Peacekeeper power play means Crichton and the crew have a hard time preventing Scorpius' wormhole ambitions.

Written by Richard Manning
Directed by Ian Watson

John Crichton is shaking hands with Scorpius. The whole Moya crew have been welcomed aboard Scorpius�s Command Carrier with John claiming he�ll help work on wormholes and Scorpius claiming he�ll help the rest of the crew get home.

But a Command Carrier is no place for what its Peacekeepers see as criminal scum and if Scorpius�s word is law aboard this ship, there are other ships and other laws.

As we head into this two-parter, all we really know is that Crichton is lying and we suspect that so is Scorpius. Yet as the pair spin their stories as fast as they can, Crichton finds genuine reasons to wonder whether he should actually help. And Scorpius gets a taste of the sort of treatment he dished out to get this Command Carrier in the first place, as superior Peacekeepers board.

Two-parters always have the problem that they build up more than they can resolve while leaving something for the second part to do. On first appearance, however, the antipathy of the Command Carrier crew worked very well � and the addition of a new PK villain did not.

That�s partly because she�s vaguely like Servalan in Blake�s 7 � a nasty edge and a low-cut dress � but also because her PK ships crept up and disabled Moya when over two and half seasons of other ships have failed.

She�ll be back. And with every moment, Crichton�s position on the ship looks more unstable: which makes the second part worth waiting for.

Review by William Gallagher