to land on a lava-covered planet after Noranti gives them a source of nourishment that is part of a cleansing ritual, leading to massive stomach distress. Rygel wanders off to relieve his nausea and discovers a cave full of treasures, which he promptly tries to take. This leads to falling into the clutches of mercenaries and the crew must now try to free him before his bowels literally explode. Review

Warning: If reading SPOILERS for the latest episode of Farscape, "Lava's a Many Splendored Thing" will cause you severe internal distress, I strongly suggest that you turn back now. There are major SPOILERS just ahead....

In short: Well-done filler.

It's easy to think that Claudia Black must have some other commitment right now, since we've spent the past four weeks of Farscape Aeryn Sun-less. And while I don't think of the first three episodes as "fillers" to keep Claudia Black on our minds, but off-screen, I do think that "Lava" is pretty much a filler episode...one that is designed to be fun to watch while it's on, but may not have too much impact on the overall dramatic arc that is season four.

Well, with one major exception--because if you think they're done with the shield belts, please raise your hand.

I don't see a lot of hands going up out there.

Foreshadowing...isn't it lovely?

But, back to the episode at hand.

From the way Sci-Fi advertised this episode, I was sort of expecting a wacky sort of comedy filled episode like we got last year with "Scratch 'n' Sniff." Instead we got an episode with some of the usual Farscape off the wall situations and humor, but that wasn't necessarily intended to be out and out hilariously funny (though the idea of Rygel being constipated to death is amusing on so many dark levels that I can barely get into right now since this is a family discussion list). On a lot of levels, "Lava" seemed more like a buddy-action movie type of episode more than a laugh-out loud type of storyline.

And I think as an action/buddy comedy it worked.

The strongest action/buddy plotline was the John and D'Argo storyline. Anthony Simcoe and Ben Browder have developed an incredible sense of timing and chemistry together over the past few years. Seeing the two of them just play off each other was superbly done and really kept the plot going over it's absurd-ness (Sorry, but the last thing I needed to see was the much teased scene of Granny taking it all off). Indeed, the reference to the old comedy duo of Abbot and Costello really felt right in describing the way they were playing each other, though I have to admit that both of them took turns being the straight man. (I love old Abbot and Costello stuff, so this type of thing really struck a chord with me).

The best scene of this was Crichton's argument about kinetic energy to D'Argo. A big part of me wanted to stand up and cheer because for the first time in what seemed like forever, we got to see Cricthon be a scientist and to use his knowledge to hatch out a plan that seems reasonable based on the evidence. I'm as much of a fun of the wacky Cricthon plan as the next person, but it was a real pleasure to see him arrive at the plan through some semblance of the scientific method and applying to the real Uncharted Territories situation at hand.

The other duo that played well off each other is the almost Thelma and Louise like duo of Sikozu and Chiana. The constant one-upping of each other and the attempts to find a way to get to Cricthon, D'Argo and Rygel all worked well. And certainly, the ideas they came up with how to control D'Argo's ship were, well, unexpected. No other show but Farscape could use vomit creatively in such a way. (And was it just me or did anyone else just get grossed out to the n-th degree when Chiana ATE a chunk of D'Argo's vomit?!?) Seeing the two play off each other and have to work together to come up with a solution was interesting to see and very well done. I have to admit that, so far, I like the pairing.

As for the rest of the episode, it was fairly standard stuff, I suppose. It felt a lot like season one's "Throne for A Loss" in a lot of ways--in that we have weird aliens who somehow capture Rygel and the crew spends the rest of the hour trying to get the Hynerian back. (Honestly, at some point, you've got to wonder if Crichton is just going to think they should cut their losses on the Dominar since half the problems they have are caused by his greed and selfishness). It was enjoyable enough to see and while there wasn't necessarily a lot of ground-breaking story going on here, it did hold together well enough.

Visually, I have to admit they did a good job creating caves and the lava planet. As a long time fan of Doctor Who, I know that creating realistic, interesting caves can be a bit of a pain. But Farscape did well with it. Also, I like the design for the Tarkans. One thing you can always say about Farscape--they have some really great looking make-up jobs.

All of that said, "Lava" is not one of those stories that is going to rank up there in my top ten favorites. Indeed, as I've stated, beyond the fact that we got the shield belts and we got the answering machine message from Moya, I don't think there will be much that comes out of this episode that has much long-term affect on the characters.

And while it was enjoyable and a nice way to spend an hour, there were some things that bugged me.

One thing is that the emphasis placed on Granny is getting a bit too much. She worked well in "Dog With Two Bones," but her featuring in each episode after that has been a bit much. I know, we see her in the opening credits, so I'd say we're stuck with her for the long haul. But the character is a bit too much. She reminds me a lot of Angel in the early seasons of Buffy or Deep Throat on X-Files--namely a character brought into to lead the heroes from point A to point B. Along the way, she has some wacky gifts, that change from episode to episode--such as the dust for visions and how that affects people. Here we find out that her lugis serve as food for a cleansing ritual and she's narcoleptic. Now, I understand that without the eating of the lugis, we don't get to alien world and it's a very short episode. But the idea that she is narcoleptic came way out of left field and seemed only to be put in for humorous value. I doubt we'll ever see it again and I think that's a bit of a cheat for the writers. I have hope that Granny might become more than an annoying cipher and a device to move the plot forward. And again, I am trying to remember that this is Farscape and since they've been renewed for two years that there is probably some kind of long-term plan in place. But it's just a bit frustrating right now.

Also, I have to admit there's a bit part of me that wants to hear what D'Argo was doing in the "several months later" time between "Dog With Two Bones" and meeting him again in "What Was Lost." Also, what was the rest of the crew doing and why? I'd love to hear that and am starting to lose faith that we might hear about it.

Finally, I have to say that beyond cool-looking alien guy, the mercenaries were pretty lackluster. Farscape has always been good about creating great supporting characters and they didn't seem to be working as hard here on these guys. I guess since they're all red shirts, that shouldn't matter so much, but it does.

So, I guess that's about it for now, except a few small things...

--Good thing Sikozu figured out how to work the invisibility shield just in time for the crew to come up.

--Crichton's going into the lava to get Rygel back was well done.

--The Scorpius clone in the bio-hazard suit was a hoot.

So, overall "Lava" was a decent filler between the big two-parter and the reunion with Moya. It wasn't ground-breaking Farscape in any way, and while it had it's flaws, it was still a good way to spend an hour.

My rating: 7.0

Next up: Aeryn is back....get ready for some angst in the Uncharted Territories.

"We may have to stick Granny in a home."
"I think we should burn her."
"You burn your old folks?"
"No, just sounded like a good idea."
--Crichton and D'Argo