This episode concentrates on Scorpius' continued research into wormholes; as it begins another prowler returns from the wormhole and once again the pilot has been liquefied by the experience. Chief researcher Linfer is adamant that her calculations were correct and says the pilot must have been careless; she is so sure of herself that she volunteers to fly the next mission. Her assistant claims that there is still encrypted data in the neural chip removed from Crichton and while she is flying into the wormhole Scorpius inserts the chip into his own mind. Here he meets Crichton in the same way that Crichton kept imagining Scorpius when the chip was in his mind; there is less of a confrontation though as Scorpius tries to explain why it is in the interest of Humanity to help the Peacekeepers get wormhole technology before the Scarrans. We learn that he spent the first dozen or so years of his life in a lab where he was forced to endure the heat and told how he must overcome his weak Sebacean genes. One day he escaped and eventually learned the truth about his origins from the Peacekeepers... we see how his Sebacean mother was captured by the Scarrans and are then told how she died during his birth; it is no surprise that he is obsessed by the idea of finding a way to take his revenge against the Scarrans. Back on Moya the crew are surprised when they are contacted by Linfer; she offers Crichton all that she knows in exchange for Moya; an offer that both Pilot and Moya are not against as her species are well known as peaceful deep space explorers.
This was a very interesting episode; it might not have been full of action but it offered a fascinating insight into Scorpius' origins. Much of it is fairly grim; grim enough that one can feel sympathy for a character that up until now has appeared to be undeserving of sympathy. There are one or two rather disturbing scenes; most notably when Scorpius stabs his captor in the eyes to escape and when Linfer starts to liquefy. Wayne Pygram does a good job as Scorpius; it was nice to see him take centre stage for an episode.
This was a very interesting episode; it might not have been full of action but it offered a fascinating insight into Scorpius' origins. Much of it is fairly grim; grim enough that one can feel sympathy for a character that up until now has appeared to be undeserving of sympathy. There are one or two rather disturbing scenes; most notably when Scorpius stabs his captor in the eyes to escape and when Linfer starts to liquefy. Wayne Pygram does a good job as Scorpius; it was nice to see him take centre stage for an episode.
