A serious food shortage on Moya leads the crew back to an old stomping ground of Chiana's, where she, D'Argo, John, and Rygel attempt to obtain supplies. But something deadly is going on in the mining camp...

"Oh, that's just great! I get to stay on board with the blooming blue bush and you get to play with your favourite little tralk!"

In Aeryn's words, Zhaan blooms - quite literally. Not only that but Crichton and D'Argo and - eventually - Moya are allergic to the spores her buds release. Only on Farscape, folks! :lol:

Of course, putting the humour of the situation to one side for a moment, there is a more serious element as Zhaan becomes increasingly psychotic as her repressed nature surfaces, disappearing from her quarters and turning on Aeryn. All this while Pilot is trying to vent Moya's atmosphere to get rid of the spores. Not good.

Meanwhile, Crichton, D'Argo, Pip and Rygel are yet again quite literally on the remains of a Budong, visiting a mining colony where Chiana and her brother Nerri were once in residence. Chiana believes an acquaintance of hers, Temmon, will be able to help them get the food which they desperately need and that is the only cure for Zhaan's predicament.

John: Hey Blue, delivery. It's not exactly Dominoes - but it got here in less than thirty minutes.

This episode, whilst not particularly noteworthy, examines one of the aspects of the series that I've always really enjoyed, i.e. the crew's constant fight just to exist in The Uncharted Territories. Hence the food shortage and the extreme events that it brings on. There's nothing quite like coming up with a simple idea and then running with it as far as possible. Farscape does it so frequently it becomes all too easy not to notice that it always manages to take things one step further than you've seen before.

So here they throw everything into the mix. You've got the crew's predicament, Zhaan's deterioration, the allergies, Chi's history with the mining colony, B'Sogg's tyrannical reign, Altana's lucky strike, Rygel's greed, a hilariously bad beastie in the shape of the Keedva, lots of gore (which earned the episode its 18 certificate), and D'Argo and Pip's blossoming romance.

Of course it's no great shock to learn that B'Sogg is behind the Keedva attacks. But there are some very funny moments (particularly with John and Rygel - even if the biting is a bit vicious!), and Crichton's fight with the Keedva ("Okay, no more Captain Kirk chit chat!" :lol: ). Although to me that scene played more like a scaled down version of Luke Skywalker's fight with the Rancor in Return Of The Jedi, right down to the way he kills it.

John: Yep, Carolina-style Keedva. Best barbecue this side of a Budong.

Somehow, though, it never really seems as tense and exciting as it should be. Maybe, this time, they threw just a little bit too much into the blender. They shook it all up, rolled it out, but it doesn't quite work. Maybe because B'Sogg is a bit useless as a villain. When you've been spoiled with the likes of Crais and Scorpius some of these baddies of the week just don't seem in the same league.

And just when did Zhaan gain the ability to levitate?

Some great ideas, not a great episode.

LOL at zhaan's buds. If only that would work with my plants. Save me a fortune in Babybio :thumbsup:

I'm not sure why this was a cert 18, not exactly graphical violence :unsure:

will post more later :)

It's the gore factor - dissolving arms and exposed innards :x

Now I understand, yes it was on the gory side ;)

I wouldn't say this was a totally rubbish episode, as Steve has said, it has good ideas, but for me it has holes, (the zhaan scenes on Moya)

I'm not too keen on zhaan, I find her irritating, so her turning into a bush, I couldn't honestly care less. Is the levitation, the first CPD we see on Farscape. :P

I also don't understand how, zhaan starving, would bring out the buds. That makes absolutely no sense to me. Wouldn't it have the opposite effect ;)

The character of Chianna, went up a lot more in my estimation, during this episode. I actually felt very sorry for her. So soon after the loss of her brother, she loses her ex, and a good friend. So relieved this didn't result, in one of her more brattish displays. Felt sorry for D'argo too. It couldn't have been too easy for him, watching Chianna do the whole slut-a-rama routine, esp, seeing his obvious feelings towards her.

Not so convinced on the idea of a mining colony, nestled in the remains of a very large, dead creature. Particularly, mining for jewels. actually the idea of drilling into bones and 'fleshy bits' hunting for jewels, makes me feel quite sick. ewwhhhh, as did the design of B'sogg. What's with the crack in the skull

Very lame plot with the Keedva, not a convincing monster, and a very obvious 'twist' with B'sogg being behind the attacks. ewwhhh again, for the dissolving hand.

LOL at John and Rygel biting each other, and at John's 'dominos' line to zhaan :D

This is certainly the goriest we've seen so far, melting limbs and people with their entire lower torso missing :x Are budongs related to Aliens with their acid blood? ;)

There was so much that was good about this ep, Chi and D'Argo, Pilot and Aeryn, John and Rygel but unfortunately it just didn't work as a whole somehow :unsure:

Whoops. I think I may be a little behind :unsure:

:) Its not one of the best but I do like the idea that they are starving, at least they don't have food that materialises out of nowhere like some shows I can think of.

I'm not to keen on the zhaan parts of this episode but lol at Aeryn making it worse.

I really enjoyed the Chiana history, it explains more about her character, how she is used to doing anything to survive and using people to her best advantage. She is also trying to help the crew something she wouldn't have considered not long ago.

John and Rygel are really funny as ever. I liked the gory ending, he so deserved it!

I think this episode's strength lies in how the different characters deal with the situation and not in the story itself. I really hate B'Sogg's accent though it grates on me every time I watch it.

:D

Talk about great minds and all that: this is one of the aspects of Farscape that I love and find very refreshing - the fact that they're basically just trying to survive. It's not like they're actually looking for trouble after all :lol:

:D Thats for sure, nothing is ever easy for them and every action has a consequence. There is also the continuity that you don't find with many programs.

There are left over bad feelings, or good ones, from previous episodes and events aren't forgotten. The journey from the first episode is in sequence and events are on going so that the journey truely is the story.

Sorry to fans of Voyager but I couldn't care less if they found earth or not, whereas in Farscape as the viewer we go through the harsh gritty and bloody voyage they do and we want them to succeed. Yay Farscape :clap:

Very well said. :)

I found myself wondering what I'm going to do after the rewatch is finished, when the credits roll on The Peacekeeper Wars. And the answer is I'll probably start all over again, because it is one hell of a journey. :thumbsup:

:D The Sci-fi adaptation of Earthsea looks good, the trailers are on the site now, looking good. :thumbsup:

I have to say I'm really enjoying Battlestar Galactica. :thumbsup:

:unsure: Sorry, I just can't get into it, I keep trying but something is putting me off.

Is it because some of the characters have changed gender? :unsure: :lol: :lol:

:lol: :lol: Not really although Why did they do it?

Perhaps its too militaristic for me, I don't know, just not identifying with characters, I'm just not getting drawn in.

I don't know why they did it, haven't really read up much on the show. I'm not a huge fan of the whole military approach anymore, as you know, but I like the grittiness of this one and the acting is very lowkey, which is interesting.

:unsure: I think the problem is I'm more of a fantasy/ sci fan fan. Myth & Legend (done well like Excaliber say) and the farther out there approach makes it all the better for me. Less soldiers more critters.

Making BSG more realistic and plausible makes it less appealing to me (and its very American) .

Yes, I can completely understand that. Especially as a Star Wars/Farscape fan. :lol:

:lol: Thanks, I'm not entirely insane then :lol: :lol:

Not at all. I am though. :weird: :lol:

:thumbsup: Did you see that fabulous Ben Browder interview where he defended sci-fi fans and had the whole audience on his side. I thought it was great, positive reinforcement!
:lol: :lol: :lol:

Don't recall it. Where was that shown? :unsure:

:( I watched it on the internet, it was from a US channel but I can't remember which site now. I'll try to find out so you can see it. :D

:thumbsup: Try Ben Browder online. It has this interview on it from the Late late show :clap:

Thanks Alex, I'll try it when I get home. I haven't got broadband at home, though. Of course, I could do it here at work but, yep, no sound... :rolleyes:

:lol: :lol:

I suppose it would be a bit of a giveaway. We are not even allowed to go on the internet at work unless its for work purposes. :(

Same here... :ph43r:

:lol: :lol: :lol:

Like you'd never do that :lol: :lol: :lol:

Hey! I have a good work ethic I'll have you know. I just know how to prioritise. :lol:

:lol: My boss is one of those sad deluded types who thinks we go to work to work :lol: :lol: :lol:

I had to pretend I was listening to him yesterday and then he asked me questions on what he'd been saying - ooops it didn't go well, my give me some time to think excuse didn't work :lol: :lol:

:lol: :lol: :lol:

Funnily enough I just did that with a colleague. He was talking about Knights of the Old Republic, though. :lol:

:lol: :lol: :lol:

Some people :lol:

Yeah, I mean I was supposed to be working as well. :rolleyes: :lol:

:lol:

Somebody left a 'chat' magazine in one of my trays, sabotage? trying to blacken my name? do I have an enemy?

If I'm ever caught reading at work its not that rubbish!


Luckily everyone assumed (quite rightly!) that it wasn't mine. Some of the people we have to work with eh? :lol: :lol: :lol:

At least they have faith in you not to be reading that kind of trash. Somebody left a copy of SFX on my desk and everyone took the piss out of me. Can't imagine who that was. :unsure: :ph43r:

:shifty: :lol:

I stopped taking mine in to work as everyone always misreads the title :lol: :lol: :lol:

Exactly!! :lol: :lol:

:lol: They always place a picture over the F to obscure it, they do it on purpose I think

;)

They should make a sex mag out of SFX, so that all us boys and girls could have proper 'knack' centrefolds of our fav SF people. ;)

'stalk this way' as Aerosmith might say!

I friend of mine told me that a certain Ms Black has done a dodgy film or two, i wonder if any of the others (especially Rygel ) has? :evil: