Farscape — 1x15 — Durka Returns
Synopsis
Moya's crew encounters an old enemy, Peacekeeper Captain Selto Durka, who is now the brainwashed slave of a mysterious species, the Nebari. Durka and his new Nebari master Salis are returning Chiana, a Nebari criminal, to her homeworld to be 'mind-cleansed'. When Rygel attempts to kill Durka, the Captain's evil personality returns, and he immediately tries to wrest control of Moya from the crew. To save Moya, Crichton desperately needs Chiana's assistance, but she may be better off if Durka succeeds.
Filler rating: not filler
Introduction of Chiana, a new main character.
Remarkable scenes
- Moya colliding with another ship.
- Rygel's torturer from 100 cycles ago appearing on Moya.
- John being mistaken for a Sebacean.
- Chiana revealing her crime and the culture of the Nebari cleansing.
- Rygel attempting to assassinate Durka.
- Durka reverting to his old self and running amok.
- John: "Nebari mental cleansing doesn't get the tough stains out."
- John: "Durka's gone Hannibal Lecter on us!"
- Rygel taunting Durka during the torture session.
- John taking out Durka and almost getting blown into space in the process. A poor DRD wasn't so lucky though. :(
- John suspecting that Chiana murdered Salis.
Review
We finally have an alien of the week with some long term potential with the Nebari, a fascinating and evidently xenophobic culture who use mind control technology both on their citizens and the aliens they come in contact with. What's more, they have the military resources and technology at their disposal to hold their own against the Peacekeepers!
Having Salis parading around a mind controlled Durka was a lovely choice to give Rygel something truly menacing to contend with and the apparent retaining of Chiana as a recurring character was a nice change of pace. It's nice to see Moya picking up new passengers along the way rather than just an endless stream of aliens of the week we'll probably never see again.
Chiana herself failed to capture much of my interest, but the fate she was running from is truly sinister. Even Zhaan, who strikes me as among the most tolerant of the crew was outraged at the notion of Nebari mind control. It's not made entirely clear how or why Durka's mind control came undone (or if it ever worked in the first place), but I think it would have been disappointing to not see him revert back to his old self.
Aside from the joy of seeing Rygel scared witless at the notion of a reverted Durka, it was also enjoyable to see Aeryn trying to reconcile her mutually exclusive hero worship of Durka with her objections to his conduct both on moral grounds (unwarranted cruelty) and on Peacekeeper honor grounds (abandoning his crew). Perhaps the greatest moment of the episode is Rygel taunting Durka in the midst of being tortured.
What doesn't work in this story is the distinct lack of context afforded to the Nebari. It would have been nice to see their planet or even one of their ships given their amazing stated capabilities. Instead, what we're shown is entirely one sided. The Nebari are wrong and Chiana is right. The issue is presented in such a one sided manner that neither I nor John apparently seems to care much that Chiana may have murdered Salis. I mean, can you blame her? With more context given to the Nebari, the issue might have been more interesting.