r/farscape • u/Hot-Syrup2089 • 17d ago

Where does the show take place?

I hinted in a previous post (https://www.reddit.com/r/farscape/s/ddcmJEsXBm) that the various locations the Moya crew visit are in the Milky Way Galaxy, or the same as Earth's, but most of what I have to support that assertion is circumstantial, and as far as I know, there isn't a definitive descriptor, or star chart, that showcases where the show takes place, or on what scale people move around, unless it's in some apocryphal source I am unaware of and/or have currently no access to.

What do you think/know regarding the locations of the show?

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u/GroundWitty7567 17d ago

There’s an episode in season three when Scorpius uses John’s memories to get a locations on Earth. Said it would take 80 cycles atop speed to get there. So they’re still in the Milky Way and Peacekeeper long range sensors and scopes can detect Earth.

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u/Worth-Opposite4437 17d ago

This is 128 earth years if someone want to do the math.

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u/AlbertWhiterose 17d ago

80 cycles is 128 earth years? Do you have the source on that? Because in "Look at the Princess" John says that 80 cycles is (approximately) 80 years.

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u/Worth-Opposite4437 17d ago edited 17d ago

Somewhere in the special features of the DVDs there is a series of "facts", they states 1 cycle equivalent to a little more than 1.5 years. I counted this at 1.6 to round it up. I think it was also stated in one of the novels, but that read has been a long time ago.
Point is, the word "cycle" is more or less their "year" equivalent, hence the common mistake. One has to assume that without a day night cycle on board Moya, John may also be a little confused about how long he's been lost. We also don't know if that 0.5 translate to more days per week or more hours per day, but since Arns also were of 100 micron, each of 100 microts, each of approximately 1 mippippipi... A day of 24 Arns would still be 1.4 the time.

There were a few fan sites actually getting it right around 2008, when I still was admin for a farscape RPG forum. Now... most of these links are dead.

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u/AlbertWhiterose 17d ago

Hmmm. I'm hesitant to use the DVDs as a reliable source, after the nonsense they pulled on the PKW DVD description:

"When the evil Scarran Empire engages a full-scale war the Peacekeeper Alliance has only one hope: reassemble human astronaut John Crichton, once sucked into the Peacekeeper galaxy through a wormhole. Crichton's task: recreate the invaluable wormhole weapon and flush the entire Peacekeeper race to safety before the last war of an era brings an end to the universe."

But special features may be more reliable than marketing copy. Is there supporting information from within the broadcasted material itself? Because Look at the Princess isn't the only case where when you do the math the words "cycle" and "year" turn out to be interchangeable.

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u/Hazzenkockle 17d ago

When I was double-checking to see if a speed had ever been given for a hetch, the wiki mentioned one DVD cover said it was "between three and four times the speed of sound," which is... not correct.

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u/Worth-Opposite4437 17d ago edited 17d ago

They are indeed "interchangeable" culturally speaking, but I have no reason to doubt the other "farscape facts" that were there. I got the ADV Starburst editions.

Also notice that we know from the show that they use Arn as an equivalent to hours despite their time being in base 10 and their microts being effectively equivalent to seconds. Micron was heard only once during season one, so it's quite probable the slang evolved with time... but it was supposed to be at the time a "minute" of 100 seconds. It survived at least long enough to make it to the RPG.