Your Reviews
Here's the top reviews we picked from the many, many excellent ones sent in for A Constellation of Doubt.
See the Farscape fan reviewer Roll of Honour.
Graham
There are barely words to express how good Farscape is when it is good. I thought they had done the definitive first contact stories with Kansas and Terra Firma, but this was the business several times over and in spades.
The episode not only moved the plot on and developed the characters, but did what good sci-fi should - it held up a mirror to ourselves. Ignoring the practical issues involved in picking up the transmission through the worm-hole, the off-worldly review of a very on-worldly documentary was perfect.
Aliens come to Earth, and what do we do? We get them on chat shows. And when we’re bored with that, we make a TV documentary about them. Not only that, but it’s revealed that the FBI has a secret file on them. Now there is a serious crossover we need to see - Mulder and Scully investigate the Moya alien cover up!
What really made your flesh creep in this one was that you knew this is how it would be if first contact really happened. A paranoid press that just wouldn’t understand that the rest of the universe simply wouldn’t care about us. We want to be threatened, otherwise we aren’t important.
Excellent.
Will Jordan
It's hard to know what to make of this rather confusing episode. It certainly eschews Farscape’s staple diet of action and drama, because not an awful lot happens in terms of plot advancement. John and the gang for the most part are left to brood over the depressing TV broadcast received from Earth.
The device of the TV show is an interesting one in that it fleshes out humanity's reaction and impressions of the aliens, seeded now with distrust and in some cases downright hostility. It is interesting to see how each alien is profiled and analysed by the group of rather cynical interviewers.
For a TV show within a TV show, it was quite convincing and well done, but many of the people being interviewed were total stereotypes; note the war-mongering general or the self-righteous religious experts.
In between cuts of the TV show, John and the others have precious little to do except skulk around Moya and look depressed. It is evident that John is becoming increasingly alienated (no pun intended) from his own world.
The one high point is John’s growing distrust of Sikozu, culminating in an emotional exchange that at least lets them flex their acting muscles. Interesting, but I would prefer an episode concentrating more on the 'here and now' instead of backtracking over old territory.
Erik Mogensen
I saw this episode as a staging area, a kind of calm before the storm. Joining the show late, I was really hooked by the flawed heroism of Crichton. I felt compelled by this character who was obviously teetering on the brink of insanity, and constantly struggled to fit in an understand this new world he was plunged into.
After all the action since Kansas, this episode allowed him and us to reflect on just how much he’s had to absorb and deal with over the past three years. And of course, at the end, there is no doubt that things are going to really kick off and get moody. Harvey may be gone, but I swear I saw that old glint of insanity in John's eyes at the end. I'm genuinely scared of what he might do!
Sure, there wasn't much action, but there was emotion. This episode was more like something you'd see on stage rather than film - one of the things I adore about Farscape. There wasn't even a plot to speak of… just a slow build up and exploration of John's growing pain, and his friends' complete helplessness at being unable to help him. It was very cleverly shot, and very lovingly put together.
I know some people will have found it boring, but I for one have never thought of Farscape as a sci-fi show. It's character-driven drama that just so happens to be cast with aliens and set in space, and I love it for that. I can accept that I'm in the minority, but I absolutely applaud using an episode like this to slow things down and get intimate again before the obvious craziness about to hit us.
