Review

A rather cliched time travel story not unlike what we've seen on Star Trek too many times now except the plot device used to get there is less interesting. Stark's mystic abilities + mystic goggles from the memorial = time travel! As a consequence of the rather deus ex machina plot device, the writers were able to invent as many nonsensical predestination paradoxes they liked to give those still on Moya something to do and of course to give the end of the story some semblance of meaning.

The basic point behind this story is to explore the idea that our heroes making contact with alien civilizations might adversely affect them sometimes so our heroes can learn a lesson about treading more carefully. This is not unlike a Prime Directive episode on Star Trek. The trouble though is that lesson comes through much more clearly in a single exchange of dialog in Suns and Lovers when Borlik had a mistaken impression of the legendary John Crichton's exploits. The simple act of John having to correct her is far more interesting than John accidentally rewriting history on some nameless planet we don't care about.

What does work well in this episode is the delightfully striking contrast between John's and Aeryn's approach toward surviving their peril. There's nothing particularly surprising about their chosen tactics, but it's very in character. One touch I greatly enjoyed was how easily Aeryn blended into the ranks of Peacekeepers from 500 cycles ago. That says a lot about the static nature of Peacekeeper culture. While there's been some advancement in, say, pulse weapons since then, there's little difference at a high level.