Farscape Season 4 : Episode 4 : Lava's a many splendoured thing

Life in Lo'la is becoming unbearable, particularly with Noranti's (the three eyed old lady) latest attempts at cooking. The crew feel obliged to stop for a vomit break on a volcanic planet. Everyone rushes off to be sick, and Rygel cruises on his chair into a cave, followed by Noranti. In the cave, he finds valuables in boxes, and Noranti finds boxes of medicines. Crichton & D'Argo go looking for Rygel, and are just in time to be caught in a trap as Rygel attempts to pick up one of the gaudier trinkets. The front of the cave seals with a glass door, and Rygel becomes partially encased in what looks like lava (amber?). It turns out that the valuables belong to Tarken freedom fighters. The rest hide in the shadows as an alien Traken collects Rygel and puts him on a lift to the caves below. Sikozu & Chiana aware of the fact that the others are trapped, decide to blow up the entrance using Lo'la's cannons. However they have no success until Chiana remembers that the ship is keyed to Luxan DNA and smears handfuls of D'Argo's vomit on the controls. In a shoot out with the Tarkans it becomes apparent that they have a body shield that is effective against their guns. Noranti does a belly dance and hypnotises the aliens into thinking that she is young and nubile. D'Argo and Crichton ambush the aliens while they are distracted and take their shields. Sikozu and Chian shoot into the cavern. And Chiana comes looking for them. In a conversation with Noranti it becomes apparent that the aliens are bad Tarkans, and she asks Chiana to radio the Freedom fighters to tell them that they are being robbed. Meanwhile down below, Rygel is being tortured by the boss alien to find out where the other are. Crichton tries to rescue Rygel, but he accidently gets dropped into a pool of lava during the fight. Eventually Crichton manages to kill the alien and rescue Rygel using the new shielding. The real Tarkan freedom fighters arrive and free everyone. The crew plus the liberated body shields leave the planet to hear a message form Pilot and Moya giving them a vector to meet them. So, a bit of a filler this week. The plot didn't develop the main story line to any great extent, apart from giving them some fancy shielding. Dubious plot points / gaps : not sure if any DNA would be extractable from a pool/pile of vomit. Perhaps it would be if it were Luxan vomit? Until next week, Rod

Format: Shown on BBC TV Date shown: 21st October 2002 Reviewed by: Rod Cameron Review Date: October 2002