The Aurora chair

[AxezCore]

I was recently reading the Farscape encyclopedia at the farscape-1 website and it described the Aurora chair as a torture device, so it came to me that I'm not sure I agree with that.

No doubt that being in the chair is very painful and thus could well be described as torture, however it's not built to torture people but to extract their thoughts. Scorpius doesn't take pleasure in torturing people, for him the chair is just the means to an end, at least thats just my thoughts on the subject, what do you guys and girls think?

[chri-baby]

Its a multi-purpose tool!

[Nicola]

Torture devices are very often used to extract information from unwilling participants. The difference between the Aurora Chair and other devices is that the information you get is going to be reality as the victim sees it. (Unless, of course, Gilina is monkeying with the system...;))

In other words, the victim is not going to be able to just say anything to end the torture. Once their mind has been raped... thats it. End of information gathering. Other torture devices would allow the victim to make up stories, implicate others who in reality are not involved, and only tell part of the truth.

When you think of it... the Aurora Chair does not allow for the flexibility of other torture devices. It won't produce evidence that would allow you to convict an innocent - which might handicap some unscrupulous high ranking peacekeeper.

So to answer your question... I think the Aurora Chair is a torture device. One that works to extracts reality as the victim knows it. Not necessarily what the torturer wants to hear.

[Darth Buddha]

Welcome Aboard AxezCore!

You ask a much discussed question...

To paraphrase Scorpius near the end of season one, "If you tell us what we want to know then I won't torture you any more."

There are some shades of gray, AxezCore... Scorpy, John, and the others do not live in a black and white universe. Some folks around here try to FORCE a black and white situation, either whitewashing Scorpius or another of the "villains", while others try to whitewash John and paint the "bad guyes" a lot darker than they are.

Farscape seems to be more about how dark are things and are the better or worse after you are done with them, and were the extreme actions you took justified.

There have been some GREAT threads on these topics. The Aurora Chair comes up in all of them, I believe. I suggest you look at some of these threads....

If You've Got Something to Add, Please Do... those were GREAT THREADS!

Save Sikozu's Tattered Reputation
http://www.watchfarscape.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=12838

The PeaceKeeper Protection Deal (Bad Timing spoilers)
http://www.watchfarscape.com/forums/search.php?s=&action=showresults&searchid=241981

Is Sikozu loyal?
http://www.watchfarscape.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=20293

Is Scorpy Evil?
http://www.watchfarscape.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=19128

Is Crichton Evil?
http://www.watchfarscape.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=19130

Ok now is Grayza Evil?
http://www.watchfarscape.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=19131

Grayza question (Season 4 spoilers)
http://www.watchfarscape.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=17928

Peackeepers, the good, the bad and the ugly.
http://www.watchfarscape.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=16572

John Crichton...a good person or no?
http://www.watchfarscape.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=16369

Challenge: Catch Scorpius Lying
http://www.watchfarscape.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=16378

[witchdoctor]

To my mind the Aurora chair is first an information gathering/memory extraction device, but torture is a side effect of using it. That does not mean that it hasn't been used as a torture device, as Darth Buddha just pointed out with his quote of Scorpius. Also, in one of the fourth season episodes, Promises, a PeaceKeeper plan to disable Moya is foiled, and a tech that designed the unsuccessful hardware is sent to the aurora chair. That was purely punishment; there was no information that had to be extracted.

[Clarsax]

I think the Aurora chair is primarily meant to be an information extracting device. It's main purpose is to pull out a person's memories so that person's perception of certain events can be viewed. But in spite of what it is meant to do, I think it is used as a torture device more often than not. Most of the people it's used on are not willing to sit in the chair, and the process of extracting information inflicts pain. For them, it's a sort of mind rape. It breaks into thier minds and forces out memories against thier will, and most of the people in the chair are helpelss to stop it drilling into their heads.

[AxezCore]

I see I have a lot of reading to do here, thanks Darth Buddha.

Thats what I love about Farscape, nothings just black and white, you have to think for yourself.

Great stuff... I'm going to like this place :D

[Ouroboros]

Promises, a PeaceKeeper plan to disable Moya is foiled, and a tech that designed the unsuccessful hardware is sent to the aurora chair. That was purely punishment; there was no information that had to be extracted.

You know I think Grayza might have suspected that the tech screwed up on purpose. We know Grayza's ship picked up the crew from Scorpius carrier and she may have thought some of them were still loyal to him or his cause and wouldn't be pleased over the way she treated their former commander. I'd imagine the first priority was to check if the tech did it on purpose. The fact that she screwed up serving as Grayza's personal justification/partial motivation for the pain the chair would cause in doing this. In other words at this point Grayza had convinced herself that the tech deserved the pain the chair would cause her in checking her suspicion. To outright torture someone for screwing up would probably be unacceptable even for the PKs. To give them a buzz in the chair to "check their loyalty" however (which also has the nice side effect of causing them some pain) would serve both her purposes and be a lot easier for her to explain if she was ever called to account for it or if the officer in question ever complained to superiors. So you're right in that this incident was a punishment of sorts however.

In general I don't regard the chair as a torture device. It is a method of extracting information that happens to cause pain as a side effect. The pain however is not the means through which the chair extracts its information and the chair would work equally well even if it did not cause pain. This differs from other methods of torture in which the pain and suffering are intentionally inflicted as the primary means through which the subject is forced into revealing information.

Another thing I wonder is that in every instance we've seen the chair used the people it was used on have been blocking something from it. They then suffer pain as the chair's operator attempts to burn through those blocks. It gets me to wondering how much or if the chair would indeed inflict any pain on someone who simply opened their mind fully to it. The only incident I can think of where someone wasn't holding anything back was when Aeryn found Crais and turned the chair to full power before walking out.

I'd say the pain is directly proportianal to the power level they use. They can probe at a low level if you let them but if you resist they have to turn it up and that's when the screaming starts.

[brokendj23]

The only thing I dont really understand is that everyone except for John seems to recover from the aurora chair, but if you listen to the commentary for the ep at the end of season one, even ben browder makes a comment of how Johns mental capacity has been affected by being in the chair...Both scorpy and crais seem unaffected though

[Nicola]

No Crais is affected. He was unstable before the Aurora Chair, but after he was just a mess. Then he and Talyn got together and that seemed to stablise him considerably. On the other hand, Talyn didn't fair so well...

[JrMissToughChick]

Originally posted by brokendj23
The only thing I dont really understand is that everyone except for John seems to recover from the aurora chair, but if you listen to the commentary for the ep at the end of season one, even ben browder makes a comment of how Johns mental capacity has been affected by being in the chair...Both scorpy and crais seem unaffected though What commentary is that from?

[brokendj23]

i know for sure its on the best of farscape season one dvd

[Doc Holiday]

It sure is.

[JrMissToughChick]

so is it one that I having a boxset don't have? I'm gonna have to buy it aren't I

[Doc Holiday]

I dunno jrmiss, but I know it is on the Best Of season 1 cause I rented that one from Blockbuster.

[JrMissToughChick]

Frell... I looked it up and it doesn't say what commentarys they have Is it on one for Nerve or HM I ask because The Box set doesn't have those and it seemed as though people say they heard one for one of them

[Doc Holiday]

It is probably wrong but I laughed my ass off when Crais was in the chair for no reason.:D

[Chi27]

Originally posted by brokendj23
The only thing I dont really understand is that everyone except for John seems to recover from the aurora chair, but if you listen to the commentary for the ep at the end of season one, even ben browder makes a comment of how Johns mental capacity has been affected by being in the chair...Both scorpy and crais seem unaffected though

I think it the degree in which it affects a person. For instance, I think John recovered from it better than Stark who we see when he's introduced in the show is a nut case -- no doubt thanks to repeated trips to the Aurora chair. Maybe comparing John to Stark isn't fair, but it does show the wide degree of damage it can cause.

[Doc Holiday]

Crais in the chair! LOL:D :D

[Doc Holiday]

I also think it is funny when Stark is in the chair. He makes funky noises. Funny stuff.

[MrX]

I think that Aeryn definitely used the chair to torture Crais. Or kill him. Whichever.