Farscape Reviews

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My Rating - 8

Fan Rating Average - 3.79

Rate episode?

Rating: 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
# Votes: 31 20 4 5 21 8 13 5 7 9 8

Synopsis
D'Argo and Sikozu come up with a plan to crash Elack onto the Peacekeeper pursuit craft, facilitating their escape. Crichton is forced to consort further with Grayza to ensure success. When the plan goes awry, the crew begins a search for the probe that will reverse the planet's deadly atmospheric conditions, but a most unexpected enemy stops them in their tracks. [DVD]

Filler Quotient: 0, not filler, do not skip this episode.
- Numerous major long term plot threads are serviced here.

Problems
- Sikozu revealed that she's faking her status as a Peacekeeper to Jool and Chiana right in front of two Peacekeeper soldiers easily in earshot. They just stood there while the three of them exchanged information and broke through Chiana's handcuffs. WTF? They deserved to get their asses kicked for their incompetence.

Factoids
- According to Sikozu, Grayza's ability to seduce men with those pheromones is a surgically implanted enhancement that will rapidly reduce her lifespan.

Remarkable Scenes
- Rygel predicting that Sikozu will betray them again.
- John to Grayza regarding Braca interrupting the interrogation session: "Bad news from Smithers?"
- John attempting to kill Grayza but being unable to will himself to do so.
- Braca shooting Scorpius.
- John overcoming Grayza's pheromones and restraining her.
- Elack crashing into the planet.
- The old woman throwing Winona over the cliff to motivate John to go after the probe hunter alien.
- The reassembling of the probe blocking the magnetic summer and unfreezing a group of priests from 12,000 cycles ago at the moment they were frozen.
- Jool staying on the planet to shepherd the resurrected priests.
- The old woman revealing her name as Noranti.

My Review
While the weird looking aquatic alien plot twist toward the end was an annoying red herring, the rest of the episode achieved a much more solid focus which part one lacked somewhat. I greatly enjoyed John's clever, temporary ability to overcome Grayza's wiles and Elack's heroic death was also most fitting. I'm a bit sad to see Jool left behind; she's leaving right when I was starting to like her. Or at least not hate her.

I also rather enjoyed the ambiguous fate of Scorpius in this episode. By now the series has certainly earned this. I have no doubt that Scorpius survived being buried alive, despite his pleas in vain to Sikozu to save him. I certainly hope this isn't the last we see of Jool and especially the plot exploring the link between her species, John's, and Sebaceans. Overall this episode was a solid improvement over part one.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

  • From John Meacham on 2016-04-04 at 10:40pm:
    Sikozu's statements in front of the peacekeepers seem so odd I think it must be a production error of some sort. Either the actual set ended up being much smaller than was thought during story boarding for whatever reason, or the scenes were originally designed with the old aspect ratio/cameras in mind, and when they switched to widescreen with the larger field of view and better cameras it made the peacekeepers seem much closer than intended and it couldn't be fixed in post. They were also playing games with color saturation at that point to indicate the magnetic flux so may not have been able to also pull off the normal narrow depth of view tricks used to indicate distances.
  • From hugo on 2016-06-03 at 7:37am:
    So what prevents Scarrans/Peacekeepers from retrieving the probes now?
  • From Margaret J on 2019-07-25 at 8:03pm:
    So this episode was less difficult to follow than part one but the story regarding the lost alien priests, the aquatic alien and peace/weapon pieces, was still just as boring but now in this the conclusion it also ends up being badly explained.
    And of course another we get another Scorpius is dead supposition. It should annoy me but somehow it does not. I guess I have just accepted that it is something Farscape does once or twice a season with it's villains. I do hope however, that they show how he manages to get out of this latest predicament.
    I ratied the conclusion the same as part one - a six(6)

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My Rating - 2

Fan Rating Average - 4.52

Rate episode?

Rating: 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
# Votes: 29 8 10 19 12 16 33 8 12 8 12

Synopsis
After a forced landing, the crew is divided by an elaborate trap that leaves Crichton, D'Argo, Noranti and Rygel underground in a lava-filled system of caves. Chiana and Sikozu are left outside, trying to re-activate D'Argo's ship. Inside, Crichton and the others are hunted down by mercenaries who are not only protected by energy shield belts, but are led by a monster impervious to the fiery lava. [DVD]

Filler Quotient: 1, partial filler, but has important continuity. I recommend against skipping this one.
- This episode is mostly filler. Making contact with Moya at the end of the episode is trivial continuity that can be understood in context later. But a couple small details are referenced later in extremely minor ways. The body armor acquired in this episode is referenced later, but knowing where they got it isn't super important. Also, clips from this episode are shown briefly in an episode in the middle of the season. None of these references are essential, but it is still pretty neat if you've seen this episode when those references are made.

Problems
- When D'Argo wrapped his tongue around Noranti for leverage, why didn't it just drag both of them into the lava?

Factoids
- Sikozu can go for days without eating.
- John Adam, the actor who played the lead bad guy in this episode also played Bekhesh from Throne for a Loss and Liars, Guns and Money.

Remarkable Scenes
- John, regarding Noranti's food: "That stuff's not gonna turn anybody into a newt is it?" A reference to Voy: Threshold perhaps? 😉
- D'Argo: "They're shielded!" John: "They have body armor? That's a hell of an invention. How come we don't have that?"
- Noranti: "Let me mediate!" D'Argo: "You don't think we should let her try?" John: "No, she's gonna get shot!" D'Argo: "And that would be bad?"
- D'Argo throwing Noranti and John over the lava.
- D'Argo jumping over the lava, slipping, then wrapping his tongue around Noranti's neck for leverage.
- John and D'Argo debating whether or not hitting the guys with the shields with a rock would work.
- Chiana and Sikozu covering D'Argo's ship in his vomit so they can activate the controls sensitive to his DNA.
- John's conversation with Harvey.
- John attempting to rescue Rygel by using the shield to go into the lava.

My Review
Noranti feeds the tired and hungry crew of Lo'La poison, so they all have to land on hostile planet of the week to go throw up, getting themselves into trouble with some bad guys in the process. There's some very effective humor in some scenes, but aside from that this episode is largely just a waste of time.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

  • From Lennier on 2010-07-18 at 8:45pm:
    This episode contains one of the very few moments in the series when I was slightly distracted by Rygel's status as a puppet.

    It's when he's reacting to a figure that turns out to be John Adam's character; Rygel's ears are moving independently of each other and for some reason that looks too "animatronic-like" for me.
  • From Margaret J on 2019-07-27 at 7:47pm:
    Bad Filler except for the very last scene. I rated this one a two (2)
  • From Braaainz on 2019-11-18 at 1:38am:
    Some of the humor falls flat (really, really horrible flat), but there are some definite gems too.
    One of my favorite parts is Dargo and Crighton talking about what to do about Granny.
    Dargo says, "burn her" in dry humor... Crighton asks (out of what sounded like genuine curiosity), if Dargo's people do that to their elderly. It's a much needed break in a stale, predictably piece of dialogue; but it also shows that Crighton is still learning about his teammates' cultures without immediately passing some kind of moral judgement and I found that really appealing.
  • From Mirakindar on 2020-11-13 at 7:37pm:
    Un des plus drôles épisodes que j'ai vus à ce jour. Les dialogues rebondissent de manière inattendue, insérant l'humour à toutes les scènes. Qui plus est, contrairement à plusieurs épisodes précédents, la trame en est claire et se suit avec plaisir jusqu'à son dénouement. Note maximale pour celui-là.

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Farscape - 4x05 - Promises - Originally Aired: 2002-7-12

My Rating - 9

Fan Rating Average - 4.36

Rate episode?

Rating: 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
# Votes: 47 3 25 0 5 60 26 8 8 25 5

Synopsis
Crichton and the crew are reunited on Moya. Crichton finds Aeryn suffering from Heat Delirium and under the care of Scorpius, who wants asylum aboard Moya. Soon after, a giant Lukythian ship appears nearby, and its Captain, Ullom, claims that Aeryn was recently part of a team that assassinated an important Lukythian leader. Ullom offers to heal Aeryn in return for information about the plot. While battling with the notion of trusting Scorpius, Crichton remains unaware that neither Aeryn nor Ullom is telling the whole truth. [DVD]

Filler Quotient: 0, not filler, do not skip this episode.
- Numerous major long term plot threads are serviced here.

Problems
None

Factoids
None

Remarkable Scenes
- Aeryn greeting John as he lands on Moya only to reveal she's suffering from heat delirium and that Scorpius is with her and wants asylum from the Peacekeepers.
- John: "You will never get the wormhole tech from me." Scorpius: "I could not use it even if I had it! I merely want to safeguard it and hope that when the inevitable Scarran bloodbath begins, you make the appropriate choices."
- John: "Damn it Harvey, guns are dangerous man and there ain't no smokin' in my head!"
- Harvey recommending killing Scorpius.
- Rygel breaking the cooling rods.
- Rygel saving Aeryn from killing herself.
- Scorpius removing Harvey from John's head.
- Scorpius revealing that Grayza is planning to kill Moya with an experimental leviathan killing weapon.
- Scorpius revealing that he has a spy aboard the command carrier.
- Sikozu making the alien ship look like Moya to Braca's scans.
- Scorpius revealing that he really does know where Earth is and that he's the only Peacekeeper who does.
- Moya and Pilot deciding that they want the crew to elect a captain.
- John confronting Aeryn about her keeping her pregnancy from him.

My Review
A fantastic episode that draws well on the time honored Farscape cliche of turning old enemies into ambiguous allies. Scorpius fits surprisingly well into Moya's crew given the carefully crafted circumstances for his arrival. In many ways this is his episode as each step of the plot is designed to redeem him further and further. First he saves Aeryn, then he removes Harvey. Both events a delightful counterpoint to Die Me, Dichotomy. Finally he divulges critical Peacekeeper intelligence to save Moya. Way to go Scorpy!

The only wrinkle in the plot is Aeryn's behavior. She spent the first half of the story actively working against John's efforts to save her. Then, even after John goes the last mile to protect whatever it is Aeryn felt she needed to go this far to protect, she still refuses to reveal her pregnancy to him. At this point John's had enough, and I don't blame him. He gave her the perfect opportunity to come clean and she wasted it.

A final point of significant interest is Scorpius revealing to John that he really does know where Earth is and that it wasn't a bluff. Combine that with John's budding wormhole knowledge and I'm not exactly sure what stands between John and going home now! Obviously he might want to not drag characters like Scorpius along with him to Earth, even despite Scorpy's newfound trustworthiness, so this could be a good reason that John's not chomping at the bit to go home right this second. However, the complete sum of this episode works out to another outstanding chapter in Farscape's long term story while setting up nice possibilities for more great stuff to come.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

  • From David on 2011-06-12 at 4:32am:
    My favorite episode because John finally gets a clue and dumps Aeryn. To be frank I would have dumped her butt about 6 seasons back:p
    There's a point in the start when Areyn forces John to promise not to hurt Scorpious.
    "If you love me you won't hurt him or I'll leave Moya" something like that. Perfect manipulation from her there. I doubt she even knows what love is because the first thing she reverted to was to manipulate John into not hurting Scorpious. Obviously Areyn hasn't learned a thing in her time away and she never learned that people can change from better to worse. (Goes to her comments "People can change can't they John?")
    Having Scorpious on board Moya would have been great for 2-3 eps but I was always against him being on board for a whole season. Personally I would have rather John shoot Scorpy in the head 9 or 10 times and resolve 99% of his problems right there on the spot. And if Areyn wanted to leave, well good luck see how far you get with maxed out heat delirium. I guess the writers had to write Scorpious on board somehow.....I stopped watching this series at S3 with the whole "I love you but we can never act on it" crapola. Pure soap opera.Am am now finally getting to watch Farscape after snagging the entire series for a song..
  • From Margaret J on 2019-07-27 at 8:43pm:
    First off Claudia Black's acting when she first sees John is once again phenomenal. Secondly I do not care if Scorpius saved her and put her in the cooling suit IMO it is against her character (PK training/upbringing and all) not to kill or at least want to kill Scorpius after all he has done to them. I could more see John being swayed by such emotion and or gratitude than I do her.
    Other than that one thing I liked the episode a lot. it is nice to have them all together again. And even though we never got any real info on why and how the assassination took place the story still worked. Based on Farscapes past history I am sure we will get the back story on it all at some point.
    IMO this is the first really good episode of season four. I rated it an eight (8).

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Farscape - 4x06 - Natural Election - Originally Aired: 2002-7-19

My Rating - 6

Fan Rating Average - 4.91

Rate episode?

Rating: 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
# Votes: 18 13 7 20 5 2 10 5 6 36 3

Synopsis
Crichton correctly predicts a wormhole's appearance near Moya, but simultaneously a giant space plant captures the Leviathan. An attack with D'Argo's ship only succeeds in sending the plant into Moya's conduits, making it even more difficult to kill. Eventually, an agent is found that will repel the plant, but it only exists in Scorpius' cooling rods. In order to save Moya, Crichton will have to place trust in his arch nemesis. [DVD]

Filler Quotient: 0, not filler, do not skip this episode.
- Numerous major long term plot threads are serviced here.

Problems
None

Factoids
- The votes tallied for captain: Rygel voted for himself. Noranti voted for "the divine eternal." Sikozu voted for Scorpius. Someone voted for Aeryn, my guess is probably D'Argo. That leaves John, Aeryn, Chiana, and Pilot casting the winning four votes for D'Argo.
- Sebacean females can retain an embryonic fetus for up to seven cycles without it growing further. Only a surgeon can release the stasis to allow the baby to grow.

Remarkable Scenes
- Moya's crew rotating the role of captain every couple hours.
- John correctly predicting a wormhole.
- Aeryn to Chiana regarding John's knowledge of her baby: "What he doesn't know is that it may not be his." And she wasn't talking about the other John, either!
- D'Argo: "I love shooting things."
- Noranti: "I know lots of poisons." Sikozu: "Yes. I'm sure you do."
- Scorpius' cooling rods repelling the plant.
- D'Argo revealing Aeryn's secret to John.
- D'Argo's response to Rygel beating himself up for being in command while Moya was attacked by the plant: "There are so many other reasons why you should hate yourself at the moment."
- The fan room exploding.
- John: "Does it hurt?" Aeryn: "Mmm-hmm." John: "Where?" Aeryn: "Where it's bleeding."
- Scorpius breaking free of his restraints and saving the day.
- Chiana's near miss with the fans.
- D'Argo getting elected captain.
- Aeryn revealing the nature of her pregnancy to John.

My Review
Space plant monster of the week juxtaposed with some real progress being made in the John and Aeryn relationship plot. The space plant monster was certainly annoying and not necessary, but the plot advancement concerning the relationship makes up for it quite well along with a few other nice details such as John demonstrating an ability to correctly predict wormhole appearances and the crew electing D'Argo as captain.

One of my favorite details of this episode is Aeryn noting that she no longer sees any distinction between the two Johns from season 3. This means the principal issue of the season 3 finale for her has been overcome. Now they just need to get over their trust issues brought on by this withheld pregnancy along with, of course, determine who the father is. Sadly though there is little depth beyond this to explore as the space plant monster dominated most of the story. As such, this episode only works out to being slightly above average.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

  • From Roger on 2011-10-09 at 9:10am:
    You really think D'Argo voted Aeryn for captain just after Aeryn revealed she had taken the liberty to give Scorpius asylum on Moya and had promised him the others wouldn't harm him, and expected to uphold to the promise she made on their behalf?
    D'Argo and Aeryn most likely voted for themselves.
  • From DK on 2012-08-08 at 1:58am:
    Ka Dargo is no where near as angry as he used to be.  He's practically a team player now.   Wish they would have fixed him long ago.  That would have saved me a few headaches from gritting my teeth whenever he was yelling illogically, and babbling intelligibly in all those episodes.
  • From Roger 2 on 2015-10-28 at 5:31pm:
    I think Pilot voted for Aeryn due to the historical bond between Moya and Aeryn. This means as much as I hate to say it, D'Argo voted for himself.
  • From Margaret J on 2019-07-29 at 7:42pm:
    I agree that the Moya space plant plot was just sort of there and in many ways felt like it just got in the way of the other more interesting plots (the captain picking and Aeryn/John relationship)
    I loved the character moments in this one. Aeryn telling Chianna her secret, Chianna telling Dargo, Dargo telling John. And Chianna's reaction when Aeryn tells her to just forget she ever told her was too funny. It is a little disappointing that John did not see Aeryn's reasons for not telling him about the pregnancy as valid and decide to just go forward together but I understand the writers POV it creates drama and continued angst - just kinda wish they had come up with a different way to generate it. To me this one rates an easy eight (8)

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Farscape - 4x08 - I Shrink Therefore I Am - Originally Aired: 2002-8-2

My Rating - 5

Fan Rating Average - 3.94

Rate episode?

Rating: 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
# Votes: 23 48 29 22 3 10 4 11 28 15 11

Synopsis
When Moya is raided by bounty hunters working for the Peacekeepers, every crew member is captured except for Crichton and Noranti. The armored intruders shrink the captives and imprison them inside holding cavities in their torsos - if Crichton harms them, he endangers his friends as well. Finding that Scorpius is also free and on the run, Crichton teams up with him to fight off the menace, unaware that the leader of the bounty hunters has a hidden agenda. [DVD]

Filler Quotient: 0, not filler, do not skip this episode.
- This episode contains plot relevant bits concerning John's drug use and Moya entering tormented space. This is also the first episode to depict a ruling-class Scarran and the first episode where the crew starts to go a bit easier on Scorpius, largely due to the fact that they learn that Scorpius can break out of the jail cells at will but has simply chosen not to up until now.

Problems
- Despite Rygel's objections to the technical problem, Sikozu is right. They were too small to breathe the air. The only way to rationalize this is to assume the technology is capable of restructuring their anatomy so as to overcome this issue somehow.

Factoids
- Sikozu designed replacement cooling rods for Scorpius, but they don't function as well. As such, Scorpius gets overheated in times of stress.

Remarkable Scenes
- John: "Let me talk to Captain James T. D'Argo." Then Noranti laughing at the joke as if she somehow gets it.
- Pilot tipping off John that something's wrong by describing very unusual behavior in the crew as to why they're unable to receive him when he arrives in the pod.
- John evacuating the pod with Noranti and slamming it into the boarding party's docked craft.
- John encountering Scorpius and Scorpius revealing that he had a means of escape at his disposal the whole time he was on Moya but never chose to use it until now, when he needed to to avoid the bounty hunter boarding party.
- John teaming up with Scorpius to go after the bounty hunters.
- John: "This is John Crichton paging the head Cylon. Pick up the phone, Imperious Leader!"
- The bounty hunter aliens shrinking some of Moya's crew.
- John's bear trap.
- Scorpius saving John.
- The head bounty hunter revealing himself to Scorpius as a Scarran.
- John revealing to the bounty hunters that their leader is a Scarran in disguise.
- The Scarran executing all his officers once they discovered he was a Scarran.
- Shrunken Aeryn riding 1812.
- John shrinking the Scarran and then stepping on him. John: "One small step for man..."
- John forgetting that Noranti was outside the ship and asking D'Argo to take care of that.

My Review
This episode is kind of a mixed bag. It's a delightfully fun story for the most part, containing such memorable scenes as shrunken Aeryn riding DRD 1812, John singing the episode score to himself while going bad guy hunting, John ramming the pod into the bounty hunter ship, and John squishing the shrunken Scarran, but there's a number of wrinkles in the plot that wreck some of the potential for the episode to rise above merely average. For one, the science behind the shrunken people is a wee bit dicey, but most importantly the ending's silly, half-hearted cliffhanger concerning "tormented space" was just lame.

Honestly, tormented space? Really? What a groan-inducing line. Anyone else getting bad memories of Star Trek Voyager's episode The Fight, which focused on the similarly bizarre concept of the so called chaotic space? Or how about the fact that Pilot says tormented space is filled with wormholes? Or the fact that everyone on the ship already seems to have known about this region of space for some time, including John? If it's so commonly known, why didn't Scorpius do his wormhole research in the vicinity? The whole bit of exposition is just sloppy and annoying. Oh well. Decently fun ride of an episode otherwise.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

  • From Simon on 2015-11-19 at 8:34pm:
    Reconstruction their anatomy would leave their brains to fable to function properly.
  • From Margaret J on 2019-07-31 at 7:28pm:
    If you just accept the silly shrinking bit this is surprisingly a pretty good and entertaining episode. Chianna trying and failing to seduce the bad guy was hilarious. We learn that Sorpius Could have gotten out of his cell anytime he just chose not to. And we see that John has been taking the forget herbs for what he thinks/says is simply assisting him deal with the Aeryn situation. I see a big addiction story coming. I only hope it is done well and does not take up a whole lot of time or episodes. I rated this one a seven(7)
  • From Gary on 2020-08-20 at 12:01pm:
    Shrinking, ugh. This has all the hallmarks of a common Star Trek mistake - someone thought a tech would be cool for whatever reason (and yes, it is quite entertaining to see the Scarran squished), so without thinking of the consequences they introduce a tech which:
    (a) makes no sense, Rygel's "just go with it" notwithstanding, and
    (b) which is an incredible weapon they should use constantly from now on. Non-lethal yet instantly incapacitating, even rendering weapons (like the overload) ineffective, and working against otherwise-tough opponents like Scarrans. Screw wormhole technology, the Peacekeepers should be arming everyone with these, and waltzing all over any Scarrans they meet. Now our heroes have picked up about a half-dozen of these super-weapons (and one overpowered shield belt). Moya may be unarmed, but on the ground there is nobody more dangerous than our fugitives.

    Yes, one can - and hopefully the show will - find ways to minimize the shrink-ray. Maybe it's short range - but just slap it on a DRD and use it in ambush! Casually, carelessly throwing in game-changing tech is Star Trek's stupidity, I don't need it spewing all over other franchises.

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Farscape - 4x10 - Coup By Clam - Originally Aired: 2002-8-16

My Rating - 4

Fan Rating Average - 4.03

Rate episode?

Rating: 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
# Votes: 23 17 5 8 46 11 5 8 11 8 6

Synopsis
While in quarantine high above the patriarchal planet Khurtanan, the crew shares a meal of alien mollusks and almost instantaneously suffers a violent physical reaction. Each crew member becomes bodily linked to one of the others, Crichton to Sikozu, Aeryn to Rygel, and so on. It soon becomes clear they have been deliberately poisoned by the local doctor and are being blackmailed in exchange for the cure. [DVD]

Filler Quotient: 1, partial filler, but has important continuity. I recommend against skipping this one.
- This episode is mostly filler, but one short clip of it is shown briefly in the next episode. The reference is not essential, but it's pretty neat if you've seen this episode.

Problems
None

Factoids
- The milking chair from Scratch 'n' Sniff is visible in the elite club as a decoration in this episode.

Remarkable Scenes
- The doctor fatally poisoning Moya's crew and demanding money for the cure.
- D'Argo and Noranti sharing the sensation of an orgasm.
- The doctor getting shot.
- John and Rygel flailing about as Aeryn and Sikozu get beat up.
- John and Rygel crossdressing.
- Sikozu getting her finger cut off and John experiencing it.
- Scorpius consuming the poison to lessen the burden on the others.
- Rygel biting off the tip of the doctor's nose.

My Review
An episode surprisingly similar to Star Trek DS9's dreadful Profit and Lace episode but far, far better executed. Unlike the DS9 episode, this story's crossdressing is a subplot and the joke subtler rather than overplayed to the point of being embarrassing. Instead, what steals the show in this episode is the poison primary plot, which, while it is complete filler, it is quite funny nevertheless. The success of the comedy is achieved by repeating the very successful gag from season three of having two characters neurologically linked so that they feel each others pain. It was most amusing with Braca and D'Argo and even funnier with John and Scorpius last season and it was nicely used here as well. Overall, while still filler, this episode is much more enjoyable than the last one.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

  • From Margaret J on 2019-08-02 at 8:52pm:
    An entertaining an fun episode which also shows some good character growth for Scorpius. His (Scorpius) voluntarily linking himself to to others and putting himself through hell in order to save them showed some pretty serious selflessness. I rated this a six (6)
  • From Will on 2022-02-05 at 8:04pm:
    Surprisingly really enjoyable episode, very silly obviously, but I liked it. The "coup by clam" was very interesting and I liked the concept of the female revolution. A little high on the gross factor though. Urine??! Scorpius putting his own body on the line to save the others was also quite selfless and I loved his dramatics.

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Farscape - 4x11 - Unrealized Reality - Originally Aired: 2002-8-23

My Rating - 9

Fan Rating Average - 5.52

Rate episode?

Rating: 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
# Votes: 29 18 5 7 6 13 1 8 15 40 23

Synopsis
Crichton is sucked down a wormhole he correctly senses will appear near Moya. Within "wormhole limbo" he is confronted by an interdimensional being who is intent on discovering why Crichton was entrusted with this knowledge. The alien sends Crichton through various "realities" of past events to illustrate how dangerous it can be if wormhole knowledge is misused. [DVD]

Filler Quotient: 0, not filler, do not skip this episode.
- Numerous major long term plot threads are serviced here.

Problems
None

Factoids
None

Remarkable Scenes
- Chiana regarding humans: "They can barely escape their own gravity."
- Rygel: "I wouldn't have risen to Dominar if I wasn't good at recognizing things before they happen." Pilot, annoyed: "You were deposed in a coup led by your own cousin."
- John getting shot through a wormhole in nothing but his space suit.
- John encountering an alien in the wormhole(?) and then suddenly being transported back to the moment he entered this part of the galaxy, refusing to take it terribly seriously.
- The alien revealing that he targeted Moya with the wormhole Moya disappeared into at the end of the third season.
- The alien revealing that the vision John experienced was real; an unrealized reality and that wormhole technology can make those realities real.
- The unrealized reality in which all the alien characters on Moya are strangely mixed up.
- John exiting the wormhole targeting Moya, but arriving at Earth instead.

My Review
This trippy episode is some pretty hardcore science fiction, diving deep into Farscape's fictional wormhole physics. As a result we get a very heady episode exploring the what-if physics consequences for what sort of reality we'd live in if wormholes, as depicted on Farscape, were really real. Basing this thought experiment on the real physics of relativity and the fictional physics of the instantaneous nature of wormhole travel, the episode deliberately fails to resolve the time travel paradoxes inherent in the idea, choosing instead to go in the direction of using this nature of wormholes to create yet another way in which developing a technology to harness them could result in a terrifying amount of power in the wrong hands.

Not only could wormholes destroy a planet or perhaps a whole planetary system itself as depicted in prior episodes, but now it's revealed that they can be used for time travel and also to fundamentally alter reality itself, except for the person wielding the technology who seems to maintain an immutable frame of reference. The ancients who currently are in sole control this technology appear afraid of their own knowledge, which is confirmed by their "test" of John's demeanor, stating that fear is the correct answer. It's almost as if they consider their own very existence to be as overwrought as the power they possess. Their obsession with keeping this knowledge a secret seems to stop just shy of their own willful self destruction.

Aside from big exposition and the fun exploration of fantasy physics, this episode has much to offer in simple storytelling as well. This episode does much to redeem the third season's lame cliffhanger, revealing that our ancient alien friend was behind the suspiciously sudden appearance of the wormhole which devoured Moya. It's also fun watching all the silly unrealized realities. My only real complaint, aside from the wonky cliffhanger leading us into the next episode being yet another Earth-but-not-really episode, is that the directing of this episode is at times too trippy and can be at times hard to follow. Overall though I find this episode's unusual style and tone to be quite bold and refreshing.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

  • From Hugo on 2016-09-09 at 4:33am:
    I liked the wormhole alien, great acting - all in all a decent episode!
  • From Margaret J on 2019-08-03 at 7:23pm:
    Ah we finally learn what happened to Moya between season three's finale and season four's premiere.
    John and hence us the viewers learn more about wormholes, time and "unrealized realities).
    Great cliffhanger ending of John floating above what I presume is earth was not expecting that.
    Part of me wanted to give this a ten(10) but I rated this a nine (9) simply because even though I suspect they will show significant character development for John before this concludes they did not really show it this episode they did lay the ground work for it though.
  • From Braaainz on 2019-11-19 at 8:20pm:
    I really liked the science fiction time/space travel aspect here.

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Farscape - 4x12 - Kansas - Originally Aired: 2002-12-30

My Rating - 10

Fan Rating Average - 4.3

Rate episode?

Rating: 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
# Votes: 46 2 6 5 5 7 7 4 6 12 21

Synopsis
The crew travels through a wormhole to Earth, 1985, and Crichton finds he has somehow disastrously changed the course of time - his father Jack is now slated to fly the doomed Challenger mission. Lying low in Crichton's home town, the 'aliens' use the timely Halloween celebrations to remain (almost) anonymous, while Crichton tries to revert the timeline - in the process putting his younger self in mortal danger. [DVD]

Filler Quotient: 0, not filler, do not skip this episode.
- Numerous major long term plot threads are serviced here.

Problems
- How did Chiana interact with young John? Did she learn English too?

Factoids
- When Chiana met young John, she accidentally identified herself as Karen Shaw, the girl Crichton claimed in Losing Time to have lost his virginity to at the age of 16. This means that John lost his virginity to Chiana before he even met her. I wonder why John didn't recognize Chiana when he first met her in season one then? 😉

Remarkable Scenes
- John, in orbit of Earth in nothing but his space suit: "I can't believe I'm gonna die here. This is the most beautiful thing I've ever seen."
- John asking D'Argo to follow John through the wormhole.
- John discovering that he's traveled to Earth, but it's in the 1980s.
- John observing his younger self.
- John discovering that his dad will be on the doomed Challenger shuttle.
- John confronting his younger self.
- Aeryn watching Sesame Street.
- Chiana flipping off an Earth woman.
- Rygel accidentally being exposed to an Earth woman.
- Grayza locating Moya.
- Aeryn referring to Rygel as Kermit. 😉
- Noranti drugging the cop.
- John confronting his mom, telling her to stop Jack from going up on the Challenger.
- D'Argo attempting to drive the cop car.
- Rygel on a sugar high.
- Scorpius meeting with Braca, who is revealed to be secretly still loyal to Scorpius.
- Rygel scaring kids to get more sugar.
- John using his semi-corporeality to his advantage to convince his mother to prevent Jack from boarding Challenger.
- The single cop who remembered everything being perceived as crazy.
- John returning to Moya only to discover that Moya is in orbit of Earth and it's also the correct year.
- John seeing his father aboard Moya and acting with immediate disbelief.

My Review
Having John return to Earth for real but in the wrong year would have been good enough for a fantastic story by itself, but the amazing twist at the end of having John return to Earth at the correct year along with Moya and with his dad having already boarded Moya is an absolutely fantastic development. One of the greatest fascinations of Farscape's ongoing story is to explore the idea of what would happen if John did some day return to Earth with all the knowledge and technology he had gained out in space. They touched on this way back in A Human Reaction, but it was deliberately exaggerated and I rightfully never believed it was a realistic portrayal of what would really happen.

This time though it's real. No illusions, no smoke and mirrors, real. I loved John's disbelief at the end of the episode. Even though there's absolutely no reason to think any of this is a fake this time, John doesn't buy it. He thinks it it just has to be a fake. He's become paranoid. And can you blame him? I certainly can't. The best part about all this for me is this is all happening in the middle of a season. They didn't even save this big moment for some big finale. If the follow-through of this plot arc is as bold as the setup, we've got the makings for perhaps the best storytelling ever depicted on Farscape.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

  • From Lennier on 2010-07-26 at 1:36pm:
    Quite an effective episode. I once read on a forum that Farscape has amazing stingers-great revelations and events on which to end episodes. "Kansas" has one of the best of the series.

    The Moyans on Earth thread was mostly played to perfection, and the story was quite strong. However, what was with Mulder and Scully in 1985, though? :-)
  • From Hugo on 2016-09-09 at 1:00am:
    Sorry, not too impressed, found it mostly boring and dull - and this has been done many times on Star Trek and also e.g. Back to the Future. The whole setup is not very impressive - and the plot mostly so-so.

    Thumbs down. Next ep is AMAZING though!
  • From Margaret J on 2019-08-03 at 8:24pm:
    A mixed bag. I liked seeing the Moya crew on earth and having it be halloween was a great idea but it was played like a comedy and the stuff on Moya very serious and kinda dark every time it switched it was jarring and ruined my immersion. Loved the ending. Rated this an eight (8)

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Farscape - 4x13 - Terra Firma - Originally Aired: 2003-1-6

My Rating - 10

Fan Rating Average - 6.37

Rate episode?

Rating: 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
# Votes: 29 5 7 2 5 4 7 13 5 12 61

Synopsis
The crew returns to Moya - in orbit around modern-day Earth - to find Jack and a contingent of Earth dignitaries waiting for them. The aliens are introduced to an amazed and apprehensive public, but soon find life in the public eye difficult. As Crichton tries to readjust to life on Earth, his relationships become strained, especially with Aeryn. Meanwhile, a monstrous assassin sent by Grayza hunts for Crichton, and will stop at nothing to accomplish its mission. [DVD]

Filler Quotient: 0, not filler, do not skip this episode.
- Numerous major long term plot threads are serviced here.

Problems
- The plot plays it a bit fast and loose with the aliens being able to converse presumably in English with various human characters. The fact that they've been there for over a month before John arrives giving them all time to learn English helps, but that's still pushing it. Presumably some of the human characters took translator microbes? It would've been nice if the plot buttoned this up a bit.

Factoids
None

Remarkable Scenes
- Jack revealing that Sikozu made first contact with Earth, in English, when IASA detected Moya in orbit 42 days ago.
- John being reunited with his friends and family.
- Earth officials examining the technology John brought back.
- Aeryn regarding John's pet cat: "Does he talk?"
- Jack: "Every nation's demanding equal access to the aliens and all the information we get from them." John: "Of course they are. We're gonna give it to them." Jack: "I don't see why. Why should we give them access to technology they can use against us?" John: "Because it's the right thing to do. Wouldn't worry about it, dad. Subcommittee will tie it up for years and load it down with a ton of guidelines." Jack: "Now you're being naive, son. The best and safest thing to do is keep it to ourselves." John: "Space travel was your dream to unite mankind. When did that change?" Jack: "September the 11th."
- Grayza communicating with her agent aboard Moya.
- Aeryn taking Jack on a trip to Saturn in her prowler.
- The alien monster attacking John's friends.
- Scorpius revealing to Sikozu that he is planning to kamikaze the wormhole if Grayza locates it and comes through.
- Jack doing as John asks and inviting all nations to participate in the ongoing Farscape mission.
- The alien monster attacking John's family.
- D'Argo taking out the alien.
- Aeryn: "Merry frelling Christmas."
- Aeryn pressing Noranti on the drugs John's taking.
- John resolving to leave Earth again, to protect it from alien attacks.

My Review
The setup pays off perfectly. John returns to Earth and the political consequences are explored with sufficient depth and nuance to make the climax of this arc well worth the buildup. I loved the detail that the September 11th terrorist attacks changed John's dad in a fundamental way, making him less idealistic and more predisposed to hoard any and all information and technology John has brought back with him so as to protect the United States against its enemies.

John, on the other hand, both lacking the experience of having lived through the event and being the only human to have lived through his perhaps worse experiences on the other side of the galaxy possesses a much different perspective. From John's point of view, the enemies of America are the Peacekeepers and the Scarrans. It's obvious to John from the very first moment that what he brings Earth is terrors beyond their imagination and that the best way to protect America, along with the rest of Earth, is to "get the hell out of Dodge" and get Earth off the radar of the Peacekeepers and Scarrans as quickly as possible.

John's decision to leave is a fateful one. John's no longer a man running away from his enemies. He's a man with a greater purpose. The only way he'll ever be able to return home again is if he finds a way to end the conflict between the Peacekeepers and the Scarrans, or at least end their lust over wormhole technology. John's immediate feelings over having to leave I'm sure are quite confused. The Peacekeepers killed off his best friend DK and DK's new wife. And his homecoming while not as absurd as A Human Reaction predicted was certainly bittersweet.

Meanwhile John's and Aeryn's confused relationship mirrors John's ambivalence regarding his homecoming. The two even after all this time still can't sort out their feelings for each other. But real progress has been made on both fronts. Aeryn's finally starting to understand why John acts the way he does by discovering his drug use and getting a grip on his cultural contexts first hand. As for John, his decision to leave Earth was the right call, even if it was a hard one. Both characters have begun a journey to regain their focuses on the things that matter to them most. An absolutely fantastic episode.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

  • From Ben on 2011-12-11 at 1:40pm:
    Why is the fan rating so low? This is one of the best episodes from season 4.
  • From Rob UK on 2015-01-27 at 11:57pm:
    Between Kansas and Terra Firma this is Farscape at it's finest, the human reaction is in my opinion highly accurate as we bicker between each other not knowing the bigger picture, that being we are ant's to the rest of the universe who are all wearing very big boots and they wouldn't even need to use more than a single ship to destroy our entire planet yet we squabble over the few trinkets presented by our visitors and hoard our little secrets like they are worth something in this bigger picture, Chianna said it perfectly talking with Dargo as they left the big wigs party about maybe the reason we haven't left our planet is we are too busy fighting each other.

    When we look at the non fiction of our world today, the racism, bigotry, religions and wars and the idiots we have running our countries, the frantic dog eat dog of capitalism, the consumer machine chewing us all up and turning us all on each other over meagre possessions, if a real force from outside this planet came with intentions to destroy us we wouldn't have a leg to stand on, we'd bicker and squabble over who does what and why hoarding our secret tech that needed shared to put up any sort of fight back, more than likely turn on each other and try and form some sort of collaboration with the attackers protecting the people of one nation in trade for the people of another, we'd do the job for them.

    Like John said to Dargo in apology for the way he'd been treat, "We don't like anybody" when i was a kid i used to think we were getting better as a people and slowly but surely evolving but i was sadly deluded by my desires from seeing the big picture.

    My apologies I am normally much more positive in my postings on this site
  • From Hugo on 2016-09-08 at 4:54pm:
    This is the very first episode this season that I feel really excited about - in comparison all the others were quite a yawnfest. A kick-ass view to end it with too, John marching on looking badass...

    One thing though - Braca with the device on his forehead, poor actor having to go through that.

    I think Kent McCord is doing a great job, and the chemistry between him and Browder is great - and Aeryn is great in this ep.

    Whoa! Loved most of it!
  • From Will on 2022-02-05 at 10:47pm:
    One of the best episodes of farscape. Agree with the other commenter that there is no way that this episode should have a 5.95 average rating. This is farscape at its best. Everyone's already made great points about why. This, Kansas, and Unrealized Reality are like a holy Trinity of season 4 and they were all super exciting to watch, like a good book you stay up all night reading.

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Farscape - 4x15 - Mental as Anything - Originally Aired: 2003-1-20

My Rating - 5

Fan Rating Average - 4.6

Rate episode?

Rating: 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
# Votes: 15 1 3 5 9 6 6 7 4 7 4

Synopsis
Scorpius takes Crichton, D'Argo and Rygel into an advanced training camp where students learn mental discipline. D'Argo is confronted with the arrival of Macton, the Peacekeeper who murdered D'Argo's wife, Lo'Laan, then framed him for the crime. When Scorpius forces Crichton into torturous anti-Scarran training, D'Argo must face the demons from his past... alone. [DVD]

Filler Quotient: 0, not filler, do not skip this episode.
- This episode wraps up a lot of loose threads with D'Argo, John's mental training is also interesting in the context of the final arc of season four, and episode is also referenced in a few places as setup for the plot of the next episode.

Problems
- D'Argo had the wrong makeup in his flashbacks.
- A single frame in a closeup of the hot coals in John's heat hole is inappropriately edited as follows: this is the bad frame and this is the good frame that follows.

Factoids
None

Remarkable Scenes
- D'Argo encountering Macton at the training camp.
- Macton contending that D'Argo may really have killed his wife but simply may not remember doing it because Luxan hyper rage causes blackouts.
- John referring to the instructor as "Master Jedi."
- John in the heat hole.
- Macton taking out the instructor.
- Macton insinuating that Lo'Laan killed herself rather than be beaten by D'Argo over and over.
- Macton finally revealing the truth: that he accidentally killed his sister during an argument with her over D'Argo, then used the accident as a means to get D'Argo incarcerated.

My Review
D'Argo finally confronts Macton and John undergoes anti-Scarran training. This episode was a bit slow and a little too hokey for my tastes at times. Despite the many endorsements from main characters, the tactics employed by the "Master Jedi" as John called him seem questionably effective at achieving their stated goals. Much of this episode felt too much like mystic voodoo to me. However, this theme was toned down just enough that there's plenty of worthwhile story to extract from these events.

D'Argo's confrontation with Macton is the centerpiece of the episode. It was executed such that it was wholly true to his character in every way, which is saying a lot for a character as well developed as D'Argo. John's training was less interesting, though amusing. Obviously it remains to be seen whether or not there will be any kind of payoff from John learning how to resist heat in this fashion, as the inevitable Scarran confrontation Scorpius expects has yet to come to pass. Overall though a decent story.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

  • From Lennier on 2010-07-28 at 2:20am:
    I sometimes like to predict your ratings, and it turns out I was spot on this time. A very average offering.

    I must also say that the scene between Scorpius and Katoya, in which they play catch with a metaphysical energy ball, was a waste of screen time.
  • From Margaret J on 2019-08-06 at 7:15pm:
    Re the Dargo plot - the way it played out felt like been here, done this story many times on many different programs so, I think the episode would have been bette, certainly less predictable if it had turned out that Dargo had actually killed his wife in a fit of hyper rage. I rated this one a five (5)

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Farscape - 4x16 - Bringing Home The Beacon - Originally Aired: 2003-1-27

My Rating - 8

Fan Rating Average - 4.67

Rate episode?

Rating: 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
# Votes: 29 2 22 55 0 8 46 5 23 24 7

Synopsis
While purchasing a camouflage device for Moya, Aeryn and Sikozu witness the nearby landing of a Peacekeeper squad led by Grayza and Braca. Chiana and Noranti choose to undergo genetic manipulation to elude the searching Peacekeepers. Aeryn and Sikozu spy on Grayza who has convened a secret meeting with Scarran emissaries. Aware that the meeting could have catastrophic consequences, Aeryn decides to assassinate Grayza. [DVD]

Filler Quotient: 0, not filler, do not skip this episode.
- Numerous major long term plot threads are serviced here.

Problems
- Chiana's disguise doesn't seem like it should have been terribly effective. It's basically just different hair and clothes. Noranti's wasn't much better. Plus it seemed to work in a completely arbitrary fashion. Some people recognized them and were all like, "Hey why do you look different?" Others (like Braca) were completely fooled. And there was no rhyme or reason to any of that. The whole thing was seriously lazy in its execution.
- Why were the translator microbes unable to translate the Scarran language? And if the translator microbes cannot translate the Scarran language, why are the Scarrans able to communicate routinely with other species? Do the Scarrans speak two languages? One which is translatable by the microbes and one which is not?

Factoids
- Noranti seems immune to poisons.
- Grayza has been conditioned to resist the Scarran heat mind probing. Grayza also indicated that, at the very least, everyone else in her entourage had been conditioned with this training as well.
- War Minister Ahkna's father used to rule the Scarrans, but he was deposed.
- Francesca Buller, the wife of lead actor Ben Browder (who plays John Crichton) plays War Minister Ahkna in this episode. This is her fourth role in the series. She previously played M'Lee from Bone To Be Wild, ro-NA from Look at the Princess, and Raxil from Scratch 'n' Sniff. Buller has stated that she based her performance for this role on Alice Krige's performance as the Borg Queen in Star Trek VIII: First Contact and Cate Blanchett's performance as Queen Elizabeth I in the film Elizabeth.

Remarkable Scenes
- Noranti determining that the free drinks were actually a drug cocktail and warning the others not to drink it.
- Peacekeepers and Scarrans arriving at the trading outpost.
- Grayza offering War Minister Ahkna the Luxan territories in exchange for peace.
- Ahkna betraying Grayza, capturing her and Braca, and taking them away to be interrogated.
- Noranti drugging the Charrid and making him turn on his comrade.
- Chiana being mistaken for a transport pod thief because of her disguise.
- John figuring out Aeryn is an impostor.

My Review
This skillfully written episode is a much better executed counterpoint to the previous episode. The girls go on a quest to procure an equally mundane objective as the guys were tasked with in the last episode, but in the process the girls are swept into some epic developments with regards to the political machinations of the Peacekeepers and the Scarrans and the cliffhanger surrounding Aeryn's capture by the Scarrans seals the deal.

Along the way there are a number of nice touches. Having just the girls as the primary protagonists of the story is an unusual choice and leads to some interesting character dynamics. Of particular note is the disproportionately important roles that Sikozu and Noranti played in the episode, which was a nice change of pace. I especially enjoyed Noranti detecting that the free drinks were poison. This nice touch of a scene is a fantastic parallel to a similar scene in Star Trek DS9's episode Ties of Blood and Water in which Weyoun similarly identifies poison by drinking it and then exhibiting immunity.

Continuing the trend of well executed female characters, Grayza of course makes a prominent appearance in this episode acting opposite to the awesome new villain: War Minister Ahkna. This Ahkna is the best offering from the Scarrans yet, as she adds a great deal of texture and subtlety to their interactions. Ahkna is not the blunt instrument that her minions and lackeys are. She truly is Grayza's Scarran counterpart in every way.

I greatly enjoyed that she saw fit to reference the recent destruction of one of their dreadnoughts and that she was keen enough to suggest that it may have been a lucky shot with an experimental weapon or possibly not even a Peacekeeper achievement at all. The whole series of negotiations was indeed a lot of fun. Ahkna played Grayza like a fiddle. Overall while this episode is mostly setup for what's likely to be cooler stuff to come later it manages to stand well on its own as quite an entertaining piece.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

  • From Margaret J on 2019-08-06 at 8:16pm:
    Loved seeing all the girls work together. Good main or over-arching plot progression and wow Areyn being not Aeryn surprised me. Poor John serious PTSD right here. I think for me this was the best episode so far this season. Ten (10) out of ten ratinf from me.
  • From Gary on 2020-08-28 at 10:44am:
    Excellent seeing other characters shine, though a few irritants:
    (a) Grayza really came off as foolish in this, making Scorpius' position on negotiating with Scarrans very obviously correct - she should have started negotiating for the disputed territories, not for "peace" which just screams "we're weak".
    (b) As always, Scarrans are ridiculously overpowered. What's the point of bringing guards to a meeting (and a whole command carrier just outside) if it's so easy to be captured? Though if our heroines hadn't taken out the two patrolling guards the Scarran plan would have failed, since those two could have reported what had happened - the Scarrans weren't watching them. How lucky.
    (c) Damned shape-shifting. The "genetic modification" was lazy execution as Kethinov points out, and then the Scarrans have some tech which convincingly and REALLY QUICKLY copies someone? Less than half an "arn" to capture Aeryn, get her to the machine, duplicate her and dress up the copy?
    (d) The DRDs reported that Aeryn was NOT broadcasting the signal - that she was a biomechanoid wouldn't change the fact she was sending out a signal!
    (e) If Aeryn was using one of our heroes' new shrink-rays, that Scarran would have been toast. Why are they still carrying pulse pistols? (I know, there might be technical limitations. Just... stop it with the magic tech.)

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Farscape - 4x17 - A Constellation of Doubt - Originally Aired: 2003-2-10

My Rating - 9

Fan Rating Average - 4.81

Rate episode?

Rating: 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
# Votes: 27 5 5 8 6 14 4 6 4 17 15

Synopsis
Having overheard Ahkna, the Scarran Minister of War, mention the secret Scarran base known as Katratzi, Sikozu is sure this is where the Scarrans intend to take their captive, Aeryn Sun. Though Moya's data banks have no record of Katratzi, Crichton's sure he's heard the word "Katratzi" somewhere before, if only he could remember where. Unable to sleep, Crichton pores over a documentary intercepted from Earth that examines the visit by "aliens" - Moya's crew - and discovers that the documentary just might hold the key to locating Katratzi - and Aeryn. [DVD]

Filler Quotient: 0, not filler, do not skip this episode.
- Numerous major long term plot threads are serviced here.

Problems
- Once again the plot plays it a bit fast and loose with the aliens being able to converse presumably in English with various human characters. The fact that they've been there for over a month before John arrived giving them all time to learn English helps, but that's still pushing it. Presumably some of the human characters took translator microbes? It would've been nice if the plot buttoned this up a bit.

Factoids
- Don't skip the end credits! There's more material from this episode's documentary in the end credits.
- This episode has a large number of interesting and notable deleted scenes that are worth watching.
- Both Executive Producer David Kemper and Brian Henson played cameo roles as humans being interviewed in this episode. Kemper played the man whose face was masked and Henson played Professor Edmund Johnston.

Remarkable Scenes
- John watching a documentary from Earth about the fallout caused by his return with aliens and alien technology in tow.
- Bobby: "I'm like the coolest kid in school because of you guys."
- John: "I'll bet this son of a bitch wins an Emmy."
- D'Argo tongue whipping Bobby at his request.
- Rygel boasting about Earth offering him many opportunities to indulge his gluttonous, vulgar, and perverted appetites.
- The documentary host interviewing the sheriff who filed a report about having observed Moya's crew in 1985.
- Chiana unable to reconcile why little girls on Earth would wear sexy clothes if they're not allowed to have sex.
- John pulling a gun on Sikozu and freaking out because no one can remember the name Katratzi except for him.
- John realizing that he heard the name Katratzi in the unrealized reality whilst in the wormhole.
- John offering Scorpius wormhole technology in exchange for help rescuing Aeryn from the Scarrans.

My Review
This delightful episode is just the sort of sequel I was looking for to Terra Firma's exploration of what aliens arriving to Earth would be like. If we had never seen Earth again after the events of Terra Firma, the series would have suffered. Obviously John's not ready to go back, so to continue exploring the fallout of his homecoming I greatly appreciate the documentary style storytelling choice because it takes John entirely out of the context of these events; it forces him to simply watch as a helpless observer. As such, watching John watch TV all episode is strangely compelling because the subject matter is so rich.

Indeed, almost nothing happens in this episode and yet it manages to be such a deep and essential exploration of each of the main characters, especially John. The only actual plot is John trying to remember where he heard the name Katratzi and for once the plot device isn't some mystical science fiction voodoo but simply a highly distraught man having a hard time remembering something that he is certain he experienced. The story is of course resolved when John simply remembers what he saw and heard in Unrealized Reality, but I enjoy that he didn't remember right off. That's very realistic. Memory sometimes isn't instant recall and when you're distracted by a painful loss it can be even harder to remember even the most crucial things. Especially for someone who's experienced as many strange things as John.

Beyond that, this episode offers many fascinating tidbits. The psychologist may have overreacted throughout most of the episode, but she was quite right that John stating that he's always waiting for something bad to happen is a sign of his being constantly subjected to high stress. He's become paranoid, jumpy, and trigger happy. Ever notice how often he pulls guns on people? It's a reflex now. Even in this episode he pulled on a gun on Sikozu for no good reason. And at the end of the episode, despite still having no evidence, paranoid old John once again accused Scorpius of setting him up to extract wormhole knowledge before caving and giving Scorpy what he wants in exchange for help freeing Aeryn.

Another prominent theme of the episode is the disconnect between the aliens and the humans in their reactions to the fact that the rest of the galaxy possesses the capability to wipe out Earth easily. To people like Aeryn and D'Argo this is a harmless fact because Earth is so irrelevant no one would ever visit it. But to the human characters featured in the documentary this is the most terrifying threat in human history. The culture shock is well explored. I especially enjoyed D'Argo's observations about aliens in human movies and his warning that humans won't always win like they do in the movies. 😉 All in all this is a fantastic episode that favors depth and nuance over the speed of plot which is sometimes too rare on Farscape.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

  • From Hugo on 2016-10-09 at 3:58pm:
    Hmm... Everyone masters English
    ...?
  • From JL on 2018-01-28 at 4:02pm:
    I decided that the interviewers probably had translator microbes, but the documentary had to be broadcasted with subtitles on Earth. John however, being able to understand his friends, switched off the subtitles while watching. Problem solved!
  • From Margaret J on 2019-08-08 at 7:14pm:
    This one was good it even managed to make me forget for a moment or two that what I really wanted to know what was going on with Areyn. Must have been frustrating back in the day when people realized had to wait a another whole week for them to maybe get back to that. I rated this one a seven (7). It may have gotten a higher rating if it had not been framed around or placed in the middle of Areryn's abduction.
  • From Jon Reremy on 2021-01-02 at 8:12pm:
    Even if it's not the best of the season and I more or less agree with the given ratings, this episode was easily my favourite of the season. I really liked the documentary commmentaries, for some reason I was expecting it to be enraging with a finger-pointing conclusion. But it was almost cozy. And that ending with Crichton willingly dooming the universe was awesome, haunting.

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Farscape - 4x18 - Prayer - Originally Aired: 2003-2-17

My Rating - 5

Fan Rating Average - 5.78

Rate episode?

Rating: 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
# Votes: 10 6 4 4 9 13 12 14 8 13 14

Synopsis
Aeryn is being held captive aboard a Scarran freighter captained by Jenek, who's determined to find out if Aeryn's carrying Crichton's child. To discover the location of the Scarran base where Aeryn is being taken, Crichton and Scorpius travel through a wormhole to a mixed-up "unrealized reality" version of Moya. As the others wait for their return, pursuing Peacekeepers draw closer. [DVD]

Filler Quotient: 0, not filler, do not skip this episode.
- Numerous major long term plot threads are serviced here.

Problems
None

Factoids
None

Remarkable Scenes
- Scorpius agreeing to John's terms by means of a mutual blood tasting.
- The old Sebacean woman under the employ of the Scarrans introducing herself to Aeryn and explaining that she has no loyalty to either side because no matter who rules she'll never have power so it makes no difference to her.
- The old Sebacean woman determining that Aeryn is pregnant and revealing it to the Scarran.
- The Scarran deducing that it's possible that Aeryn's child may have inherited John's wormhole knowledge.
- The Scarran using the heat probe to forcibly abort the alien woman's fetus.
- Scorpius killing bizarro Rygel so that bizarro Stark can cross him over and learn the location of Katratzi.
- John shooting bizarro Jool.
- Scorpius killing bizarro Chiana.

My Review
Aeryn's interrogation aboard the freighter was a gripping story but it could have been better. What worked well was seeing the progression of her will slowly being broken down until she divulged the truth that Crichton is the father of her child. But the side plot concerning the other alien mother who actually turned out to be a spy was completely unnecessary; annoyingly climaxing at the scene where Aeryn kills her and then appears to suffer no consequences for doing so. Nor does she make any attempt to escape further after her hands had been freed.

The bizarro-Moya plot was about roughly what I expected from last episode's cliffhanger. It was good for a few laughs, especially with regards to Scorpius' complete disregard for all of the bizarro characters, killing them at will without hesitation. It's not explained why they were never met with any kind of resistance, but honestly, who cares? The bizarro world wasn't supposed to make much sense anyway. Presumably it operates on different rules. All things considered this episode wasn't bad at all, but it certainly didn't live up to the full potential of its premise.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

  • From Margaret J on 2019-08-08 at 8:08pm:
    Another good episode. Once again Claudia Black impressed me with her acting. But even though it really helped the viewer relate to or see her desperation I found Areyn praying out of character. Peacekeepers nor Areyn have never been portrayed as even remotely religious( I even think that the writers wrote the other "fake" prisoner questioning this as a way to acknowledge this fact).
    I found it shocking (but not out of character) that John seriously considered killing "not" Chianna/Aeryn (Ben Bowder's acting in this scene was also impressive). I rated this one. nine (9)
  • From Margaret J on 2019-08-10 at 8:12pm:
    Another good episode. Once again Claudia Black impressed me with her acting. But even though it really helped the viewer relate to or see her desperation I found Areyn praying out of character. Peacekeepers nor Areyn have never been portrayed as even remotely religious( I even think that the writers wrote the other "fake" prisoner questioning this as a way to acknowledge this fact).
    I found it shocking (but not out of character) that John seriously considered killing "not" Chianna/Aeryn (Ben Bowder's acting in this scene was also impressive). I rated this one. nine (9)
  • From Calen on 2023-03-05 at 11:51pm:
    Love this episode, one thing I don't get and nobody seems to be talking about, is that the characters in the alternate Moya are from an UNREALIZED reality, which would mean that they do not exist when Crichton goes back to the normal reality, so are they really killing anyone? He kills them, then he goes back to the main reality, thereby leaving the other one UNREALIZED. The way I saw it, he never really killed anyone at all. And people think he brought Scorpius because he knew he would need to kill people, he didn't know Stark wouldn't remember unless crossing someone over, and it makes more sense that he brought Scorpy cause he needed someone who could speak Scarran.

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My Rating - 8

Fan Rating Average - 5.5

Rate episode?

Rating: 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
# Votes: 4 17 7 4 2 27 36 5 10 18 8

Synopsis
Moya's crew tracks Aeryn to a Scarran Border Station, where the freighter she is imprisoned upon is about to leave for Katratzi, a Scarran base. To keep the ship docked and under quarantine, Noranti gives Rygel a deadly, contagious disease. Though this gives the crew time to come up with a plan to rescue Aeryn, they do not figure on the cunning and ruthlessness of Aeryn's Scarran captor, Jenek. [DVD]

Filler Quotient: 0, not filler, do not skip this episode.
- Numerous major long term plot threads are serviced here.

Problems
None

Factoids
None

Remarkable Scenes
- Moya arriving at a Scarran border station.
- Rygel projectile vomiting everywhere to cause a medical quarantine of all ships.
- Noranti infecting Rygel with a real disease to keep up the ruse.
- John taking out the nurse and locating Aeryn.
- John getting captured and interrogated by the Scarran only to be saved by Scorpius.
- The nurse dying of the disease.
- Chiana being abducted so that Aeryn's baby can be transferred to her because Chiana is immune to the disease.
- Sikozu disabling the power grid on the station and on the Scarran freighter.
- Scorpius fighting the Scarran captain and getting captured in the process.
- John bringing Aeryn back to Moya.
- Harvey showing back up in John's head compelling him to go back and rescue Scorpius.

My Review
This skillfully written action story has a number of bold plot points that really make it shine. The first is Noranti actually infecting Rygel with a highly contagious disease in order to prolong the ruse. I loved that the implications of this were fully explored. Not only was it actually useful, but it we got to see people get infected and die as a result of Noranti's actions. On top of that she takes time at the end of the episode to reflect on this. Good writing there.

The second most remarkable bold plotting of the story was the horrific idea of killing Aeryn, taking the baby and transferring it to Chiana as a surrogate mother. It was obvious that this wasn't actually going to happen, but it was a fantastic way to ratchet up the intensity just prior to John boarding the Scarran freighter and taking Aeryn back by force. Finally, having John compelled to rescue Scorpius was a fantastic ending.

My one quibble with the plotting is that while I love the return of Harvey, I think the series has earned the concept of John desiring to rescue Scorpius on his own, without intervention from Harvey. For instance, Aeryn may have felt honor-bound to rescue Scorpius for his many roles in saving her life and the baby. I believe even John may have been able to concede this on his own and stick his neck out for Grasshopper. Whatever the reason though it's still good plotting.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

  • From jeremy grego on 2012-11-12 at 7:35pm:
    Agreed. To much effort put into humanizing scorpius for everyone to still utterly revile him.
  • From Margaret J on 2019-08-10 at 9:45pm:
    This was great. Loved everyone working together. The writers having the old lady (Wrinkles/Noranti) infecting Rigel with the real disease was genius. Everything just seemed flow seamlessly, I gave it a perfect score of ten (10)
  • From Gary on 2020-08-31 at 1:18am:
    Overall excellent, great tension. Snagging Chiana as a surrogate was yet another great Farscape-style move, though I wish its execution hadn't been so absurd. Really, Moya can't notice when thugs have boarded and are strolling through, twice engaging Chiana? And what happened to Chiana's super-human ability to hide, especially on Moya with no end of places to squirrel away?
  • From Jon Reremy on 2021-01-03 at 11:53am:
    I mean I love Scorpius and I would've cherished seeing John's un-tampered willingness to go back for him, but at the same time I completely understand why John would still choose abandonment. That introductory 2-parter from season 1 was.. so messed up. It's hard to rewatch it, just the way Crichton almost could've avoided capture and the worst of what he ended up suffering if Scorpius wasn't wandering the promenade there and caught sight of him. Scorpius only had his spidey sense to go on.. Anyway, John never recovered from that torture, even before it got really bad for him after the season 2 premiere you could see in season 1 in the standalone episode(s) just after 'Nerve' John is just a little bit more wild with unnatural bursts of laughter in tense situation. A little heart-breaking. I've never seen a main character of a show so broken down to his core like John was, besides the Hannibal TV series.
    As much as I want him to, John owes him absolutely no softening-up-to

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My Rating - 9

Fan Rating Average - 4.18

Rate episode?

Rating: 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
# Votes: 16 24 7 67 0 6 1 18 7 9 19

Synopsis
Moya's crew travels to Katratzi, a Scarran base where Scorpius is being tortured for wormhole information. The base is home to both Kalish and Charrid forces - underlings for the Scarrans. The crew plans to incite a confrontation between these two contingents, hoping this diversion will allow them to free Scorpius, and prevent wormhole knowledge from falling into Scarran hands. [DVD]

Filler Quotient: 0, not filler, do not skip this episode.
- Numerous major long term plot threads are serviced here.

Problems
None

Factoids
None

Remarkable Scenes
- Scorpius being interrogated by Ahkna.
- John walking right into the negotiations between the Scarrans and the Peacekeepers (represented by Grayza) and bringing a thermonuclear bomb with him.
- John demanding large sums of cash for his wormhole knowledge.
- John recognizing the flower that the Scarrans eat as one from Earth.
- Ahkna employing Stark to torture Scorpius for the Scarrans.
- John: "Guys, listen up. One riot, well done, hold the mayo, now."
- John to the Scarran emperor: "Bill Gates can't guarantee Windows, how you gonna guarantee my safety?"
- John asking Aeryn to kill Scorpius as soon as he was sure Scorpius did not reveal any information to the Scarrans.
- John abruptly changing his mind about killing Scorpius.
- Rygel: "Now, Crichton! Leave now! And never doubt your dominar again!"
- Scorpius betraying John just as they were about to escape together, putting the bomb at serious risk of exploding.

My Review
Now we've come full circle from Nerve, with Scorpius being tortured for wormhole information. By Stark no less! Stark's cameo is an odd one. How did the Scarrans find him? How did they know he would enjoy a run at torturing Scorpius? I suppose knowing these details isn't terribly important but they were ringing in my head since the moment he showed up on screen. I'd also like to know why he grew out his hair. It ain't a good look on you, old Starky boy! In any case this episode is fraught with interesting tidbits here and there.

It's revealed in this episode that Sikozu is actually a bioloid herself, like the fake Aeryn. On top of that, the Scarrans are revealed to enjoy a flower commonly found on Earth called Strelitzia. Though enjoy seems to be an understatement. They've got a whole underground compound dedicated to growing the stuff and an army to protect it. The significance of this remains to be seen, but it's certainly fascinating that there's some kind of a link between the Scarrans and Earth. Scorpius of course is the man of the hour. Is he really a spy for the Scarrans? I find that exceedingly hard to believe.

On top of that, no matter whose side he's on, it's rather incredible he's managed to be a double agent for so long. Aside from John's delightfully amusing negotiations with the Peacekeepers and Scarrans, probably the best moment of the episode is John toying with killing Scorpius. Did John really want to kill Scorpy? Did Harvey stop him from doing it? Or were John's actions all a ruse to see if Scorpius broke under interrogation? For once I don't care about the answer. I love the ambiguity. On the whole another outstanding episode. The threats, the games of chicken, the double crosses. It's all so entertaining.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

  • From DK on 2012-08-07 at 3:49pm:
    Why does daddy Scarren have boobies?  Staleek is wearing the biggest bra (bro?) I've ever seen.  That is, of course, if one can be worn riveted to the outside of his emperor suit.

    John and Aeryn make one of the best on-screen pairs since Fred and Ginger, or even Ginger and Mary Ann. They also seem to get better and more comfortable with one another as the series goes along. Makes every story much stronger.
  • From Margaret J on 2019-08-09 at 7:31pm:
    Great episode, loved everything about it. But I have to say Farscape (and the Scorpius actor) does torture well it was hard to watch, very disturbing. Another 10/10 from me.

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My Rating - 9

Fan Rating Average - 4.88

Rate episode?

Rating: 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
# Votes: 18 29 2 48 12 4 8 25 17 18 23

Synopsis
After thwarting Crichton's escape plan, Scorpius denies that he's a Scarran spy, and demands Crichton's help to destroy a cavern of vital Scarran flora - claiming it will also provide them with a better means of escape. And while Rygel and Noranti fight an evil Stark, Sikozu must reveal her true colors if they are all to survive. [DVD]

Filler Quotient: 0, not filler, do not skip this episode.
- Numerous major long term plot threads are serviced here.

Problems
None

Factoids
- Some members of Sikozu's anti-Scarran resistance group are outfitted with a biological enhancement designed to kill Scarrans when activated.
- Braca's first name is stated to be Miklo in this episode.

Remarkable Scenes
- Scorpius denying that he's a Scarran spy, arguing that had John been able to get off the base, he and his entourage would have surely been killed shortly thereafter.
- Scorpius telling John that they need to destroy the Scarrans' Strelitzia flowers.
- Scorpius revealing that he has no wormhole knowledge and that he reprogrammed Harvey as a failsafe just in case John ever betrayed Scorpius.
- John: "You tryin' to say Harvey's back because of me?" Scorpius: "You should honor your contracts, John."
- Noranti to Scorpius: "Oh I do admire your compartmentalization of duplicity."
- Scorpius revealing that Stark is really a bioloid and that the real Stark is probably a prisoner somewhere on the base.
- Sikozu's contact in the underground getting himself killed delivering the elevator key.
- Scorpius attempting to destroy the Strelitzia flowers but being thwarted by a shield.
- D'Argo: "We couldn't override their override of our override!"
- John: "I can't believe it. I left a nuclear bomb in an elevator."
- Sikozu taking out the Scarrans.
- Noranti taking out bioloid Stark.
- Braca seizing control of Grayza's command.
- D'Argo reactivating his ship and shooting the Scarrans guarding it.
- Scorpius offering to rescind John's wormhole debt if John helps him destroy the Strelitzia flowers.
- John dropping his nuclear bomb down the elevator shaft with a timer of only 60 microts.
- The bomb destroying the Scarrans' Strelitzia flowers along with the guards preventing Moya's crew from fleeing the base.

My Review
An outstanding climax to this arc of episodes. It would easily be worth a perfect score were it not for the surprisingly anticlimactic ending. The bomb goes off and all of a sudden all problems are solved. The guards are vaporized, but our heroes are perfectly protected. No one tries to shoot them down as they trot away in Lo'Laa and we skip straight to John philosophizing about his body count. Though I certainly do love John's profoundly disturbed reflections on the number of people he's killed since he embarked on his Farscape mission.

Of particular note was his rather poetic line about having worn a nuclear bomb in a field of flowers which is a nice reference to Lyndon B. Johnson's "Daisy" presidential campaign ad, but I felt like they only partially earned the scene. The epic climax could have been more suitably epic. Instead the routine nature of these adventures sets in before the bomb even goes off. The mood gets sucked out of an otherwise exciting action episode by a sort of deflated apathy in the characters. Thus the episode turns brooding and reflective before the ideal point in the plot.

In any case, the story has much to offer. I loved the backstory on Stark. It's still not explained just how he ended up in Scarran hands, but we learn more about his historical relationship with the Scarrans as well as the original reason why Scorpius was torturing him in the Aurora Chair. It's all borderline trivia, but enjoyable for fans. Though I could have done without yet another surprise super power for Sikozu.

Moreover, we learn that the Scarrans are dependent on the Strelitzia flowers for their intelligence. Now without the flowers, the Scarrans will presumably be unable to maintain their military superiority over the Peacekeepers. A prize so valuable that Scorpius gave up on wormholes for it! Indeed a lot of plot threads are wrapped up here. It would seem that pretty much all that's left is for John's and Aeryn's relationship to be clarified, to find exactly what links Earth to the Peacekeepers and the Scarrans, and to reunite Moya's crew with their homeworlds.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

  • From Frängers on 2011-11-08 at 12:59am:
    I had one opportunity for the Scarrans left in my mind. If the flowers are somehow linked with earth maybe the scarrans know that and with the wormehole tech they could get it aswell.
  • From DK on 2012-08-07 at 1:29pm:
    I loved the show but... lemme get this straight.  Sikozu is an engineered bioloid (I thought Scorpy could sense people's auras) who is one of just a few super secret agents of the Kalish underground who took a job as a pirate to hunt old leviathan flesh?  And she then switches sides at every turn (I counted at least 6 betrayals) with no apparent overall goal.  If she really was on *anyone's* side all along why take a pirate job and waste a bunch of time hanging out on Moya in the first place? The only 'person' she was ever straight with was the other bioloid she met. But why would *he* want to help *her*?  Bioloid unity?  In any event, the Kalish need to re-engineer their bioloid making process or get their money back cuz it ain't working out so well.  
    The only side she hasn't defected to yet is the Scarrens. Um, wait a minute... would that make any more sense?
  • From Margaret J on 2019-08-11 at 8:29pm:
    Chiana "Are we cursed? Can we be cursed" LOL
    Chianna and Dargo not my favourite and wished they hadn't went there again. But even with that I had ti give it another perfect score 10/10
  • From Jon Reremy on 2021-01-05 at 12:04am:
    "The epic climax could have been more suitably epic. Instead the routine nature of these adventures sets in before the bomb even goes off. The mood gets sucked out of an otherwise exciting action episode by a sort of deflated apathy in the characters. Thus the episode turns brooding and reflective before the ideal point in the plot."
    Pretty much on point as to why I liked but didn't love this episode. And the Deus Ex Sikozu thing was more disappointing than previous instances of the show doing it, I'm not sure why. Oh well, it was still a great 3-parter, but nothing that matched Scorpius's last scene with John in Into The Lion's Den Part 2. Now THAT was suitably epic... not just the music but the way John grimaces with his teeth bared before tossing down the pain-binding bangle, it was really affecting. I couldn't stop rewatching that departure on a loop over and over again that first time, lol. So good.

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Farscape - 4x22 - Bad Timing - Originally Aired: 2003-3-10

My Rating - 9

Fan Rating Average - 4.48

Rate episode?

Rating: 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
# Votes: 44 1 5 16 3 7 25 7 5 21 12

Synopsis
Now safely back on Moya, Crichton learns of the Scarrans' intention to invade Earth. He feverishly analyzes his wormhole data and comes up with a way to collapse the wormhole to Earth - but the method is not one that he can implement alone. Meanwhile, Braca demands Scorpius be released from Moya and returned safely to his Command Carrier - and Aeryn has a few surprises of her own, including the identity of her baby's father. [DVD]

Filler Quotient: 0, not filler, do not skip this episode.
- Numerous major long term plot threads are serviced here.

Problems
None

Factoids
- The recap of this episode was altered because this episode had to serve as the series finale rather than the season finale. The opening recap contains clips from every episode of the entire series and ends with the line "and finally on Farscape" to signify the finality of the episode.
- The Farscape series was canceled late in season four and unfortunately the producers were not able to wrap up the plot by the end of the season so the television series ended quite infuriatingly on this cliffhanger.

Remarkable Scenes
- The recap. Now I'm dizzy.
- Scorpius leading Braca and his command carrier to Moya.
- John receiving a message that the Scarrans are planning to attack Earth to get more of their Strelitzia flowers.
- Moya's crew blowing Scorpius and Sikozu into space for the Peacekeepers to retrieve, then starbursting away.
- John regarding wormholes: "Immediately before it opens, a pressure bubble forms. You can't see it, but it's there." Pilot: "I can see it." John, incredibly surprised: "You can see the bubble?" Pilot: "Yes. Can't you?"
- John, recording a message on his tape recorder: "My name is John Crichton. An astronaut. Four years ago I got shot through a wormhole to a distant part of the galaxy. I ended up on this ship, this living ship, populated by escaping prisoners who became my friends. [...] I've made enemies."
- Chiana: "Pop the frelling bubble. Make the wormhole collapse!" John: "Pip, I can't do it." Chiana: "Yes you can!" John: "I'm not smart enough, I'm not fast enough, I'm not alien enough. And you know what? There are people in the universe who don't like me."
- Pilot proposing that he be transferred to a transport pod to collapse the wormhole himself.
- John landing the transport pod on Earth's moon and walking around.
- John calling his dad from the moon.
- John leaving technology and information on the moon for his people to retrieve.
- The Scarrans shooting at Moya.
- The transport pod colliding with the Scarran ship inside the wormhole and passing right through it.
- Pilot popping the wormhole.
- Aeryn informing John that the baby was released from stasis and that it is, in fact, John's.
- John proposing to Aeryn and Aeryn accepting shortly before they're blown to bits by a random spacecraft attack.

My Review
Farscape's running out of good cliffhangers. Once again, just like season three having Moya sucked down a wormhole completely at random, this time around we've got a random attacker from space blowing John and Aeryn to bits coming completely out of nowhere for no reason. They're obviously not dead because the series would never kill off its two leads. At least not this unceremoniously. Leads deserve overwrought deaths, like Zhaan's. That, and the alien attacker said he was "neutralizing" them for "analysis." I suppose you could analyze bitty little bits of dead remains, but I didn't get the impression that the weapon was supposed to be lethal. That said, despite the lame cliffhanger, this episode has lots of great plot points.

This is easily Pilot's episode as much as it's John's and Aeryn's. Don't get me wrong, I'm happy John and Aeryn finally got their relationship sorted out, but there wasn't anything surprising or novel about that. What's surprising is that it took four years to get them this far. Sure the time it took makes it somewhat more rewarding when it finally happened, but it was a foregone conclusion from day one. Pilot on the other hand got to do something truly unique. He got to leave Moya for the first time ever and fly a different ship, greatly risking his life in the process to save Earth from the Scarran threat. Speaking of which, the Scarran threat was awesome.

I'm glad the Scarrans were keen enough to pick up on the detail that their precious flower grows on Earth and I'm glad it was John's casual remark that sicked the Scarrans onto Earth rather than some complicated nonsense like the Scarrans hacking a Peacekeeper database where they found info from Scorpius' research or some other convoluted crap like that. As for Scorpius, I'm sort of glad he's back into the Peacekeeper fold again. He earned it! Finally John's quick phone call to Earth while he was in the vicinity was an absolutely delightful and essential detail. It got across so much in so little screen time. Overall while the cliffhanger was kind of lame this was a fantastic season finale for the best season Farscape's ever had. If the story ended here it'd be a damn shame.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

  • From Ben on 2010-07-31 at 11:28am:
    I agree completely. A fast-paced, terrific episode with excellent acting, dialogue, editing, and special effects. I loved John's call back to Earth. He and his father shared precious little screen time over the show's four seasons but their relationship was touching and completely convincing. Bad Timing essentially resolved the conflict between going back to Earth or staying where he is introduced in Dog With Two Bones and central to Terra Firma. I give it a ten even though the cliffhanger was so incredibly incredibly lame.
  • From DK on 2012-08-07 at 11:35pm:
    When did Pilot and Moya learn to starburst in a particular direction?  That inability was a major plot point in several episodes.

    I thought the writing, and the chemistry between John and his dad made for the best father-son scene (the phone call from the mon) in sci- fi.

    The Easter bunny fight was epic.
  • From Margaret J on 2019-08-11 at 9:24pm:
    While I realize that they had little choice as from what I understand they were given short notice of the cancellation, I feel that there was just too much packed into one episode. Also I think I would have hated the ending back in the day knowing it was a series finale and not knowing about the eventual Peacekeeper Wars. I rated this one a nine(9)
  • From Jon Reremy on 2021-01-05 at 1:13pm:
    I'm the outlier here, I loved that ridiculous cliffhanger lol and kinda wish I was there to know what it was like for people who assumed that's how the series ended. It was almost beautiful, on top of coming out of nowhere. Even the lack of main character-designated overwroughtedness (?) worked for me. John (the 1st or 2nd?) and Aeryn both have already died on the show with those segments treated with lingering respect. If they did that again I would've definitely gotten impatient. I don't know, this was new, and maybe my standards were lowered by that lame/confusing season 3 ending but I was perfectly satisfied with this shocker. It's just a cool romantic image, seeing them both just freaking disintegrate like that.
    And I really liked D'Argo's keening at the sight of it. Even if it's a fake-out, his pure outpouring of grief still got to me. I would've defended this even if the situation wasn't that there's still a tie-up movie ahead. Not that I would've considered it an appropriate way to finish a series, but I can forgive it... it made me feel, and generally even 'good' finales tend to make me feel bored long before the last scene no matter how professionally tidy it was. Closure's overrated if you ask me, not only is it not how the natural world works it ruins my immersion when I see it in fiction. I'd rather things just.. end.

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The Peacekeeper Wars, Part I - Originally Aired: 2004-10-17

My Rating - 10

Fan Rating Average - 5.21

Rate movie?

Rating: 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
# Votes: 61 0 2 4 5 92 13 7 34 18 36

Synopsis
John Crichton, Earth astronaut, has spent the last four years lost in a far distant region of the galaxy. He has experienced many fantastic adventures, confronted countless amazing alien species - but nothing he has encountered has prepared him for the journey about to come. With Aeryn, his exotic alien love, about to give birth to their first child, Crichton finds himself in the middle of nothing less than a galactic war that threatens millions of innocent lives. Desperate that his child not be born into a world in the midst of an all-encompassing war, Crichton must put himself directly at the center of the conflict, and bring these two all-powerful, uncompromising combatants to peace. Somehow.

Filler Quotient: 0, not filler, do not skip this episode.
- Numerous major long term plot threads are serviced here.

Problems
- Scorpius' command carrier would not be visible from the surface like it was when John's and Aeryn's first attempt at a wedding was interrupted.

Factoids
- The Farscape series was canceled late in season four and unfortunately the producers were not able to wrap up the plot by the end of the season so it ended quite infuriatingly on Bad Timing's cliffhanger. The series was not wrapped up until over a year later with the broadcast of this film which was only greenlit in large part due to massive fan outrage at the abrupt cancellation of Farscape.
- Among the many unexplained visual and audio changes in the main characters since season four, the most remarkable is Pilot's voice. At times he sounds more like Crais than Pilot.
- Sandy Gore, who plays Muoma in this episode, also played Vreena in Prayer and We're So Screwed Part I: Fetal Attraction.

Remarkable Scenes
- The Peacekeeper and Scarran fleets going at it in the opening scenes.
- 3D swimming Rygel.
- The Scarrans declaring war on the Peacekeepers because of Scorpius' preemptive attack.
- Moya's crew reassembling John and Aeryn.
- Scorpius sensing that John Crichton is alive.
- John telling his story to the aliens who shot him to bits.
- Pregnant Grayza.
- Aeryn's baby accidentally being transferred into Rygel.
- Chiana regarding the locals: "So what's their problem then?" Stark: "Fear, abject fear." Noranti: "Of what?" Stark: "Their fear extends to the point of not talking about their fear."
- John's and Aeryn's wedding being interrupted by the arrival of a command carrier.
- Noranti realizing the aliens on the water planet are Eidolons.
- Scorpius confronting John and revealing that he is in communication with Harvey.
- John: "As long as there's a war on everyone's after me because I'm the winner take all weapon guy."
- Rygel receiving a message from his cousin who deposed him begging him to return to Hyneria to help him unite them against a Scarran attack on their territory.
- Rygel, pregnant with John's and Aeryn's child, performing a wedding ceremony aboard Moya for them only to see it interrupted again this time by an attack by mercenaries.
- Moya starbursting away from the mercenaries while being shot at.
- John stumbling on Jool on the Eidolon planet.
- Aeryn revealing that the baby will be fully gestated within a matter of days, due to the accelerated nature of Peacekeeper pregnancies.
- The Scarrans nuking the Eidolons' temple and Jool along with them.
- Moya attempting to starburst and the Scarrans disabling Moya.
- The head Eidolon priest revealing that his people originally created the Peacekeepers to compliment their mediation abilities and that the ancestors of the Peacekeepers were humans from tens of thousands of years ago taken from Earth.
- Ahkna firing on D'Argo's cloaked ship, destroying it.
- John taking Staleek to Einstein.
- Chiana and D'Argo directly exposed to space.
- The Eidolon priest beginning to tame the Scarran.
- Grayza assassinating the Peacekeeper chancellor.
- Jothee rescuing D'Argo and Chiana.
- Ahkna taking out the Eidolon priest.
- Rygel requiring an emergency transfer of the baby to Aeryn whilst the Scarrans start gassing their jail cell.

My Review
We couldn't get a season five, but we got the next best thing: season five compressed into a three hour, two part miniseries. In many respects the first half of the miniseries is the first eleven episodes of Farscape season five compressed into an hour and a half by cutting down on less-than-essential plot threads and excising the filler. You can almost see the points where roughly every ten minutes of this story constitutes enough plot to have filled an episode in a hypothetical expanded version of this story spread across half a season with some filler used to pad it out.

There are numerous signs that this story was originally intended to be spread out over a longer period of time, as there are enough events in a few days worth of story time here to fill up a whole year. Likewise, Aeryn's pregnancy has been accelerated into a few days as well. Imagine Rygel being pregnant with Aeryn's child for the first quarter of season five instead! In compressing so much material into such a short amount of screen time, we lose a lot of potential for texture, but at the same time we gain a great deal of intense pacing. They did leave some of the filler in though. That whole sidebar with the mercenaries attacking Moya struck me as a filler episode compressed into ten minutes.

Without a doubt the outbreak of war between the Peacekeepers and the Scarrans couldn't have been depicted in a more suitably epic fashion. Fleets of command carriers and dreadnoughts going at it, internal political strife on both sides, and John and his friends caught in the middle. It's simply spectacular stuff. On top of that we finally have an answer as to why the Sebacean race looks exactly like humans: they are humans! Humans from tens of thousands of years ago taken from Earth and their genetics messed with by the Eidolons in order to create the original Peacekeeper army.

The Eidolons were surprisingly not as annoying as I had expected. Right when the scene where Staleek is being tamed by the head Eidolon priest was reaching its maximum levels of annoying absurdity, trusty old Ahkna comes in and takes the guy out. I let out a sigh of relief that such an incredibly intense war story wouldn't anticlimactically fizzle out due to some overwrought science fiction telepathic calming plot device. The only thing that bothered me about the Scarrans was there wasn't any mention of their ongoing quest to procure more Strelitzia flowers. You'd think that would have been brought up by now.

As for the Peacekeepers, I'm glad the plot was contorted in such a way that both Grayza and Scorpius control separate and distinct factions within the Peacekeeper army. Grayza assassinating the chancellor whilst being pregnant with his child was certainly a bold and sinister move. It's scary to think she might now ascend to ruling the entire Peacekeeper army. As for Scorpius, I enjoyed how he regarded the Eidolons. Yes, he considered them irrelevant just like the Scarrans did, but unlike the Scarrans, Scorpius has no desire to wipe them out. That makes old Scorpy boy more sympathetic in my book.

The cliffhanger was skillfully framed. While it's obvious the main cast isn't going to be killed off in the Scarran jail cell gas chamber, pairing their imminent deaths with Rygel's little medical emergency of needing to transfer the baby to Aeryn immediately was a nice touch. It ratchets up the suspense above the level of a simple cookie cutter cliffhanger. What seals the deal beyond all this is fantastic cameos like Jothee and Jool. Killing off Jool in this manner was a nice touch and really helped to set the stakes. Overall the first half of The Peacekeeper Wars is outstanding.

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The Peacekeeper Wars, Part II - Originally Aired: 2004-10-18

My Rating - 10

Fan Rating Average - 5.76

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Synopsis
John Crichton, Earth astronaut, has spent the last four years lost in a far distant region of the galaxy. He has experienced many fantastic adventures, confronted countless amazing alien species - but nothing he has encountered has prepared him for the journey about to come. With Aeryn, his exotic alien love, about to give birth to their first child, Crichton finds himself in the middle of nothing less than a galactic war that threatens millions of innocent lives. Desperate that his child not be born into a world in the midst of an all-encompassing war, Crichton must put himself directly at the center of the conflict, and bring these two all-powerful, uncompromising combatants to peace. Somehow.

Filler Quotient: 0, not filler, do not skip this episode.
- Numerous major long term plot threads are serviced here.

Problems
- Why hasn't Grayza had her baby yet? She was much further along before Aeryn even started showing. Not only that, but Aeryn said her pregnancy was taking forever because it's half human.

Factoids
None

Remarkable Scenes
- Sikozu combusting the gas and breaking them out of the jail cell.
- John transferring the pregnancy from Rygel to Aeryn in the middle of the gun fight.
- Grayza stalling the vice chancellor of the Peacekeepers so she can remain in command of her command carrier longer.
- John unlocking his knowledge of wormhole weapons to protect Aeryn and the baby.
- Moya starbursting into the middle of a Peacekeeper and Scarran crossfire.
- Moya crashing herself into the ocean and then taking on water on all tiers.
- John: "Stark! I know what you're feeling. You've got something in your head that everybody wants. Something that never should've been there in the first place."
- Chiana finally accepting D'Argo's offer to go to Hyneria together.
- The Scarrans attacking our heroes' position, taking out the diagnosan.
- Scorpius uncovering Sikozu as a Scarran spy.
- Aeryn demanding that Stark marry her and John while she's giving birth.
- Rygel giving back the ring John gave Aeryn.
- Aeryn giving birth to a baby boy in the midst of the battle.
- Jothee taking out the Scarrans with his ship.
- Aeryn taking out Ahkna.
- D'Argo sustaining a mortal wound and staying behind to cover everyone else's escape.
- Pilot revealing that he had the DRDs construct the wormhole weapon to John's specifications as he was swayed by John's argument after all.
- John to Scorpius: "You wanna see it? The thing you've been chasing my ass all over the universe for? Torturing me, my wife, my friends for? The wormhole weapon. You wanna see it?" Scorpius: "Yes." John: "Beg." Scorpius: "I beg you." John: "That's not good enough, say please." Scorpius: "Please." John: "Pretty please." Scorpius: "Pretty please." John: "With a cherry on top." Scorpius: "With a cherry on top."
- John unleashing the wormhole weapon against the two fleets.
- The wormhole weapon devastating both fleets and destroying the planet as well.
- John: "Wormhole weapons do not make peace. Wormhole weapons don't even make war. They make total destruction. Annihilation. Armageddon. People make peace."
- The wormhole weapon finally convincing Staleek and Grayza to make peace.
- Einstein stopping the wormhole weapon and taking John's knowledge of wormhole weapons away from him.
- The Peacekeepers and Scarrans signing a peace accord.
- Harvey dying in John's head because John's wormhole knowledge is gone.
- John and Aeryn naming their baby D'Argo Sun Crichton.
- John to his son, holding him up to the stars: "This is your playground."

My Review
This epic conclusion to Farscape has it all. Wormhole weapons, John's and Aeryn's baby is born, the dramatic death of a main character (D'Argo), and John's actions causing the Peacekeepers and Scarrans to make peace. This ending offers almost all the closure you could ask for with only a few minor gaps. From a hardcore fan's perspective, it certainly would have been nice to know a few important details. For instance, does John no longer have any knowledge of wormholes at all? We know his knowledge of wormhole weapons was purged, but along with that did he lose the ability to ever return to Earth?

And what will become of the Scarrans without their Strelitzia flowers? Will Rygel really be able to return to Hyneria and resume his role as dominar or will he, Chiana, and Jothee have to depose Rygel's cousin? Had Farscape been given a fifth season we probably could have gotten answers to these questions. But even without answers to these questions, Farscape's ending was easily satisfying enough to earn a perfect score across the board.

Farscape was a story that started out as an action adventure story about a man lost on the other side of the galaxy trying to get home but ended as a story that makes a profound statement about weapons of mass destruction. The philosophy of the show is that once weapons of mass destruction become suitably massive, they will destroy you right along with your enemy. Best not to open Pandora's Box as whatever sacrifices you need to make to have peace aren't worth mutual annihilation. The ending works well at a meta level as well. The characters on Farscape had to be shown the power of wormhole weapons before they could back down from their ambitions. They didn't have a Farscape TV series to watch to teach them that lesson. Will we, the real world humanity learn this lesson from simple fiction like Farscape?

There are many other details to love about the ending as well. Jothee's cameo continued to delight. There was a lovely scene where D'Argo made note of the fact that Jothee showed up just as he and Chiana were finally starting to trust each other again. Throughout the finale, both men understood where each other was coming from. Had D'Argo lived, I have no doubt the two would have reconciled their differences. Jothee proved himself not only in battle, but off the battlefield he proved himself a gentleman as well when D'Argo interacted with him.

Another nice touch was Stark having to be the sole bearer of the Eidolons' ancient mediation knowledge for a time. John's line to him saying that he knows how Stark felt referring to having knowledge in his head that everyone wants; knowledge that he never should have had in the first place is a nice bit of parallelism, as is the injury above John's left eyebrow. If you recall Infinite Possibilities, Part II: Icarus Abides, the John Crichton from that episode had an identical injury just prior to gaining the knowledge to build wormhole weapons.

In the end, Farscape leaves us with an incredibly satisfying ending that makes a profound statement on its way out while leaving the rich Farscape universe wide open for a sequel some day. I must say I would certainly relish the idea of another Farscape series focused around D'Argo Sun Crichton or a number of other surviving Farscape characters. I'd love to see what Earth does with their newfound advanced technology and knowledge of alien life and I'd love to see if the Peacekeeper / Scarran peace lasts. Indeed, Farscape is one of the richest settings ever crafted in science fiction. Bravo.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

  • From Lennier on 2010-08-01 at 4:05am:
    Congratulations on finishing your Farscape reviews. It has been a lot of fun following your reviews as I see the series a second time.

    The wormhole weapon scene is one of my three favorite Crichton scenes, and was a devastating climax to this excellent miniseries.

    So, what's next for the Kethinov reviews?
  • From Kethinov on 2010-08-01 at 5:14am:
    Thanks!

    Next I'll be going back through Star Trek in order of air date, starting of course with TOS. The Star Trek reviews will get Farscape's "filler quotient" system along with nicer screenshots and more commentary with deeper analysis in the reviews.

    As for new content, I'll be reviewing Caprica as it airs in 2011. I currently have no plans to do reviews for any other shows, though that could change in the future. Solid contenders for future reviews include HBO's Rome (would break my sci fi theme, but who cares, Rome is awesome), possibly some select feature films, and maybe even Babylon 5.

    But it could be many years before I get around to doing that. So for the foreseeable future all that's going to be here are reviews for Star Trek, BSG/Caprica, Farscape, and Firefly. Over the next year or so I'll be touching up and polishing all that review content as noted above. I'll also stay current with new releases in those franchises. (e.g. Star Trek XII and Caprica)

    Anyway thanks for reading. Love your comments.
  • From Ben on 2010-08-01 at 12:52pm:
    A great ending to a great show. As you said, the Peacekeeper Wars did a fantastic job of compressing a season's worth of material into three hours of stellar storytelling. The one thing that annoyed me is D'Argo's death, which seemed like to occur for no real reason other than to kill off an important character, and naming the son after him was too predictable and kind of corny. Still a phenomenal ending. I love how big of a role Stark got, too. Also, it was a real pleasure reading your reviews! Very well done!
  • From JL on 2018-02-04 at 4:45am:
    I was surprised how unceremoniously Jool and Sikozu (?) were disposed of. While I was never a big fan of either character, I felt that they were ultimately wasted. Also, in addition to the open questions you mentioned, Pilot, Moya and Noranti should have had a final scene, too. And I feel incredibly sorry for Chiana and D'Argo. I hate it when long stories kill off main characters in the last couple of minutes just for added drama or to prove there's no turning back now. Still, it was so much more gratifying to see D'Argo fighting for his friends than enduring the senseless deaths during Firefly's "Serenity".

    That having said, I loved the ending. It delivered a strong pacifist message to a dark military SF plot; and it was John with his wormhole knowledge who achieved that peace, not some aliens or fantasy gizmos introduced as a deus ex machina. The way the series managed to use John's knowledge for different plot lines and turn Scorpius from a villain into an ally (and even a sidekick in the guise of Harvey) is exceptional. Also, it was unusual for a SF series to put the heroes' relationship that much center stage. While seasons 3 and 4 sometimes made you believe the story was about everybody returning home, it closed on John and Aeryn building themselves a future "out there".

    Thanks for your great reviews! They were very helpful for revisiting the series and introducing someone new to the Uncharted Territories, while avoiding some of their more boring or sillier corners. All in all, I'm delighted to say Farscape is still a great series in 2018.
  • From Brian on 2019-11-06 at 3:29am:
    Thanks for your site! I'm doing a rewatch and your reviews are awesome. If you ever do more, please do Person of Interest.

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