Farscape
"Dream A Little Dream"

Airdate: June 23rd, 2000

"Trust me, I'm a lawyer."

Zhaan

Few phrases chill me as much as this one. More chilling still is the novel notion of a planet where 90 percent of its population are lawyers and the ten percent that aren't are treated like second class citizens -- literally. However, the bartending Utility's explanation/law lecture wasn't convincing enough to make me suspend my disbelief about this aspect of Steven Rae's story. Maiten Dersh (Sounds like Dershowitz), the public counselor assigned to Zhaan, promises ten solar days sentence. For walking against a "Do Not Walk" light!? Considering Zhaan's desperation to find her friends, I don't blame her for wanting to strangle Dersh. Though Zhaan's act is bad for her case legally (because it establishes a precedent of violent behavior), it allows the story to continue as written.

The jail cell sequences featuring Zhaan with her Other Selves confuses things a bit. While it is obvious she's slowly going out of her head during this trial of errors, seeing imaginary visions of her friends is like putting legs on a snake, due to the short duration spent with each, it is not clear which crew member represents what aspect of the priestess' convoluted subconscious. And the scene where Zhaan kisses D'Argo is so Freudian it just weirds me out on so many levels.

The surface story of Zhaan being framed for murder uncovers issues of social unrest as Wesley Ken, the man Zhaan is framed for having murdered, is a civil rights advocate for the have-nots of Litigara (the Utilities minority). Just think of him as a sort of Litigaran version of Mohandas Gandhi (who was also an attorney). Like Kirk and company in Star Trek VII: the Undiscovered Country, Zhaan being in the right place in the right time to take the fall for the man's death is merely a fortunate happenstance.

Rygel

Aside from Virginia Hey being a prisoner in a scenario out of Midnight Express, "Dream" is Chiana and Rygel's show. Chiana (Gigi Edgely) sort of bullies Rygel into aiding their shipmate and it is this action which proves that D'Argo is wrong about Chiana's flexible loyalties. Time and again, since determining she wants to fit in aboard Moya, she's gone way out of her way to save her new family in times of trouble. She's capable of great loyalty -- she just doesn't know it yet. Her personality is evolving constantly in the influence of her new found friends she's willing to use more than just charm to get what she wants.

"Dream a Little Dream" tries (and fails) to be character and plot driven but jumps from one scene to another without cohesion. Case in point: the too-brief bar scene where the Utility bartender (Jeremy Callaghan) is helping Rygel with his case. Although necessary, it seemed like he gave up too much pertinent information all at once.

Writer Rae's story left a lot of questions unanswered including how the Utilities got to be the Untouchables of Litigaran society and how they are prevented from climbing out of the socioeconomic hole the others have dug for them. Chiana and Rygel's too easy victory in court saved Zhaan. Without a pesky Prime Directive, the victory may have had the inadvertent bonus of opening the Litigarans' eyes to change (or just opened a can of worms, depending on what side of the issue one stands), but of course, we never see the resolution or even get a hint of what is to come for them.

I don't think "Dream a Little Dream" is the most spectacular episode to date. Jah Ruhman was right, the staff of light is just a fable and the idea of a planet full of lawyers and barristers being fooled by it was too hard to swallow. Although, of course, I'm glad, for Zhaan's sake, that it worked. In truth, the villains weren't all that menacing (not that I want to see lawyers demonized), the transparent allegory paralleling Litigara's and the United States' legal systems is well... transparent, and there weren't any real surprises or insights into anyone's characters. Points to Mr. Rae for having Pilot and Moya saving Zhaan, Chiana and Rygel in the end. Kudos, also, to the visual effects crew for the industrial strength backdrops in the Litigaran cityscapes. In the end I'd watch "Dream" again to have something to laugh at (though I find "Crackers Don't Matter" to be funnier) -- Gigi Edgely and Jonathan Hardy's antics during the trial were very cute.

In summation, I judge this episode to be... okay.

-- Vivian E. Lee

Farscape airs at 9pm, Fridays on The Sci Fi Channel.

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