Farscape (TV Series) The Flax (1999) User Reviews

Caught in a web

[Tweekums · 8/10 · 11 May 2012]

While Aeryn is teaching Crichton how to pilot one of Moya's pods they get caught in something known as The Flax; something that acts like a huge invisible net used by Zenetan Pirates to capture ships for them to plunder. The crew onboard Moya are luckier as Staanz; a former pirate warns them about the Flax and offers to help them. Shortly after Staanz and D'Argo depart to look for the pod another Zenetian, named Kcrackic, turns up and he wants to know where Staanz is. Zhaan and Rygel deny all knowledge of him until Rygel looses a game to Kcrackic and is desperate to have something to wager. Meanwhile an emergency aboard the pod means that they must evacuate all the air before it can be repaired... and they only have one space suit... Aeryn will have to work quickly if John is to survive.

This was an enjoyable stand alone episode; as with many such episodes the plot felt like it could have been from 'Star Trek: TNG' however as always the execution was quite different. Having Crichton and Aeryn trapped together provided a good opportunity for them to get closer... almost a lot closer! There were a couple of nice twists; the way they get rid of Kcrackic isn't a big surprise but Staanz revelation to D'Argo at the end is both shocking and hilarious! Overall this isn't amongst the best episodes but it is still good fun.

Three Tons

[craybatesedu · 9/10 · 21 April 2019]

Farscape whips out another A/B/C plot and manages to balance three high-tension storylines all at once. D'Argo and a well-acted alien guest star - a Thaddeun Okona type, a goofy alien thief with a heart of gold - race to escape a pirates' space trap, the same that has ensnared Sun and Crichton and pitted them in a race against a diminishing oxygen supply. Rigel, meanwhile, gambles with the space pirates themselves, throwing a game to save the gang in what may be his first genuinely useful plan.

Certain elements are gratuitous. Sun and Crichton are trapped together in shall we say an over-ventilated shuttlecraft because, of course, the writers want Crichton to end up teaching Sun CPR for the poorly-executed passionate embrace at the end of the episode. D'Argo's situation is more purposeful. He has bargained his way home for the very survival of his shipmates, only to give it all up to save them at the end to show us that he has come to grudgingly accept that his new role is as protector of this crew and that he is no longer willing to go to any lengths to get home. At the very least, he won't kill all of his friends in order to do it.

Rigel and D'Argo come out of this episode looking like the heroes, which is a first for Rigel and a welcome reprieve from what has been an otherwise increasingly marginal role as a wise-cracking sidekick at best. Drafting this review mere moments after the episode ends I sincerely cannot remember Zhaan or Pilot doing anything of value in this episode, which is a worrisome trend that for Zhaan has persisted for nearly three episodes now.

All told the script is well-drafted and the episode moves briskly. Blink and you'll miss any of the crowded storylines' immaculately-paced transitions from immediate danger to immediate catastrophe and back again. This episode loses points only because the circumstances under which the writers have pushed Crichton and Sun into a love story have been so obvious and have flown in the face of the actors' utter lack of genuine chemistry.