Brief synopsis:
Concerned that a parasite may make its way aboard Moya amongst the new food supplies acquired at a successful commerce planet visit, Chiana buys a Vork, a tracking creature that finds and kills parasites. When Crichton sees another creature, confusion begins as nobody knows which is the parasite, and on which side each of the creatures is on. Meanwhile, the real parasite gets to work, and D'Argo finds himself poisoned. With time ticking away, the crew must find out which creature is responsible.

The Main Story:
Crichton seems to be becoming more and more obsessed with Scorpius, and as he plays chess by himself, he begins talking to himself, giving Aeryn cause for concern that he may have developed space madness. Meanwhile, they have other concerns thanks to the risk of parasites coming aboard from the prosperous commerce planet they have recently acquired supplies from. Chiana thinks she has this problem solved though, as she has bought a Vork, apparently an expert at eliminating parasites.

A little later, Crichton begins a little game of golf, sending a ball round Moya's many corridors. On his travels he hears noises, and upon investigation, he uncovers a creature, not Rygel, and apparently not the Vork, but another creature. Rygel hears noises of his own as well, down in the cargo bay, and investigates. A little later though he returns to the other crew, apparently having found what he needed. Aeryn and D'Argo ignore him though as they are more concerned for Crichton, who they believe has imagined the other creature, as there is now no trace of it. Meanwhile, the Vork is on the loose after Chiana managed to lose track of it.

The little parasite hunter doesn't go far though, and bumps into Zhaan as the Delvian prepares some medicines and supplies. Zhaan calls Chiana over, but the two are unable to get hold of the Vork. Aeryn's arrival temporarily changes this as the Peacekeeper grabs the creature, but a quick bite lets the Vork scoot away once more. Pilot meanwhile takes Aeryn's attitude, and suspects that John's creature doesn't exist. Crichton makes his situation look even worse though when he begins hallucinating Scorpius all over the ship, running round after his enemy and scaring all the other crew.

Despite attempts by Chiana and D'Argo to find the Vork, its Aeryn who has the honour again, finding the critter in her quarters, munching food, and getting cosy next to Aeryn as she enters. The Vork runs off yet again though, but before Aeryn can track it, Chiana and Rygel call for help after finding themselves caught in the maintenance bay by the creature. D'Argo goes to help, but is knocked out by the large powerful creature as he tries to protect Rygel. Nobody sees exactly what happened, but when Aeryn, Crichton and Zhaan arrive, they find D'Argo having a fit, with Rygel trying to help.

Zhaan's analysis reveals a secondary infection, suggesting venom from the creature. This prompts Aeryn and Crichton to go in search of the creature so that Zhaan can do tests to create an anti-venom. As they track it though, they find only the Vork. As D'Argo's condition worsens, Zhaan places him in containment, and uses cell fortification treatment to try and slow down the progress of the venom. Aeryn decides to try and use the Vork to find the creature, and the pair begin searching Moya, working together as an efficient team. When the Vork runs again, Pilot is able to seal the creature it tracks in the command area, but when they arrive, they find only the Vork again.

However, more is revealed when the Vork begins a run again, and this time transforms, turning from the pale little critter the crew knew as the Vork, into the dark powerful mincing machine Crichton had seen earlier on. Using gas grenades, Aeryn and John take the creature down, and bring it to Zhaan, alive, ready for venom testing. The results are negative though, and time is running out for D'Argo, and there isn't enough time to make the 32 arn trip back to the Commerce Planet. Aeryn discusses killing the Vork, but this has a definite effect on the creature. Using translator microbes they are able to communicate with it, though it cannot talk back. Pilot solves this problem though as he can understand the emotions conveyed through physical expression.

They learn that the Vork wants to get rid of the Vork, explaining that he is a friend. Crichton decides to let the critter go, and this causes Rygel to be unusually panicky, as he voices his wishes to keep the creature contained. The Vork begins its run after the parasite, and turns into its stronger form. However, Crichton and Aeryn find it attacking Rygel, who Zhaan later discovers has the same poison in his blood. This forces John and Aeryn to go after the creature, hunting it down, and killing the Vork. However, during its dying breaths it manages to point at an until now unseen cocoon. The Vork moves to it, and uses its sharp arm claws to open it up, revealing Rygel!

Realising the implications of this, Aeryn and John race back to the medical area, just as the imposter Rygel begins oozing parasitical beatles from all over its body. They arrive just in time to stop the bugs spreading everywhere, and are able to eliminate them using coolant spray, laser fire and crunching feet. With the bugs eradicated, Zhaan is able to use the remains of the true parasites to find a cure for D'Argo, healing his wounds, and bringing the whole crew back to health, with the exception of its latest addition, the Vork. The little critter doesn't surive, and receives a sad farewell from Aeryn in particular who had grown close to the little parasite expert. It departs this world happy though, complete having fulfilled its intentions to get rid of the parasite.

Finally, Crichton returns to his game of chess, where he admits to Aeryn that he is having flashes of Scorpius. Once she leaves, he begins talking to Scorpius again, as the Peacekeeper threatens him with a trap that he says Crichton will never see coming, and as Crichton wins the game of chess, Scorpius confirms that this wasn't the trap he meant, a very ominous sign.

Trivia Quiz:

References and continuity:

Crichton: "All of a sudden this other critter shows up, this Ewok gone bad..."

John calls the Vork an Ewok, which is quite fitting as the little furry creatures from the Star Wars movie, Return Of The Jedi, were hard to talk to, impulsive, and equally energetic.

• Crichton refers to the popular spicy chicken dish, Tandoori chicken, a brown/red coloured dish that does in some ways resemble the Ravork.
• Whilst playing golf, John mentions Cinderella, the girl who had a tough family life, but thanks to a slipper, and a fairy godmother, was able to meet her Prince.
• John says "Open sesame" when approaching the door to command. He has obviously been watching plenty of Chuck Jones cartoons.
• Crichton also mentions the "Incredible Vork", a nod to the green comic super being, the Incredible Hulk.
• He mentions Lassie also, a dog who used to always sniff out trouble, and call people to help out, just as the Vork seems to do.
• Finally, he talks of the body snatchers, something he also talked about in My Three Crichtons a movie where you couldn't tell if the person you were talking to was actually the person you knew, or something else inside their body, just as we see with Rygel.

• Why is Crichton seeing Scorpius in loads of visions? Don't forget all that torture that was done back in The Hidden Memory, and if you've seen later episodes, you know there is something quite significant left in Crichton's head.
• "Little bolts of light" sound familiar? That was close to the line Crichton used when he first arrived, not knowing what the guns he was firing actually produced, he threatened his captors with "little yellow bolts of light".
• Aeryn asks why Crichton didn't take his chance to kill Scorpius. This chance came at the end of the last episode of the Look At The Princess Trilogy, in the episode The Maltese Crichton. At the end, Crichton has the opportunity to push Scorpius into the acid, but he can't do it. Was he too good a person, or does Scorpius have some kind of a hold over him?

Crichton: "Aeryn, it understands what you're saying, take it back. Take it back!"
Aeryn: "Hello. I'm sorry. I don't want to kill you."
Crichton: "That was terrible! That was, that was... Look, Lassie here is trying to communicate with us."

At this stage, Aeryn really hasn't accepted the creature as being anything with any intelligence, and she really doesn't seem sincere..

Aeryn: "Are you the parasite (to the Vork)"
Crichton: "The answer to that is no! Who's going to say yes to that? That is no!"

Aeryn tries to clarify matters with the bluntest of questions, and John reacts with justified surprise.

Crichton: "Woah, that thing just gave us the slip. Why would it come back for us unless it was leading us?" Aeryn: "Into a trap, what else?" Crichton: "Right, as long as we both know." Aeryn and Crichton are working really well together these days, even if they rush in a little too quickly sometimes. Great fun to watch.

Scorpius: "You'll never see it coming John. When the trap closes, it will be too late."
Crichton: "You think? Checkmate. You lose."
Scorpius: "That, ah, wasn't the trap I meant."

What could Scorpius mean? Well, look ahead to Won't Get Fooled Again to see what he means.

Writer:

Writer Naren Shankar was also responsible for:

Director:

The director of this episode was Tony Tilse who also directed:

New Aliens:

Vork

The Vork is a small creature with pale skin, long arms and fingers, but short squatty legs. It can communicate via expressions, concepts and instinctual reactions, and clearly has a good sense of smell. It is designed to sniff out parasites, running after them, and then transforming. It turns into the Ravork, a larger, thick set battling creature with vicious teeth, strong sharp arms, and impressive speed. The combination allows the Vork to track down and kill the parasites it seeks..

Parasite

The parasite manages to transport itself in cargo, often food containers, surviving until it can infect a victim. It traps its victim in a cocoon, after paralysing them using a toxic venom. The parasites then assume the form of the prey, taking on its appearence, and all its characteristics. Once it has had time to breed, the manufactured body erupts hundreds more parasites from within, spreading to other victims. .

Farewell to:

The Vork		Shot by Aeryn when its intentions appeared hostile towards Rygel.
The parasite		Discovered by the Vork, then frozen and shot by John and Aeryn.

Guest Stars:

• Martin O'Leary as the Ravork.

Personal Opinion:

The first few times I saw this episode I really didn't like it that much, but its gradually grown on me. It doesn't move the story along much, which is why I still don't class it as one of the greats, but its an amusing little story in itself. Crichton's steadily decreasing mental health isn't exactly funny, but its certainly interesting. The funny parts of the episode really came from the interaction between Aeryn and the Vork. There were some fantastic lines from Aeryn that made the two a great team for the episode.

It was a shame that Chiana didn't get to play a larger part in the episode, after all, she was responsible for bringing the Vork onboard. She had more important things to attend to though, looking after her new found love, D'Argo. Zhaan also stayed quite quiet, just looking through poisons, and generally getting irritated with everyone's questions. Overall, as filler episodes go, this was pretty good, and in particular the puppeteers operating the Vork should be congratulated.

	A fun episode actually, but not a plot mover.		7/10