During a trading stop at a station in disputed space, the crew discovers that they're getting a reputation in the Uncharted Territories. Before they can enjoy it, however, the station takes a hit from a strange storm...

John: "Do you know what you did? You betrayed the one person on this ship who would have done anything for you. Both of you. He would have died for you."

This is it. This is the episode that turned me into a Scaper. Not that I want to sound like a BBC Christmas schedule, but I'm going to repeat myself here: I'd watched a handful of episodes at the start of season 1 and then checked out of the series, not that enamoured with it, not really prepared to give it a chance when there was Buffy to be watched.

Then I caught Suns and Lovers on BBC2 one Monday evening, completely by accident and having skipped 35+ episodes. I couldn't believe what a quantum leap the series had taken in terms of the writing, the direction, the acting, everything about the series was suddenly oozing quality. Characters that I had dismissed as Klingon wannabes suddenly had intense emotional depth, puppets seemed real, and who was this grey woman and the bloke in the iron mask? The very next day I was in Virgin and HMV snapping up the entire first two seasons (which were conveniently in the sales for £12.99 a piece). And I've never regretted it.

Anyway, enough reminiscing. This is a terrific episode, a wonderful character piece with a nicely judged mystery as its subplot. It's also a very sad episode. Zhaan's condition has deteriorated rapidly since she gave her life energy to save Aeryn, and Stark seems to be the only one who wants to go near her. And poor D'Argo! I think kudos have to go to the writers for not milking the situation for several more episodes: they deal with it straight away, get it in the open and lay the raw emotions out for all to see. And the characters are so well written by this point that each of their reactions seems completely natural. Even Rygel's voyeurism doesn't come as a shock (although it is very funny and ever so slightly worrying). In a similar vein, it's interesting that D'Argo resorts to spying on Jothee and Chiana in the final scene, although I suspect this is more of a plot device for him to be able to hear Jothee's goodbye than anything else.

The big scene, of course, is the one where D'Argo discovers Jothee and Chiana's betrayal. It's a beautifully written and acted sequence, hugely emotional and shocking in its brutal honesty. Anthony Simcoe is just marvellous: he doesn't resort to histrionics, his performance is a perfect example of "less is more"; he portrays D'Argo's pain almost completely through his eyes. The way his expression drops when D'Argo realises the truth that he has just uncovered brings tears to my eyes. It almost seems that his lack of violent reaction is more violent than violence itself (although scarring Jothee with the Luxan unity tattoo is an act of violence that is horrific in its finality). Perhaps most telling of all is the way he walks away from them, and then stops, turns and tells them exactly what it was he had smelled in the first place, that it was their own guilt that revealed the truth to him. It's very understated.

The depression that D'Argo immediately plunges into endangers not only himself but everybody aboard Moya and the commerce station, too. The Kampeks, religious zealots who believe that the presence of the station is an affront to Gezma's Sacred Stillness (the area of space around the system's twin suns) have sent an operative called Borlick aboard. She, in turn, sends out a flux broadcast which can attract gamma storms in the vicinity. Pilot observes that a storm that has just hit the station in fact made a 90 degree turn to hit them. In order to avoid the next destructive collision they determine that the only course is to get Borlick aboard Moya and away from the station. Unfortunately the previous storm has entangled Moya in cables and wreckage from the structure (there are some stunning effects shots of the station and the debris field), cables that only D'Argo can move - if Crichton can break him out of his apathy.

Beyond these excellent A and B plots there is still time for the other characters to progress, and there is plenty of humour, too (Rygel's continuous ramming of Borlick to try and dislodge her from the ceiling is a personal favourite :lol: ). There's the conversation between John and Aeryn when she offers to have sex with him, or the part where Aeryn suddenly becomes known as Crichton's grunt. There's Moordil, the wonderfully bizarre barman, who is actually played by Thomas Holesgrove, a series regular - although you wouldn't recognise him: in recent episodes he has played not only Tocot, the Diagnosan, but also the Scarran Plonek who was waiting for Scorpius on the same planet. There's the rescue of the children and, perhaps most special for me, Pilot's wonderfully maniacal cackle as he ejects Borlick into the path of the storm. Absolute class! :lol:

And I haven't even mentioned the awakening of one of the Interions, or the amusingly tense scene where D'Argo teases Jothee for having bathed and used perfume. Or the mysterious ship that they bring aboard...

A top quality episode.




Borlick: "...Are you Crichton?"
Aeryn: "No, he's not, and we don't know who this...Cretin...is."
Borlick: "You know, I heard he destroyed a Peacekeeper Gammak Base, murdered an entire Nebari battalion, even laid waste to a Shadow Despository. The guy was a devil, he raped and pillaged, he popped eyeballs --"
John: "Whoa, whoa. Where, where do they get these stories? Let's set the facts straight. First off, there was no raping, very little pillaging, and Frau Bleucher popped all the eyeballs."

Chiana: "Keep your lips shut."
Rygel: "You do the same with your legs."

Rygel: "I don't give a sisil's ass about a trapped girl."
John: "Yes, and that's what makes you a great humanitarian, Buckwheat, but we are not leaving. Scooby Doo time."

Stark: "I will find you a planet, a planet with the right soil and moisture--"
Zhaan: "Calm youself, Stark, please. You're the expert here; you've witnessed more death than anyone else. So many dissatisfied souls dying before they felt ready..."
Stark: "Yes, I'm an expert on dying. I'm just not an expert on you dying."

D'Argo: "Well, why don't you get Chiana and Jothee to do it, they like working together."
John: "D'Argo, they can't free the cable. They're not as strong as you are, they're not as brave, they're not as smart--"
D'Argo: "Oh look, don't, all right, just don't! They broke my heart, John."
John: "I know that. But if you don't go out of Moya and pull that cable off, we're all gonna die when that storm hits."
D'Argo: "Then we all die."

Do you think there's anybody left in Australia, that hasn't appeared on Farscape yet :lol: :lol:

Steve, great review, I can't add anything that you haven't covered.

LOL at Aeryn's offer to 'reduce fluids', and then withdrawing the offer as soon as John finally agrees :lol: :lol:

The scene between Jothee, Chianna and D'argo, with the revelation of the betrayal was beautifully done, poor D'Argo :cry: :cry: I'm quite relieved to see the back of Jothee tbh, he tends to get on my nerves. Funny you should mention, how the writers dealt with it straight away, instead of letting it roll over a few eps. It's something I too, like immensely, about Farscape.

The sight of Zhaan's head was quite shocking, and yes, I picked up on the avoidance by everyone, bar Stark. He's going to take it really hard, should the worst happen :(

Pilot has a very dirty laugh, I can't recall ever hearing him laugh before, actually I don't think I can remember him, intentionally going out of his way, to harm someone, but seeing Borlick flying out into space, stuck to a door was hilarious :lol: :lol:

Very relieved Aeryn was able to rescue the children, I find it very hard to see children perish or suffer, even in fictional TV.

I think I'm getting addicted, I watched 4 eps last night, it's so tempting to just carry on, but if I do, I'll never remember details properly enough to do a review. I'll be good honest :innocent:

But being bad is much more fun :evil:

Oh no, I'm starting to sound like BuffyBoxSet... :o :lol:

Ok, so I'm finally getting round to adding my thoughts.

Sorry it's taken so long :unsure:

I think I'll pretty much be repeating what Steve and Lisa have already said but here goes.......

3.2 Suns and Lovers

After the excitement and high drama of the last episode, you may expect SL to take a step back but, happily, this is not the case.

The first image we see is that old perv Ryg spying on Chi and Jothee getting it on. But how did he know what was happening in the first place? Did he suspect from the last episode or does he just routinely spy on his shipmates? shudder

Meanwhile, Crichton and the rest of the gang (including Stark) are having a little well earned R&R on a space station. It seems as though John is famous (though where is the mention of Aeryn, D’Argo, Zhaan, Rygel and Chi?) after the destruction of the shadow depository and Gammack base etc leading to one of my favourite quotes of the episode….

“Where do they get these stories? Let's set the facts straight. First off-- there was no raping, very little pillaging, and... Frau Bleucher popped all the eyeballs.” Great stuff. Two seasons ago John was clueless and now he's the bad boy of the Uncharted Territories :guns:

I really don’t understand what is going on in Chi’s head. She says that she broke D'Argo's heart because she didn't want to be a farmer, and she couldn't have chosen a worse way to do it -by betraying him with his own son. She claimed to have purposely done something that D'Argo would never forgive because she wanted him not to forgive her, and then she tried to keep him from finding out about it :hmm: Now she's miserable because she got what she wanted. It doesn't really make sense to me but maybe to understand it I'd have to be an alien teenager :D

Aeryn is another of the Moya ladies who needs to get some serious help. Last week she pushed John away just as they seemed to be back on track. This week she tells him they can have sex but not a relationship and just when he decides that anything is better than nothing, she takes it all back!! But she does get my favourite episode quote:

“Frell me dead!”
The look of surprise on her face as the pulse blast opens the door is just fantastic!

And it is impossible to talk about this episode without taking off my metaphorical hat to Anthony Simcoe who does a magnificent job here of bringing D'Argo all the way from a happy man ready to propose marriage to one on the brink of suicide. He'd never have come inside from space if John hadn't refused to leave without him. But, if he was so suicidal, why didn't he take off the oxygen mask after he and John freed Moya? Poor big D. He’s spent the last couple of years looking for his son but I bet he wishes he had never found him now.

And just how gleeful and creepy was Pilots cackle as he dumps the Borlik lady into space?

All in all a pretty good episode. Not my favourite but not half bad :p

Not bad. Not bad at all. Similar to last season in that the first episode of the season resolves the final episode of last season, with the subsequent episode a standalone of sorts.

one of the better ones, although the primary plot featuring the station and the storms didn't really do too much for me. However, as others have already mentioned, the real interest here is the antics of Jothee and Chiana, and the then devastating results, especially for D'Argo. There's a little humour thrown in with Rygel finding out, which was amusing, note his ever so subtle 'slut' :lol:

The other point of interest, being Aeryn/Crichton aboard the station, with the offer and then the withdrawal. How is John not coming to the conclusion that Aeryn's a tease ?? :lol:

As I said, not bad at all.

Quite agree James, the main plot isn't up to much and Borlick is very annoying made up for by her being dispatched by Pilot.

D'Argo's betrayal though by his son and Chi is where the good stuff is. Anthony Simcoe acts this very well proving that there is a strong depth to this character.

Not one of my favourite eps but I do like the bar set, in the gallery on the DVD you can see all the fabulous detail.

I probably don't like it that much though due to Chi's appalling behavior, I feel so sorry for all of them.

:lol: :lol: It is somewhat amazing that he never gives up :lol:

I wouldn't if I was him :lol:

This is one of my favourite stand alone eps. I think I've already mentioned why a thousand times :rolleyes: :lol:

As gorgeous as Aeryn Sun is I think I would have given up on her ages ago if I was John Crichton and gone for Chiana :wub:

Wow great review Steve. :thumbsup: Melian too :thumbsup:


I think everybody else has more than covered everything leaving me very little to say. A brilliant episode which I thoroughly enjoyed, it was funny, it was sad, it was exciting. :D

Was it just me or were the initial CGI scenes of the space station just stunning!

:thumbsup: Yay a Chiana fan, she would have been so much better for him :lol: well more fun anyway

:lol:

I think that overall Farscape has some of the best CGI I have scene on a TV show, and yes they are brilliant in this ep. I am not a big fan of CGI when its used to create lifeforms other than Gollum but for back drops absolutely stunning :thumbsup:

Pah! She wouldn't've stayed faithful to him for more than 5 minutes :p :lol:

Totally agree. B5 set the pace for cgi effects on tv (the latter seasons had some truly astonishing sequences, i.e. the end of Severed Dreams), and Farscape benefited from starting a few years later with technology that had been refined substantially :)

Cheers matey :)

:blush: Thanks from me too ;)

You're welcome, both of you :)

Ah but it sure would be fun :thumbsup:

:lol: Okay, have fun when she rips out your still beating heart and feeds it to you with a silver spoon she nicked off Rygel :lol:

I always preffered the sibling relationship that Pip and John had going. I never really imagined that they could be anything more. All her flirting with him seemed half hearted ;)

I'd love to know where his hands were when she was chained up in A Clockwork Nebari after he was proving he wasn't mind cleansed! :ph43r: Perhaps her flirting was half hearted because she respected he was with or sort of with Aeryn Sun. Or possibly they knew he couldn't resist, I mean who could resist Chi, so they never tempted Crichton too much .

Future season spoiler

Future season spoiler

Correct me if I'm wrong but doesn't Chiana become John Crichton's first time in a time-travel episode? My memory is a little hazy but that's hardly sibling like behaviour!

End of spoiler

End of spoiler

ah but she'd be back when she was bored, then there would be more fun to be had! :)

:thumbsup: :thumbsup: She certainly does, I love that cleverpiece of continuity :thumbsup:

Personally I think they have a huge amount of fun sexual chemistry going on, as you say A Clockwork Nebari, Crackers Don't Matter, Scratch n sniff, Dog with 2 bones, Look at the Princess part 1, Losing time. I think they spark off each other and have been very flirty over the seasons.

;)

I've read that Ben's take on it was that Crichton was tempted but was a little unsure about the grey alien thing, Aeryn after all looked human.