Foremost is John and Aeryn's big argument before they go down to the planet. It's kind of painful, because it doesn't always work. There is so much going in this episode that seems like it was inserted purely to say "this is not Star Trek". Rygel is captured by the Tavleks, a race of warrior/mercenaries, who want to ransom him off. That's not a bad description of this episode actually. The episode wraps up with Rygel saving the day through explosive urine. Apparently they have Home Depot in the Uncharted Territories. All it does is make a slow story even slower.Īt about the halfway point I was so bored I started to notice things like the fact that the door hinges are decisively Earth-like. It's a nice try, but it just doesn't work.
The albino lady acts like the dwarf from Twin Peaks, trying hard to be alien, struggling to speak, as if English is a weird and unfamiliar language. The main thought I had watching this episode was "sloooooooooooooow". Will Aeryn become a scientist and discover the cure? Who cares. Zhann and D'Argo are on a new planet, acting all giddy and going to raves. Learn from my mistakes people - read this and skip watching the episode itself. Maybe I could just skip episodes like this and get on with the good stuff? But no, I stuck with it. It's worth watching for that aspect of the plot alone.Īround this point I started to question whether my rewatch project was worth it. I am a sucker for time-travel shenanigans though, and this episode has them in spades. Unfortunately she's a rather large part of the episode.
Matalla is terrible, with the sort of mannered affectation that has ruined a lot of the alien guest stars so far. On the negative side, we have the guest actors. It doesn't matter though, this part of the story works, and is quite entertaining. It just seems like normal action up until the point where the timeline gets hopeless, then, boom, we're back before it all happened. Eventually when they start getting longer and more elaborate, there is no transition. The episode doesn't play fair though - at first the time flashes have a visual effect associated with them, so we know that John is having them. Getting a glimpse of your (possible) future is a classic sci-fi trope and it works well here.
On the plus side, we have John's "time-flashes".
This episode is a classic Season One mixed bag - some great ideas and some terrible execution.