Introduction

Note - This article contains plot points for all seasons and The Peacekeeper Wars

Story

Commander John Crichton of the International Aeronautic and Space Administration (IASA) was a second generation astronaut. Although a brilliant scientist and brave test-pilot, he lived in the shadow of his heroic father until his research led to the Farscape mission. John would command the mission to carry his Farscape-1 module into space, and then pilot the module in a slingshot orbit around the Earth to test his revolutionary acceleration theories.

As is traditional in such situations, a freak astronomical phenomenon interrupted the experiment. A wormhole opened up in the path of the Farscape module, hurtling it to a distant corner of the universe and into the middle of a space battle. The module collided with an alien fighter, which was destroyed, while John was picked up by the larger spaceship which the fighters were attacking.

This ship was a Leviathan, a living space vessel and, moreover, a prison ship that had just been hijacked by her inmates. Moments later, the ship flees into the depths of the well-named Uncharted Territories. Imprisoned with one of the fighter pilots, John found himself surrounded by aliens and utterly out of his depth.

The Show

Farscape ran for four seasons, following the adventures of John Crichton and his alien comrades aboard the living ship, Moya. In the course of the series they travelled between the weird and wonderful worlds of the Uncharted Territories and beyond, into the perils of Tormented Space, always pursued by the totalitarian Peacekeepers and later by their arch-adversaries, the Scarrans. Our mismatched, squabbling band of heroes loved and lost, battled terrible odds, met interesting people and watched them die.

Genesis

Farscape was the brainchild of producer Rockne S. O'Bannon.

The Crew

The Cast

Characters

Commander John Crichton (Ben Browder)

John Crichton, astronaut, test pilot and scientist, provides a point of contact for the viewer of Farscape. Whatever is strange to the viewer is strange to him, allowing for explanations of anything that may be commonplace in the Uncharted Territories. Moreover, although he is a scientist, Crichton never uses the 'Dr' that goes with his PhD and only on formal occasions does he even introduce himself as 'Commander'¹. He has the common touch; he loves sports and movies and the Three Stooges; he fires off Earth-specific cultural references at eighteen to the dozen, almost revelling in confusing his alien comrades as much as their language confuses him.

"Every man gets a chance to be his own kind of hero."

- Jack Crichton, Premier

The words of John's father, Jack, a veteran astronaut, are of course prescient of John's coming trials and his response to them, but they also describe much of the ethos of the series. John Crichton is a hero, but not in any conventional mould. He has rage in his heart and coldness as well; he can be selfish and far more often he can be wrong. This fallibility is typical of Farscape's characters, who are all too human, even if they are aliens. In John's case, his finer qualities are tempered by a certain rash impulsiveness, a borderline obsessive personality and a tendency at times to succumb to the baser nature of the big, dumb male that he is. Although intelligent he is dynamic, a man of action as well as thought, and especially in the baffling surroundings of the Uncharted Territories this can cause him to act without thinking things through. It might, in fact, be argued that throughout the course of the series, John Crichton goes more than a little bit mad.

As the series lead, John's development and evolution throughout the course of the series is given the greatest screen time of any character. He begins as a kind of innocent - in actor Ben Browder's words, the classic American - abroad and stands out among his accidental shipmates; in Farscape, the human is the alien. His isolated status is accentuated by the fact that he continues to wear his battered IASA fatigues until the end of Season 1, when - to the delight of a great many viewers - he dons the black-and-red leathers, the uniform of a Peacekeeper Captain, which would remain his trademark. This moment is a watershed for John; by wearing the uniform - including the pulse pistol which he comes to name Winona - he tacitly accepts a place in this part of the universe and bids his hopes of getting home to Earth goodbye. As well as his fatigues, this separation is symbolised by the loss of his father's good-luck charm; the puzzle-ring given to him by Yuri Gagarin.

Through the second season, John struggles to hold his friends together, but his path as a leader is complicated by the fact that his mind is no longer entirely his own. Gradually, he becomes aware of a second consciousness sharing his brain, seeking for knowledge that is within him, but is not his own. When that pressure is released, the scientist turns quester and through Seasons 3 and 4, John seeks to unlock the secrets of the wormholes that took him from his world. At the last, he turns hero and takes on the might of no fewer than two galactic empires in an attempt to forge peace, before finally surrendering that power to become a father and a husband.

John's character is defined by the qualities that he most values and most doubts in himself. Courage - although he questions it - sincerity - although it may not serve him well - and integrity - however little it may be valued by others. He is also a loyal friend and possesses a strong sense of family which aids him in holding the crew together, even when they most want to tear each other apart. Over all, however, John is a scientist; his intellectual curiosity - in equal parts asset and liability - is his strongest trait, and a very useful one in moving the plot along.

One other trait, and one which sets John apart from many of his alien friends, is his unconditional respect for the sanctity of life. Although, as the series progresses, the harsh realities of existence in the Uncharted Territories begin to take their toll on his morality, Crichton remains fundamentally opposed to killing. While the sheer impact of the first time he ever takes a life with his own hands - albeit under the control of an intellant virus - is rarely repeated, he is always the one to seek a peace and death on any greater scale than a gunfight is utterly abhorrent to him. The fact that he is the key to the most appalling and powerful weapon ever conceived fills him with horror.

Again, as the lead character, Crichton's relationships with the other characters are well developed, but some more than others. His friendship with Zhaan was cemented when he donated some of his primitive and conflicted human nature to balance the darkness in her soul and his familial urges led him to forge a strong, fraternal bond with Chiana. After some initial tension and despite great differences in temperament, he and D'Argo became firm friends.

Some of John's closest bonds were, paradoxically, forged with his worst enemies. Captain Crais spent a Season pursuing him and, when the Captain gave up the chase, his place was taken by the Peacekeeper scientist, Scorpius. Where Crais simply wanted to kill Crichton, Scorpius wanted to pick his brains - in a disturbingly literal fashion - for the wormhole knowledge that was placed there without his awareness. Scorpius' methods led to the presence of a neural clone of the scientist within John's mind - a clone who became John's invisible friend, dubbed 'Harvey'.

And then there was Aeryn. From the first, there were sparks between John and the Peacekeeper officer, although the relationship was a slow - if hot - burner. One of the great strengths of Farscape was the ability of the writers and directors to sustain a burgeoning relationship over eighty-eight episodes and a four hour mini-series without sacrificing anything in the way of tension and without turning the show into a space-borne soap opera.

Officer Aeryn Sun (Claudia Black)

"It is my duty, my breeding...since birth. It is what I am."

- Aeryn Sun, Premier

Aeryn Sun was born to serve. Like so many of her fellow Peacekeepers, she was the child of a serving soldier, born and raised on a command carrier, trained almost from birth to be the perfect soldier. The one thing that stood between Aeryn and the absolute ideal of a Peacekeeper was a dimly remembered conversation with her mother, Xhalax Sun, who told her that she was conceived in love, rather than to fill a gap in the ranks. She rose through the ranks to become a Special Commando Officer in the Icarian Company of the Pleisar Regiment, assigned to fly a Prowler - the standard Peacekeeper fighter - although her ambition was to join an elite Marauder commando unit. That all changed when her Prowler was caught up in a Leviathan's starburst effect and she found herself a prisoner.

Officer Sun's sympathy for the human, John Crichton, put her at odds with her captain and he declared her irreversably contaminated. In a heartbeat, she became an outcast, cut off from everyone and everything she had ever known. Naturally, she bonded with her fellow outsider, John Crichton; just as naturally, he could not help but show an interest in the woman who introduced herself by knocking him to the ground, straddling his chest and trying to throttle him. All that black leather can't have hurt, either.

Aeryn looks human, but she is in fact a Sebacean, with all the strengths and frailties of her race. More importantly than her species, however, she is a soldier, a Peacekeeper: She always prefers to shoot first, with asking questions as an optional extra; she is a tactical thinker, but as a field officer her strategic training is limited and she is a short-term planner. Without her command structure, she is as much out of place in the Uncharted Territories as John Crichton.

"You can be more."

- John Crichton, Premier

Aeryn's evolution is that of the perfect military resource into a fully-rounded human being. From an impassive, inflexible and dogmatic servant of the hierarchy, she is swiftly forced to become a fugitive. It takes a long time for her to become comfortable with her place as an enemy of the establishment, and as late as Season 4 she still finds herself drawn back towards her Peacekeeper heritage when her way seems unclear. Although she sees the alien ways of her companions as flawed, Aeryn is one of the first members of Moya's crew to recognise that some must follow. As a soldier, that must have been obvious and Aeryn is nothing if not able to recognise and respond to the leadership qualities of others.

The true transformation that comes over Aeryn, however, occurs when she begins to accept that what she wants and needs can be as important as her perceived duty. Emotionally, Officer Aeryn Sun, Special Peacekeeper Commando, is an island. She fears intimacy - emotional intimacy, rather than physical - as something inimical to good order and discipline. Love is something that endangers the entire company and it is only in opening up to the possibility that she does not have to sacrifice her happiness to protect the body politic and accepts not only her lover but also her child, that Aeryn sheds her Peacekeeper exterior and emerges as a distinct individual.

Aeryn is a creature of discipline and practicality. Although her training makes her lean towards proactive, or even aggressive responses, she is more cautious than many of her shipmates. She has a fierce, single-minded devotion to duty, whoever that duty is to, and having once accepted someone as a comrade in arms, she is tenacious in her defence of them.

In many shows, Aeryn's role would have been that of John Crichton's love interest; in Farscape, she is a character in her own right, but the ups and downs of her relationship with the human astronaut are the emotional core of the show.

More than anyone else aboard Moya, Aeryn is close to her ship and its pilot. Having once been infused with Pilot's DNA, she shares an ineffable bond with the most alien member of the crew, and having aided in reconciling Moya with her wayward son, Aeryn is very close to the ship. Her reward for mediating with the young Leviathan was to be asked to name him and Aeryn chose her father's name, Talyn.

Her relationship with Talyn was even closer and the gunship had a great desire for her to join his crew. This desire was matched - and perhaps engendered by - the wishes of Talyn's captain, Bialar Crais. Crais was once Aeryn's commanding officer and responsible for throwing her out of the Peacekeepers, but this hostility was in reaction to John Crichton and it turned out that in his calmer moments, Crais thought about Officer Sun a great deal. This, naturally, caused trouble.

Ka D'Argo (Anthony Simcoe)

Crichton: Tell him who his Daddy is, D'Argo.

D'Argo: I'm your Daddy.

- Thanks for Sharing

General Ka D'Argo was a fearless, Luxan warrior. He was a man of action, a peerless fighter and a natural leader...and he was little more than a child. In fact, D'Argo was no General; he was only thirty cycles old - barely out of adolescence for a Luxan - when he escaped from Peacekeeper captivity. He was the youngest of Moya's original crew and the most impetuous, although for much of his life he embraced peace, rather than war.

He was once a farmer and a loving husband, before his Peacekeeper brother-in-law, driven by rage against all things alien, murdered D'Argo's Sebacean wife, framed him and saw his son sold into slavery. On his release he desired only three things: To return home, to find his son; and to kill his wife's brother.

Ka D'Argo was, at first introduction, the ship's Klingon. He was aggressive, honourable and highly sensitive to insult; a warrior from a race of warriors. Gradually, however, another side of D'Argo's character emerged. First it became apparent that he had once been a peaceful, family man; then it emerged that he had impersonated a general in order to protect his commander, who escaped while he drew off the enemy. Later, he formed a close and protective attachment to the Nebari, Chiana.

Through pain and betrayal, a stronger, wiser man began to emerge from beneath the teenage bravado. In time, at the insistence of the conflicted Moya, the crew were pressed to choose a captain and they chose D'Argo. His strength and leadership did not fail them and he proved himself capable of taking advice as well as giving orders.

D'Argo struggled hard and in time became that which he had once pretended to be. In this role, he was mortally wounded in battle against the Scarrans and, at the last, went out in the blaze of glory that a warrior of his quality deserved.

D'Argo is a fierce, aggressive warrior, always willing to wade in and have a go. He is also, however, capable of great tenderness and love. He is a gifted musician, able to craft as well as play the Luxan shil'quan. In all things, he is passionate above all. He is loyal to his friends and his lovers and he trusts them, even when, perhaps, he should question them.

He is also devoted to his cultural heritage. In addition to his warrior's honour, he embraces the blood allies of the Luxans as though they were his own kin. His most treasured possession is his ancestral qualta blade and when he wants to marry he seeks out a set of Luxan eternity tattoos. In the pain of rejection, he finds solace in exploring the secrets of an ancient, Luxan warship.

After a rocky start, D'Argo and John became fast friends - although this friendship was marked by constant bickering - and D'Argo even began to absorb elements of John's Earth cultural references into his own speech. He also developed a close relationship with Zhaan, after a rocky start when his resentment of Zhaan's greater experience grated with the wannabe war hero.

After the loss of his wife, Lo'Lan, D'Argo never expected to marry again, but he believed that he had found a new life partner in Chiana. He was also reunited with his long-lost son, Jothee, when his friends helped him to redeem the boy from a slave shipment. his life seemed to have come together at last. Unfortunately, Chiana panicked at the thought of marriage and, unable to come up with a way to let D'Argo down easy she did something stupid; specifically, Jothee. The bitterness that followed soured D'Argo for some time, but he was reconciled with both before the end.

Following the breakdown of his relations with Chiana and Jothee, D'Argo threw himself into the examination of an ancient spaceship which intrigued him strangely. The ship proved to be a Luxan assault piercer, which responded to D'Argo's DNA. He called the vessel Lo'Lan. He also formed an unlikely relationship with the snobbish scientist, Jool, when she made a misguided, but well-meaning, attempt to aid in unlocking the ship's secrets. By the time of her departure, D'Argo respected Jool more than any other member of the crew did.

During the final season, the rift between D'Argo and Chiana slowly healed, and in The Peacekeeper Wars he was finally reconciled with his lover and reunited with his son. He won such respect from his comrades that he was elected to act as Moya's captain.

P'au Zotoh Zhaan (Virginia Hey)

Dominar Rygel XVI (voiced by Jonathan Hardy)

"Repent? We have half an arn. I was a Dominar, it woudl take me logner than that to repent."

Chiana (Gigi Edgley)

Stark (Paul Goddard)

Pilot (voice of Lani John Tupu)

Captain Bialar Crais (Lani Tupu)

Scorpius (Wayne Pygram)

Lieutenant/Captain Meeklo Braca (David Franklin)

Commandant Mele-On Grayza (Rebecca Riggs)

Emperor Staleek (Duncan Young)

War Minister Akhna (Francesca Buller)

Sizoku Shanu (Raelee Hill)

Moya

In common with many leviathans, Moya was long ago captured by the Peacekeepers and locked into a control collar, a device which subdued her and prevented her from using her only means of escape: starburst. For many years, Moya and her pilot served the Peacekeepers, unwillingly, as a transport, but Pilot drew the line when it came to allowing his beloved partner to be used in a Peacekeeper experiment to breed a leviathan with weapons.

The Peacekeepers accepted the pilot's decision, after a fashion; they had him killed and replaced with a new pilot, grafting the neural connection by force. In the end, nothing seemed to come of the experiment, but Moya was left with the scars, and her new, false pilot.

Talyn

Talyn was the offspring of Moya and the result of a Peacekeeper genetic experiment. A Peacekeeper science team developed a method of impregnating a leviathan with a genetic code that would result in a combination of biomechanoid and Peacekeeper technology. In order to carry out his experiments, the leader of this team had to order Moya's pilot killed and forcibly replaced with another, one considered too unstable by his race to bond with a leviathan. In the end, however, it was the project leader who terminated the programme and placed a contraceptive shield within Moya's reproductive system to prevent the hybrid's creation. For this treachery, he was executed by his own lover, Officer Aeryn Sun.

Years later, the shield was accidentally removed by D'Argo and Talyn was conceived. When Moya went into labour, there were complications and on investigating her crew found that something was blocking the passage of the offsrping down the birth canal; to whit, a gun the size of a Lincoln towncar. The hybridization had been successful and the offspring combined the usual leviathan advantages - speed, manouevrability and the capacity for self-repair - with Peacekeeper intelligence gathering and combat systems. He - for the hybrid was male - was a leviathan gunship, anathema to his own race, but Moya's red-hulled boy for all that.

From the first, the hybrid was confused. Leviathans were a peaceful race, yet he was made to be aggressive; savage, even. He could not bond with his mother until a Peacekeeper - Aeryn - interceded. It was Aeryn who named the ship Talyn, after her father, but it was another Peacekeeper renegade who took command of the vessel. Bylar Crais stole Talyn from his mother and was later given Talyn's 'hand of friendship', a neural link which connected his mind directly with Talyn's. Through this bond, Crais was able to soothe some of Talyn's rage and guide his development.

The conflict in his essential natures and the relentless hounding of the Peacekeepers, who were determined to get Talyn back, took their toll on the young leviathan, however. He grew increasingly aggressive and became so dangerous - he was, essentially, a lost, confused toddler with a battery of lethal weapons at his command - that Crais was forced to take drastic action. As part of a larger deal with Scorpius, Talyn was taken into dry dock on a command carrier to be stripped of his weapons. Faced with the treachery of the Peacekeepers, Talyn sacrificed himself for his mother and her crew, annihilating the carrier in - indeed with - his death throes.

Elack

Elack was an ancient leviathan who encountered the stranded John Crichton when he - Elack's gender is unconfirmed, but suspected male - came to the leviathan's graveyard to die.

Joolushko Tunai Fenta Hovalis (Tammy Macintosh)

Utu-Noranti Pralatong (Melissa Jaffer)

Ka Jothee (Matthew Newton/Nathaniel Dean)

The World of Farscape

Alien Races

The Sebaceans are a humanoid race, externally almost identical to humans and, although physiologically distinct, compatible with the people of Earth in most ways that count. This latter is not of great note; most of the races in the Farscape universe have some degree of sexual and genetic compatibility. They are in most ways physically superior to humans, although only slightly, and their senses are all more acute. In common with most of the space-faring races bordering the Uncharted Territories, they have also eliminated almost all susceptibility to disease and have a natural lifespan of at least two centuries. The Sebaceans do have a particular weakness, however: they hate heat; indeed, it kills them. Extended exposure to high temperatures triggers a state known as Heat Delerium and death follows swiftly.

The bulk of the Sebacean race lives under the rule of the Peacekeepers, a military regime with a strong - but not entirely inflexible - belief in racial purity. Even associating with aliens overmuch is frowned upon and a Peacekeeper can be exiled or executed on grounds of 'irreversable contamination'. Marrying or having children with non-Sebaceans is a definite no-no, although it happens more often than Peacekeeper Command might like to think.

"I am a Peacekeeper. We are born in space and we die in space."

- Officer Aeryn Sun, The Locket

The Peacekeepers operate as a sort of interstellar Mafia. They purport to prevent wars by hiring themselves as 'protectors' to vulnerable worlds, but - a few idealists, such as Aeryn Sun, notwithstanding - really they take control of their protectees and their true goal is to expand their empire. Entirely separate from civilian society, Peacekeepers are dedicated to lifelong service. Their command carriers are not only home to all serving officers, they contain nurseries and schools for the raising and training of the young Sebaceans who will one day take their place in the crew of the carrier.

Including Charrids and Kalish

The Luxans are a humanoid race and, although less human in appearance than the Kalish or the Nebari, they have perhaps more in common, temperamentally, with the people of Earth. They are proud, honourable and fierce, with a long-standing warrior tradition and a high degree of spirituality, as evidenced in their reverence for holy men and women of all stripes, especially their own Oricans.

As a race, the Luxans possess remarkable strengths, weaknesses and other idiosyncracies. They possess a mass of sensitive facial tendrils, called tenkas; a peculiar liability in a warrior race, but presumably a throwback to the same predator past that gives them their incredibly acute senses and robust physiognomy. A Luxan can survive for almost a quarter-arn in hard vacuum, longer with breathing equipment, and they possess great physical strength and resilience. They are gifted as well with a stinging tongue, almost six feet long, which injects a venom quite capable of paralysing most humanoids with a single strike.

There are frailties as well, however. Male Luxans are prone to fits of hyper-rage, a state of emotional arousal in which they lash out at those around them, discriminating only in as much as they will only attack women who get too close, but will doggedly seek out other males. In addition, while Luxans are hard to injure, when wounded their blood flows black and becomes a toxin to their own body. The wound must be worried and battered until the blood runs clear, otherwise the Luxan will die.

Luxans tend to do things for keeps. They bond for life, make friends for life, and make allies for the lives of their children's children. The Ilanic race, genetic cousins to the Luxans, have been their blood allies for generations and D'Argo would sooner question one of his own than cast aspersions on an Ilanic. The Ilanics seem - from their limited appearances in the show - to have a more technical and less traditional bent than the Luxans, but are otherwise very similar. They have been at war with the Scorvians for many years, but even less is known of the Scorvians than of the Ilanics.

Technology

The leviathans are a race of biomechanoids; living spaceships, like giant, starborne whales. Within their bodies, which are partially-organic and partially-mechanical, there are great, air-filled cavities in which a crew can live and work. The upper flanks of the creature contain docking bays and a leviathan grows its own support vessels, cylindrical scout-ships called transport pods. A leviathan also grows large numbers of DRDs - Defence and Repair Drones - which act as her self-repair mechanism and also a large-scale immune system.

It seems that female leviathans are capable of parthenogenic reproduction, but it is possible that Moya's pregnancy resulted entirely from Peacekeeper modification. Aside from Talyn, no confirmed male leviathans have been seen on the show (c.f. Elack), but there are occasional mentions. They are born small, but grow at great speed and their internal architecture adapts itself to the needs of their crew. The only constants are the docking and maintenance basy and the central shaft, which runs up through the Leviathan from the starburst chamber to the pilot's den. The walls of the passages and chambers are hollow, filled with DRD access shafts, vents and miles of fluid vessels and neural clusters which carry the vital essences of the leviathan.

A leviathan can fly at great speeds - many times the speed of light - and is additionally capable of an impressive defensive manouevre called starburst. During Starburst, vast energies are channelled through the leviathan's skin and she is propelled through a parallel dimension, arriving almost randomly at a distant point in space. Following starburst it is always necessary to recalibrate the ship's positional information and restore the leviathan's energy levels. This is the leviathan's only defence, for they are peaceful creatures and unarmed. Violence is anathema to them and only in the depths of madness - or in defence of her offspring - would a leviathan usually consider any act of aggression.

Leviathans are not truly autonomous beings. In order to function properly and communicate with their crews they require the assistance of a pilot to regulate their systems and speak for them. The pilot is bonded with the leviathan, their nervous systems growing together so that they share one another's thoughts and feelings. For most beings, being linked to a leviathan is an overwhelming experience, but not so for the beings who are known simply as pilots.

The Pilot race are a crustacean people, colossal and bulky, and possessing no space-travel technology of their own. Pilots often dream of space, but the only way for them to reach it is to be bonded with a leviathan. They are ideally suited to this position, possessing acute senses, incredible reflexes and a brain capable of juggling dozens of distinct cognitive processes with the ease of a supercomputer. Their multiple arms are also useful in manipulating the leviathan's controls. They are incredibly durable creatures, able to rapidly regrow lost limbs and living for many centuries; longer even than leviathans. Bonding with a leviathan ties a pilot to that ship, however and they can not survive without their partner. The process greatly reduces the pilot's lifespan, but it is a sacrifice made gladly.

In the Farscape universe, spaceships routinely ply between the stars, using a technology known as hetch drive which enables faster than light travel without any of those mucky relativity problems. Each race has its own ships, most - although not all - of which are armed and many of which are warships. It's a big, bad universe out there, and few places bigger or badder than the Uncharted Territories which form a no-man's land between the Peacekeepers, the Scarrans and the Nebari.

The Peacekeepers base their operations out of their mighty Command Carriers, floating fortresses, bristling with deadly frag cannon and housing not only whole regiments of Peacekeeper soldiers, but also their support staff and their families; Command Carriers breed their own replacement personnel. The Carriers travel in armadas, accompanied by dozens of support ships, including Leviathan transports, heavy cruisers called battle fighters, gunboats called Vigilantes, the fast, armed troop-carriers called Marauders and Prowlers, the Peacekeepers' sleek and deadly, mid-range attack fighter.

Lolaan

Scarran warships

Most other ships simply came and went, pausing only briefly to fire at Moya in the general spirit of kicking someone who was already down. Notable, despite never actually appearing on the show, were the Nebari host vessels. Despite not being classed as warships by their makers, a single such vessel destroyed the pride of Peacekeeper Command, the legendary command carrier Zelbinion.

Farscape-1 was designed by John Crichton and his childhood friend, DK. Its intended purpose was to overcome gravitational friction and so accelerate to phenomenal speeds using only the gravity of a planet. For some reason, this primitive craft is also uniquely well-adapted for wormhole travel. In many ways it is like Crichton himself; ill-equipped for survival in the Uncharted Territories, yet somehow successful. After its arrival on Moya, the vessel was upgraded with biomechanoid parts and a hetch drive for FTL travel, but she remains, fundamentally, the ship that Crichton built.

The age-old problem of aliens who speak English is here solved by a little piece of Farscape's techno-magic. Translator microbes are injected into the body and colonise the base of the brain. Like the Babel Fish, they then allow communication with almost any intelligent species. There are a handful of races - including the Calish - whose cerebral architecture is incompatible with translator microbes. There are also a few languages - such as that of the pilot species - which are too complex for the microbes to translate.

Translator microbes also have a notable limitation. Certain words are too 'specialised' in their meaning to be translated, with the practical upshot that in Farscape, everyone swears in alien. This process not only keeps everything PG, it also helps to give Farscape dialogue a distinctive flavour.

For example:

• Frell - as in 'stop frelling around'.
• Hezmana - 'what the hezmana was that'.
• Yotz - usage as hezmana.
• Farbotz - probably not obscene; as in 'that's not just farbotz, it's magna farbotz'.
• Mivonks - 'by the skin of our mivonks', but probably not teeth.

It is a tough universe and the aliens of Farscape use a wide range of weapons to survive it. This is just a small sample.

"Don't move! Or I'll fill you full of...little, yellow bolts of light."

- Commander John Crichton, Premier

The standard, especially among the Peacekeepers, is the pulse blaster, a fairly straightforward energy weapon which uses a fuel called chakan oil to generate a blast of superhot plasma. Pulse weapons are compact, powerful and can fire hundreds of shots without needing to reload. They are constructed as pistols, carbines, long-rifles, support weapons and vehicle-mounted cannons by many different races and are, in most ways, the equivalent of terrestrial projectile weapons. The technology also seems to be remarkably robust. John Crichton developed an almost personal attachment to his favourite pulse pistol, Winona, and she survived everything that life threw at John for almost three seasons.

The trademark weapon of the Luxan warrior is the qualta blade, a sword which combines a close assault weapon and long-range pulse rifle. In older and more finely-crafted models, like Ka D'Argo's ancestral blade, the sword splits lengthways and the pulse blast is conducted along the gap between the two halves of the blade by a magnetic field. The mass-produced version used by the average Luxan warrior is a single-edged weapon with a pulse barrel fixed to the back of the blade.

Tavlek gauntlet

Scarran blaster

Frag cannon and immobiliser pulse

Sonic ascendancy cannon

Storylines and Seasonal Arcs

Season 1

Season 2

Season 3

Season 4

Ongoing Arcs

Production

End of the Line

The Peacekeeper Wars