This next batch of Farscape episodes are some of the best of the first season. We get to meet two (infrequently) recurring characters and goof around with some weird science, plus Crichton macks on his very first, but certainly not last, alien chick. Seriously, Kirk has nothing on Crichton in the interstellar philandering department.

PK Teck Girl

I'm gonna get the negatives of this episode out the way right at the top. Farscape has a new alien species practically every episode and while most of them are inventive or somehow interesting, others just bug me. Of all the aliens in the entire show's run, I'd have to say that Sheyang are my least favorite. They have a crippling combination of nonsensical abilities and a borderline-racist design. Like at least half of the aliens in the Star Wars prequel universe, the Sheyang are basically caricatures of an entire ethnicity, in this case Chinese people. Aliens named Ying with slanted eyes and a thick accent don't exactly feel like proper modern inventions. Also, the Sheyang spit fire. I can never stand silly, improbable adaptations like that. It's like nature intended for them to be antagonists.

Luckily, the Sheyang aren't a big part of this episode. Instead, it's a tense character-building hour for half of the principle cast. When Moya comes across a wrecked Peacekeeper vessel called the Zelbinion, Crichton and Aeryn go to investigate and find the sole survivor, a technician named Gilina. There's some well-played exposition between them about Peacekeeper culture and later Crichton proves for the first of many, many times that he is utterly irresistible to Sebacean women (who, for the record, are all Australian).

Rygel also gets to face some of his demons when he finds the corpse of the man who tortured him when he first became a prisoner of the Peacekeepers. For a puppet, Rygel ends up being a fairly interesting character as the series progresses.

That Old Black Magic

Ah, the first Maldis episode. Technically, this character only appeared on Farscape twice, but he had such an impact on the meta-plot that characters reference him throughout the rest of the series and he set the tone for the many excellent psychological dramas that really set Farscape apart from other shows. While gathering supplies on some random planet, Crichton gets tricked into serving the needs of a malevolent being from a higher plane of existence, named Maldis. Trapping Crichton in a nightmarish maze with none other than Season 1 bad guy Bialar Crais, Maldis feeds on the negative emotions the two men feel for one another.

While our heroes manage to defeat Maldis, Farscape rarely ever has complete victories. Maldis' real intention was to drive Crais to never stop pursuing Crichton, a decision that will lead to a lot more pain and destruction. It's a great way to turn a monster-of-the-week into an element of the larger plot.

DNA Mad Scientist

Of all three of this week's episodes, this one is the least consequential. In exchange for some crucial star maps, the crew of Moya trades their DNA to an alien scientist. They also let him have one of Pilot's arms, which is pretty dark even if the pilot species regenerates. That's really the most interesting part of this episode. It's the first time we see that Pilot has an unusual relationship with the rest of crew. Being bound to Moya, he's already home. Though they freed Moya from Peacekeeper slavery, the crew are generally self-serving. For much of the first season, most of them don't even like one another. As the series progresses, Pilot makes it plain that his life is essentially one constant inconvenience thanks to Moya's crew. That they're willing to slice off his arm for their own ends is just another bit of unnecessary danger.

Of course, our monstrous genetic scientist gives the crew a raw deal. He even temporarily transforms Aeryn into a Sebacean-Pilot hybrid. As with most of the episodes where Moya's crew tries to accomplish something, it all ends in a wash. Still, the characters are growing closer together at this point. Where they would have abandoned one another earlier in the series, now they're risking their own lives for the closest thing they have to friends. That's gotta count for something, I suppose.