Pilot (Farscape)

PERFORMER	John Eccleston body
	Lani John Tupu voice
DEBUT	1999

Pilot and Rygel

Pilot and Crichton in The Peacekeeper Wars

Pilot is the second Pilot of Moya, the living ship that is the main setting for Farscape.

He is directly connected to Moya's nervous system and serves as her voice to the crew. Pilot is gentle and sometimes naïve but can also hold his own.

Biography

Pre-series

Pilot's backstory is explored in the second season episode "The Way We Weren't." A youngling from the planet Doien, Pilot wishes to explore the stars but has yet to be given permission from the Elders. One day, the Peacekeeper officer Velorek visits Pilot and offers to make his dreams come true by bonding with the Leviathan prison transport Moya. Although Pilot understands that means Moya's original Pilot will die, Velorek convinces him that the original Pilot will die no matter what.

The bonding process between Pilot and Moya is rushed. Velorek is forced to artificially bond the two together, resulting in chronic pain for Pilot. At the end of "The Way We Weren't," Pilot begins the process of naturally bonding with Moya, which will take over a year to complete but relieves his pain.

Seasons 1-4

Pilot is eventually freed from the Peacekeepers by a group of prisoners during the series premiere. Although his relationship with them is initially tense, Pilot becomes close with the Moya crewmembers. However, he does not hesitate to remind them that he prioritizes Moya first and foremost.

Pilot becomes particularly close with Aeryn Sun following the events of "DNA Mad Scientist," in which Aeryn is infused with the DNA of Pilot by an alien scientist. Their friendship almost ends in "The Way We Weren't," but Aeryn gradually works to rebuild his trust.

As the series continues, the stress of his dangerous travels, as well as the stress caused by the Moya crew, builds up. He even kicks D'Argo, Crichton, Chiana, and Jool off ship in "Scratch 'n Sniff" due to their bickering. In "Promises," having become frustrated by the crewmembers' lack of unity, Pilot demands a single spokesperson be chosen. D'Argo is elected captain in the subsequent episode.

Pilot serves a pivotal role in the finale "Bad Timing." To prevent the Scarrans from accessing Earth, Crichton decides to destroy the wormhole. However, the timing necessary to pull off of the maneuver is extremely precise, and only Pilot can help do it. After much consideration, Pilot allows the crew to disconnect him from Moya and place him into a transport pod. This lets Pilot get close to the wormhole to help Crichton. The ordeal almost proves fatal to both Pilot and Moya, but the plan succeeds; the wormhole collapses, and Pilot regenerates his connection to Moya.

Post-Farscape

Pilot and his father meet again

Following the Peacekeeper-Scarran War, Pilot continues his travels across the galaxy with Moya and the crew. In the comic issue "Home is Where the War Is," Pilot returns to Doien and reunites with his father. After helping liberate the planet from the Grennij, Pilot finally earns his forgiveness for leaving.

The comics also reveal that Pilot has a sister.

Behind the scenes

A production maquette of Pilot

• The Creature Shop generally recycled the same puppet, with a different voice, for episodes where other Pilots are involved, such as the Pilot for the ship Rovhu (voiced by Sean Masterson) in "Eat Me" and Moya's original Pilot in "The Way We Weren't" (voiced by Melissa Jaffer).

• The main Pilot puppet was rebuilt for season four. The deprecated puppet was used as Elack's Pilot in the first three episodes from that season (voiced by Dinah Shearing).

• B.P. Richfield from Dinosaurs, who primarily appeared from behind his desk, inspired the Creature Shop's approach to Pilot.

External links

• SciFi's character bio