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Commander John Robert Crichton Jr. is a fictional character played by Ben Browder on the series Farscape. Crichton was a scientist with the International Aeronautics and Space Administration (IASA).Crichton was performing an experiment in space to prove his theory about gravity-assisted propulsion when a wave of energy hit his ship and a wormhole appeared pulling him in and depositing him on the far side of the universe. John Crichton lost his mother to cancer five years before the Farscape I experiment. He still regrets the fact that he was not there at her death. He wishes to return home to rejoin his father, Jack Crichton (a former IASA astronaut who walked on the moon) as well as his younger sister, Olivia, older sister Susan and her husband Frank, and his nephew Bobby. John was once almost engaged to Alexandria (Alex) but they couldn't agree on career choices and Alex left him to study medicine at Stanford University. John had a "strictly friends" relationship with Caroline and was best friends with his partner on the Farscape I project, Douglas "DK" Knox.
Season 1
Spoiler Warning: Plot details and/or information about the ending follow. If you wish to enjoy the work first, stop reading here and return at another time.
- Season 1 Episode List
After traveling through the wormhole John reappeared in space and found himself in the midst of a space battle. He accidentally collided with one of the smaller ships causing its destruction and moments later he was brought aboard one of the large ships under attack. Onboard, he was guided by small robots, DRDs (Diagnostic Repair Drones) to the ship's command center.
John was overwhelmed by the sight of strange-looking aliens. He was injected with translator microbes and he began to understand what the aliens were yelling angrily at him. They were escaped prisoners who hijacked their prison transport and came under attack by Peacekeepers. The prisoners are a Delvian priestess known as Zhaan; a Luxan Warrior, Ka D'Argo; and Rygel XVI former Dominar of the Hynerian Empire. They brought John's vessel aboard hoping it would help them escape. They soon discovered that neither John nor his ship were of much use to them.
John was imprisoned along with Peacekeeper pilot, Officer Aeryn Sun. Aeryn looked human but was a Sebacean who held him in contempt. She attacked him and forced him to aid in her escape when the prisoners visited a commerce planet to find supplies.
When Aeryn was met on the planet by her commanding officer, Captain Bialar Crais, she informed him that she believed John's collision with his brother's ship was an accident. Crais deemed her irreversibly contaminated by John an offense punishable by death. Crais was determined to take revenge on John for killing his brother. John managed to escape Peacekeeper imprisonment and convinced Aeryn to join him. John, Aeryn, and the other fugitives returned to the ship, a living bio-mechanoid Leviathan known as Moya. Moya is piloted by an extremely alien-looking creature known as Pilot. Pilot is physically connected to and genetically bonded with Moya.
John soon confronts the reality of being completely lost. He doesn't know where he is in the universe and has no way to return home. Everything is strange to him and he's surrounded by aliens who think less of him for his lack of knowledge about their technology and culture. John eventually bonds with his crew mates and gains their respect but they live under the constant threat of the Peacekeepers who hunt them through the Uncharted Territories.
In the episode "A Human Reaction," John discovered a wormhole back to Earth. He returned home with his friends where they were imprisoned and experimented on. John eventually realized the experiences were false and that he had been tricked by aliens known as The Ancients. Seeking a new home on Earth, they made John believe he'd returned home in order to discover more about his planet. The Ancients realized Earth was not yet ready for them. To make up for the pain they caused John, they implanted the secret of wormhole travel in his subconscious mind so that he could one day find his way home.
When John becomes a prisoner of the Peacekeepers, he is placed in the Aurora Chair by Scorpius. Scorpius uses the chair to read Johns mind and discovers he holds the secret to wormholes in his subconscious. John escapes but Scorpius takes up the chase and replaces Crais as his personal nemesis.
Season 2
- List of season 2 episodes
Not long after Moya gives birth to Talyn, Crais takes control of the ship with Talyn's blessing, separating mother and child. Crais resigns his Peacekeeper command and manages to elude Scorpius. The Gammak base is destroyed and Crichton is now Scorpius' main hope of discovering wormhole technology.
Season 3
- List of season 3 episodes
Season 4
- List of season 4 episodes
In the series' final season, Crichton finally made his way back to Earth only to discover it was no longer his home. He does his best to prepare the planet for the international cooperation necessary to protect them from and prepare them for the rest of the galaxy but ultimately he leaves Earth behind for its protection. He manages to mend fences with Aeryn only to lose her when she is taken by the Scarrans and tortured for information about him. He manages to rescue her but leaves Scorpius behind in the hands of the Scarrans thus activating the devil's bargain he made with Scorpius for Aeryn's rescue. With Scorpius back in his head, he and friends must return to rescue the real Scorpius to prevent him sharing his knowledge. In the process he manages to strike against the Scarrans, start a war with the Peacekeepers, and learn the secret of their supremacy. In retaliation, the Scarrans plan to visit Earth via wormhole and to save the planet, John gives up the opportunity to return and cuts Earth off from the rest of the galaxy by wormhole forever.
Crichton ultimately proposes to Aeryn and she reveals they'll be having a baby soon. The two plan to marry on a watery planet but to once again illustrate their poor timing, both are disintegrated into tiny bits of crystal.
The Peacekeeper Wars
- Main Article: Farscape: The Peacekeeper Wars
Memorable Quotes
My name is John Crichton, an astronaut. A radiation wave hit and I got shot through a wormhole. Lost in some distant part of the universe on a ship, a living ship, full of strange alien life forms. Help me. Listen, please. Is there anybody out there who can hear me? Being hunted... by an insane military commander. Doing everything I can. I'm just looking for a way home.
Okay, welcome to the butt-hole of the universe.
I hate it when villains quote Shakespeare.
John: Aeryn, if Scorpius gets me...
Aeryn: I know, shoot you.
John: No. No, no. Shoot him.
Aeryn: No offense, human, but what can I possibly need from you?
John: I dunno... manners, personality... Stock tips.
John: Haven't you read the Super Villain's Handbook? This is where you're supposed to twirl your mustache and gloat.
You and the baby are my responsibility. And how am I supposed to protect you from the Peacekeepers and the Scarrans and the Tragans and the lions, tigers and bears? With this? Winona? This gun? No gun is big enough.
John: You're the closest friend I have.
Ka D'Argo: You could have done better.
John: Not in the entire universe.
External Links
John Crichton
SCI FI Official Site]
Gateworld's Farscape Episode Guide
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