Farscape (TV Series) They've Got a Secret (1999) User Reviews

Cleverly Playing Against Type

[ben-adams · 8/10 · 2 February 2008]

This is one of the most important episodes with the ramifications for the remainder of the show are still being felt in the the later series.

We see Aaron taking on the role of pilot due to the the splicing of their DNA in a previous episode. The revelation of Da'go's past and, of course, the conception of Talyn.

This is also the episode when all of the actors really seem to be comfortable with characters and seem far more realistic (for a sci-fi show) in their respective responses.

While it does not show some of the insanity that later episodes would produce it is a solid and enjoyable episode.

Events here will affect the rest of the series

[Tweekums · 9/10 · 8 May 2012]

While searching Moya to find any leftover Peacekeeper technology D'Argo triggers a device that causes an explosion that leaves him floating in space. When he is brought back on board he appears to have been affected by the explosion; he doesn't recognise his crewmates but thinks they are people from his past. That is the least of their worries though; whatever happened has also affected Moya... Pilot has lost control of Moya and systems are starting to fail; including environmental systems. At first it looks as though a virus has been released but the more they investigate the more it appears that it is Moya herself they are struggling against. If they are to survive they must either sever Moya's higher functions or find the cause of the events and persuade Moya to restart the environmental controls.

So far all the episodes have contained stand alone stories; things change here as the events of this episode will have repercussions that will effect there series in major ways. As D'Argo is confused about who everybody is we learn that he was once married and has a son; more surprisingly we learn that his wife was a Peacekeeper... something absolutely taboo in Peacekeeper society. More crucially we learn that the reason Moya had apparently turned against the crew; she is pregnant! The way these facts came out was interesting and there was a real sense of danger for both the crew and Moya. Keeping the action confined to the ship with only the regular cast gave a claustrophobic feel and having the normally useful DRDs attack people added to the menace of the situation. This is definitely not an episode to skip!

Unpeeling

[craybatesedu · 9/10 · 20 April 2019]

This episode finally pulls back the curtain on both D'Argo and the ship, both of whom take center stage as the driving force behind the story. Despite being the most action-free episode so far the story proceed at a brisk pace. Serious injury to both D'Argo and Moya at the same time lets their own various traumas take center stage.

We learn that D'Argo's true crime was a soap opera-like feud with his now-dead Peacekeeper wife's family that left his son an exile and he a prisoner. The secret he has kept so close to his chest is revealed through a digital locket that he keeps quite literally close to his heart, showing that his son has remained hidden for many years for his own safety. In a trance-like state he reveals this all to us, with the only levity coming in D'Argo's mistaking Rigel for his own son and the various other roles that the gang takes in D'Argo's waking hallucinations.

As for Moya - she's pregnant. We don't know why or how other than that the Peacekeepers were preventing it through equipment that has now been destroyed. Discovering that Moya's seeming breakdowns are the result of this pregnancy is the end of the story, leaving us with many mysteries not the least of which is how spaceships get pregnant in the first place and if we now have a little fleet of baby spaceships to look forward to. More importantly we learn that Moya has something like a personality, somewhat primitively biological in the sense that the ship seems unable to communicate or react except to protect itself and its offspring save for what can be communicated through the cute little robot bugs that serve as the ship's maintenance team.

D'Argo's story is somewhat resolved in this episode to the extent that we now know quite a bit more about him. Moya, on the other hand, is now more questions than answers for us (who is the father, for example, and why do the Peacekeepers want to keep these ships from reproducing at all?). Pilot has been unhelpfully unconscious for the entire episode right when he is needed most.

All around a well-told, if slightly soap opera-like story, which even without any fisticuffs or deep use of special effects is engaging and watchable. The performances are strong and the cheap sarcasm that has made up much of Crichton's dialog to date is mercifully absent.