This is one of the first episodes where the long-term arc of the series starts to be cemented.
Moya comes across the The Zelbinion, a legendary Peacekeeper ship lost in battle 100 cycles ago. When John Crichton and Aeryn board the ship, they discover that it has been stripped of any valuable parts long ago, with only the skeletons of some of the crew remaining. And yet they find a live Peacekeeper tech girl: Gilina. Obviously the Peacekeepers are about, and might be coming back soon. But Gilina's comrades are dead as well --- nothing left of them but charred bones in uniform stuck to the walkways.
It turns out that Sheyangs (fat little male beings that can spout fireballs at will) ambushed the Peacekeeper crew sent to The Zelbinion and Gilina was the only survivor. But the Sheyangs return when they sense Moya. D'Argo, desperate because they have no defenses, starts shouting at them and manages to intimidate them into a temporary standoff. John and Gilina, in the meantime, are working hard to repair The Zelbinion's defense shields.
Throughout all of this Rygel is cowering, hidden in his cell in Moya. When the blue priestess inquires about the reason, Rygel reveals that when he was first captured by the Peacekeepers over 130 cycles ago, it was in The Zelbinion that he was tortured by its psychopath Captain, Durka. Pristess Zhaan encourages Rygel to confront his past in order to overcome it. When Rygel boards The Zelbinion he gets flashbacks of Durka, torturing him, and removing the royal sash from him. He finds the Durka's office and his skeleton. Durka shot himself in the end. Rygel gloats over his erstwhile torturer's body, taunting his remains over Durka's final cowardice, and laughing at the skeleton for having outlived him. Before Rygel leaves Durka's office he takes back the royal sash from amongst the trophies that Durka kept.
John Chrichton and Gilina manage to repair the defense shields (there are two of them) right before the Sheyangs attack with their ship's ray gun. The defense shields envelop Moya as well, and they hold, but they leave gaps in the defenses. The Sheyangs launch individual fighters to attempt squeezing between the gaps and turn off the defense shields; one makes it. In the final showdown, Aeryn must repel commando style from a walkway while shooting at and killing the Sheyang in order to save Gilina and the almost-cowering-lika-a-little-girl-in-the-face-of-imminent-death John Chrichton --- just another of the fun reversals and playful turned-on-their-head tropes that Farscape likes to deliver: the big strong powerful woman saving the defenseless man just in the nick of time in the most awesomely and manly (or is it womanly?) way possible.
Throughout this episode John Chrichton and Gilina end up working together for extended periods of time, alone, and in close quarters. There is an obvious and immediate attraction between the two scientists, which soon expresses itself in kisses. And Aeryn Sun can barely control her jealousy around them. When John confronts her about her harsh attitude towards their budding romance with the question of whether she had ever just found someone with whom she wanted to start a romance Aeryn angrily but directly confesses that she had initially been attracted to John when she first met him. Their conversation ends awkwardly as each retreats to their work. It is clear that Aeryn does not know how to deal with her jealousy and her nascent attraction to John: she has spent her life as a soldier; romantic liaisons are simply not in her training. As for John, he is taken aback. He has never suspected that Aeryn could have ever been attracted to him, given how badly she treats him. And he is interested in Gilina.
At the end of the episode the crew agree on their course of action to escape the Sheyangs: Gilina will signal Crais's ship to scare them off, and Moya will leave before Crais arrives. Gilina agrees to install one of the defense shields on Moya --- even though she knows this is treasonous, but she is willing to do it for John. She will stay behind, on The Zelbinion to make sure that Crais does not know that Moya is in the area. Aeryn convinces the rest of the crew that Gilina can be trusted because otherwise Gilina will suffer the same fate she has: to be declared irreversibly contaminated and executed. In reality, Aeryn knows that Gilina will not betray them because Gilina cares for John Chrichton.
The last scene of this episode is a tender goodbye between Gilina and John, decrying the fate that will keep them apart from each other, unable to continue their blooming romance.
One final detail: it is revealed by Gilina that Aeryn's squadron has been demoted due to Aeryn's desertion. One more thing that plagues Aeryn along with the longing for her prior life that she has been forced to abandon. Home is lost for her, her friends are suffering, and she cannot help them.
Review by noelctBlockedParentSpoilers2022-04-15T02:31:11Z
Our Deconstructing Moya post from 2010:
http://farscape.madeoffail.net/episodes/episode-1-07-pk-tech-girl/
Some fresh thoughts:
I want to firmly klonk past me on the noggin for being dismissive of some of the better threads of this episode.
With David Kemper settling in among the executive producers, this is where we're starting to get a stronger blending of one off plots and lore threads, as while this is the only episode in the series credited to Nan Hagan, veteran of Sliders and Pensacola: Wings of Gold (?), Kemper has talked about his involvement in this script in a number of behind the scenes interviews.
The Gilina thread is an early example of how well this show will come to excel at troll plotting, where they lull you in just to make it hurt harder when they suddenly play their hand. Gilina and John are perfect for each other. They have the same interests, a similar excitement and can-do energy. They're both strikingly pretty. So the pull between them is instant and easy. And that's the issue. They're too easy. This is a drama, and right from the start, they set forth with the intention of John and Aeryn being OTP, but they're using the ease of Gilina to show how hard it'll be for Joryn (ship name?) and how much clashing and baggage they'll need to cut through before they'll ever be comfortable. Shockingly, it's Aeryn who first admits to her feelings, in an attempt to gruffly plow through them. And what I especially love about the "hey" scene that comes later is it further emphasizes how much she pays attention to John, and starts absorbing and finding uses for his vernacular, but is always doing so on her own terms. She's not just parroting them, she's processing and understanding, and making them hers. It's also about how hard it is for both of them to vocalize what they're going through, but acknowledging that they're there when the other is ready. It's a really lovely piece of writing. But cudos to actress turn Australian Home Shipping Network presenter Alyssa-Jane Cookfor making such a strong impression with Gilina. I remember it's not fun when she turns up again.
As for the two threads I didn't like back in the day (silly Noel), I actually quite like now how ineffective and bumbling of a small crew the Sheyang are. They just happen to have a big gun and a total willingness to shoot first and make impressions later, so a large part of their reputation is likely built on a lack of survivors left behind. By showing they're largely a bluff as they come screen-to-screen with a bigger bluff, it makes for a great standoff, while also sewing tensions between the trigger happy youth on their ship and the more strategic elder. And as for Rygel, it's okay that he's drifting on his own journey through ghosts he's afraid to confront, and him not chipping in to help with negotiations, or have a hole he's again the only one small enough to crawl through, forces the others to make due without, especially D'Argo having to dishonor himself by lying to save the others. My one gripe is he just seems to be wandering around while there's a big ticking clock that everyone is scrambling with, so I feel that tension could have heightened his sequences instead of be ignored by it.
It really is a solid episode. It's a great set they make use of. They're filling in backstory. Zhaan's role as den mother is becoming increasingly strained. Pilot's heartbreaking mention of how afraid Moya is of fire. And you can't deny just how iconic the image is of Claudia Black hefting up a giant pulse rifle, and commanding "ON. THE GROUND. NOW." Classic.