Farscape
"Mind the Baby"

Airdate: March 17, 2000

To save Crichton (Ben Browder), and D'argo (Anthony Simcoe) from death in the vacuum of space, Aeryn Sun (Claudia Black) makes a deal with her old enemy, Crais (Lani John Tupu). Meanwhile in the asteroid field, Chiana (Gigi Edgely), Rygel and Pilot continue trying to evade recapture by Scorpius (Wayne Pygram) and the Peacekeepers which is made more difficult by Moya's increasingly frantic efforts to contact her son, Talyn, and a sudden change in Zhaan's (Virginia Hey) personality.

The episode raised as many questions as it answered. Questions like... What's up with Zhaan? Will Moya and Talyn ever be reunited? Will Crais ever get his? How will Moya's crew manage to escape Scorpius?

This episode is centered around a tug of war between Aeryn and Crais with poor Talyn caught in the middle. With the exception of mama Moya, Talyn is suffering the most in this power struggle. Clearly Crais' designs on the baby battle cruiser aren't the least bit altruistic and given Crais' past actions/track record it is easy to hate him for trying to bend the newborn's will to his own.

Back aboard Moya an already dire situation is made virtually impossible by Zhaan's break with the reality of their situation. If not for Aeryn returning with D'argo and Crichton, who know what might have happened. It doesn't help matters that an episode which was to have aired between "Family Ties" and "Mind the Baby" was excluded. The missing episode, "Re:Union", was to have made clear what caused Zhaan's fixation on D'argo and why she felt the need to explore her spiritual side to the exclusion of all else at a time of mortal danger. Without it I'm afraid that these aspects will just have to remain a disappointing blue herring.

Ben Browder as Crichton is by turns flippant and amusing, all the while remaining tough and angry (being hunted and near death does that to a person, I understand). And his use of slang hasn't lessened. In fact the inevitable has happened -- it's rubbed off on D'argo. Anthony Simcoe's line, "going down on a swing", was one of the funniest of the hour, matched only by Black's "you don't look ripe enough to me" at his invitation to eat his corpse.

And speaking of Claudia Black, she really shines, even though Aeryn Sun is not so radiant this time. For a minute I thought Sun was going to pull a Rygel and sell her shipmates out to Crais. While it was a relief to find that she didn't, thanks to her Crais has his hooks in Talyn and it's going to take a Leviathan sized miracle to bring him back into Moya's arms. I like that she stumbled a bit in her means to aid her friends because, just as on this side of the wormhole, Real Life sometimes throws a rock in your path and there isn't always time to stop over it up.

In the short time he was on screen, Wayne Pygram's Scorpius still manages to inspire the same creeping feeling I had in the four part Season One finale. Is he more man than machine or vice versa? The scene that features the cybernetic implant in his head sort of explained some things, like his cold serene arrogance, his powerful aura, and most notably his juggernaut-like pursuit of Crichton. Why does he want him? Simply for the wormhole technology locked in his brain or because he blew up his base? Or because Crichton managed to beat Scorpius' precious chair and laughed at him while doing so?

Did I like "Mind the Baby"? Hell, yes. Points have to be taken off for minor confusion about Zhaan, but I still rate it an A. The feverish tempo of the plot, the intelligent writing, the great acting, the superb visual effects, and the nice, unobtrusive music blended together to form a very cinematic hour of television.

If you didn't see it the first time, butter up a pal to lend you his or her tape. It's that good.

-- Vivian E. Lee

Farscape airs at 8 and 11pm EST, Fridays on The Sci Fi Channel.

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