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The Locket
Teleplay by Justin Monjo
Directed by Ian Watson
PLOT
Hiding out from the Peacekeepers in a stellar mist, Aeryn returns late from a scouting patrol – very late. While she's been gone a whole day, she's aged 160 years.
REVIEW
So when do you think the production team realised the episode was running short? It really finished about 39 minutes in when Stark dropped all the technobabble excuses about the plot and picked up the story for the next bit about D'Argo's son.
How much better would it have been if that plot point had just been placed at the top of the episode instead of the bottom? Then D'Argo would have fought against waiting and Crichton could genuinely have not known whether Moya would still be there when needed.
There were touches in this that were extremely good: Crichton's old age makeup, the sense of so many years passing and the growing relationship between him and Aeryn. Plus, the story had Farscape's great way of setting up a problem that is seemingly insurmountable and that you can't imagine a way out of. Unfortunately, this was also one of the rare cases where there wasn't a way out and the story had to use a cop out instead.
The episode does feel like a let down after last week's but only in retrospect: during it, the sense of pace and race was good and it was certainly gripping – and Zhaan had something to do for once – it's only an unfinished feel that means this won't be on any 'Best of Farscape' lists.
DID YOU NOTICE?
Why didn't Aeryn's granddaughter age at all in the last 55 years? Was it to with having been born on this planet or did she have a hidden stash of Oil of Ulay? Was that what helped her teleport fifteen metres from pointing a gun at Crichton to bending over Aeryn?
Aeryn flying a reconnaissance patrol, which no one's ever done in Farscape before, was like Battlestar Galactica's regular Viper patrols. The mist was like the Blake's 7 episode 'The Web'; ageing a lifetime was from Star Trek: The Next Generation; coming out to a point in time just before you went in was from The Tomorrow People; and one person able to move while all the rest are frozen in time was from Doctor Who.
Stark is a returning character from the first season episodes Nerve and Hidden Memory.
What's happened to Aeryn's Prowler? How did Zhaan apparently break it? Why did Zhaan's communicator fail just when she needed to make a dramatic run to Command?
What was the point of the barren planet? Why not just go straight to the green one?
Why did Crichton and Aeryn wait on the surface to contact Pilot when they could have as easily begun the journey back on the assumption Moya was waiting?
If Moya and the gang are hiding from Scorpius, the Peacekeepers and generally everybody – and doing so in the Uncharted Territories to boot – how did Stark find them? And he says he did so to return a transport, so can we now write off the oft-ignored rule about the transports having to stay in contact with Moya?
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Mind the Baby
Vitas Mortis
Taking the Stone
Crackers don't Matter
The Way We Weren't
Picture if you Will
Home on the Remains
Dream a Little Dream
Out of Their Minds
Look at the Princess Part 1
Look at the Princess Part 2
Look at the Princess Part 3
My Three Crichtons
Beware of Dog
Won't Be Fooled Again
The Locket
The Ugly Truth
A Clockwork Nebari
Liars, Guns and Money Part 1
Liars, Guns and Money Part 2
Liars, Guns and Money Part 3
Die Me Dichotomy
To Season One
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