12th Feb: A new policy is being put in place for TRS threads: Make your case that the name/page is broken in the Opening Post, or the thread will be nuked immediately. See Everything You Wanted To Know About Changing Names for what "Make your case" means.
5th Feb: Echo Chamber Season 1 blooper reel on Youtube here
"My name is John Crichton... an astronaut. Three years ago I got shot through a wormhole. I'm in a distant part of the universe aboard this living ship of escaped prisoners, my friends. I've made enemies. Powerful. Dangerous. Now all I want is to find a way home, to warn Earth. Look upward, and share... the wonders I have seen."
Farscape is a Space Opera that ran from 1999 to 2003 on the Sci Fi Channel. It was produced by the Jim Henson Company, although co-funded by the network, and co-created by Rockne O'Bannon and Brian Henson. Production took place in Sydney, Australia, to take advantage of lower costs. Canceled in 2003, Farscape was resurrected on the Sci Fi Channel for a two-part miniseries that resolved the cliffhanger from season four and gave fans a condensed version of the planned plot for season five.While its premise began as a fairly standard Science Fiction show, Farscape quickly distinguished itself with a focus on complex, evolving characterizations, jaw-dropping plot twists and movie-quality special effects and cinematography. Several of the aliens went far beyond Rubber Forehead Aliens into the realm of Starfish Aliens, thanks to puppets or animatronics created by the Jim Henson Creature Shop.The show often subverted the cliches and tropes of standard television science fiction, and has been referred to as the "anti-Star Trek." The heroes tended to have more sordid backgrounds and bad habits than usual, and the clean, well-dressed military was often the antagonist. Actions had consequences, characters made stupid mistakes, innocent people died, and plans tended to go wrong. While not quite as arc-based as Babylon 5 or Lost, the series became less episodic as time wore on (this is especially true of Seasons 3 and 4). The series is also notable for its rapid turnover and numerous deaths of main characters, at least compared to most sci-fi series. In actuality, though, very few of those deaths actually stick.Farscape bears some resemblance to the '70s British series Blake's 7, which was also centered around a group of escaped convicts challenging an evil dictatorship from their high-powered ship. Many B7 fans see the character, Grayza, as an acknowledgment of this, because of her strong resemblance to Servalan, B7's own Big Bad. The fact that actress Rebecca Riggs is an avowed fan of B7 doesn't hurt.In 2008, BOOM! Studios started publishing ongoing — and canonical — Farscape comics, from stories written by Rockne O'Bannon and scripted by Keith R.A. DeCandido and David Allan Mack. There were two ongoing series set post-Peacekeeper Wars, one following Moya's crew (Farscape) and one following Scorpius (Farscape: Scorpius), the spin-off since merged back into the ongoing story as of the War for the Uncharted TerritoriesStory Arc, as well as a pre-PKW series following D'Argo.This series has its own recaps and Fetish Fuel page.
Abnormal Ammo: "Chakran 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".
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).
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.
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 Clan" 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.
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 poison 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 correctquiteyet, 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.
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".
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 StargateSG-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 ofthrillseeking teenagers. The B Plot involves Rygel being haunted by poltergeists after he engages in some looting.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
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 evil, 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.
The most surreal is almost certainly the Easter scene.
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 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.
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, 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.
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.
And despite their pacifist nature, Moya and Pilot agree to help with the development and deployment of an Interstellar Weapon in the movie after the TV series ended. And "The Way We Weren't" is an episode set aside to show just how bad things can get when Pilot gets pissed off. Oh, and then there was that moment in "Suns and Lovers" when Pilot flushed a terrorist out of an airlock while laughing psychotically.
Big Bad: Crais, then Scorpius, then Grayza, 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
BLAM 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.
Blip Vert: 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 she 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.
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).
In Season 4, Crichton turns the tables on Jack by repeating this same question.
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...
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 tortured Aeryn 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.
Actually, I think that was Captain Jennik, and he got nuked.
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.
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.
Brain Washed: 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.
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 living ships (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.
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 alot". 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.
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.
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.
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.
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 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'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.
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.
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.
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.
Cloud Cuckoolander: 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.
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.
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.
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.
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"
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!
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.
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.
Deadpan Snarker: Crichton, verging on every scene at times. Also Harvey: Scorpius's personality mixed with John's knowledge and love for pop culture.
D'Argo: You mock me? Crichton: D'Argo, I mock us all.
Dead Person Impersonation: Crichton poses as the late Peacekeeper Captain Larraq (complete with Evil Brit accent) when he infiltrates the Gammak Base to find a tissue sample to save Aeryn's life ("Nerve")
Deal with the Devil: NamTar offers to examine the Moya crew's collective DNA in order to find their places of origin — their homeworlds — and then hand them a navigation crystal to get them there, risk-free. At this early stage in the series, the characters are still disloyal to one another and thus most vulnerable to NamTar's offer. His asking price? One of Pilot's arms. Hmm, this is a genuine moral quandary. We'd better sit down and discu—Rygel!! You hold him down while I get my qualta blade! In true jerkass fashion, NamTar doesn't deliver on his promise, anyway: the navigation crystal would have erased Moya's memory, ensuring that the crew couldn't leave even if they wanted to.
Both John and Crais make the mistake of entering into this type of bargain with Maldis. It was all pretext for pitting them in an Involuntary Battle to the Death (Well, involuntary for Crichton anyway), whereupon the survivor will be deposited back on their ship. Even on this point, Maldis has a screwjob prepared: Crichton succeeds in nearly killing Crais, only for Maldis to spirit him away, leaving Crichton alone and about to have his life-force feasted on by Maldis. See, he didn't say the winner of the battle gets to go home.
In "Prayer," Crichton is forced to turn to Scorpius for help in rescuing Aeryn, offering wormhole knowledge in exchange; after a strange ritual in which the two drink each other's blood to seal the deal, they agree. Against all expectations, Scorpius fulfils his part of the bargain without trying to work any underhanded angles, only for Crichton to abandon him on Katratzi... and then discovers that Scorpius was expecting something like this to happen sooner or later and installed a failsafe in Crichton's brain to make sure that he fulfilled his part of the bargain. Whoops.
Death by Origin Story: D'Argo and Zhaan's respective mates were killed before the story begins — though, in fairness, Zhaan bumped off her lover herself.
Decided By One Vote: In the aptly-titled "La Bomba", Crichton drops a bomb down a shaft after activating it, knowing it will probably kill them all. John grunts noncommittally; then suddenly remembers the Democracy thing.
Crichton: Oh. God. ...We should have voted. All in favor — show of hands. (He raises his and the others stare at him; then Aeryn and Scorpius raise theirs — a little)
And later:
Rygel: You farhbot! Did you blow up the bomb?! How could you blow up the bomb?!
Crichton: You missed the vote.
Decoy Damsel: Zig Zagged between M'Lee and Br'Nee, both of whom are pretty detestable, yet continually point fingers at the other one ("Born to Be Wild"). In the end, M'Lee comes off looking better, since she was taken against her will to the asteroid by Br'Nee and his botanists to destroy its animal population and then starve to death.
Three years before the series begins, Tam Velorek (Aeryn's former lover and fellow Peacekeeper) had a plan in the works to hijack Moya and flee into the Uncharted Territories. When Velorek offered to take Aeryn with him, she instead turned him in to Crais, earning herself a promotion.
Delayed Ripple Effect: In "Kansas", Crichton's teenage self is nearly killed when Noranti slips him an overdose of memory-erasing serum. The adult Crichton literally becomes a ghost until his 1980s self is resuscitated.
Depraved Bisexual: Scorpius. Given all the Ho Yay and Foe Yay flying around whenever he's in a scene with Crichton or Braca, it would be very difficult to argue that Scorpius is not bisexual. And no one would dare suggest that he isn't depraved.
Development Hell / Vapor Ware: The webseries actually listed contracts for producing spots before promptly disappearing without a trace. Surprisingly, however, the trope by averted bigtime when the producers were able to mount the Peacekeeper Wars miniseries, complete with the TV cast (many of whom had gone on to other projects), and get it on the air within a year and half of the show's cancellation.
Diabolus ex Machina: The final moments of the series finale. Unless you find the main characters getting blasted into charcoal briquettes uplifting.
Writer Revolt: David Kemper said that while it may've been possible to re-cut "Bad Timing" to remove the cliffhanger, they ultimately decided not to. Debate still rages as to whether it was a deliberate Take That to place even more pressure and scrutiny on Sci-Fi to finance a miniseries.
Did They or Didn't They?: Occurs in "A Human Reaction". John and Aeryn kiss, and the scene cuts to them both awake the next morning, never directly acknowledging what happened. Though there was only one bed, Crichton's naked, and Aeryn's wearing oversized men's clothes, so...
Disability Immunity: In "Crackers Don't Matter", Crichton is the only crewmember who is (mostly) immune to the sanity-depleting pulsar lights. His comparatively-poor human eyesight is precisely the cause. Though Crichton isn't exactly happy with this discovery.
Crichton: I have great eyes! They're better than 20/20, and they're blue!!
Disguised in Drag: Played for laughs in "Coup By Clam", when Crichton and Rygel dress as women in order to infiltrate an alien brothel. Crichton gets hit on by a government thug who, in an interesting subversion, already knows that he's a man dressed as a woman, as he'd seen Crichton earlier.
also, Rygel doesn't bother to shave his beard (perhaps female Hynerians have facial hair as well) and appear to be wearing a wedding dress
Do Anything Robot: Moya carries hundreds of little yellow DRDs (Diagnostic Repair Drones) that scamper around, repairing and maintaining its various functions. A single DRD comes with a plasma welding iron, a syringe for injecting translator microbes, and even an adorable little laser-shootingminigun.
Three of the final episodes are entitled "We're So Screwed". They don't go gentle, they go awesomely.
Don't Ask: Crichton's response to Rygel when he inquires about "the wrinkled old woman floating outside the forward portal."
D'Argo: Noranti is outside? Crichton: Yeah. Don't ask.
Don't Touch It, You Idiot!: Played with several times... and played straight just as many times; it was pretty much the Ancients' motto when it comes to wormholes.
Doom Magnet: Crichton and Aeryn reluctantly concede this in Peacekeeper Wars.
Doppelganger Replacement Love Interest: Deconstructed and inverted. During an alien encounter, John undergoes a "twinning" effect, effectively splitting him into two identical versions of himself. One Crichton goes on Talyn with Aeryn, Rygel, and Stark in order to distract the following Peacekeepers from Moya and the rest of the crew. The Crichton left behind is understandably upset as he suspects his double is off having a relationship with Aeryn (which he is, of course.) As confusing as that is, things really start to go awry when Talyn-Crichton performs a Heroic Sacrifice, causing Aeryn to undergo a Heroic BSOD. When the surviving Crichton is reunited with Aeryn, he receives a chilly reception from her.
Double Subversion: M'Lee and Br'Nee from "Bone to be Wild" keeps juggling the Villain Ball back and forth. At first, M'Lee seeks refuge on Moya for protection from a hideous monster. Subversion #1: the monster is a well-spoken scientist named Br'Nee who has come to warn them about M'Lee, who murders people and eats their bones. Subversion #2: Br'Nee is responsible for starving M'Lee's people to death, and M'Lee was only motivated by extreme hunger.
Downer Ending; "..Different Destinations," for one. The crew travels back in time, where a monastery is under seige by an alien horde. Crichton et al try to set history back on course, but it keeps getting worse: first the war goes on much longer with more bloodshed, then the entire planet is irradiated, then it CEASES TO EXIST. The crew manages to fix everything, except for one detail: whereas before the horde offered the surviving nuns a ceasefire, now the horde, enraged at losing Crichton, are unable to control their bloodlust and slaughter the remaining nuns, including a young girl
Dressing as the Enemy: Occasionally played straight, but that doesn't guarantee success. John Crichton infiltrates a Peacekeeper base disguised as an officer (a ploy that had worked successfully before) but encounters Big Bad Scorpius for the first time who casually says "That man, he is an imposter. Seize him." It turns out that Scorpius has the ability to see the energy signatures of others, so he could tell Crichton wasn't Sebacean.
In the same episode, Chiana slips through Peacekeeper security by posing as a maintenance worker, complete with black wig and Sebecean makeup.
John keeps wearing the Peacekeeper uniform throughout the season, though, partially because he doesn't exactly have a whole lot of changes of clothes with him and partially because it makes him look badass.
In "Liars, Guns and Money Part 1," Crichton and Aeryn knock out a couple of guards in the middle of their bank heist, but are ambushed by more guards before they've even finished pulling the clothes off. Crichton flees with a half-hearted "Uh... they went that way!" to the new arrivals.
Crichton: Y'know, big guy, I think I'd better give you two a little time alone here. 'Cause you know, in a universe this vast, when two hearts collide...
D'Argo: Shut up.
Drowning My Sorrows: In the wake of Crichton's death, Aeryn spends the entirety of "The Choice" tipping back bottles.
Dude, Where's My Respect?: You can almost hear Crichton saying it. Even though he saves the main characters' lives twice in the first episode alone, he's constantly referred to as useless just because he knows nothing about anything.
By the end of the first season, however, this has changed.
Dyeing For Your Art: Virginia Hey shaved her hair and eyebrows to become Zhaan, and suffered serious health issues because of her makeup that eventually forced her to — very unwillingly — leave the show.
Dying Race: The Ancients. "Jack" shows Crichton the room where most of their kind are kept in suspended animation, awaiting the day that they migrate to a new planet capable of supporting them.
Easily Forgiven: Subverted. Some things - like Chiana cheating on D'Argo with his son - go unforgiven for more than a year, much like it probably would in real life.
Easter Bunny: Out of all the surreal moments in Farscape, the final episode takes the cake. (Also a possible lampshading of Harvey's namesake).
Harvey: [wearing bunny suit] Curious holiday, Easter. A religious leader dies, comes back from the dead, and you end up celebrating like this.
Ejection Seat: Subverted. The ejection seat in Aeryn's prowler works just fine... it's her seatbelt that's the problem. There's also the minor hiccup of there being nothing to land on besides a frozen lake.
Eldritch Location: The wormhole nexus. Einstein uses it as a meeting ground between representatives of the Ancients (i.e. himself) and anyone knowledgeable enough to pose a threat to them. To Crichton's perception, it resembles an iceberg floating in an ocean of wormholes. Due to Einstein's influence, physics tend to behave quite strangely here, and Crichton often ends up speaking to long-dead individuals from his past and tumbling into Unrealized Realities.
Eloquent In My Native Tongue: The Dream Sequences in "Dog With Two Bones", which examine John's anxieties about bringing Aeryn with him to Earth. Aeryn's accent doesn't sound quite as melodious to humans without translator microbes. Subverted in "Kansas", when her Sebeacan Photographic Memory allows Aeryn to absorb the English dialect simply by watching Sesame Street.
Emotion Eater: Maldis likes encouraging his prey to excesses of hatred and fear as an appetiser to the main course- their souls. Talikaa, meanwhile, prefers to provoke the dominant emotions of her victims to their logical extremes, and then literally extract those neural impulses as food.
The Empire: First the Peacekeepers, then the Scarrans. Though technically, they were both rival empires from the start.
Enemy Civil War: Crichton and co. were planning on inciting one between the Scarrans two ally races, the administrative Kalish and the warlike Charrids, in order to serve as a distraction in order to escape with Scorpius. It works, although as always things are more complicated...
Enemy Mine: Upon investigating the wreckage of the Zelbinion, Crichton and Aeryn are forced to join with a surviving Peacekeeper (Gilina) when scavengers attack the ship. In the end, Gilina agrees not to report their whereabouts to Crais, regardless of her oath.
Played straight in the "Liars, Guns, and Money" trilogy, when Moya's crew organize various aliens who have tried to kill them in the past to pull off a heist.
Zig-zagged with John and Scorpius, multiple times. John pretends to team up with Scorpius, then John is forced to team up with Scorpius to save Aeryn (twice), then Scorpius seems to have betrayed them but really hasn't, then John betrays Scorpius only to have to go back and save him again. And then they end up teaming up with Scorpius again in the miniseries, against John's better judgment.
Energy Beings: The Energy Riders, who live in electromagnetic clusters. Sometimes, a diseased rider sneaks away on a passing ship by possessing the body of a crew member. Possession appears to be very, very addictive. Also, Mu-Quillus could change form from energy to matter, and reside within a star.
Equal-Opportunity Evil: Say what you want about the Peacekeepers, they are nothing if not diverse: Mixed-gender battle units (with several female officers depicted on-screen), and a wide variety of skin tones. Contrast with ordinary humans, who — as D'Argo points out — discriminate and make war against members of their own species.
Erotic Eating: While attempting to convince him to grant her amnesty from Salis, Chiana seductively bites a food cube Crichton sticks though the bars of her cell.
Sikozu did a bit of this in "Bad Timing" while sharing a meal with Scorpius, if the amount of time she spent licking the spoon was any evidence.
Eureka Moment: While John racks his brain trying to figure out how to save Earth from the Scarrans in "Bad Timing" (the final episode of the regular series), he laments that there's not enough time. "It's always about time.", Aeryn replies. Because of the way she phrased it, Crichton is hit with an idea on how to collapse the wormhole; he kisses her, tells her to "Never change!", and runs out.
Even Evil Has Standards: At the end of Peacekeeper Wars, the Peacekeepers and Scarrans both realize that they actually don't want wormhole weapons after all. They then beg Crichton to stop his weapon from destroying the entire galaxy, promising to end the war in return. On a civilisation-sized scale, the Peacekeepers are oppressive bastards who kill by the rules and use entire cultures to their own advantage in a desperate plot to keep order, however they are a lot better than the Scarrans who rape, kill, slaughter, and (and this in spades) torture all in an attempt to dominate the galaxy. This is made abundantly clear particularly from Scorpius's perspective when he flashed-back to his past. You know things are bad when Scorpius is so disgusted and sickened by what the Scarrans did that he went on an extensive Magnificent Bastard manipulating spree to gain control of the Peacekeepers JUST TO STOP THEM! Oh, and the more intelligent the Scarrans are, the worse they get (as in, more intelligence = more ambition to gain power + more inventive ways to torture people!)
Everybody's Dead, Dave: The ending to "Different Destinations". What's worse, it's the heroes' fault due to changing history, and just to twist the knife, the "everybody" in question was a monastery-full of NUNS. Nurse-nuns. With kids.
Everyone Calls Him Barkeep: Pilot, who is named after his function aboard Moya. This trope even extends to the rest of his species. It is never revealed if he even has a personal name, but presumably his own kind have some way of differentiating each other. It's revealed that Pilot language is so fantastically dense and complex that translator microbes just give up on it until they simplify their sentences. It would thus be nothing for them to address each other with full descriptions that left little doubt who they were talking to, similar to someone saying "I am doing fine, Caucasian male in a charcoal gray suit with thin purple tie who works in my department and is currently standing to the left of the water cooler." and not having it take forever or be awkward.
Everything's Better Deep Fried: In the midst of (yet another) food shortage on Moya, Crichton doesn't even have the standard food cubes to eat, so he decides to fry the little alien caterpillars that are used for brushing teeth. When told they aren't edible, Crichton says "You can eat anything if it's fried!" Unfortunately for him, he's wrong.
Evil Albino: Volmae, though she's more misguided than 'evil'.
Evil Matriarch: Neera, an ambitious priestess who pressures her son to marry Lishala, daughter of the village chief ("Jeremiah Crichton").
Exactly What It Says on the Tin: During the first season of Farscape, the episodes weren't originally titled. The producers instead inserted "placeholder" titles, such as "PK Tech Girl" or "DNA Mad Scientist", into their shooting schedule. When the fans started clamoring for actual titles, Henson and O'Bannon fell back on their old placeholder names.
Executive Meddling: A rare good example, as the newly-appointed head of the Sci-Fi Channel was a big proponent of Farscape's 'edginess'. This was partly due to the presence of Jim Henson's moniker, not to mention the family-friendly puppets; both of which were unnerving to a company that was re-styling itself as an adult network.
Explosive Decompression: In "Dream a Little Dream", when Zhaan has a nightmare about Crichton floating in space, his spacesuit visor cracking, and his head going pop, Outland-style. However, the series otherwise averts the trope on repeated occasions when characters are shown exposed to the vacuum of space with no consequences. By the start of Season 4, D'Argo, Rygel, Noranti and Crichton had all been exposed to space, with Crichton actually surviving exposure for a minute-and-a-half wearing nothing more than civvies ("Look at the Princess").
Expository Hairstyle Change: Fresh from his "mental cleansing" at the hands of the Nebari, Durka returns with long hair and an eyepatch, now claiming to be reformed. As Crichton remarks, though, cleansing "doesn't get the tough stains out."; Durka eventually snaps back to his old self, as shown by his immediate (and symbolic) cutting of the hair.
Also, by the time we see her again in the Peacekeeper Wars, Sikozu's hair has gone from long and curly to short and spiky, signifying her Face Heel Turn
Express Delivery: Aeryn goes from barely showing to full-term pregnant in around a week's time in-universe; Hand Waved by Aeryn mention that Sebecean soldiers are genetically designed to come to term in a matter of a week or so and give birth in minutes (not to mention how pregnancy can be in stasis for seven years without growing in size—my, but that military is efficient). In the miniseries, Grayza is shown as fully pregnant when two months earlier she hadn't been at all, for the same reason.
Extended Disarming: In one of several peace negotiations seen in-series, Aeryn is stopped by security and forced to give up her pulse pistol. They continue to frisk her in the background as the scene continues, and end up with a knee-high pile of guns by the time she is finally let through.
Eye Scream: "A Clockwork Nebari" had a particular scene that may have crossed over into High Octane Nightmare Fuel. "DNA Mad Scientist" is a less-grisly example, but makes up for it in quantity: three successive, close-up shots of eyes getting jabbed by needles. Also, Natira's fascination with eyes - she plucks out one of Rorf's and is a few seconds away from doing the same to Crichton before events conspire to stop her. Then there's Scorpius' revenge against Tauza, in which he blinds her by jamming both halves of his snapped coolant rod into her eyes.
Tropes F-P
Faceless Goons: Peacekeeper commandos. The few, the proud, the expendable.
Similarly done with the Charrids. Having established that Scarrans are pretty much Immune to Bullets, it was necessary to have them ally with a race that did not share this vulnerability, thus allowing shoot-outs to ensue.
Face Palm: In "Liars, Guns and Money", the mercenary Bekhesh performs a face(plate)palm when Stark explains that his plan to attack the Shadow Depository relies on a silent count—in the middle of a shootout with the guards.
Fake American: Whenever they had an American character who wasn't John or Jack, they were probably played by an Australian: two of the most notable were John's mom and his best friend DK. Also, Australian actors Gigi Edgely and Anthony Simcoe played their characters of Chiana and D'Argo with fairly passable American accents.
Fake Guest Star: Jool, Noranti, and Sikozu on Farscape. Actresses Melissa Jaffer and Raelee Hill, who played Noranti and Sikozu respectively, were credited as guest stars even in the small handful of Season 4 episodes they didn't appear in.
Not to mention Jonathan Hardy, though this is somewhat justified in that he's a voice actor. Still, he appeared in every single episode of the show.
Faking the Dead: Even the humongous D'Argo isn't above playing dead in order to ambush a clueless Peacekeeper.
Durka faked his death for real, placing a dead crewmember in the Zelbinion's command chair before abandoning his ship. To the outside observer, it appeared that Durka shot himself during the Nebari siege.
In "Won't Get Fooled Again", Harvey helps Crichton escape his Scarran captor by temporarily stopping his heart. Once the torturer is convinced that his subject has died, Crichton then sets his pulse pistol to overload; when the Scarran comes over to inspect the noise, Crichton jams the muzzle into his mouth, blowing his head off.
Famed in Story: By the end of the second season, the group's reputation has grown so much that people recognise them by sight. Although the viewers know Moya's crew only survive by the seat of their pants, everyone they meet is quite impressed that a ragtag bunch of ex-cons have seemingly managed to piss off every government in the sector. As a result, word has gotten around about their exploits, though the stories are a bit... exaggerated, in some respects.
First, in "Suns and Lovers":
Borlik: You know, I heard he destroyed a Peacekeeper Gammak Base, murdered an entire Nebari battalion, even laid waste to a Shadow Depository. The guy was a devil: he raped and pillaged, he popped eyeballs— Crichton: Whoa-whoa! Where do they get these stories? Let's set the facts straight. First off, there was no raping, very little pillaging, and Frau Blücher popped all the eyeballs.
And again in "Scratch and Sniff":
D'Argo:[hesitantly] You... have heard of us? Raxil: Yeah, I've heard stories. But obviously they aren't worth a bucket of dren!
Towards the end of the series, it's revealed that the reputation of Moya's crew has been a major impediment to Peacekeeper diplomacy, as planets under Peacekeeper control have started losing respect for a military dictatorship that can't stop one tiny ship
Fanservice: The first episode after John gets taken on board the Leviathan he is put into one of the cells (it's a prison ship, after all) and is stripped of his clothing. Like, all his clothing. Probably also gets into Estrogen Brigade Bait.
Zhaan's "photogasms". As Pilot put it "She's a plant. Put her in the light and watch her smile."
Fantastic Drug: The Tavleks each wear a projectile-firing gauntlet which automatically attaches to your arm via a locking brace and giant needles. These inject the host with a stimulant which imbues them with super-strength, but also makes them aggressive and immune to logic. It's addictive too, so good luck convincing a friend to remove the gauntlet voluntarily.
Freslin, a recreational drug used throughout "Scratch n' Sniff"; can be used as an aphrodisiac, or to disguise people with pheromones. Unfortunately, it's milked from a particular gland in the bodies of sentient beings. As a result, Jool and Chiana end up on the receiving end of a local drug-dealer's harvest.
Fantastic Racism: Sebaceans are taught at an early age that interspecies marriages are wrong and that "the blood lines must remain pure" - meaning that any children from those unions are evil. Said hybrid children are ostracized (at best) and restricted from Peacekeeper service. (Scorpius' service is explicitly stated to be a very rare instance.)
And yet, high-ranking officers have no qualms about, say, taking a Nebari woman as a concubine. Peacekeeper regulations are flexible, I guess. Just like Counselor Troi.
Also, while researching wormholes Scorpius employed at least 2 obviously non-Sebaceans. This was probably because at this point Peacekeeper High Command lets Scorpius have leeway to do what he wants.
It is revealed that Charrids and Hynerians have a mutual loathing for each other, because of a genocidal war between them that happened a few hundred cycles in the past
Also, there is tension between the Charrids and the Kalish, which the Moya crew is able to take advantage of during the "We're So Screwed" trilogy
Everyone seems to think Luxans are dumb beasts. Admittedly, they're Proud Warrior Race Guys, but they're shown to have a complex culture and Lo'laa (presumably a Luxan ship, as its default language was Ancient Luxan) is easily the most technologically advanced ship we see in the series.
Lampshaded in "Won't Get Fooled Again", when nobody but Crichton sees the aliens as...well, aliens.
Crichton: On Earth, psychiatrists don't come in blue. Zhaan: Do you have a problem with people of color? Crichton:Stop. You're an alien. Zhaan: Yes, that's true. But I do have a green card.
Fartillery: While exploring a mental video game created from Crichton's memories, Crichton and Chiana bump into a simulation of Rygel (the "Black Knight") who barks "None shall pass!". Though Crichton is amused at first, the situation turns serious when he and Chiana try to walk around the small knight. Unlike Rygel's typical helium farts, this version farts gigantic flames.
Rygel's gastronomic tract is laden with chemicals that, should he ingest a tannot root (the source of Chakran Oil, which is used as ammo), cause his bodily secretions to ignite. All of them. You haven't lived until you've watched a Muppet laying siege to a horde of cultists by PEEING NITRO at them.
Note that Starburst isn't particularly useful for anything other than escaping trouble, as it takes a while to build up. There also was the time when they got stuck in Starbust and the ship got split into 4 separate realities, 2 of which were almost unbearable to live in and a third causing everyone to break down into gigglefits constantly.
Fate Worse than Death: Season 2 finale, for John. He got better, of course. "Lava's a Many Splendored Thing" arguably has a couple of other examples, in particular Chiana and Sikozu's close encounters with D'Argo's vomit, and D'Argo and Crichton getting an eyeful of naked old woman Noranti.
In "Mental as Anything," Macton wants to mentally trap D'Argo within his rage while forcing him to constantly relive the death of his wife (under the implicit belief that it was instead his fault all along). This works very briefly, but D'Argo is able to overcome it, reveal that Macton really did murder her and trap him instead.
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."
Fictional Counterpart: The International Aeronautics and Science Administration! (IASA)
Which is especially funny when Moya et al get to Earth and it's made clear that IASA is a solely American institution, given that they refuse to share alien tech with anyone else
Find the Cure: After being stabbed by a Peacekeeper's knife, Aeryn later learns her wound is more serious than she thought: she requires a tissue transplant to replace the nerve, or she'll die. The crew determines that the only transplant donor to be had is deep within a Peacekeeper base.
Fire-Forged Friends: John Crichton and Ka D'Argo. In the first season, D'argo tries to kill Crichton several times, and in "Till the Blod Runs Clear", Crichton even says, "We're never going to be friends... We can be allies." After fighting side by side for a couple seasons, they end up being closer than brothers. To a lesser extent, this rings true for the rest of the crew on Moya over the years. Literally forced together through circumstance and picking up strays along the way, the group started out barely tolerating one another and seeking to advance themselves at the cost of the others. By the end, with the things they had suffered through together, even the most selfish like Rygel had gone through fire and blood for their friends.
First Contact: Inverted a few times — "I, E.T." and "Jeremiah Crichton" from the first season — where the characters land on planets that don't know about other aliens. Played straight in the last season.
The people in "Jeremiah Crichton" were aware of aliens as they themselves weren't native to the planet they lived on, havoing been trapped there for a few generations. However, they were not that aware - at one point mistaking D'Argo for a "man-beast" conjured up by Crichton.
First Gray Hair: Crichton finds one in "A Human Reaction". Not that the rest of the episode actually grants him the time to ponder the significance.
Fish People: The wormhole-researching Pathfinders in the Farscape two-part episode "Self-Inflicted Wounds".
Oo-Nii in another two-parter, "What Was Lost".
Not to mention Rygel's people, Hynerians, who are specifically stated to be aquatic.
Five Finger Discount: Eager to see what's in the Peacekeepers' locked crate, Chiana pockets the key from Thorn while flirting with him, then moulds a duplicate. Sneaky, sneaky. ("A Bug's Life")
Force Feeding: In "Crackers Don't Matter," D'Argo forcefeeds Rygel an entire box of crackers in a fit of rage after catching him sneaking a few as a snack. This is an early warning that the crew is not themselves.
Forgotten Fallen Friend: In "Terra Firma", an assassin tortures and kills Crichton's childhood friend DK and his wife, and it's literally never mentioned again except a throwaway reference at the end of "Constellation of Doubt".
Likewise (although he's more an ally than a friend at this stage), Crais is rarely acknowledged after his and Talyn's Heroic Sacrifice, aside from a throwaway reference in "Dog With Two Bones".
Forgotten Phlebotinum: Zhaan is capable of camouflaging herself like a chameleon, but only uses this ability in one episode ("Bone to be Wild"). Possibly justified in that she is a plant and this is one of the few times she is in a forest; one would think it would be harder for her to camouflage herself against something as complex as foliage, compared to the relatively uniform interior of Moya.
D'Argo's super-long tongue and tranquilizer saliva gets forgotten every fifth episode or so. His arms and legs are bound, while his captor gloats nearby without a helmet. Whatever shall he do? The funniest example is when John asks him to knock him out in "A Prefect Murder", and D'Argo Pistol Whips him. And it doesn't work. John asks him to hit him again harder.
For Halloween, I Am Going as Myself: In "Kansas", after the crew accidentally lands in 1985 Earth. They use the fortuitous happenstance of arriving a few hours before Halloween to disguise their alien features. Needless to say, the heroes find a way to bungle even this up.
Framing the Guilty Party: Gilina manages to sabotage the Aurora Chair minutes before Crichton is placed back into it, thereby manipulating the images gleaned from Crichton's mind. As Scorpius looks on, Crais is shown on the viewscreen secretly conspiring with Crichton in order to keep the wormhole information for himself. Crais sputters, realizing the memories are fake, and tries throttling the truth out of Crichton. Grinning, Crichton persists in the lie, telling Crais that the game's up. Scorpius says there is only one way to find out the truth, and that is to put Crais in the Chair.
Fridge Brilliance: At the end of the Peacekeeper Wars, John's comment that "This is your playground" to Dargo Sun-Crichton, his son could be considered somewhat prophetic as Dargo Sun-Crichton is explicitly mentioned as having the Wormhole Knowledge within his DNA from his father (unlike John, we don't know this was removed), as well as having a small amount of Pilot DNA from his mother, which allows some command over Leviathans. These inherited traits give the potential for him to potentially revolutionise interstellar travel.
Friend or Idol Decision: While Crichton and Aeryn are caught in the Flax, believed to be dead, D'Argo embarks with Staanz on a mission to salvage a Luxan Piercer ship which might contain maps that can point him to Jothee's whereabouts. However, when they finally get there, D'Argo remembers that the transport pod the two were on has a reserve oxygen tank; with the Piercer next in line for smelting and the reserve tank not due to last very long, D'Argo has to choose between the two. Eventually, he opts to rescue Crichton and Aeryn, stating that if he ever does find his son, he wants to be able to look him in the eye.
Friends with Benefits: Aeryn tries to have one of these with John, but he turns her down because he's in love with her.
John: You know what? I got two hands, I can alternate, I can release all the tension I want. I don't need your charity. Aeryn: And I don't need your emotions.
From Nobody to Nightmare: As his name suggests, NamTar was actually a lab specimen whose intelligence was increased by his Mad Scientist captor Kornata. NamTar eventually learned to use the laboratory machines to increase his size, and took over the lab for himself. After Kornata rebels and injects him with a serum that reverses his numerous augmentations, NamTar reverts back to his original (and tiny) self.
Scorpius, who started out as yet another horribly mistreated hybrid, before escaping, wandering the galaxy for several years, joining the Peacekeepers as a scientist, and eventually ascending to the rank of fleet commander.
John Crichton definitely qualifies as far as Scorpius, Crais and the Peacekeepers are concerned.
Future Me Scares Me: After being absorbed and ejected by an unknown alien sphere, John is confronted by two clones of himself: "Futuro", an evolved human with a visible brain and green skin, and the self-explanatory "Neandro". Futuro's higher intellect, however, also gives him looser morals. After determining that he will never be accepted on Moya with Crichton still around, Futuro tries to murder his counterpart, but is beaten back by Neandro. The 'past' version of Crichton sacrifices himself by reentering the sphere whilst carrying Futuro, ironically showing himself to be the most 'evolved' one between them.
Future Slang: Though it's not the future, is frelling full of this type of dren. Chiana's such a tralk, but everyone thinks with their mivonks around her. Isn't it the draddest? It does get a little fahrbot sometimes, and sometimes you wonder what the yotz people are talking about, but you'll get over it after an arn or two.
Gambit Pileup: The "Look at the Princess" trilogy. The Empress (wants Katralla on the throne) vs. the Scarrans (want Clavor on the throne) vs. the Peacekeeper Special Directorate (want anyone but Clavor on the throne) vs. Scorpius (doesn't give a good frell who's on the throne, as long as he gets Crichton).
Gas Chamber: "Staleek, this is very unoriginal!" — used in the second season Look at the Princess trilogy, too.
Officer Crais: Do you have any idea how much trouble you're in? Crichton: ...Yeah, do you? Officer Crais: I like your style hombre, but this is no laughing matter. Assault on a police officer, theft of police property, illegal possession of a firearm, five counts of attempted murder, that comes to... twenty-nine dollars and forty cents. Cash? Check? Or credit card?
Gender Separated Ensemble Episode: The gender subplots are separated into two different episodes: "Mental as Anything" for the guys and "Bringing Home the Beacon" for the girls.
Genetic Memory: Kaarvok had a wrist-mounted device that "twinned" his target, creating a duplicate that was perfect in every way. Exactly how it worked isn't precise — it had been a subatomic-particle-by-particle reconstruction rather than genetic memory—but the memory and personality were identical.
For some reason, the Scarrans believe that they can extract wormhole knowledge from an embryo in Aeryn's womb. The kid doesn't even have a brain yet. Give it a break.
Genius Bruiser: Crichton can handle himself in a fight, and despite the crew's harping on his human shortcomings, he's actually one of the smarter characters on the show, considering he designed his own test module as well as the experiment it's used in at the beginning of the series. He's hapless, but not at all stupid. Their thinking he's dumb seems to stem from his being confused by their technology - when in all likelihood he wouldn't be confused if someone would just spend five minutes explaining the different terms to him.
Get A Hold Of Yourself Man: everyone does this to Stark at one time or another. At the start they usually had to knock him unconscious to get him to stop, but by the end he's... a little more stable.
Getting Crap Past the Radar: During the climax of "PK Tech Girl", Crichton refers to Lomus the fire-spitting Sheeyang as "Gass-hole".
Also in the miniseries, Harvey as Einstein is trying to persuade John to give up wormhole tech to Scorpius. John erases all of the gobblety-gook on the black board and writes something on it,telling Harvey to make sure Scorpius gets the message—the message being "F (Harvey's head blocks this part)ck Off!"
Getting Hot in Here: The Drak Monarch decides to lay eggs and hatch its young in Moya, simultaneously increasing the heat to incubate the eggs properly. Aeryn ends up going into heat delirium (a potentially fatal condition her species is susceptible to); she does her best to lower her body temperature by removing some clothing, followed by taking a cold shower. Since heat delirium is apparently an unpleasant way to go, this is not played for fanservice.
Girl on Girl Is Hot / Guy on Guy Is Hot: a phenomenon of John's hallucinations, in both gender variants. In the slash-parody scene in "Won't Get Fooled Again", with D'Argo coming on to John, there's a reference to Chiana "wanting to watch". The other version happens in "John Quixote", where the evil VR version of Stark gets creepily enthusiastic about the idea of Chiana kissing the "princess".
In "A Human Reaction", Crichton realizes that he never returned to Earth, and is inside a simulation based on his own memories. The Ancients can only recreate people and environments that John Crichton has seen before. Once he realizes this, a trip to the ladies' room brings the illusion crashing down.
"Won't Get Fooled Again": This time, Crichton has wised up, but the ladies' bathroom trick won't work. One thing he notices is that Harvey, Scorpius's neural clone, isn't part of the illusion. Harvey alerts him to the fact that he is a prisoner of the Scarrans, whose intense body heat John can sense through the hallucinations.
In "John Quixote", Crichton makes the mistake of playing a buggy VR game based on his own memories; once he leaves, he finds that Scorpius has taken over Moya and is brainwashing the crew against him. However, he realises that he's still playing the game when he finds a hint voucher in his pocket; plus, because the memories were copied over a year ago, Sikozu and Noranti are nowhere to be seen, and nobody knows anything about Aeryn's pregnancy.
The Glomp: Chiana does a really spectacular one in "Mind the Baby", leaping about ten feet in the air before landing on her target.
God Guise: In "Jeremiah Crichton", Crichton is marooned on a planet which turns out to have religious iconography drawn from contact with the Rygel's race, the Hynerians. Surprisingly for the shallow ex-monarch, while Rygel expects to be treated like royalty, he is actually profoundly offended that his ancestors would allow themselves to be taken for divinity. He's even more shocked when he discovers that the ancient Hynerians actually intended this: the natives of the planet were the loyal subjects of one of Rygel's ancestors, marooned on the planet with no way of escaping, advancing technologically, or even contacting other cultures — all so they could act as eternal worshipers of the Hynerian empire.
Godzilla Threshold: In Peacekeeper Wars, John's finally had enough. Sick and tired of trying to reason and figure things out with the Peacekeepers and the Scarrans - holds the entire galaxy to ransom with the wormhole weapon.
Gone Horribly Right: Namtar was originally a lab animal that was part of an experiment in intelligence increase. He eventually got so smart he was able to take over the lab, build himself a better body, and turn the researchers into Igors.
Good Scars, Evil Scars: D'Argo has a prominent one which stretches from his right upper brow to his 'beak'-nose. Durka, in contrast, has a giant scar surrounding the right side of his face and eye. Also, the left side of Xhalax's head is very badly scarred (possibly as a result of being burned) and she is missing her left ear.
Good Thing You Can Heal: Sikozu has the ability to reattach lost extremities. Given her tendency to have her arms, legs, and fingers chopped off quite frequently, it's a useful trait.
Pilot once has this trope forced upon him by the rest of the crew, because Nam Tar had demanded one of his limbs in exchange for assistance.
Go Out with a Smile: Beautifully done in "Icarus Abides": After absorbing a lethal amount of radiation, Crichton (one of them) delivers one of the most heartbreaking lines in the series: "Don't worry about me, I've never felt better."
Gorgeous Gorgon: Invoked Scorpius' old friend/lover/mentor, a blue crustacean "shadow banker" by the name of Natira who specializes in storing stolen goods and eye-poppingtorture. Crichton even calls her "Medusa," as her head is wreathed in spiky claws she can deploy at will.
Green Eggs: Shows up frequently, along with non-human-looking utensils. According to the DVD commentaries, sometimes they just used Asian foods that would look alien to a North American audience.
Green-Skinned Space Babe: One for every color in the rainbow, with two of them included in the core cast.
Grilling The Newbie: Jool and Sikozu get this treatment as newcomers. Neither of them are particularly forthcoming. Crais gets it when he deserts, too.
The Grotesque: Subverted with Kornata, who is first presented as NamTar's Igor-like assistant. In truth, she is a brilliant scientist who was subjugated by her own lab rat.
Grow Old With Me: Crichton and Aeryn gets this trope foisted on them in "The Locket". After being stranded in a time-displacing "mist", the pair spend fifty years together as a rural couple. Although neither of them can to manage to spit it out, Aeryn claims to have been already-married in this timeline and the inside of her locket has Crichton's picture in it.
Talyn often played this role in earlier episodes, such as "Thanks for Sharing" and the "Liars, Guns and Money" Trilogy.
Half-Human Hybrid: Both with humans and aliens ( John and Aeryn's child) and with aliens and other aliens: Jothee, Sebacean/Luxan; Scorpius, Sebacean/Scarran; among others. Although technically Sebaceans started out as humans A Long Time Ago, in a Galaxy Far Far Away.... Averted with Luxans/Nebari who aren't compatible, much to the dislike of D'Argo.
Hand Signals: In "Through the Looking Glass," Crichton and Aeryn are subjected to a loud, piercing noise that makes it impossible for them to hear one another. First they attempt yelling loud enough to carry a conversation, and when that fails, both resort to amusing pantomime for the next several minutes. In particular, Aeryn indicates the sword-wielding D'Argo by chopping with an imaginary sword, and Crichton somehow manages to refer to the diminutive, froglike, hoverchair-riding Rygel by miming a small object floating up and down with his hands.
Hand Wave: Played straight (or Lampshaded, YMMV on that) in "I Shrink Therefore I Am". Sikozu points out that shrinking a man-sized creature to finger-size would cause all sorts of spectacular anatomical failures, and defies the laws of physics to boot. Rigel berates her for relying on education over experience, claiming that he's seen weirder things and now just accepts that he knows nothing and that surprises are everywhere. Naturally, Sikozu never brings up the issue again.
Has Two Mommies: Inverted with Rygel, who ends carrying Aeryn's baby for a while. ..This is the part where we elaborate how it happened, but it honestly defies explanation.
Hate Plague: T'raltixx is a benign-seeming engineer who boards Moya under the pretext of making her untraceable to scanners ("Crackers Don't Matter"). He sets about adjusting the bioluminence throughout the ship, which has the effect of increasing the crew's paranoia.
Have You Told Anyone Else?: In the Farscape episode "That Old Black Magic," Crais receives a direct order from Peacekeeper High Command to end his pursuit of John Crichton and return to base. His second-in-command Teeg destroys the message and assures him that no-one else knows about it. Crais repays her loyalty by snapping her neck.
Headbutt of Love: Often shared by John and Aeryn, not just when either of them was in distress but when they're showing affection in general. Brutally subverted when Scorpius-possessed John does this — then slams Aeryn's head into the wall, fracturing her skull.
Crichton also shares one with "Pip" (aka Chiana) in "Family Ties". Chiana doesn't know how to express her gratitude without offering her body to him. Crichton lets her down easy, and manages to reject her advances without rejecting her as a person.
Healing Factor: Sikozu, who is able to re-attach her limbs/other extremities when dismembered. Also Pilot, whose species has an incredible healing factor.
Heh Heh, You Said X: In "Though the Looking Glass", the light coming from the 'Yellow' Moya causes the crew to become elated and giddy. While explaining to Chiana the sequence for engaging full reverse, Crichton's instruction to activate "the green knob" is enough to make her burst into hysterics. ("...green...knob?")
Heroic BSOD: At the end of the Peacekeeper Wars when John collapses after the Wormhole Weapon incident.
Heroic Willpower: A variation occurs with Zhaan after Tahleen, the resident Deceptive Disciple, telepathically tears from her mind her ability to perform violence without going insane (as Delvians are wont to do). She manages to Snap Back after sharing Unity with Crichton, who shows her that the kindness she was capable of was inherent and couldn't just be ripped out. As a result, Zhaan's mental abilities become even more powerful, and she and Crichton go on to dissolve Tahleen's corrupt temple.
"Harvey" has a very subtle Oh Crap moment in "Liars, Guns and Money Part II" when he realises that Crichton can bring him out at will.
Harvey: You never fail to amaze me, John. You weren't supposed to be able to initiate a conversation with this neural clone.
Help Yourself In The Future: Occurs in the "The Locket", when an elderly version of Aeryn warns the crew not to get stranded in "the Mist". A disbelieving John follows her back down to the planet, only to get trapped there himself. He survives for decades as a gardener, simultaneously estimating the exact window that Moya will be accessible again (50 years to Crichton; a single day for Moya's crew). This time, it is an elderly Crichton who boards Moya to advise them on how them escape the Mist.
Heroic Sacrifice: Crais and Talyn, Zhaan (who got extra mileage by sacrificing herself when she was already slowing dying from resurrecting Aeryn), one of the copies of John and D'Argo in Peacekeeper Wars. Yeah, Farscape likes this one.
Hidden Purpose Test: Scorpius undergoes one in the comics when the Kkore send him to conquer the Scarrans at the head of a small fleet. The fleet is fake - unarmed and crewless, manned by holograms. He assumed the test was about his leadership, while it was in actuality of his ability to win a war without firing a shot.
His Name Really Is Barkeep: Pilot, who is named after his function aboard Moya. This trope even extends to the rest of his species. The reason for this is that Pilot language is so fantastically dense and complex that translator microbes just give up on it until they agree to simplify their sentences.
Hive Caste System: In Farscape, the Scarrans have at least three castes in their hierarchy, sorted into Low, Middle and Ruling class: the Low-class, "Horse-Faced" Scarrans are employed as warriors, interrogator, and ambassadors; the Middle-Class Scarrans tend to be found acting as bodyguards to the Ruling class; finally, the telepathic Ruling-Class Scarrans are high-ranking politicans and military officers — though some are happy acting as torturers and spies.
Ho Yay: Most glaring was the relationship between Magnificent Bastard Scorpius and his Smithers, Braca. Braca shows almost puppy-like devotion to Scorpius, who in turn treats him like a faithful pet. However, the roles are reversed in one episode where Braca has apparently defected to another Big Bad, and has Scorpius drugged and on a leash - at one point, he's compelled to beat Scorpius, hissing "This is for every time I had to say yes," and no, we never find out what he had to say yes to. Pretty much everyone seems to at least guess at the nature of their relationship, as even as early as the season 3 opener, Grunchlk tells Scorpy he has a nice room for him, "very nice, very private," and noticeably gives Braca a sideways glance.
Also John/D'Argo, which was magnificently played with in "Won't Get Fooled Again" and "Out Of Their Minds".
Delvians share "unity" regardless of gender, however despite its clearly sexual side-effects, is primarily a spiritual bonding.
Hollywood Acid: the pus created by the decaying giant alien in "Home on the Remains", leading to probably the most gruesome moment in the entire series.
Hospital Gurney Scene: A variant occurs in "Prayer," in which Aeryn is wheeled down a corridor on a gurney that doubles as her own torture harness. For good measure, the Battle Axe Nurse and Scarran captain are talking animatedly about dissecting her unborn child.
Hospital Hottie: While trapped inside a Scarran-induced hallucination, Crichton imagines Aeryn as one of these.
Hot Scientist: Male example: John Crichton from Farscape, especially after he starts wearing black and red leather in Season 2 onward. Mmmm...spacepants!
Female examples would include Jool and Sikozu, the latter of which has an encyclopedic knowledge of all things Leviathan-related, although to be fair she may have been programmed that way.
How Do I Shot Web?: A funny variant occurs in the Body Swap episode, in which Rygel (the tiny frog-like Napoleon) is occupying John Crichton's body when he finds himself needing to urinate. John (in Aeryn's body, no less) leads him through the steps, but when it comes to zipping up... well, it's a more intricate procedure than one would think.
How Many Fingers?: In the series finale ("Bad Timing"), Rygel tries this on Chiana after her seer abilities have left her permanently-blind. The short-tempered Chiana responds by chomping down on his entire hand with her teeth. (It's nice to see the crew has grown so close over the past four years).
How We Got Here: "Scratch 'n' Sniff" follows a variation of this trope, in which it's revealed that the bulk of the episode is a recounting of events by John Crichton to a disbelieving Pilot, and is presented in such a way that the accuracy of his account is in doubt.
Pilot: STOP! Thismakes no sense!Youmake no sense!
Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: The enormous and well-built Ka D'Argo has a close relationship with the short, slender Chiana.
Human Aliens: Sebaceans, who it turns out were prehistoric humans, taken off Earth and genetically engineered into space policemen. Also, a number of Sebacean-like Human Aliens, sometimes with minor variations in eye, skin coloration or hair style and sometimes not. They may be related to Sebaceans (at least one species, the Sykarans, was explicitly called an offshoot of Sebaceans). This made it confusing as to why Crichton, a human, was always mistaken for Sebacean by other alien characters. Made all the more confusing with Jool's species, the Interons, who might have been related to humans (and thus also Sebaceans). Some, but not all of these discrepancies can be explained away by the fact that not all Sebaceans are Peacekeepers, and non-Peacekeepers seem to be widespread on many different planets.
Humanity Is Infectious: Aeryn catches a bad case of this over the course of knowing Crichton. In the premiere episode, Aeryn literally needs him to explain the word "empathy" to her.
Human Popsicle: Anything But That!: In "Thank God it's Friday...Again", an unknown malady is causing Rygel's bodily fluids to turn flammable. To prevent further sweating or other bodily excretions, Rygel is cryogentically frozen until Aeryn and Pilot can isolate the cause. That's all well and good, but watch how Rygel's face falls when told he's not allowed to eat anything.
The "Look At The Princess" arc centers around a stasis process which turn the future rulers of the aptly-named Royal Planet into metal statues; during this time, they're still aware of everything occurring around them, so that when they're eventually revived, they'll have seen and heard enough of the politics going on in the building to function as effective monarchs. Unfortunately, the statue stasis is specifically mentioned to be only safe for Sebaceans. Crichton barely survives the process the first time and would likely have died if attempted again. Even the first time causes him so much pain that his statue doesn't look very "kingly" (though he was attempting to make 'rock hands' moments before the crippling pain began, so perhaps it was a forgone conclusion).
The second-season finale features a massive cryogenics facility where Tocot and Grunchlk store the bodies of all the patients that didn't survive their treatments. Most of them are pretty much beyond saving, and are only kept around as donors for luckier patients; However, one or two of the frozen residents turn out to be perfectly healthy- among them being Jool and a very irritated Scarran agent.
Humans Are Morons: Played for laughs in the early episodes. D'Argo and Aeryn continually get frustrated at how slowly John learns new skills and generally view him as completely useless. "Exodus From Genesis" takes the worst of this prejudice away, after Crichton manages to stop the Peacekeeper commandoes with a gambit that both Aeryn and D'Argo can admire.
Humans Through Alien Eyes: Inverted int the early 'episode "I, ET" involves Crichton crashing onto a planet in which the culture resembles 1950s Americana. Partly lampshaded by the fact that the locals are Rubber Forehead Aliens, and are a bit disappointed that Crichton looks so much like them.
Humanity Is Insane: Even before Crichton started going a little bit nuts, thanks to all the pop-cultural references he generally spouts, he came off as completely bonkers to his fellow crew members; since they only have Crichton as their example of humanity prior to the fourth season, they imagine Earth as a whole world full of Crichtons.
Humanity Is Superior: Trope Namer, but said during an insane rant and not quite true. A subversion of a trope that it named... isn't Farscape awesome?
Human Outside, Alien Inside: most of the more humanoid species have startling differences. A subtle example is the Sebacean heat sensitivity. More extreme are the Delvians, who, despite looking more-or-less like blue humans, are plants!
Hustling The Mark: When a pirate captain arrives looking for Staanz, Rygel wages her whereabouts in a game of Tadek. The Hynerian plays a mean game, but loses to a surprise maneuver moments after proclaiming his victory. In defeat, he tells Staanz's pursuer where to find the coordinates. A scene later, Rygel admits he fed the pirate false directions, intentionally losing the game so as not to arouse suspicion.
Hyperspace Is a Scary Place: Wormholes in Farscape are treacherous and difficult to navigate, and cause all sorts of tricky problems with time and space and turning into liquid when you don't quite understand them, and are inhabited by bizarre and dangerous creatures- ranging from gigantic phase-shifting serpents to sentient "Pathfinders" of dubious morality.
On the other hand, plain ol' FTL technology isn't so failsafe, either. In "Though the Looking Glass", Moya somehow becomes stuck in Starburst mode and splayed out in other dimensions - one of which causes mind-splitting noise, another which causes visual pain, and a third which causes elation and euphoria, in addition to the normal one - and has to be reassembled by moving all four ships in unison through the dimension while avoiding the interdimensional gatekeeper monster... thing.
Starburst isn't "plain ol' FTL technology", but an evolved trait of Leviathans. It's also the first thing the control collars disable, possibly so they don't run away, but perhaps also because Starburst isn't very reliable for passengers.
I Ate What?: In season 3, Jool was given fellip urine as as a very strange form of anesthesia (her nurses thought it was needed to treat her injury). Because of the intoxicating effects of the painkiller, Jool is too amused to be horrified... until later. It gets played for laughs, however, and eventually leads to breaking her haughtiness.
I Call It Vera: John's pulse pistol, which he calls "Winona."
I Cannot Self-Terminate: Near the end of the season 2, Crichton rambles incoherently about how he's been trying to do something, but the neuro-chip in his head won't let him. He gestures vaguely at a gun lying amidst scattered chess pieces. When D'Argo presses the matter, ("Do WHAT, John!?") Crichton begs D'Argo to kill him.
I Don't Like The Sound Of That Place: Tormented Space, a region of space which is tormented (natch) by electrostatic anomalies, making it harmful to Leviathans. The region is backward, barbaric, and far removed from civilization, which is why most people sensibly avoid it.
If You Die I Call Your Stuff: After Maldis puts Crichton into a temporary coma ("That Old Black Magic") Rygel goes so far as to give Crichton what seems to be the Hynerian version of the last rites, declare him dead, and claim all his possessions for himself.
Inverted in a later episode: Crichton, about to go on a suicide mission, sourly tells Rygel he can have all his stuff. "You're a material guy, Rygel. Have some material." The tone of this is quite hurtful, and Rygel is surprisingly affected.
When dying for real though, alternate Crichton teases Rygel by saying he still can't have his stuff. The pair of them share a laugh over this.
I Gave My Word: In "Promises", Aeryn orders that Scorpius will not be harmed because he saved her life. She binds John to this promise, as well. Of course, she's very sick at the time, so it arguably wasn't a fair way to get sanctuary. This is later referenced in "Hot to Katratzi".
Crichton: (about killing Scorpius) You made me promise that I wouldn't.
Aeryn: Well, I release you from that promise.
Crichton: Say that again.
Aeryn: I release you from that promise.
Crichton: Thank you. (points gun at Scorpius's head) I'll give you my bike if you kill him.
"I Know You're In There Somewhere" Dogfight: Realizing that he's losing control over himself to Scorpius' neuro-chip, Crichton flees moya in his module, only to be pursued by Aeryn in her prowler. After exchanging words, Aeryn orders John to land. John complies — By smashing into Aeryn's cockpit with his landing gear, sending her to death in the icy lake below.
I Like Those Odds: While John isn't exactly happy about it, he does believe they can beat the bad odds since they have before.
Crichton: This Eidelon education program...What are the odds it'll work?
Aeryn: Not good.
Crichton: "Not good" is the best odds we ever get.
I'm a Humanitarian: The "calcivores" of M'Lee's tribe were forced to devour each other after being stranded on an jungle asteroid when their food supply ran out.
"Eat Me" features a cannibalistic villain by the name of Kaarvok who duplicates his prey and eats the copy.
Chiana, after witnessing her double being eaten, tries to convince herself it was just an incomplete clone. As is revealed later on (after Crichton himself is duplicated), his victims are not "cloned", but perfect equals of the original.
I'm Melting: What happens to anyone not piloting John's module who attempts wormhole travel. Even John has no clue why his crude ship is able to navigate one, while Prowler pilots turn into goo.
Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy: The Peacekeepers are rather pathetic for such a supposedly elite force. The Scarrans and the Nebari actually match their fearsome reputation, and give a much better showing of themselves against Moya's crew. More the Conservation of Ninjutsu. The fewer Peacekeepers you have, the more competent they are. Small strike forces of Sebaceans are very deadly and competent. Aeryn Sun as the only Sebacean in a group is practically a superhero. Sebaceans in large groups are cannon fodder. The Peacekeepers are even strangely Genre Savvy about the whole thing...
Incredible Shrinking Man: Br'Nee briefly shrinks Zhaan to size compatible with one of his test beakers.
Sikozu immediately starts listing all the reasons why this is impossible: their brains should be too simple to function, and they shouldn't be able to breathe normal-sized air molecules) until Rygel tells her to just shut up and accept that the impossible has happened.
Indo-European Alien Language: Subverted due to the translator microbes; each species hears an equivalent meaning in their own language. Since Crichton is the POV character, the viewers hear English. "Litigaria" was a planet whose population were 99% lawyers. A "Dentic" is a tooth-cleaning slug. And a living spaceship is a "Leviathan." Used to get around the alien curses such as "frell" and "dren"; they sound familiar, so he can understand them, but there's still something different because they are different concepts.
When we actually hear what Luxan, Hynerian and Sebacean languages sound like without the translator microbes, they are quite exotic, inhuman sounds (though Aeryn's actress actually made the backwards-sounding Sebacean language herself without technological assistance, to the surprise of many viewers who thought it was a digital creation).
Infant Immortality: "Different Destinations" ends with the mass murder of an entire nunnery, including the eight-year-old novices.
And in "Prayer," a Scarran officer aboard a research vessel disposed of a test subject's unborn child by using his heat-projection to fry it alive inside the womb. And the holographic display also shows the fetus writhing and shriveling in the heat. However as the mother turns out to be a mole, hopefully they faked it to scare Aeryn.
Played absurdly straight with Aeryn's fetus, which survives getting diced into potpourri (along with his parents), indigested into Rygel's stomachs (yes, plural), reassembled, and re-inserted back into Aeryn's womb. Science!
Insectoid Aliens: The "Ancients" in their actual form. The Drak are a less benign version of this trope.
Also the Hanji (however you spell that), and if you count spiders, a 4th-season villain's arachnid form. Several other creatures also count, including a Crustacean-like humanoid.
Later replaced by Sikozu who, while retaining Jool's arrogance, also had more useful abilities.. and maturity.
Intangible Man: Maldis. In both of his appearances, Zhaan must use her psychic abilities to render him solid, whichs allows Crichton to finally deck him.
Interspecies Romance: D'Argo gets a lot of tail. A Luxan, he was married (and had a child with) a Sebacean (human-offshoot); had a long-running romance with Chiana (a Gray Skinned Space Babe); thought about Jool (an Interion); and admitted planning on "approaching" Zhaan (human-looking plant) in one episode. And this doesn't begin to cover innuendo with random denizens of Adventure Planets.
Then there was John Crichton's brief pairing with Zhaan. It's debatable if this applies to his relationships with Aeryn Sun or Gilina Renaez, considering how closely related Humans and Sebaceans are.
Scorpius (Sebacean/Scarran hybrd) had relationships with Natira an alien of unknown origin, seemed to flirt with random aliens of the week (M'Lee, Ro'Na), had a relationshop with Sikozu a Kalish and a bioloid not to mention all the Ho Yay with Crichton and Braca...
Interstellar Weapon: The worm hole weapons that the Peacekeepers and Scarran are trying to develop. And then Crichton succeeds and bad things happen...
Intertwined Fingers: A heartbreaking one, where John and Aeryn do this across one of Moya's grates as they're about to be separated from each other
Invisibility: one of the most noticeable abilities of the Skreeth.
Invulnerable Knuckles: Averted in "Die Me Dichotomy". Crichton, (in the midst of a Split Personality Takeover) hallucinates punching a constantly-reforming mirror with Harvey's face on it, unaware that he actually broke it on the first try, and on the other strikes he was punching the metal wall behind it; when Aeryn finally pulls him away, his knuckles are bleeding.
In "The Way We Weren't", an anguished Aeryn Sun punches a padded target dummy until her knuckles bleed.
Ironic Echo: "Vitas Mortis" has this Type 1 exchange between Aeryn and Chiana, who is stuck doing the crew's laundry in a knee-deep basin of Moya's amnexus fluids. She refuses to add Aeryn's clothes to the mix, remarking "Since when did I become your servant?" Chiana is soon trapped in the solidified amnexus fluid, whereupon Aeryn gleefully refuses to help her: "Since when did I become your servant?"
In the two-parter "Liars Guns And Money", Crichton leaves Scorpius to die in the Shadow Depository, while singing The Star-Spangled Banner as a form of Psychic Static. Two episodes later, Scorpius briefly hums a verse of the song before entering the Diagnosan's surgical room, taking the neurochip and leaving Crichton paralyzed and incoherent.
I Surrender, Suckers: After boarding the Zelbinion, Lomus runs into Aeryn and is ordered to freeze. He raises his hands over his head....then breathes a giant fireball right at her.
It Gets Easier: Crichton gets called on this during Won't Get Fooled Again. He admits that he's changed, but people need to change to survive.
It Got Worse: With literally only one or two exceptions, pretty much the entirety of season 3 is one long bout of this. Producer David Kemper even joked about the season 3 premiere "Season of Death", saying that they used that phrase as a reminder when plotting the rest of the episodes.
It Has Been an Honor: Just a few examples: John to D'Argo in the season 1 finale.
Crichton: I love hanging with you, man.
Before John blows up a nuke in season 4.
John: Love you.
Aeryn: Love you, too.
Bittersweet goodbye in The Peacekeeper Wars.
John: You're the closest friend I have.
Ka D'Argo: You could have done better.
John: Not in the entire universe.
I Thought Everyone Could Do That: In Sikozu's first appearance, she's rather surprised to discover that Crichton can't shift his centre of gravity, having presumed that all the species she had associated with so far (Scarran, Grudek, Sebacean, Human) were able to do so. Unfortunately, she only finds this out while bandaging Crichton's mauled legs — courtesy of the Monster of the Week which Sukozu found comparably-easy to escape from.
It's All My Fault: Pilot was originally judged too young to bond with a Leviathan by his elders. When a Peacekeeper by the name of Lieutenant Velorek offered to take him onboard Moya, Pilot jumped at the chance to travel through space. Unbeknown to him, he had just signed the death warrant for his predecessor, Moya's original Pilot. When he finally discovers the truth, after railing at Aeryn for her part in the execution, he promptly disconnects himself from Moya, guaranteeing a slow death for himself. When Crichton and Aeryn question him, he blames himself for everything, saying that if he had refused, Velorek may have never found another Pilot willing to accept the deal.
Aeryn: (after an unsuccessful pickup attempt by another character) Now, don't feel bad. It's not you, it's me. I don't like you.
It's Not You, It's My Enemies: In "Dog With Two Bones", Crichton is plagued with anxieties about his relationship with Aeryn; He experiences a vision of their wedding reception being broken up by Peacekeepers, who slaughter all the guests. Scorpius strolls into the room and asks, "What did you expect?"
John explains to Aeryn in Twice Shy that this trope is why he's been avoiding her.
John: Shut up and listen to me. Scorpius is here, looking for the key to what is inside my head. The neural chips, Aurora Chair, 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.
And then Aeryn gets kidnapped by the Scarrans, forcing Crichton to turn to Scorpius for help, offering wormhole knowledge as incentive... which was exactly what Scorpius was intending. In a word, whoops.
I Want Them Alive: John's wormhole knowledge, the one thing keeping his enemies from tearing him limb from limb. Naturally, John abuses this fact at every opportunity.
I Was Beaten By A Girl: Crichton, constantly, by pretty much every girl he meets. And he's a buff guy, too. Justified in quite a few cases because he does meet up with a lot of Peacekeepers who happen to be women - and one-on-one, trained Peacekeepers can kick anyone's ass - the others...well... just seem to get the drop on him. A lot.
Jerkass Gods: In "Prayer", Aeryn describes an ancient myth about how the ancient Sebaceans used to worship a goddess named Tenka Bru, until she suddenly destroyed the seven main planets they lived on. When her dying worshipers asked why she had done this after they had paid her tribute, she replied, "Because I can." Apparently, this is why the modern-day Peacekeepers refuse to believe in any theology.
Jet Pack: The engine room of a Peacekeeper Command Carrier is so large it requires jetpacks to conduct routine maintenance. Needless to say this leads to a mid-air jetpack duel between the protagonists and some Peacekeeper mooks.
Joker Immunity: Scorpius just will not die, much to John's frustration. And Harvey hangs around a lot longer than John is comfortable with, as well. But at least John's not the only one who's frustrated. There is always at least one organization that is out for Scorpy's ass (and we're talking big military instillations here) and they just can't seem to kill him! To be fair though, his ability to resist a lot of torture et al. (and somehow always be needed by someone for something) could be partially due to the fact that his entire childhood was one big Break The Innocent Hybrid Child moment, leading to Corrupt The Innocent Hybrid Child, leading to him becoming a cross between a Revenge-Driven Determinator, a Well-Intentioned Extremist and a Magnificent Bastard. Apparently his entire past has taught him one thing: always havean escape route/contingency plan.
Just Think of the Potential: Br'Nee tries convincing John of the scientific benefits of studying a Delvian. This is only after John has seen though his trick and prevented him from absconding with Zhaan without permission.
Kill Him Already: After they enact a daring rescue of Scorpius to make sure he hasn't told the even-worse-guys wormhole secrets, Crichton tells Aeryn to kill him so they can go. She reacts badly. "Oh, you want me to kill him?!" "Well, I'm not the assassin, am I?" Scorpius watches with interest as they quarrel completely pointlessly.
Kill It With Fire: How Chiana deals with Commander Javio in "Nerve".
Kissing Under the Influence: In "Meltdown" Crichton and Aeryn are affected by fluids from Talyn that make them consumed with mutual lust. In one amusing scene they are interrupted from making out, frantically complete some essential repairs, then gratefully go back to snogging again.
Likewise in "Twice Shy", an alien infiltrator named Talika exaggerates the crew's most prominent traits prior to draining them. Chiana's famously-considerable sex drive is jacked up to overdrive, leading to her almost kissing Talika, cornering and attempting to flirt with Aeryn, and forcibly trying to molest Crichton on top of a control panel.
Lame Comeback: Once Rygel is thawed out from his cryogenic sleep ("Thank God It's Friday...Again"), he roundly mocks Aeryn's "false superiority" at thinking she's some sort of a scientist. Aeryn retorts that while she may not be a scientist, she's definitely 'superior' to him.
Rygel: If I were warmer, I would have an appropriately venomous reply.
Lampshade Hanging: Practically every sci-fi trope used in the series. Crichton is almost always the one doing the hanging.
And the "Ahhhh" was not a cry of pain or surprise. There was just too much ham there for Maldis to put into actual intelligible speech.
Crichton himself. View for instance his act when he successfully manages to start a bidding war between the Scarrans and the Peacekeepers...all with a thermonuclear bomb strapped to his hip.
T'raltixx from "Crackers Don't Matter".
T'raltixx: "I need more light!"
T'raltixx: "I am magnifiiiiiiiiceeeeeent!"
The Last Dance: the old, dying Leviathan, Elack, from the beginning of season 4 and his Pilot.
Lava Is Boiling Kool Aid: in the episode Lava's a Many Splendored Thing, Crichton spends some time wading around in it, protected by an anti-pulse-weapon energy shield. Periodically, it goes into power saving mode, causing only mild discomfort while he shoots himself to reactivate it. Meanwhile, Rygel spends several minutes submerged, protected by a cocoon of synthetic amber.
LEGO Genetics: "DNA Mad Scientist". Following this episode, Aeryn is able to recite complex computations for piloting Moya, a side-effect of being injected with Pilot's DNA.
Talyn was conceived via a 'contraceptive' which had been contaminated to produce weapons. He is a perfect hybrid of Leviathan and Peacekeeper vessel, the first of his kind.
Life or Limb Decision: Aeryn threatens to do this after getting her foot caught in the floor grating aboard a transport pod ("The Flax").
The Little Detecto: A handheld device used by Larraq in tracking down the Intellent-Virus' latest host. On the DVD commentaries, the cast compares the prop to a TV remote crossed with a vibrator.
Living Ship: Moya, other Leviathans. And god help you when Moya's baby throws a tantrum...
Locking MacGyver in the Store Cupboard: During the two cycles he's been held in Scorpius' jail, Stark cobbled together a magnetic crypt encoder from metals he's collected, which will unlock the cell door once it finds the right code.
Losing Your Head / Taken for Granite: In a particularly grueling adventure, Crichton is roped into an Arranged Marriage with Princess Katralla. As soon as they finish exchanging their vows, the couple is expected to voluntarily be turned into statues for the equivalent of 80 years. And just because the universe hates Crichton, his petrified head is chopped off and thrown into an Acid Pool (He gets better).
Loud of War: "The Flax" begins with Zhaan, Rygel and D'Argo all bickering. Unable to interrupt, Pilot fills the bridge with a deafening sound to get their attention. When D'Argo roars at him, Pilot smugly apologizes, claiming he "must've hit the wrong comm."
Machine Empathy: In the episode "Back and Back and Back to the Future", the following exchange occurs between Zhaan and Rygel. Though Moya is a living being, the fact that she's a ship means Zhaan would have to have a certain level of Machine Empathy to detect the problem.
Zhaan: Rygel. You've been aboard Moya longer than anyone else except Pilot. You know her sounds and her rhythms. Just stop and listen to her for a moment.
Rygel: Moya sounds fine.
Zhaan: Does she? Not to me. Something feels... out of balance.
Mad Scientist: NamTar. Though Kornata also counts, since she inadvertently set his experiments in motion.
Magic Plastic Surgery: Matala is a female Scorvian spy who underwent genetic surgery to resemble their archenemies the Illanics (a cousin of the Luxan species).
Malaproper: Aeryn, whose attempts to use Earth slang in casual conversation are less than successful.
Aeryn: "She gives me a woody." (John gives her a look.) "Woody. It's a human saying, I've heard you say it often. When you don't trust someone or they make you nervous, they give you—"
Mama Bear: Unsurprisingly, Aeryn becomes one of these after giving birth. Very surprisingly (for her character), the safety of her as-yet unborn baby seems to be the main thing that makes Grayza agree to the peace treaty in Peacekeeper Wars. Also Zhaan is this the living incarnation of this by the end of season 2/beginning of season 3. Oh, and you can't forget Moya.
Man, I Feel Like a Woman : In the body-swap episode "Out of their mind", Crichton is stuck in Aeryn's body and cannot resist the urge to experiment a bit. Aeryn catches him and threatens to break his legs. Even if they are hers.
Aeryn(in Rygel's body): You are mentally damaged.
Crichton(in Aeryn's body): No, I'm a guy. A guy! Guys dream about this sort of thing!
Inverted at the end of the episode, when it is strongly suggested that Aeryn also took some liberties when she was stuck in Crichton's body.
Man on Fire: After her cover as a maintenance worker is blown, Chiana manages to deflect Javio's pistol with a tank full of flammable gas. Chiana then aims the pressurized flames right at him, burning him alive.
Played for laughs in "Liars Guns And Money." During the raid on the Shadow Depository, one of Scorpius' troops is set on fire, and is seen comically running around and screaming; very few people seem to notice or care, Scorpius least of all.
Manipulative Bastard: Almost everyone who isn't entirely stupid at one point or another. Rygel and Crichton stand out among the protagonists, and as previously mentioned, Scorpius is the full-on Magnificent version.
That is acknowledged in the penultimate episode:
Crichton: You used me.
Scorpius: We use each other.
Crichton: You're better at it.
Manly Tears: Especially in the final regular episode between Crichton and his father, which is followed by a moment with Crichton and his son.
D'Argo experiences this in "Liars, Guns Money, Part 2" when he admits to being tempted to turn in Crichton to Scorpius to get Jothee back:
"Jothee is my blood, my child, all that I have left to remember my wife. Now, why isn't that enough?"
Master of Disguise: Maldis first greets Crichton under a myriad of guises; these include Igg (a street-corner jester), Haloth (an aged wizard) and Kyvan (a dealer in trinkets).
Master of Illusion / Fake Memories: Two particular skills learned by Delvian priests. In "Rhapsody In Blue," Tahleen orders Hasko to mess with the heads of Moya's crew by confronting them with confusing or frightening visions, while Lorana implants Fake Memories into Crichton to make him believe he has a wife.
Mean Character, Nice Actor: D'Argo is a stern, intimidating warrior with only the very occasional moment of levity. Actor Anthony Simcoe, by contrast, is an extroverted and wacky guy, and in fact had considered leaving the show early on because he felt it wasn't worth putting on the heavy prosthetics every day to play such an initially one-note and serious character. Eventually the writers did allow him to show his comic chops, such as in "Out of Their Minds" when Chiana's mind is put into D'Argo's body, or "Won't Get Fooled Again" which features a Camp Gay D'Argo hitting on Crichton. He also becomes less mean and more melancholic, as his motivation shifts from staying free from imprisonment to rescuing his son Jothee.
Meaningful Echo: In the premiere episode, Crichton is the one who negotiates to let Aeryn travel with Moya. Aeryn protests that she is a Peacekeeper, bred for service. John initiates her Mook Face Turn with one line, "You can be more." Aeryn's ex-lover, Tam Velorek, said that exact line three years prior; Aeryn didn't listen to him.
Medium Shift Gag: In one episode, Crichton hallucinates that everything has become a Looney Tunes-style cartoon.
"Revenging Angel" is a Two Lines, No Waiting episode. One plot is about D'Argo, Chiana, and Jool trying to stop D'Argo's ship from self-destructing, while the other plot takes place inside Crichton's head as he's lying in a coma (and is a Looney Tunes pastiche).
"John Quixote" takes place in a virtual-reality game based on Crichton's memories.
Microts: They love their 'Microts' in Farscape. And their 'Arns'. And their 'Cycles'. And their 'Metras'.
Mindlink Mates: Known as "Unity" in Delvian parlance, this is their preferred style of lovemaking. And since the shape of one's groin is irrelevant in such a situation, we see some implied instances of girl-on-girl Unity. (It's unknown if the same goes for males.)
While it is clearly implied to be sexual in nature on numerous occasions and some characters have certainly used it in a sexual manner, Zhaan tells John very explicitly "This is not sex, John!" when he proposes joining in Unity to cure her madness (It Makes Sense in Context.)
Mook Carryover: Officer Braca (later Lieutenant) was second-in-command to most of the series' big bads, in order. He just kept trading up.
Mind-Control Eyes: A signifier that someone is possessed by the intellant-virus.
Mind Rape: The Aurora Chair, Scarran interrogation techniques, Stark in a bad mood, Tahleen in an ambitious mood...
The Nebari seem fond of doing this. Chiana was going to have it done to her before she joined the crew.
Morally Ambiguous Doctorate: Br'Nee, the last survivor of a team of botanists who forcibly relocated M'Lee's people to a jungle asteroid, apparently in order to destroy the animal population so that the plants would flourish. Eventually left with no food, the calcivores (bone-eaters) slaughtered the science team, and then each other. Br'Nee later tries capturing Zhaan as a lab specimen.
Monster Lord: Scarran leadership to rank and file "horse faced" scarrans.
Mugging the Monster: Memorably deconstructed with the robbery of the bar where D'Argo, Rygel, Scorpius and Braca are meeting in "I-Yensch, You-Yensch". The episode uses the robbers' incompetence and stupidity not to allow for a power-fantasy ass-kicking, but to make the situation even more dangerous and volatile.
My Revenge Is 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.
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.
A Nazi by Any Other Name: Crichton lectures NamTar on the barbarity of his experiments by comparing him to Dr. Mengele. Needless to say, NamTar thinks this "Mengele" sounds like a pretty awesome guy.
Neck Lift: D'Argo's preferred method for greeting people. Crichton is often on the receiving end of these from other aliens, as well.
In one of Einstein's "Unrealized Realities", John is flung back to his first meeting with Aeryn. Of course, rather than letting her beat him up again, he fights back using the techniques she taught him. ..Then makes the mistake of reeling off her name and regiment. After Aeryn scissors him with her thighs (again), she asks "How did you know my name?" He crowns his stupidity by telling her a better question would be asking how he knew about a birthmark on her hip... then, infuriated, she breaks his neck. Well done.
To be fair, at the time Crichton believed that these "flashbacks" were all illusions created by Einstein, the resident godlike alien; as such, he doesn't take it at all seriously until Einstein points out the tuft of Chiana-Aeryn's hair in his clenched fist (taken from their scuffle in one of the alternate realities).
Scorpius manages one while swinging from a ladder in "Coup By Clam."
Crais performs an absurdly casual version of this on lieutenant Teeg.
Negate Your Own Sacrifice: Stark does this for the crew at the end of one episode. It takes a while for us to know it was negated.
Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Crichton and company often make the problem they're trying to solve worse — and sometimes they have no choice but to cut and run when they can't make things better or even return to status quo.
Durka's mental cleansing by the Nebari reformed him into a penitent man who renounces his violent ways. ...That is until Rygel, hell-bent on avenging his past torture, tries to blow Durka up with a shoddy grenade. The bomb doesn't do much besides kick up dust — not to mention undoing Durka's conditioning, unleashing his monstrous personality on the crew.
The Peacekeeper Chancellor says this to Scorpius when Scorpius "starts" the Peacekeeper-Scarran war in the Peacekeeper Wars mini-series: (paraphrasing) "You've pulled us into a war we can't win! Congratulations." Needless to say Scorpius doesn't think so, and suggests that the only reason he was sent anywhere near the massing Scarran invasion fleet was so that he'd end up getting killed in the opening salvo.
"...Different Destinations" has Crichton. Aeryn, D'Argo, Stark, and Jool sent back in time to a famous battle where a Peacekeeper regiment defended a nunnery from an attacking horde. John accidentally captures the opposing general, who he figures out will offer a ceasefire if he's allowed to go back to his armies. So John smuggles the general out of the monastery wearing some of the nun's robes only to be spotted by one of the nuns, who kills the general. Interestingly, this is not the Nice Job Breaking It, Hero instance: the horde were not angered by the death of the general, but instead because Crichton dressed him in female clothes.
The episode at large as well has the group trying to Set Right What Once Went Wrong, but each thing they do just makes things worse: first the war goes on much longer and is much bloodier, then the whole planet is irradiated, killing all life, and finally the planet no longer exists at all. Crichton et al manage to fix everything, except for one tiny detail: instead of a cease fire, the horde is so angered at losing Crichton and the others that can't control their bloodlust they slaughter the remaining nuns, including a young girl
Seemingly every species in the galaxy breathes the same atmosphere.
Humans, Sebaceans, Luxans, Nebari, Delvians, and Hynerians can all metabolize one another's foodstuffs (although they don't like to).
Humans and Sebaceans, Sebaceans and Luxans, and Luxans and Nebari can all have sex with one another.
Sebaceans and Humans, and Luxans and Sebaceans, can produce offspring.
No, Except Yes: Our cheeky little Nebari and devious Hynerian can't just sit by and allow cargo to be onboard and not search through it. In "A Bug's Life", Chiana heads to the cargo hold to open Larraq's crate, only to find Rygel already poking around it. Chiana says they're both here for the same thing – to "snurch" any valuables. A very pompous Rygel replies that he doesn't "snurch," he "procures".
Not Me This Time: John is thrown into what looks very much like Earth, and immediately suspects Scorpius of messing with his head. However, when he finds Scorpius in the simulacrum, he protests that he's not the one doing it this time - and sure enough, it's actually the work of a Scarran torturer.
Not so Different: Jothee's claim he'd not let himself get recaptured at any cost... was exactly what Dargo had said in his initial appearance.
Off-the-Shelf FX: You'll occasionally recognize some part of a console or bit of equipment, including a trackball mouse, a Christmas ornament and one of those lightning balls you can find in novelty stores.
Oh Crap: Crichton gets one early on in the series ("They've Got A Secret") when Moya unexpectedly turns her DRDs against her crew after becoming paranoid that her unborn child might be harmed by them. Crichton anxiously skulks through a corrider, and suddenly the lights go out — revealing the telltale Laser Sights of dozens of DRDs covering the entire hall. Whoops.
Borlik thinks she's won after using her Selective Magnetism to cling to the ceiling, with no time to cut her down before her gamma storm engulfs Moya. Yeah, about that wall... It's detachable.
After Crichton gets fully taken over by Scorpius control chip, he heads out in his module. Aeryn chases after him in her Prowler. Under normal circumstances, this would be a curb stomp battle of epic proportions, with the Prowler being far more advanced technologically than Crichton's module (which doesn't even have weapons) and Aeryn being far better trained. Problem is, they're on a planet- not in space. Aeryn's only trained in zero-gravity scenario's, while Crichton has trained in the atmosphere to resist the pull of gravity. As Crichton/ Scorpius puts it "Welcome to our world, baby!"
Scorpius gets one in the Peacekeeper Wars after he finally sees the destructive power of the wormhole weapon- the thing he's been searching for for most of his life- unleashed upon the Peacekeepers and the Scarrans. You know something is bad when even Scorpius is taken aback by it's sheer destructive power.
Omnicidal Maniac: The Scarrans. They expressed a desire to not just defeat the Peacekeepers, but to wipe out the entire Sebacean race. Scorpius believes they won't stop there and pose a threat to every other species. (Harvey - who knows what Scorpius knows, but is objective due to lacking his biases - concurs with that belief.)
One Product Planet: Sykar is a deconstruction of this: because the Peacekeepers have essentially turned the entire planet into a farm for tannot root- which is eventually refined into chakan oil ammunition- the local environment has been almost completely ruined, and the civilian population reduced to slavery. Even the farms themselves are steadily being worn out through overharvesting; the one seen in the episode is said to be the last fertile region of the planet.
Meanwhile, nobody bats an eyelid at the idea of an entire planet being used as a cemetary for the system's rulers; Rygel, in particular, finds the idea of burying the dead anywhere near living beings to be absolutely disgusting.
Only In Florida: Are there any other Floridian space heroes besides John Crichton? Most of them seem to be from Iowa or the UK. A rare example of an intelligent portrayal of a U.S. Southerner.
And portrayed by an apparently proud Carolinian ('Carolina Style Keedva. Best BBQ this side of a Budong.' - "Home on the Remains").
Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: Happened on occasion. For example, Lani Tupu would sometimes lapse slightly into his native Kiwi accent when playing Crais.
Opening Narration: His name is John Crichton, an astronaut. A radiation wave hit, and he was shot through a wormhole, lost in some distant part of the universe aboard a ship, a LIVING ship! Full of strange alien life forms. He needs help! Please! Is there anybody out there who can hear him? He's being hunted by an insane military commander, and he's doing everything he can. He's just looking for a way home. (*cue weird chanting*)
Orphaned Punchline: "...And then the Trawlian priest turns to the Calanese cleric and says, "Doesn't bother me, you should have seen her mother!" — Rygel.
Out with a Bang: Subverted with Zhaan, whose reason for being locked up is that she murdered her lover, a traitor who cooperated with a Peacekeeper coup d'état. Zhaan basically killed the guy via sex. This (understandably) haunts her for a long time.
Pardon My Klingon: Many, many times, including an episode where John actually does speak Klingon.
Lampshaded in an episode where Aeryn calls John a "drannet," only for him to complain that he doesn't even know what a drannet is
Place Beyond Time: The "Mist", a stellar phenomenon which exists in a separate bubble of time. Aeryn accidentally gets stranded here for a day; when the crew recovers her ship, she's lived over 165 cycles and is now old woman with a granddaughter.
Plant Aliens: Zhaan, though you wouldn't know it until she pointed it out. It was foreshadowed, though, by her being a little too delighted by sunlight.
Plug 'n' Play Technology: John's original Farscape-1 module is extensively modified using organic parts from Moya. This allows it to accept various alternative fuels, in addition to achieving speeds that were not possible before.
Politically Incorrect Villain: The security guard in the Season 4 episode "Coup By Clam", who is extremely coarse and misogynistic (and it isn't just him - all the females of his native planet are badly oppressed); when Scorpius accompanies him on his tour of Moya to make sure he doesn't try anything underhanded, the guard uses the opportunity to loudly voice his relief that Moya is "controlled" by a male Pilot, among other things. And when he discovers that the mechanic he's guarding is actually a woman, he attempts to kill both her and Chiana- right before Scorpius breaks his neck.
Poor Communication Kills: After initiating starburst that she is no shape to perform, Moya accidentally tears a hole into an alien dimension. As a result, the Inter-dimensional Entity is charged with closing the breach and destroying any material from other universes that had crossed into theirs. Unfortunately, the abstract physiology of the creature makes it difficult to communicate with Moya's crew, who believe it to be malevolent and open fire on what they perceive to be an attack. Eventually, Crichton realizes that the entity is leaving scratch marks on Moya's bulkheads that corresponded to prime numbers. Realizing that it has been trying to communicate, Crichton enters a rift and speaks with the creature directly. From it, he learns how to free Moya herself from her entrapment between dimensions ("Through the Looking Glass").
Premature Eulogy: Zhaan gives one to Aeryn, when she dies at the end of season 2. Surprise, surprise: Aeryn is resurrected in the next episode, by Zhaan no less.
Prophecy Twist: Rygel's self-coronation as the Acquaran's king backfires on him when it's revealed that the "Masata" (a Hynerian) will lead his people "into the light"; In other words, they are expecting Rygel to rise up and part the heavens, or else he'll be burned at the stake. Crichton saves the day by unlocking the planet's dampening field, causing a beam of light to erupt from Rygel's statue.
Precision F-Strike: Trapped in the engine room of the Zelbinion, holding two energy-charged plates apart (preventing an explosion in the process), with a Sheeyang burning through the door, Crichton can only mutter, "Shit."
also, what Crichton writes on the chalkboard during the miniseries. One letter is blocked off, but it's fairly obvious what he wrote
Also, due to the use of made up swears in the show, it's very powerful when a real one is used instead. Such as when Rygel called China a "slut" instead of a "tralk" after she slept with Dargo's son.
Pressure Point: During a sparring session with Aeryn, Matala gives away her true identity by performing a Scorvian "neuro stroke" — raising her arm and jabbing downward with her fingers, like a scorpion's tail — and striking Aeryn in the chest, incapacitating her instantly.
Prison Episode: "The Ugly Truth" features most of the crew on a disc-like prison.
Promise Me You Won't X: After getting free from Salis, Chiana sneaks into the captive Rygel's quarters and smothers his mouth with a pillow. She offers Rygel a deal: She'll unite his hands and release him, so long as as he promises not to activate his comm and yell for help. ..It's not Chiana's fault, she hasn't known him very long.
Proud Warrior Race: The Luxans are an interesting case. While this and Warrior Poet tendencies are firmly entrenched in their culture, D'argo aspired to be a farmer after a relatively brief military career in his youth. Another Luxan we saw was a diplomat sent to negotiate with the Peacekeepers. However, The Peacekeeper Wars plays this straight with an elite Luxan commando unit.
Puny Earthlings: Humans are apparently the least-advanced species in all of creation, a fact which John's crewmates never tire of pointing out to him. Even the most humanlike or least-physically capable alien has superhuman eyesight. Of course at least once this leads to Disability Superpower, and some of the aliens' "advantages" are double-sided.
Pilot: I'm only judging on my experience with you, but I've never seen such a deficient species.
Crichton: Have you run the scan on the pulsar light yet?
Pilot: How do humans make it through a cycle, even half a cycle without killing each other?
Crichton:(getting agitated) We find it difficult— have you run the scan?
Pilot: You have no special abilities. You're not particularly smart, can hardly smell, can barely see, and you're not even vaguely physically or spiritually imposing. Is there anything you do well?
Putting on the Reich: The Peacekeepers' standard is a variation of El Lizzitsky's Smash the Whites With the Red Wedge, a Soviet propaganda poster. Beyond its distinctive red, white, and black aesthetic, the insignia is used in banners and murals throughout the show, drawing a clear comparison to the swastika.
The Peacekeepers wear black and red leather, extoll the virtues of collectivism, and treat all species other than themselves as inferior. However, they are not monolithic, and some Peacekeepers (especially several hundred years in the past in the episode "Different Destinations," and during the Peacekeeper Wars miniseries) are shown as heroic, even cooperating with other species against the Scarrans.
Tropes R-Z
Rape as Comedy: 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.
"The Reason You Suck" Speech: In "My Three Crichtons", John gives the evolved Future-Crichton this speech, wondering how Humans could ever end up so cold and without compassion, willing to sacrifice innocents in order to save his own ass. Future-Crichton points out that earlier John was perfectly willing to do just that to the Caveman-Crichton version.
John also gives himself this speech at the end, pointing out that the Caveman-Crichton performing the Heroic Sacrifice without thinking was something that he should have be able to do, wondering how the least developed one was able to be the one who was the better man in the end.
Red Eyes, Take Warning: Delvian priests ordinarily lose grip on their sanity after committing an act of murder. This is shown by their irises turning blood-red, as part of "tissue bile" migrating to their brains. Of course, Delvians can also succumb to madness if they are starved for too long, producing a similar red-eyed effect.
M'Lee's 'bubbles' glow red when she loses control of her hunger, along with spikes protruding all over her body (indicative of her Venus flytrap-like nature).
Reset Button: In Season 3, Crichton is split into two equal and identical versions of himself, one remaining on Moya and the other going with Talyn. One of these Crichtons wins Aeryn's heart, gets Harvey permanently removed from his mind, and unlocks the full secrets of wormhole technology. Since that's pretty much everything Crichton wants out of life, and the series isn't close to finished yet, he makes a Heroic Sacrifice to save Aeryn and the rest of Talyn's crew from a Scarran dreadnaught.
Restraining Bolt: Crichton's "neural chip", implanted by Scorpius during his time in the Aurora Chair. Crichton now involuntarily shares his brain with a "mental clone" of Scorpius, whom he dubs "Harvey". John mostly manages to suppress and even befriend Harvey, although their relationship is complicated. One of Harvey's goals is to keep John alive for Scorpius, but another is to restrain John from attacking Scorpius.
The Peacekeepers keep control of Leviathans (such as Moya) by fitting them with a 'Control Collar'. A to establish complete control over both the ship and its Pilot. It also prevents the Leviathans from using their starburst ability. to escape custody. Pilot manages to shake off his collar in the first episode.
Relationship Reset Button: Aeryn and Crichton in the third season, when Crichton gets twinned and then the twin that Aeryn falls for dies.
Robot Girl: Sikozu is a "bioloid", which is a kind of android employed by the Scarrans. She is more of an Artificial Human than other bioloids that appear in the series, however.
Rock Beats Laser: "I Shrink, Therefore, I Am". Used literally in "Lava's a Many Splendored Thing", where the mooks have shield belts that deflect pulse blasts. Let's just say that they do not deflect rocks. Or lava.
Rock-Paper-Scissors: Frequently used to solve disputes between Crichton and D'Argo. Lampshaded when the "twinned" Crichtons are trying to prove which of them is "real":
Aeryn: "How is he doing?"
Rygel: "Still tied."
And then used to show that they really are the same, despite their different experiences, when they both throw "scissors" several episodes later after they've been separated.
Stark's babbling of "My side, your side." It starts when John first meets Stark after having been captured by Scorpius, and Stark begins babbling about splitting their shared cell into "my side, your side, my side, YOUR SIDE!" As Stark leaves Moya after being rescued, the gag doesn't become a proper running gag until after his ressurection almost a season later; when he does get into the habit, he uses it almost whenever he's under stress- when trying to keep John away from a control panel, when seperating a group of arguing bounty hunters, even when having to share a room with Rygel.
Sadistic Choice: The "Cake or Death" option given to Moya's original female pilot.
Sapient Ship: Moya is a living biological ship who communicate through their bonded pilots. Talyn, as a hybrid, does not need a pilot to communicate. Instead, he has a direct neural link that can be used by any species (presumably.)
Samus Is a Girl: Stanz is a triumphant example, as she's played by a male actor who appears male until the very end. Early on Zhaan remarks that she seems to be missing something expected of a bipedal anthropoid (assuming her to be male) in the crotch region, but it isn't revealed until the very end of the episode when she asks D'Argo to be her "mate" and travel the stars with her. As she's played by an Australian actor, it isn't until she clarifies that she's in love with D'Argo that it's revealed that she's actually a female of her species.
Sanity Slippage: John, definitely (the fight for his sanity becomes an integral part of some episodes and story arcs), Aeryn occasionally (mostly during season 4 with the Scarran's Hot Blooded Torture)
Say My Name: In possibly the most poignant moment of "The Choice", Aeryn cries out "CRICHTON!!" from her balcony of her hotel room.
Scary Dogmatic Aliens: The Peacekeepers start out at this and A Nazi by Any Other Name. They are extremely racist, wear lots of black leather, and basically sell their security services to other civilizations as a prelude to a military takeover of those planets' governments. Over time they are conceded more diversity. By the time of The Peacekeeper Wars miniseries, some of them are portrayed as heroic. It's also implied in the series, and shown in a Time Travel episode, that Peacekeepers in the past were much more noble than the thuggish mercenaries of the series' time.
Sci-Fi Writers Have No Sense of Scale: In the pilot, a Peacekeeper ship was closing with our heroes, and Aeryn says the effective range of their weapons is 45 metras. One metra is about a kilometer. The Peacekeeper space ship's weapons are shorter ranged than the 20th century Phoenix air-to-air missile.
Screaming Birth: Aeryn, in a pool. And throughout her labor — almost right up until she actually delivers the baby — she's laying down covering fire against their enemies. "Shooting makes me feel better!" Dope Slapping Stark seems to be cathartic as well.
Screwed by the Network: When Sci-Fi renewed the series for a fourth season, a fifth season was also apart of the deal. However, the fifth season never materialized - much to the outrage of fans and critics. The supposed justification was declining ratings, which suffered due to the network changing timeslots in the fourth season. While simply backing out of the deal was bad enough, what really enraged people was that Sci-Fi made and announced its decision with only days to go before the last episode wrapped - leaving production no chance to even attempt wrapping up the series.
Crichton surrenders to Scorpius in "Liars Guns And Money" and tolerates the situation up until one of his Happy Places is invaded, whereupon he mutters "screw this," and walks away... only to get a knife to the back of his neck.
"Into The Lion's Den" has him working for Scorpius to ensure the success of his wormhole project: a few hours later, Crichton attempts to back out, whereupon Scorpius hammers his head against a desk and threatens to destroy Earth.
A minor and non-Scorpius-related version occurs in "Jeremiah Crichton" when John decides he's had enough of life on Moya and runs off in his module. He is promptly abandoned (though accidentally) and is demonstrably upset when they finally return for him, since he never intended to leave for real.
Prophetic Name: In Mesopotamian mythology, Namtar was a God of death, much like our modern concept of the grim reaper.
Seize Them!: Unluckily for John, Scorpius sees right through his disguise in their first encounter.
Self-Made Orphan: Tahleen psychically murders her father, Tuzak, to remove a potential opposing voice to her leadership.
Series Goal: Crichton wants to get back to Earth. Subverted when he finally does, but then realizes he no longer fits in there. He decides to leave again because his presence brings danger to the Earth. He tries to give humanity hope by putting his detailed notes on alien technology on the moon, though.
Ship Tease: In "Out Of Their Minds", Chiana in D'Argo's body tries to tempt Rygel in John's body... resulting in a rather long scene of what looks like D'Argo cooing to, purring at, and groping John. If youneed toleave for a while, that's fine.
Shipper on Deck: In perhaps the weirdest example ever, early on in season 3 Talyn continuously tries to antagonise John and contrive more and more situations where Crais and Aeryn are alone together, going even as far as making a fake video of Aeryn and Crais hooking up just to piss John off. And he does weird things to the heat in whatever room those two happen to be in. YMMV whether this is just Talyn being an angsty teen who doesn't want John getting anywhere near his adopted aunt, or really is him trying to get them together.
Shock Collar: Chiana first turned up wearing one of these. Whoever put it there really needed it.
Shoot the Shaggy Dog: Different Destinations. They travel back in time and make everything worse, at first changing the future of the planet to a war-torn hellhole, then to a lifeless rock, and finally getting rid of the planet entirely. They sort of fix things by killing a bunch of people, but then it's revealed that due to all their meddling, there were no survivors. Not to mention a bit of Fridge Horror, which is that they'll eventually forget it ever happened due to time travel.
Shout Out: All OVER the place. Listing every single instance would be difficult to accomplish here, but The BBCepisode guide lists pop culture references for every episode.
Sick and Wrong: In the episode "Won't Get Fooled Again," Crichton is trapped in a fantasy by a Scarran Mind Probe which subjects him to increasingly humiliating stimuli. by the end, nearly ever character (male and female) is dressing up in fetish-wear or fawning over him as he (unsuccessfully) denies that he's had sexual thoughts about any of them. Just when you think it can't get any more uncomfortable, Rygel appears wearing a leather mask and wielding a whip, hissing like Hannibal Lecter.
Which is tame compared to the hallucination of his nightie-clad (and dead) mother hitting on him.
Single Tear: Used often with Zhann, as Virginia Hey is quite adept at squirting out tears on command.
Slow Motion Drop: In "DNA Mad Scientist", Crichton smacks a booby-trapped navigation crystal out of Rygel's mitts, sending it flying to the ground with a smash.
Smarter Than You Look: Anyone who meets Crichton has trouble deciding whether or not this is true of him. Even Maldis isn't sure.
Smug Snake: Commandant Grayza, and also Prince Clavor from the "Look At The Princess" trilogy.
Snicket Warning Label: The series finale, which was originally meant to be an end-of-season cliffhanger. It was oh so beautiful, and then hero gibs, D'Argo's screams, and end credits. Of course ''The Peacekeeper Wars" did mitigate the effect, but, when the episode aired, for all we knew it was the final word on the series.
Sniff Sniff Nom: In "Constellation of Doubt", Chiana is filmed chomping on a tube of lipstick.
Someone's Touching My Butt: Rygel and Chiana are locked in an airtight tube while the air is purged from the ship; naturally the lecherous Rygel uses this as a chance for some groping.
Left the Background Music On: a very funny example in "Different Destinations", when "Home On The Range" is played on the harmonica over a very long panning shot, and just as the audience is beginning to think that it's a ridiculous cliché, the pan ends on Harvey playing the harmonica.
Stable Time Loop: Crichton mentions that he lost his virginity to girl named Karen Shaw. In reality, "Karen" was a time-traveling Chiana whom he met in the fall of 1985. John mishears her name after she turns the volume on his truck's stereo way up. She then exclaims "She-yaaw!" while playing with the cigarette lighter, which John interprets as her surname, "Shaw".
Starfish Aliens: Several. Pilot is, in at least one way, a literal example. The use of Muppets allows some really strange aliens.
Starfish Language: Several. Pilot's language was so incredibly complex that he had to simplify his speech in order for Translator Microbes to work. When their native language was shown, most of the main cast of aliens produced sounds that weren't anything like the sound of familiar languages on Earth, like D'Argo hissing or Rygel's froggish speech.
Speaking Simlish: The Sebecean language, as heard by someone without translator microbes. Notably, when the script called for her to speak in native Sebacean, Aeryn's dialogue sounds like it's looped backwards through a tape recorder (although that's actually just a trick that Claudia Black can do with her tongue). It very effectively reminded the audience that while Aeryn may look human, she is not.
Sticky Situation: In "They've Got a Secret", a renegade DRD sprays Aeryn with a fast-hardening purple goo, fusing her to the floor.
Stock Episode Titles: Mostly averted — without resorting to Idiosyncratic Episode Naming. In particular, the pilot episode is called "Premiere". While other episodes vary from "We're So Screwed" to "Back and Back and Back to the Future".
Stop, or I Shoot Myself!: John Crichton, when faced with enemies that want him alive. "Get back or the white boy gets it!" (He's holding himself hostage with his finger, and he moments later remarks that they're so stupid.) This is a direct reference, of course, to Blazing Saddles.
Straw Vulcan: The "advanced" Crichton of "My Three Crichtons" supposedly runs on pure logic. In practice, this means he's about as big a bastard as Rygel, and twice as smug about it.
Stuff Blowing Up: Almost every season finale. Also contains an all-too-rare inversion which is equally spectacular.
Sympathy for the Devil: John for Scorpius (particularly through the end of season 3, when he eventually realizes that Scorpius does not care about anything except getting revenge on the Scarrans and stopping them from taking over the galaxy.
Talkative Loon: Good God, Stark. And any time Crichton gets his sanity tested (which becomes increasingly a lot as the seasons go on) he becomes more and more this.
Team Dad: Crichton and D'Argo both share this role (once Character Development kicks in), particularly towards Chiana and Jool. Eventually, D'Argo's role as this was cemented in Season 4, when he was elected Captain of Moya.
Team Mom: Zhaan. Always the first to comfort, always the first to encourage reconciliation, and always the first (and scariest) to go all Mama Bear on anyone that threatens the rest of the crew. She especially became a mother figure to Chiana, and it's easy enough when she says "that child" in reference to Chiana to substitute "my child". Probably highlighted the most in one episode where John, facing death and in a situation where many men would instinctively shout for their mothers, screams "Zhaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan!"
Techno Babble: averted a lot of the time. The few times it's thrown in, it's either a) to describe a device or material that has no real-world equivalent, or b) to describe a scientific process. When they do use b) it's actually pretty comprehensible and makes sense either in-universe or with reference to real-universe ideas/concepts. If it's a) you're probably not going to understand it. The few times it is incomprehensible though, Crichton lampshades it or it's deconstructed. Sometimes an explanation or an idea will seem a bit like technobabble in how it is exposited but it will make complete sense, and will be well integrated into the universe context. An example early on in season 3, after Pathfinder Neeyala has spouted some standard technobabble.
Aeryn: Did you understand any of those words?
John: Well, yeah, I watched all kinds of Star trek, It's just the order I didn't get.
That Didn't Happen: After Aeryn and John's first kiss on Farscape they both claim it was because of oxygen deprivation and a stressful moment. They also use the stress excuse for having sex later.
They Would Cut You Up: Played straight in "A Human Reaction" with Rygel's vivisection; subverted when it turns out to be a Hidden Purpose Test to see how Crichton's species might react to having aliens among them.
Third Person Flashback: As Bialar Crais was forced to recall events on the memory probing chair operated by Scorpius, the screen shows Caris snapping the commander's neck.
Threat Backfire: Crais tries uses the I Have Your Wife tactic to muscle Crichton into cooperating with Scorpius's mind probe. Unluckily for him, Crais doesn't know that Aeryn is incapacitated and dying. When Crais claims to have recaptured Moya and her crew, John asks if his friends are all "in perfect health"; Crais affirms it, exposing his lie.
Throwing Your Sword Always Works: D'argo at one point throws his sword and impales a Peacekeeper mook through the heart at impressive range for such a heavy blade that was by no means designed for throwing.
Title Drop: Happens in several episodes, especially as the seasons go by, but not all of them.
Toilet Humour: In Season 3, D'Argo gains a ship that can only be operated if it is in contact with Luxan DNA. But D'Argo isn't always around when they need to use it. You see where I'm going with this, right?
Too Kinky to Torture: NamTar can easily switch his nerve receptors from transmitting pain to pleasure, so that interrogating him won't get you very far. Moreover, blowing a hole through him with a pulse pistol has little effect, as his Healing Factor allows him to repair himself (and his outfit) instantly - and he seems to enjoy this a little too much, as well.
Scorpius is a pretty obvious example of this as well- to the point that on the rare occasions he ends up being tortured, his captors have to work hard to find a form of torture he doesn't enjoy.
Tomato Surprise: The revelation that the Ancients secretly gave Crichton wormhole knowledge completely changes the status quo of the series. And wouldn't you know it? At about when viewers first learn that, an off-screen event takes place that leads to another surprise revelation: Scorpius implanting a neuro-chip with a neuro-clone into Crichton's brain to extract the information. Unlike the first revelation, the writers had more time to hint at the second one - possibly attempting to mislead viewers into thinking Crichton may just be losing his mind.
A lesser surprise concerns Karen Shaw. Crichton alluded to her a few times as the girl he lost his virginity to. In the Season 4 episode, "Kansas," Karen Shaw is revealed to be Chiana, who a young Crichton thought was just going to a Halloween costume party.
Took a Level in Badass: John Crichton did this several times. Jool, who starts off opposed to violence (given that her culture frowns upon it), also does this towards the end of Season 3, and most notably during the "What Was Lost" two-parter in Season 4.
Torture Technician: Well, let's see, there Scorpius, Grayza, Crais (for a time), almost every single Scarran... nearly every single character who isn't part of Moya's crew will bring out a pair of shackles and a whip at some point. I wonder if there's a reason for that... Rygel also gets in on the action, torturing several villainous characters during the series and even threatening to torture Aeryn at one point. Hell, at one point, Talyn actually goes so far as to torture Crais by means of their mental connection.
Tron Lines: The special effect used for Starburst.
Trope Overdosed: Click on 'related pages' and say goodbye to your free time.
Trojan Prisoner: While posing as a Peacekeeper Captain, Crichton manages to smuggle Chiana onto a secret research outpost by passing her off as a high-class hooker.
True Companions: A really dysfunctional example, but an example all the same.
Trust Password: In "Back and Back and Back to the Future", Crichton proves to D'Argo that he's glimpsed the future and knows Matala is plotting to kill them all. He does this by divulging something about D'Argo that no one is supposed to know: That D'Argo lied about why he was imprisoned by the Peacekeepers (As viewers will later learn, D'Argo was framed for the death of his wife).
Tv Tropes Will Ruin Your Vocabulary: And so will this show. Seriously, just try watching all four seasons in one go and then watch with increasing annoyance as you interchange 'fuck' with 'frell' in real life.
Two Keyed Lock: In "That Old Black Magic", Crais and Lieutenant Teeg both insert hands into a pair of palm-shaped readers on a computer.
Unfazed Everyman: John Crichton, despite his insistence to the contrary.
The Unreveal: It is left deliberately ambiguous as to who killed Salis: Chiana or Durka.
The Universe Is Not Ready: For wormholes. Einstein insists repeatedly to John that he cannot create a wormhole weapon; when John inquires about this, Einstein's answer is very simply, "You cannot."
Unstoppable Rage: Inverted with Crais. John, remembering that Sebeceans aren't too fond of fire, blocks Crais' pursuit by tossing a torch into a chasm behind him, setting it aflame. As expected, Crais shrinks away from the heat. Maldis then pops back into reality to get Crais worked up again: He conjures up a vision of Crais' late brother, Tauvo, then reenacts his death at the hands of Crichton. Tauvo explodes into flame, his flesh melting and collapsing into a smoking corpse. His hatred refueled, Crais clears the flaming pit in a single bound, and the chase is back on.
Unusual User Interface: Moya's control panels and how Pilot and Moya cooperate: both are physically bonded and share nervous tissue and nutrients!
The Unfettered: Scorpius. He will do absolutely anything to achieve his goals, and while accepting the immorality (or amorality) of what he's done, he never apologizes for it.
Unrealistic Black Hole: Averted (sort of) in "Back and Back and Back to the Future". An Illanic scientist, Verell, captures a fragment of a black hole, intending to compartmentalize it as a weapon. His assistant, Matala, steals the briefcase containing the weapon; with his dying breath, Verell activates the singularity via remote control, crushing both Matala and the Scorvians' ships into absolute nothingness. As a caveat, however, the black hole looks like a discotheque strobe light.
Vanishing Village: The planets within the time anomaly in "The Locket".
Vapor Trail: With the Intellant-Virus controlling him, Larraq attempts to escape Moya in his crew's Marauder, whereupon it will dock at a Peacekeeper base and then go on to contaminate thousands. However, there's one thing the Virus has overlooked: the fuel leak which necessitated the ship's docking in the first place! Quick thinking by John results in Moya entering Starburst, which ignites the trail of fuel and destroys Larraq's ship.
Vichy Earth: One of Einstein's "Unrealized Realities", as glimpsed by Crichton. Earth has long since been conquered by the Scarrans, who interbred freely with the locals during their "shore leave." The result is a species of human-Scarran hybrids with a longer lifespan, but virtually no personal freedom; everyone (including Crichton) wears tracker bracelets on their wrists, and humans are forbidden from exploring space.
Voices Are Mental: Zigzagged in "Out of Their Minds". In the first scene, it appears as if the trope will be played straight - the voices of the character are overlaid on the voices of the actor, to make it clear who is who. Once the action gets rolling, the voices are clearly being done by the actors rather than overdubbed, however they make a great show of copying speech patterns and altering vocal tones to keep it obvious what's going on. This switches again midway through the episode when everyone jumps bodies once more, but ultimately ends up subverted.
Voluntary Shapeshifting: Talikaa is capable of taking on two forms: one a female Sebaceanoid, and the other a Giant Spider, which is her true form.
At least one of the Corlatas working for Xhalax's retrieval squad was capable of shapeshifting, and used it to Kill and Replace a member of the Kanvian royal family.
Vomit Indiscretion Shot: Puke all over the place in Farscape. There is barely a main character who hasn't vomited on-camera, including Moya (in the Strange Detractors comic, at least).
This is played for laughs in "Through the Looking Glass", in which the harsh red glow of the 'alternate' Moya causes Crichton to continually retch. It gets to the point where D'Argo is hustling him out just so he won't have to watch him spew any more.
In "Self-Inflicted Wounds, Part 1", Moya is knocked headlong into a wormhole following a collision with another ship, and as such, Moya's symbiotic pilot is in considerable pain. When D'argo and Stark actually ask him how he feels, Pilot opens his mouth to speak and instead spews epic levels of pea-soup vomit all over them. The expression on poor Stark's vomit-splattered face has to be seen to be believed.
D'Argo: I had no idea he could do that.
Stark:(revolted) I had no idea anyone could do that!
While not up to Pilot or Rygel's levels, Scorpius would often spurt out truley epic levels of bodily fluid to signify he was injured or in pain.
We Will Use Manual Labor in the Future: Rygel XVI, deposed Dominar of the (galaxy-spanning) Hynerian Empire, makes frequent references to servants and slaves in his royal court. Humorously, when visiting Earth, he states that if humans are to be remembered for anything, it will be for the quality of our manual labor.
Stark's species, The Baniks, are referred to as an entire race of slaves. Farscape' also raises the interesting question of whether Living Ships, particularly sentient ones, count as manual labor...
The Sykarans have all been reduced to slaves by the Peacekeepers, planting and harvesting "tannot root" for refinement into gun ammunition (Chakran Oil). The locals are fed a steady diet of the root, which has the added property of keeping them pliable.
Weakened By The Light: Crichton feebly bandages his eyes to protect them from the nausea-inducing light of the "red" Moya (Though the Looking Glass"), but quickly gives up. D'Argo follows suit by donning a welding helmet, which according to him results in a big improvement. "I only retch once in a while now."
Subverted in "Crackers Don't Matter". John (and humanity in general) has vastly inferior eyesight to the rest of Moya's crew, so the light causing violent paranoia in the rest of them makes John merely irritable- up until Chiana knees him in the groin, and his hallucinations start coming to life. However, John is still able to recover his sanity before the fight with Aeryn.
Weaksauce Weakness: Sebaceans can't process heat nearly as well as humans can. Prolonged exposure will rapidly lead to heat delirium: loss of short-term memory, motor functions, long-term memory... the final stage of heat delirium is colloquially referred to as "living death" (a permanent catatonic state)- the only situation in which Peacekeepers kill their own out of mercy.
Just to add to the suck factor, the Peacekeepers' worst enemies, the Scarrans, can project beams of solid heat. That's pretty unlucky.
Scorpius being a Sebacean/Scarran hybrid means he inherited both the weakness to heat and the Scarran's intense body temperature, making this weakness a whole lot worse. He's only able to survive by wearing a specially made gimp suit refrigeration suit, complete with cooling rods inserted directly into his brain.
Weapon Of Mass Destruction: Wormholes, and how! They produce Apocalypses in two delightful flavors. Low setting: point one end at an enemy dreadnaught or planet. Poke other end into star. Result: portable, localized and directedsupernova. That not enough for you? Okay. Poke one into itself. Result:
Crichton: Okay boys and girls, here are the rules. Find a penny, pick it up. Double it, you've got two pennies. Double it again: four. Double it 27 more times, and you've got a million dollars and the IRS all over your ass. Round and round and round it goes, where it stops nobody knows, but it all adds up... quick. ...It eats the whole universe, a monumental black hole, a giant whirling headstone marking the spot where we all used to live and play and slaughter the innocent.
Tahleen, a Delvian sect leader honing the psychic abilities of her followers for use against the Peacekeepers. It's a noble goal, but Tahleen's prepared to do anything to accomplish it- including pulling a Mind Rape on Zhaan and murdering her own father as a dissenting voice.
We Named The Monkey Jack: In his own comics sub-spin-off, Scorpius adopts a little lizard as a pet. Naturally, for his Catch Phrase to work, he names it after Crichton.
"Hello, John."
WHAM Episode: "Nerve" is essential for many reasons. Most importantly, it revises the events of a previous episode ("A Human Reaction") and reveals that "Jack" the Ancient has implanted wormhole equations in Crichton's brain, setting off the series' primary Myth Arc. Stark and Scorpius make their first appearances. The dynamics of various characters, most notably Crais, are upset over the course of the two-parter. Lastly, this episode is widely credited for Farscape'sGrowing the Beard, as the series becomes less episodic from this point onward.
What Could Have Been: Obviously, the never produced Season 5. The Peacekeeper Wars summarizes the basic arc that the season would've been. Among the stand-alone ideas that have surfaced was a two-part time travel story to be co-written by Ben Browder.
Paul Goddard (Stark) auditioned to play Scorpius.
The series was originally pitched to FOX in 1991. (The series was, in fact, repeatedly rejected before being picked up Sci-Fi Channel, but Brian Henson loved it and pushed it whenever the opportunity arose.)
Originally, D'argo was envisioned as a much older character, a robot would have been part of Moya's crew, Zhaan was a Buddha-like male, and the Peacekeepers were formless, smoke-like creatures in humanoid armor. Moya's design also changed considerably several times.
What Do You Mean, It's Phlebotinum?: In "I.E.T.", Crichton frantically searches for a chemical compound which can be used as medicine for Moya. It turns out to be the local equivalent of salt on the planet on which they've landed.
What the Hell, Hero?: Crichton gives himself one in "My Three Crichtons," after he was prepared to let his more primitive self die simply because he saw him as stupid.
Who's Your Daddy?: Alluded to during Crichton's visions of married life with a now-pregnant Aeryn. In the dream world, Crichton is anxiety-ridden about his wife's not-so-subtle dalliances with other men.
Crichton: (about the baby) Maybe it's not mine at all.
Dream Aeryn: You just won't let that rest, will you?
Crichton: Nah, maybe it's got a little pony tail and a teeny tiny goatee.
Dream Aeryn: Maybe.
Crichton: Maybe there's half a metal face on it.
Dream Aeryn: Maybe.
Crichton: Maybe it's a royal pain in the ass, eats all the time and farts a lot.
Dream Aeryn: Then we'll know it's yours.
In fairness to her, the last person he knows she definitely slept with was three years before she met him. It's just because he spent a year apart from her that he worries what she might have done.
Whole Episode Flashback: "Dream a Little Dream", which was originally produced as the Season 2 premiere episode, but later pushed to later in the season, with some framing scenes added to make the main story a flashback.
Window Love: At the end of "Revenging Angel", Crichton and D'Argo touch hands apologetically through one of Moya's windows (and Crichton's spacesuit).
With Friends Like These: The crew of Moya frequently try to kill each other or screw each other over for one reason or another.
"With Our Swords" Scene: In "Crackers Don't Matter", John is the only member of the crew who isn't incapacitated by an alien who has altered the bioluminescence on Moya (due to his comparatively poor eyesight). His crewmates each give him items to prepare him for the confrontation with T'raltrixx -— including D'argo giving him his sword, and Zhaan pasting Crichton's face with some light-reflecting vomit. They all take a look at the finished product, and he resembles some tacky, failed superhero. Aeryn says they're going to die.
Wondrous Ladies Room: Actually becomes a plot point in one episode. And it makes sense.
The Worf Effect: Ka D'Argo suffers from this very badly. He is disarmed with embarrassing regularity, despite being the most physically imposing member of the main cast. Out of the initial four episodes, he loses at least three fights, and the third episode is mostly about Crichton figuring out a way to keep him from getting his ass kicked by a woman.
Justified in that it's established within those first four episodes that D'Argo is the Luxan equivalent of a teenager, and not nearly as experienced in combat as he claims to be. retroactively justified further when it's revealed that he'd much rather be a farmer than a soldier.
The Worm that Walks: the bad guy in "Beware Of Dog", to be as unspoilery as possible.
Worthy Opponent: After hours of menacing Moya's crew ("PK Tech Girl"), Teurac decides to cut his losses and leave. Though he realizes that D'Argo's claims of having an entire troop of Luxan warriors on-board was all a lie, he concedes that there is nothing shameful in losing to a clever opponent.
Xanatos Gambit: Scorpius and John are both undisputed masters, and when they go head to head it often devolves into matches of Xanatos Speed Chess.
"You used me." "We use each other." "You're better at it." "You're learning."
Year Inside, Hour Outside: In "Through the Looking Glass", John enters the realm of the Inter-Dimensional Entity in order to persuade it that Moya's crew pose no harm. When John pops back out of the rift, Zhann and Rygel comment that he barely stuck his head in before reappearing, meaning there was no time for him to have a conversation.
Happens again in "The Locket," where the ratio is eight hours on the inside to every 50 years on the outside.
You Can't Go Home Again: Subverted. Crichton does eventually make it home, but is so utterly disillusioned with all the post-9/11 paranoia, military protocol and lack of understanding that he decides to leave again — saving Earth at the end of the series, but having finally made up his mind that it is no longer his home. He does, however, leave his notes on the moon, containing technical information he was recording the entire series giving Earth a chance to uplift itself.
You Gotta Have Blue Hair: Froy, one of Scorpius' nurses, has blue hair and piercing blue eyes to match, an unusual trait for a Sebacean.
You Have Failed Me: When the first attempt at manned wormhole travel leaves the pilot in a condition to be collected with a sponge, Scorpius forces the subordinate who pushed for the test to take his place.
You Look Familiar: Actress Francesca Buller, wife of series star Ben Browder, played no less than four alien characters, one for each season (though she reprised the last role in the Peacekeeper Wars miniseries). Several other actors returned for multiple roles, but Buller is the most frequent example.
You Will Be Assimilated: That's how NamTar rolls. By the time our heroes encounter him, he's already implanted the traits of countless alien species into himself, including regeneration and psychokinesis.
Tahleen's goal is to absorb Zhaan's mental barriers on her destructive impluses. As the sole Delvian Pa'u who ever killed anybody and regained their sanity, Zhaan could potentially propagate a whole army of Delvian Priests able to use their psychic abilities as a weapon, but Zhaan doesn't want to do this- so Tahleen decides to steal her self-control.
Your Approval Fills Me with Shame: The look on Zhaan's face when Bekhesh leaves with the words "Farewell, my friends! Thank you for teaching me to kill again!" is priceless.
Your Princess Is in Another Castle: Almost a signature trope of the show. Get towards the end of seasons two, three and four and you'll get an epic two- or three-parter, with gunfights, explosions and baddies galore, the heroes pulling off some ridiculous stunt, escaping by the skin of their teeth... and then you'll hit the season finale with it's obligatory Tear Jerker and Cliffhanger.
Moreover, about halfway through each two, three, or four parter, once escaping with whatever they went for, they usually discover someone got left behind, or some new complication has presented itself and they must now formulate a new plan, often to break back into the very place they just escaped from to retrieve whatever new goal they must.
Done within those long story arcs too. Going into season four's epic three-parter, the big objective seems to be to rescue Aeryn from the Scarrans. "We're So Screwed, part 1"? They rescue Aeryn from the Scarrans, and as a bonus, they get rid of Scorpius too. Seems like a brilliant ending for our heroes... until Harvey shows up in the last two minutes to make things even more complicated.
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