< Farscape

Farscape/Tropes A To C


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  • Abnormal Ammo: "Chakan oil" is used as ammunition for pulse pistols. The stuff is apparently somewhat tasty, as both John and Aeryn are shown licking their cartridges to check the power levels.
    • The wormhole weapons in Farscape can shoot a) black holes that grow exponentially or b) pull chunks of matter out of stars and then fire them at a target.
  • Aborted Arc: The Nebari are built up to be huge threats—one of the Peacekeepers' strongest Command Carriers is taken out by a Nebari cargo ship; Their "Establishment" deals with contentious citizens by infecting them with a sexually transmitted virus that will throw worlds into chaos, and them sending them into the galaxy at large; they're apparently capable of blowing up planets; and they wear lots of eyeliner. And we never hear of them again after "A Clockwork Nebari".
  • Accidental Marriage: The story arc entitled "Look at the Princess".
  • Acting for Two: Almost any episode featuring Crais, as the actor, Lani Tupu, also voiced Pilot. Also Wayne Pygram, who plays both Scorpius and his mental clone, "Harvey". While Harvey starts out being little more than a copy of Scorpius's personality, he later develops a personality of his own in seasons three and four, taking on knowledge and appreciation of popular Earth culture from Crichton's mind and becoming a less antagonistic character concerned more with his and Crichton's survival. Numerous episodes feature both Scorpius and Harvey. And in the "Look at the Princess" storyline, Jonathan Hardy, the voice actor for Rygel, appears onscreen as one of Moya's alien "Builders" (his eyebrows are the giveaway).
    • In addition, some of the guest starring actors and actresses who have played alien characters in one season end up playing other alien characters in a later season. One of the biggest examples is Francesca Buller, wife of Ben Browder, who has played in all four seasons of the show as alien characters (M'Lee from "Bone to Be Wild" in Season 1, ro-NA in two of the "Look at the Princess" three-parter in Season 2, Raxil in "Scratch 'n' Sniff" in Season 3 and Minister Ahkna in four episodes of Season 4. Ironically, Minister Ahkna is the only character she has played the longest, having to have been included in "The Peacekeeper Wars" mini-series).
    • In Season 3, Ben Browder started pulling double duty as John Crichton during the episode "Eat Me" until one of the Crichton's die in "Infinite Possibilities (2): Icarus Abides"
    • In the Season 2 episode "My Three Crichtons", Ben does triple duty as Crichton, Caveman Crichton and Future Crichton
    • In the Season 4 episode "Prayer" Jason Clarke is billed as the Scarran officer, Captain Jenek. He also played the role of Lechner (Aeryn's fake lover) in the flashback sequences in the same episode.
  • Acquired Poison Immunity: Crichton gets nabbed by Sykaran resistance fighters who inject a worm into his belly. While not particularly pleasant, the parasite feeds on the mind-controlling drug contained within the Sykarans' food, allowing Crichton to blend in amongst the cult without abandoning his free will.
  • A Day at the Bizarro: "John Quixote" is nuts even by the standards of the show, and this is the show that has had episodes that combine Mind Screw, Mind Probe and Mind Rape. Crichton and Chiana play some sort of virtual reality game based off of John's own previous adventures and listing all the ways it's just plain wrong would take too long.
  • Adventure Worlds
  • Affably Evil: Salis, Chiana's handler in "Durka Returns." Cool, calm, polite, and often extolling the virtues of a good Mind Rape; for good measure, he tortures Chiana while gently asserting that she should remain calm.
    • Kaarvok, when he bothers to talk, is impeccably polite and personable, even when readying to suck Chiana's brains out with a straw.
    • The doctor in "Coup By Clam" is awfully friendly for an extortionist and blackmailer. He even offers to refund 2/3rds of the money the crew pays him when he discovers he can't actually help 2/3rds of the crew he had poisoned. That doesn't stop him from getting his just rewards by the end of the episode, however.
    • and, of course, Scorpius, who alternates between Affably Evil, Faux Affably Evil, and Anti-Villain
  • Agony Beam: The Scarrans' natural agony beam is composed of solid heat, redirected from their own bodies. This, coupled with the Sebeceans' susceptibility to heat, makes them a natural enemy of the Peacekeepers.
  • Ain't Too Proud to Beg: In the grand finale, Crichton is about to unleash his wormhole weapon, and asks Scorpius, who has been dogging him for years, if he really wants to see the weapon. Scorpius, for his part, is more than happy to get to begging if it means the culmination of his life's goal.

Crichton: Beg.
Scorpius: [instantly] I beg you.
Crichton: That's not good enough. Say please.
Scorpius: Please.
Crichton: Pretty please.
Scorpius: Pretty please.
Crichton: With a cherry on top.
Scorpius: [only one word behind] With a cherry on top.
Crichton: Happy Birthday. Now, get out of my sight.

  • Air Vent Passageway: Justified in that diminutive Rygel often uses air ducts and service tunnels to travel when the ship is under siege, or whenever he's feeling particularly paranoid.
  • Alien Blood: The Nebari bleed blue. Luxan blood is particularly weird: when injured, it comes out black, and if you don't beat them until it turns clear it will become toxic and kill them.
  • Alien Catnip: In the episode "Kansas", Rygel starts stealing candy from trick-or-treating children. High on the candy, he asks John, "How illegal is this dren? You've gotta get me more! I don't care what it costs!" Later, in "A Constellation Of Doubt," he points out that most species consider refined sucrose to be an addictive poison. As Earth isn't that politically correct quite yet, it's available everywhere, and Rygel is indulging himself.
    • Certain type/frequency of light from certain stars to Zhaan. Appropriate since she is essentially an intelligent plant.
  • Alien Lunch: The crew of Moya subsists mostly on "food cubes", which allegedly supply all of your basic needs. John adapts to the new food fairly quickly by necessity.
  • Aliens of London: Scorpius, and Crichton whenever he impersonates a Peacekeeper (or has his consciousness taken over by Scorpius). Not consistently applied regarding Peacekeepers as several, such as Crais and Grayza, use Australian or near-Australian accents.
    • Justified by the fact that the Peacekeepers aren't a race, their race is Sebacean, and Sebaceans are settled on planets all across that area of space. Having different accents thus makes perfect sense, though most of them probably learn to feign a "proper" Peacekeeper accent if they want to advance far.
    • Additionally, Claudia Black spoke in an early interview about how her accent (a hybrid of British and Australian) influenced how other characters portray Peacekeepers/Sebaceans. Since her accent isn't really imitatable and other actors would have sought to have some continuity among their accents, the Peacekeepers generally fall somewhere on the British-Australian continuum.
  • The Alleged Ship: Staanz's scavenger ship is prone to breakdowns. She routinely tosses her own cargo into the furnace to get the engine running again, and even then, D'Argo has to routinely thump it with a stick to get it to work smoothly.
  • All the Myriad Ways: Depending on your perspective, played painfully straight or painfully deconstructed in "Prayer".
  • All Your Base Are Belong to Us
  • Alternate Universe: A whole slew of them in "Unrealized Reality", ranging from a Scarran-conquered Earth to an alternate Moya filled with Composite Characters based off of the main cast. Crichton is forced to revisit the latter one in the episode "Prayer".
    • A later quasi-Shout-Out to this occurs in Stargate SG-1's brief parody from their 200th episode, where Claudia Black's character pitches the concept of Farscape to a writer and puts her SG-1 teammates in various Farscape roles, including Ben Browder as Stark.
  • Always Save the Girl: "Shut up and listen to me. Scorpius is here, looking for the key to what is inside my head. Neural chips, threatening Earth - none of it works, because he does not understand me.... You're the key. My Achilles. You. If he figures that out, the world and all that's in it is nothing. He will use you, and the baby, and I will not be able to stop him." So, Crichton, do you think you might be a little in love with Aeryn?
  • Amoral Attorney: Ja Rhumann, senior partner at Litigra's ruling law firm.
  • Ancestral Weapon: Dargo's Qualta Blade was originally wielded by his father and grandfather before him.
  • Ancient Tomb: "Taking the Stone" is set in the catacombs of a Royal Funeral Planet, which has become home to a gang of thrillseeking teenagers. The B Plot involves Rygel being haunted by poltergeists after he engages in some looting.
  • And This Is For: In "A Human Reaction", Crichton Pistol Whips Cobb and knocks him out; "--for Rygel!" Subverted by the reveal of the Lotus Eater Machine.
  • Anti-Mutiny: Grayza continually goes against the orders of her high command in chasing after Crichton and Scorpius. Eventually her Number Two, Braca, determines that she is putting her own interests above those of the Peacekeepers as a whole, as Grayza is arrested.
  • Anti-Villain: Crais becomes this not long after Scorpius takes over as Big Bad; after he is booted out of the Peacekeepers and manages to accept Crichton's innocence in his brother's death, he becomes more or less an Anti-Hero.
    • Scorpius might do horrible things on a regular basis, but his actual goals are understandable. He has such a hatred/fear of the Scarrans that he is willing to do anything to ensure that their expansion into the rest of the galaxy is prevented. It could almost be considered a heroic goal...but his general lack of empathy for those he hurt overshadowed any humanitarian ends to his means.
  • Anyone Can Die: Many unexpected deaths, varying from Killed Off for Real to Death Is Cheap.
  • Apocalypse How: In The Peacekeeper Wars, John Crichton threatens to unleash a Class Z via wormhole weapons if the Scarrans and Peacekeepers don't play nice. A rare example of the good guys planning to annihilate reality. Of course, in doing so, he pulls a Class X on Qujaga.
  • Apologetic Attacker: During the showdown with Crichton in "Self-Inflicted Wounds," Neeyala remarks, "I have never before released my bristles to kill. Your forgiveness."
  • A Protagonist Shall Lead Them: Happens to Aeryn and the disillusioned Peacekeepers, suffering from massive desertion under Grayza's command after the wormhole weapon demonstration of PK Wars.
  • Arch Enemy: Crais initially and then Scorpius, for John. But the other characters often get their own lower-profile Arch Enemies: Aeryn has her mother Xhalax, Zhaan has Maldis, and Rygel has Durka.
  • Armor-Piercing Question: At the conclusion of Chiana's introductory episode ("Durka Returns"), Crichton asks her, "Where were you when Salis was murdered?"
  • Artificial Human: The Scarrans have "bioloids" that they mostly use as Evil Twin duplicates. Sikozu is also revealed to be a kind of bioloid.
  • Artistic License Physics: At the opening of the pilot episode, John tests a new experimental maneuver. He skims the Earth's atmosphere, hoping to pull away from Earth going much much faster than when he started. In reality, the kind of maneuver he's doing is used to slow down a spacecraft, not speed it up; it's how the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter braked from a highly elliptical orbit down to a low circular orbit.
    • Although from the newspaper at the start "Can a manned spacecraft overcome atmospheric resistance?"
    • The point of the experiment was to see if a ship can get the boost from slingshotting around a planet without getting slowed down by atmospheric drag. Still qualifies as Artistic License Physics though.
  • Ascended Extra: Both Chiana and Stark were intended as one-shot guest stars before being added to the core cast. Chiana was originally scripted to die from Durka's pulse weapon; instead, Zhaan patches the wound up at episode's end (which is fortunate, because otherwise Chiana would have died on account of Crichton using her as bait). In the case of Stark, Ben Browder was so impressed with Paul Goddard that he implored the writers to keep him on.
    • Additionally, Scorpius was only intended to come on for the last four episodes of the first season. Of course, when the Powers That Be saw how awesomely terrifying he was they decided to bring him on as the new main antagonist.
  • Aside Glance: Zhaan has these moments.
  • Asshole Victim: Salis tortures Chiana and regularly preaches the virtue of Mind Rape (which is what he plans to do to Chiana). It is never revealed who killed him. If it was Durka, he would have done it because he's a psychopath and attempting to get rid of any obstacles to his escape. If it had been Chiana, it would be a case of The Dog Bites Back.
  • Asteroid Thicket: Crichton inadvertently pops into one these during the series premiere. Bad for him, and really bad for Crais' brother...
  • Auction of Evil: Crichton crashes a Peace Conference with an offer to auction the wormhole weapon technology in his brain to the highest bidder. Naturally, he doesn't intend to actually let the auction conclude, but merely uses it to stir up a competition between the Big Bads. Needless to say, it's awesome.

Crichton: What am I offered for all the powers of the universe?

  • Australia Doubling: The Earth scenes that were allegedly Florida were shot in Australia like the rest of the show, though subverted in the episode "A Human Reaction" by having Crichton identify his surroundings as Australia.
  • A Wizard Did It: Chiana lampshades the trope after attempting to explain how a wizard actually managed to do something after she notices Rygel was not following what she was saying.
  • Babies Make Everything Better: Aeryn Sun in Peacekeeper Wars.

"All of a sudden, three's not such a scary number."

  • Back from the Dead: Almost every variation on this theme was played out, depending on the character(s) involved...played straight, subverted, averted and deconstructed.
    • Villains in Farscape made a habit of dying and then coming back for more. One villain in particular, Durka, came back twice until Rygel cut his head off and stuck it on his scepter.
    • ESPECIALLY Scorpius.
    • Don't forget Maldis made a reappearance.

Crichton: (to Scorpius) Kryptonite, Silver Bullet, Buffy. What's it gonna take to keep you in the grave?

D'Argo: Perhaps we should just take your head off. Worked for Durka.

  • Backwards-Firing Gun: An episode in which Crichton imagines himself in a Looney Tunes cartoon has him pulling this trick by sliding the sight forwards on D'Argo's shotgun. An angry D'Argo swops the barrel round, only to shoot himself a second time.
  • Badass Crew: the crew of Moya. Their reputation is so inflated that they're a legitimate threat to Peacekeeper diplomatic efforts, as systems start to lose respect for an empire that can't deal with one solitary rogue ship.
  • Badass in Distress: Everyone gets their turn.
  • Badass Longcoat: Practically everyone at some point in the show, even Zhaan.
  • Badass Normal: John Crichton himself, all things considered.
  • Bad Dreams: In "They've Got A Secret", D'Argo starts hallucinating and sees his crewmates as individuals from his own past. Through this narrative, the audience learns about his late wife and lost son.
    • After fate brings back him back to the Zelbinion, Rygel starts flashing back to his torture at the hands of Durka during his past imprisonment there.
  • Bad News, Irrelevant News: In an unusual example of this trope actually lending some levity to the receiver, D'Argo explains to John that he's about to be frozen as a statue for eighty years:

John: All right, give me the bad news first.
D'Argo: The bad news is that you're married and you must endure as a statue for 80 cycles on a strange world.
John: What's the good news?
D'Argo: ...Chiana and I are having fantastic sex.

  • Bald of Evil: Kaarvok, B'Sogg, the Plokavians.
    • Stark is actually a subversion: it seems when he has hair he's evil ("John Quixote" and "We're So Screwed").
  • Balls of Steel: Used in the episode "Hot to Katratzi", where Chiana confronts a Scarran who had captured her earlier. After verifying his identity, she asks him if Scarrans have mivonks, and abruptly knees him in the groin before he has a chance to respond. As she lies on the floor clutching her knee in pain, the Scarran informs her that they do have them, but they're not external.
  • Barbarian Tribe: The Venek Horde, a warlike race of Lion people.
  • Bare Your Midriff: Aeryn, Chiana, Jool and Sikozu have all worn such outfits.
    • If you stop to look at it, Jool's bellybutton is very much unlike a human's.
  • The Baroness / Evil Redhead: Niem, special assistant to Scorpius and operator of the Aurora Chair
    • Sikozu is not exactly "evil" per se, but she is easily the Moya crewmember closest to antagonism, save Scorpius, of course.
  • Batman in My Basement: Subverted in "I, E.T.", when Crichton lands on a planet that's never encountered aliens, and is captured by a young boy. Crichton assumes this is going to be an E.T. story, and is aghast when the boy almost immediately calls for his mom. The pair of them then argue about what to do, with the mother wanting to hide Crichton and the child wanting to turn him in to the military.
  • Battle Couple: John and Aeryn. Less in the beginning (Crichton had a lot of learning to do in regards to how to fight in this new environment), but by the end of the series they perform very well as a unit.
  • Battle in the Center of the Mind: Harvey and Crichton had a few of these. As time goes on, and the two become closer, it becomes Affably Strolling Through The Center Of The Mind, leading to some very surreal scenes, not the least of which was E=MC Hammer.

John: After all that's happened, how do you expect me to trust you?
Harvey: Well, I think that, like religion, is an individual choice. Either you believe, in which case bunnies are unnecessary, or you don't, in which case, chocolate!

  • Bazaar of the Bizarre: "That Old Black Magic" is set around one of these. Technically speaking, Crichton's the only one who finds any of it weird at first; then of course, it's revealed that the building at the end of the bazaar is owned by the Evil Sorcerer Maldis, and things only get stranger from there...
    • The commerce settlement in "Bringing Home The Beacon." Quite apart from being a dead Leviathan embedded in the side of a small planetoid, it's also home to a number of strange stalls and shops- not least of which is the massage parlour that has a sideline business in genetic transformations.
  • Beach Episode: Played with in "Crichton Kicks", in which Crichton has visions of future marital bliss (or not) with Aeryn. Aeryn is heavily pregnant, and the pair are relaxing on Earth's shoreline.
  • Beard Of Awesome: D'Argo and Crais. Braca grows a goatee in time for The Peacekeeper Wars.
  • Beard of Evil: Crais (at least at first), Rinic Tolven ("Thanks for Sharing").
  • Beard of Sorrow: Crichton at the start of the fourth season.
    • His beard in "Jeremiah Crichton" seems to be more a Beard of Giving Up.
  • Beast and Beauty: D'Argo and Chiana, Scorpius and Sikozu. Partially subverted due to the fact that all four are aliens and both "Beasts" are rather intelligent, especially Scorpius.
  • Belligerent Sexual Tension: Between John and Aeryn.
  • Berserker Tears: "The Way We Weren't" climaxes with Crichton and Aeryn making a full frontal charge on Pilot in order to regain control of Moya. Aeryn has a tear lingering on the very lip of her eyelid during the entire charge.
  • Best Out of Infinity: Serious and odd variant, where the doubled Crichton(s) play rock-paper-scissors over and over again, in complete silence, hoping to not tie with each other and prove they're not identical.
  • Beta Couple: D'Argo and Chiana, though theirs is a tempestuous, mostly physical relationship that's more off than on and is ultimately doomed. Nevertheless, it does develop into genuine love (although Chiana is extremely afraid of commitment) and both Chiana and D'Argo often dispense relationship advice to Crichton and Aeryn. A (marginally) less dysfunctional example is the tragically brief relationship between Stark and Zhaan. Then there's Sikozu and Scorpius and, in the comics, Chiana and Roiin.
  • Betty and Veronica: Gilina and Aeryn.
  • Between My Legs: When Chiana goes to ambush Crichton in the cargo bay ("Durka Returns"), we see Crichton framed between her legs. Additionally, Natira's first proper introduction starts when she approaches a captured D'Argo ("Liars, Guns and Money - A Not So Simple Plan"), who we see framed between her legs.
  • Beware the Nice Ones: Zhaan is by far the most compassionate and level-headed member of Moya's crew, and usually exudes a Zen master level of calm. But it's revealed halfway through the first season that she was a very violent person in the past, and even after she attained inner peace, every once in a while she loses her temper, showing a cold fury that is much creepier than any of the other crew members' outbursts.

Zhaan: Is this the way you repay my help? How would you like your arm torn off? Hear me! I could rip you apart! Right now, Kahalan help me, I'd enjoy it.

  • Big Bad: Crais, then Scorpius, then Grayza, then the Scarrans.
  • Big Damn Kiss: John and Aeryn, in the middle of a battle, right after she's just had their son, with Stuff Blowing Up all around them. And it is epic.
  • Big Damn Villains: In the episode "Prayer", it's ambiguous whether or not John knew Scorpius was going to kill the merged Chiana-Aeryn when he brought him along to the alternate universe, but it's what had to be done.

Crichton: No... no I can't.
Scorpius: (sigh) I can. (grabs pistol in John's hand, and fires)

  • Big No: The cliffhanger ending of season 2 leaves Aeryn dead, John an unintelligible quasi-vegetable on an operating table, and Scorpius walking away having killed the doctor and recovered the neural chip from John's head. As his speech center of Crichton's brain been carved out along with the chip, it's more of a "FWWOOOOOOO", but the effort was there.

Scorpius: Don't need Translator Microbes for that one, do we?

    • Zhaan indulges in this in "Picture If You Will" when she's freaking out (or so it seems) over Maldis' torment of her, and later in a hugely emotional way when she believes that Moya has died in "Look at the Princess - I Do, I Think".
  • Big "Shut Up!": "Through the Looking Glass" opens with the crew arguing over a meal about whether they should abandon Moya, who can no longer Starburst due to her pregnancy. Chiana repeatedly tries to interject ("Can I say something?") only to be met with a unanimous "NO."
  • Bilingual Dialogue: Talyn - as well as the various DRDs - communicate via R2-D2-like bleeps and bloops.
  • Bio Augmentation: NamTar from "DNA Mad Scientist."
  • Biopunk
  • Birth-Death Juxtaposition: Moya giving birth to Talyn moments before Gilina dies.
    • And Aeryn gives birth shortly before D'Argo dies in The Peacekeeper Wars." They then name the baby in his honor.
  • Bittersweet Ending
  • Bizarre Alien Biology: Frelling ubiquitous...
    • Aeryn is part of a race of Human Aliens (who are eventually revealed to actually be a Human Subspecies, taken from Earth and genetically-modified by aliens several millennia ago) that can't regulate their internal body temperature. Due to forcible genetic modifications in season one, she's also sort of part Pilot, and contains Leviathan instructions in her head in much the same way that Crichton contains wormhole instructions.
    • Chiana's species are immune to radiation. In Season 3, possession by the Energy Rider gives her precognitive powers. And in Peacekeeper Wars, she develops X-Ray Vision after having her eyes replaced.
    • D'Argo has an extendable tongue that can inject a neural toxin, he can survive in space unprotected for fifteen minutes, and if he's bleeding, his colorless blood turns to black. The wound requires Percussive Maintenance until the blood runs clear again.
    • Jool's hair changes color depending on her mood, and her screams can melt metal.
    • Rygel has three stomachs, farts helium (but only when he's nervous), and if he eats the wrong thing, his bodily excretions become explosive.
    • Scorpius is half-Sebacean/half-Scarran; in addition to great physical strength, he has the ability to read energy signiatures- making him a Living Lie Detector. The Scarran half of his biology is lethal to the Sebacean half, requiring him to constantly wear a black leather cooling suit.
    • Sikozu can walk up walls and across ceilings, can't tolerate Translator Microbes, can go for months without eating, can reattach severed limbs, and can project radiation- though the radiation projection, and possibly some of the other abilities besides the first, is due to her being an undercover bioloid.
    • Stark is partially an energy being who has the ability to aid souls in crossing over to the afterlife.
    • Zhaan is a humanoid plant (who, for some reason, has breasts, and how!), has limited mystical/telepathic powers, produces poisonous buds when starved, blends perfectly against trees and other natural formations, and experiences "photogasms" around pulsars and other intensive sources of light.
    • And quite literally every other alien on the show in some way or another.
  • Bizarre Human Biology: The Sebaceans in Farscape are humans descended from Super Soldiers who were genetically engineered by aliens long ago. They have improved physical strength and eyesight (humans are apparently practically blind by the standards of other races) but fewer redundant organs and an extreme (seriously) weakness to high temperatures.
  • Black and Gray Morality: While the principal villains of the series are generally quite clearly evil, the heroes are hardly squeaky-clean. Even Pilot has skeletons in his closet.
  • Black Comedy Rape: Arguably happens to D'Argo in "Eat Me", when Kaarvoc chains him up in a cell and unleashes one of the female Xarai, Belima, on him, in the hopes that they would breed. Chiana manages to rescue D'Argo (who is more embarrassed than anything else) before any actual intercourse can occur, but it is strongly implied that there are... other things going on.
  • Black Eyes / Black Eyes of Evil: Chiana (until her eye transplant) and Einstein (although "evil" is a bit of a stretch).
  • Blade Below the Shoulder: In the "Look At The Princess" trilogy of episodes, the Peacekeeper agent Jenavian Charto has a stiletto blade concealed in her wrist.
  • Non Sequitur Episode: "John Quixote" and "Won't Get Fooled Again" (to an extent).
  • Blasting It Out of Their Hands: Realizing that a Peacekeeper Marauder is headed toward them, John decides to lock up his crewmates inside their old cells, then dress himself up as a Peacekeeper Captain. Aeryn greets the new arrivals and asks for their regiment and assignment. Their leader identifies himself as Larraq, and says his assignment is none of her business. They're on a Priority Red One mission, and so Larraq is assuming command of Moya... right before a DRD blasts the rifle out of Larraq's mitts. John suggests that if Larraq needs his help, he ask nicely.
  • Blatant Lies: Gilina first starts to get the hint that she's a Hopeless Suitor when Crichton refuses her offer to break him out of Peacekeeper custody, instead insisting that they return to Moya and cure Aeryn. Gilina wonders why John would rather save Aeryn than himself, and worries that it's because he loves Aeryn. Chiana shoots this down, (erroneously, and she knows it) assuring Gilina that Crichton loves only her, and thus keeping Gilina focused on her task.
  • Blessed with Suck: Chiana gets the ability to see into the future, and is able to use it to help the crew several times. Using it also leaves her temporarily blind for increasing amounts of time, until it's implied to be permanent. She also relates that she once used it to win in a casino, only for the owners to decide she had to be cheating, take her winnings and torture her.
  • Blindfolded Vision: The Tavlek leader Bekhesh wears a thick metal faceplate that completely obscures his eyes, yet this doesn't hamper his fighting ability in the slightest. Production notes suggest that it's actually a cybernetic replacement for the top of his head.
  • Blind Jump: The downside of Starburst travel.
  • Blipvert: In the series finale, the "Previously On..." segment was a blipvert featuring (almost) every episode of the series.
  • Blood From the Mouth: "Nerve" opens with Aeryn in Moya’s gym, beating the hell out of a punching bag. John wants to know why she hasn’t responded to his efforts to call her to dinner. Aeryn, more than usually irate, tells him to piss off, when all of the sudden she coughs blood all over the punching bag. Turns out that the stab wound inflicted on her in the previous episode was worse than everyone previously thought.
  • Blood Oath: When Crichton recruits Scorpius's help in order to rescue Aeryn, Scorpius first makes him perform a "Scarran blood vow", which involves both of them cutting their fingers and drinking each others' blood. John is understandably squicked.
    • In the comics, apparently, this is how Roiin guarantees that whatever bounty he undertakes, he will complete.
  • Blue Blood: Jaal-Sebaceans, the purest of Peacekeeper bloodlines. As the comics reveal, both Aeryn and Crais have perfectly pure Jaal-Sebacean genes, though it backfires in the most abhorrent way for Aeryn.
  • Bluff the Eavesdropper: Crichton and Aeryn eventually do this to Scorpius.
  • Bluff the Impostor: Crichton gets this treatment from his father, Jack, upon his (supposed) return to Earth. Jack claims the military is wary about John's intentions, especally since he's been injected with alien microbes. Jack forces his son to reminisce about a past fishing trip, and attempts to trip him up by mentioning him catching a bass (Crichton actually caught a trout).
  • Body Horror: Aeryn undergoes this early in the series, when NamTar injects her with some of Pilot's DNA. By the end of the episode, she's mutated into a hybrid-Pilot creature with a Pilot arm in place of her Sebacean arm. Then there's NamTar's failed experiment that he keeps chained up in a back room...
  • Body Surf: The Intellant Virus.
  • Bolivian Army Cliffhanger: "Family Ties".
  • Bond One-Liner: Constantly, usually from Crichton.
    • Aeryn's one-liners are about quality over quantity; In Peacekeeper Wars, Aeryn probably has the best one in the whole series. Minutes after she gives birth, she shoots Ahkna—the Scarran who previously had Aeryn tortured to unlock the secrets behind the baby's DNA -- squarely in the head and deadpans "It's a boy. In case you were wondering." Do. Not. Fuck with Mama Bearyn.
    • The comics use Humans Are Superior as this. It is so awesome, it requires Crichton an entire page spread to deliver.
  • Bottle Episode: "Crackers Don't Matter".
  • Bound and Gagged: Played for laughs in "The Flax", when D'Argo ties Staanz to the captain's chair. Not because she poses any danger, just... well, she annoys him.
  • Bounty Hunter: Rorf and Rorg.
  • Brain Food: Kaarvok had a habit of removing the brains of his victims with a straw.
    • After removing the neurochip from Crichton's brain, Scorpius finds that there's a large chunk of cerebral tissue clinging to it. This doesn't deter him from eating the brain matter in a single bite.
  • Brainwashed: The Nebari, Chiana's people, love the Mind-Cleansing procedure.
  • Brainwash Residue: Harvey, who sticks around in Crichton's head long after the chip that put him there is removed.
  • Brawn Hilda: Furlow.
  • Breakfast Club
  • Breaking the Fellowship: The Moya gang goes their separate ways at one point, only to find that the bounties on their heads makes splitting up too dangerous.
  • Breaking the Fourth Wall: Crichton humming along with the show's theme tune while on a particularly bad trip.
    • Crais in "Meltdown": "Is that what you think happened?"
  • Break the Cutie: Every. Single. Character. Including all Leviathans (poor Moya) and their Pilots. Especially Talyn (cut the poor kid a break, goddamn it!)
  • Breather Episode: Season 3 has "Revenging Angel", which is mostly done in the style of a Looney Tunes cartoon, wedged between two episodes dealing with the death of one of the Crichtons.
  • Breath Weapon: Sheeyangs in Farscape can spit fire. Unfortunately, the same biological quirks that allow them to do this also mean that they explode violently when shot.

Aeryn: Sorry about the mess.

  • Brick Joke: Early in the first season, Aeryn remarks that Volmae "gives me a woody" instead of of "She gives me the willies." Several episodes later, after the rather embarrasing incident between D'Argo and Staanz, John asks if Aeryn really is "the female of your species."
    • John mentions at one point that he lost his virginity to Karen Shaw in the back of a pickup truck, and it was mentioned by Maldis-in-disguise even earlier in "That Old Black Magic". In "Kansas" the Moya crew is transported back to 1985 Earth, and we get to meet a teenaged John Crichton meet "Karen Shaw," whose name he mishears: her actual name is Chiana
  • Broke Episode: Since they're a crew of escaped criminals, they're often short of cash and need to trade whatever they can to get by—for the first two seasons, anyway. For the finale of the second season, they perform a massive bank heist (twice!) and escape with more money than they know what to do with, and their money troubles are referenced far less often from then on (though they still have to pay certain huge bills for things like repairing Moya).
  • Broken Pedestal: Aeryn racks up a few, including Durka (highly-decorated Peacekeeper general, later revealed as a Miles Gloriosus who sacrificed his entire crew to save himself) and Sub-Officer Dacon, who died in the line of duty after a very successful career and became a hero to all Sebeceans (When Aeryn meets him in the past, however, Dacon's just an army cook with an overly-modest commanding officer).
  • Broken Record: "Back and Back and Back to the Future", an episode focusing on Crichton becoming Unstuck in Time, begins with D'Argo saying, "Crichton! There's no one else aboard! There's no one else aboard! There's no one else aboard! There's no one else aboard! There's no one else aboard!"
  • Broke Your Arm Punching Out Cthulhu: John's first attempt at punching Maldis results in him just about breaking his fist on the wall behind him.
    • Emperor Staleek's attempt at punching out Einstein doesn't even get within a metre of him before being frozen.
  • Bulletproof Human Shield: During an Enemy Mine situation with Scorpius, Crichton grabs him and uses him as a piece of cover. Justified since Scorpius is half-descended from Scarrans, who are bulletproof to anything smaller than anti-tank weaponry, even before taking into account his body armor.
  • Butt Monkey: John Crichton. Also Stark. Well, by the end of the series, you can definitely look back and go, "dammit he went through a lot". Not only is he a Slave, he's a Stykera (a Banik holy person). Their entire purpose is to guide people to death, experiencing their last moments. That has honestly got to be one of the worst abilities in existence. And it shows. Stark is twenty-five different types of insane.
    • The series is basically one very long, very painful sequence of the many different variations on John Crichton's Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day.
  • Call a Rabbit a Smeerp: frequently
  • Camera Abuse: The episode "Thank God It's Friday...Again" opens from the point of view of a DRD. D'Argo, in the fit of LuxanRage, punches the DRD's camera, causing it to cut to static.
  • The Caper: "Liars, Guns, and Money." Twice, actually.
  • Caper Rationalization: In the Farscape episode "Liars, Guns and Money", the bank robbery planned and executed by the Moya crew is part of a larger plan to purchase D'argo's son, who is about to be sold into slavery.
  • Captain Obvious: Crichton's response to a violent and prolonged starburst which knocks everyone out of bed.

Crichton: Little long for a starburst, don't you think?
Rygel: Hail prince of the obvious.

    • John upon realizing he's trapped with Crais inside Maldis' labyrinth:

Crichton: What the hell are you doing? He wants to kill me!
Maldis: Nooo, really? Fathom that.

    • "Through the Looking Glass" finds John and Aeryn aboard an alternate, blue-tinted Moya which is being flooded with an ear-splitting noise. During their failed attempt to communicate, Aeryn gestures to her ringing ears, to which an impatient John answers with a thumbs-up while mouthing the words, "I got that!"
  • Cartwright Curse: Farscape seems to have go out of its way to ensure John Crichton never has any competition. Aeryn's potential lovers meet a variety of crappy fates:
    • Velorek. Tortured and killed thanks to Aeryn. He turns out to have simply been shipped off to Crais's home planet in the comics, but has buried himself in religion -- and dies when the Kkore demolish the planet.
    • Larraq gets taken over by a sentient virus and stabs her before getting blown to pieces.
    • Crais shows interest. So, of course, he makes a Heroic Sacrifice.
    • John can't even compete with himself! Crichton's clone dies of radiation poisoning, complete with tearful deathbed scene.
  • Cassette Craze: Throughout the entire series (including the final episode), Crichton uses a tape recorder to record messages to his dad. You'd think he would have picked up something better at an alien pawn shop, but nope.
    • Of course, he'd be certain that if the tapes ever made it back to Earth that people would be able to play them.
  • The Cast Showoff: In "Won't Get Fooled Again," the Scorpius analogue is a drummer - a skill Wayne Pygram possesses and has put to good use.
    • In "Scratch 'N' Sniff", Chiana does some fire-twirling to wow a crowd of onlookers. Gigi Edgley possesses this skill in real life.
    • Does Claudia Black's lizard-like tongue trick count as a skill?
  • Casual Danger Dialog: Frequently. Reasonable in the case of the alien convicts, not so much for John Crichton, whose grip on his sanity is sometimes in doubt.
  • Chained to a Bed: This is Farscape; but of course. However, Crichton subverts it in the "What Was Lost" two-parter while being interrogated by Commandant Grayza, the fourth season's Big Bad; her intel-gathering involves pheromone-assisted rape, and it is most definitely not okay. However, after dosing himself with a stimulant to resist Grayza's pheromones, Crichton suggests that the next round involve bondage; as a result, Commandant Cleavage is left tied to the bed, humiliated and seeking revenge.
  • Challenging the Chief: One of the Sheyang mercenaries, Lomus, urges his boss Teurac to attack Moya and claim it for themselves. When Teurac shows hesitancy in attacking, however, believing that Moya's Luxan commander had some hidden trap waiting for them, Lomus knocks him out and takes control of their ship. Inverted, however, when his attack on Moya promptly falls flat due to the Zelbinion's defense screen; enraged, he decides to lead a squadron of fighters against the Zelbinion itself, and after losing just about every single other fighter to the defense screen, he ends up getting blown to pieces by Aeryn.
  • Chameleon Camouflage: Zhaan did this in an episode when she turned invisible by blending with other foliage (she's a plant).
  • Changed My Jumper: Where to even start? In "Kansas", the Moya crew tries to blend in on Earth, but fail spectacularly: the women all dress like New Age Retro Hippies (with Aeryn as a dead-ringer for Cher), while D'Argo gets stuck with a football jersey.
  • Changed My Mind, Kid: Despite parting ways with John and Aeryn on the Gammack base, Gilina reappears just as Scorpius grabs Crichton from behind, intent on dragging him back to the Aurora Chair and learning his secrets. Subverted when Gilina is too slow on the draw and gets fatally shot by Scorpius.
  • Character Development: Every main character goes through this as the series goes on.
  • Character Name Alias: Crichton introduces himself and Aeryn as "Butch and Sundance" while the pair is masquerading as bounty hunters.
    • Crichton loves this trope. He's also claimed to be the The Wizard of Oz.
    • And the reverse: He refers to himself as "John Clarence" and "Fred Scarran" after traveling back to 1980s Earth.
  • Chekhov MIA: Jothee.
  • Chekhov's Gunman: In "Liars, Guns, and Money," many of the Monster of the Week villains from the first two seasons turn out to have skills that make them perfect for robbing a shadow depository. Unfortunately, by the time Crichton and co track them down, most of them are a) reformed, b) recovering from serious injuries, c) under new management, or d) just plain stupid.
  • Chewing the Scenery: Crichton tends to do this whenever he goes undercover.
  • Child Soldiers / The Spartan Way: For Peacekeepers, the brutal training process begins at an early age; recruits are taken from the children of their own soldiers, or from conscripts taken from farming communes loyal to the Peacekeepers, as seen in Crais' flashbacks.
  • Christmas Episode: "Terra Firma". The green-scaled Monster of the Week, Skreeth, even bears a not-so-subtle resemblance to the Grinch.

Aeryn: Merry Frelling Christmas!

  • Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: 'Cash in your chips and throw everybody to the wolves' is basically Rygel's default setting. Furlow and Gunchlk also seem have no sense of honor whatsoever (though Furlow is miles ahead in terms of intelligence).
    • Sikozu is an embodiment of this trope, her only consistent trait (besides her arrogance) being her penchant for serving no master but herself. Close to the end of the fourth season, however, she looked to be outgrowing this character flaw--only for the Scarrans to employ her as a spy during the miniseries.
    • Subverted when Scorpius joins the crew in Season 4. Crichton begins obsessively accusing Scorpius of planning some treachery, even at the most idiotic times: for example, in "I Shrink Therefore I Am" he gives Scorpius an empty rifle—while they're both stuck on Moya, with all modes of escape cut off, and being hunted by bounty hunters with no interest in negotiations. Lo and behold, Scorpius isn't that dumb; in fact, he even puts his own life on the line to save the day at least twice. Eventually, however, Scorpius gets tired of this treatment and backstabs Crichton so masterfully that it takes him two episodes to figure out the whole thing was engineered by Scorpy to make Crichton need his help.

Crichton: Son of a bitch deserves an Emmy...

    • Scorpy is revealed to be a pretend-spy for the Scarrans so he can spy on the Scarrans for the Peacekeepers...except that his goals don't always align with those of the Peacekeepers either, so sometimes he betrays them, too. Scorpius definitely has this disorder, just not the way John thinks.
      • As Noranti says, "Oh, I do admire your compartmentalization of duplicity!"
  • Clear My Name: Crichton over the death of Crais' brother, and D'Argo over the murder of his wife. It turns out that Crais doesn't care that his brother's death was an accident (his Prowler hit Crichton's shuttle); he feels guilty over failing to protect his brother and angry that he died a senseless death at the hands of an 'inferior' species. D'Argo's brother-in-law looked down on his sister for marrying an alien (they were Sebaceans) and after he (accidentally) killed his own sister, framed D'Argo for her murder as a convenient way to get rid of him.
  • Clingy Costume: Scorpius's coolant suit is not impossible to remove, but if it ever is he suffers dangerous heatstroke very rapidly, as his screwed-up hybrid biology makes him unable to control his body temperature if he exerts himself even mildly.
  • Clip Show: Averted. The entire point of the Aurora Chair was originally to allow for a clip show to curtail Farscape's budget. As so often happens on the show, the producers took a cost-saving measure and ended up going over budget with it ("Nerve").
  • Clone Degeneration: Implied with Kaarvok's ex-Peacekeeper minions (the "Xarai"), some of whom have "twinned" dozens of times, reducing them to gibbering maniacs (Kaarvok admits he may have twinned some of them a bit too often). It's unclear whether his is a direct result of the twinning process, or the trauma of seeing oneself repeatedly split into two and eaten.
  • Cloning Blues: Is it even possible to count the number of times Crichton has been cloned and/or replicated? Let us try...
    • Early on, all of Moya's crew were cloned by space roaches who used them as drones. The vast majority seem to have been of Crichton.
    • Once more, Crichton is replicated by interdimensional aliens, this time with one being hyper-advanced, and the other resembling sasquatch. Both sacrifice themselves for the original.
      • Not quite: the less-advanced Crichton kills the more-advanced Crichton and sacrifices himself for the original. The more-advanced version would have been more than happy to let the lesser two be collected.
    • Scorpius produces a neural clone of Crichton in order to get at all that juicy wormhole knowledge trapped inside.
    • And last, but not least, is Crichton's "twin". To the end, we're never sure of which one is the original, or even if either technically even is the original.
  • Cloudcuckoolander: Stark and Noranti. Because they frequently do not understand his pop culture references, Crichton is often perceived as one by the rest of the crew.
  • Coitus Uninterruptus: During the "Look at the Princess" trilogy, Crichton walks in on D'Argo and Chiana as they're having loud sex. Funny because it happens twice in one episode - the first time Crichton is distraught, but the second time he's so fed up with having no one to talk to, that he sits down and starts spilling his guts right there—prompting D'Argo to say sarcastically, "Well, why don't you just sit down and tell us all about it?" and Chiana to just walk out (while still completely stark naked) in frustration.
  • The Collector of the Strange / Tattooed Crook: Staanz, garbologist.
  • Color Coded for Your Convenience: In "Though the Looking Glass", Moya is affected by a dimensional schism, fracturing light and sound into base elements: Red, yellow, and blue. The bulk of the the episode shows Crichton bouncing from one alternate Moya to the next, each of which is differentiated by its hue.
  • Come Back to Bed, Honey: In a flashback, we see Aeryn's last sexual partner Velorek try and persuade her to come back to bed rather than going straight to her post.
  • Commissar Cap: The High-ranking Peacekeeper brass.
  • Comm Links: Moya's crewmembers all wear small badge-like communicators. Besides threading their messages through Moya, the comms are also able to "patch into other networks", as in the final episode when John uses his to ring up his dad on the phone...from the moon.
  • Compliment Backfire
  • Conspiracy Theorist: The Orlando sheriff who encounters the aliens in 1985 in Kansas has become this by Terra Firma (thanks to Noranti not having enough time to erase his memories). We get to see a TV show in A Constellation of Doubts in which he reveals his theory: cThe aliens have implanted neurochips into humanity to make us eat fatty foods to make us fat and unable to fight back against alien invasion. His case is not helped by his aluminum-foil lined baseball cap and remarkably accurate Jack O'Lantern carved to look like Rygel.
  • Contemplative Boss: Scorpius and Grayza both indulge in this form time to time.
  • Continuous Decompression
  • Contractual Immortality: Usually avoided, but occasionally pretty obvious, as with each of Rygel's "deaths".
  • Contrived Coincidence: It sure was lucky that the crew happened to land on Earth in the 1980s just when Hallowe'en came around, so they could (nearly) get away with being aliens on an Earth which had only seen Star Trek and the first Star Wars.
  • Convection, Schmonvection: Rigel being interrogated over a lava pit in "Lava's a Many Splendored Thing"
  • Converse with the Unconscious: The final scene of Peacekeeper Wars.
  • Courtroom Episode: "Dream A Little Dream" strands the crew on Litigara, a planet which is 90% comprised of lawyers. When Zhann is framed for murder, Chiana and Rygel appoint themselves as her representatives at court.
  • CPR: Clean, Pretty, Reliable: Subverted in an early episode, which has D'Argo exposed to the vacuum of space. Upon retrieving him, Crichton tries a Precordial Thump — on an alien with a biology he knows very little about — and the others immediately drag him away and ask what the hell he thinks he's doing.
    • Played a lot straighter in "The Flax", where John and Aeryn have to depressurise and then repressurise their spacecraft with only one working spacesuit between them. The solution: stop John's breathing with a Peacekeeper poison and then resuscitate him with CPR!
    • CPR was John's demanded backup plan. The original plan was to use a set of injections that would kill you and bring you back. It works perfectly fine on Sebaceans, but he didn't want to rely on Aeryn's trust in 50/50 odds human physiology was similar. She just ended up having to forgo the second injection for CPR.
  • Crapsack Universe
  • Crotch Grab Sex Check: An implied one in "The Flax", when Crichton jokingly asks to verify if Aeryn counts as female among her species. Without a word, Aeryn reverses the question.
  • Crucified Hero Shot: While waiting for John to return with a cure for Aeryn, Zhann hooks her up to Moya in order to filter the toxins from her body. Aeryn is shown lying unconscious with arms outstretched, with Moya's tendrils hooked up to her biceps.
  • Cruel and Unusual Death: Farscape occasionally utilized its immense prosthetic budget to come up with graphic depictions of these. The one that comes most readily to mind was the rather horrible fate of a childhood friend of Aeryn's, who was going to shoot her while the ship around them was being destroyed... only for a nearby pipe to burst and sear the skin off her face, after which she shambled around for a few seconds before dying. Not for the squeamish.
  • Cruel Mercy: Aeryn is presented with an opportunity to kill Crais when she finds him strapped in Scorpius's dreaded Chair. Crais asserts that he is still her superior officer, and demands that she release him. Aeryn tells him she is no longer a Peacekeeper, and she lost everything because of him. Aeryn turns the Chair back on, then exits as Crais's screams echo throughout the hallways.

Aeryn: You know what I give you, Crais? Your life. I will make you watch...your life."

    • In "Die Me, Dichotomy", Crichton finds a doctor able to remove the Neural Chip implanted in his brain by Scorpius. But it's tangled with the speech center of his brain, so removing the chip meant removing his ability to speak coherently. Midway through the operation, Scorpius waltzes in, incapacitates the surgeon, takes the chip, and leaves John strapped to the operating table, completely unable to speak.

Scorpius: I condemn you John Crichton... to live. So that your thirst for unfulfilled revenge will consume you! Goodbye.

  • Cruel Twist Ending: "...Different Destinations".
  • Cute Monster Girl: As one of the few Scarran females encountered, War Minister Ahkna is noticeably shorter and more humanoid-looking than the majority of the Scarran species. For good measure, she's also one of the Ruling Caste, who are generally the most human of the Scarran Castes.
  • Cute Machines: The DRDs are adorable little repair bots.
  • Cut His Heart Out with a Spoon: With Moya trapped in an asteroid field, Rygel seizes the opportunity to steal a transport pod and leave to cut a deal with Scorpius and Crais. D'Argo gets on the horn and starts barking something intelligible (but clearly irate) at Rygel.

Chiana: (translating) Something about his corpse and a-- body function.

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