Farscape: Exodus From Genesis (Archive Feature - 2000)

There’s always a great deal of joy that comes from discovering a gem tucked away in the TV schedules. I was innocently channel hopping last August and came across ‘The Weakest Link’, which made me feel very proud. Of course, after your discovery of the programme there are two things that can happen. The first is what happened with ‘The Weakest Link’, it’s become absorbed into the subconscious almost. Or, the show can continue to be broadcast with little bravado in it’s usual (or different every week if it’s on ITV) slot. Most of the shows that continue like this are on BBC 2 and Channel 5. Well, it may just be because not very many people can get Channel 5 that they remain undiscovered, but that’s another matter entirely.

So it is to the intense shame of a dedicated listings hawk like myself that I completely missed Farscape passing over my radar. Not totally unnoticed I must stress, I’d seen the review in SFX (three stars) and that dodgy picture of Pilot and it wasn’t until a little way into the second season that I started watching it. And realised what a mistake I’d made. So, on my meagre student loan, I went out and bought the DVDs of Season 1.

Exodus From Genesis was originally the third episode broadcast, but in one of those peculiar things that happen to SF shows, it is now the fifth episode. But still, we have a lot of stuff about Crichton adjusting to his new environment, it’s as if he’s had a delayed reaction (well, he could have been suffering from shock I suppose) to his new surroundings and just realised it takes him ten minutes to open the door every morning and that he hasn’t brushed his teeth since that fateful morning when he took off in Farscape 1.

The plot, I must admit, is nothing to write home about. Since this episode is two seasons past, I’ll assume you’ve all seen it and aren’t worried about spoilers. If you are, avert your eyes now.

Moya has been invaded by the Drax, a small life-form that lives in the vacuum of space, but who need warmth to breed. So they take up residence in Moya and crank the heat up to aid their procreation. Unfortunately for Aeryn however, she is a Sebacean, and they are cold blooded and aren’t particularly good with heat, as it shuts down their nervous system irrevocably. John finds one of these Drax, looking quite like a particularly nasty bug, and kills it. Kills it so much in fact that goo starts to ooze from it. This, as far as the Drax are concerned is an act of war so they begin producing replicants of the crew, but it isn’t long before they use Zhaan as a megaphone and talk to them and they agree to a compromise. They lower the heat enough so that Aeryn doesn’t deteriorate any further and they get on with breeding. Then of course, as if the writer has just realised there’s another fifteen minutes of screen time to fill and that wasn’t a very good ending anyway, some of Crais’ Peacekeeper commandos board the ship, forcing John to increase the heat to stop them.

Unlike many first seasons, where it take the main characters an inordinate amount of episodes to settle down into their characters, here, everyone is pretty consistent. Aeryn, everybody’s favourite ex-fascist is still trying to keep herself emotionally detached from the crew. Over the course of the episode however, a bond starts to develop between her and Pilot (something that will grow over the next two seasons) and at the end, perhaps she realises that some attachments must be made in order for them to survive out here in the Uncharted Territories.

I’m not a scientist but I do know enough to spot a few scientific howlers in this episode. The main one is the fact that they replicants produced by the Drax are complete with clothes and in D’Argo’s case, a Qualta Blade. I know enough about cloning to know that if you take someone’s hair or a blood sample you get their DNA, not their clothes and weapons. So either there’s an infinite number of outfits and Qualta Blades on board Moya or the producers didn’t think they could get away with a naked crew walking around. It would have been a completely different show then, wouldn’t it?

The main problem I have with the episode is the Peacekeepers. They’re just a bog-standard bunch of Nazi stormtroopers. Fair enough, Crais initially seemed that way too, but then they allowed him to become this wonderfully complex character, while the commandos in this episode with their very odd eyeshadow (what is with that?) come in and shoot stuff. It makes for a very uneven episode.

All in all then, a good solid episode, nothing to jump up and down about, but a solid adventure  with some nice comedy (even Star Trek never really considered how they’ll brush their teeth in the future), and, for the third produced episode, a marvellous achievement, and one the producers look set to build and build upon. And any episode which has Aeryn having a cold shower has got my vote.