When D'Argo goes into a state of hyper rage and threatens to kill Crichton the latter wisely goes into hiding... for three days! When he emerges he learns that D'Argo has gone down to the planet they are orbiting. The crew head down and find D'Argo is a strangely euphoric state; much like the rest of the population; he states that he is content working there and has no intention of returning to Moya. After an apparent attack on Rygel; Aeryn takes him back to the ship leaving Crichton and Zhaan to try to persuade D'Argo to return. It turns out Rygel hadn't been attacked; something in the food he ate on the planet caused his bodily fluids to become explosive! The same food apparently has a different effect on most people; with a few exceptions the entire population, D'Argo and now Zhaan are left in a euphoric and highly suggestible state; Crichton is only immune because some of the naturally immune locals insert a strange worm into him hoping to get him to help the population free of the chemically induced slavery. We later learn that the crop is being grown for the Peace Keepers to use in their weapons with that knowledge it might be possible to get D'Argo and Zhaan to realise that they only behaving the way they are because of the food.
Like most of the early episodes this tells a complete story so doesn't really needed to be viewed in order; as with other stand alone stories I felt the basic plot could have come from an episode of 'Star Trek: TNG' however the execution is very different; I certainly wouldn't expect scenes like those where Crichton wakes up to find Zhaan's hand on his groin or where Rygel publicly urinates an explosive in TNG!! Farscape has a more tongue in cheek attitude which I really like. The story itself wasn't too deep but it was entertaining enough and gave rise to some tense moments and some good laughs even though there wasn't too much in the way of action. Away from the planet there was some nice character development between Pilot and Aeryn as she learns he isn't a natural scientist and also that she can do things other than fight. Overall this is a decent episode even if it isn't a classic.
Like most of the early episodes this tells a complete story so doesn't really needed to be viewed in order; as with other stand alone stories I felt the basic plot could have come from an episode of 'Star Trek: TNG' however the execution is very different; I certainly wouldn't expect scenes like those where Crichton wakes up to find Zhaan's hand on his groin or where Rygel publicly urinates an explosive in TNG!! Farscape has a more tongue in cheek attitude which I really like. The story itself wasn't too deep but it was entertaining enough and gave rise to some tense moments and some good laughs even though there wasn't too much in the way of action. Away from the planet there was some nice character development between Pilot and Aeryn as she learns he isn't a natural scientist and also that she can do things other than fight. Overall this is a decent episode even if it isn't a classic.