The Moya crew discover that the Scarrans have sent an attack vessel, commanded by Akhna's lover, to take over Earth in order to gain access to the bird-of-paradise flowers that they need, because John destroyed their mother plant on Katratzi in "We're So Screwed Part III: La Bomba" after inadvertently revealing earlier that the flowers also grow there.

He, Aeryn, and a temporarily disconnected Pilot take a shuttle to Earth's moon, where John makes an emotional farewell phone call to his father and leaves behind a capsule containing necessary technology for humanity to reach the stars in the future.

They collapse into a shower of thousands of tiny crystalline pieces that fall down into a heap at the bottom of the boat and overboard into the ocean.

David Kemper has stated that "Bad Timing" was meant to follow up on John Crichton's realization in "Dog with Two Bones" that he must choose between staying with Aeryn and returning to Earth by forcing him to make a definitive choice.

[2] Ben Browder stated that they realised the "Bad Timing" theme fit the episode well during filming and that it also referred to the untimely cancellation of Farscape as the fifth season was being set up.

[1] David Kemper said that when he originally conceived Farscape with Rockne S. O'Bannon, they wanted it to be Star Trek but with a focus on the mind and emotions.

But director Andrew Prowse, influenced by Memento, challenged Kemper to utilize nonlinear storytelling, leading him to write the cold open used in "Bad Timing".

"[6] The cliffhanger that ends the episode, as well as most remaining plot threads, would be resolved 18 months later when the two-part miniseries Farscape: The Peacekeeper Wars aired on Sci-Fi.