Should I presume they were paid or slaves?
Not a lot was presented regarding Peacekeeper society; what little there was seemed almost contradictory.
It does appear to be a hierarchy; any kind of fighter type is “high caste,” with techs and other service-personnel (“Servitors”) being held in varying degrees of contempt; Crais and his brother were conscripted as children from their family’s farm, with his father being showed as powerless/helpless to prevent it.
There’s hints that Peacekeeper Society is “House” based, with different Houses having control over various aspects of the Peacekeeper economy, perhaps even different branches of the Armed Forces.
It’s implied that dealing with the Peacekeepers is a two-edged sword; if you “let them in the door,” so to speak, they move in in force, lock, stock, and barrel, and basically take over your world. You, as a citizen of that world, are reduced to common laborer/Servitor, all for the greater glory of The Peacekeepers.
But there’s one episode dealing with Scorpius’ past, and why he hates the Scarrans; basically some Sebacean “Pioneers”/Settlers were striking out from Peacekeeper Space to start a new colony outside the sphere of Peacekeeper domain, and were attacked and captured by the Scarrans for torture/medical experimentation.
This suggests that some Sebacean/Peacekeepers were free to move about/do as they please, even reject Peacekeeper Society entirely and leave it; and have the wherewithal to acquire the resources to do so. But no specific financial institution/arrangement was mentioned.
Best WAG: they got “paid” in “credits,” with which they could purchase “stuff” with, but nothing specific is ever mentioned.
Basically, as with most low(er) budget weekly-episodic sci-fi shows from the mid/late 90s, things changed on a week-to-week basis as the writers saw fit, to make a story work, without a lot of attention being paid to any overarching continuity, or in-depth development of any one group’s “Planet of Hats” society
Economics is pretty much left to blow in the wind in nearly all films, futuristic or contemporaneous. How many characters in Star Wars are revealed to have any concerns about who pays for the food they eat, or even whether the ever eat at all. Apparently, everyone just has Multipass, but only Leeloo needs to show it.
ExTank,
Thank you for your response.
No problem; you’re welcome. Farscape is just about my favorite small-screen sci-fi franchise, warts and all.
My memory has been jogged wrt actual cash-money in Farscape.
A holographic “Wanted: Dead or Alive” message from the Peacekeepers mentions “currency-pledges.” Scarran currency/coins are shown, IIRC called “Krendars” or some such. In one episode, Rygel counterfeits/manipulates some Krendars to fudge their value and rip off some traders, which pisses D’Argo off no end.
Amending my earlier WAG: like most futuristic societies, most people on “civilized” worlds are paid via “Direct Deposit,” and use some form of “card,” like a credit/debit card, for most routine purchases.
Out in The Black, in the Wretched Hives of Scum and Villainy in which Farscape generally takes place, people are using hard “currency” of some sort, or trading/bartering commodities like precious metals, gems (like Rygel trying to get Grunschlicht to set him up with discrete transportation), even foodstuffs.