Look at the Princess Part 2
Teleplay by David Kemper
Directed by Andrew Prowse & Tony Tilse
REVIEW
Part two of a trilogy is always going to be the episode where the heroes have rocks thrown at them. A basic writing technique in any story is to put a hero up tree, throw rocks at the tree, and have the hero somehow prevail. The story is in the somehow, and in who's throwing what rocks.
So while we got out of the previous cliffhanger rather quickly, we were always going to and the show was smart to use it as a way to launch a further problem for Crichton. But then the show is always smart enough to turn problems into crises. This works the other way around, too: D'Argo's final speech had the job of informing new viewers exactly what was going to happen to Crichton but that exposition was hidden behind a buddy moment.
Sex is rather changing D'Argo anyway as he's shifted to becoming more of a foil for Crichton than a truly separate character. Arguably the ensemble is breaking up, too, as while Zhaan's had more to do this week, she's still away from the action.
Perhaps this story, fun and clever though it is, might just be too stretched out. For we have two running tales of doom running simultaneously and yet the Moya one isn't as effective as the Crichton one. In both cases you cannot doubt that the heroes will prevail but with Crichton you can suspend disbelief and actually fret about him. Somehow you can't with Zhaan, Pilot and Moya so their scenes felt as though they held up the action.
That's odd because the action felt too hurried when Moya was first probed. It was certainly cut to the bone for the opening fight but at least that let us get quickly to the great moment with Crichton holding Clavor's nose and making him nod agreement.
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