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Farscape - Season 3 - Episode 12

Farscape - 3x12 - Meltdown - Originally Aired: 2001-7-14

My Rating - 1

Fan Rating Average - 4.6

Rate episode?

Rating: 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
# Votes: 11 22 32 4 3 22 3 3 5 16 21

Synopsis
Talyn draws dangerously close to a star, pulled by some mysterious force. Coinciding with this event is the appearance on board of two alien beings: the timid Sierjna and her captor, Mu-Quillus. Crichton and the others learn that Mu-Quillus is responsible for the radiation pulses that are compelling Talyn to fly into the sun and that eighty-three Leviathans have already died in this way. Stark makes a pact with Sierjna to free her spirit from Mu-Quillus and let her pass into the afterlife. However, Stark is acting of his own accord, and his quest to save Sierjna puts the rest of the crew in dire peril. [DVD]

Filler Quotient: 1, partial filler, but has important continuity. I recommend against skipping this one.
- No significant exposition, events, or consequences. And a lame episode on top of that. Stark piloting Talyn is referenced in the series finale, but it's a pretty casual reference. Not essential for plot comprehension.

Problems
None

Factoids
None

Remarkable Scenes
- Talyn's mist pumping adrenaline into everyone.
- John: "God-like aliens! Man do I hate god-like aliens! I'll trade a critter for a god-like alien any day!" I couldn't agree more.
- Talyn invasively interfacing with Stark.
- Stark: "Would Zhaan approve of this use of violence?" Aeryn, lying poorly: "She's speaking through me now. It is her wish."

My Review
Aside from the intriguing notion of Talyn developing a vestigial pilot's den and a few nice scenes, this episode an exercise in pointlessness. Annoying aliens of the week, manufactured danger plot, Stark's irrationality and panic artificially prolonging the relevance of said manufactured danger plot, and overkill sex appeal. What a flop.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

  • From Hugo on 2015-12-30 at 1:18am:
    Wow, what a stinker!
    * Sierjna's appearance was very Space:1999 to me
    * Amazing chemistry between Black/Browder, but the soft porn scenes between them (with matching music) got old quickly
    * Oh the overacting with Stark as a pilot (and why is he floating around, very cheesy)
    * Fun to see Aeryn making some of the faces my wife does!
    * Yawn over something affecting the crew's personalities (again)
    * Also yawn over metaphysical Siernja/spirit stuck between life and death
  • From Margaret J on 2019-07-14 at 6:15pm:
    Honestly the whole episode annoyed me. Did not like the fake out at the beginning (Crais letting Aeryn's mother go). Did not like Stark taking control of Moya and getting a little power hungry, the guy is unstable at the best of times here he was ...I have no words..but worse.
    Even though I did enjoy seeing Aeryn and John happy and acting like a couple the constant sexing each other up was too much.
    And the story itself, the two opposing aliens and the danger of being pulled into the sun might have been interesting if I cared about either alien or felt the danger even remotely possible which I did not to both of these. I rated this one a three (3) but honestly I already wish I could take it back and give it a two (2)

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