All the Perl that's Practical to Extract and Report

Star Wars and Farscape

jjohn on 2003-05-16T13:12:25

If the subject line hasn't frightened you off yet, I'll keep this brief. It just occurred to me that the first three season finales of Farscape mirrored the endings of the first Star Wars trilogy.

  • Star Wars ends with Luke blowing up the Death Star. Farscape season 1 ends with Crighton blowing up Scorpy's Gamek base.
  • The Empire Strikes Back shows how the Empirial forces seriously set back the Rebels' plans. Farscape season 2 ends with Crighton strapped in an operating table with part of his skull removed, his ability to talk coherently gone and Aeryn Sun dead. These would all be setbacks for Team Moya.
  • Return of the Jedi shows the final destruction of the Empire's latest Death Star and, presumably, the Empire itself. Farscape season 3 ends with Crighton destroying both Scorpy's command carrier and Scorpy's Peacekeeper career.

I think these parallels help explain the popularity of the Farscape's first three seasons and why season 4 seems to be a little directionless. Farscape appeared to be telling a grand story that had familiar rhythms. I do think that by the end of season 4, Farscape got it's "Plot On" by setting up an almost certain war between the Scarrans and Peacekeepers. We'll never know now that Farscape is gone.

Hail DVDs!

Interesting theory...

zorknapp on 2003-05-16T15:24:46

I can see the parallels in the endings, it would be interesting to see, from a Campbellian point of view, if this can fit in with the "Hero's Journey," which is what so much of the original SW trilogy was based upon.

Dork One, signing off!

Re:Interesting theory...

jjohn on 2003-05-16T16:56:04

I refrained from dragging Campbell and Jung into my pet theory to avoid getting paint as the big old fanboy that I am. However Farscape is certainly about heroes. Crighton lives in the shadow of his heroic father (that is, Crighton has "heroic origins"), he lands on Moya as a complete fish out of water who has to survive using clever schemes and subterfuge (Jung's "Trickster" stage). Crighton is literally twinned in season 3 and has a heroic death. Not to mention that Crighton makes quite a few heroic sacrifices along the way. I have every confidence that the Farscape writers were aware of Campbell's work while making the series.

So give yourself a lollypop, Zorky. We share the same brain.