Season 1, Episode 7: “PK Tech Girl”
***1/2 out of *****
“They spit fire? How come nobody tells me this stuff? How come nobody tells me they spit fire? Aeryn!”
Moya discovers the wreck of the Zelbinion, a legendary Peacekeeper command carrier and the ship on which Rygel was first imprisoned for 100 cycles. In checking it for supplies and maps, they find Gilina, a Peacekeeper tech from Crais’s ship and the only survivor of her squad after a Sheyang scavenger attack. As Rygel confronts his fear of the place and John and Gilina try to get into each other’s pants, the Sheyangs return and do their best to make a general flaming nuisance of themselves.
While I like this episode, I’m finding it difficult to find things to say about it. I think part of it is that I remember liking it more than I did on the rewatch. I suspect my remembering it as being better is likely to do with how many Farscape elements it sets up. Gilina will return, the Sheyangs will return, Durka has an entire episode devoted to his return… We get the Zelbinion’s defense screen, which will be with us for quite a long time.[1] We also establish that someone wiped out an unsinkable Peacekeeper command carrier, which creates a nice little Chekhov’s gun used to establish how dangerous the Nebari can be later on.[2]
The Sheyang ship bears something of a resemblance to Regula One from Wrath of Khan. The Sheyang themselves look interesting (sort of…fire-breathing turtle-slugs), but it’s a shame they didn’t have enough in the budget to make their mouths move realistically.[3] We don’t see much of these guys throughout the series, but Teurac does return to play a reasonably significant role in a rather enjoyable three-parter in season two.
We learn that Aeryn’s whole unit was demoted after her defection, and they can only be reinstated upon her death. So that’s all happy and stuff. We also learn that Moya’s afraid of fire. I’m shocked, I tell you! Shocked!
Last line:
“I stand corrected.”
Other Comments:
Nice atmosphere on the Zelbinion. One rather expects someone to get snatched up by a xenomorph.
[1] In various states of (dis)repair.
[2] It’s just a shame they never had much time to develop that particular plot thread. I often wonder what they’d have done with it in Season 5.
[3] My episode rating would’ve likely been higher if they had.
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