I've been complaining a lot about having trouble figuring out what's going on during some of the recent episodes. This week I had no trouble at all, more's the pity. I guess barfing, spitting, farting, cross-dressing, urinating in public, and eating and drinking disgusting substances are supposed to be cutting edge television, but to me it's just barfing, spitting, farting, cross-dressing, urinating in public, and eating and drinking disgusting substances. I see enough of that at family reunions - I don't need to watch it on TV.

Usually when Farscape has an episode that’s supposed to be humorous, it’s actually funny, but when the audience reacts with more groans than laughs, something’s seriously wrong. Not that Coup by Clan was totally terrible, there were some hilarious moments. Unfortunately, not enough of them to offset the “ugh” moments. I’m beginning to think that “Tormented Territories” means Friday nights from 10 to 11.

Okay, enough ranting, let’s get down to what was good about the episode. The plot itself was actually interesting: Moya goes to a planet that has a Leviathan repair crew who can give her a tune-up so she’ll be able to cruise around the Tormented Territories with less discomfort. The crew is told that the planetary inhabitants have an unnatural fear of space-madness, so Doctor Pinocchio comes along to check them out. The crew has a little snack, generously sharing some mollusks among themselves and this is where their problems start. Each pair of the crew who shares a clam becomes linked, both physically and emotionally. Pinocchio, oddly enough, has lied to them and worse, poisoned them and he has the only cure. For a price. But, before he can sell them the remedy, he gets shot by a member of some sort of woman’s lib group. 

Crichton: Every time I looked at that wig, I thought of Tiny Tim. Not the Tiny Tim of Dickens fame, but the “Tiptoe Through the Tulips” Tiny Tim. John is a beautiful man, but as a woman? Sorry, no go.

Sikozu: She only eats every 5 weeks? No wonder she’s so tiny! But oh man, she really puts it away when she gets in the chow line. It was nice to see her give the finger, literally speaking, to the two baddies and save Aeryn. Even if her parts are reattachable, it still must've hurt like hell.

Aeryn: I sure hope they paid Claudia Black double wages this week – she earned it,  being stuck with some of Rygel's more er...unattractive...traits. The look on her face when she got a peek at "Tiny Tim" was priceless.

Rygel: Not much of a shopper but very defensive about his fashion sense. He had some of the best bits in the episode. He came up with the perfect punishment for Dr. Pinocchio by giving him some of the clam and then dumping the rest in the garbage for the local vermin to eat.

Scorpius: Whoa! I never thought Scorpy would be the hero of the week. but he was. He didn't need to eat some of both of the clams. If he's only there to protect Crichton, he could have just eaten some of the one John ate. He seems to care for the people on Moya, and you can tell he’s really one of the crew now – he got to barf!

Noranti: All I can say is keep the old dear away from the lab equipment.

The other body/mind swapping episode, Out of Their Minds, was wonderful, hitting high points in so many different ways. This one missed more often than it hit.