Scorpius

Scorpius is a fictional alien and one of the central antagonists featured in the 1999-2003 science fiction television series Farscape. Played by Australian actor Wayne Pygram, he was introduced in episode 1x19 of the series, "Nerve" and remained a persistant threat throughout the remainder of the series. With season three, Wayne Pygram became one of the regularly billed cast members of the show. Scorpius made sixty-three appearances in the series in total. Pygram reprised the role of Scorpius for the 2004 miniseries Farscape: The Peacekeeper Wars.

Overview
Scorpius is a commanding officer in the totalitarian regime known as the Peacekeepers. Unlike standard Peacekeepers, Scorpius is half-Sebacean and half-Scarran. He relentlessly pursues Earth astronaut John Crichton for the secrets of wormhole technology locked in John Crichton's unconscious mind to create a wormhole weapon. He is the product of an experiment by the Scarrans - his Sebacean mother was raped by a Scarran in order to see if there would be any benefit to a hybrid. Raised by Scarrans, he has come to hate them, to reject his Scarran side, and to live for revenge against them. Both his physical attributes as well as his character traits are influenced by his race. Being half Scarran, Scorpius' body produces an extreme amount of body heat, particularly when angry. However, being also half-Sebacean means that too much heat will kill him. To prevent this he wears a full-body cooling suit notable mostly for the interchangeable cooling rods contained inside his cranium that absorb his excess body heat.

Personality
Scorpius 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, extremely intelligent, and exercises remarkable ingenuity. 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 loath to ever trust him.

Notes & Trivia



 * John Crichton's nickname for the Scorpius A.I. memory implant, Harvey, is taken from the 1950 film Harvey directed by Henry Koster and starring Jimmy Stewart.