John Crichton

John Crichton

species: Human

Astronaut

from "Farscape"

John Crichton is the lead character/protagonist/hero of the TV series Farscape. He is played by Ben Browder, who also wrote two episodes for the series.

Enter the Crichton

As an astronaut for the IASA, John Crichton was piloting an experimental module named Farscape One ("Premiere") around the Earth to test a scientific hypothesis when it accidentally went through a wormhole, sending him across the galaxy into a region of space inhabited by aliens, where he immediately got into trouble by colliding with the spaceship of a Peacekeeper pilot, which crashed against an asteroid, killing its pilot -- and sending that pilot's brother, Captain Bialar Crais, into a vendetta against him.

Crichton was then brought on board Moya, while she and her prisoners were escaping from those Peacekeepers, and he became a fugitive along with them, and Aeryn Sun, a PK officer whose contact with him and the others had led to her rejection from Peacekeeper ranks (and a death sentence hanging on her head).

As the series's protagonist, the character of Crichton received the deepest exploration in Farscape, and as the only human regular character, he also served as a point of identification for the audience, which accentuated his importance.

Crichton as Hero

John Crichton, in many ways, typifies the Americal male hero: he is white, middle-class, educated, and an adventure-seeker with access to a high-status job. The very portrait of privilege. But he is also a science nerd, and a sensitive kind of guy, and, more importantly, the series places him in a situation where he becomes the outsider, the fish-out-of-water, in a very literally alien culture where he doesn't speak the language, doesn't have any of his social privilege, and risks his life not as a hobby but through very real and constant dangers in his environment.

"I am not Kirk, Spock, Luke, Buck, Flash or Arthur frelling Dent. I'm Dorothy Gale from Kansas."

The tension in Crichton's character as a point of feminist interest comes from the tug-of-war between the series's use of Crichton as a subversion of the myth of the male hero, and his actual narrative role as the show's protagonist, which cannot push him against type too far without altogether abandoning him. Crichton's heroism also places him against odds all too often present in masculine heroic narratives, sometimes skirting on frontier myths, as well as eventually positioning him in a heterosexual relationship with a humanoid female character that both deflects and reflects sexist romance tropes.

Crichton's resourcefulness as a scientist and a space-jock often saves the day, but in his subaltern position as an "inferior [human] being", he must also mediate the interactions between his shipmates (and the ship herself!), which is a traditionally feminine task.

His identification with Dorothy Gale (implied throughout the series, and verbalised in "Unrealized Reality") crosses gender lines, but he also engages in male posturing as a reaffirmation of his gender.

Crichton as Victim

Throughout the series John is repeatedly put in the position of victim, to an extent rarely (if ever) matched by any other male television hero, from which he must often be rescued by others, and which inflicts severe and lasting side-effects to his character.

He is the victim of:

• of Bialar Crais's vendetta against him;
• of Scorpius's torture of him while attempting to extract information about wormhole technology;
• of Scorpius's neural clone;
• of rape by Mele-On Grayza;
• etc.

In Season 2, the neural clone drives Crichton to insanity and suicidal ideation (while keeping him from killing himself).

In Season 3, one of the "twinned" Crichtons dies of radiation poisoning.

In Season 4, in reaction to Aeryn Sun's absence and to Grayza's rape of him, Crichton becomes a drug addict.

Crichton as Alien

As mentioned above, the very premise of Farscape means that Crichton, as a human far away from Earth, is the alien.

Passing for Sebacean

But because Sebaceans, the species to which the Peacekeepers belong, are externally identical to humans, Crichton is able to pass for a Sebacean most of the time, and for a Peacekeeper officer as well when necessary. No-one in the Uncharted Territories has heard of Earth, or of humans, and therefore their first assumption upon meeting Crichton is that he is a Sebacean, which he must contradict whenever this assumption might put him in danger from animosity aimed at the Peacekeepers.

Some individuals, however, because of their ability to tell the difference via heightened sense, or their lack of knowledge of Sebaceans, do not make this assumption.

Scorpius is one such individual: he recognised Crichton's heat signature as different from a Sebacean's, and immediately exposed him as an imposter when Crichton was passing for a Peacekeeper officier.

Crichtonisms

One of John Crichton's techniques for preserving his sanity in an alien environment is his recourse to pop culture references which are usually completely incomprehensible to others around him.

He makes references to TV shows (such as Baywatch and Buffy the Vampire Slayer) and films, and in the sequences where he interacts with Harvey, sometimes constructs entire mental landscapes based on Earth environments and popular culture.

Conversely, he also adopts slang from the Uncharted Territories (most notably, "frell"), but the series does not explore alien pop culture to the extent that it reflects its hero's.

Relationships

Crichton's primary relationship throughout the series is difficult to pinpoint. Although his on-and-off romantic relationship and friendship with Aeryn Sun, and their growth toward each other, is central from beginning to end, his adversarial relationship with Scorpius and their mirroring obsession with wormholes, as well as the indelible effects of Scorpius's neural clone and its split-personality-like residue, Harvey, is in many ways its equal and opposite force in his life.

Gilina Renaez was Crichton's early romantic interest in the series in her first appearance, but by the time she returned she had been supplanted by Aeryn Sun, and she died saving Crichton's life.

Zhaan looked to Crichton for stability; she saw the other crew of Moya as children and she and Crichton as parental figures towards them, though her relationship was somewhat maternal towards him as well (albeit not devoid of sexuality).

Bialar Crais's vendetta against Crichton eventually turned into a grudging mutual respect.

D'Argo and Crichton became buddies, as the two principal masculine figures on Moya, and close friends, although D'Argo sometimes resented Crichton's patronising attitude towards him, when he felt that Crichton's support did not match his support towards Crichton.

Dominar Rygel XVI thought Crichton -- and everyone else -- to be socially inferior, but eventually suffered to grow somewhat loyal towards them. Crichton often made fun of Rygel's diminutive stature, but also showed affection towards him, viewing him as something of a pet -- a Toto to his Dorothy.

Chiana was like a little sister to Crichton -- a situation she did not entirely appreciate, because he did not reciprocate her sexual interest in him, except under duress (cf. "Crackers Don't Matter" and "A Clockwork Nebari". (See also "Kansas" for a situation in which Chiana got Crichton to reciprocate her advances, in a way.)

He both patronized and/or respected Jool and Sikozu, who reacted to his behaviour with various degrees of scorn and offense.

He hated Mele-On Grayza and Minister Akhna, and compared Miklo Braca to Smithers from The Simpsons...

He protected Moya as best he could, but also frequently endangered her, and got on Pilot's nerves, though he also showed compassion towards him.

Noranti was his pusher.

Stark was alternately a protector, an ally, and a victim of Crichton ("The Hidden Memory" and Farscape: The Peacekeeper Wars).

And Crichton also had both mother and father issues, which were the result of the trauma of his mother's death and of his father's exacting role model ideal.