The fiftieth Farscape episode and easily the nastiest with unsettlingly unpleasant yet very good ideas.

Written by Matt Ford
Directed by Ian Watson

As so often with this show, the starting point was overly familiar: this looked to be a typical ghost story in a haunted castle where one by one the characters get separated and eaten.

There was a twist though, and if the start were as atmospheric as the shows it mimicked, the escalation into genuine threat was vastly better. The mystery over what was happening on this new Leviathan kept you completely engrossed as matters got ever worse for the crew.

Excellently, there was none of the usual television or even film SF plotting where, yes, there was danger but you were given a big clue at the start just how the heroes would get out of it. No "Say, John, tell me again about your underwater archery" type handy exposition.

Instead, the gang got into worse and worse situations where you almost became convinced there was no way out, and just as you thought they�d find a solution, they sprang that ending on you. You know they get out, they so nearly always get out, but there are consequences for next week.

Review by William Gallagher