Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Farscape: The Beginning of the End of the Beginning by Rockne S. O'Bannon, Keith R. A. DeCandido and Tommy Patterson

John Crichton is an Earth Astronaut pulled across Space when a wormhole opened up in front of the spaceship he was orbiting Earth in. Four years later, he has a child with a former Peacekeeper Officer Aeryn Sun, his wife, and Moya, the ship he inhabits with Aeryn, their child and others,m, along with Pilot, who is linked with the ship, is heading back to Hyneria, since Dominar Rygel, whose cousin overthrew his rule of Hyneria, may be welcomed due to rumbles of discontent with his cousin's rule.

As the ship heads there, Jothee, son of D'Argo. is along for the ride, having taken a leave of absence from the Luxnarian army, comes to John with a problem. He and Chiana, who have hooked up together after the death of his father, have had sex 52 times. In fact, Jothee is feeling a little... overwhelmed by it all. John knows Chiana was in love with D'Argo, and wanted to marry him, but Jothee is feeling quite... oversexed at the moment, and Chiana won't leave him alone. In fact, she soon shows up and drags him off to be again.

John goes to see Aeryn and baby D'Argo, named after their close friend. But John wants to call him Deke for short. John explains that the name belonged to a friend of his father's, one of the original pilots of the Mercury missions. He died six years before John left on his mission. John is carrying a potion from Noranti to calm Deke, who won't seem to stop crying, but it only works for a little while. When he starts crying again, John is going over charts with pilot. Aeryn seeks help from Chiana, but she's otherwise "occupied", and Noranti isn't much help. Only John seems to be able to calm the baby down, and that's giving Aeryn a complex.

But the supposed plot/plan to make Rygel the ruler of Hyneria again is actually a trap, and Rygel's last remaining wife is in on the plot, along with three of Rygel's former high generals. Rygel, Chiana and Jothee are captured, and it's up to John and Aeryn, accompanied by their son Deke, to rescue their friends, and get Rygel back his planet. Can Aeryn feel comfortable with her son when he doesn't seem to feel comfortable around her? Can Rygel move beyond the feeling that he deserves to be the High Dominar to be the kind of leader his people needs? And can John and Aeryn survive another encounter with the killer named Scorpius, who is on the planet for reasons of his own, and advising Rygel's cousin, Bishan? And what is this strange vibration John and Aeryn keep experiencing in the presence of their son?

This was not a series I spent a lot of time watching, because I always seemed to be working when it was on. I did manage to catch it a few times after the beginning, but it seemed that every time I'd managed to watch it, I had gotten further and further behind on the story. But this is a graphic novel (with, lets face it, a long, almost book-like section in the back, that is easy to understand and enjoy. You don't really need to know much about the characters, since it is almost all explained by John Crichton, the main viewpoint character for most of the book.

It's a sure bet that this isn't going to be the only graphic novel released for Farscape, though, as the story sets up two mysteries that aren't yet answered: 1) who is the man in the black cloak with the glowing red eyes who seems to be keeping a watch on Deke, and what does he want? 2) what is that "Time-stutter effect" that Deke seems to be able to produce, and what does it mean for the characters of Farscape? This graphic novel takes place after the Peacekeeper wars movie, and so fits into the timeline there.

I'd definitely recommend this graphic novel to anyone who enjoyed the series, or anyone who even has passing knowledge about it or the characters. It's not necessary to know everything to read it- even without knowledge of the seasons of the show, the story is easy to follow and fun to read. Recommended.

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