The Worlds of Farscape (11 page)

Scorpius reveals that he is a Scarran-Sebacean hybrid who was raised by a Scarran named Tauza. His hybrid physiology is almost incompatible with itself, and he was born in Sebacean heat delirium. The Scarrans view Scorpius as weak and want him to overcome his infirmities. Tauza complains that if Scorpius claims his Scarran ancestry, then he “cannot be weak.” Further, we glimpse the Scarran view of the Peacekeepers: “Sebaceans are a deficient breed.” Scorpius tells Crichton that his earliest memory is “pain.” As viewers, we see and sympathize with Scorpius as Tauza tortures the poor misshapen boy. Scorpius is torn between two worlds. He cannot please his Scarran keepers, and he is not racially pure enough for the Peacekeepers. Scorpius escapes his Scarran captors and enlists with the Peacekeepers where he finds a place for himself. As Koehn points out, the Wisdom Tradition views “evil as the pain and frustration we unwittingly inflict upon ourselves as we adopt ever more perverse strategies to escape our unhappy selves” (64). This is clearly the case with Scorpius. As he tries to determine who he is, he is constantly torn and fractured by his bi-racial birth. When Scorpius seeks out the Peacekeepers, he is interviewed by Captain Molayne:

SCORPIUS: I was taught that I'm the product of a forced birthing between a Peacekeeper male and a Scarran female. I believe this to be false. I want to know the truth.

CAPTAIN MOLAYNE: Why? So you can find out who you are?

SCORPIUS: To find out who I should be.

With his unique ability to detect lies, we find that the Peacekeepers do not lie to him, and he discovers that his mother was a Sebacean female captured and bred in an experimental program by the Scarrans to “find out if Sebacean genetics” could serve them. This unfortunate revelation is a clear motivation for Scorpius' character.

When Scorpius tells neural Crichton that he was recaptured by the Scarrans while searching for the answers to his past, Tauza reminds Scorpius, “You are Scarran, or you are nothing.” But Scorpius' genetic deficiencies lead the Scarrans to believe that all Peacekeepers are weak. In the climactic scene of the episode, Scorpius tells John,

SCORPIUS: I have shared these memories for a reason—to show you what Scarrans are like.

CRICHTON: Preaching to the choir Scorpy, I've got no love for Scarrans.

SCORPIUS: Then help us! Scarrans far outnumber the Peacekeepers. Without superior weaponry, we will be crushed.

CRICHTON: You want to kill them; they want to kill you. I do not see a hell of a lot of difference.

SCORPIUS: You let me finish, and I'll show you the difference.

Scorpius then reveals that the Scarrans wish to “eradicate” the Sebacean race. Scorpius' will to save the Peacekeepers is his prime motivation for pursuing the wormhole technology. Scorpius is unique in his knowledge and understanding of the Scarran threat. The Peacekeepers have been in power too long and have grown a bit complacent; therefore, they do not see the Scarrans as the real threat they pose. As Scorpius admits to John, however, not only does he want to save the Peacekeepers, he wants revenge.

Scorpius' admonition of revenge is a powerful indicator that he does not truly know and accept who he is. His hatred of the Scarrans is enormous, and some of this is clearly directed at his Scarran heritage. When Scorpius is allowed to join the Peacekeepers, he must first gain an exemption to the “purity” requirement. Scorpius is viewed as an “Other,” an outsider among both his races. This quest for self leads Scorpius to do much evil in the name of good. His inability to truly accept his heritage is the hurdle he must overcome. Ultimately, Scorpius is a pitiable man who cannot escape his tortured upbringing. Only in the ending of
The Peacekeepers Wars
is Scorpius' drive rewarded. He begs Crichton, begs him with “a cherry on top,” to launch the wormhole weapon. Using the knowledge of the Ancients, John constructs and launches the wormhole weapon, destroying the Scarran fleet. Scorpius is horrified at the result; not only is the Scarran fleet destroyed, but so are the Peacekeepers. As the wormhole continues to grow, Scorpius mutters, “This is insane, Crichton.” In that single moment, Scorpius has exercised self-reflection, true self-reflection, and he realizes that his quest for vengeance was ultimately self-destructive. In the resulting peace accord, we see a Scorpius smug and almost smiling, pleased with the idea of a safe galaxy. In a sense, Scorpius is made whole by proving to the Scarrans his Peacekeeper side was not weak and to the Peacekeepers that he was correct in his pursuit of the wormhole weapon—but at a terrible, terrible cost.

One way of viewing the complex relationship between Crichton's and Scorpius' neural clones is that they are, to borrow the Jungian term, Shadow selves. Ursula K. Le Guin tackles the use of the Shadow self in her essay, “The Child and the Shadow,” where she discusses the use of the Shadow figure in Science Fiction and Fantasy literature. This Shadow, as defined by Le Guin, is

the man [that] is all that is civilized—learned, kindly, idealistic, decent. The shadow is all that gets suppressed in the process of becoming a decent, civilized adult. The shadow is the man's thwarted selfishness, his unadmitted desires, the swearwords he never spoke, the murders he didn't commit. The shadow is the dark side of his soul, the unadmitted, the inadmissible [60].

Scorpius plays this role well in the series. When Scorpius captures Crichton and tortures him in the Aurora Chair (“Nerve” 1.19 and “The Hidden Memory” 1.20), he places a neural chip in Crichton's brain to steal the Ancients' technology for the wormhole device. This allows a simulacrum of Scorpius to root around in Crichton's thoughts, looking for the secrets Crichton has suppressed. He is Crichton's shadow self. He is the nagging voice in Crichton's head that begs him to build and use the wormhole weapon against the Scarrans. He is the dark part of Crichton's thoughts that will break down his moral compass even further than Crichton is willing.

This is not to say that the relationship is completely destructive; the Scorpius shadow saves Crichton's life in the episode “Won't Get Fooled Again” (2.15), after he is captured by the Scarrans. At times the Scorpius shadow is both tormentor, as in “Beware of Dog” (2.14) or counselor as in “Self-Inflicted Wounds Part I: Could'a, Would'a, Should'a” (3.3). The relationship between Crichton and Scorpius as the shadow is complex. Jung defines the complexities of these dealings: “The shadow is a moral problem that challenges the whole ego-personality, for no one can become conscious of the shadow without considerable moral effort” (145). John is conscious of Scorpius, so we can assume he is making a moral effort. He will not divulge the wormhole technology no matter the means of persuasion that the Scorpius shadow will try. Jung also contends that

closer examination of the dark characteristics—that is, the inferiorities constituting the shadow—reveals that they have an
emotional
nature, a kind of autonomy, and accordingly an obsessive or, better, possessive quality [145].

This describes the relationship between Crichton and the Scorpius shadow well, I think. Scorpius is driven to delve into Crichton's mind, and several times in the series the neural clone tells Crichton, “You will never be rid of me.” The Scorpius shadow works well in the framework of fractured identity working towards evil, in Koehn's paradigm. If we view Scorpius as a part of John's psyche, a frustrated part of his desires, then we can further see both his psychological crisis of having the wormhole knowledge, as well as his literalized fracturing of himself, as discussed above. The overall effect on the series shows the viewer the constant psychological tension with which Crichton lives.

According to Le Guin, the only way to defeat the shadow is to turn and confront it (70). John Crichton refuses to do this. He may argue and even fight with the Scorpius shadow, but ultimately he is running and hiding from the wormhole knowledge with the shadow ever in pursuit. In
The Peacekeeper Wars
, Crichton finally confronts the shadow and uses the wormhole technology. This acceptance allows him to face his fear and destroy the shadow. In the final moments of the mini-series, Crichton watches the neural clone slowly die and fade away. It is interesting to note that the dying shadow is no longer wearing the black suit but a muted white-washed version that looks much less menacing. John has faced the shadow and defeated him—only then does he wake up from his coma to greet his child.

It would be easy to classify the Scarrans as just bad guys; in fact, the back cover of
The Peacekeeper Wars
DVD identifies the Scarrans as an evil empire. They are one of the major military powers in the galaxy, and their cultural mores are quite different than the human viewers of the series. Yet this is a basic stereotypical convention of SF: reptilian species are the bad guys. Crichton even plays with this when he calls Staleek a “Sleestak” from the series
Land of the Lost
.
⁴
But to understand the reasons upon which the Scarrans act, we must investigate the problems they have in viewing themselves and other races.

Scarrans value toughness. They are physically big, hard to kill, and have claws, as well as a directed heat probe they can shoot forward from their hands. In the episode, “Incubator” (3.11), we see Tauza torturing the boy who would become Scorpius. She tells him that Scarrans are strong, but since he is weak, he is nothing. We learn that the Scarrans kill or enslave anything they view as weak. This seems an act of pure evil, but to them, they are preserving their societal values. Earth cultures did this as well. The Greeks would leave babies they deemed deformed on hillsides to die, and the Spartans killed children who looked weak. But these are not the values that cause the Scarrans to act “evil.” The Scarrans suffer from a boredom of their race. They have subjugated their own region, and they have nothing really to do.

Koehn's view expresses the tone portrayed by the Scarrans: “When we suffer from ennui, we think the world owes it to us to be intriguing and engaging... Instead, we behave like children. We have some need or desire, so the universe must fulfill it! We do not consider the possibility that the universe does not exist in order to cater to our every whim” (65). The Scarran belief in their own superiority forces them to act like petulant children. They are unsatisfied with themselves and need to test their belief in their own power. As Baumeister, Smart, and Boden point out, bullies with high self-esteem turn to violence when they feel that they encounter what they perceive to be weaker people. They are so ego-centric, they simply believe they cannot fail, so they become bored with their conquests—which, in turn, leads to more aggressive behavior (7–9). In the case of the Scarrans, they turn their attention to the Peacekeeper's space in order to prove themselves and end their ennui.

War Minister Ahkna first appears in the episode “Bringing Home the Beacon” (4.16). In the episode, she is in negotiations with the Peacekeepers on a treaty to cede some of the uncharted territories to the Peacekeepers in exchange for the Luxan worlds. The Scarrans believe the Luxans may be good cannon fodder troops for their war machine. Ultimately the negotiations fail because the Scarrans view the Peacekeepers as lesser beings. Ahkna is brutal, obsessive, and not adept at negotiations. It is not the Scarran way. Since the Scarran race believes they are genetically superior, they have little use for niceties and manners, which they consider a weakness. When Crichton attempts to auction off the wormhole knowledge in “We're So Screwed Part I: Fetal Attraction” (4.19), it is obvious that Ahkna believes only the Scarrans are strong and wise enough to use it. She doubts the Peacekeepers or Crichton have the courage to use such a weapon. Ahkna shows her contempt for others as she tortures Scorpius for wormhole knowledge, after which she uses her heat probe ability on Crichton to find any knowledge he might possess. She even risks the detonation of the nuclear device he is using to protect himself from attack by either the Peacekeepers or the Scarrans. When Crichton refuses to give her the knowledge, and the nuclear bomb is about to detonate, Crichton still will not give in. Ahkna cannot believe Crichton would kill himself to protect the wormhole knowledge. She calls him “insane” because she cannot fathom killing herself. She typifies the Scarran egocentrism that leads them to do evil. They do not really know their limits beyond a belief in their invulnerability, similar to the characteristic belief in teenagers who subscribe to their “personal fable” of invincibility. Nowhere is this portrayed better than by Staleek.

Staleek is the Emperor of the Scarrans and a shrewd leader. He is supremely convinced that his race deserves to rule the galaxy. He has secured the races of the Charrids and Kalish as servants to the Scarran Empire. When Crichton arrives at Katratzi, Staleek believes he is perhaps there to rescue Scorpius, but in his mind, he cannot believe someone would risk his life to save another. He quips, “Why would Crichton risk so much to rescue an ally?” (4.20). Staleek shows a lack of empathy, and a lack of knowledge of friendship or companionship. Unable to understand his enemies or obtain the wormhole knowledge, Staleek becomes even more frustrated by his own discordance between his world view of his race and his ability to achieve his goals. As Koehn points out,

We implicitly want what will satisfy us in an abiding way. Only something that provides lasting satisfaction is truly good. And there's the rub. Although each of us strives for satisfaction, our unexamined desires contain the germ of dissatisfaction. Lacking self-knowledge we pursue what appears good but fails to end our cravings [239–240].