Incubator--Scorpy gets sensitive Book Summary and Study Guide
Incubator--3 stars out of 10
Scorpy goes into a dream state to talk with the Crichton chip, which has some of Crichton's personality in it, to enlist its help in deciphering the secrets of wormhole technology. He shows the chip the horros of his childhood with the Scarrans to show Crichton-chip how evil the Scarrans are. But Crichton-chip isn't interested in helping.
In the B-plot, one of Scorpy's scientists defects to Moya, and offers to trade the secrets of travelling through the wormhole in return for Moya. But then we learn she is dying so the technology she thought she would trade doesn't work anyhow.
Aesthetics:
1) Many sci-fi series, notably Star Trek, have a tendency to bring on a good villain (such as the Borg or the Cardassian), and quickly humanize them and make them sensitive. Now Farscape is doing that. Scorpy is the perfect villain we love to hate, and now the writers are making him sensitive, making us wade through an hour of "Look how bad they were to Scorpy". The episode has nothing to do with the Scarrans but is really an effort to show how us how sensitive he is, once we understand he came from a broken home. He's even nice to Breka. What's next, will he hand out lollipops to the crew?
They started on this kick a few weeks ago; formerly, Scorpy was the enemy and the peacekeepers were the powerful invaders. Then, in a casual remark that the Scarrans outnumbered them 10 to 1, we learn that the peacekeepers aren't so bad and Scorpy is a worried guy just trying to do his job. That's a sudden turnaround!
2) The B plot was actually a D plot because nothing happened. It would have been much more interesting if the scientist had been a spy for the Scarrans, but no, she came, she bartered, she blew up.
3) This show is really turning into three distinct parts--Crichton and Scorpy (and Rigelstarkcraiseaeryn), Crichton and Scorpy (and Dargochianajool), and, in this episode, simply Crichton and Scorpy. Why not get rid of everyone but Crichton and Scorpy?
Because this episode was sappy, and slow, and is emasculating Scorpy (will we see him wearing pumps next?), I give it a 3 stars out of 10.
Note: the views expressed here are only those of the reviewer(s).
