After a run of strong episodes, Bringing Home the Beacon was a bit of a disappointment. A strong, tense story immediately grabbed the viewer, only to be undermined by a much weaker, and rather irrelevant subplot.

As a result, Bringing Home the Beacon was very bitty, with the tension built up by the Aeryn/Sikozu plotline frequently destroyed by the daft fripperies of the Chiana and Noranti B-story.

Why this Chiana/Noranti sub-plot was included seemed obscure. The reasons behind the transformation aren�t very clear, for instance, unless perhaps the make-up designers were getting bored. And as a depressing side-effect of this plot element, Melissa Jaffer (Noranti) was forced to act jarringly out of character - a great pity, as her portrayal of Noranti has recently been going from strength to strength.

On the positive side, the episode shone whenever Aeryn was on screen. Her steely steadfastness when deciding to kill Grayza was both beautifully acted, and totally in character for her. It was good to see Sikozu given a chance to be more than just the spoilt brat, too.

Off the planet, and away from the Noranti/Chiana plotline, the episode ramped up the tension to almost unbearable levels with the final scenes, then hit us with an emotional clusterbomb with John�s shooting of the imposter Aeryn. These moments were great, top-notch Farscape entertainment. It�s just a shame that the largely irrelevant B-plot was allowed to obscure so much of this episode�s brilliance.

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