2006-08-19
muppets in space

02:53

I was curious how it would be to watch my obsession of Chricton-and-Aeryn in the different setting of SG-1. Turns out, he's still Crichton, EXACTLY the same, but she's definitely NOT Aeryn. Her characters in both shows are aliens, but in SG-1, she's a happy-go-lucky, slightly ditzy alien, very different than the sarcastic, complicated, somewhat pessimistic pilot and, to be honest, I think I prefer the latter. Of course, this is after having watched these two in nearly three seasons of "Farscape" and as opposede to only one epi of "Stargate". Not exactly a fair match; if I keep watching, once I stop thinking of Claudia Black as Aeryn, maybe I can accept her as Vala. It will be harder with Ben Browder, as his character of Mitchell on "Stargate" is identical to Crichton.

Tonight, I was watching SG's 200th episode, appropriately titled "200", and in it, they spoof "Star Wars VI", "Star Trek" (with Browder as an excellent Capt. Kirk), "Battlestar Galactica" (yes, Becca, I can appreciate that), "Wizard of Oz", a little bit of "Firefly" (comment about making a movie from a three-episode show) and, best of all, "Farscape". The the team meets with a movie producer who's doing a movie loosely based on the Stargate so they're going over the story with him, giving him ideas. Vala, in particular, tries to sell him on her "adventures" ("Wizard of Oz" and "Gilligan's Island"). The producer finally tells her, "If you're going to do a rip-off, you're going to have to find something parody of "Farscape" as their SG-1 characters. Vala is Aeryn, of course, but with a Vala attitude, and the others are various characters. I'd have expected Browder to reprise his role as Crichton, but maybe as Mitchell is so much like Crichton that there woudldn't be any distinction, they put him in a different role and had Daniel Jackson (SG-1 lead scientist) spoof Crichton. They used very Farscape-like music, as well as the old set and costumes, overdramatized the whole thing (especially the relationship between John and Aeryn) as appropriate per a parody and spouted Farscape dialogue that included "starburst", "frell" and "dran", mixed with a lot of mumbo jumbo; I know those words sound pretty mumbo jumbo-ey as it is, but if you've ever seen "Farscape", they make perfect sense. The producer says, "Okay, you got me. I've never even heard of that." I watched that scene several times, it was so funny, and then when the show was over, I went back and watched it again.

I tried to explain why I was laughing so much to Becca who had gotten back up (I was finishing it around 12:30 a.m.) because the dogs were whining at her. She totally didn't understand. "That's not funny at all," she said. I don't know if she was cranky because she was woken up (probably) or I did a bad job explaining (that, too), but she just stared at me like she was trying to figure out who I was, what I was doing there and why I was talking to her. I think that maybe one has to have watched "Farscape" to truly appreciate the humor. I KNEW when the producer said "something more obscure", I just KNEW they'd do "Farscape". It was too perfect. With both Crichton and Aeryn on SG, how could they not? And it really is obscure, because of all my friends who watch shows on SciFi, only one watches "Farscape", the one who got me hooked.

I absolutely love it when the actors, and shows, make fun of themselves, like "The Simpons" on Fox. "Farscape" is a SciFi original, so having Browder and Black parody their characters from another SciFi show was awesome.

If you've seen any, several or all of the shows and movies mentioned above and you come across this SG-1 episode, I totally recommend watching it, even if you haven't seen the SG movie itself or any other episodes. It's worth it for the parodies.

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