Season 1, Episode 17:
Through the Looking Glass
The Moya crew are having dinner together, but the atmosphere is acrimonious and poisonous. D'Argo, Zhaan and Rygel want to leave Moya at the first opportunity, fearing that her pregnancy and difficulty in Starbursting will get them recaptured by the Peacekeepers. John, believing that his best chance of finding wormholes and a way back to Earth is in the Uncharted Territories, wants to stay, and Aeryn, who has no home to go back to, also wants to. Unfortunately, Moya has been listening to them via the DRDs and decides to prove that she can still Starburst by doing so. There is a massive impact, and everyone is thrown around as the Leviathan stops dead.
Due to entering Starburst with too slow a speed, Moya has been split into her original version and three bizarre dimensional "splinters": a red-suffused one where the light makes everyone pained and nauseous, where D'Argo initially finds himself; a blue-suffused one where a mysterious deafening noise makes it impossible to communicate, where Aeryn initially finds herself; and a yellow-suffused one where something mysteriously makes people euphoric and high, where Rygel and Pilot initially find themselves. They are linked by randomly-placed portals, which John discovers. There is also a mysterious monster which makes "slashes" in reality haunting all of them, and Moya is slowly being consumed by a glowing other universe.
The crew initially decide to try to reverse out into real-space, which requires all of them to simultaneously operate the controls on "their" Moya, with John co-ordinating. John notices that the slashes in reality are the first few prime numbers, and realises that the "monster" is trying to communicate with them. He allows himself to be drawn into the creature's reality, where she explains to him that Starburst involves surfing the boundary between her reality and that of the main action, and Moya is stuck between the two. She explains to John that the only way to escape and save their lives is to Starburst forward, and that she will guide them back into their own universe. Once again racing between the different Moyas to co-ordinate everyone, John makes sure that this happens.
Drawn together by their ordeal, the crew have another celebratory meal.
This episode includes the following tropes:
- Book Ends: The acrimonious and happy meals at the beginning and end of the episode.
- Bottle Episode: The episode is entirely set aboard Moya and features only one briefly-appearing guest character, who is represented by a voice actor and an out-of-focus puppet.
- Call-Back: Aeryn reminds John that she still has some Pilot DNA in her system which means she knows how to put Moya in reverse.
- Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Each of the three dimensions has a Color Wash in either Red, Blue or Yellow to help tell them apart.
- "Everybody Laughs" Ending: The episode ends with Zhaan planting a "Take That!" Kiss on Rygel, which everyone finds hilarious.
- Everybody Lives: John explains to Chiana that despite the events, this was actually a good day because nobody died.
- Extradimensional Emergency Exit: Because certain crewmembers can't cope with the aggressive barrage of stimuli in one reality, they have to beat a hasty retreat to the next in line: John is left so debilitated by the nausea-inducing light in the red dimension that he can barely make it to the blue portal with his eyes covered by an improvised blindfold, while Chiana appears to suffers a seizure upon being exposed to the endless noise of the blue dimension and has to be carried to the gold portal before her condition worsens.
- First-Contact Math: The extra-dimensional entity initially tries to communicate with the crew with prime numbers.
- Foreshadowing: Crichton's comment at the end about how this is "one of the good days" presages the much darker turn the series is about to take.
- Not Now, Kiddo: During the initial meal, Chiana repeatedly attempts to draw the others' attention to the fact that the DRDs are listening, but is rebuffed.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: John and Rygel realise that something is affecting them on "yellow" Moya because Rygel is cracking stupid jokes.
- Out with a Bang: In the "yellow" Moya, a high Chiana suggests that she, John and Rygel have a threesome as they Starburst, ensuring that if they die it will at least be enjoyable.Rygel: Shall I disrobe so it's memorable?
- Sensory Abuse: The visual treatment of the scenes on "red" Moya is genuinely unpleasant for viewers as well as the characters.
- Sensory Overload: Chiana has no problems with the light on "red" Moya, but the noise on "blue" Moya leaves her utterly incapacitated with pain.
- Starfish Aliens: The extradimensional creature that the gang runs afoul of, almost to the point of being an Eldritch Abomination (though it turns out to be sympathetic).
- Vomit Indiscretion Shot: John ends up graphically vomiting whenever he enters the "red" Moya.
- When Dimensions Collide: The general problem of the episode.
