Communications without delays

[gliadrachan]

While watching the tivo'd Premiere, I started wondering how Aeryn contacted Krais' ship.

Moya had starburst away from Krais' last position, yet Krais arrives at the commerce planet within a few minutes of Aeryn's hanging up and taking off her headset ( presumably after reversing the charges ).

So Krais must have been very close by; there wasn't even any significant time delay for Aeryn's communication to reach the command carrier. Which makes me wonder why Moya didn't go farther - too tired after captivity?

I haven't noticed any references to how communications are performed over distance; but the only time I can think of any Sci-fi treatment of that is with CJ Cherryh's novels, with description of ships that encounter outbound communications which were sent hours before, etc.

So is there some common tech that enables live communications over stellar distances? Has there been a reference to an equivalent of "sub-space" radio a la Star Trek? Or is this another tech that must be ignored?

[NYPinTA]

Damn. That is a good question. I am going to say that Moya didn't starburst that far because she was exhausted and probably scared too from the fight and having just had the control collar removed. Kinda like muscles atrophying from lack of use. So would her starbursting abilities... I guess.

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Plus, later in the series Commandant Boob Sweat had no trouble talking in real time (via Braca's head...) to the eyeless alien she sent after Crichton in Season 4.

Yeah, it is a tech without explination.

[PK2003]

There is a scene (where Aeryn tries to swipe a fork) where the crew is planning on going to the commerce planet when D'argo is having a debate with Pilot saying if he (D'argo) hadn't pulled those wires the control collar would still be in place. But by doing that Moya lost fluid which they now need to get from the planet. This lose of fluid has slowed Moya down to speed "Hext2" (I think that's what they say) So by being so slow, the Command Carrier can catch up quite easily I think once they get the signal from Aeryn. Hope this makes sense

[GeneralBraca]

Hetch appears to be a measurement of "normal" travelling speed (i.e. faster-than-light, but non-starburst). John installs hetch-drive components on his module over time (and in Terra Firma, he briefly discusses it with D.K.), but his module doesn't starburst.

Starburst appears to be totally separate, and they did starburst away from Crais in the Premier, they didn't use normal FTL hetch travel.

Since starburst is a semi-random mode of travelling (Pilot mentions during Season 2 that even a small starburst invalidates all previous navigational data), Moya's starburst may still have left her close by the command carrier... temporarily safe because the direction she travelled was random, but not far away. I'd agree with those who have said this must have been about the shortest starburst Moya was capable of, probably because she had been with the control collar for so long.

In fact, recall that in the "Look at the Princess" trilogy, Zhaan and Pilot come up with the plan to draw Scorpius away by making just such a tiny starburst - - they call it practically an invitation to chase them. This makes it sound like such short starbursts are still within quick range of a command carrier... as long as the carrier knows in which direction to travel.

[Ouroboros]

The short answer is it's "magic tech" just like Hetch drives or any number of other things. There is no real life method of sending signals faster than light. If there were we'd be using it already in telescopes and with the Mars rovers. It's a suspension of disbelief thing. Just accept that it does work but we don't understand how.

[gliadrachan]

And this communications even works while traveling through a wormhole. Most impressive.

[NYPinTA]

I'm not sure that 'hetch drives' and starburst are mutually exclusive. I thought that even though she starbursts Moya still had to have some sort of forward motion... so that if she had less power in her 'hetch drive' or what ever it is called, she couldn't go as far while in starburst.
Of cousre, I also have no idea what I am talking about. ;)
And as for communicating through wormholes, wouldn't that be easier? At least while the wormhole is open...

[gliadrachan]

I would think it would be more difficult while in a wormhole.

For instance, we know that communications isn't being limited so some sort of transmission that only travels at the speed of light. If it were, then we'd see communications delays and live conversations would only be possible at very close distances.

But we don't see any delays, so comms are travelling FTL. That must mean that the sending vessal must have some extraordinary way of creating a field, or an energy of some sort that can carry the communications.

And we've been shown that a wormhole, which is essentially a twisty curvy tunnel with many branches, can't be entered through its "walls", but only at the ends.

So opening a FTL energy field or stream ( whether or not a magazine is involved is unknown ) while in the middle of another, much more powerful FTL field, would seem to be difficult.

I don't think the comms systems were designed to take advantage of the energy of the wormhole itself, so I don't think the comms simply ride the wormhole to advantage.

[witchdoctor]

I think it is important to remember that Farscape is probably more what I would call Science Fantasy than Hard Science Fiction. The difference for me is that Science Fantasy employs more "magic techs," where as Hard Science Fiction tries to have good scientific explanations or use foreseable techs. Space Opera is another old term that would fit Farscape. This is not a criticism of farscape, but rather an observation. It isn't the scientific explanations of the techs that makes Farscape interesting and so good. It is the characters and story arcs. as well as the visual richness of the costumes, aliens and sets. When there is the occasional scientific gaff (aliens and even humans breathing vacume for example), I am able and willing to forget it and get back into the story easily. The same thing for a scientific tech that may not make sense. Despite all this, I still give Farscape two thumbs up and call myself a Scaper.

[Verlon]

If we could explain everything about how Farscape Tech works, we could build the stuff. The rules are simple: the tech works and doesn't work however it best fits the story.

Comms work or do not work in a manner to keep it interesting. We do not watch Farscape for the tech, we watch it for the people and the stories...

[gliadrachan]

However, I do enjoy the tech aspect of Farscape as well as the characters and stories. I'm not content to ignore the technology. Without the tech, what would Farscape be? It would be diminished; the technology is a vital component of the show.

[witchdoctor]

Oh, I enjoy the tech discussions too. there have been some really interseting discussions in these forums on the implicatons of some of the techs in Farscape and how they would work and what we could conclude about the Farscape universe from what we see in the stories. I have enjoyed them immensely. However, I accept that there will be the occasional tech slip up and don't get wigged out. Basically, all the (many) good parts of Farscape make it worth it.

[witchdoctor]

Verlon, even though I don't expect Farscape to be hard science fiction, I still expect the tech to be consistent. If a comm does or does not work, I expect there to be a sensible explanation for why the comm broke or they were able to fix it all of a sudden. I expect internal consistancy with the tech. In other words, if a device or even "magic" technology was explained to work in a certain fashion, have certain requirements to function or limitations, I expect those principles to be adhered to subsequently and not just changed to make some plot point easy to achieve. Luckily, carry over and consistancy from one episode to the next and even to the next season, is one of the things Farscape does well.