Ratings
0.9 (US)
2.76 (UK)

Mary Mara..................Lyneea
Cayde Tasker...............Fostro
Boris Brkic................Ryymax
Mark Shaw..................Alien Soldier #1
Dominic Bianco.............Alien Hunter #1
Heath Wilder...............Alien Hunter #2
Cameron Smith..............Unspecified (Voice)

Wassup?

ET, phone home!

The crew discovers, the hard way, that the Peacekeepers have left a locator beacon on board Moya. To get rid of it, they must make planetfall on an uncharted world, locate a specific substance to use as anesthesia, and perform surgery on their Leviathan -- all while avoiding contact with the local population, which has never before encountered extraplanetary life.

Backstory

There are six "forbidden cargos" for Leviathans; clorium is one of these, because it has a numbing effect.

Paddac Beacons are activated if they do not receive a regular signal from a Control Collar, and have a range of approximately one quarter lightcycle. Metal objects used in their proximity will activate their defense mechanisms. On Moya, the beacon was located in a storage compartment on Tier Seven, and Pilot was not aware of its presence.

When Peacekeepers capture a Leviathan, they immediately administer a very potent sleeping agent; the weak and old do not survive, which may be an intentional part of the process. While the ship is sleeping, the control collar is set in place, and modifications are made in propulsion and guidance.

Hynerians are aquatic.

Zhaan is a Ninth Level Pa'u priest, able to share another being's pain.

Zhaan's eyes go opaque when she draws on large amounts of spiritual energy.

Clorium is used as a seasoning. Rygel eats some of it as he's spreading it over Moya's neural nexus.

Reactions

Questions

1. The Writers had not yet discovered "dren" in this episode; Aeryn says "crap" instead (see Quotables below)
2. Rygel gives Zhaan a rare glimpse of his insecurities, admitting to his fears for Moya, and uncertainty of his own abilities.

Observations (none)

Bloopers (none)

Annotations

The title is a play on Steven Spielberg's 1982 film E.T., and possibly Robert Graves's I, CLAUDIUS or Isaac Asimov's I, ROBOT (or some similar title).

John: "Kinda like Louisiana. Or Dagobah. Dagobah -- where Yoda lives."
Aeryn: "Who's Yoda?"
John: "Just a little green guy. Trains warriors."
Aeryn: "Oh."

Refers to the Jedi Master who first appears in 1980's THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK.

John: "Pilot said you press this, this, and...this. What? It's just like a VCR...except easier."

Refers to the classic frustration of otherwise intelligent people, whose VCRs perpetually are blinking "12:00".

(see also www.crichtonisms.com)

Translator Microbe Report

Quotables

"The sound frequency's doing something to my eye...feels like its melting my brain. It couldn't actually be doing something to my brain, could it?" - John Crichton

"The device itself is still broadcasting some kind of signal into deep space, using Moya's hull as a maximizer."
"It's using my skull as a maximizer. Why am I still twitching?"
- Pilot, John Crichton

"Look, I'm new to all this escaped prisoner crap, all right?" - Aeryn Sun

"Well if she can't, she can't. We can stick our heads between our legs and kiss our asses goodbye...[strange looks from crew]...It's a saying." - John Crichton

"When leviathans are young, they often play with a planet's gravity...see how close they can come. There's a tale told about an adult male, who once touched down on a planet's surface...though no one knows if it's true or not." - Pilot

"We're in the mud...under the mud!"
"You're aquatic. What's your problem?"
"Aquatic. That's water, not mud. Mud is...mud. You can't breathe in it, you can't move in it. It holds ya, it grabs ya, it sucks you down. You want to know about mud? I know about mud!"
"Guy knows mud."
- Aeryn Sun, Rygel, John Crichton

"With apologies, but that is Moya's primary neural nexus. It is an intensely sensitive area."
"Well, how sensitive is sensitive?"
"Look, she's just going to have to endure it."
"Could you be a little sensitive?"
- Pilot, John Crichton, Aeryn Sun

"The Peacekeepers - "
" - turned on me for speaking up for you. I don't know what I was thinking."
"Well, back home we call it being stand-up."
"Well, I stood up, and I no longer have a home."
"Well, join the club."
- John Crichton, Aeryn Sun

"It's kinda like Louisiana...or Dagobah...[blank look]...Dagobah -- where Yoda lives."
"Who's Yoda?"
"Just a little green guy. Trains warriors."
- John Crichton, Aeryn Sun

"Pilot said you press this, this, and...this. What? It's just like a VCR...except easier." - John Crichton

"Oh! This is a tokaar knife! [Do] you know what ceremony young Luxan males use this for? On themselves? At that...certain age?!?"
"Then I suspect that D'Argo will want it back unharmed."
- Rygel, Zhaan

"Your greatest fear will come to pass, Hynerian. Someday, you will die at the hands of a Peacekeeper." - Aeryn Sun

"Don't tell me you're going to miss that rock?"
"No, not that rock."
- Aeryn Sun, John Crichton

Comments from Cast & Crew

Rockne S. O'Bannon, January 13, 2000

• Moderator: <Rehanna> to <Moderator>: Is there anything that happened first season you weren't completely happy with how it turned out? Or anything that we took other than how it was ment?
  

  Rockne: There was some rough going in the first few episodes....
  Rockne: We started out trying to film two episodes at the same time. For example, one director directed "I, ET" and "Throne for a Loss"....
  Rockne: It just became impossible for the director, cast, everybody to work on two very disparate storylines at the same time....
  Rockne: By "PK Tech Girl" we went to shooting linearly....
  Rockne: ...and notice how much stronger the eps got after that....