A Human Reaction
by Justin Monjo
Directed by Rowan Woods
REVIEW
大象传媒 Ceefax called this a startling episode and the Radio Times website said it was highly recommended. Both true – for it was a great basic idea and an arresting tale, even if the very end was a small but inevitable anticlimax.
Crichton got a chance to go home and the show convinced us, for a time, that he really did get there. Despite the certain knowledge that the series has many more episodes to go, you didn't suspect that this Earth was a fake and for a while you could even have wondered whether Rygel really was dead.
We were subtly prodded into believing this was Earth by the smart idea of telling us that the original wormhole was still open – and making that a seemingly significant plot point. You had to think that Crichton would use the wormhole, you had to be wondering how he'd get to that point and that meant you weren't questioning this Earth he found.
But then Farscape did what every show does that comes to Earth and that's to show how pale other planets are. Inevitably, alien worlds tend to have rather fewer people, certainly poorer sets, no panoramic vistas and just one culture so Earth here seemed busy, vibrant, exciting. Ultimately it was even frightening, and no other world matches that.
All praise to the show for going to Australia, though. True, Crichton only landed where the show is filmed – but that's a handy coincidence that happens in every SF series that has an episode set on or near present day Earth. It was just very refreshing that for once that didn't mean Los Angeles, California.
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