Scorpius (Farscape)

Scorpius is a male character that features in Farscape.

Biography

Scorpius was a hybrid child of a Sebacean woman and a Scarran father during the state of hostilities between the Peacekeepers and the Scarran Imperium. His mother was actually a Sebacean civilian named Rylani Jeema Dellos who left with her husband Ghebb who was also a fellow Sebacean where they went to set up their own colony in the Uncharted Territories. Their vessel was attacked by Scarrans and the two Sebaceans crash landed on a world where they were later captured by the attackers with her husband Ghebb killed. Rylani was taken to be part of a breeding program by the Scarrans in order to see the benefits of a potential Sebacean/Scarran hybrid. Thus, she was rape by the soldier-caste male Scarran named Wolesh with her dying in childbirth. Though dead, her child survived and was the only survivor of the breeding program that consisted of 91 attempts. The newborn Scorpius was then placed under the supervision of a ruling-caste Scarran named Tauza who put the child through forced rigorous testing to see if the hybrid could be useful. Tauza performed a brutal program to destroy any Sebacean 'weakness' such as the susceptibility towards heat and treated Scorpius cruelly in an effort to develop his strength.

When he was 12 cycles old, Scorpius escaped and spent several cycles in the Uncharted Territories unsuccessfully searching for information about his origins. Finally, he turned himself over to the Peacekeepers, offering them inside information about the Scarrans that Peacekeeper First Command never had. In exchange for that information, the Peacekeepers told Scorpius the truth about his birth and gave him the location where his mother had been captured. He went there, walking straight into Tauza's trap. Back in her 'care', Scorpius soon killed her and helped the Peacekeepers find and destroy the Dreadnought on which he was imprisoned. For his apparent loyalty he received an exemption from all Peacekeeper racial purity regulations and began his career in the Peacekeepers. He quickly advanced in the ranks of the Peacekeeper military and created a special task force to develop wormhole technology. Scorpius' personal goal was revenge against the Scarrans; he sought to harness the potentially limitless power of wormholes and use them as a weapon to help the Peacekeepers annihilate the species that raped and killed his mother. There was one obvious disadvantage to Scorpius' lineage. Scarrans thrive on heat and create massive amounts of it within their bodies, but Sebaceans are especially reactive to high temperatures and suffer from heat delirium with it. Scorpius dealt with this dilemma by using a complicated protective suit and cooling rods inserted into his brain that regulated his body temperature. Over time, these rods cooled his body via heat exchange, and had to be replaced with fresh cool ones.

In his first appearance on the show, he encountered Crichton disguised as a Peacekeeper, and is immediately able to identify him as an impostor (due to his non-Sebacean energy signature) and has him arrested. While holding Crichton captive, Scorpius probes John's mind with a Peacekeeper device called an Aurora Chair, which Scorpius seems to have invented. During the interrogation Scorpius discovers (as does John) that a race of alien beings called Ancients planted latent knowledge regarding wormhole technology in John's head, gifting him with the ability to effectively research and develop such technology in order to take himself home to Earth. Scorpius then becomes determined to wrest that knowledge from John's mind. Meanwhile, Scorpius takes control of the command carrier formerly captained by Bialar Crais. John manages to escape Scorpius with the help of his friends, leading into Season 2 where the crew of Moya are on the run from Scorpius.

Soon John Crichton is seeing visions of Scorpius, often in absurd contexts. Slowly it is revealed that Scorpius placed a neural chip with a clone of his own mind into Crichton's brain to get the secrets of wormhole technology from his subconscious. This neural clone appears in visions only Crichton can see, and sometimes influences Crichton's behavior. Crichton nicknames the clone "Harvey" after the imaginary giant rabbit Jimmy Stewart talked to in the film of the same name. Harvey has multiple goals: firstly, to find a way to acquire the wormhole knowledge lodged in John's brain; secondly, to safeguard John's life to keep safe the knowledge he holds.

From the appearances of Scorpius throughout Season 2, it becomes apparent that Scorpius' goal for weaponizing wormholes is not for galactic domination, but rather for survival in the face of a rising Scarran empire. He appears to genuinely care about Sebaceans and doesn't want them exterminated, and at the same time is highly motivated by revenge against the Scarrans, whom he hates. By the end of the season, Scorpius has achieved his goal. He has retrieved his chip from Crichton's brain and defeated Crichton.

With the neural chip in Scorpius' possession, he now has enough information to greatly advance his own research. Due to some form of "neural bleed," Harvey remains in John's mind, but is unable to control John as before now that the chip is gone (he is more a prisoner/occupant in John's mind). Whereas Scorpius is quietly menacing throughout the series, Harvey soon becomes clownish at times, appearing in humorous scenes based on Crichton's memories and fantasies. John also begins wormhole research of his own in earnest.

It is revealed that Scorpius' reasons for hating Scarrans are very personal: he is the product of a Sebacean colonist woman who was raped by the Scarrans who captured her. Scorpius grew up on a Scarran Dreadnought, taught every day that his Sebacean half was weak and needed to be conquered. Failure in any way resulted in torture. He escapes using his cunning and defects to the Peacekeepers. At first suspect, he gains their trust. He is recaptured by the Scarrans while foolishly investigating his past on his own. After some torture, he escapes again - further confirming his loyalty to the Peacekeepers. ("Incubator")

At the end of Season 3, John manages to lie to Scorpius (with the help of Harvey) in spite of the half-breed's ability to detect when someone is lying. Crichton tells him that he finally wants to help in his wormhole research. During a test of a wormhole John betrays Scorpius, and the former Captain Crais has the command carrier blown up with the aid of his Leviathan gunship Talyn.

With his ship gone, and having disobeyed Peacekeeper High Command (by continuing his research), vengeance against the Scarrans seems an unlikely prospect for Scorpius.

Captured and humiliated by Commandant Grayza, and later imprisoned by Moya's crew, it is shown that Scorpius will endure almost anything to achieve his goals. He even allies himself with Moya's crew to protect the wormhole secrets in Crichton's brain and to convince John to help him resume their earlier research. Scorpius also crafts a device he claims will remove Harvey from John's mind. But this later turns out to be another deception.

Harvey resurfaces when John leaves Scorpius behind to die at the hands of Scarrans. Scorpius' device did not erase Harvey, but instead, insured Harvey's loyalty would be to Scorpius rather than Crichton, and that, if John betrayed Scorpius, Harvey would resurface. Harvey's stated purpose was to ensure the survival of Scorpius by influencing John. Harvey also claimed that Scorpius knew everything Harvey knew, but later, Scorpius indicated that this was a lie Harvey told in order to gain John's cooperation.

During the Scarran-Peacekeeper War, Scorpius is given the position of commander of a Peacekeeper armada. However, during the opening battle of the war, when John is revived after having been crystallized into thousands of pieces at the end of season 4, Scorpius sensed John and Harvey's reappearance and location. Scorpius instantly orders his carrier to pull out from the battle, thus losing a battle he was up to that point winning, and make for Qujaga, the location of the recently revived John Crichton. With this action, Scorpius' commission is terminated and he is ordered to be executed on sight by the Peacekeepers' Grand Chancellor. Hoping to convince Crichton to give the Peacekeepers wormhole weaponry and end the war, Scorpius accompanies Crichton on his travels to Arnessk, in the captivity of the Scarrans, and back to Qujaga. He helps the crew of Moya defend the Eidelons' temple from a Scarran attack and he assists them when they are forced to fight their way back to Moya. Scorpius is last shown overseeing the signing of the treaty that ends the war, apparently quite satisfied that two people he despises, Grayza and Staleek, have been forced into peace.

Overview

Personality and attributes

In appearance, his hybrid nature meant that he shared characteristics from both his parent species. From his fathers side, he retained the reptilian skin that was grey in color but his size and form was much more closer to that of a Sebacean. Despite that, he was much stronger than a Sebacean but was rarely physically violent. A result of his hybrid nature meant that Scorpius was somewhat torn between two instincts namely the calm Sebacean side and the aggressive violent Scarran one. Typically, he appeared to control his personalities and preferred to be calm and less violent. However, in times of loss of control, his Scarran half took over with him becoming much more violent and less in control over his actions.

He prides himself on his patience and his intellect. Scorpius is willing to do absolutely anything to achieve his goals, which he is very honest about when it suits him. He will (and does over the course of the series) lie, kill in cold blood, order the deaths of multitudes, torture innocents, and sacrifice those close to him in order to get what he wants. He is also willing to aid his enemies or humiliate himself if it will further his goals. He has returned from supposedly fatal situations more than once, which he credits to his "foresight and preparation." He manipulates others to do his work but does much on his own; his obsession with Crichton and his wormhole secrets is proof of that. He is highly educated, very intelligent, and extremely clever. Only he knows how deep his schemes run and, while he claims his main desire is to eliminate the Scarran threat, protagonist John Crichton is loathe to ever trust him.

His rank is never mentioned, and it is assumed that he does not officially hold one. Wayne Pygram seemed to confirm this during an interview on the Farscape DVD set, and Dominar Rygel XVI once claimed that he was "higher even than a captain" ("I-Yensch, You-Yensch"). His authority is not absolute, however, as Commandant Mele-On Grayza informed him when she superseded it. During the series, he is shown to have the authority to command a research base, a command carrier, a fleet of command carriers, and an even larger fleet in Farscape: The Peacekeeper Wars. However, the exact Peacekeeper ranks at this level have never been established in the show.

Powers and abilities

Scorpius was the result of a forced breeding program created by the Scarran race. This saw a Sebacean female being raped in order to birth a Scarran hybrid that had a more Sebacean form. As a result, Scorpius was more humanoid in form with a grey, lizard-like skin but one that was closer to the Scarran than Sebacean form. As a result of his parentage, he was much stronger than a Sebacean, but was rarely physically violent. Because he is a hybrid he also has a sort of split personality, because of his intense mind training he is able to control these personalities. He prefers the Sebacean personality as it is less violent, rejecting the Scarran side of himself. However if he loses control the Scarran side can take over, and he becomes more violent ("Bone to Be Wild" ). His unique heritage gives him the ability to see light/heat spectra, enabling him to distinguish a subject's species through each species' unique energy signature, as well as tell when someone is lying. Scorpius has a highly-trained mind, enabling him to resist torture and the Scarran heat-based mind probes.

Since he is a Sebacean/Scarran hybrid, he suffers from the Sebacean inability to tolerate extreme heat as well as the higher body temperatures caused by his Scarran heritage. This makes for an unhealthy combination, one that Scorpius compensates for through the use of sophisticated equipment built into his heat dissipating suit. This includes coolant rods embedded inside his brain, which must be replaced periodically as they heat up according to Scorpius' energy expenditure. They may overheat quickly if he overexerts himself for too long a time. If Scorpius' body temperature rises too high, the coolant rod will be automatically ejected from his skull for replacement. Another one of Scorpius' unique attributes is that exposure to radioactivity makes him stronger ("Natural Election").

A unique trait afforded to his nature was that he was able to see light and heat spectra. This allowed him to see the unique energy signature of each species and subjects which in turn also allowed him to determine when a person was lying to him.

To combat heat delirium, a special coolant suit that was an advanced piece of technology originally designed by the Diagnosan Tocot and later under production by the Peacekeepers. The main mechanics of the cooling suit involved the use of a cooling rod fixed to the suit which absorbed all excess heat produced by the body keeping it at optimal temperature. The rod slowly absorbed heat to the point that it itself began to overheat; at this time it had to be replaced or removed and allowed to cool in order for the suit to remain functional.

Notes

• Scorpius was portrayed by actor Wayne Pygram where he featured in the setting of the Farscape universe.

Appearances

• Farscape:

External Link

• Farscape Wiki Entry

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