With Alien Baby still in human disguise it’s up to Harry and Max to track it down. Except of course Max knows full well where it is. Meanwhile Asta is still carrying the weight of the world on her shoulders, while Darcy revisits past glories.

There’s also big news for the Hawthornes as they face one of the worst things that can ever happen to a parent – their child takes up a very loud musical instrument. Back at the cop shop the air is still thick with sexual tension between Mike and Lena, while Liv manages to earn a little bit of their respect for her sterling detective work.

It’s not all soapy shenanigans this week though, as crusty old General MacCallister is still sniffing around, and the fate of someone we, and the people of Patience, haven’t seen for a while seems to have been sealed.

We conclude as per usual with a couple of learning moments for Harry and Asta, the latter in the form of a pep talk from her wise old owl of a father. It’s almost becoming a running joke that Harry of course never truly learns anything and will just go back to being a useless friend next week.

So here we are again, as we were for much of the first half of the season. I get that this is supposed to be a small-town comedy drama with a twist – Northern Exposure with aliens if you like. But I’m tiring of the soap elements – that’s not to deride soaps, they have their place and I understand their appeal even if I’m largely immune. However I really feel that the likes of Darcy and the Hawthornes, when not interacting to some extent with Harry, which they hardly ever do now, are of little interest to me. I just don’t care that much about Darcy and her new boyfriend, or whether Ben is really happy about having another baby in the family or not. I don’t watch the sort of shows that have those sorts of plots. No slight on the actors, who are all terrific, or even the characters themselves, just please have them do something interesting.

Verdict: If you like all the small-town personal dramas then you’ll enjoy this I’m sure. For me it feels like it’s again eking out the SF story and filling the gaps with stuff I’m not interested in. The first rate cast is keeping me going though – for now. 6/10

Andy Smith