Farscape/Recap/S01/E03 Exodus From Genesis

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.
< Farscape‎ | Recap‎ | S01


Season 1, Episode 3:

Exodus from Genesis

When a Peacekeeper Marauder arrives in the same system as Moya, presumably sent by Crais on a search-and-capture mission, she hides near a stellar cloud of unknown material -- which turn out to be bug creatures known as Draks, currently in the midst of "genesis", their birthing cycle. Apparently, these creatures use passing ships as birthing grounds, and Moya unwitting becomes a host for them. Not long after they make themselves at home, Crichton encounters one of them; in a panic, he kills it. Believing that they are being threatened, the Draks start interfering with Moya's systems, raising the temperature to accelerate the birthing process and producing "doubles" of Moya's crew to sabotage the ship.

The rising temperature starts affecting Aeryn: as a Sebacean, she can't regulate her internal body temperature, and the heat is sending her into a condition called "Sebacean heat delirium". Beginning with mild disorientation and continuing on through loss of short term memory, muscle coodination, long term memory, the condition ends in a permanent coma known only as "the Living Death"- the only circumstance in which Peacekeepers kill their own out of mercy. In a desperate attempt at preventing the sweltering temperatures from worsening Aeryn's condition or damaging Moya's systems, Pilot opens the docking bay to vent some of the heat into space- even though this might leave them open to attack from enemy ships.

When a Drak manages to implant a spore in Zhaan, their Monarch uses her to communicate; after finally managing to establish who they are and what they want, she and Crichton work out a deal to keep the temperature low enough to keep Aeryn safe for the time being without ruining the birthing cycle. It's going well until the Peacekeeper Marauder returns, taking advantage of the open docking bay to board Moya and deposit a crew of heavily-armed commandoes; encountering some of the duplicates, they naturally open fire- spoiling the deal. With the Monarch no longer interested in what Crichton has to say, Rygel approaches the Drak hive himself, and manages to negotiate a new deal: crank the heat up enough to disable the commandoes, and provide Crichton with an entire battalion of duplicates.

While Zhaan keeps Aeryn stable with cold water, Crichton, D'Argo and the duplicates successfuly bluff the commandoes into believing that humans possess the ability to clone themselves, and send them away with a warning on the subject for Crais. Genesis completes and the Draks leave peacefully.


Tropes present in this episode include: