Farscape 4x10 and 4x11

[coalescent]

Forget 'Coup by Clam'; it's awful. Stupid, lazy, crass, and dull. It has no redeeming features; it is simply worthless.

So forget it, and consider 'Unrealised Reality' instead. Because 'Unrealised Reality' is pure, shining, lustrous gold. It's the sort of episode that makes it all worthwhile; the sort of episode that makes you fall in love with a show all over again. It's just great storytelling. There are answers, about the ancients, about what happened to Moya at the end of S3. There's continuity - the reference to '...Different Destinations' has to be my favourite. And there are questions.

Because damn, does it move the goalposts. By the end of the episode, Crichton has control of wormholes. In principle, he can go wherever - and more significantly whenever - he chooses. Anywhere, anywhen. That's an insane degree of power, and it's something that conventional TV wisdom says you Just Can't Do, logical conclusion of existing plotline be damned. But they've done it. Just at the point where I was starting to wonder whether season four was ever going to go anywhere, they've changed the landscape so dramatically that anything could happen.

My personal guess, given the number of times the one limitation - don't go somewhere before you left - was stressed, is that right now Crichton is floating next to an unrealised earth from before he ever left.

Of course, they could choose to play it safe. They could slap further limitations on what Crichton can do. In fact, I suspect they'll probably do just that - I think to a certain extent they'll have to, if only because a being with godlike powers doesn't make for a very easy protagonist to write. But I hope they don't restrict him too quickly, or too soon. I'd love for Crichton - or even the whole of Moya - to become lost for a while in time, as well as space. Or to have a series of episodes take place on an alternate earth. Or to go back to the coin toss in 'Dog With Two Bones' and see an entirely different version of how things could have panned out. If they want, they can reconstruct the entire show from the ground up.

There are wonders to be seen here. Let's see 'em.