FAQ

Originally named "Space Chase", Farscape is a science fiction show with elements of both drama and comedy. It is about an American astronaut, John Crichton, who is accidentally transported across the galaxy where he befriends a group of outcast aliens. Farscape is also the name of the ship John Crichton flew.

Scorpius is the product of a Scarren experiment to breed Sebaceans with Scarrens in order to see if the race could provide any genetic value to the Scarrens. He's the only one of 91 trials to survive. His mother was kidnapped from a failed Sebacean colonization settlement and raped/forcibly impregnated by a Scarren. Turns out that due to the Sebacean race's inability to deal with extreme heat, the entire species is deemed unworthy and thus the Scarren threat of annihilation is posed. Scorpius hates the Scarrens for this superiority complex mentality and, personally, because his birth resulted in his mother's death. He wears the black leather coolant suit because his Scarren side produces heat (big warm-blooded reptiles) which his Sebacan side can't tolerate. The rods inserted directly into his brain are another coolant apparatus. He was raised by the Scarrens and fed misinformation about his lineage and the nature of the two species. His unique genetics provided him with a talent: he can see different species' energy signatures (that's how he spotted Crichton as a human when they first met) and tell when they are lying by the shifting colors he precieves in his vision spectrum. This allowed him to know that he was being indoctrinated by the Scarrens. He escaped and labored to 'find himself' as it were. Eventually he sided up with the Peacekeepers in the hopes of developing wormhole tech to counter the inevitable Scarren threat.

The only Scarren/Sebacean hybrid.

In "We're So Screwed Part I: Fetal Attraction" in Season 4, you learn that, in fact, Scorpius might not the be the only hybrid to survive. On the Scarran Boarder Station he comes in contact with a Charrid and a Scarran, and neither of them recognize him. If Scorpius were the only Scarran/Sebacean hybrid to survive, he would be quite noticable, especially since he's quite high up in Peacekeeper command. More importantly, the Charrid calls him "a half-breed," which sugests there are others. Now, it is possible the Charrid was referring to Scarran hybrids with other species besides Sebacean, but I think it's quite obvious just which species make up Scorpius' background. Of course, all of this is interpretation and not hard fact. - Edit by Heather

Instead of the heat/truth probe he simply sees when people are lying. He also has increased strength and the hot/cold dilemma.

No. You kind of have to pay close attention to the mini to discern this. You'll notice that John calls him Harvey. This is a reference to the Jimmy Stewart movie "Harvey" in which Stewart has an invisible friend who is a 6 ft invisible rabbit called Harvey. Scorpius put a chip that contained his personality into Crichton's brain in order to keep him safe so that the unique wormhole knowledge wouldn't die. Over time being trapped inside the humans head this Scorpius/Harvey develops into a kind of Al Calavicci (Dean Stockwell's character on Quantum Leap)-type sidekick that only John can see and hear.

These are conversations inside Crichton's head with Harvey. Look for the Kubrick Strangelove and 2001 references.

No, of course not. He's a fourth dimensional being that John nicknames Einstein because of the info on relativity he gives.

He was looking into our realm's wormhole affairs and snagged Moya. Crichton wasn't on board, but Einstein learned of the Human and greatly desired to speak more with him. The danger that Crichton posed to the entire galaxy had to be addressed.

He developed the skill over time with much effort, as a result of the subconscious knowledge given to him by the Ancients.

They don't. One of the alien technologies is "translator microbes." These are microscopic organisms which live in a sentients brain and automatically translate (almost) any language he hears into his own native language. We hear the alien characters speaking in English because Crichton was injected with translator microbes and he hears them speaking English.

As an interesting addition, in the series when Crichton hears other human languages they are translated as well.

If Crichton meets another species who have no translator microbes it is unclear how they allow the other species to understand what Crichton says or how Crichton understands them when there are no translators in the other species brain decoding what they are thinking when they speak and transmitting that information to Crichton's translators.

No they are not human, although they look identical. They are a species which are known as Sebaceans, and are both Peacekeepers,the largest Sebacean polity in the universe. Throughout the series the words "Peacekeeper" and "Sebacean" are often used indiscriminately but the main characters do meet a number of Sebaceans who are not Peacekeepers. While Sebaceans and Humans are visually indistinguishable from each other Sebaceans, particularly Peacekeeper Sebaceans, do have some notable differences.

The first major difference between humans and Sebacians is revealed in Season 1 Episode 2 "Exodus from Genesis", namely that Sebacians are cold blooded. Another of these differences, which plays a crucial role in the series, is that Peacekeeper women have some limited control over their reproductive abilities. Because of their combat duties Peacekeeper women have been genetically engineered so that they can prevent a fertilized egg from beginning to gestate. It is generally implied throughout the series that Sebaceans are physically superior to humans being tougher, longer lived, and stronger. The last is portrayed rather inconsistently. Often Aeryn Sun is portrayed as at least as strong as Crichton due to her status as a Peacekeeper. However Crichton seems to have no trouble fighting male Peacekeepers, who would presumably be at least as strong as their women.

In the Peacekeeper Wars miniseries, it is revealed that thousands of years ago, the original Sebaceans were brought to what is now Peacekeeper Space from a distant and unexplored part of the universe. The idea was to introduce a race no one had ever encountered before to become Peacekeepers--a race with no pre-existing loyalties to bring their neutrality into question. The overwhelming implication is that these original Sebaceans were brought from Earth.

It is a standard unit of time used by most of the alien races Moya and her crew encounter that is roughly equivalent to one Earth year.