As Moya heads further and further into the danger of the Scarran territories, so this season keeps turning up the tension. Almost too much, in fact. While this episode nervewracking plotting was top-knotch, after two solid episodes of nailbiting edginess tension fatigue begins to set in.

Where it excelled was in the chances it gave the more peripheral characters to take centre stage. Melissa Jaffer was again wonderful as the scatty, scheming, crazy-like-a-fox Noranti, her scenes with Rygel a particular joy to watch.

Even better was the glimpse we saw of Sikozu's fellow Kailish, a race of bureaucratic jobsworths. Once again Farscape has established an entire, utterly convincing alien culture in just a few key scenes - anyone who's ever had to deal with a government agency will have recognised their type.

John posing as a sex-crazed Sebacean separatist was another good moment, but somehow, for such a crucial episode, Fetal Attraction was rather underpowered. The frankly horrifying threat to Aeryn was strangely less upsetting than last week, and the mortal threat to Rygel never felt serious. Disturbing revelations about the motivations and abilities of the characters abounded, but their sheer quantity undermined their individual impact.

Only with Harvey�s return in the final minutes did the episode suddenly leap into overdrive, leaving us craving more. Still, as the first part of a three-parter, there�s bound to be much plot thickening to come.

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