Farscape/Recap/S01/E03 Exodus From Genesis
Season 1, Episode 3:
Exodus from Genesis
When a Peacekeeper Marauder arrives in the same system as Moya, presumably sent by Crais on a search-and-capture mission, she hides near a stellar cloud of unknown material -- which turn out to be bug creatures known as Draks, currently in the midst of "genesis", their birthing cycle. Apparently, these creatures use passing ships as birthing grounds, and Moya unwitting becomes a host for them. Not long after they make themselves at home, Crichton encounters one of them; in a panic, he kills it. Believing that they are being threatened, the Draks start interfering with Moya's systems, raising the temperature to accelerate the birthing process and producing "doubles" of Moya's crew to sabotage the ship.
The rising temperature starts affecting Aeryn: as a Sebacean, she can't regulate her internal body temperature, and the heat is sending her into a condition called "Sebacean heat delirium". Beginning with mild disorientation and continuing on through loss of short term memory, muscle coodination, long term memory, the condition ends in a permanent coma known only as "the Living Death"- the only circumstance in which Peacekeepers kill their own out of mercy. In a desperate attempt at preventing the sweltering temperatures from worsening Aeryn's condition or damaging Moya's systems, Pilot opens the docking bay to vent some of the heat into space- even though this might leave them open to attack from enemy ships.
When a Drak manages to implant a spore in Zhaan, their Monarch uses her to communicate; after finally managing to establish who they are and what they want, she and Crichton work out a deal to keep the temperature low enough to keep Aeryn safe for the time being without ruining the birthing cycle. It's going well until the Peacekeeper Marauder returns, taking advantage of the open docking bay to board Moya and deposit a crew of heavily-armed commandoes; encountering some of the duplicates, they naturally open fire- spoiling the deal. With the Monarch no longer interested in what Crichton has to say, Rygel approaches the Drak hive himself, and manages to negotiate a new deal: crank the heat up enough to disable the commandoes, and provide Crichton with an entire battalion of duplicates.
While Zhaan keeps Aeryn stable with cold water, Crichton, D'Argo and the duplicates successfuly bluff the commandoes into believing that humans possess the ability to clone themselves, and send them away with a warning on the subject for Crais. Genesis completes and the Draks leave peacefully.
Tropes present in this episode include:
- Big Creepy-Crawlies: the Draks.
- Bunny Ears Lawyer: Rygel finally shows that he has skills in areas other than eating, and manages to successfully negotiate with the Draks.
- Early Installment Weirdness: The commandos wear Egyptian-style eye makeup which is never seen again.
- Fate Worse Than Death: The final stage of heat delirium, called the "Living Death"
- Friend to All Living Things: Zhaan
- Literary Allusion Title
- Monster Is a Mommy: The Monarch of the Draks.
- Mother of a Thousand Young: Again, the Monarch.
- Space Is Cold
- Starfish Aliens: The Monarch; we only see vague glimpses of her, but its clear that she's big, insectoid, and very hard to describe.
- Voice of the Legion: Zhaan, when possessed by the Monarch, speaks like this.
- Weaksauce Weakness: Sebacean heat delirium, though it's not quite established exactly how much heat it takes to start it.
- What Would X Do?: Zhaan manages to talk Rygel into approaching the Drak hive by asking him (over the comms) "What would Rygel the First do?"