Do we like Captain Bialar Crais?
A character from Farscape (1999–2003)
Our score: 4 out of 10. A driven, ruthless officer we couldn't back at the start. He's more complicated than a plain villain, but we'd still keep him well away from the crew.
Farscape follows John Crichton, an astronaut flung across the galaxy by a wormhole. He ends up among escaped prisoners aboard Moya, a living ship, and the Peacekeepers are after them. Crais commands a Peacekeeper command carrier. He wasn't born into the military like most officers. He and his younger brother Tauvo were taken from a farming community and conscripted as boys.
His quarrel with Crichton starts in the first episode. Tauvo, a Peacekeeper pilot, is killed in a collision with Crichton's craft, and Crais blames Crichton. From then on he is a determined hunter. He ignores orders and spends his crew's lives on the chase. That's why he scores below the midpoint: his grief is real, but his response is cruel and reckless.
Crais gets more interesting as the show goes on. Obsession costs him his command, and a rival takes over his ship. He then ends up on a very different path, as an uneasy and unreliable pseudo-ally of the crew who are still wary of him. He never becomes a straightforward good guy, but he is more than just the season one villain.