Captain Crais

Evil-doer
Full Name	Bialar Crais
Alias	Captain Crais, Madman, My Boy Crais, Maniac, Captain Crunch, 007
Origin	Farscape
Occupation	Peacekeeper Captain (prior to season 2) Fugitive (following season 2)
Powers / Skills	Skilled hand-to-hand combatant, expert marksman, cybernetically linked to Talyn
Hobby	Plotting vengeance on Crichton (prior to season 2) Roaming the Uncharted Territories with Talyn (following season 2)
Goals	Get revenge on John Crichton (failed) Escape Peacekeeper captivity (succeeded) Quell Talyn's violent tendencies (failed) Get revenge on Scorpius and stop his wormhole project (succeeded)
Crimes	No information
Type of Villain	Seeker of vengeance

“	Tauvo is dead. Struck down by a weak, pathetic, inferior being. It must be avenged! I swear in Tauvo's name, Crichton, you will die in my hands.	„
	~ Crais swears vengeance against Crichton

Captain Bialar Crais is a central character and recurring antagonist in the science-fiction TV series Farscape. The overarching villain of season one, he is introduced as a ruthless commander in the galaxy-spanning military organization known as the Peacekeepers: charged with hunting down the fugitives and escaped convicts that make up the main cast of characters, he is primarily motivated by the desire for revenge against series protagonist John Crichton, who Crais believes to responsible for the death of his brother, Tauvo.

Over the course of the season, however, his obsession with vengeance leads him to disobey the orders of his superiors and turn renegade in pursuit of Crichton. Eventually, his crimes are discovered by fellow villain Scorpius, who strips Crais of his rank and has him branded "Irreversibly Contaminated," forcing the ex-captain to ally with Crichton and the other members of the main cast in his attempt to escape justice. From hereon, Crais becomes more of an anti-hero, though he still occasionally plays the role of an antagonist in his interactions with the crew - particularly in regards to his partnership with Moya's son, Talyn.

Crais is played throughout the series by Lani Tupu, who also provides the voice of Moya's pilot.

Biography

Pre-Show

Unlike most Peacekeepers, Bialar Crais was not born into the ranks of the organization as part of an official breeding program: he and his brother Tauvo grew up on an Sebacean agricultural commune within Peacekeeper space, fully expected to spend their lives as simple farmers. One day, however, both Bialar and Tauvo were granted the unexpected honor of being conscripted for Peacekeeper service. On the day they left their home planet, Bialar's father took him aside and instructed the young conscript to protect Tauvo at all costs - advice Bialar took to heart.

The two brothers ascended swiftly through the ranks: a fighter pilot by vocation, Tauvo became a lieutenant in charge of a squadron of Prowlers; Bialar rose even higher, achieving the rank of captain and his own command carrier - an impossible rarity among recruits born outside the Peacekeepers. However, because of his humble origins, some doors were always closed to Bialar, and he found that further ascendance through the ranks was not forthcoming, a disappointing prospect to the ambitious young captain. Realizing that he could never rise any higher through traditional success, he used his authority to fund experimental programs that he hoped would get the attention of Central Command.

One of his most notable programs was a breeding program for the biomechanical starship race known as Leviathans. The Peacekeepers had been enslaving Leviathans for many years, employing them as cargo carriers and prison ships, but their inability to carry weapons or be modified to that end was a continued frustration to Central Command: Crais' program set out to impregnate a female Leviathan with a hybrid offspring capable of carrying weapons, with the end goal of producing an entire fleet of biomechanoid gunships; other attempts had been made to do so in the past, but most of them had ended up killing both mother and child in the process. In this latest attempt, Crais sought out test subjects compatible with his designs, and eventually settled on the Leviathan prison ship known as Moya.

Ostensibly, Moya was an ideal candidate, being a fertile specimen of breeding age. However, Crais' plan hinged on the cooperation of Moya's Pilot in order to monitor and oversee the gestating offspring; when the Pilot refused to agree to his terms, Crais ordered Lieutenant Velorek to find a replacement, before having the old pilot executed by firing squad. Once the replacement Pilot was installed and artificially bonded with Moya, Crais ordered his scientists to work in impregnating the Leviathan; unknown to him, Velorek was morally opposed to the project and had set up a contraceptive shield to prevent Moya from conceiving. Though the rogue lieutenant was careful to disguise his movements, he made the mistake of confiding in his lover, the temporarily-reassigned Prowler pilot Aeryn Sun; anxious to return to a Prowler detail and uncomfortable with the direction her life was going in, Aeryn revealed Velorek's sabotage to Crais in exchange for a return to piloting duties. However, even after extensive interrogation, Velorek never confessed and the contraceptive shield remained undiscovered, leaving the project a failure.

Season 1

When the series begins, Captain Crais is escorting three Leviathan prison ships to Terran Rau, a penal colony for prisoners serving life sentences. One of the ships is none other than Moya, otherwise empty except for three priority convicts: Delvian anarchist P'au Zotoh Zhaan, framed Luxan warrior Ka D'Argo, and deposed Hynerian ruler Dominar Rygel XVI. Unexpectedly, the three convicts break free of their cells and seize control of Moya. When the Leviathan abruptly leaves formation, the Captain's command carrier naturally gives chase, sending out a squadron of Prowlers to intercept Moya before she can escape; among the squadron are Tauvo Crais and Aeryn Sun.

However, at this point, a wormhole opens in the fabric of space and abruptly deposits series protagonist John Crichton right in the middle of the ongoing conflict. Startled by the sudden appearance of Crichton's module, Tauvo accidentally crashes into him and spirals into a collision course with a nearby asteroid, dying on impact. In the confusion that follows, Crichton is captured by Moya's crew moments before they successfully disable the Leviathan's control collar, allowing them to starbust to safely - unwittingly dragging Aeryn's prowler along with them, eventually leading to her being captured as well.

Upon discovering that his brother is dead, Crais demands to know who was piloting the "death pod" that "attacked" him, and upon realizing that the culprit is most likely aboard Moya, intensifies his efforts to recapture the fleeing Leviathan. However, Moya has to stop at a commerce planet for repairs, allowing Aeryn and Crichton an opportunity to escape from their cells and signal for help. When Crais arrives, he immediately places Crichton under arrest for the "murder" of his brother, intending to have him executed and dissected; when Aeryn attempts to protest this ruling, Crais declares her "Irreversibly Contaminated" due to extended contact with an alien species, effectively condemning her to death along with Crichton.

Unfortunately for Crais, this ultimately results in Aeryn helping Crichton and the rest of Moya's crew escape from captivity. Humiliated and starved for a chance at revenge, he orders his command carrier to continue pursuing the Leviathan, even if it means leaving Peacekeeper Space and following Moya into the Uncharted Territories.

For much of the season, Crais remains out of the spotlight, though his influence can be felt almost everywhere: Moya's crew are forced to take extreme measures in order to avoid detection by Crais, at one point crash-landing on a predominantly marshy planet in a desperate attempt to muffle a signal beacon left in Moya's hull. At another point, Crichton goes so far as to bluff a squad of Marauders into believing that humans can clone themselves at will, hoping that this will dissuade Crais from pursuing him when the squad reports back (it doesn't).

Crais eventually reappears in the episode "That Old Black Magic." By now, his pursuit of vengeance is beginning to erode both his sanity and his authority: not only is his crew on the verge of collapse after several weeks of back-to-back patrols in search of Crichton, but Central Command is demanding that he abandon his pursuit of Moya and return to Peacekeeper Space with a full explanation for his failure - and insisting that Crais' second-in-command replace him if he refuses, though Lieutenant Teeg remains loyal to her captain over Command. At this point, however, the alien sorcerer Maldis transports Crais across space and time, offering an opportunity to kill Crichton - which he eagerly accepts.

Over the course of the episode-spanning duel, Crichton remains on the defensive, continuously attempting to reason with Crais; however, every time he gets close to inspiring some kind of epiphany in the stubborn Peacekeeper commander, Maldis reappears and provides him with reasons to get angry all over again. Even after it becomes clear that the sorcerer is feeding off the violence and anger of the two combatants, Crais refuses to back down, forcing Crichton to go on the offensive - though his opponent is teleported away before he can land the killing blow. It's eventually revealed that Maldis intends to hitch a lift aboard the command carrier when it finally arrived and use Crais' thirst for vengeance as a means of spreading death and destruction across the Uncharted Territories, allowing him to feast on a massive scale. Though Maldis is dispersed before this plan can be fully enacted, the damage has already been done: not does Crais disregard his orders from Central Command, but he also murders Lieutenant Teeg as the only witness to the orders, before taking his command carrier on a course leading even further away from Peacekeeper Space.

Despite months of searching and thousands of wanted beacons scattered across the settled planets of the Uncharted Territories, Crais fails to find any trace of Crichton or the escaped convicts. Ironically, during this time, D'Argo ends up breaking Velorek's contraceptive shield and accidentally leaving Moya pregnant with a gunship hybrid, unwittingly vindicating Crais' long-defunct project.

Eventually, Crichton is captured at a top-secret Gammak base while attempting to secure medical supplies for Aeryn; base commander and chief researcher Scorpius interrogates Crichton via the memory-dissecting Aurora Chair, eventually discovering his ongoing feud with Crais. Though aware that Crais is in violation of orders, Scorpius nonetheless invites the captain to his base, offering to hand over Crichton in exchange for assistance in getting him to surrender the secrets of wormhole technology. However, a Peacekeeper technician sympathetic to Crichton sabotages the chair, making it look as though Crais agreed to spare the astronaut's life in exchange for wormhole data; unwilling to pass up on a potential lead, Scorpius forces Crais into the Aurora Chair and interrogates him at length - eventually uncovering the murder of Lieutenant Teeg in the process. By the time it's discovered that the renegade captain has no wormhole knowledge, Crichton is already being broken out of his cell.

As if to add insult to injury, Aeryn later infiltrates the facility and finds Crais still in the Chair; after stealing his ident chip and berating him for casting her out of the Peacekeepers, she switches the chair back on at full power and storms off, leaving her ex-commander screaming in agony.

In the following episode, Crais continues his efforts to track down Moya and her newly-born offspring, Talyn. However, Scorpius invites himself aboard the command carrier, offering advice that would allow the two Leviathans and their crew to be captured easily; Crais disregards most of these suggestions out of sheer spite. However, Scorpius continues to whittle away at what little support Crais maintains among the crew, eventually sending a report to Central Command indicting the captain for dereliction of duty and the murder of a fellow officer. Facing court-martial and execution, Crais attacks Scorpius - only to suffer an humiliating defeat in the ensuing brawl, leaving Crais broken and effectively powerless aboard his own command carrier.

In the season finale, Rygel surrenders to the command carrier in a desperate attempt to escape the inevitable massacre and secure leniency for himself; however, Crais is able to convince the Hynerian that Scorpius intends to have him executed as soon as his usefulness has been exhausted, and helps him escape in return for a place aboard Moya. The crew of Moya are not happy to have Crais aboard, Crichton least of all, but they reluctantly accept his presence nonetheless - keeping him contained in one of Moya's prison cells for the time being. While there, Crais wearily admits that he knows Crichton is innocent of Tauvo's death, confessing that much of the season's pursuit was driven by his need to make up for his own perceived inadequacies and revive his failing career.

Once it becomes clear that his knowledge of Peacekeeper tactics could be useful, the crew reluctantly include Crais in a plan to help them escape from Scorpius: Crichton and D'Argo are to provide a distraction by piloting a transport pod filled with explosives on a collision course with the Gammak base; with Scorpius unable to part with either the base or with Crichton, he will move to intercept, allowing Moya and Talyn to escape. Aeryn is to remain behind to retrieve Crichton and D'Argo when they bail out, eventually intending to rendezvous with Moya outside the system.

Unfortunately, Crais decides to play his own angle: while the others are distracted enacting their own halves of the plan, Crais sneaks aboard Talyn; gaining the biomechanoid gunship's trust, he is able to convince Talyn to leave his mother's side and escape the system on their own.

Season 2

At the start of Farscape's second season, Crais is having great difficulty keeping Talyn under control, thanks to the gunship's immaturity and Scorpius' increasingly effective attempts to lure him out of hiding. With Aeryn having little luck rescuing Crichton and D'Argo from open space, he is able to make a deal with her: in exchange for saving her friends and finding sanctuary for them on a neighboring moon, she is to help him control Talyn - Aeryn having gained the young biomechanoid's trust far earlier than Crais. However, Crais is once again playing his own angle, supposedly attempting to negotiate a full pardon with Scorpius in exchange for Crichton while secretly stalling for time while he puts the finishing touches on his own escape attempt. Eventually, Moya returns to the system, allowing the three shipmates to return home, but not before Crichton is able to capture Crais and haul him off Talyn at gunpoint.

Unfortunately, Talyn becomes anxious and panicky in Crais' absence, and demands that the captain be returned to him - eventually going so far as to open fire on his own mother in an attempt to force the issue. The crew reluctantly free Crais and allow him to return to Talyn, this time accompanied by Aeryn - who intends to remain aboard Talyn along with the captain in the hopes that she can prove a more positive role-model for the young Leviathan. However, upon arriving aboard the gunship, Crais is promptly implanted with "The Hand Of Friendship," a neural transponder allowing the user direct interface with Talyn, effectively making Crais the Leviathan's Pilot. With Talyn only requiring one master, Aeryn is promptly ordered off the ship - Crais deploying the gunship's indoor turrets against her when she refuses. Outgunned, Aeryn reluctantly leaves the ship.

Before he starbursts away, Crais provides one final report to Scorpius, claiming to have killed Crichton and avenged his brother's death. However, Scorpius doesn't believe a word of this claim, and resolves to continue the search.

Once again, Crais spends most of the season out of the spotlight, though Moya's desperate search for her lost son defines much of her itinerary throughout the season, particularly during the episode "Dream A Little Dream." However, it's eventually revealed that Crais is serving as a mentor and father figure to Talyn during this time, advising him in a similar fashion to Aeryn during their early episodes together; more surprisingly, in sharp contrast to the crew's fears that the ex-Peacekeeper might abuse Talyn's destructive capabilities, it's later revealed that Crais is actually trying to steer the young hybrid away from violent decisions. In the episode "Out Of Their Minds," it initially appears that Talyn has launched an unprovoked attack on a Halosian ship, eventually provoking a reprisal against Moya; however, it's later revealed that the aggressively competitive Halosians shot first, prompting Talyn to return fire in self-defense - and Crais actually had to talk him out of destroying the enemy ship outright.

In "The Ugly Truth," Moya is unexpectedly reunited with her son in a remote system, and Crais invites all members of the crew (barring Rygel and Chiana) aboard for a private discussion. As it later becomes clear, Talyn's destructive tendencies have become increasingly troubling to Crais, and he needs Moya's help in disarming the quarrelsome young hybrid; he feels that the only way to discourage him from further violence is to replace his main cannon with a dampening net capable of non-lethally disabling hostile vessels - a weapon only obtainable from the infamous Plokavian arms dealers. However, when a Plokavian cargo freighter arrives to deliver the dampening net, Talyn unexpectedly destroys the ship with a single blast of his cannon; in the ensuing chaos, the crew are forced to leave - only to be arrested by another Plokavian ship while Talyn starbursts away. After a prolonged interrogation session, it becomes clear that - despite Stark's best efforts at incriminating him - Crais is innocent: Talyn fired upon the arms dealers of his own free will, apparently believing that the arms dealers were going to harm Moya.

Following the disastrous heist at the Shadow Depository towards the end of the "Liars, Guns And Money" trilogy, Moya has been badly burned in the crew's attempts to disable the booby trap left in the container they stole, and Crichton has surrendered himself to Scorpius. It is at this point that Talyn unexpectedly arrives to provide aid: while Talyn provides his mother with intravenous medical aid, Aeryn attempts to convince Crais to help rescue Crichton - even going so far as to offer herself in exchange for his aid. Though Crais is apparently harboring romantic feelings for Aeryn, he declines, refusing to use Talyn for destructive ends. However, during the crew's attempt to rescue Crichton from the Depository, Talyn unexpectedly covers their escape by bombarding the area from above, destroying the building and killing all remaining enemy forces; when later questioned as to what made him change his mind, Crais admits that he didn't - Talyn conducted the rescue of his own accord.

In the season finale, Crais and Talyn accompany Moya to Diagnosan Tocot's facility; here, Crais tentatively discusses Aeryn joining them on a more permanent basis, but they are interrupted when Crichton is overtaken by the Scorpius neural clone and attempts to escape in the Farscape module. Though Crais is able to stop Talyn from simply blasting Crichton out of the sky, he unfortunately is unable to save Aeryn from being killed in the ensuing aerial battle.

Later, Crais is seen mourning for Aeryn, revealing to Talyn that he had discovered information that would have made her "the happiest soul among us," had she only survived (later revealed to be a recording of a young Aeryn meeting her mother against Peacekeeper regulations, an encounter Aeryn had long since believed to be a dream).

Season 3

In the following episode, "Season Of Death," Crais discovers that Scorpius has arrived at the medical facility in an attempt to retrieve the neurochip from Crichton's brain, and moves to intercept his Marauder as it leaves the planet. Though Scorpius attempts to talk the renegade captain down, Crais ignores him and has Talyn open fire on the fleeing ship, destroying the Marauder before it can reach the safety of the command carrier. Satisfied with avenging Aeryn's death, Crais and Talyn then starburst away. Unknown to them, Aeryn has just been resurrected at the cost of Zhaan's life; less fortunately, the Marauder that Talyn destroyed was actually a decoy and Scorpius is still alive - and free to begin experimentation on the wormhole data extracted from Crichton's brain.

After a brief absence, Talyn later reappears in the episode "Eat Me," badly damaged and floating aimlessly in space; likewise, Crais is alive but comatose. In the following episode, Crais regains consciousness and (after recovering from the shock of seeing Aeryn alive again), reveals that Talyn was ambushed by a Peacekeeper retrieval squad, and though they were able to escape the squad's cruiser alive, it's clear that they're still in the region and searching; while Crichton and his clone go about securing medical attention for the wounded Leviathan, Crais reveals that the retrieval squad is led by Xhalax Sun, Aeryn's mother - now "reformed" into a merciless killer by the Peacekeepers.

Unfortunately, the retrieval squad discovers them and attacks, forcing Moya and Talyn to separate once again. This time, however, Aeryn, Rygel, Stark and one of the two Crichtons end up aboard the Talyn with Crais: immediately, tensions arise between the crewmembers, especially between Crais and Crichton. By now, both share romantic feelings for Aeryn, and neither of them trust one another - Crais regarding Crichton as an incompetent roadblock to his attempts to get Aeryn to join him on Talyn, Crichton regarding Crais as a flagrantly untrustworthy sociopath whose feelings towards Aeryn and Talyn do not appear in any way healthy to anyone involved.

To Crichton's further annoyance, Crais appears to be using his command over Talyn's internal systems to make his life a living hell: doors refuse to open, showers fail to produce hot water, Crichton's belongings constantly vanish from his quarters, and the thermostat seems to be constantly cranking up the temperature whenever Crais and Aeryn are alone together.

Tensions between Crichton and Crais comes to a head when Talyn is unexpectedly swallowed by a massive interstellar beast known as a Budong. When Aeryn decides to accept a neural transponder of her own in an attempt to help calm Talyn down and escape the monster alive, it looks to be confirmation to Crichton that she's decided to join Crais - further confirmed when he discovers a recording of the two ex-Peacekeepers having sex.

However, it eventually becomes clear that this is all part of a setup - not by Crais, but by Talyn: the biomechanoid has been playing matchmaker between his two "pilots" and wants the human out of the picture; not only has he been stealing his belongings and faking sex tapes in an attempt to alienate Crichton, but he even goes so far as to try and kill him by locking him outside the ship during a spacewalk. Worse still, Crais has even less control over Talyn than usual: in stressful moments, the gunship is actually able to control Crais via their neural link, resulting in hideous boils and sores appearing on the captain's body. Eventually, the situation is resolved when Aeryn removes her transponder and refuses to comply with Talyn's manipulations.

In the following episode, Crais and the rest of Talyn's crew are finally pitted against Xhalax Sun and the retrieval squad: though tensions between Crichton and Crais once again escalate after they are separated from Aeryn, the two of them are able to overwhelm the other members of the squad and capture Xhalax. It's quickly realized that the only way to stop Central Command from sending more retrieval squads into kill Xhalax, but Aeryn is unable to kill her own mother, so Crais volunteers: however, as soon as Crichton and Aeryn leave the area, Crais spares Xhalax's life and allows her to leave the planet on the condition that she report her targets dead.

Crais' deception goes unnoticed until the events of "The Choice." By now, the Crichton aboard Talyn has sacrificed his life to stop the Scarrans from obtaining wormhole weaponry, and Aeryn has left for Valdon to mourn: while there, Stark and Rygel discover Xhalax hunting the area, and go so far as to hold Crais at gunpoint until he explains the situation. However, it becomes clear that Xhalax is no longer pursuing her original mission, but is now out to make Aeryn suffer as much as possible. While Stark and Rygel fight their way through the local thugs hired by Xhalax, Crais heads upstairs and kills Xhalax herself.

Eventually, Talyn reunites with Moya, allowing Crais a part in the surviving Crichton clone's newest plan: stop Scorpius' wormhole project.

Sacrifice And Death

Towards the end of Season 3, Talyn's behavior grows increasingly irrational as the stress of his time fleeing the Peacekeepers takes its toll. Following a run-in with a Marauder from Scorpius' command carrier, the gunship's paranoia finally spirals out of control, leading to him destroying an unarmed hospital ship and killing all six hundred passengers aboard. When Crais suggests shutting Talyn down until he can receive treatment for his deepening psychosis, Talyn opens fire on Moya in a fit of panic, stopping just short of killing his own mother.

Guilt-stricken by his failure as a mentor, Crais barely manages to placate Talyn long enough to shut him down; as such, when Crichton joins Scorpius' wormhole project, Crais tags along in the hopes that the Peacekeeper technicians might be able to undo Talyn's mental trauma and give him a fresh start. Unfortunately, Commandant Grayza's sudden oversight of the wormhole project results in Talyn being seized and forcibly disarmed. When Crichton suggests destroying the command carrier and taking the experimental program with it, Crais realizes that the plan will not work - and hatches a desperate plan to stop Scorpius and achieve redemption for himself and Talyn.

In order to lull any suspicions directed at him, Crais first reveals Crichton's plan to Scorpius, resulting in the rest of Moya's crew being captured and held hostage. Then, while Crichton keeps Scorpius distracted with a controlled flight through a wormhole, Crais sneaks aboard Talyn and reactivates him: though the gunship has been completely disarmed, he still has the capacity to starbust, but inside the confines of the command carrier's main hanger, the energy blast will result in a chain reaction that will destroy the capital ship and the wormhole project along with it.

Crais takes a moment to deliver one final speech lambasting Scorpius for taking his command from him, before issuing his final order to Talyn: "Starburst." The resulting explosion kills both Crais and Talyn - but in the process, Scorpius' wormhole project is destroyed, likely for good.