Once upon a time, there was a boy named John, and John was an astronaut. He lived in a far away place called Earth, which is so far away you've never heard of it. One day, when John was out doing astronaut things, a big, blue wormhole gobbled him up and spat him out at the far end of the Universe.
Godzilla Threshold: The war between the Peacekeepers and Scarrens in Peacekeeper War is his incentive to finally construct a fully functional wormhole weapon and give a demonstration.
Only Sane Man: Note that even when he's going crazy, John is usually the voice of sanity. This should give you an indication of how messed-up the world he lives in is.
Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: Crichton's Southern accent comes and goes a lot. Sometimes, he has no noticeable accent at all, other times he sounds like Foghorn Leghorn.
Might be deliberate characterisation, though. Lots of people consciously or unconsciously play their accent up or down for their audience.
Also note that since Ben Browder's from North Carolina, he comes by that accent honestly
Person As Verb: fans call his constant pop culture references "Crichtonisms."
Properly Paranoid: In "Twice Shy," it's revealed the reason he's so distant to Aeryn for half of Season 4 is because Scorpius is on Moya and could use her (plus the baby) as leverage against him if he were to ever discover his true feelings for her. Aeryn calls him on being paranoid and then we all learn Scorpius has been secretly listening in on the comms - proving Crichton right.
All for Nothing: Scorpius wasn't fooled by Crichton's attempt at covering up the relationship. Worse still, he manages to engineer a situation in which Crichton offers him wormhole weapons in return for Aeryn.
Smarter Than You Look: Everyone seems to forget that John started out as a scientist, and that he is very good at Obfuscating Stupidity. Even Einstein is surprised that John managed to figure out wormholes, even with the help the Ancients gave him.
Spider-Sense: In Season 4, thanks to his extensive wormhole research and the knowledge in his brain, he's able to accurately predict when and where a wormhole will open. As he says, he can smell them.
Anti-Hero: Type IV. Shot down a woman in cold blood even before finding out she was a projection created by Maldis, shocking even Rygel of all people. Not to mention subjecting an already subdued Crais to the Aurora chair.
The Atoner: for parts of seasons 1 and 2, most notably "The Way We Weren't."
Badass / Pregnant Badass: Even by the end of the series, she's still the toughest character on the show. While D'Argo's technically stronger, it's a still toss who would win in a straight fight...heavily leaning towards Aeryn.
Bare Your Midriff: Full-blown in the first-season episode "Back and Back and Back to the Future" and when dressed as a hippie in "Kansas", but her season two look where she rarely wears anything under her jerkin tends to create a lot of navel-visibility.
Bizarre Alien Biology: As a Sebacean, Aeryn can't regulate her internal body temperature and suffers from Sebacean Heat Delirium if it get too hot.
Book Dumb: Has an intense dislike for "scientific dren," which is apparently due to her training; apparently, Peacekeeper soldiers and pilots are taught to look down on technicians and scientists. Inverted in later episodes, when it's revealed Aeryn has an eidetic memory and can memorize whole languages just by watching TV.
Flower in Her Hair: In The Peacekeeper Wars, this is Aeryn's only concession to the fact she's getting married.
Friend To All Children: Has a soft spot for children. Her storyline in "Suns and Lovers" is about her rescuing children trapped on a damaged space station.
Single Tear: This is a talent of Claudia Black's, who trained herself to drop tears on cue so as not to ruin her water-based makeup. Averted hard, however, when she is completely and utterly grief-stricken.
Beard of Barbarism: Male Luxans all have a Beard Of Barbarism made up of a mixture of hair and tentacles.
Bizarre Alien Biology: As a Luxan, D'Argo has an extendable tongue that can inject a neural toxin, he can survive in space unprotected for fifteen minutes, and if he starts bleeding, the wound requires Percussive Maintenance until the blood runs clear. He also has more than one heart.
Bruiser with a Soft Center: After he lets the bravado fade and starts acting like his real self, he's actually a pretty soft-hearted guy.
This is mostly due to the fact that in early episodes, he expected imminent recapture, which he vowed he would never suffer again. In the early episodes of the first series, he often showed willingness to betray John and Aeryn to the Peacekeepers if it ensured his continued freedom. As his relationships grew with his shipmates and they continued to elude capture, he began to show he'd gladly put himself in great danger to protect his friends and rescue them.
Call to Agriculture: D'Argo managed it for a while with Lo'Laan and Jothee, and spends the entire series trying to get back to it.
The Captain: Of Lo'lah. In addition, the crew elect him captain of Moya during Season 4.
I Have No Son: When Jothee and Chiana have an affair, an enraged and heartbroken D'Argo disowns him. The two eventually begin to reconcile before D'Argo's Heroic Sacrifice.
Jerkass: For most of the first season, D'Argo has a habit of letting his temper make everyone around him miserable; he begins to grow out of it towards the season finale, but its not until the second season that he really loosens up.
Meaningful Name: By proxy. In Season 3, D'Argo acquires a ship that ultimately saves his life more than once and greatly calms anger brought on by other events. In Season 4, he has given it a very appropriate name:
Miscarriage Of Justice: D'Argo was framed for the murder of his Sebacean wife by brother-in-law Macton, a Peacekeeper and the actual murderer. To make it even worse, Crais (his de-facto jailer) knew this was the case and kept him in chains anyway.
Proud Warrior Race Guy: Though it gets subverted so damn hard at every opportunity. D'Argo is a teenager by Luxan standards, trying to live up to the idealized image of the Luxan warrior even though all he really wants to do is start a farm and raise a family. As the series progresses, a lot of his stereotypical Proud Warrior Race Guy attitudes mellow out, allowing him to be more of a...
The Worf Effect: As The Big Guy, this job often falls to D'Argo in the early episodes. Not as often as the Trope Namer as the series continues, and he usually creams the bad guys in a brawl. Near the end, Scarrans give him significant trouble, but then again, Scarrans give everyone trouble.
Dominar Rygel XVI
If you must address me, do so as Your Supreme Eminence. Which you should be doing anyway.
Rygel: Crichton, how illegal is this dren? You have to get me more. I don't care what it costs!
Badass: He's actually extremely frightening when he has the chance. When he's in Crichton's body in "Out Of Their Minds", he's psychopathic and murderous, and, in another episode, he kills Durka and spends the rest of an episode parading around with the dead man's head on a stick. Then, in Season 3, he messily tortures a Charrid to death. The only reason he's not taken seriously is his...
Bizarre Alien Biology: At just under two feet high, he's broadly humanoid, but he has three stomachs and farts helium when nervous.
Bunny-Ears Lawyer: The main reason the rest of the crew didn't space the selfish little git in the first month? He's an extremely skilled negotiator, often making sure the crew gets the supplies they need on their shoestring budget.
The Caligula: Heavily implied to be the very reason he was deposed in the first place.
Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Though he eventually shows some loyalty, for a few seasons his tendency to stab the rest of the cast in the back is so reliable it borders on being a Just Eat Gilligan scenario.
Cool Chair: His "throne sled", a gilded chair that floats.
Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Some episodes play up his cowardliness, greed and fart jokes, but then he does something like knife a Charrid to death as painfully as possible.
Dirty Old Man: Apparently several centuries old, more-than-middled aged by Hynerian standards, and more than willing to spy on Chiana having sex with Jothee. He objects to seeing Zhaan naked, though.
Jerkass / Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He is a flat out Jerk, but shows more than a few moments of genuine caring and compassion to his crew mates throughout the series.
Treads into "Heart of Gold" territory whenever Moya is concerned. Though he rarely admits it (if ever), his being on Moya longer than anyone else makes him partial to her well-being.
Man Bites Man: Rygel is decidedly not above using his teeth as a weapon, which leads to a rather impressive moment in "Coup By Clam" in which he manages to bite off a psychotic doctor's nose.
Manipulative Bastard: One of the show's best (heroic) examples. He's even complemented as such during the "Look at the Princess" trilogy.
Mr. Seahorse: Through a fluke in the miniseries, he winds up carrying Crichton and Aeryn's baby after they're reconstructed.
Revenge: Desires it against Bishan, the cousin who deposed him, and against Selto Durka, who took great pleasure in torturing him for cycles.
Torture Technician: And just a reminder, folks, this is one of the good guys.
Pa'u Zotoh Zhaan
Am I the only species in creation that doesn't thrive on conflict?
Played by Virginia Hey
Badass Preacher: Zhaan is a peace-loving Delvian priestess when we meet her. However, she was imprisoned on Moya for a reason (for killing her lover) and, as she says to Chiana, "My dear, I've kicked more ass than you've sat on."
Beware the Nice Ones: She is very nice, sometimes bordering on Technical Pacifist levels. She could also break you in half if she wanted to. Be thankful she doesn't. Most of the time.
Bizarre Alien Biology: Zhaan is a Delvian. Delvians are a species of hyper-evolved, sentient plants. And their females have breasts, for some reason.
Dark and Troubled Past: Zhaan was held by the Peacekeepers because of a murder charge and unlike other captives, she actually did do it. It was her time in captivity that saw her become a priest.
Empathic Healer: Usually by literally absorbing the pain of others into herself. Note that this is just for pain, actual healing needs to be done by conventional methods.
Innocent Fanservice Girl: Zhaan belongs to a species with No Nudity Taboo. She does wear clothes most of the time, though her nude scenes are often quite abrupt.
Real Life Writes the Plot : Apparently no one bothered to test that blue pigment before smearing it all over Virginia Hey; her departure was due to health problems caused by the makeup.
And I Must Scream: After Moya's first Pilot was disposed of, our Pilot was bonded to her, but because the Peacekeeper techs didn't have time for him to bond with Moya naturally, they connected him through artifical means. Until "The Way We Weren't," he was in constant pain, which he once described as "unbearable." The crew was understandably stunned that he had spent years like this without telling anyone.
Beware the Nice Ones: Shy, retiring, and subservient... at least until you push him too far; not only does Pilot have control over Moya's life-support systems, but his claws are more than capable of crushing a Sebacean throat at close range. There are quite a few episodes in the series that show just how dangerous he can be when angered: in "The Way We Weren't," he almost strangles Aeryn to death and disconnects the life-support systems in a fit of rage; in "Suns And Lovers," he flushes a terrorist out an airlock while laughing psychotically. And in "The Peacekeeper Wars", he consents to building a Weapon Of Mass Destruction for Crichton.
Happiness in Slavery: Given that he's being allowed to explore the universe, Pilot is willing to accept a lot of abuse from his passengers over the course of his duties; it doesn't mean he's happy with poor treatment as such, but he can live with it. That said, there are some things which Pilot isn't willing to tolerate...
I Just Want to Be Special: Pilot desperately wanted to be bonded to a Leviathan and explore the stars, something which is a rare honor among his species. To do this, Pilot made a deal with the Peacekeepers to replace Moya's current (uncooperative) Pilot- even though he knew it would result in her execution.
Mr. Exposition: Lampshaded by Crichton resignedly answering to one of Pilot's alerts. "Yes, Mr. Bad News?"
Only Sane Man: Can sometimes take this role when on-board sanity takes a dive; becomes a frequent role in season three, when he has to end up trying to keep the crew from killing each other due to Cabin Fever and frustration over Crichton's wormhole hunt.
The Smart Guy: Though the episode "Thank God It's Friday... Again" shows that Pilot, knowing that he can't contribute much else to the crew, works his ass off in order to be the team's Smart Guy.
The Voiceless: Moya cannot generally speak, though Pilot is aware of what she wants. The crew can also communicate with her through Pilot or the DRDs. In "Look at the Princess, Part 3", this is subverted, as her builders allow her to briefly speak directly to Zhaan.
Captain Bialar Crais
Tauvo is dead- struck down by a weak... pathetic... inferior being. It must be avenged! I swear in Tauvo's name, Crichton, you will die in my hands.
Dead Guy On Display / Taxidermy Is Creepy: While still captain of his ship, Crais kept the stuffed heads of numerous Hynerians on the walls of his cabin, much to Rygel's horror. Scorpius, on the other hand, wasn't all that impressed, and suggested that the only reason why Crais kept them around was as a reminder of times when he still had power.
Disc One Final Boss: In the first season, Crais is pursuing Moya to avenge the death of his brother, but he gets replaced by Scorpius.
Expy: Less extreme than the Grayza-Servalan resemblance, but in season one he has major similarities to Travis from Blake's 7.
Freudian Excuse: As children, Crais and his brother were forcefully taken from their parents by the Peacekeepers, and the last thing Crais Sr. did before his children were taken was to make Bialar promise to take care of his brother. Which makes his deranged homicidal quest across the Uncharted Territories a little bit easier to understand.
Ignored Epiphany: In "That Old Black Magic", after Crichton makes it clear in no uncertain terms that his brother's death was a freak accident. Far from weakening his resolve, Crais' reexamination of scenes from his past (courtesy of Maldis) only renews his desire to kill Crichton.
Insane Admiral: At first. He becomes a lot more laid-back after his defection from the Peacekeepers and comes to terms with Tauvo's death.
Shirtless Scene: In Season 3, although it isn't played for Fanservice, as his body is covered in intensely painful blisters due to Talyn's unstable neural feedback.
If your hand is still there in one microt, I'll snap it off and use it as a good luck charm.
Played by Gigi Edgley
Bare Your Midriff: Is that light-coloured strip in her first costume bare skin or cloth? The opening of "Taking the Stone" suggests it's meant to be skin, but in other episodes it looks like cloth, possibly to reduce the amount of real-world make-up needed.
Blind Seer: In Season 3, Chiana gains the ability to see visions of the future, though can't control it. In Season 4, she gains a degree of control, but goes blind. It's temporary, but lasts longer with each time. When it looks like it's permanent, she replaces her eyes.
Ethical Slut: The "ethical" part took a serious dent when she had an affair with Jothee, but for the most part, she tries not to edge in on previously established relationships.
Extreme Omnisexual: She is the focus of most of the series' Les Yayinvoked moments. She also has no sexual boundaries when it comes to gender, age, and even species.
Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: Chiana randomly slips between an Australian and Fake American accent in Season One. This is due to disagreements between directors over which accent Gigi Edgely should stick with.
Psychic Powers: Develops them in Season 3, following her possession by an Energy Rider.
Screaming Warrior: Has a very distinctive war cry that can best be described as "BRRRRRRUUUUGHHHH-YI-YI-YI-YAAAAAAH!"
Took a Level in Jerkass: To an extent - in Season 4, she has become a lot angrier than usual, because of her terrible experiences in between Seasons 3 and 4 - she was tortured.
Vitriolic Best Buds: At first, she and Jool despise each other, but they gradually come to develop a love-hate friendship. She also has this going on with Rygel, to a certain extent. Averted with Sikozu - although they have a few friendly moments together, they generally deeply dislike one another.
Emo Teen: Oh so much. Crichton even calls him out on it when Talyn becomes too bratty and petty (brattiness includes: locking doors on John, stealing his stuff, trying to separate him and auntie Aeryn, and trying to throw him out (into space)). The problem is that he's a bratty teenager with a really bigBFG.
Momma's Boy: A positive example, as despite his emotional problems, Talyn is shown to care deeply for Moya. At the end of "The Ugly Truth," it is revealed that Talyn willingly destroyed the Plokavian ship because they carried material that could've posed a threat to her. And if there was ever any doubt before, Talyn agrees to the Heroic Sacrifice because Crais tells him, "Moya will soon be enslaved."
Shipper on Deck: In "Green Eyed Monster", it turns out that Talyn has been conspiring to get Crais and Aeryn together, doing weird stuff like cranking up the heat in whatever room they're in. As someone correctly pointed out on the main page: "weirdest example ever".
With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: Only Leviathan in the universe that's armed with any sort of weaponry, but it turns out that whatever the Peacekeepers did drove him crazy.
While his biology likely made him unbalanced, the poor kid might have stood a chance if not for being under constant threat since birth. Crais theorized that it was the Peacekeeper Retrieval Squad hunt that finally pushed Talyn over the edge.
Scorpius
I long ago learned the advantages of patience.
Played by Wayne Pygram
Achilles Heel: His need for cooling rods to keep his internal temperature in balance. And like any good Achilles Heel, savvy opponents will exploit it: Crichton once coated a rod in heat-reacting paste, hoping it would explode in Scorpius' head, and if anyone worth their salt manages to capture Scorpius, the first thing they do is deny him cooling rods or destroy the apparatus.
Break the Cutie: His first 12 years of life consisted of torture. It's really not surprising that he got so good at preparing contingency escape plans.
Cheshire Cat Grin: It isn't often he's capable of a benign smile. Then again, it is hard to grin infectiously when you have small, sharp, jagged teeth.
He does, however, manage a much more heartwarming smile when he strokes the flower he remembers his mother by at the end of "Incubator".
Clingy Costume: Not physically impossible to remove, but necessary to keep him alive.
Crazy-Prepared: He's insanely paranoid — and justifiably so, considering how often people have tried to kill him. Crazy-Prepared is probably the only reason no one has managed it.
Erotic Asphyxiation: This is evidently one of his kinks, judging by his sex scene with Natira and his only on-screen sexual scene with Sikozu.
Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: Scorpius' xenocidal hatred of the Scarran stems from both what they did to him and what they did to his mother.
Even Evil Has Loved Ones: He loves his mother, in spite of the fact that he never got to meet her, and he clearly cares a great deal for Sikozu.
Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Subverted heavily; at one point in the fourth season, Crichton insists that Scorpius doesn't understand him, hence the reason why Scorpius had to use the Aurora Chair and the Neural Clone to unearth his secrets. Less than a few episodes later, after Aeryn is kidnapped by the Scarrans, Crichton realises that Scorpius arranged the whole thing, knowing that he'd trade anything for Aeryn's safety.
Heel Face Turn: Averted. Scorpius joins the crew of Moya during season 4, but he's very upfront about the fact that his goals and motivations haven't changed one bit, only his circumstances.
Not so Different: Scorpius confesses a real 'connection' to Crichton. (Not so much the other way around, though.) Wayne Pygram has mused that since Scorpy is alone in his uniqueness, perhaps he feels a kinship with the fish-out-of-water John.
Revenge: Revenge against the Scarrans is his driving motivation.
Super Strength: One of the benefits of being half-Scarran. He throws Crais around like a ragdoll on one occasion, and on another, he forced open an incredibly heavy, reinforced sliding door one-handed.
Too Kinky to Torture: On the rare occasions that he's ended up being captured and interrogated, his captors have to work hard to find a form of torture that he doesn't enjoy.
Or if not enjoy, at least ignore. After all, he was tortured for over a decade (while growing up) by professionals.
Villainous Breakdown: At the end of series 3, following Crichton's betrayal and the destruction of his research base and resources, it's perhaps the only time in the series we see him looking genuinely broken.
Well-Intentioned Extremist: Everything he does is in order to stop the Scarrans from taking over the galaxy. Of course, this is backed by his deep-seated hatred and desire for revenge, but he knows exactly what they're capable of, and he is willing to do anything, even sacrificing himself, to make sure that what happened to his mother doesn't happen to the rest of the galaxy. That's the entire reason he went and offered himself to the Peacekeepers: they were the less evil choice! At the end of the Peacekeeper Wars he is happy when the Scarrans and Peacekeepers sign a peace contract because it still stops them from taking over the galaxy. Undoubtedly though, he had a whole heap of plans set up to get rid of them from what they do control, but one step at a time, no?
It's even worse than that. Turns out that Stark grew up among the Scarrans and assisted in their death rituals. As a slave, you can imagine how that part of his life went. Considering his opinion (not to mention panic) of Scarrans, being Scorpius' prisoner was arguably an improvement for the poor guy.
Blessed with Suck: That empathic/telepathic ability to interact with the dying? Not fun. In fact, he actually mentions that every time he helps someone cross over, he absorbs a tiny piece of their soul. And since a good deal of his early work was helping Scarrans cross over...
The Chew Toy: Dude was tortured for years, and upon escaping in short order proceeds to get executed by disintegration , experiences the agonising deaths of ten thousand of his own species being executed by Natira, gets puked on by Pilot, and finally is forced to listen as the woman he loves dies. Cannot catch a break.
Dogged Nice Guy: A very creepy one towards Aeryn at times in the third season, eventually driving her to a memorable and deserved "The Reason You Suck" Speech. However, the reason he acts this way turns out not to be so much due to any kind of attraction to her, but that all the dark and evil chaotic thought that he's absorbed over the years, which have permanently distorted his thinking, latch onto her as the latest object of his fragmented attention because Zhaan isn't around anymore to help him control it. Let's face it, by the time season 3 and 4 come around, he flips between psychosis and neurotic breakdown like a light switch with a short circuit.
Not So Harmless: Every so often, Stark will get very violent — and not in a funny way, either. In fact, when one particularly trying day ended with Jool whining at him, he actually went beserk and threatened to Mind Rape her. See above under Dogged Nice Guy for why.
The Load: On a good day, he's almost catatonic. On a bad day, he puts everyone on the ship in danger with his psychotic freak-outs.
Trauma Conga Line: No one has gone through more pain and suffering throughout the span of their life than Stark. No one. Think what happened to Aeryn in Scarran captivity was bad? Stark's got her beat: he absorbed some of the Scarran's souls. Think John's purview in the Aurora Chair was horrific? Stark got 2 years. And he just keeps on getting hit!
Obfuscating Insanity: Stark has an at best tenuous grip on his sanity, but he admitted to pretending to be far crazier while Scorpius' prisoner. Doing so got people to leave him alone more often than they would've otherwise.
Too Kinky to Torture: Stark's been given the Aurora Chair treatment over 100 times, and he clearly enjoys it a little too much.
Harvey
Go on, John! Do it! Then we can go to the beach! I know a place with naked Sebacean girls and margarita shooters!
Played by Wayne Pygram
Ascended Extra: Originally, Crichton was just hallucinating Scorpius in "Crackers Don't Matter" because he was just being driven crazy like everyone else in that episode. Then the writers realized how great it would be if they could keep Scorpius around (in John's head) while technically having the real one pursuing them from far away; thus, "Harvey" became a recurring character.
Faux Affably Evil: His relative friendliness is an act (see his meeting with Natira), one that Crichton rightfully doesn't buy.
Happy Place: Often found lurking in the more pleasant areas of Crichton's psyche.
Heel Face Turn: Harvey eventually came to value his and Crichton's survival over the goals of Scorpius.
Face Heel Turn: In Season 4, Scorpius claims to remove Harvey, but instead reprograms/upgrades him. While maintaining similar characterisitics, he is loyal to Scorpius and committed to seeing his goals achieved.
Homage Shot: Numerous times his visitations with John would manifest themselves in scenes from famous Earth films (see Shout Out below). When his program was dying, he replayed some scenes from the end of 2001 a la Dave Bowman.
Imagine Spot: Tends to make his presence known through these.
Bizarre Alien Biology: Jool is an Interon, so her hair changes color depending on her mood, and her screams can melt metal. Which is good, because she screams. 'A lot.
Eyepatch of Power: When she is temporarily blinded in one eye due to a bit of Boolite flying into it (It Makes Sense in Context), she sports a rather cool eyepatch for a few episodes.
Fiery Redhead: She is usually blonde, except for when she is nervous or angry, during which it turns bright red. It stays permanently red following the infiltration of Scorpius' Command Carrier - possibly due to the stress of the mission.
Fish out of Water: Being from a peaceful star system that seriously frowns upon violence, she is initially completely out of her depth when she becomes part of Moya's crew. (She learns quickly.) Being cryogenically frozen for 22 cycles didn't help, either.
Forgot About Her Powers: Her sound powers are rarely used in emergencies where they might actually be useful.
Insufferable Genius: She has some traits of this, although not nearly as much as Sikozu.
Jerkass: Starts off as one, before Character Development kicks in. Emerging from a long cryogenic slumber on board a ship of a type she'd never seen and learning that her two cousins - with whom she was very close - are dead does not help.
Overly-Long Name: And she claims that everyone addresses her by her full name prior to being cryogenically frozen (this could presumably be an Interon cultural aspect), although she makes an exception for her cousins, who called her by her nickname. She resents being called "Jool" by her crewmates at first (in spite of, or perhaps because of, the fact that her cousins also used it), but it eventually grows on her.
Red Hair Take Warning: Her hair turns bright red when she's either a) scared or nervous, or b) really, really pissed off.
Ship Tease: The writers teased a relationship between Jool and D'Argo — especially in season 4's "What Was Lost" two-parter — but Jool left the show and nothing came of it.
And then when the crew catches up with Jool again in "The Peacekeeper Wars", she oddly and inexplicably goes for Crichton and seems to have completely forgotten D'Argo.
There also seemed to be something of a Ship Tease between her and Naj Gil (the only neutral/non-antagonistic Scarren to appear on the show) - they connect very quickly, and he offers her a place aboard the hospital ship with him. Unfortunately, he is killed before anything comes of it, and Jool is deeply upset at his death.
Technical Pacifist: Sometimes bordering on Actual Pacifist levels. She frowns upon violence due to her upbringing and abhors killing, but, as the series goes on, she becomes more willing to engage in violence when it is required.
Took a Level in Badass: This trait starts to emerge towards the end of Season 3 - especially notable is the fact that she aids the rest of the crew in their infiltration of Scorpius' Command Carrier despite her nervousness, and that she's more than willing to put herself in danger to help D'Argo against a huge Peacekeeper wielding a circular saw. This trait is also especially evident in the "What Was Lost" two-parter.
Vitriolic Best Buds: At first, she and Chiana despise each other, but they gradually come to develop a love-hate friendship.
Written-In Infirmity: The eyepatch was because Tammy MacIntosh really did get hit in the eye by a piece of debris and injured during the relevant action sequence.
Utu-Noranti Pralatong
Never bathe, never bathe. It washes off the juice.
Be a Whore to Get Your Man: Not really an increase in sexiness so much as a fashion style change, but her black-leather-and-tattoos makeover for "The Peacekeeper Wars" looks an awful lot like her playing to Scorpius's fetishes.
Bizarre Alien Biology: As a Kalish, Sikozu can walk up walls and across ceilings, can't tolerate Translator Microbes (meaning she has to learn every language she ever encounters), can reattched severed limbs and can go for months without eating. She also has the ability to project radiation, but that's a result of also being a bioloid.
Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: She had a tendency to betray or at least undermine Crichton very early on. Then she met Scorpius. She colluded with him almost immediately, which still puts this trope in effect because his agenda was hardly in line with Crichton's or anyone else's. The only times she willingly cooperated with the rest of the crew was when their goals weren't mutually exclusive, though to her credit, she didn't decide to up and screw everyone like most examples of this trope. And then she blew it by betraying the crew to the Scarrans, much to Scorpius' rage.
Insufferable Genius: Incredibly intelligent and is not afraid to let everyone else know just how much smarter she is than them. As Crichton mutters aside at one point, "She's too smart."
Jerkass: Most of the time acts very unpleasantly towards Moya's crew, save for Scorpius.
Know-Nothing Know-It-All: An inversion, as she is quite educated. However, as Rygel noted, "You've learned, but you haven't experienced." For example, though book smart when it comes to Leviathans, she had never been on one before meeting Crichton, and he knew things she didn't thanks to living on Moya.
The Mole: In "The Peacekeeper Wars", she feeds Crichton and Scorpius' movements to the Scarrans. When Scorpius confronts her over this she said that the Scarrans had promised to free the Kalish from servitude; surprisingly enough, the Scarrans actually made good on this promise in the comics.
Each man gets the chance to be his own kind of hero. Your time'll come and when it does, watch out. Chances are, it'll be the last thing you ever expected.
Domestic Abuse: Played with in "Kansas." A teenaged Crichton thought that Jack treated his mother badly. Though arguments between the parents were apparently frequent, an older Crichton was very much aware of how much this trope was averted.
Hero of Another Story: Following the events of "Terra Firma", during which Jack organizes a global peace initiative in preparation for exploring space.
Open Minded Parent: Though shown to butt heads with his son, Jack has always been very supportive of what he had to say.
Badass Beard: Grows a goatee in time for the miniseries.
The Captain: Is a Lieutenant for most of the series, until he is later promoted to Captain. He is later promoted to Admiral in the comics.
The Dragon: To Scorpius, and then later to Grayza. Later episodes revealed that he was still loyal to Scorpius even while working for Grayza.
Co Dragons: Him and Sikozu to Scorpius, during Season 4 and the miniseries.
Mauve Shirt: Braca was originally just another mook in a couple of late Season 1 episodes, but Scorpius needed a number two and David Franklin was such a damn good actor that he eventually got a...
Mook Promotion: From a random Peacekeeper soldier to "Captain Miklo Braca, Officer of the Fleet, Peacekeeper Interplanetary Service".
Mook Lieutenant: Starts as one. He gives Scorpius someone to talk to.
Commandant Mele-On Grayza
What I want may not be as bad as you think. You might even like it.
Played by Rebecca Riggs
Absolute Cleavage: Or, as Crichton refers to her, "Commandant Cleavage."
Klingon Promotion: The superior she kills is also strongly implied to be the father of her unborn child.
Mama Bear: It's implied that the main reason she goes along with Crichton's demands in "The Peacekeeper Wars" is to protect her unborn child.
Mind Rape: The Heppel oil secreted by a gland implanted in her chest acts as an extremely potent pheromone, with which she uses to rape Crichton.
Real Life Writes the Plot: Rebecca Riggs really was that heavily pregnant when "The Peacekeeper Wars" was filmed: she'd thought that the show was cancelled permanently and decided it was time to have a child.
She also missed "Bad Timing" because of her wedding. Grayza was consequently said to be detained and sedated in the episode.
What Could Have Been: It is never made entirely clear if the father of her unborn child is Crichton's or Maryk's. Had there been a Season 5, this issue may have been resolved.
Badass Preacher: Or, as he calls himself, the "Holy Warrior of Tarou."
Benevolent Boss: When he was still in charge of the Tavlek gang, it was demonstrated that he actually cared about his underlings- to the point of threatening to kill Moya's crew if they mistreated Kyr.
Blindfolded Vision: The top of Bekhesh's head is covered by a thick metal faceplate; according to production notes, it's actually a cybernetic replacement for the top of his head.
Functional Addict: While still clearly addicted, he doesn't need the gauntlet nearly as often as Kyr did.
Reverse Mole: In "Nerve" and "The Hidden Memory," Gilina functions as this, sabotaging the Gammak base's surveilance systems to help Crichton and Chiana enter and escape.
What Could Have Been: She was originally going to be killed off in "PK Tech Girl," but the actress's performance convinced David Kemper to bring her back.
Bald of Evil: He prefers to keep his head clean-shaven. In fact, some time after his brainwashing is reversed, he goes so far as to cut off the long hair he's grown in the meantime.
Broken Pedestal: It was a bit of a shock for Aeryn to discover that one of the greatest heroes of the Peacekeepers was little more than an opportunistic coward.
Dead Guy On Display: After being killed by Rygel, his head is mounted on a pike and kept as a trophy
Decoy Get Away: When the battle with the Nebari turned against him, Durka faked his death by killing an improvised Body Double and making it look like a suicide. Not that it helped, as the Nebari easily caught up with him — hence the brainwashing — but Rygel was certainly fooled when he revisted the Zelbinion 100 cycles later.
Dirty Coward: As Aeryn noted, retreating from an unwinnable battle is one thing, but murdering one of your own officers to put the finishing touches on your own private escape attempt...
Graceful Loser: Compliments D'Argo on managing to bluff his way through negotiations and ultimately foil his attempt at claiming Moya and the Zelbinion.
Note that he still threatened to kill D'Argo one day- he just did so in a very respectful manner.
Emotion Eater: He likes to spice up his meals by encouraging his victims to excesses of fear or anger- as an appetiser. Unfortunately for his victims, he's very good at knowing which buttons to push...
Fate Worse than Death: Maldis was dispersed by Zhaan and left as a disembodied mind trying to pull his body back together again. He describes the experience as "Less than pleasant."
Faux Affably Evil / Laughably Evil: Say what you like about his vile eating habits and devious schemes- he's undoubtedly having the time of his life.
Long Bus Trip: After being dispersed twice, he never bothered the crew again, even though it's established that he can return from the dead, if given time. It's speculated that because his main interest was in Zhaan, he simply lost interest in Moya's crew following the events of "Self-Inflicted Wounds."
Some fans have speculated that he was really the one behind the game in "John Quixote" due to certain elements of it and how Crichton got in it the first place. Note that he is name-dropped in the episode.
Master of Disguise: Appeared in different guises as part of his plots against the crew, with his actor appearing in different costumes and make-up for the effect.
Master of Illusion: When not using his magic powers in a "real" sense, he's not above confusing his victims with images from their past.
Honest John's Dealership: She's a perfectly competent engineer (enough to make a working copy of Crichton's module), but she's not too choosy about her employees: they're either "thoddoes" or disguised bounty hunters.
Dark Mistress- to Scorpius. She's actually planning to assassinate him.
Evil Mentor: Apparently, she served as this to Scorpius when he was younger.
Natira: Without me, you'd still be the same angry, hotheaded young creature I took in so many cycles ago.
Scorpius: Without me, your head — among other things — would be a trophy on the wall at Peacekeeper Command.
Eye Scream: Those flexible spines on her head — the ones that stand upright and twitch when she gets sexually excited? Those are used for stabbing people's eyes out.
Gorgeous Gorgon: Not literally, but her appearance does lend itself towards this- to the point that Crichton calls her "Medusa."
Morally Bankrupt Banker: Apart from the torture and murder comitted on a daily basis, she also claimed the contents of Scorpius' vault for herself, presuming that Scorpius had died in the destruction of his Gammak base. Then, when Scorpius showed up alive and asking for his money, Natira was very happy to steal the contents of someone else's vault to repay him. However, it's actually a deathtrap... which the crew of Moya end up stealing.
Red Eyes, Take Warning: Quite apart from having orange-red eyes of her own, she has a thing for red eyes in general.
Sexy Walk: As evidenced in her "Between My Legs" introduction, which also draws attention to the fact that her exoskeleton has high heels.
What Could Have Been: The producers wanted her to return in a later episode, but Claudia Karvan didn't want to put herself through the prosthetics and animatronics again.
Ka Jothee
I'm only half Luxan... and for many cycles, I didn't even want to be that.
Played by Grant Magee (child), Matt Newton (adult, series 2-3), Nathaniel Dean (adult, "The Peacekeeper Wars")
Beard of Barbarism: Grows one in time for Peacekeeper Wars, after becoming reconciled to his father's culture.
Good Scars, Evil Scars: Jothee bears a deep scar across his nose, and most of his head-tentacles have been mutilated. "Die Me Dichotomy" revealed that these were actually self-inflicted.
Mark of Shame: After finding out that Jothee was having an affair with Chiana, D'Argo branded him with one of the union tattoes he'd intended for himself and Chiana- and destroyed the other tattoo so that Chiana couldn't mark herself with it's twin.
The Other Darrin: Only recurring character to be recast during the series' run.
Grunchlk
This is business: I have the supply, I make the demand.
Played by Hugh Keays-Byrne
Beard of Evil: Grows one of these in The Peacekeeper Wars.
Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Backstabs Crichton by alerting Scorpius, backstabs Scorpius by defrosting a Scarran spy, who he'd backstabbed a lot earlier to hand over to Scorpius if everything went well...
Fingore: Ends up being forced to eat one of his own fingers by Scorpius.
Honest John's Dealership: Though the Diagnosan doctors he represents are as skilled as advertised, Grunchlk will always ensure that their services are ridiculously overpriced. Plus, the "donors" frozen in the cryogenics facility are patients that didn't survive their treatments... or looked like they were going to die before they were operated on... or related to the deceased...
Ironic Echo: Stime after the Scarran agent locks him into one of the cryopods, Stark finds him... and leaves him there, reporting him as "dead, effectively."
Villainous Glutton: Always seems to be eating something while on-screen — to the point that Braca was able to find him by noticing that he'd dropped his sandwich right in front of his hiding-spot.
Pathfinder Neeyala
"Will" is a poor substitute for beersian alloy when crushed by astronomical tidal forces!
Chekhov's Gunman: At the end of her second and final episode, she implants Moya with a beacon that will alert the Pathfinder elite to their presence; though Crichton worries, nothing more is thought of it... until Moya is unexpectedly yanked down a wormhole at the end of the third season. "Unrealised Realities" reveals that Einstein, inspecting the state of wormhole knowledge in the region, detected the Pathfinder beacon and brought Moya in for examination.
We Have Your Family And The Families Of Your Crew: One of the reasons why Neeyala is so fanatically devoted to saving her ship is because the Pathfinder government would have her family and the families of her crew executed if they returned without it and the data they'd acquired.
Lovecraftian Superpower: Like all Pathfinders, she has the ability to shoot poisonous bristles from her gills.
I've heard loved ones leave you in pieces. That little by little, you start to forget things about them. But that's not true: you lose them — everything — instantly. And suddenly, nothing can replace them. Nothing. And now you have nothing. How does it feel?
Luke, I Am Your Father: Xhalax decided to reveal the fact that she was Aeryn's mother many years before the series began; she also informed Aeryn that she was concieved not to provide the Peacekeepers with another expendable soldier, but out of love.
Sadistic Choice: Peacekeeper Command discovered her Luke, I Am Your Father moment and were outraged. They ordered her to kill either Aeryn or Aeryn's father Talyn Lyczac as a way of redeeming herself. Xhalax chose Talyn.
Your knowledge is quite extraordinary for one of your realm. And your many travels inside wormholes… troubling. But now that I've glimpsed your mind, I'm aware this has made you a target of more aggressive species: a liability which must be dealt with...
Power Floats: During a conversation with Crichton, (who's sitting on top of an iceberg) Einstein very subtly levitates until he's at eye-level with him.
The Starscream: To Staleek. Strangely, Staleek himself let her sit on his throne, giving her an ultimatum - carry out one final order from him, and get a promotion that would subsequently lead to her becoming "Empress".
Brainwashed and Crazy: Inverted. He gets influenced by an Eidolon in an attempt to end the war with the Peacekeepers, and it's largely successful... until Ahkna kills the Eidolon and dispels the control he had on Staleek.
Villainous Breakdown: Looks rather.... apprehensive at agreeing to a peace treaty with the Peacekeepers. Guess that's what happens when you're almost literally two minutes away from getting swallowed up by a wormhole weapon.
Innocent Aliens: Certainly not naive, though — the test they put Crichton through in their first episode was used to determine whether the human race would accept them if they ever chose Earth as a haven.
Mysterious Watcher: Apparently, the Ancients were originally created to act as this for an entire universe, having been sent into our dimension to monitor and catalogue the state of wormhole technology in it. Of course, by the time of their first episode, they've forgotten this role.
The Promised Land: With their species in decline and their original mission lost, the Ancients are now seeking out a world where they can flourish — preferably in coexistence with the local sentients.
Sufficiently Advanced Aliens: Quite apart from their ability to craft physical environments based on Crichton's memory, they'd also mastered the art of wormhole travel and weaponry.
Bald of Awesome: Delvian males (and the odd female) tend to be completely bald.
Corrupt Church: Around the time Zhaan left her home planet, the normally benevolent Delvian Seek was under the control of a few very conservative Pa'us and their Peacekeeper allies.
The Dark Side: Delvians are prone to falling to this as they ascend the ranks of the priesthood, especially if they commit murder.
Enlightenment Superpowers: Most of the powers held by Pa'us are gained through their tentative steps toward enlightenment. Some of them are based on obvious psychic power, while others are far more magical in nature.
The Empath: A subtle example, but also a very effective one.
Hidden Elf Village: Both the cloaked refugee settlement on Quajaga and the sealed temple on Arnessk function as this.
More than Mind Control: The Eidolons' diplomatic techniques; since they can't actually control minds, they use their powers to lull their opponents into a receptive state, and then use their empathic abilities to present a compelling argument.
Perfect Pacifist People: Averted; while generally opposed to violence, they aren't above using it in emergencies; the Quajagan Eidolons, having lost the art of activating their powers, employed heavily-armed soldiers. And at the height of their power, the Eidolons actually created the Peacekeepers as a security force for the systems under their control.
Power Glows: When they use their powers, a faint glow emanates from the patterns on their faces.
Rubber Forehead Aliens: Used and subverted; on the surface, they look like humans with raised patterns on their faces. However, these patterns are actually edges; when transferring the knowledge of how to use their powers, their faces literally open!
Sealed Good in a Can: A temple-city of them were sealed outside of time on Arnessk up until Crichton and Co managed to unlock them.
God Guise: At one point, one of Rygel's ancestors went out of his way to ensure that Hynerians visiting a certain planet would be welcomed as gods; he did this by stranding an entire settlement of Sebaceans loyal to the Hynerian throne on a remote planet, disabling their technology, and setting up a corrupt priesthood to have the people worshipping the Hynerian empire for all eternity.
Zerg Rush: In desperate times, the Hynerian military have favoured these kinds of tactics.
The Luxans
As a race, Luxans can be inartful at love... inadequate at war... and intrinsically inept.
— Natira
Badass Preacher: The Luxans have an entire class of priests called Oricans, most of whom are revered among the general populace for their abilities. Given that just one of them almost aged Moya to death without even getting within firing range, the reverence is pretty damn justified.
Religion is Magic: In contrast to Delvian Enlightenment Superpowers, the Luxan Oricans actually perform magic in their duties. Apparently, this is one of the reasons why D'Argo treads carefully around supernatural beings like Maldis or the Delvian Pa'us, given the amount of power just one Orican can wield.
Rubber Forehead Aliens: A pretty impressive prosthetic, but still qualifies as Rubber Forehead.
The Nebari
All is forgiven if it is in the service of the greater good.
Higher Tech Species: Technically advanced and very heavily armed — just one of their cargo freighters was enough to destroy one of the biggest and deadliest ships in the Peacekeeper armada.
Not a freighter: Salas said that the Zelbinion had been destroyed by "One of our standard host vessels," right after saying that the Nebari have no warships. In this case, it's probably a creative euphemism for a warship.
La Résistance: As "Clockwork Nebari" demonstrated, there's a resistance movement working against the Establishment.
Mind Rape: The mental cleansing process. It's said that there are two ways of doing this, the first is supposed to be permanent but takes years to do. The second in a drug, but is temporary and only works on non-Nebari. The entire crew is subjected to the latter, and Chiana was going to be subjected to the former when she was introduced. She was hysterical about it, insisting she'd rather die.
The Plague: One of their plans for taking over the galaxy consists of infecting their rebels with a very potent STD and sending them in the direction of their future enemies; when it comes time for the great Nebari invasion, the virus will be activated — leaving the many billions of infectees defenceless.
Mars Needs Women: They toyed with the idea of using Sebaceans as breeding stock. Following Scorpius' rebellion, they decided it wasn't worth the trouble.
Human Aliens: Almost indistinguishable from humans as far as surface appearances go.
Transplanted Humans: they are eventually revealed to be descended from proto-humans abducted and transferred across the galaxy by the Eidolons
Weaksauce Weakness: Sebaceans have a very poor tolerance for heat, and suffer brain damage and death at temperatures that would be simply uncomfortable for most species.
The Peacekeepers
Commie Nazis: Their aesthetics are a deliberate fusion of the Third Reich and the Soviet Union's short-lived modernist period. (The Peacekeeper emblem is based on the famous abstract Bolshevik propaganda poster "Beat the Whites with the Red Wedge".)
Conservation of Ninjutsu: The smaller the group of Peacekeepers, the deadlier they seem to be — to the point that individuals seem almost unstoppable.
Fantastic Racism: Quite apart from their distrust of non-Sebaceans — sometimes to the extent of discharging soldiers for "Irreversible Contamination" — hybrids are treated with utter contempt. However, the Peacekeepers are practical enough to recognize the value of keeping individuals like Scorpius around.
The Spartan Way: Peacekeepers are either born into the organisation or forcibly recruited as children, then brought up brutally and lovelessly to see duty and discipline as the only things that matter; friendships (sometimes with "benefits") are permitted among the soldiery, but any relationship approaching love is terminally discouraged — as Xhalax Sun discovered.
The Sebacean Colonies
Defector To Decadence: Broke away from the Peacekeepers almost two thousand cycles ago, and have never looked back. As Rygel noticed, they seem to enjoy their freedom a bit too much.
Matriarchy: Of the Original variant. While it's clear that the Regent has power, the Empress is clearly the one in charge.
Taken for Granite: Immediately after marriage, the future Empress and her Regent are petrified for the next eighty cycles, allowing the current Royal Couple to finish off their reign peacefully while their still-conscious successors absorb all the royal court procedures going on about them. Thanks to the calming influence of psychic communication, this would seem to work quite well.
The Empress: Empress Novia — manipulative and stubborn, but strictly neutral.
