frellcast

[frellcast]

It's another maxi sized episode this week as the Farscape Friends go through Look At The Princess Part I: A Kiss Is But A Kiss with a fine toothed comb. Join Monica & Erin for a roller coaster of sexy times, emotional breakdowns, and monarchical politics in this installment of Farscape's first trilogy.

In this episode:

“Explication de texte” is basically just French for “close reading” 

Yes, Monica, the “big nosed villain’ is an anti-Semitic trope, and Clayvor is a perfect example of the “sinister schnoz” 

The uncanny valley

Wernher von Braun, astrophysicist and our top pick for “namesake of John’s imaginary dog”

Genovia is the fake country from the Princess Diaries

Stephen Colbert shoves a brownie in his mouth in one take, a true “goer”: https://youtu.be/lR5wvSTKe5g

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Boy meets Earth in this infamously great and game changing episode of Farscape. Monica and Erin struggle to keep things spoiler free (AND under two hours) but do manage to have several human reactions to John's irreversible contamination, the science behind the Ancients, and a whole montage of trust exercises. Stay tuned to the end for a dramatic script reading from Erin!

In this episode:

The recap of this episode from Television Without Pity (TWOP) is lengthy & beautiful.

This episode is a stellar example of the “All Just a Dream” and “Precursor” tropes.

When John enters the men’s room, three men are there and they are played by director Rowan Woods, actor Anthony Simcoe sans makeup, and production designer Ricky Eyres. 

[frellcast]

Resources & Recommendations

Hi everyone,

If you’re stressing about the election like we are, we suggest:

Spending some money:

Donate to organizations that will protect the people and rights President-elect Trump’s administration is likely to hurt the most, such as: Disability Rights & Education Fund, ACLU, Planned Parenthood (Consider making a specific gift to a state where there are heavy restrictions), NAACP, Lambda Legal, Southern Poverty Law Center, Council on American-Islamic Relations, EarthJustice, Anti-Defamation League, National Immigration Forum, Right Wing Watch

Subscribe or donate to media outlets that have done good reporting on this election, especially if they have not made false equivalencies between candidates and parties, i.e. Slate, ProPublica, The Guardian, The Atlantic, Freedom of the Press Foundation or others

Americans, please also think about donating to state Democratic Parties in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Michigan, New Hampshire, or Florida, places where the vote was closest and where more resources can help close narrow margins in future elections. 

A runoff election for a Louisiana Senate seat is also scheduled for December: Donate to Foster Campbell for U.S. Senate in Louisiana

Contacting your elected officials (if you’re American). Your U.S. Senators & U.S. Representative are elected to represent you if you're in their districts. Your Governor should also accept input. Phone calls are most effective at getting their attention. Be polite and firm. You can find sample scripts at NastyWomenGetShitDone, We’re His Problem Now, or #ACallADay. 

As always, we’re available here, at frellcast@gmail.com, or at @frellcastshow on Twitter if you have comments or suggestions about things to add to this list.

-Monica & Erin

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It's Episode 115 and Chiana's finally here! Farscape Friends Monica, Erin, and special guest Nikita (@shamblebot) run through "Durka Returns" with stops at Rygel's PTSD, the moral relativism of greyscale, and how the space gang line up on a Dungeons & Dragons character sheet.

In this episode:

A People's History of the United States

🎵 What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger 🎵

If you’re not well-versed in D&D character classes, Wikipedia is weirdly comprehensive

Skinner Box

Geoffrey Rose’s Prevention Paradox is one of the core principles underlying social epidemiology 

"Hold the door” on Game of Thrones (spoilers!)

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Farscape Friends Monica & Erin tackle what is perhaps (probably) Farscape's worst ever episode; 114 - Jeremiah Crichton. They make attempts to find good bones in a junky skeleton and to keep things light touch on issues of race & representation in Australian media. If you're just here for the beard riffing jump to the 15 minute mark.

In this episode:

The “Big Brother” franchise

This is a classic "Going Native" episode. The Stargate: Atlantis episode Monica mentions is "Epiphany."

Ben Browder's actual beard grows in red--turns out that’s pretty common. 

From the Princess Diaries: “Thank you for being here today”

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In Episode 113 - Rhapsody in Blue Monica & Erin fly solo through Zhaan's backstory on a Delvia away from Delvia. Tune in for lots of talk about underwear, the perils of too much guest cast, and why you probably shouldn't have sex in open air water features. In this episode:

Cape Canaveral does not have a reflecting pool.

On Twitter, @MarkTHrisho argues for the merits of a 22-episode season

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This week, Erin, Monica, and special guest Michael discuss Episode 112 - The Flax. Get stuck with them on gendering aliens, near-death makeouts, and the debut of writer Justin Monjo. Also praise for director Peter Andrikidis and the classic Farscape Spin-Zoom.

In this episode:

Farscape wiki

Monica mutters "old Luxan yells at cloud," which is a play on a meme that originated with The Simpsons

There are many videos of Star Trek stabilized but "Turn Down for Spock" is absolutely the best one

Love Potion Number Nine is a film that does indeed star Tate Donovan, but also features Mary Mara from episode 1x02 “I, ET.” Pheromone colognes for humans do exist but don’t “work” (which is good).

We all collected Beanie Babies in the 90s, and apparently some of them did become valuable:

What is queercoding and why don’t we like it? Some discussion from Everyday Feminism and The Rogue Feminist. 

Here’s the image set & commentary discussing non-heteronormative sex/gender/reproduction depicted in Star Trek that Monica mentions.

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In Episode 111 - Till The Blood Runs Clear London, Monica, and Erin search for any oasis in an episode full of deserts, dog people, and terrible decision making. Fortunately for us, Furlow is a badass.

In this episode:

Magda Szubanski, who plays Furlow, is sort of like the Australian Melissa McCarthy and our love for her knows no bounds. 

This planet looks like Jakku and we dig it.

This is the only picture Monica can find online of John’s Hawaiian shirt from the premiere, which is discussed fairly extensively, and she’s honestly kind of heartbroken

But why is the rum gone?

If you don't want to watch Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid, you can read the Wiki 

In addition to being Ben Browder’s favorite actor, Paul Newman invented Newman's Own salad dressing 

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It’s 110 - They’ve Got A Secret and the Farscape Friends are all over the quiet intrigue and dramatic revelations of this clandestine episode. To be honest, there’s a heavy dose of constipation & “reproductive material” jokes thrown in for good measure.

In this episode:

How do IUDs work? (Monica used to work in reproductive health, so please get in touch if you have more questions!!)

What’s the microbiome? A nice longread from the New York Times Magazine explores.

Everyone probably knows the deal with Zika virus by now, but if not, the CDC is the most reliable US source: www.CDC.gov/Zika 

Magic Mike XXL is a cinematic masterpiece and The Toast’s recap is truly a work of art.

Metonymy IS the literary device Monica was talking about; chocolate is a metonym John uses frequently to talk about Earth.

Locked in syndrome is pretty scary and possibly what the crew was going to do to Moya.

The iconic 90s TV show Frasier gets a shout-out

Pipetmans are not used correctly in this episode. Here is how to use a Pipetman correctly.

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Join the Farscape Friends as they gab about Episode 109 - DNA Mad Scientist. London, Monica, and Erin discuss computer virus crystals, insane prosthetics, and how this might be the episode that saved the series. Monica also yells about 8 sciences.

In this episode:

Namtar reminds us of a lot of things... A Spider-man villain, “the guy who hangs out with Jabba the Hutt,” Reptar 

Jim Henson's Creature Shop Challenge 

The food cubes we see in this episode are made from haw flakes, per Erin

Michael Haneke is an Austrian director 

If you’re wondering what Monica means by “so the light does the thing,” WebMD has you covered on eye anatomy

"That's not DNA," Monica says repeatedly. DNA tells the cell how to make proteins. Proteins do everything else.

Monica mentions mice growing human tumors - here’s a nice piece from MIT Technology Review on how and why this can be done!

The Martian is an excellent book that was turned into an excellent movie. 

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It's episode 108 - That Old Black Magic and the Farscape Friends are not fans of omnipotent space wizards!

In this episode:

Palpatine from Star Wars

Damn Daniel

The Ori

Is Liko red? Purple? Magenta? You decide.

Ricky Manning ALSO yells about science in this vintage blog post

Fire in space: shout-out to Mark for pointing us to this post from NASA, which Monica is taking as implicit validation that she is correct and things in space shouldn’t blow up dramatically because if nothing else, the flames would be super small and dark thanks to low gravity.

This scene from Zoolander

This scene from 10 Things I Hate About You

“Booch tooch”? Slate has a Tyra Banks lingo explainer.

DK resembles Crash Bandicoot.

Monica’s pretty sure “croquembouche” is French for “unnecessary pastry tower.” 

[frellcast]

Thanks for listening, @lady-nevermore! If there’s ever a specific topic you want our take on, our ask box is open, and you can also reach us on Twitter @frellcastshow. 

I've been stalking your blog for ≈5min after seeing you in my notes, and are you also annoyed by the lack of recent Farscape fanfic or is that just me? This fandom doesn't seem to have much of a fanfic culture anymore, but I'm a relative newb so idk.

@chasingtheskyine Well, I wouldn’t say that I’m annoyed …. more like just a tad bit sadden by the lack of farscape fanfics (though to be fair it really is an underrated show), but mostly in regards to Aeryn’s parents: Xhalax Sun and Talyn, but that’s it really. My fave farscape fanfic of all-time would have to be: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/396952/1/Birthright 

Though, I still think a Red vs Blue and Farscape crossover fanfic would be pretty cool to read (I’d love to see Agent Carolina and Aeryn Sun interact). :D

I’ve been a fan of Farscape for a while - I remember seeing some glimpses of episodes when it was on air on the Sci-Fi channel when I was a kid, I think I was around like 10 or 11 years old at the time and I remember that the muppets really ended up catching/drawing my attention back then; but it wasn’t until later on during my teenage years that I ended up really starting to watch the the series (though I always I ended up missing a large portion of episodes here and there back then). But I do remember being able to catch the finale and how upset and shocked I was with how they ended off the 4th season. 

I still haven’t watched the Peacekeeper Wars mini-series movie yet either, I’ve only seen glimpse of it from gif-sets and I’ve heard that it really ties up a lot of loose ends and gives a real sense of closure, and I’ve been meaning to really rewatch and finish the whole entire Farscape series without missing an episode before I do that (though every time I’ve tried, something has always come up, whether it be real life stuff or other fandoms that I love drawing my attention away, which have always forced me to abandon and leave off somewhere around the end of 3rd or the beginning of the 4th season).

But I’m definitely trying to finish it this time around (especially since I’m keeping up with the @frellcast podcast one episode at a time and I really do love and enjoy hearing what they had to say about our beloved underrated sci-fi series). :)

Also Aeryn Sun is my favorite character in all of Farscape. :D

[frellcast]

The Farscape Friends get fiery about Episode 7, PK Tech Girl as they reminisce over feelings and frog monsters. Team Gilina? Team Aeryn? Tune in to find out!

In this episode:

London thinks Crichton sounds like Scott Disick, who was romantically linked to Kourtney Kardashian. If you don’t Keep Up, Wikipedia has the basics.

The Farscape Friends unanimously agree that the Sheyang resemble “the frog monster from Power Rangers,” whose name evidently was Terror Toad.

"Good, giving, and game” or “GGG” originated from Dan Savage’s Savage Love.

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The Farscape Friends dig into the sixth episode "Thank God It's Friday, Again" to uncover the root of all evil (wink wink). Join them this week for some good old yelling about space hippies, gut worms, and weapons grade turnips.

In this episode:

The wiki on auto-brewery syndrome has links to a couple of good news articles as well as scientific articles, if that’s your thing.

Star Trek (2009) red matter implosion scene video 

The Soviet propaganda poster that became the basis for Farscape’s Peacekeeper artwork is Beat the Whites With the Red Wedge.

“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic” is the third of Arthur C. Clarke’s three laws of prediction. TVTropes has more discussion on how this and related ideas function in television.

The New York Times covers the use of parasites to treat autoimmune disorders in “The Parasite Underground.”

“Targeted temperature management” may be used after cardiac arrest or traumatic brain injury to reduce the extent of injury.

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Erin, London, and Monica discuss the ins and outs of future flashes, the greatness of Rowan Woods, and the tragedy of aerobics instructor Matala in their review of episode 105 - Back and Back and Back to the Future.

In this episode:

Read the Space Chase pitch via Unmade SF Wiki.

More info (including some implicit spoilers) about guest stars on Farscape and their other Australian roles.

IMDb on The Boys, which Rowan Woods directed immediately before this episode.

LIGO is the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory and it’s great.

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London, Erin, and Monica are back at it again discussing Season 1, Episode 4. Join them for deep meditations on steroid bros, the ways not to treat an addict, and whether Monica is adult enough for Ben Browder (for the record, she’s 27). In this episode: 

J-Shot: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3f_6_OoxTQ 

Jazzy Scooter: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3f_6_OoxTQ 

Probably what a rock concert by the Consortium of Trow would look like: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=klHzEohFFcM 

I’m the captain now

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The Farscape friends discuss episode 1.03, “Exodus From Genesis,” and pose important questions like “would Kanye West love Farscape?”  In this episode: - Production order of Farscape episodes can be found on Wikipedia (with plot summaries that may contain mild spoilers)

- The topic of fanfiction is mentioned briefly. The good news is that much of the fic produced during the show’s original run and in the years shortly thereafter has been republished on Archive Of Our Own. Monica is pretty happy.

- Claudia Black’s current roles: per her IMDb page, she has roles on The Originals and the CW miniseries Containment.