Farscape - "PK Tech Girl" (TV Episode Review #15)

In “PK Tech Girl”, Moya stumbles across the Zelbinion, an ancient, abandoned, and heavily broken-down Peacekeeper carrier in orbit of a remote gas giant.  What follows is 50 minutes of pure popcorn fun.  There’s action, humor, and yes, even romance—all packed together in less than an hour.

Writer Nan Hagan’s script is overall top-notch, full of humor and heart throughout.  John, Aeryn, and their guest party member, Gilina, are at the center of this story as they try to navigate the halls of the Zelbinion and find their way out.  With the threat of the Sheyang raiders as enemies looming overhead, there’s plenty of tension filling the situation, and for the most part, its brisk pace never slows down—not even in its quietest moments.

One particular strong point of this episode’s script is how the guest characters are written.  The title character of “PK Tech Girl” is Gilina, a Peacekeeper starship technician and former colleague of Aeryn who is lost onboard the Zelbinion.  She is actually a vulnerable person and can’t fight for her life at all, but nevertheless shows her strengths with her brains by knowing the inner workings of a Peacekeeper starship, providing valuable information on how to rework the ship’s broken tech.  Gilina provides a sharp contrast from the militaristic culture of the Peacekeepers by showing a different facet of their organization.

Then there are the Sheyang—they are not actually evil, but rather hotheaded, short-tempered, hypermasculine space raiders.  For how one-dimensional they are characterized, they are so hilariously entertaining to watch.  Their voice acting, with their nail-biting over-emphasis on everything they say, hammers down their hypermasculine egos with flying colors.  The episode also does an effort to make them threatening by showing several aftermaths of Sheyang attacks on the Zelbinion.

The guests’ interactions with the main characters are the keystone of what makes “PK Tech Girl” such a blast to watch.  D’Argo gets to flex his verbal strength this time as he tries to negotiate with the Sheyang raiders.  Every video chat banter they have is always really funny while also quite tense.  D’Argo’s frustration with basically being a mouthpiece for Zhaan’s ideas makes for a perfect setup that does not get wasted.  Seven episodes in, Anthony Simcoe is already at the top of his game in his acting performance here, presenting a range of calmness, discontent, and frustration.

John and Gilina's chemistry really works here.  For instance, they get to trade off their technical and scientific expertise, and Gilina gives John a chance to reason with a Peacekeeper regarding his side of the story of Crais’s brother’s death for the first time, making for a rather touching moment.  There is also a certain... ship the two get to build together (if you know what I mean).  Normally, love at first sight (let alone forced romantic subplots) makes me cringe, if not facepalm in disapproval; but thankfully, actress Alyssa-Jane Cook has enough chemistry with Ben Browder on set to make their characters believable enough for me to buy it.  Plus, I can’t help but burst out into laughter at the part where Aeryn walks in on John and Gilina’s “moment.”  Her reaction in that scene hints at a certain something going on between John and Aeryn, too, am I right?

The special effects and production designs are strong as always.  The CGI renderings of the Zelbinion, the Sheyang ship, and the gas giant planet with its rings are really convincing from afar.  Energy shields, projectile weapons, and even explosions—this episode has it all.  The CGI effects amplify the action sequences to such a degree that you won’t want to look away when the action is happening.  In addition, the Sheyang themselves look like real reptiles, with green scales and blinking black eyes.  Just one question, though: how did their physical actors see, act out their movements, and follow their cues in those suits?  Especially with the dark lighting on set?  TV episode director Tony Tilse must have had to do some extra work to direct them and make sure they knew exactly how to navigate such a small set of their ship’s cockpit.

The Zelbinion is a legendary Peacekeeper command carrier that went missing 130 cycles ago, and it looks and feels like one that has been ruined over time.  While the Zelbinion is painted black all over as much as Crais’s carrier, there is a darker and bleaker emptiness on this ship.  Control panels and wires have been broken, messed up, or entirely misplaced, and the lighting is darker than any other Peacekeeper ship.  Also, the skeletons that scatter the halls of the ship look very real, like they’ve either been recently charred or left to rot for over a century—they’re quite horrifying to look at.  Having seen Crais’s carrier in previous episodes as a basis, the deterioration of the Zelbinion is fully underlined.

“PK Tech Girl” is the kind of escapist entertainment that I search for when watching a sci-fi TV show like Farscape.  While not without its darker subtext, this episode knows how to make its audience feel thrilled and satisfied by the end.  It is fast-paced space adventure that hits all the right notes in terms of action, tension, wit, and fun.