Bialar Crais
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| Farscape character | |
| Bialar Crais | |
|---|---|
| Title | Captain |
| Homeworld | Sebacean Farming Colony |
| Race | Sebacean |
| Gender | Male |
| Affiliation | Peacekeepers; Independent; Talyn; Ally of Moya's crew |
| Actor | Lani Tupu |
Bialar Crais is a fictional character in the television science fiction series Farscape. The series' creator, Rockne O'Bannon, named the character after his friend, contemporary mystery novelist Robert Crais.
Played by Lani Tupu (who also provided the voice for the animatronic puppet character Pilot onboard Moya), Bialar Crais was born in a Sebacean farming community, but while still a boy, he and his younger brother Tauvo were taken from their family and conscripted into the Peacekeeper military. As they were hauled away, Crais' father charged him to look after his younger brother. It was a burden Crais would always remember, one that would later come back to haunt him.
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[edit] Peacekeeper for Life
Crais and his brother eventually dedicate their lives to being Peacekeepers. Both rise through the ranks until Bialar Crais becomes a captain and gains command of his own Command Carrier. It is a position rarely achieved by any Peacekeeper not born on a carrier. Tauvo, who reaches the rank of Lieutenant, serves under Crais' direct command as a Prowler pilot.
Image:Http://www.sf-radio.net/farscape/charaktere/bilder/crais.jpg
Crais is able to use his position to pursue several scientific projects, one of which includes the breeding of a Leviathan/gunship hybrid under the supervision of Lt. Velorek. The project takes place on the Leviathan Moya and leads to the placement of the ship's current Pilot after her first pilot is executed for failing to comply with their demands. The project eventually leads to both Velorek's execution after it was revealed that he was undermining its progress as well as Crais' first encounter with Officer Aeryn Sun. [1]
Two cycles later, Crais' battle group is transporting Moya to the prison colony Terren Ra, when the prisoners aboard Moya stage an escape. Crais orders an attack on the Leviathan to stop them, and a number of Prowlers assault the Leviathan. During the fight, a wormhole opens in space and the Farscape One module, piloted by John Crichton, emerges. The module appears directly in front of Tauvo's Prowler and he collides with it. The impact knocks his Prowler out of control and into a nearby asteroid, destroying the ship and killing him. After taking Crichton's ship on board, the prisoners, who include Ka D'Argo, Pa'u Zotoh Zhaan, and Dominar Rygel XVI, manage to free Moya of her control collar and starburst away. Officer Sun's Prowler is caught in the ship's wake and pulled with it through the starburst. When Crais learns of the accident, he believes that Crichton intentionally rammed Tauvo's Prowler and murdered his brother. He pursues Moya to a nearby commerce planet and confronts Crichton and Aeryn on its surface, accusing Crichton of murder and announcing he intends to dissect him for further study of the human species. When Aeryn attempts to defend Crichton, Crais declares her "irreversibly contaminated" for spending too much time with the specimen from the unknown species, a charge that carries the sentence of death. As they are being transferred back to his carrier, John and Aeryn manage to escape back to Moya. Though Crais pursues with his Command Carrier, Crichton is able to use the planet's gravity to slingshot Moya to a velocity that allows her to escape. Though he has lost him for now, Crais decides to pursue Moya outside of Peacekeeper space and into the Uncharted Territories in order to recover its prisoners and bring his brother's "killer" to justice. [2]
[edit] In the Uncharted Territories
For the course of the show's first season, Crais is the primary antagonist of Crichton and Moya, scouring the Uncharted Territories for them. During this time, he rediscovers the legendary Command Carrier Zelbinion. Not wanting to take time away from his search, Crais leaves a group of technicians to salvage what they can from the ship then leaves, planning to return for them later. While he is gone, the techs are attacked by Sheyangs and all but one technician, Gilina Renaez, is killed. The Zelbinion would later be discovered by Moya and boarded by her crew. They aid Gilina in partially repairing the ship and driving off the Sheyangs. Gilina agrees to keep her encounter with Crichton and his companions a secret from Crais when he returns. [3]
Later, just when Crais is considering ending his pursuit of Crichton, he is pulled into a confrontation with Crichton by the malevolent entity Maldis. Though Crichton tries to reason with Crais, Maldis' influences drives Crais into a rage and he tries to kill Crichton with his bare hands. When Crichton starts to strangle Crais, Maldis transfers Crais back to his Command Carrier. There, Crais is ordered by Peacekeeper High Command to cease his pursuit of Moya and return to Peacekeeper space. Crais ignores the order and murders the only other officer who knows about it, his first officer Lt. Teeg. In doing so, Crais has effectively gone rogue. [4]
Throughout his search, Crais places a number of "wanted" beacons of Moya's crew throughout the Uncharted Territories in hopes someone will turn them in for a reward. The beacons also contain a message for Aeryn, offering her an honorable discharge if she delivers Crichton to him and returns to the Peacekeepers (but Aeryn is sure that Crais really means death through heat delirium). Despite the beacons, his efforts to find them remain fruitless. [5]
Months later, Crais is informed by Scorpius that he has captured Crichton at his Gammak Base. Happy that Crichton is finally theirs, Crais takes his carrier to the Gammak Base to retrieve Crichton. There, he aids Scorpius in interrogating Crichton in the Aurora Chair since Scorpius refuses to hand Crichton over before he examines him. The interrogation ends abruptly when they discover a memory that shows Crichton giving Crais information on wormholes, exactly what Scorpius is hoping to find. The memory is fake, created by Gilina, who had been transferred to the Gammak Base. Scorpius however, believing the chair to be foolproof, uses the Aurora Chair on Crais, but instead of the wormhole information, he finds Crais' memory of Teeg's murder. Realizing that the chair has been fooled, he stops the interrogation. Before Crais is let out of the chair, however, he is discovered by Aeryn Sun. He orders her to release him, but she refuses. When he vows to hunt her down and kill her as he had vowed to do to Crichton, she turns the chair to full power and leaves him to suffer and die. Crais survives, but is a broken man. His quest to find Crichton has become Scorpius', and the half-breed soon takes control of Crais' Command Carrier as well. [6]
[edit] Defector
Following Scorpius' takeover, Crais realizes that he will soon have to face the consequences of his decisions for the past cycle. When Rygel XVI turns himself in to the Peacekeepers and betrays the crew of Moya, Crais makes a deal with the Hynerian. He will help the crew of Moya escape if they grant him asylum from the Peacekeepers. Rygel agrees, taking Crais with him back to Moya. Though reluctant to let him on board, Crichton and his companions refrain from killing him and imprison him instead. It is then that he finally faces Crichton on civil terms. He explains to Crichton that he has been wrong, that his pursuit has become more about him than his brother, and he apologizes to John. Shortly after, Crais is released from his cell and taken to Talyn, Moya's newborn offspring and the successful outcome of the project he'd started nearly three cycles before. He quickly forms a bond with the young gunship and after Crichton, D'Argo, and Aeryn leave to destroy the Gammak Base, he steals Talyn, devastating Moya.
Crais soon discovers he's grabbed more than he bargained for. Talyn is difficult to control and too young to starburst. After helping save Crichton and D'Argo, he enlists Aeryn's help to get Talyn to cooperate. After some difficulties, Talyn offers Crais, rather than Aeryn, the "hand of friendship," in spite of her objections. Crais is now neurally linked to Talyn and after forcing Aeryn off the ship, he and Talyn starburst away, again devastating Moya. [7]
[edit] With Talyn
For the next cycle, Crais and Talyn wander the Uncharted Territories. Crais acts as a guide, a mentor, and a father to the developing Leviathan gunship. [8]
A few months after parting with Moya and her crew, Crais and Talyn encounter a Halosian vessel. Though they inform the Halosians that they travel peacefully, the Halosians attack. Crais orders Talyn to fire in self defense, effectively crippling the Halosian vessel. [9]
Months later, Crais and Talyn contact Moya. It is his intention to help Talyn become less aggressive and threatening to others by replacing his main cannon with non-lethal weapons. He plans to purchase them from Plokavians, but he needs the help of Moya's crew to install the weaponry. When the Plokavians arrive, however, Talyn fires on their ship, destroying it before again fleeing. It is later revealed that Talyn had detected a substance on the Plokavian ship that could have threatened Moya. He had destroyed the ship to protect his mother. [10]
At one point while under Scarran torture, Crichton would encounter a mental image of Crais. This image was cast in the role of an Australian beat cop wearing red high-heeled pumps. [11]
Crais and Talyn would again cross paths with Moya and her crew after Talyn hears a call of distress from his mother. While Talyn helps Moya recover from severe burns, Aeryn implores Crais to help them assault a Shadow Depository and save Crichton. Crais refuses to allow Talyn to participate as he is hoping to steer the Leviathan away from violence. Talyn decides to return, however, and they destroy the Shadow Depository with a single strafing run. After Crichton is recovered from Scorpius, Crais and Talyn accompany Moya to a planet where she can be healed from her severe burns and Crichton can have Scorpius' chip removed from his head. Crais and Talyn orbit and keep watch for any Peacekeepers. While they wait, Crais informs Aeryn that Talyn wants someone else to help guide him along with Crais. Together, they have selected Aeryn. While Aeryn is gratified at the offer, she leaves to pursue Crichton after he escapes Moya. Aeryn is killed before she can give an answer. Her death devastates Crais and he attends her funeral before returning to Talyn. The distraction provided by her death also allows Scorpius to reach the planet's surface undetected in a Marauder. After recovering Crichton's chip, Scorpius appears to flee in the Marauder. Crais and Talyn pursue and destroy the Marauder before it can reach Scorpius' Command Carrier, avenging Aeryn's death. Again Crais and Talyn starburst away, believing both Aeryn and Scorpius to be dead. Both eventually prove to be false as Scorpius had not been onboard the Marauder and Zhaan has sacrificed herself to bring Aeryn back from the dead. [12] [13] [14]
Shortly after these events, Crais and Talyn are discovered and attacked by a Peacekeeper Retrieval Squad. Talyn manages to fight off part of the squad, but he is severely damaged by a Pantack Class Vigilante armed with an Immobilizer Pulse. Though they manage to escape, both Crais and Talyn are nearly killed and end up drifting for days before Moya arrives, having received a signal from her son. When he is revived, Crais explains the situation and informs Aeryn that her mother, Xhalax Sun, is in command of the squad. Shortly afterward, a healed Talyn is forced to again separate from Moya. Crais and Talyn are now joined by Aeryn, Rygel, Stark, and one of the twinned Crichtons.
They travel together for several months, during which Crais faces his growing attraction to Aeryn, Talyn's persistent behavioral problems, and the ever threatening Retrieval Squad. He also, at one point, gets swallowed by a budong. Xhalax and her squad eventually track Talyn to a planet where he is healing. When her squad fails to capture or eliminate Talyn, Crais, or their companions, she finds herself at their mercy. Knowing Xhalax is too dangerous to leave alive, Crais offers to kill her so Aeryn doesn't have to. Though he fires his weapon, making the others believe he has indeed killed Xhalax, he decides to spare her life and instead makes a deal with Xhalax. He allows her to live if Xhalax reports to the Peacekeepers that Talyn and Crais are dead. Xhalax agrees, but this would not be the last time they would encounter her. After Crichton is killed on Dam-Ba-Da, Stark discovers Xhalax alive on Valldon. Though they believe that Crais has betrayed them, he eventually convinces them that his intentions are in everyone's best interests. Eventually, Crais kills Xhalax to save Aeryn, unaware that Aeryn has already reconciled with her mother.
After Moya and Talyn reunite, Crais elects to join John and Aeryn in stopping Scorpius' wormhole program. As they enact Crichton's plan, Talyn becomes more irrational, destroying an unarmed medical ship as well as firing on his own mother, Moya. Realizing that Talyn needs extensive repairs and modifications, Crais decides to shut down his companion and friend and bring him to the only people who he knows can help him, the Peacekeepers, with the plan to basically destroy his neural systems and reboot with a new personality. On Scorpius' Command Carrier, Crais comes to the realization that the only way to stop Scorpius and destroy his carrier is to use Talyn. While Crichton provides a distraction, Crais manages to board Talyn and reactivate his higher functions. After convincing Talyn that their sacrifice will save many lives, including Moya's, Crais orders Talyn to starburst inside of the carrier's hangar. The resulting explosion is devastating, slowly consuming the Command Carrier from within. The sacrifice of himself and Talyn allows Crais to exact his vengeance on Scorpius, allows Crichton accomplish his mission and save countless lives, save Aeryn, whom Crais had come to care for deeply (possibly to the point of love), and allows Talyn to die nobly and free from Peacekeeper control. Their deaths give Crais and Talyn the redemption they had long sought.
[edit] Afterward
Though dead, Crais appears again in various forms. Less than a cycle after his death, Crichton encounters an image of Crais inside of a mental video game-like device. This image is in the form of an ogre and is married to a princess who greatly resembles Aeryn.
Crichton again encounters Crais, this time in an Unrealized Reality. In this reality, Crichton is a Peacekeeper and Crais his commanding officer. After the Peacekeeper Crichton accomplishes his mission by inadvertently capturing Moya and killing her crew, Crais embraces him and congratulates him on a job well done.
[edit] Character Development
Crais begins the series as a typical villain, chasing the show's hero because of a personal need for revenge. Backstory on Crais reveals that he had been forced to be a Peacekeeper and that his father had charged him with protecting his younger brother, a fact that made him slightly more sympathetic. His continued failure to catch Crichton, and the introduction of Scorpius late in the first year leads to a change in Crais. By this time he has realized that his pursuit of Crichton was to fulfill his personal desire rather than for his brother's memory. He chooses to leave the Peacekeepers and take Talyn, the product of his most successful project. Unexpectedly, Crais is a fairly positive influence on Talyn. He acts as a mentor, teacher, father, and friend to Talyn and tries to teach him peace and discipline. The bond between Crais and Talyn grows strong, stronger even than Talyn's relationship with Aeryn.
In the two cycles following his defection from the Peacekeepers, Crais becomes a valuable ally to Moya's crew. With most of them, however, he does not ever reach the level of friendship. Crais often acts in the interests of Talyn and himself. When he performs an action that he deems necessary, he will go ahead and do it, with or without the consent or even knowledge of his companions. Though he fights beside him on several occasions, Crais doesn't really like Crichton. By the time of the death of Talyn's Crichton, however, he has gained respect for John. With Aeryn, Crais' respect eventually grows into something more. He admires many of her traits and grows to care about her deeply, likely to the point of love. His change leads to his decision with Talyn to make the ultimate sacrifice to stop Scorpius and save them all.
Crais' respect for the Peacekeeper mandates is unclear; at times, he's the flagbearer for military tradition; at other times, he's a renegade. Anything that could be construed as a challenge to his authority terrifies him; he despises Scorpius for almost the same reason he despises Crichton. Like Inspector Javert, Crais simply wants the universe to operate by his rules. And only Crais knows what his rules are.
Because of this, the motives behind his decision to defect from the Peacekeeper military, and his decision to steal Talyn, remain to be fully revealed.
In the penultimate episode of Season 3, Crais uses Talyn to perform a suicidal Starburst inside Scorpius' command carrier. This heroic act of self-sacrifice effectively destroys the Peacekeeper wormhole project, but Talyn and Crais along with it.
