It starts with John's Leave It to Beaver nightmare, complete in black-and-white with Aeryn decked out in June Cleaver attire, which, while definitely being a thing of nightmares for her and John, actually kind of looks good on her. (Then again, I don't know what wouldn't.) After he awakens, we're not-so-subtly clued in to the fact that he's having domestic internal crises, due to the fact that he's having second thoughts about settling down to a life of domesticity with Aeryn and their son, Deke. (Nickname for "D'Argo?" I don't know. Either way, there's a baby, and it's adorable.)

After a conversation about settling down to raise a child vs. doing interesting things (which somehow also manages to touch on Chiana and Jothee's sex life), Aeryn and John join the rest of the gang for a trip planetside to go to a market. Some are going for supplies, others (the married Morad and T'Amra) are going to retouch their marital tattoos, and yet others are ostensibly going to wander. Deke-the-baby is left aboard with Pilot, who might just be the best potential babysitter I can think of right now. Sadly, though, there aren't any adventures in babysitting in this issue, as Deke mostly just sleeps. If this were a Hitchcock film, I guess Deke would be the macguffin. (That's probably not true.)

Anyway, at the marketplace, everyone begins to bicker. And that's it. (Or is it? The "To Be Continued" suggests otherwise.) At any rate, it seems difficult to define what's happened here—perhaps the planet's atmosphere makes everyone extra-irritable, more prone to arguing? At least, that's the suggestion. But since they get out all right, one can only hope that the next issue addresses the ramifications of this incident, because, when coupled with the several-page Cleaver household nightmare at the beginning, the marketplace argument epidemic wasn't given nearly enough page-time to convince me of its importance. Meanwhile, John and Aeryn have a conversation about modern art and the relative merit of representational vs. non-representational work. (Apparently John isn't such a fan of modern art, but he did once take a field trip to the National Gallery in DC. I guess we have that in common, only I like modern art. And, actually, that whole scene in the comic as well.)

I'm still undecided what I want from a first issue in general, torn between exposition and an attention-grabbing incident worthy of a Bond film opener. Here we have something between the two that more sets a tone that's fun, not too serious, and wholly enjoyable. I hope this tone carries through to the next issue. And that we finally figure out what's up with the angry marketplace effect, because logic tells me that a planet with an annoyance-inducing atmosphere is just about the worst place to set up shop. Looking forward, then, to finding out.

Story and script by Rockne S. O'Bannon and Keith R.A. DeCandido, art by Will Sliney. Color by Zac Atkinson. Farscape: Strange Detractors #1 is available in comic stores now.

Whoopi is producing and starring in her own web series called either Stream or Strange, for Fearnet. She plays Jodi, a woman coming to terms with her lifelong fears. The series begins on January 15th and will air six five-minute episodes. But will she get Hasselbeck to cameo in it as one of her fears?

But for now, let's take a minute to remember the strange mannerisms and cryptic advice that Whoopi brought to Star Trek: The Next Generation. Here she is, teaching Wesley how to be the Pick-Up Artist:

[Variety]

• The Masks from Mission Impossible: The latex masks which could apparently turn a thin Tom Cruise into a chunky Philip Seymour Hoffman weren't exclusive to the movies. They used a fair share of these disguises throughout the television show, and the best part was when they'd cut from the live person to the dead looking fake mask being peeled away to reveal the operative underneath. At least MI:3 showed us a bit of how the machine that makes them works, but it still doesn't explain how they fit so well. The company that makes those could have made a fortune at Halloween every year.
• The Translator Microbes in Farscape: Science fiction properties have tried for years to get around the problem of everyone speaking English on new worlds lightyears away from Earth, and this has led to everything from The Universal Translator in Star Trek, to the Babel Fish in Hitchhiker's Guide, and the telepathic translating done by the TARDIS in Doctor Who. So, by the time Farscape came around, the writers decided to make them injectable translator microbes that let you understand whatever languange was hurled at you. Other people could understand you as well, but only if they were likewise injected. They didn't work perfectly, and often failed to translate slang like "dren" and "frell."
• Almost Everything in the 1960s Batman TV Show: Batman has had a slew of his own wacky gadgets, both in the comic books where he has an outfit for every possible encounter, and in the television show which really took the cake in creating bizarre items for Batman. Almost everything he used was a "Bat" something. In this clip from the show, you've got probably the lamest Batman gadget ever invented: The Bat Ladder. What exactly makes this a Bat Ladder, and why did he need to label it? In case he lost it somehow? Que ridiculo. Then there's the Bat-copter, the "Bat Auto Mode," and the Shark Repellent Bat Spray, which apparently makes sharks explode. He even has Barracuda, Whale, and Manta Ray repellent in there too.
• The Psychic Paper from Doctor Who: While this seems cool at first, eventually you start thinking it was an easy stopgap by the writers to get around the Doctor showing identification. In the old Tom Baker episode "The Talons of Weng-Chiang" (featuring the Doctor as a sleuth in Victorian London) the Doctor is asked to turn out his pockets, and he has everything in there from jelly babies to a toy Batmobile. We sure would have loved to see what Christopher Eccleston or David Tennant has crammed in there. Maybe a junior g-man badge would have worked just as well.
• The Giant Amplifier from Back to the Future: Doc Brown was an eccentric inventor, to be sure, but why on Earth would he create a massive speaker? Watching this movie again, it seems like it was just created for comic effect, and surely it would have blown out both of Marty's eardrums, scrambled his brain, and broken a bone or two in the process. Slight chance of overload my ass. Maybe the terrorists had asked him to build this thing too.
• Reed Richards and his Unstable Molecules: Unstable molecules sound like they'd be, well... unstable. Seems like just an easy way to explain why the Human Torch's clothes don't burn up, or why Sue Storm doesn't have to strip naked every time she turns invisible. Were the Thing's blue shorts made out of unstable molecules too? No idea what he needed them for. Reed supposedly made a fortune for the Fantastic Four by selling the patents to all of his inventions, but were most of them stolen? One thing is for sure, while he could seemingly invent a teleportation device out of a wristwatch and sticks of gum, he sure couldn't invent anything to turn Ben Grimm human again. So, how did Reed invent these things? In the movie the cosmic rays did it, but in the comics, it was just pure Reed Richards pseudogenius. It's also the name of an awesome graphic novel about the "real life" Fantastic Four by James Sturm.
• The Jetpack from The Rocketeer: Now, don't get me wrong, I wanted one of these things so bad that I could taste it. Who wouldn't want to slap on a funky helmet that makes you look like a hood ornament, a cool leather jacket, and just take to the skies? The problem was that later I realized this thing would totally burn your ass off. I mean, the flames shot out mere millimeters from his butt... how on Earth did he not scorch himself? Asbestos pants? Even one little throwaway line could have someone explained this, but now I just imagine Cliff Secord in a hospital bed with third-degree burns covering his backside. Plus, how could he even bend his legs upwards without melting those boots?
• Dick Tracy's Magnetic Space Coupe: Dick Tracy is probably best known for his two-way wristwatch radio, which later became a two-way television and eventually housed a computer to help him solve crimes. However, in the 1960s things got a lot more ludicrous when Tracy and Co. traveled to the moon via his Magnetic Space Coupe. While they were there, Tracy met "The Governor of the Moon" and his daughter, "Moon Maid." She eventually married Tracy's adopted son Junior, and they had a daughter together who... sorry, my brain just exploded.
• The Antigravity Belt Buckle in Ultraviolet: Or "Ultraviolent" as I like to call it. Milla Jovovich's badass vampire, er... "hemophage" with a conscience used this round little belt buckle to change her personal gravity, meaning she could walk on the ceiling, climb up walls, and it could even make her motorcycle drive up the sides of buildings. While we could (barely) buy the nanotech/portable hole technology in her wristbands and in that white plastic backpack, this thing just sent it over the top. What would keep her from flying off into the sky?

• Stargate: Bright played Orlin, an outcast "Ancient" (a humanoid race who claim to have started life in our galaxy, and now live on a higher plane of existence) who returns in the form of a human child. Apparently only a child's mind will allow him to keep the knowledge of the Ancients, but it slowly damages his brain and he can't remember anything. The best way he can show the onset of brain damage is: the blank stare.
• Ultraviolet: This time, he's a biogenetically engineered clone who may or may not contain a cure for a hemophagia, which turns normal people into vampires. Supposedly he's a vegetative clone without the ability to speak, although we later find out that isn't the case. However, he does play up this vegetative state throughout the first half of the film, and you can guess how he does that.
• X-Men: The Last Stand: this time Cameron plays a bald mutant who has the ability to cancel out mutant abilities in others. The government starts engineering a "cure" for mutants based on his DNA, and he spends most of his time staring at the wall or playing video games in a stark white cell.
• The 4400: Bright played Graham Holt, who developed the ability to make others worship him like a god. People started to dress like him and throw themselves at him in a sort of bizarre David Koresh kind of way. The charismatic's weapon of choice appeared to be staring blankly at his followers.

• Cameron doesn't have any science fiction film or television show appearances on the horizon, but you can never be sure where he'll pop up next. Just be sure to avert your eyes before his blank stare reaches you, or you'll be trapped like a deer in headlights.