In a tale with�very little to it, Farscape manages to be at its most evocative yet.

Laid-back and atmospheric, A Prefect Murder managed the�difficult trick of fleshing out a whole society and its situation in just a few telling scenes�and lines of dialogue.� By halfway in, you understand the problems of the Gashaak's people and their arduous battle to�sublimate violent urges into political negotiation. Thanks to Chiana, you even know quite a lot about their sexual morals.� All this is achieved without�any recourse to the sort of clunking exposition�so typical of most sci-fi, including Farscape in its weaker moments.

Beautiful direction and�fantastic CGI work helped to make this alien planet�really seem like somewhere a long, long, way from home, Aussie-accented extras notwithstanding.� The cut-up manner in which the story was told, each event being seen from many angles, also added to�its wistful power.

All of which is a good thing, considering that really, not very�much happened.� This strange whodunnit gave away the game halfway through, and the final resolution didn't feel as if it had anything much to�do with�our heroes.� The innovative, multi-viewpoint storytelling�also tailed off,�leaving us with a denoument that will have�warmed the hearts of John/Aeryn shippers, and left everyone else a trifle disappointed.

Despite its faults�A Prefect Murder must be commended for creating one of the few convincing alien worlds seen on the screen - and in only forty-five minutes, too.� It's just a pity more writers can't be bothered to work out their backstories as thoroughly as Mark Saraceni obviously did.

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