Meeting 4 (08/21/99)

This meeting of the Aeryn Sun Interpretation Society and Widow's and Orphan's Emergency Beer Fund will now come to order. The Chair would like to remind the members of our motto: "When you come to a fork in the road, take it." The Chair would also like to thank the 41,356 'Scapers who joined him at 3Com Park last Sunday.

The Chair also has some bad news for the members of the Society and Fund. I have been told that the release of the concert CD "Farscape Rocks" has been delayed indefinitely. I know how badly this makes all of us who heard the demo tracks. What can I say about Farscape People's "(It's Fun to Stay Aboard) M-O-Y-A", other than that it's a high energy blast. Exactly what we expected from such a talented group. And Claudia Black's soulful cover of Bob Dylan's "To Ramona" absolutely blew everyone's minds. I suppose we should not be amazed that she sings beautifully in both English and Spanish,(which is the loving tongue after all), but to find that she is a tenor is amazing. The producers advise that while LA has the glitz and glamor, their new home at Soledad, CA is the kind of place where great music is made. They say that they have already identified some of the many talented people they need at their new home in Soledad. They say they will be "back on the street", so to speak, in one to three years. For those who can't wait, refunds are avaliable from GauchoMusic, a wholly owned subsidiary of GauchoCo, a Bahamian Corporation. Their world headquarters is at PO Box 23, Comfort Station, KS 56608.

I am a little worried about Aeryn and her time in the Peacekeepers. First we have Captain, "Several pickles short of a sandwich" Crais. Now, he can be dismissed as an anomaly. A guy who functioned well enough until his brother became a crispy critter and then lost it. Perhaps not representative of the real Peacekeepers, at all.

Certainly, no one we have met so far has any great love for the PK. Even D'Argo, who married a Sebacean, has never said anything like, "PKs are honorable enemies, except for the occasional looney tunes brother in law."

And now Captain Durka of the Good Ship Lollipop. This is the PKs Go-To Guy, their Numero Uno, their Main Man. He had his own private torture chamber in his ship and at least one torturee. The PK command has GOT to know about this, which means that torture is the policy of the PK, or at the least you get a wink and a nod if you feel like a little Rygel-K-Bob. You've either got a something like the "ethnic cleansing" in the Balkans, or at the very least a Lieutenant William Calley situation.

To briefly digress, .....Ooops. Split infinitive. To digress briefly....Oh, the hell with it. To briefly digress. I'm not 100% happy about the quality of our villains. Notice on your TV news programs, when someone goes postal, you always get the shooter's friends, neighbors and surviving co-workers, saying something like, "Until he went berserk, he was just your average guy." This leads me to believe that either there are a lot of inert minds in front of the cameras, or psychopaths don't look any different from you and me. So think about a villain like.........John Crichton. No, not John, but maybe a clone of John, or a John from the old alternate universe. Just a nice guy, no scars, no bizarre vocal mannerisms, no black dusters. But, every once in a while, BOOM, he does in your poor unsuspecting extra. Does that sound like a villian to give you nightmares?

To return to Durka. In DR, he is telling Aeryn that he knows that she has studied his methods, all this while cranking up the tool that will fry Aeryn's brain. That can be interpreted as meaning that Aeryn studied how to torture people in the PK Academy. I certainly don't like the idea of Cadet Aeryn Sun cramming for her Torture 101 final. Basically, she's not that kind of person. If she was so convinced of her superiority over the lesser life forms on Moya, they would have all fallen out of the airlock long ago, and FS would be over. If torture, etc, is SOP with the PK, how did Aeryn deal with it? If torture is not "officially" approved of, but "just happens," what does Aeryn do? She looks like a person who would go to her chain of command if she saw PK burning villages,or executing all and sundry, and raise hell about these extra-legal actions. How do we explain this?

Well, let's go back in time on the good old planet Earp. Back to 1957 and the Battle of Algiers. The historical battle, not he Pontecorvo movie of the same name. By the way, UCSBdad says give the movie "The Battle of Algiers" a look. I give it six beer bottles, my second highest alcolade. The only thing that keeps it from getting The Coveted Golden Six Pack with Pizza Clusters, is a distinct lack of cheap, meaningless sex. I also recommend the Englsh translations either of Jean Larteguy's novels on the Algerian War, "The Centurions" and "The Praetorians." However, I suspect that both are long out of print.

Some backstory. In 1957 Algeria, then a French colony is fighting for it's independence. As with many 20th century wars, it is hardest on civilians. The National Liberation Front, (FLN in French) has begun a campaign of urban terrorism in the capitol, Algiers. They find it is easier to terrorize people by planting bombs in public places, than say, in heavily guarded police stations, or by assassinating those Moslems who are insufficiently enthusiastic . Algiers has become ungovernable. So the French government sent in the 10th Parachute Division, with orders to enforce peace at any cost. The 10th DP consisted of professional soldiers from the Foreign Legion and the Colonial Troops. They use torture and murder, but get the job done. So lets ask, say Sous-Officer Sun, of the 1er Regiment Etranger Parachutiste, how she feels. Standing there in her green beret, "tenue leopard" cammies with her MAT 51 slung, she says, " Merde. If the FLN wants terror, I'll give them all they want."

Not exactly the warm and cuddly Aeryn most of us would like to see end up with John, but a possible Aeryn. On the other hand, it's a big universe. Aeryn might have been fighting honorably against the Scum of Creation, with any torture, murder, etc, taking place light centuries away from her.

But, what if Aeryn gets herself totally unPeacekeepered. Happily discovering her realtionship with John, and all of her new friends. And then, she's arrested by the InterGalactic War Crimes Tribunal. Of course, our heroes will come to her rescue. Rygel would be in his element, tampering with juries and suborning witnesses. I can hear him now. "Your Honor, and I use that term only in it's technical sense, perhaps you'd like to examine the rather interesting bank records I've come across? Or the fascinating holograms of three young ladies and the gentleman covered in whipped cream. Why, I think I recognize that man."

And when you have a hostile witness, who better to deal with that than Ka D"Argo.

D'Argo: ( Forcing a pair of gloves onto the hands of the prosecutor) "And I say, if the gloves him fit, her you acquit." Yeah, the translator microbes didn't do justice to the original Luxan.

Zhaan, is, of course, your psychiatrist. She'll Unity with Aeryn and discover that the "children" she's accused of killing were actually genetically modified assassins made to look like children.

John, is of course, the decent, humble attorney type, usually played by Tom Hanks. I can hear his summation. "Gentlemen of the jury." (Thanks to the machinations of Rygel the jury is twelve humanoid males.) Pointing to Aeryn, dressed in a purple dress and looking every inch the Raven Haired Goddess, "Is that the face of a war criminal? Is that the body of a war criminal? Are those the legs of a war criminal?" No question about it. It's an acquittal.

As the FS crew leaves the courthouse, with the judge and prosecutor being led off in chains behind them, John slips Aeryn a piece of paper. It's his bill for legal services.

Aeryn: (Eyes widening in shock) John, I can't possibly pay this bill.

John: (Looking very professional) Brilliant legal minds don't come cheap, Aeryn.

Aeryn: But this is enough to build a squadron of Command Carriers! And run them for a cycle.

John: Well, maybe we can work something out. My legal researches have led me to some very interesting conclusions about the local community property laws.

Aeryn refrains from hitting him.

Apropos to nothing, I've been reading some Hemingway in honor of the 100th anniversary of his birth. "John shot Crais with the Mannlicher. He gave Aeryn uno beso. They were good." Do you see any effect on my style?

This leads us to the next point. Getting John some serious firepower. I know, John's role in FS is to be the guy who suggests that they think their way out of problems, rather than shoot their way out. However, sending John off to deal with a heavily armed homicidal maniac armed only with the worlds'largest spatula does not work. REMEMBER. Good drama is intelligent drama. TINS. UCSBdad used to carry around an M-16 in the days of his youth and he would never have gone after Durka armed with the world's largest swizzle stick.

So, let's see. John with a Colt single action Army in a holster tied down to his hip. Beard stubble, a serape, and a long black cigarillo? No, no. John in tiger stripes with a do rag and a Kalashnikov? Again no. Ah, keep the beard stubble, add a blue silk Giorgio Armani suit, a lime green tee shirt and a 1911A1 Colt in a shoulder holster? No, no and no. OK, John in his black and greys, with that funny looking stun gun from I, ET. That will keep John's status as a mostly peacable character intact and still give him a chance against the sundry evildoers he runs up against.

To get into the great Chiana debate. I'm firmly neutral. If you look back through the old posts, D'Argo was dismissed as a third rate Worf, Rygel as an obvious muppet, and even our Raven Haired Goddess was called a bitch. AS YOU WERE! STOP THAT! I remind you that the Fund and Society is dedicated to peacefully bringing Aeryn and John to the place in the world they deserve. No more talk like, "Someone get a rope." I'm sure that whoever wrote that post has either learned the error of their ways, or has gone back to watching saturday morning cartoons.

And Human Reaction? This gets the Coveted Golden Six Pack with Pizza Clusters. My view is that Aeryn was real, the kiss was real, and whatever they did after the kiss was their own business. But I know what I hope it was. I hope that their love, passion and commitment to each other grows. There are those who are afraid that a lack of unresolved sexual tension will doom the realtionship. UCSBdad suspects he may be a little older than most of the others on the bb. So let me say that while sex, as a way of spending time, is way ahead of whatever is in second place, you don't stay with the same person for 23 cycles because of the sex. John and Aeryn have everything that is needed for a fascinating couple, interacting with each other and their other friends on Moya. Let's see Butch and Sundance love each other, care for each other, respect each other, laugh with each other, think and plan with each other, and face danger with and for each other. And let them have great, glorious, noisy, wet, acrobatic, sloppy, uninhibited, passionate, and fun sex in the privacy of their quarters with no intrusion from the audience. (But then again, we wouldn't turn down just the tiniest of glimpses either.)

Of course, we'll have to wait a month for a new episode, and if FS runs true to form the next couple of new episodes will feature Rygel giving Zhaan a new paint job and we'll be left flying to the bb saying, about that look between AS and JC, I think it was.. ...In other words, were back to normal on FS. And of course, there is rumor that Gilina the PK tech girl will be making a return appearance. We may as well admit that the relationship between AS and JC is not yet set in stone and we will have more to worry about before they become an indivisible couple.

So, to inspire you for the future, to prepare you for the hard times ahead, I can only quote from that most noble example of Sebacean literature, "Aeryn V" and say to you,

" show us the mettle of your pasture; let us swear that you are worth your breeding; which I doubt not; For there is none of you so mean and base, that hath not noble lustre in your eyes. I see that you stand like greyhounds in the slips, straining upon the start. The game's afoot: Follow your spirit, and upon this charge cry " God for Aeryn, John and Togetherness."

And remember, be careful out there.

Aeryn Sun Interpretation Society and Widow's and Orphan's Emergency Beer Fund