Farscape: Nerve (Part 1)   Rewatch 
September 5, 2015 12:38 AM - Season 1, Episode 19 - Subscribe

When an injury Aeryn sustained in A Bug's Life threatens to kill her, Crichton and Chiana travel undercover to a nearby Peacekeeper base to obtain a tissue transplant, and are aided by Gilina. Base leader Scorpius penetrates Crichton's disguise and subjects him to an interrogation device called the Aurora Chair. Crichton's cellmate is a masked individual named Stark. [via]
posted by along came the crocodile (12 comments total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
DANGER, DANGER, WILL ROBINSON, BEWARE THE CHAIR, BEWARE THE CHAIR...

In which Farscape decided to turn the trauma dial all the way up to eleven, and still get a Monty Python reference in.

This episode. Where do I even begin? My notes are basically 'blood vomit, pain, torture, dark, very dark, more torture, hysteria, lying, obsession, pain, more pain, mental breakdown, tears, drool, charred body etc.' I didn't remember it being that horrible. I must have blanked it out. There's more to write but I need serious tea and biscuits and a lie down first.

The wonderful world of Henson, kids!
posted by along came the crocodile at 1:25 PM on September 5, 2015 [1 favorite]


Scorpius is an amazingly effective villain. First scene in the show he walks into the bar, looking like the love child of the grim reaper and a latex alligator, and a room full of peacekeepers fall silent and tense up. Javio, who'd been introduced as the base commander, slinks off at the implicit summons and everyone only relaxes when he's gone. Next scene we see him breaking Javio's balls. Scorpius is in charge. Everything we know about Peacekeepers says this should not happen. There is no way they should tolerate Scorpius even existing, let alone running a top secret facility. Next we see him take one look at Crichton, immediately see through the charade, and calmly order his capture. He's been on screen for about a minute total at this point and he's established as powerful, possibly uniquely powerful and immensely dangerous. We don't even know his name and he's already captured the hero and blown every plan to hell.

Then we see him in action and Scorpius is calm, rational, methodical, and above all, competent. He doesn't seem to take any particular pleasure in torturing Crichton. These are traits which we have not seen from the Peacekeeper officers we've been exposed to so far. Admittedly Crais and Durkha may be a bad examples, but Crais is in charge of a Peacekeeper capital warship, and Durkha was in charge of the peacekeeper flagship so they can hardly be poor examples of Peacekeeper officers.

Speaking of Crais, this is where he starts to loose it completely. He shows up, barking orders at Scorpius, who barely even acknowledges him. I also really like Lani Tipu's delivery on "Give me Crichton NOW!" it's just short of a frustrated child throwing a tantrum. Crais is only barely holding it together and only barely in command.

This is also a great episode for Crichton as a character. In the second half in particular, Browder really manages to convey Crichton desperately fighting a loosing battle. I love that Crichton is still trying to keep up his fake Peackeeper accent, while he's being tortured for information. It could be that he doesn't know when to quit, it could be that that's literally the only thing he can do the situation is so hopeless. Either way it's a neat moment. Followed by Crichton realizing exactly how fucked he is because of the hidden wormhole knowledge and flipping between hysterical laughter and very nearly breaking down and begging for mercy. Crichton laughing when Crais walks into his cell is another great touch. Because a day ago that'd be Crichton's worst nightmare. Now, if anything, the prospect of being killed by Crais is an improvement on the current prospect of having Scorpius peel and segment his mind like an orange.
posted by Grimgrin at 2:33 PM on September 5, 2015 [4 favorites]


I don't know what it says about me that as soon as Scorpius appears on screen, all I could do was happily squeal "Scorpy!" out loud and almost clap my hands. He's such a menacing, powerful presence, and so obviously In Charge. What a great character he is. Then Stark calling him Scorpy later just made me smile.
posted by gemmy at 8:56 PM on September 5, 2015 [1 favorite]


(One sleep, much tea and a curry later)

So, we've already seen that the show doesn't shy away from violating its hero physically, mentally and emotionally, but all that came before was just the soup starter, wasn't it? Scorpius is indeed amazing. Even with these early make up effects and voice, Wayne Pygram establishes himself in about two seconds as the person Crichton really needs to be scared of. Crais is nothing compared to Scorpius, and Crichton knows it. Crais doesn't know it yet. (I think I might have to write something about PK hair at some point, but for now, I liked the ratty tendrils conveying Crais' state of mind.) The Scorpius character design is fantastic. To this day the guy gives me the complete heebie jeebies.

Meeting Stark only underlines it all. The brutal physical effects of the chair on them both, the razor thin edge between sanity and mental breakdown - you just know Bev Crusher and Deanna Troi wouldn't be enough to put it right at the end of the episode. It was also quite creepy to see Aeryn hardwired into Moya - not just an allusion to Pilot, but Aeryn and Crichton have some parallels of shared pain - arguably S4's Prayer is Aeryn's version of this episode.

Chiana for me stands out as well. She's dangerous in her own way, and there's an undercurrent of sexual tension between her and Crichton that is a little bit twisted. Her motivations for going with Crichton to the base are interesting - she owes no loyalty to Aeryn, but I think she already clearly sees how it is with Crichton and Aeryn - and we see Crichton's obsessional side again kicking in. Aeryn and wormholes. Those two things driving him beyond his limits, and beyond 'reasonable' behaviour.

Gilina's the innocent party trapped in all this. I still feel for her. She's a technological genius (I love all the analogue components of PK tech, reminds me of Classic Who and early synthesisers) but Chiana manipulates her with ease because she sees how it is with her as well. Grey is a very appropriate colour for Chi. Looks great too. Still, 'good' and 'evil' are very flexible concepts for all the characters.

Something else that struck me as flexible was the concept of irreversible contamination. From the interest both Thonn and Javio show in Chi, it makes me wonder if Crais is just particularly hardcore about it, or if sex with the 'lesser' races and lower classes doesn't count.

The only real misstep in the whole episode was Javio's death which was clunky, even if he was fairly creepy. But otherwise, it's taut, engrossing, and you feel weirdly complicit in watching Crichton's memories forced out of him.
posted by along came the crocodile at 7:03 AM on September 6, 2015 [2 favorites]


I would guess "irreversible contamination" is the Peacekeeper version of "going native" you can interact with other species as much as you want, as long as you're doing it on PK terms. The moment your behaviour suggests sympathy for or empathy with the other species, that is a problem. So Aeryn trying to save Crichton? Irreversible contamination. Having what everyone thinks is an alien escort and servant? Unorthodox, but not an issue ideologically.

Now, in the first version of that post I wrote 'alien sex slave'; but I remembered that wasn't right at all. Javio asks Crichton how much he pays Chiana, and tries to negotiate with her directly to hire her away. This suggests that the Peacekeepers would recognize Chiana's right to autonomy. Which is honestly really interesting to me, because it's a subtlety you wouldn't expect from the PKs. It's along the lines of the idea that the Peacekeepers were hired to provide security for Delvia and Hyneria because of their internal politics rather than having invaded to impose their will. They're the bad guys, but they're more complex than "Conquer then oppress the lesser races".
posted by Grimgrin at 9:55 AM on September 6, 2015


I would guess "irreversible contamination" is the Peacekeeper version of "going native" you can interact with other species as much as you want, as long as you're doing it on PK terms. The moment your behaviour suggests sympathy for or empathy with the other species, that is a problem. So Aeryn trying to save Crichton? Irreversible contamination. Having what everyone thinks is an alien escort and servant? Unorthodox, but not an issue ideologically.

Ah yes, that explains it very well.

It's along the lines of the idea that the Peacekeepers were hired to provide security for Delvia and Hyneria because of their internal politics rather than having invaded to impose their will. They're the bad guys, but they're more complex than "Conquer then oppress the lesser races".

There is a subtlety/complexity to the PKs which is becoming more apparent. I know I've labelled them Space Nazis, and even Crichton refers to Aeryn as an ex-Nazi at one point IIRC, and there are certainly elements of ideology and design that speak to that. But they also carry this ideal/purpose of 'keeping the peace' which has degraded from something initially honourable and of high intention to this more 'enforced peace for hire' concept, enmeshed with intense pride in their culture and history and a perhaps inevitable sense of separation due to their origins - which has then turned into segregation from the other races. It's a tension between what they were created to be and what they have become. So they would consider themselves to be civilised and honourable while still enacting brutal suppression on a wide scale, and that would include respecting Chiana's position, I guess?
posted by along came the crocodile at 11:10 AM on September 6, 2015


Re: Irreversible contamination. The reason Aeryn is claimed to be irreversibly contaminated by Crais is because Crichton is an unknown species. Nebari, Luxans, Delvians, Hynereians, etc. are all known and classified species. Humans, not so much.
From Premiere--
Crais: Yes Officer Sun? You know something about this - alien?
Aeryn: Only that I have spent time with him sir - and I - believe him when he says that what happened to your brother was an accident. I don't believe that he is brave enough or intelligent enough to attack one of our Prowlers intentionally.
Crais: Exactly how much time have you spent with this human? (there's a long silence as Aeryn looks suddenly very uneasy. John senses her danger.)
John: Not a lot. Not much at all. (Crais ignores him and continues to Aeryn.)
Crais: Because as you know - Peacekeeper High Command has very clear parameters regarding contact with unclassified alien life forms. You may have very well exceeded those parameters Officer Sun.
Aeryn: No, sir- (but Crais just keeps talking over her)
Crais: You may be irreversibly contaminated.
posted by cshenk at 2:05 PM on September 6, 2015 [2 favorites]


John and Aeryn shippy stuff: Of course John risks his life for Aeryn. And she reciprocates in the next episode. Also, they get their shipmates to go along with their crazy plans!

One of the qualities that John brings to Moya is hope (which Aeryn will point out in Die Me, Dichotomy). The others are so used to being prisoners (or a soldier) that they tend to accept whatever circumstances have given them. John doesn't have that baggage and fights for what he believes in. Or obsesses over.
posted by cshenk at 2:28 PM on September 6, 2015


I think what makes Scorpius so scary is that there's no posturing with him. He doesn't have to fake it until he makes it, he made it a long time ago. He's what you might call fully actualized.
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 3:10 PM on September 6, 2015 [1 favorite]


My favorite Scorpius memory is from a later episode, but his introduction is a good time to tell the story.

In the Before Time, the Long, long ago, if you didn't catch a show when it aired, you might not ever see it. The season 3 premiere “Season of Death.” aired on 16 March 2001. I was working in The District, so I took the comparatively short drive up to see my Grandmother and other family, and to be in the City for the St. Patrick's Day parade the next day. It got to be 10 o'clock, and I didn't want to miss the episode, so I asked her if I could put it on.

Grandmom was hanging in there with the weird aliens and puppets, even if she couldn't follow what was happening. Then Scorpius appeared and she said, "I'm not watching that," and went to bed.
posted by ob1quixote at 5:26 PM on September 6, 2015 [4 favorites]


Re: Irreversible contamination. The reason Aeryn is claimed to be irreversibly contaminated by Crais is because Crichton is an unknown species. Nebari, Luxans, Delvians, Hynereians, etc. are all known and classified species. Humans, not so much.

I had completely forgotten that. So it's a fear of the unknown and the new, anything that might threaten the established ideology and order, mixed in with a sense of superiority over other races based on history and segregation. So an unknown alien telling Aeryn she could be more was a really radical event for her. And Crais compounded it all exponentially when he declared her irreversibly contaminated.
posted by along came the crocodile at 12:48 PM on September 7, 2015


I've always read Crais' declaration of "irreversible contamination" to be him bending regulation definitions in order to eliminate some low-ranking soldier getting in between him and vengeance. I've never thought he or Aeryn really bought into that idea, so much as he was invoking a judgment call command decision that leads to summary execution without much investigation; who's going to miss one Prowler pilot? She's offering something resembling evidence that this nobody shouldn't be killed, so Crais jumps to the easiest way to get rid of her.
posted by Errant at 5:38 PM on October 2, 2015 [1 favorite]


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