Kansas

Kansas
Written by Justin Monjo
Directed by Rowan Woods

Original Airdate: January 10, 2003

Plot: Crichton finds out that not only as the wormhole deposited him near Earth, but it's also taken him back in time to 1986 and that the timeline has gone awry. Crichton and the Moya crew must not find a way to stop Jack Crichton from being part of the Challenger mission...

Review

Warning: You won't be able to click your heels three times and say "There's no place like home" to avoid SPOILERS for the latest episode of Farscape, "Kansas."

In short: A nice return from a long hiatus.

One of the constants in the first couple of years of Farscape was that, just about every season, we'd have an episode that somehow exploited Crichton's desire to return to Earth. So, it's interesting now that we've gone three and a half years with Crichton, that we finally get to see that dream realized. But, in typical Farscape tradition, it's not quite the way he imagined it would be.

I doubt very much that when Crichton dreamed of his return home and wrote long journal entries to his dad, that he ever thought he'd be caught in a Quantum Leap meets Back to the Future meets Star Trek IV type of return to his home planet. Crichton returns to put history right, save his own timeline and the timelines of his friends and maybe, just maybe make it with a hot alien girl as his first sexual experience. OK, so maybe he doesn't remember the third one, but heck two out of three isn't necessarily a bad thing when it comes to remembering.

I have to admit that when we left things in August, my first question was--how the heck is he going to actually get down to Earth. I'm glad to see that someone was thinking this through. I figured Cricthon was stuck and would have to hope someone wandered by and didn't ask too many questions about why he was in space, orbiting the Earth. Instead, we got a rather reasonable and totally logical explanation that D'argo and company could come through the wormhole and rescue him. Why this never occurred to me, I'm not quite sure. That's probably what comes from trying to outwit David Kemper and company. They go for the obvious solution that I completely overlooked.

But once down on Earth, Crichton discovers things aren't going the way they should. Jack is set to go up on the Challenger and that would majorly altar the timeline. Cricthon then begins to race against time to restore history to it's proper path and also to interact with himself and his family. In a lot of ways, I found the scenes with Crichton and his family to be reminiscent of my favorite Quantum Leap episode, "The Leap Home." Seeing Cricthon struggle to save him mother from cancer, to soften the blow of his first break-up and to try and get him to understand his father were all extremely well done and touched on some great notes. I think knowing the regret and pain Cricthon had about his mother's death made his scenes with her so amazingly touching.

Also, seeing that Crichton was in peril worked rather well--even down to his Back to the Future like disapparance when Noranti manages to kill his previous self.

What also worked was the humor that we got with the whole fish out of water plotline. However, this time around it wasn't Crichton who is out of his element, but the Moya crew. The crew's reaction to TV, Rygel's addiction to sugar and the crew's assumption of how to greet people on Earth, it all worked and was actually quite funny. None of it felt really too forced or over the top--and I have to admit Rygel's reaction to sugar and begging Crichton for Kit Kat's was absolutely one of the highlights of the show. I did find it a bit of a convienent stretch that the crew arrives in time for Halloween to help them hide out, but it's something that I can accept--just like in Star Trek IV where Spock's headband is taken at face value and no one really asks why he wears it.

But while all of this took place on Earth, we found out a whole lot more about the big picture over on Moya. For one thing, we find out that Bracker is playing Graza and knows that Scorpius is still alive. Certainly, this helped out a lot of "What Was Lost" since that explains why Scorpy could come back from the dead as it were. It also puts a whole new spin on why Scorpy is on Moya. I knew he couldn't have seen the light and gone good. It's just too much for him to be a villain.

We also found out that Graza is attempting to negotiate with the Skarrans, a plan Scorpius does not find acceptable. I wonder if part of the bargain for peace is Cricthon, since he's been such a pain to both sides. Her leaving that tracking beast on board should prove interesting as things continue to develop.

Certainly, it would be an advantage to both sides for Moya's crew to be killed since they must be causing some massive unrest around some of the people under the rule of the PK's and the Skarrans.

And, in true Farscape fashion, we had a heck of an ending. I don't refer to the fire and saving John from it. That was pretty standard, actually and nothing we hadn't seen on Quantum Leap. But seeing Moya come through to Earth and then John's father and a welcoming delegation on board. All I can say is, this should be huge when we get back to it next week.

And I have to admit it's a long wait to Friday...

So, that's about it for now, except a few small things..

--I finally figured out what purpose Noranti has. (It's my week for waking up and smelling the obvious). She's the Zhaan replacement. Need a potion whipped up...call on Noranti! Indeed, I could really sort of ses Zhaan's part in this in the Noranti role.

--Aeryn's attempts at English were great.

--How did certain people understand what Moya's crew said since they didn't have translator microbes?

--The poor policemen who got zapped with Noranti's powder over and over again...you gotta feel for them.

So, coming out of a long hiatus, this was a good place to start. It wasn't spectacular like "Unrealized Realities" but it continued a turn around in the stories that I think should continue for the rest of season four.

My rating: 7.5 (out of 10.0)

Next up: Cricthon faces the welcoming committee....