Nerve
Teleplay by Richard Manning
Directed by Rowan Woods
REVIEW
We've seen a show's heroes infiltrating enemy bases in everything from Star Wars to Battlestar Galactica but perhaps apart from some moments in Blake's 7, this was the first time it felt dangerous. It was possible to worry about the characters and it was easily possible to believe Crichton would be caught � because, true to form, he was.
It's not that Crichton is poor at the job, but rather that Farscape is willing to take the characters to a dangerous point and pointedly not save them at the last moment.
As always in Farscape, difficulties escalated very cleverly and surprisingly. While the return of Crais after such a long absence was probably inevitable, Gilina's popping up too was a jolt. These two surprises were as nothing, though, to the events Crichton was forced to remember. Countless series have the hero's mind plundered for cheap clips from previous episodes but this is the first time that what was found surprised the hero as much as it did us.
You could almost imagine the writer's glee at thinking of this hidden memory, too, because as well as surprising us, it both set up future story possibilities and gave this week's baddies more reason to torture Crichton now.
The surprising thing about Farscape is just how much thought has gone into it and while the structure of beginning and ending with Crichton's two loves in danger was perhaps obvious, everything clicked together very satisfyingly.
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