Ah, the multi-part episode. If any series knew how to do these right, it was Farscape. On this show, "to be continued" was pretty much a guarantee of sustained awesomeness. This three-part episode, "Look At The Princess", introduces us to one of the main antagonists of the series and significantly raises the stakes for our heroes, especially Crichton.

"Look At The Princess, Parts 1-3"

First off, I have to say that I'm tickled a particularly deep shade of pink that the writers on Farscape decided not to make every last Sebacean a Peacekeeper. One big problem a lot of science fiction stories have is the idea that an entire species would operate under the same banner except for a few turncoats. The non-Peacekeeper Sebacean societies on Farscape do a lot to illuminate the tendencies of the species without locking it into broad strokes.

The episode opens with Moya coming into the crosshairs of a Sebacean planetary defense system and getting hailed by a counselor of the planet's royal family. Well, that's not entirely true. The episode actually opens with some flirtation between John and Aeryn, which is actually more appropriate for the theme of "Look At The Princess". It's a story about various forms of romance and how it often gets tangled in other responsibilities.

Down on the planet, there's a sort of festival going on in which the locals use a special chemical to determine genetic compatibility. One drop on the tongue plus a kiss is all it takes. If the taste is sweet, you're compatible. It just so happens that the ascendant princess of this world is in desperate need of a suitable mate, so it's rather obvious where this conceit is going, especially since we've already established that Crichton is irresistible to all alien women.

There's a lot of extra intrigue on top of the fact that Crichton is being forced to serve as the future king of an entire planet. There's a Scarran dealing with the royals as well, as is there a Peacekeeper operative played by the lovely Bianca Chiminello, a model-turned-actress who recently had a turn in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. For the record, this character also jumps Crichton's bones for no particular reason.

This first appearance of the Scarrans, a lizard-like race of quasi-mystical bastards who are somehow more fascist than the Peacekeepers, demonstrates how the funding for Farscape changed by the third season. The Scarran in this episode is a guy with a puppet on his head. Future iterations are depicted with nice makeup jobs.

I wish I had more space to talk about the sub-plot of Zhaan and Moya confronting a stellar deity, because it's actually a pretty nice interlude for all of the politics and assassination attempts on the planet. Since that otherwise interesting point doesn't even come up again in the series, it's not too much of a loss.

By the time the whole thing is over, Crichton is forced to leave his empire behind, as well as his child made from a DNA sample who won't be born for another 80 years. All in all, this is a pretty excellent string of episodes and it does a lot to thicken the plot, both in the interpersonal relations of the main characters (re: lots of sex) and by making Crichton the target of just about every major entity in the galaxy. Things get very, very interesting from this point on.