- "Hetch Drives"- Hetch probably translates as "warp," as in Hetch 1, Hetch 2, etc. A practical interstellar propulsion used presumably by Peacekeepers and other starfaring species, but Leviathans are also capable of traveling at Hetch velocities without using Starburst.
- Starburst, unique to Leviathans, is an interdimensional drive that is faster than Hetch. Starbust involves riding an energy wave along the same between dimensions.
- Wormholes- the ultimate in travel, tunnels through space, can take you anywhere if you understand the "art." Crichton learns to navigate wormholes safely. All others tun to goo.
- I believe it's less Talyn needed a Pilot/naturally bonded pilot, and more, Talyn needed someone that wasn't as mentally unstable as Crais. IIRC, in one alternate universe, he bonded with D'Argo and turned out fine. Crais, this is a guy who threw away everything to chase down some random asshole across the Uncharted Territories for accidentally killing his brother while his brother was conducting a combat mission (you know, those things that carry inherent risk), and outright murdered his second-in-command to keep this a secret.
- They are pretty intolerant and xenophobic though... just more oppressive than genocidal.
- It's hard to know how xenophobic the average Peacekeeper actually is. It seems to be a philosophy enforced by the senior ranks but Peacekeepers' sole reason for existence is being hired out by other species which doesn't make much sense for an outright xenophobic people. Scorpius was able to get exemption from their purity laws so they're not that strict. While Macton had a problem with D'Argo and Lo'Laan, he was only one man and that doesn't prove everyone would have (in fact, Scarrans are the Peacekeepers' worst enemies whereas Luxans have a basic alliance so if anything Scorpius would find acceptance harder than Jothee). They also seem happy enough to socialise with other species in the Uncharted Territories when it's allowed and at least a few seem interested in Chiana. With the exception of their oppression of Leviathans, normally when they oppress the members of a species it seems to be the result of members of that species (those in charge) hiring them to do so and enforcing their laws. D'Argo was a convicted murderer, he may have been innocent but he was convicted (Crais may have known he was wrongly convicted but Aeryn didn't and nor would the average Peacekeeper). Zhaan killed the guy she was having sex with (to quote Crichton). Rygel's imprisonment was ordered by the recognised ruler of the Hynerian Empire. In effect, most Peacekeepers probably do feel they're enforcing the laws of individual planets and supporting peace. That's not to say there aren't some very bad Peacekeepers and that they don't do bad things (take that planet being used up to get tannot root). However, Peacekeepers do at least seem to think they're doing alright. The memorial in "Different Destination" celebrated Peacekeepers doing good things, so they did at least value this. In "Into the Lion's Den", Aeryn described loyalty, sacrifice and honour as Peacekeeper values. So many of them probably are decent people even if not always fighting on the right side.
- "Einstein," the extradimensional baldie in a nice suit, is an Observer!
- Further evidence: Farscape established that wormholes really, really can mess with the universe, and wormhole travel can lead to new "unrealized realities," parallel worlds spawned from imagination; this is rather like the degradation of the laws of physics (and resultant odd phenomena) that is occurring in both universes due to travel between them.
- That would result in multiple shows qualifying as parallel worlds connected to Farscape, such as Revolution, Supernatural, Sliders, and so on.
Wormholes are explicitly capable of time travel, and the only contact between Earth and the rest of the galaxy that occurs in the series proper takes place through wormholes. Also, this provides an elegant explanation for why just about everyone in the Farscape universe is bilaterally symmetric, eats similar food, is interfertile, and so on.
Given what we learn about the origins of the Peacekeepers in The Peacekeeper Wars, this does imply that either: a) the ancestors of the Eidolons had wormhole tech, or b) Sebaceans aren't actually any closer to humans than anyone else; when the Eidolons uplifted the "savages from the edge of the galaxy", those weren't Stone-Age humans but descendants of a Lost Colony.
This also implies that, when Crichton sticks all that information about alien tech on the moon, he's setting up one heck of a Stable Time Loop.
- It's worth noting this theory was brought up on Community.
- Doesn't explain Zhaan though. Humans aren't plants.
- Zhaan's species was originally a carnivorous plant, much like a Venus Fly Trap. Only instead of just smell, it used the trick of creating plant based replicas of any species it captured in order to lure other members of that species to their doom with the promise of a mating opportunity. At some point in the past, a number of sapient humanoids were captured by a number of Delvian Fly Traps. The replicas created gained sapience for the first time in their species' history. They were able to defy their instincts and began behaving autonomously. They developed the ability to reproduce on their own, thus creating the modern Delvian species. Their carnivorous plant roots explain their need for meat under certain circumstances, regardless of available light or other sources of food. It also allows them to be related to humans or Sebaceans in a round about way.
- It doesn't explain Pilot, either. Or Rygel, for that matter.
- Maybe not all aliens are descended from humans? Although this still doesn't explain Rygel's diet being human-like or Zhaan's very human physique.
- Humans in the far future will spread other lifeforms from our planet, and there will likely be genetic engineering, so maybe a combination of evolution and genetic engineering explains these things. The Farscape universe might be ripe with unintended consequences. (Breed a hardy plant that's aggressive for a hostile, barren planet, and maybe it eventually evolves into a sentient plant, who mimics the form of its predator.)
- Just a thought on this theory, the humans made Sebacean were described as "barely clothed". So if these weren't stone-age humans but were in fact from an advanced (though primitive by Farscape standards) Lost Colony, it's possible they just knew how to have a good time.
- Maybe not all aliens are descended from humans? Although this still doesn't explain Rygel's diet being human-like or Zhaan's very human physique.
Consider the following facts:
- Crichton can pretend to be a Peacekeeper by affecting a really bad English accent—or, in at least one case, without altering his speech in any noticeable way.
- Australian accents sometimes sound like bad English accents to those unfamiliar with them.
- Also, Claudia Black has acknowledged that her own accent is a hybrid of British and Australian and has influenced how Peacekeepers are portrayed.
- Australian accents sometimes sound like bad English accents to those unfamiliar with them.
- Crichton can tell when Aeryn is speaking English.
- Sikozu's first conversation with Crichton makes it clear that Translator Microbes act on the listener, not the speaker (she doesn't take them; he can understand her and she can't understand him).
Unless Crichton spent a great deal of time off screen learning the Sebacean language, presumably he's speaking English when he's pretending to be a Peacekeeper. Unless Crichton is considerably better at noticing which language someone's speaking than your average Peacekeeper, they must notice that he's speaking a language they've never heard before. Since this doesn't cause them to immediately figure out that he's an impostor, it must be a fairly common occurrence—that is, there must be so many different Sebacean languages that if some random Peacekeeper walks through the door speaking one you've never heard before, you won't be particularly surprised.
- You known, one could assume that the translator microbes help someone learn a new language faster
- Actually considering how far apart a lot of the Peacekeeper colonies are (and the fact that each planet probably has a multitude of different dialects), that's not actually implausible. And it would make sense. For all they know Crichton could just come from a far away Peacekeeper colony. I mean, think about it. What are the odds that an entire empire spread all that way across the galaxy would have just one language? THAT would be Wild Mass Guessing!
- Considering that Sebaceans have had audio recordings since their creation and the odds go up. Not that the Peacekeepers control more than a fraction of the galaxy; there are large chunks under control of the Nebari and Scarrans, for starters, as well as some fairly large regions like the Uncharted Territories and Tormented Space that nobody controls.
- It's possible the reason he can tell when Aeryn is speaking English is because she doesn't quite do it right, so when she says something that almost, but not quite makes sense.
- It might also be that the reader/listener perceives the microbe-translated languages slightly differently than naturally understood languages. This could be an in-universe explanation for why many aliens speak english with a few accents ... and why Crichton affects the accent, at first, when he impersonates the Peacekeepers; it's the accent he always hears from Sebaceans.
- Both could be right. In a "Prefect Murder" Aeryn said she was getting a really bad "bribe" (instead of vibe) and John realised she was speaking English. In "Coup by Clam" she said "Jirl Power" (instead of "Girl Power"). Mistakes like that are probably the quickest way to pick up someone speaking in a language they don't know. However, in "A Constellation of Doubt" Crichton asked Sikozu, when she was looking for the location of a Scarran base, if she was asking "in Scarran" and she insisted she was. This makes sense if Scarrans would be able to tell the difference. I'd speculate that the microbes don't apply a particular set of accents, rather they choose from accents the listener knows and finds easy to understand (so for John that's going to mean, American, English or strangely enough quite often Australian and New Zealander). Therefore everyone speaking to a Scarran through translator microbes might sound like someone from their homeworld, which can stand out if they're supposedly from somewhere else in the empire (and of course if two Scarrans from two different worlds compared the accent they'd quickly pick up the discrepancy).
- It might also be that the reader/listener perceives the microbe-translated languages slightly differently than naturally understood languages. This could be an in-universe explanation for why many aliens speak english with a few accents ... and why Crichton affects the accent, at first, when he impersonates the Peacekeepers; it's the accent he always hears from Sebaceans.
- Just to add to this, when Sikozu first met Crichton she fell under suspicion because she had Scarran currency. She then pointed at the others and said "Nebari, Hynerian, and you. All from the Peacekeeper realm." The you in this case was Crichton. She didn't seem surprised at all that someone she thought was a Sebacean from the Peacekeeper realm spoke a language she'd never heard before (in the next episode when she runs into Peacekeepers she doesn't have to learn their language, meaning it's not like there's just one Peacekeeper language and she doesn't know it). So this adds credence to the idea that at least some Sebaceans and probably some Peacekeepers do speak different languages.
...and that's how he knows that, if you want to be the baddest motherfucker in the worldgalaxy, you have to carry around your own private nuclear bomb on a Dead Man's Switch.
Note that Snow Crash was published in 1992 and Crichton didn't fall into his wormhole until 1998, so there's no problem with the timeline.
Well, him or one of his predecessors. They live in an alternate dimension outside of the space-time continuum within what we determine as the "universe." He OWNs time (I mean these guys made time their bitch a long time ago). And if you own time, you can own space. So it's probably not beyond their capabilities to go: "hmm... hey there's a lot of emptiness out there. I wonder what would happen if I just flick this switch over here...". And they sent the Ancients in because they didn't want some idiot fucking up their masterpiece (which happens to be linked to their own "universe-thingy"), and hence messing up their universe-thingy as well.
- Except that Farscape is not a "spiritually dead" or "magically dead" universe.
- Plus, Ancients are not intangible, nor do they feed on emotions or souls.
- He could be a rogue Ancient who's also a wizard.
- ???
- Plus, Ancients are not intangible, nor do they feed on emotions or souls.
The only words we don't hear translated by the translator microbes are units of measurement (arn, microt, hetch), and vulgarities (meevonks, dren, frell). There ought to a reason for both. Perhaps like Earth's Smoot the units are based was based on a body or body part.
- Or they're simply too different from Earth measurement. Metra looks like meter and half, or five feet, for example. That would be like translate one foot as one meter, and vice versa.
Think about it. They are giant reptiles who can breath fire and get their power from flowers. Maybe fire flowers? They also have a caste system, just like in Mario. In Mario it is Koopa Troopa->Various Koopa Mutations->Bowser and his family. In Farscape it is Basic dumb Scarran->an intermediate form seen in the background sometimes->High Scarrans.
Her complexion has a distinct grey-blue tint, and her built in roofie power has distinct overtones of the Nebari "mental cleansing".
Prior to his execution in "The Ugly Truth," he freely admitted that most of his insanity was an act to stop the Peacekeeper jailers from bothering him, and barring the odd flutter of panic in his second-season episodes, the characterisation follows the line pretty well up until "Ugly Truth." When he's resurrected in "Liars Guns and Money," he's clearly not as stable as he once was: first, there's the console-smashing breakdown when the heist goes wrong, then the conversation with Scorpius which ends with Stark yelling that he should just kill Jothee (the person Stark returned from the grave to rescue), and of course, his attempt to break up an argument by shrieking "MY SIDE, YOUR SIDE!" a lot. And it only gets worse from there- at one point, he goes so far as to try and Mind Rape Jool in one episode; clearly, he lost a sizeable chunk of his sanity (or self-control, take your pick) in his return to corporeal existence, making him a Type 2 example of Came Back Wrong.
It's a bit weird that the plant that boosts the Scarrans intelligence grows on certain Scarran worlds, and also on Earth on the far side of the galaxy. But once it's revealed that the Eidolons created the Peacekeepers from proto-Earth-hominids, an explanation appears obvious. At the same time as they took hominids from Earth, they also did a bit of natural-product bioprospecting for Earth plants with pharmaceutical uses, and they discovered an Earth plant that had intelligence-boosting effects on a primitive reptilian species they were aware of. So they introduced the Scarrans to the crystherium, probably with a rose-tinted view of sentient-lifeform-nature that led to the belief that increased intelligence would naturally lead to a more peaceable worldview.
- Or, perhaps the Scarrans were the Eidolons' first attempt at creating a private military. Scarrans are strong, resistant to pulse fire, have heat beams, and can breed with many races, making them adaptable to most environments. Unfortunately, they went rogue, and the Eidolons started over with Sebaceans.
- That doesn't seem too likely, since the head Eidolon didn't know anything about Scarrans.
- Given that the Eidolons didn't know anything about the Scarrans, the crystherium might have had other pharmaceutical properties that justified its spread in the region of the galaxy the Eidolons inhabited. After the Eidolons disappeared, the Scarrans were exposed to the crystherium and developed into the galactic power they are in the show's present day.
And in the next generation, D'Argo Jr. and any other Crichton offspring will have a Mordred-style Bastard Bastard as their Arch-Enemy.
- Entirely possible but I doubt it for one reason; If that was the case she would have used it to gloat over Crichton. She'd never miss a chance to mess with him.
- Unless she thought that it would be better not to tell him until it was dramatically appropriate.
- Or, she may have been raped by Scorpius off screen during Season 4 after she was dethroned from her command as payback for what she put him through. When Scorpius asks Bracka about how she was doing, he described her as being in "hysterics." Also, in the mini-series, when she looks at Scorpius after signing the peace treaty, she turns away with a bitter look on her face. It was almost as if something more had happened between the two.
- In a word, no. Braca's exact words were "she's having difficulty adjusting to confinement" - another Villainous Breakdown in other words. Plus, in this scene, Braca's addressing Scorpius as if he's just arrived on board. But even once we put all that shit aside, Scorpius has never made use of rape - of the physical kind - at any point in the show outside Crichton's nightmare scenarios. As for the look on Grayza's face, she's just been forced into a truce with the Scarrans and gotten humiliated by Crichton once again in the process. And another thing, would Grayza really be stupid enough to cozy up to Grand Chancellor Maryk after that? By all appearances, Maryk believed that the child was his own, and he could very well have been wrong about that, but there's no way in hell Grayza would be dumb enough to try and pass off a Scarran-Sebacean hybrid as his baby. Even the 1/4th hybrids tend to stand out, as Unrealized Reality demonstrated.
- More likely Kaarvok was just telling the truth when he said that there is no original and there is no copy, just two made from one.
- Scorpius' father is shown as an anonymous grunt, a horse-faced soldier-type Scarran in "Incubator", but it is entirely possible that's just how Scorpius imagined the events, without any evidence.
- It's pretty much stated outright in the episode that the game was made by Stark to mess with Chricton, in revenge for him getting Zhaan killed, in Stark's perception.
- The truth is actually simple: from the making-of documentary on the two-disc DVD of the mini-series because after the show's completely, the preset file for Pilot's audio alternation was deleted without a backup. When the mini-series was greenlit, the post-production crew tried their best to recreate the setting, thus the end result we get in the show.