Overall: 5.8
This one is ruined primarily by a poor guest performance. It's also not an especially awe-inspiring story idea.
Plot Synopsis:
Farscape World has a summary here.
The Skinny:
It is certainly not new for characters to become "unstuck in time" in a science fiction series. But even given this relative lack of originality, this episode might've been a solid showing if not for Lisa Hensley's performance. I don't know if this was Hensley's choice or the director's, but I found Matala way too obviously evil. I knew from minute one that she was going to turn out to be an imposter; everything about her behavior screamed "unnatural and forced."
This lack of subtlety on the part of Hensley has some pretty serious repercussions. Most important of all, it makes D'Argo look like a complete idiot. I kept expecting the writers to tell us that the Scorvians have some kind of sexual pheromone that makes men completely lose control of their cognitive faculties, but this revelation never occurs. Thus, the fact that D'Argo practically worships the ground that Matala walks on in this episode makes no sense whatsoever. And no, I don't buy the claim on the writers' part that D'Argo is just suffering from a years-long case of sexual frustration. Men are generally not that stupid.
In my last review, I noted that Rygel is the best written character in these early episodes. Well, I think D'Argo might be the worst written character at this point. It's nice to see him start to warm to Aeryn (and Crichton too). And it's nice to see him display some yearning to fight in honorable battle (how Klingon). But he's just not standing out as a terrific character -- yet.
Writing: 7.5
The concept of this episode is pretty well-worn, but divorced from the acting, it's written decently.
Acting: 5.0
See above.
Message: 5.0
I'm subtracting one from the "no message" mean because of the slight implication that men will cease to think about their own self-preservation once sex is on the table.
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