Farscape 4x08

[coalescent]

I had the beginning of this review all planned out, you know. I watched the episode on Saturday, and was just waiting for a quiet moment to sit down and type up my thoughts. "Ben Browder," I would have said, "is shaping up to be a pretty decent writer. First 'Green Eyed Monster', and now this."

Thing is, my subscription copy of SFX dropped through my letterbox this morning. And their spoiler-zone review begins thusly: "Sorry, but this really is in the running for worst episode of Farscape ever. And remember, I'm the guy who raved over 'Scratch 'N Sniff' and 'Revenging Angel', so I demonstrably have no gripe with concept episodes. But 'John Quixote' is a purely gratuitous exercise; let's be weird for weirdness' sake."

This, naturally, surprised me somewhat, so I had to go back and check my opinions. Had I miissed something obvious, some gaping flaws? And the answer is...no, I don't think so.

I don't think 'John Quixote' is weird for weirdness' sake. Quite the opposite, I think; for me, the episode is a useful insight into Crichton's character - his idealism in casting Aeryn as the princess, and his arrogance in assuming the game was about him. That second item was my favourite thing about the whole episode - that it was Stark's game, Stark's princess. And I was never a fan of Stark, but here he worked fantastically well for me, because I felt he fitted the scenario to a t.

And then, of course, there's the wonderful closing scenes in which John decides that he's had enough - that he can't deal with it all any more, that he wants a way out. Looks like maybe that drug addiction might go somewhere, after all.

To be fair, there are problems elsewhere in the episode. Parts of it do look unfortunately cheap; I like the cardboard-cutout fantasyland, but the interior locations left something to be desired (particularly the car park). I could also have done with some more explanation about the game itself; I get that it was built from Talyn-John's memories, but I'm not clear as to why Stark did it, or who he found to help him. I mean, I get that he wanted to bring back Zhaan, but why upload all of John's memories as well? Finally, the fact that it's all a game disappoints on one key issue: Aeryn's behaviour. When the idea of Scorpius slaving people to his mental state raised its head , I thought 'of course! That's brilliant!' - but it was a fakeout.

Overall, though, a lot of fun. Other random things:

- Am I right in thinking that was PK Tech Girl making an appearance? If so, kudos to Mr Browder for putting that in.

- I liked the use of split-screen.

- I really, really liked the Scorpius suddenly became a credible threat. So much so that I'm almost willing to forgive the fact that it was a fakeout.

- The writing in blood was nicely grim.

- Possibly the third greatest elevator ride in SF history (after 'Reprise' and H2G2, of course).

- Line of the episode: The one about Crichton naming his sword 'Cameron' or 'Una'...