Stark (Farscape)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Farscape character | |
 |
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| Stark | |
|---|---|
| Title | Stykera |
| Homeworld | Unknown |
| Race | Banik |
| Gender | Male |
| Affiliation | Independent, Moya's crew |
| Portrayer | Paul Goddard |
Stark is a fictional character on the television science fiction series Farscape played by Paul Goddard. Introduced to the series late in the first season, Stark became a main character during the third season, before disappearing at the end of it and only returning at the end of the fourth season; he played a major part in The Peacekeeper Wars mini-series.
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[edit] Overview
Stark is Stykera, a specialized subrace of the Banik. Stark wears a half-mask - strapped to his head by two separate buckles - of an unidentified metal, covering an incorporeal area that glows dark orange when uncovered, on the right side of his face (roughly his eye and cheek-bone) that he only reveals when he is taking away someone's pain or "crossing over" a soul--aiding or comforting a person in the moments prior to their death. However, in doing so, Stark absorbs a small fragment of the soul - and thus the knowledge and lingering emotions - of the person he "crosses over" into his own psyche, something which might explain his somewhat unbalanced mental behaviour. In addition, by virtue of being a Stykera, Stark can ease the pain and suffering of others, one of the traits that made him sought after for Scorpius' Aurora Chair research (amongst others: see below). This has not helped relations between Stark and the Peacekeepers, judging by his hatred for Scorpius and deep distrust of Crais (even after he defected from the Peacekeepers).
[edit] Character history
[edit] Season one
John Crichton first meets Stark near the end of the first season (episode "Nerve"), when both are imprisoned on Scorpius' Gammak Base. They share a cell together, and Stark is not very accommodating ("My side, your side! My side, your side!"). Both are also subjects of Scorpius' Aurora Chair, and over 100 sessions in it may have driven Stark somewhat crazy, although he reveals to Crichton, who is in pain and disoriented from his own Aurora Chair experiences, it is mostly an act to keep Scorpius' interest in him as low as possible (Stark has also been constructing an electronic doorkey to the cell at the time). His species is apparently the only one who can indefinitely resist the Aurora chair. It's here, too, where we first see Stark's gift for easing people's pain, shifting back his mask slightly to bathe Crichton's face in orange light and calm him down. Moya's crew is eventually successful in rescuing Crichton. Stark gratefully escapes the Gammak Base with them and, after crossing over Gilina Renaez (mortally wounded rescuing them) borrows one of Moya's transport pods and heads off on his own way (episode "The Hidden Memory").
[edit] Season two
Stark returns nearly a cycle later to Moya (episode "The Locket"), to find Moya trapped in a time-bubble of sorts (a 'centre-halo', where time does not exist, a theory he heard put forward - interestingly enough - by the Ancients). After aiding a distraught and suddenly extremely aged Aeryn Sun, he 'joins minds' - fuses spirits - with Zhaan to discover the anomaly, and later again to keep time alive to allow an also aged Crichton to reverse things. Stark then reveals the real reason he returned to Moya: he has formulated a plan to rescue a cargo-ship full of Banik slaves, amongst them Ka D'Argo's son Jothee.
Not long after these events (in the episode "The Ugly Truth"), the Leviathan Moya reunites with her son Talyn, and Crais recognises Stark from the Gammak Base. However they are all subsequently imprisoned by the Plokavians when Talyn opens fire on one of their ships... or does he? The entire crew, including Crais and Stark, are interrogated to find who is responsible for the incident, where Rashomon-like intermeshed but not-quite-matching versions of events leading up to the ship's destruction are given from each member. However, most testimonies seem to recall Stark lunging at one of Talyn's control panels just before Talyn fires. When Stark learns that one of the possible punishments is dispersal - to which he might possibly survive by transferring enough of his inner energies to another plane beforehand - he confesses to the crime, saving the rest of the crew. He gives his face mask to Zhaan for safe keeping, revealing that his face no longer glows (thereby suggesting he might have had enough time to transfer his energies away), and is promptly dispersed. This has a personal impact on Zhaan - they were becoming very close after fusing spirits sharing their similar mental abilities - and she is seen quietly weeping over Stark's mask.
Stark survives dispersion and is seen next at the beginning of the "Liars, Guns and Money" arc at the end of season two, having reconstituted his body, stolen a ship, formulated his plans and met up again with Moya. His plans are to raid a Shadow Depository (a bank for illegal booty) for currency and use it to buy the lot of slaves of sale. However, not all goes to plan, even when he has possession of the bank's maps and doorkeys, after Scorpius unexpectedly arrives. Things take a turn for the worse when they realise the currency they had stolen was actually disguised metal-eating arachnids ("Karach metalites") that proceed to strip Moya, and Scorpius has outmanoeuvred Stark by purchasing the entire slave lot himself just to get Jothee, and then spacing the unneeded 9,999 Banik slaves. This sends Stark into a screaming fit as he experiences the psychic shock of the mass murder. Having then learned Crichton had exchanged himself for Jothee's life, he aids Moya's crew (still somewhat enraged) to successfully rescue Crichton before escaping what is left of the bank. He is then content to stay on Moya with Zhaan, "sharing the future with her," as he feels they are soulmates.
[edit] Season three
Upon Zhaan's death early in season 3, Stark becomes mentally disjointed, as well as becoming strangely interested in Aeryn, who Zhaan sacrificed herself to save.
[edit] The Peacekeeper Wars
After absorbing the ancient Eidelon knowledge of how to influence peace from a dying Hierarch and passing it back to another Eidelon, Stark's mental derangement stabilizes. At the end of Farscape: The Peacekeeper Wars Stark removes his metal mask to reveal his "light" gone, and his soul at peace.
[edit] Alternate Starks
Within the Farscape universe as the series progresses, another three different 'versions' of Stark were seen: as a not-quite-sane Gamesmaster in a twisted reality-based amusement, a fused Stark/Sikozu character witnessed in an alternate reality, and as a convincing bioloid replica of himself.
[edit] Stark the Gamesmaster
Episode: "John Quixote"
When Chiana drags Crichton into a neural-based reality game, the game's guide is manifested as Stark ("I'm Stark, avatar, guide, the game embodied."), albeit one with outgrown longer red hair (compared to Stark's usual shaved head), with a cape and wearing his mask on the other side of his face (a mirror image). It's discovered the game is based on Stark's memories and viewpoints, with a lot of influence and knowledge from the deceased Crichton twin that Stark gained when he passed his soul over at death (episode "Infinite Possibilities: Icarus Abides"). The game has been created ultimately to punish Crichton, as an expression of Stark's rage and grief that Zhaan gave her life to save Aeryn, because Zhaan loved Aeryn, and because she knew how much Aeryn and Crichton loved each other (episode "Wait for the Wheel"). That Aeryn and Crichton got to be together meant that Zhaan and Stark never could be together. Stark the Gamesmaster seems to be indicative of a much darker, deceptive and more manipulative version of Stark than that so far depicted in the show. How the Stark-influenced game came to be created and how it ended up in Chiana's hands is not explained: a rumour that Maldis was somehow involved persists, but this has been neither confirmed nor denied.
[edit] Stark/Sikozu
Episodes: "Unrealised Reality"/"Prayer"
After attempting to learn more of the wormhole information in his head from the Ancient Einstein, Crichton was propelled into an unrealised reality where the people he knew onboard Moya seemed to be fused with each other: one of them was Stark in the shape of Sikozu (and played by Raelee Hill) with her usual Kalish features, only wearing Stark's clothes, mask, and with his longer hair and unbalanced mental state, although this version of Stark acted slightly differently when crossing someone over: she had to love the soul and care about where it's going ("Different Stark, different rules!" Crichton summed up). It was through this version of Stark that Crichton and Scorpius discovered the secret Scarran base 'Katratzi' Aeryn had been taken to, which still apparently existed in Crichton's home reality.
[edit] Stark the bioloid
Episode: "We're so screwed: Hot to Katratzi"
Having been captured on the Scarran base Katratzi, Scorpius was greeted by a sadistic Stark, extremely pleased to be Scorpius' torturer, who babbled about how he intented to trap his soul crossing him over to feed information to War Minister Akhna overseeing the proceeds: it is believed this was the real version of Stark converted to the Scarran side of the conflict, however Scorpius later revealed to Rygel and Noranti that he was a bioloid, a mechanical replica of Stark, and that he knew it was all along to fool Akhna. Rygel and Noranti eventually were successful in subduing the duplicate and freeing the original Stark from the bioloid duplicator chamber, who was welcomed back onto Moya. Stark's bioloid creation was another twist in Scorpius' plans for wormhole information - seemingly a spy for the Scarran Emperor Staleek (for the last ten cycles, Scorpius protested) - designed to fool, or distract, Akhna into thinking she could use him to extract information from Scorpius. By the time Moya's crew - and the original Stark - escaped Katratzi, it was believed the bioloid was dead or damaged/deactivated from Noranti's attack.
