John Crichton (Farscape)
| Farscape character | |
| John Crichton | |
|---|---|
| Title | Commander |
| Homeworld | Earth |
| Race | Human |
| Gender | Male |
| Affiliation | Moya's crew |
| Portrayer | Ben Browder |
"I try to save a life a day. Usually it's my own."
John Robert Crichton, Jr. (played by Ben Browder) is an IASA astronaut. He is in his 30s and he became an astronaut because of his father, Jack. John, however, is a more theoretical scientist and he developed a spacecraft called Farscape One to test his theory that, by using the gravitational pull of the Earth to slingshot his craft (a maneuver called a gravitational slingshot), he could achieve flight speeds faster than any previous craft with no fuel expenditure. He holds the rank of commander but it appears not to be a military rank.
However, during his test flight, a solar flare caused a wormhole to appear and pull John and his module through to the far end of the universe. On his arrival, the brother of Bialar Crais crashed into Farscape One's wing with his spacecraft, causing him to lose control and collide with an asteroid. Crais blamed Crichton for this accident and swore to avenge his brother.
John has had to adapt rather quickly to a life of aliens, guns, being hunted, and no chocolate or TV. The last item may have been the toughest for Crichton, as he's very fond of his pop culture, making numerous references to 20th century products, movies, commercials, TV shows, and the like, all of which are hopelessly lost on his friends and crewmates aboard Moya, though John does sometimes try to explain some aspects of Earth culture to his friends.
Crichton habitually gives people and things nicknames, some affectionate, some derisive. He often refers to Chiana as "Pip", Zhaan as "Blue", Scorpius as "Leatherface", etc.
John's main goal is to somehow find a wormhole that can take him back to Earth. But in the meantime, he has to learn how to get along and co-exist with the other members of the crew on Moya while surviving in a hostile and chaotic universe.
At first, the crew were less than keen to accept him. They did not quite understand him, and while Zhaan opened up, Aeryn and D'Argo remained detached. As warriors, they waited until he proved himself worthy of their trust and their friendship. He and D'Argo grew close, and John engaged in a rocky relationship with Aeryn. The former Peacekeeper was not impressed by his advances but they soon fell in love.
An alien race known as the Ancients implanted in John's subconscious mind the equations, theories, and a "sixth sense" for wormholes. Crichton can sense when and where a wormhole is about to appear, and as he begins to unlock the knowledge, he learns to successfully navigate them. This knowledge makes him of great interest to the Peacekeepers and the Scarrens, who want to use the wormholes for faster transportation and also to develop into a highly destructive weapon.
The Peacekeepers in particular are relentles in their hunt for the escaped prisoners, but their primary target is Crichton. Scorpius, a Peacekeeper military scientist ho wants the wormhole knowledge embedded in Crichton's subconscious, implated a neurochip into his brain. Thus, he is forced to share his mind with a neural-clone of Scorpius, who appears as a hallucination only Crichton can see, and can sometimes influence his behaviour, playfully named "Harvey" by John.
As relations between the Peacekeepers and the Scarrens grow tense, Moya's crew find themselves at the centre of an intergalactic war. Crichton unlocks the wormhole knowledge and builds the weapon both sides have been scrambling for. It is only in the face of such power that almost claims all their lives that they stand down, but at considerable cost. John survives to see the birth of his and Aeryn's son, whom they name after their departed friend and ally; D'Argo Sun Crichton.