In one of the very first scenes of Farscape, John’s father told him that every man is his own kind of hero. When he said it neither one of them had any idea that John’s kind of hero would save his entire planet and all the people on it from destruction. Now that’s a hero! What could John possibly do for an encore? If Bad Timing had been written as the series finale, they couldn’t have done a better job of ending Farscape. Well, except for the last couple of minutes, maybe. But even with the miserable cliffhanger, Farscape’s current incarnation ended the way it lived—with excitement, romance, action, character interaction, and all the other elements of the show we love.

Bad Timing begins with John Crichton looking across the water to the space shuttle Colleroy waiting to take Farscape 1 into orbit. “Previously on Farscape” contains two scenes from each of the 87 episodes leading up to Bad Timing, then we jump right into the meat of the episode – Braca’s command carrier is skulking nearby offering Peacekeeper “protection” for earth against a Scarran invasion. What to do? What to do?

John is torn between accepting Braca’s offer and trying to destroy the wormhole leading to earth. He makes his choice—use his knowledge to destroy the wormhole—but thinks he’s going to screw it up. Although he knows how to collapse the wormhole he doesn’t have the speed or dexterity to succeed. Fortunately, it’s not what you know, it’s who you know and, John knows a guy. A guy with four arms and an outstanding talent for multitasking.

The whole hour was visually rich in details. Stark hiding in the corner while D'Argo and John talked. Extended StarBurst. The wormhole demo while John and Pilot were talking. Pilot and Rygel in the same scenes, which must have taken a huge amount of puppeteer coordination. The Scarran ship. Bunny battles. No wonder every other show seems so boring.

Previously I mentioned that John is a hero, but he’s not the only hero on board Moya. Rygel did his part, convincing Pilot to do the right thing and Pilot himself for doing it; Chiana, who gave up her sight for the cause; Jack Crichton who, since John went back into space, has spent his time bringing the people of earth together; D'Argo, who’s growing into the role of Captain of Moya. Even wacky Stark did his part.

There was one somewhat jarring note in Bad Timing: what was with Aeryn’s sappy expression during half of the episode? Yeah, I know she’s pregnant, but really! They’re fighting for the lives of billions of people and Aeryn wanders around looking like a space cadet.

What was going on between Scorpy and Sikozu, weird alien sex or murder? (Is there a difference?) Since Braca’s expression was identical to the one he had when Scorpy and Natira were a loving couple, I think Scorpius was being amorous rather than homicidal. Then again, Braca gets that look a lot around Scorpy.