Brief synopsis:
Returning from a supply mission, Crichton and Noranti discover Moya has been taken over by bounty hunters. Crichton tries to free his friends, and teams up with Scorpius, the one crew member who had avoided capture. However, the hunters are well equipped, and shrink the crew to about 6 inches tall, and store them inside their own chest pockets. The real threat turns out not to be the bounty hunters however, but their leader who is in fact a Scarren.

The Main Story:
Crichton and Noranti return to Moya aboard a transport pod having completed a supply run to a commerce planet. On approach they finally manage to make contact Pilot, but something is definitely wrong. Pilot replies telling Crichton that Aeryn is writing poetry and that other shipmates are doing similarly out of character things, alerting Crichton to a problem on Moya. Instead of merely landing in the docking bay as scheduled, Crichton circles Moya, spots the invading ship and rams it. With the ship destroyed he smuggles himself aboard to try and rescue his friends, leaving Noranti floating in space in a vacuum coma.

On command, a group of heavily armed and masked bounty hunters have control of Moya. Aeryn, D'Argo and Rygel are hostages in command whilst Sikozu and Chiana are held with Pilot in the navigator's den. Crichton makes his way to command to see this, but unfortunately a noise gives him away. Aeryn and D'Argo do their best to cover it though, and Crichton gets away with it. This leaves the crew to lie about Crichton's whereabouts, but the lead bounty hunter appears to possess telepathic abilities, and is able to see right through the lies, sending his henchman in the probable right direction to intercept Crichton. Rygel's inner thoughts give away that Crichton cares for Aeryn most, probably Chiana next, and that he will head for the weapons in his quarters and then try to rescue Pilot.

Chiana and Sikozu try their own escape attempt, but the bounty hunters show their professionalism, not giving in to the temptation of two young ladies offering themselves. Meanwhile, Crichton goes to check on Scorpius, finding that he isn't their. This leads him to beleive that Scorpius is gone, and that it was he who called the bounty hunters here in the first place. He does however find 1812, the only operable DRD on Moya, and asks the little droid to go and wake up his companions on Moya. Crichton then bumps into Scorpius, and discovers that Scorpius actually escaped during the invasion, and had nothing to do with the hunters. He could have escaped at any time, but now wishes to ally himself with Crichton.

Scorpius has no wish for Crichton to be captured, and so begins telling him what he knows - that the pods are magnetically locked in, there is no escape from Moya. John calls the lead bounty hunter from the airflow chamber, a deliberate ploy as the background noise would definitely give away their position. Deliberately winding up the hunter, a henchman is dispatched to find Crichton. Scorpius is given a gun to intercept, but unsurprisingly, its not loaded, and he is merely a diversion whilst Crichton shoots the hunter with a heavy assault rifle. Sadly it takes the entire payload of the weapon to take down the foe, and this leaves Crichton and Scorpius with nothing to fight the others.

Examining the fallen attacker, Scorpius informs Crichton that these are Karishi, bio-mechanoid bounty hunters that require special suits to maintain their bodies in these conditions. They are very strong, and superbly protected. With the loss of on henchman, the bounty hunters initiate a containment plan, shrinking each of their hostages and storing them within their suits, providing protection they say as shots to the Karishi could now kill Crichton's friends. Fortunately, before D'Argo and Aeryn are shrunk, they pretend to struggle, but achieve their secret goal to get hold of a comms, which they take with them into containment. Rygel finds himself in storage with Sikozu, and the young Kalish struggles with the idea of being small. How can they breath large air molecules, how do their brains still work? Rygel just accepts the facts he sees.

Scorpius begins to doubt Crichton's ability to survive, and wonders how he managed to survive so long. Crichton puts it down to charm and good looks, but their next plan fails. They attempt the pulse overload trick, but the Karishi hunter merely shrinks the gun causing it to have no more destructive force than a small firework. However, Crichton then proceeds with his Die Hard fighting, and uses an old fashioned bear trap design with the assistance of 1812 to impale a Karishi, thus allowing Scorpius to pull out Aeryn and Chiana (still small) from the chamber in the bounty hunters front.

At this point Scorpius really goes a long way to prove his worth. The bounty hunters swiftly close in on Crichton and Scorpius, but Scorpius insists that Crichton runs for it, leaving him behind to get captured by the enemy. Chiana, Aeryn and Crichton then plan what to do next. Chiana, using her abilities to slow time, was able to see the code the bounty hunters used on their shrinking device to cause the hostages to shrink, and also the cuffs code, but their problem is that they don't know the code for making them big again. The lead hunter suggests that they deal, he'll return the others to their normal size if Crichton hands himself in. The leader, Axikor, meanwhile begins questioning Scorpius, and reveals that he knows who Scorpius is. He then tries using his telepathic tricks, but fails.

Scorpius, having grown up with Scarren torture and training was able to resist the telepathic probe, and in doing so, reveals that he has figured out who the lead bounty hunter is - not a Karishi, but in fact a Scarren. Axikor removes his mask, a clever disguise, and he shows that he is in fact of the Scarren ruling order, and that they are hunting for Crichton. Axikor then stores Scorpius in small form along with D'Argo within his own suit. He then goes to command and begins signalling in Scarren to a dreadnaught to come and pick up Crichton. Scorpius overhears this from inside Axikor's suit and realises how important this is. Fortunately D'Argo still has the comms, allowing Scorpius to relay this message to Crichton, informing him of the massive danger he faces.

Unfortunately, Crichton is overheard, and gets surrounded by the remaining bounty hunter henchman. He is swiftly knocked out, but armed with the new information he is able to stall the hunters. He tells them that their leader is a Scarren, and that they won't survive this. This forces one of them to go to Axikor and check, but the Scarren is prepared for this, and with a simple key press, he eliminates all the other hunters. Crichton then uncuffs Aeryn and Chiana, and heads off to find the others. Scorpius however suspects Axikor may be trying to escape in Aeryn's prowler, and gets Crichton to intercept. Crichton doesn't go unprepared though, and puts on one of the glove devices from a fallen hunter, though he still only knows a couple of the codes.

1812 also joins in, transporting Aeryn, in small form, to distract Axikor whilst Crichton heads for the docking bay. Aeryn is temporarily knocked out, but Crichton arrives in time to stop things getting worse. He is swiftly shrunk by Axikor though, but thankfully Crichton knows this code, and does the same to the Scarren. However, Axikor has the advantage now as he makes himself big again. Crichton watches the code though and does the same. The shrinking match continues for a while until Axikor is caught out, and Crichton ends the fight by merely stepping on him.

Later, when all the crew have been returned to their normal size, Crichton admits that he is grateful to Scorpius, and admits their isn't a cage on Moya that would keep him anyway, and decides to just keep an eye on him. Shortly afterwards, Rygel comes to Crichton and asks him about an old woman floating around in space. Crichton realises his mistake and asks D'Argo to use Lo'la to pick up Noranti who was still in her vacuum coma outside Moya. Finally Aeryn and Pilot ask to speak with Crichton, to discus a plan before airing it with the ship's captain, D'Argo. They are considering entering Tormented space, a place difficult to navigate thanks to numerous wormholes, and one of which little is known as so few have returned to tell of their experiences. Their adventure seems set to become even more dangerous.

Trivia Quiz:

Continuity:

Sikozu: "Not with these frelling cuffs on I can't."
Chiana: "These what cuffs? I am so glad we extended your vocabulary."

Sikozu is unable to accept translator microbes, but makes up for it by picking up languages fast (see Crichton Kicks). Until now though, she has stuck to learning the proper language, but has begun extending this to swearing.

Crichton: "So you're an upper class Scarren? Not like the horse faces I'm used to."

Its true, up until now, Crichton hasn't met any Scarrens like this one, they've all been brutish fighters with long "horse-like" faces.

• 1812 is not affected when the bounty hunters take over. Crichton says that this is because he is on a different wavelength, which is understandable given that 1812 was a DRD from another Leviathan, met in Crichton Kicks.
• John wonders part way through if "the game" isn't overwith. This is another example of how much you have to pay attention to get all the details. The game was started in the previous episode, John Quixote, and during that episode, Crichton thought he had exited the game, but it turned out he hadn't. Perhaps he is still in it...

References:

Pilot: "Unfortunately, nobody is available to assist you at the moment."
Crichton: "Well what are they doing? Watching Jeopardy? Get them off their butts. Let me talk to Captain James T. D'Argo."

Jeopardy is the number 1 quiz show in America, or at least, it has been first in the Nielson ratings for 950 weeks and counting. Created by Merv Griffin, it was first syndicated in 1984. The other reference is to Captain James T. Kirk of the USS Enterprise, which Crichton transfers over to the new captain of Moya, Captain James T. D'Argo.

Crichton: "I'm going *wabbit* hunting." Scorpius: "You can't take them all at once!" Crichton: "How dumb do you think I am? I'm taking them one by one - the Die Hard way." Firstly, wabbit hunting was Elmer Fud's obsession in the Looney Toons cartoons, "I'm gonna kill the wabbit!" etc... Secondly, Die Hard, the Bruce Willis movie in the Nakatomi building where cop John McClane single handedly takes out his enemies one by one until he brings the situation under control.

Crichton: "This is John Crichton paging the head cylon. Pick up the phone Imperious leader."

Cyclons, enemies and destroyers of Earth in the sci-fi series/film Battlestar Galactica, they were robotic aliens similar to the Karishi.

Crichton: "Why don't you come down here and find me Gort? Klaatu, Barada, Nikto."

Gort was the master of the Guardians, and appeared in the 1951 sci-fi film, "The Day The Earth Stood Still". Gort was the first major robotic representation of alien technology, and was the prototype for many machines seen in films today. Barada, a Klatoonian was a slave of Jabba the Hutt in the film Return of the Jedi, and was in charge of maintaining Jabba's vehicles. Klaatu, Kadas'sa Nikto was Jabba'a main assistant, whilst Nikto was a highly competitive species, many of which were slaves of Jabba also.

Crichton: "Como estas la cucaracha." Translates to: "How are you, cockroach?", as Crichton's spanish goes beyond just numbers. Crichton: "Donde esta la cucaracha?" Translates to: "Where are you, cockroach?", as Crichton hunts the bounty hunters. Presumably everyone understands, thanks to the translator microbes.

Crichton: "So we've gone from Die Hard to Honey, I Shrunk The Hostages."

Honey, I Shrunk The Kids, a popular movie a few years back featured a brilliant, though slightly eccentric scientist who devised technology to shrink objects, and unfortunately allowed it to shrink his kids.

Crichton: "Hey!! I got a tadpole!"

In Crichton's eyes, Rygel has always looked a little like a frog, and on Earth, frogs start out life as tadpoles. So, when Rygel is shrunk, it naturally follows that he is currently a tadpole...

• Crichton also refers to a blunderbuss, an old fashioned gun with almost a trumped like barrel, fitting for the primitive tools he is forced to use against the bounty hunters.
• Finally, Rygel's thoughts betray the fact that Crichton may head for the shield belt. This was acquired during Lava's A Many Splendored Thing, and can repel laser fire and other heat energy all over the body.

Funny or interesting quotes:

Pilot: "Ka D'Argo is currently helping Rygel with his laundry, and Aeryn is writing some poetry."
Crichton: "Uhuh, and what about Chiana and Sikozu?"
Pilot: "Enjoying eachother's company, preparing a meal for everyone but Rygel - he's not hungry."

Pilot secretly lets Crichton know something is wrong, and woah, Aeryn and poetry, Rygel not eating, D'Argo helping Rygel with laundry? Something really is wrong!

Scorpius: "And you have a weapon that works..."
Crichton: "No, this bazooka's out of ammo. You can have it."
Scorpius: "I may well have joined the wrong side..."

After firing several shots at the one bounty hunter, the rifle is out of power, and Scorpius is swiftly losing faith in Crichton. Still, one down...

Sikozu: "I am not a child!"
Rygel: "Bah! You're an infant. You've studied, but you haven't experienced, you know nothing of life."
Sikozu: "And you do?"
Rygel: "I've been around long enough to know how ignorant I am, I don't assume the universe obeys my preconceptions. Ha! But I know a frelling fact when it hits me in the face."

Rygel helps the audience a little by explaining that this is sci-fi, they can do what they want, it doesn't always have to make sense, though normally there is a little more explanation with Farscape. Aeryn: "Might work. Probably won't." Crichton: "Don't be small minded." John makes fun of Aeryn a little, or at least, her size. Small body, small mind, though really it doesn't seem to affect thought capacity at all.

Rygel: "There's a wrinkled old woman floating outside the forward portal."
Crichton: "Woah, gigantic oops. Can you do me a favour? Pop outside the tier three treblin side hatch and haul granny out."
D'Argo: "Noranti is outside?"
Crichton: "Yeh, don't ask. She's got some red play-do in her pocket - a dose of that when she gets in and she should be alright."

This did make me laugh, particularly Crichton's initial reaction to it, "woah, gigantic oops" was perfect, and really showed one of the strengths of the show - the fact that Crichton keeps the whole thing so believable.

Writer:

Christopher Wheeler wrote this episode, a one off Farscape hit for the writer.

Director:

Rowan Woods directed a massive 17 Farscape episodes, virtually an entire season's worth. Though I wasn't a fan of some of his earlier episodes, he was responsible for some classic episodes, such as Won't Get Fooled Again, as well as some massive plot movers like A Human Reaction. Another impressive point is that he also guest starred in the episode written by Ben Browder, John Quixote, taking the role of the large delvian. The list of other episodes directed by Rowan Woods follows:

Main Cast: Ben Browder as a die hard John Crichton. Claudia Black as miniaturised Aeryn Sun. Anthony Simcoe as captain Ka D'Argo. Gigi Edgley as the all-seeing Chiana. Jonathan Hardy as the voice of the wise, unknowing Rygel. Raelee Hill as the inexperienced scientist Sikozu. Melissa Jaffer as the spaced out Noranti. Lani Tupu as the voice of overseer Pilot. Wayne Pygram as relentless pusuer Scorpius.

Gigi Edgley

Guest Stars:

Duncan Young as Axikor. John Schwarz as Bintog. Duncan Young was clearly a big hit in his role as Axikor, and was brought back into Farscape later in season 4 as another Scarren, this time the ruler of the Scarren Empire, Staleek, first introduced in Hot To Katratzi.

Axikor

New Aliens:

Karishi

With possible exceptions such as the Vorcarians, we haven't met many bounty hunters, but this episode changes that, with the introduction of a new species, 6 of which decide to go after the bounty on Crichton's head. The Karishi are large humanoid in appearence, but actually very soft inside. Their bodies are held together by strong suits that are so heavily integrated that these creatures are actually bio-mechanoid. Presumably the creatures originate from somewhere aquatic or with low gravity. They are one of the few species to possess shrinking technology, and the bounty hunters are trained to use it, keeping hostages actually inside their suits to provide excellent protection. Crichton shoots one of the hunters several times with a heavy blaster, and it takes all those shots to take the bad guy down, he then has to become more imaginitive to take down this impressive bounty hunter enemy.

Technology:

Bio-engineered suits

The species is quite soft and weak on the inside, so wear bio-engineered suits in order to protect them, and in fact allow them to withstand a significant pounding from lasers. It takes 6 massive shots from a heavy laser rifle to take one of the hunters down.

Shrinking technology

Rygel admits that nobody knows how it works, but the bounty hunters possess shrinking technology. The user simply pushes a keypad combination, points and shoots, causing the victim to shrink in size. It also works in reverse, bringing the target back to real size. It also shrinks non-living matter, so guns, clothes and the rest of it are all shrunk also.

Farewell to:

Hunter #1		Shot by Crichton's heavy laser cannon.		Bounty Hunters
Hunter #2		Skewered in Crichton's bear trap.
Hunters #3,4,5		Killed by Axikor when they discovered he was a Scarren.
Axikor		Stepped on by Crichton whilst shrunk in size.

Personal Opinion:

The last episode staged in the Uncharted Territories as the crew eventually decide to move into Tormented space, this was a nice way to finish up. It emphasised just how close the Scarrens were getting, as well as the Peacekeeper threat posed by Commandant Grayza, which seemed to justify the decision to move to Tormented space. The story was quite exciting, especially as the bounty hunters were so professional. Though they may have been taken down, they were well-equipped, well-disciplined and well-trained, more of a threat than say the Vorcarians or Sheyang from back in season One.

The only disappointing thing for me were the merging of the shrunk characters with the rest of Moya. The parts in the cylinger prisons were fine, with Crichton peering in, allowing us to see the massive difference in scale, but when Aeryn was let loose aboard the DRD, the special effects couldn't quite cope. It was better than many other attempts I've seen, but seeing a miniature Aeryn scurrying around just took away a pinch of realism for me. It was nice to see Rygel and Sikozu discuss the feasability of it all though, with Rygel basically saying that we don't know, so we shouldn't worry.

Captured Aeryn

Two little things that I thought really brightened up the episode were firstly Crichton's ability to somehow sing along to the theme music at some points, and also the little touches such as 1812 being on a different frequency, justified by the fact that this particular DRD wasn't originally from Moya. However, the big plus points for me were the partnership formed between Scorpius and Crichton, and the funny comments that resulted from it, not just from Crichton, but from Scorpius as well.

The episode overall was very enjoyable I thought, and brings the crew back to reality after the insane events of the previous episode, John Quixote. Its well worth watching.

Overall Score: