The Insane Farscape Story Arc No Sci-Fi Series Would Attempt Today
Farscape was affectionately referred to as “the little Australian show that could” by its production team, which might be why they decided to take a bold risk and used a small, mostly off-screen moment to forever change the show’s hero, John Crichton. Towards the end of the Season 3 episode, “Eat Me,” the villain’s “Twinner” goes off and catches our human hero in the blast, creating a second version of him. Lesser shows would use this as a gag moment, but nope, this one decided to have an entire story arc featuring each Crichton.
John-Black And John-Green
The weapon created a second version of the victim, not a clone or a replicant, but an actual, 100 percent real version of whoever was caught in the blast. Once Farscape made it clear that both Crichtons were going to stick around, the characters decided to tell them apart with different colored t-shirts, giving fans John-Black and John-Green.
Ben Browder, the actor behind Crichton, managed to play against himself and get the audience to buy into the resentment that both versions felt for the other since no one knew which one existed first; they both thought the other-John was trying to steal their life.
Split The Party
Narratively, the solution to this situation was to split up the crew, with half remaining on Moya (Ka’Dargo, Chiana. Jool) with John-Green and the other half (Aeryn Sun, Rygel, and Stark) leaving on Talyn with John-Black. Instead of spending time on each episode with both crews, the Farscape team had alternating episodes following each group, with a Crichton in both. This decision was bold and demanded a lot of the audience to remember the different situations, including Aeryn’s budding romance with John-Black.
The Suicide Mission
Farscape makes it clear, again, these are not the adventures of a clone and the original, both Crichtons are the real deal, which is what makes the shocking end of their story one of the most emotional moments in the entire series. In “Infinite Possibilities – Icarus Abides,” John embarks on a suicide mission to stop a Scarren dreadnought by unleashing the full might of the displacement engine, a wormhole weapon, fully realized now that Join-Black has remembered the last of the wormhole knowledge.
Killing The Hero
In a moment that’s a tribute to the early days of nuclear research and similar to a later Harrison Ford film, U-571, John-Black triggers the device but endures a blast of radiation so strong that the radiation poisoning is quickly killing him.
Before he dies, John-Black manages to save a message through Stark’s visor for John-Green, ensuring the wormhole knowledge is carried on, and he’s able to pass away peacefully in bed alongside Aeryn Sun. The moment, with his last words being “I’ve never felt better,” is heart-wrenching even though fans know John-Green was still out there.
Farscape found a brilliant way to kill off the main character, have his death mean something, and still include Crichton in future episodes.
Farscape Never Played It Safe
If today, a sci-fi series were to duplicate its lead character and have the series move on with two separate storylines, the fans would lose their minds by pointing out “plotholes” and claiming the creators were wrong about this version having this type of relationship with that character.
Farscape has its problems, but as the tale of two Crichtons shows, stepping up to the plate and taking a big swing with a narrative gamble is not one of them. No one can ever say the series played it safe.
