The Locket
Teleplay by Justin Monjo
Directed by Ian Watson

PLOT
Hiding out from the Peacekeepers in a stellar mist, Aeryn returns late from a scouting patrol � very late. While she's been gone a whole day, she's aged 160 years.

REVIEW
So when do you think the production team realised the episode was running short? It really finished about 39 minutes in when Stark dropped all the technobabble excuses about the plot and picked up the story for the next bit about D'Argo's son.

How much better would it have been if that plot point had just been placed at the top of the episode instead of the bottom? Then D'Argo would have fought against waiting and Crichton could genuinely have not known whether Moya would still be there when needed.

There were touches in this that were extremely good: Crichton's old age makeup, the sense of so many years passing and the growing relationship between him and Aeryn. Plus, the story had Farscape's great way of setting up a problem that is seemingly insurmountable and that you can't imagine a way out of. Unfortunately, this was also one of the rare cases where there wasn't a way out and the story had to use a cop out instead.

The episode does feel like a let down after last week's but only in retrospect: during it, the sense of pace and race was good and it was certainly gripping � and Zhaan had something to do for once � it's only an unfinished feel that means this won't be on any 'Best of Farscape' lists.

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