2.10 - My Three Crichtons

An alien probe produces two copies of John; one highly evolved and one primitive. There are three Crichtons but one of them must return with the probe and none of them want to be the one to volunteer.

How does he know everyone? It's like he's got your memories. - Chiana
Chiana, half of this galaxy has my memories! - John Crichton

You had ancestors that looked like that? - Dominar Rygel XVI
Yeah. What did yours look like? - John Crichton

Who are you? - Aeryn Sun
I'm John. John Crichton. - Future-John
I don't think so. (Laughs) For a start, John has more hair... among other things. Can you blame that on feeling cold? - Aeryn Sun

Aeryn is in the maintenance bay where she removes a propulsion module from the Farscape 1 and starts to install it in her prowler. John enters and confronts her but she says the module should go to the ship that can acutally protect them if necessary. Pilot interrupts them to tell them an energy sphere of some kind is approaching Moya.
"You're right." John says to Aeryn. "Put it in."

Moya attempts to evade but the sphere easily catches up with them and passes through the hull and into the ship. The energy sphere flies through the corridors and into Command where it hovers briefly over Zhaan, apparently scanning her. It then scans Chiana, who has just arrived, then flies off down a corridor where it encounters D'Argo and scans him.

The sphere then enters the maintenance bay where it stops and hovers over John. The sphere starts to expand and, at Johns urging, Aeryn shoots it with her pulse pistol but with no effect. John has dropped to his knees and is kneeling to stay below the still expanding sphere. Aeryn climbs to the cockpit of the prowler and fires its weapons at the sphere. The sphere expands suddenly, engulfing John, then solidifies into a greenish sphere embedded into the floor of the maintenance bay.

D'Argo arrives in the bay and he and Aeryn examine the sphere while Rygel reports that part of the sphere is extending into the corridor below. The sphere suddenly begins emitting energy pulses and Moya begins to shake. John is suddenly expelled from the sphere and lands at Aeryn and D'Argo's feet. Aeryn starts to help John while D'Argo approaches the sphere with his Qualta Blade out. The sphere pulses again and some sort of creature is expelled from the sphere, colliding with D'Argo and knocking him to the ground. The creature runs off and D'Argo chases after it. The energy pulses die away.

In the corridor, D'Argo collides with Chiana who asks what is happening. He tells her to stay where she is and monitor the comms then runs off.

Back in the maintenance bay, Zhaan is extending her hands towards the sphere, apparently attempting to sense anything from it. John is sitting huddled on the floor, shivering. Aeryn holds him, trying to comfort him. She asks what he remembers but he seems to be confused and says he remembers nothing but cold and light.

Zhaan abandons her meditation and goes to John but stops when she sees something on the deck. She examines it and finds it to be blood. She asks if John is injured but Aeryn says he is not. They decide the blood must have come from the creature.

Upon learning of the creature John attempts to go help D'Argo search for it but can barely stand even with Aeryn's help and eventually collapses back onto the deck.

D'Argo is still searching for the creature and finds Rygel. Rygel will not help but promises to let D'Argo know if he finds it. D'Argo says he will just follow Rygel's screams. Rygel then asks why D'Argo doesn't follow the creature by scent and D'Argo says he cannot smell anything but John.

John and the others are in the lab. Chiana asks John what happened but he is unable to explain and asks if she could get him some more clothes as he is still cold. She promises to return quickly and leaves. Zhaan finishes examining the blood she found and tells John that it must have come from the creature, since John himself is uninjured, but that the blood is John's.
John sighs. "This is where it gets good... right?"

Chiana enters John's quarters but the creature is waiting for her. She goes to get a coat for John but the creature jumps up beside her and, when she attempts to flee, grabs her and throws her back into the room. It seems to be threatening her and she screams for D'Argo but the creature backs off and, with difficulty, calls her by name. She starts to calm down and asks the creature who it is. The creature points to the patch on John's flight suit and says it is John. We finally get a good look at the creature and see that it is John, but one looking like a caveman or one of our prehistoric ancestors.

Chiana leads prehistoric-John, now wearing John's IASA flight suit, to the lab. When they enter, Aeryn pulls her pulse pistol on him and John leaps to his feet. Chiana tries to explain that prehistoric-John thinks he is John but John gets more and more angry and keeps asking his prehistoric self what he wants. Prehistoric-John keeps touching him and John keeps knocking his hands away. Suddenly, prehistoric-John attacks him and both of them fall onto a table. Aeryn tries to pull them apart, without success, and Zhaan comes up with an injector which she uses on prehistoric-John. Everyone falls to the floor in a tangle. Chiana asks if she only used a sleep drug and Zhaan says she did.

Later, prehistoric-John is in a cell with Chiana, D'Argo, John and Rygel watching from outside. Rygel points out that prehistoric-John does resemble John and John admits it looks like a "caveman" version of himself. Chiana wonders how it has his memories. Zhaan contacts them over the comms and says that prehistoric-John and their John have the same DNA. John speculates that it is some kind of clone gone wrong and wonders why anyone would want a clone of him.

Pilot interrupts them to say that the energy pulses have begun from the sphere again. D'Argo and John run to check on them, D'Argo yelling for Chiana to stay behind. The two of them enter the corridor under the maintenance bay while Aeryn enters the bay itself. The pulses increase and D'Argo and John flee down the corridor but are thrown to the deck.

Aeryn calls to them and tells them to come to the maintenance bay. We see another John has been ejected from the sphere; this one hairless and with an oversized head showing the shape of the brain underneath. The new arrival addresses Aeryn asks why she is pointing her weapon at him and complains of being cold. Aeryn asks who he is and, seemingly surprised by the question, he tells her that he is John
"I don't think so." she says with a laugh. "For a start, John has more hair... among other things." She gestures somewhat lower with her pistol. "Can you blame that on feeling cold?"

John is standing outside of a cell. Aeryn and D'Argo arrive, leading future-John ahead of them. Future-John is arguing with them and asking why they are doing this when he sees our John. With sudden understanding, he quietly steps into the cell and the doors lock.

John attempts to speak with his future self but he does not seem to understand any more of the situation than John does though he does realize why everyone is behaving the way they are. He does confirm that he has all of John's memories and even remembers himself as looking like John but admits that there are some physical differences between them, gesturing towards his head as he does so.
"Just some?" asks D'Argo. Aeryn snickers and both John and D'Argo turn and give her an annoyed look.

Once again they are interrupted by Pilot with news of more activity from the sphere. D'Argo and John run for the maintenance bay, telling Aeryn to try to find out what she can from future-John.

John asks if the sphere is about to produce another version of him but Pilot says the readings are different this time. It seems that the sphere is attempting to create a portal to another dimension and to pull Moya through with it. Aeryn asks future-John if he knows anything about this and future-John denies any knowledge.

D'Argo asks if a Starburst would help but Pilot says that since the sphere is inside of Moya it would not help. Future-John suddenly says he has an idea and asks Aeryn for her comm. She refuses and he tells her to tell the others to use the defense screen.

At about the same time, John tells D'Argo they need to use the defense screen. Aeryn contacts them over the comms and relays the same information. John and future-John, speaking simultaneously, say they can use the defense screen to counteract the pull of the hole.
"I hope we're both right." says John as he runs towards Command.

Future-John says he needs to get to the maintenance bay and Aeryn agrees to lead him there at gunpoint. John and D'Argo are configuring the defense screen when future-John arrives at the bay and examines the sphere with some sort of scanner. He contacts John and tells him that he needs to adjust the settings of the defense screen. John thinks a moment then does as requested and the screen is activated. The pulses from the sphere die away and the shaking of Moya stops. Pilot says the screen should hold for about four arns but future-John says they should only count on three.

Chiana is in the cell with prehistoric-John trying to talk to him when they are visited by Aeryn and future-John. Future-John says they will not learn anything from prehistoric-John but that it is obvious that there is a pattern to their duplication. They are interrupted (again) by Pilot who says that there are signals from the sphere but he cannot understand them. John is attempting to analyze them.

Pilot starts playing the signal and future-John asks him to filter it in several ways. The signal fades out for everyone except for the three Johns. The signal tells them that the sphere was designed to collect specimens but that they incapacitated it. The sphere has repaired itself but cannot return without at least one of the specimens. If they do not return one of the specimens to the sphere and allow it to depart, then everything within one metra will be taken by the sphere.
"One... must go back." says prehistoric-John.
"Fascinating." is future-John's comment.

"What is going on?" asks D'Argo in frustration.
John pauses before answering. "One of us has got to die."

The Johns explain what the sphere wants them to do. Prehistoric-John says the others will insist it be him but Chiana suggests future-John instead. However, the others do seem to think that prehistoric-John should be the one to go and both future-John and Rygel explicitly say so. John refuses to accept that as a solution and insists that they find another answer. Aeryn and D'Argo reluctantly agree with him.

John goes to Pilot's Den where Pilot tells him that he has sent all of the data he has to future-John. He also implies that he too thinks they should get rid of prehistoric-John but John continues to insist that they will be able to find another solution. They are interrupted when the defense screen suddenly begins to fail.

Moya begins shaking again and future-John says they have no options left. Zhaan argues with him but he insists that he is thinking more clearly than ever before and can see what must be done. Zhaan points out that he has lost something of himself too but he ignores her.

John is attempting to fix the defense screen while Aeryn and D'Argo attempt to route more power to it. Both of them now start saying they should turn prehistoric-John over but he continues to insist on finding another solution. D'Argo accepts this for now but indicates that he will not do so much longer.
"I understand." he says, but adds "But I also want you to know that if you don't start facing reality soon, I'm going to face it for you!"

The defense screen is switched over and power applied but it burns out almost instantly. Pilot reports that they are down to one power cell and are out of time. John sits down in defeat. John and future-John talk briefly (apparently each knowing what the other is saying without comms) and John finally admits defeat. Future-John offers to do what must be done but John says he will do it.

D'Argo goes with John to the cell where prehistoric-John is being held. John thanks him for coming with him but when they get there they find the cell empty. Chiana tells them she let prehistoric-John go because she would not stand by and let them kill him.

D'Argo and John argue with her but she says that either John or future-John should go and accuses John of not trying to save prehistoric-John. She tells John that prehistoric-John is everything she ever liked about him and she will not let them kill him. D'Argo and John split up to search for prehistoric-John while Chiana runs off elsewhere.

Later, they have still not found prehistoric-John and Pilot reports the power cell for the defense screen is almost drained. Aeryn and future-John are searching and future-John says they are out of time and should give up on prehistoric-John and search for their John instead. Aeryn points out that John is supposed to be there and future-John isn't, leading future-John to point out he can do more for them than John could. Aeryn still refuses and future-John hits her, knocking her out.

Chiana enters the lab and finds Rygel getting an injector. She tries to stop him but he berates her and tells that everyone's life is now in danger because of her. He says he will use the injector on the first John he sees, no matter who it is. Chiana tries to block him but he leaves.

John enters one of the neural clusters and, looking up a shaft, finds prehistoric-John. Prehistoric-John asks how he found him and John says he just thought of where he would hide. He then tells prehistoric-John to leave; he is letting him go. He then contacts future-John and tells him he has found prehistoric-John and to meet him in the maintenance bay.

Both arrive and future-John is not surprised when John arrives without prehistoric-John. He pulls a pulse pistol on John and tells him he blew his chance; that he thinks of John as being as primitive as John thinks of prehistoric-John. John argues that they shouldn't save their lives at the expense of someone else's. John tosses something to one side, distracting future-John long enough for him to hide.

From hiding, he asks future-John if he would sacrifice himself if he wasn't there. Future-John says no; that Moya may survive the dimensional portal and that he would take that chance. He also says that the others would accept him once John was gone. John disagrees.
"You ever want to know what it was like to have them as friends? Just think back to when you were me."

John drops from the ceiling back into view, his own pulse pistol drawn. He then says they are out of time and throws the gun away. Future-John says he is predictable but John says he prefers to think of himself as reliable. Future-John pistol-whips him with the pulse pistol and knocks him to the deck.
"You understand it has to be this way." says future-John. "I could never really be me with you still around. I'd always be the outsider. Smarter, more capable. Yet not quite John."
"You think you're ever going to be anything but an outsider?" asks John
"Better than dying." is future-John's reply.

John pulls himself to his feet and stares at future-John for a moment.
"So you're the future." he says. "I'm glad I won't be here to see it."

John turns and starts walking towards the sphere. Future-John watches him go with a smug expression, until he is clubbed over the head by a metal bar held by prehistoric-John. John hears the sound and runs back to him but, after checking for a pulse, finds that future-John is dead.

Prehistoric-John picks up future-John's body and starts walking towards the sphere. John tries to stop him.
"Hey!" he yells. Prehistoric-John turns to look at him. "You don't have to do that."
Prehistoric-John shrugs. "Want to." he says. "Not my place. Don't belong."

John looks around helplessly. "Look," he begins. "I... I don't really belong here either."
Prehistoric-John turns back to the sphere. "Your time. Your place. My fate. I accept."
John lowers his gaze and nods understanding. Prehistoric-John steps into the sphere and vanishes. The sphere turns back into the energy ball, shrinks and, again passing through Moya's skin, flies away.

"Good luck." whispers John.

Later, John finds D'Argo on Command working on the defense screen. He asks about Aeryn and D'Argo tells him that she is fine. John is upset over what happened but D'Argo tries to convince him he did the right thing. John is convinced that he didn't and worries that future-John represents the path he is on.
"It's only one possible genetic path." D'Argo tells him.
"Yeah." says John. "But it's possible. That's the problem." He turns and leaves.

Later, John is sitting on the floor of prehistoric-John's cell and holding his IASA flight suit. Chiana enters and says she heard that he was prepared to sacrifice himself for them. John admits that he was but that it took him longer to reach that decision than it should have.
"Well, for what it's worth," she tells him, "I'm glad it worked out the way it did."

"I wish I could be." he says, sadly. "I always thought I was a good guy, Chiana. But it was the least developed one of me, the one I thought least likely, who did the right thing." He turns to look at her. "And somehow... you knew."
"I know you." she says, with a smile. She kisses him gently on the shoulder then quietly gets up and leaves.

John continues to look at the flight suit for a moment, then bows his head and presses it to his face.

Moya's defense screen was recovered from the wreck of the Zelbinion in PK Tech Girl. It was last used (with a somewhat unusual effect) in Out of Their Minds.

We first learn of D'Argo's ability to track people by smell (and he mentions John's particular odor) in That Old Black Magic.

John has been progressively adding Moya technology to his module since Till the Blood Runs Clear.

The title of this episode is probably a play on the title of the '60s television series My Three Sons.

Where did the sphere come from? Who sent it?

Apparently the sphere was damaged when Aeryn shot at it which caused John (and his duplicates) to be ejected. Was the creation of the duplicates part of the sphere's normal operation, or was that also caused by the damage? Why was the future-John duplicate delayed in its appearance?

The sphere was damaged when Aeryn fired on it with her prowler. Could the sphere have been destroyed if they fired on it further?

If prehistoric-John and future-John had John's memories, did they also have the wormhole knowledge implanted by the Ancients? When future-John said that things he had been working on for months or years were becoming clear, was he referring to wormholes? And, does whoever sent the sphere now have the wormhole knowledge?

Many (too many) years ago, during my college days, I took a course on psychology, sociology and social interactions. One day, we played something called "The Lifeboat Game". This was a small "role playing" exercise in which we split up into groups of eight and each member of the group was assigned a role; someone they were supposed to be. (Soldier, Doctor, Engineer, Homemaker and so on...) We were then told the situation we were supposed to be in.

A massive plague had occurred and wiped out almost everyone on Earth but the eight of us had made it safely to a shelter. We knew that after a certain number of days the plague would burn itself out and it would be safe for us to leave. However, there was not enough air for all eight of us to live that long. If all of us stayed in the shelter, we would all die of suffocation. If we left the shelter too soon, we would die from the plague. The only choice we had would be to pick one of our number and convince or force them to leave. That person would die but the rest of us would be safe. Each of us had a few minutes to explain to the others why we should be one of the ones to stay and who we thought should be the one to leave.

There were no right or wrong answers; the exercise was based on how well we presented our case to the others.

When I first saw My Three Crichtons, all I could think of was The Lifeboat Game.

The episode starts off typically enough for Farscape, an alien probe shows up on Moya and attacks Crichton. So what else is new. Then, Crichton is duplicated twice into a primitive and an advanced version of himself. Then we find out that one of them has to return with the probe or Moya will be destroyed. And the fun begins...

The dilemma as it is presented is fairly interesting and presented well but to me it felt as contrived as a classroom exercise. It just seemed that the writers had wanted to write an episode around the Lifeboat Game then tried to figure out how to force it into the series. So, we wind up with several things that don't quite make sense.

The sphere captures John because it has never seen a human before. Fine so far. Then, the sphere ejects both John and prehistoric-John and, somewhat later, future-John. Why it does this is never exactly clear. The implication is that the sphere was damaged when Aeryn fired on it and was unable to return with its "sample". But, if the sphere was designed to collect samples, why was it also designed to produce duplicates? Future-John makes a comment to the effect that the duplicates were a side-effect of "mapping their genetic pathways" but it is hard to imagine a situation where it would be necessary to create an imperfect clone in order to map someone's DNA. And, even if it was, why was it necessary to do it twice?

Even if it was, why did the sphere do it? If its purpose was to collect samples, why couldn't it return its samples to where ever it came from and let them be duplicated there? And if it did need to create duplicates itself, why not duplicates of its sample as they were as opposed to the primitive and advanced versions?

Apparently it didn't need all three duplicates anyway since it only required one to be returned to it before it left. So, again, why the duplicates at all?

It is possible to rationalize some of these. Maybe the probe was trying to examine the evolution of whatever sample it had taken and so created the primitive and advanced copies for that reason. Doesn't explain why it didn't take the sample home first though. Or, maybe it was supposed to take a sample, duplicate it, then return the original and take the duplicate home. So, then why two duplicates and why were they different from the original? Or, maybe the duplicates were the result of the damage the sphere received though that seems to be a strange failure.

Of course, it is possible to simply say "It's an alien probe, who knows why it does anything?" and let it go at that but that is a bit of a cop-out. Even science-fiction is expected to follow certain rules and one can only apply that particular excuse so many times.

Unfortunately, to me it felt as if all of these things occurred just to provide a moral and ethical dilemma for our heroes. Not that dilemmas are bad; its just that in this case the bolts holding the plot together were a bit too obvious for me to fully enjoy the episode.

Even setting that aside there are still problems. We have the stereotypes of the noble savage, ignorant but moral and wise, and the heartless intellectual, brilliant but lacking morals or ethics. Both stereotypes. I kept expecting something more but it didn't happen and the episode played out exactly as expected. The only other possibility I had thought of as an outcome would have been for John to awaken the humanity left within future-John and he decide to sacrifice himself for the good of the others.

On the other hand, that's the Star Trek ending. Never mind.

What I personally think would have been a better ending would have been for John to continue with the original plan, capture prehistoric-John and toss him into the sphere. Then, instead of an ending where he is upset because he almost made the wrong decision, we would have one where he has to live with knowing that he did make the wrong decision; especially if Aeryn, D'Argo and Rygel keep telling him that what he did was right. This would have also put an interesting wrinkle in the relationship between him and Chiana. I think it would have been much more interesting to see how this would have affected the characters and their relationships down the line.

Of course, that's just me.

All that aside, there were some interesting points to the episode even though most of it centered on John. Aeryn, D'Argo, Rygel and Zhaan didn't have that much to contribute this time out. Zhaan did a bit of lab work, D'Argo reaffirmed that he supported John, Rygel got to be himself and Aeryn got to make a few funny lines about future-John's... attributes, but that was about it for them.

Chiana was more involved and we got to see some interesting insights into her character and her relationship with John. I have said several times that I think Chiana has more feelings for John than she has let on (and certainly more than he is aware of) and here we learn what it is she is attracted to in John. As she puts it "He's warm. He's sensitive. He's everything I ever liked about you!"

I talked a bit about Chiana's feelings towards relationships in my commentary for Home on the Remains. There, I speculated that Chiana has probably had very few close relationships with anyone beyond her brother of a non-sexual nature. Here, we see that her attraction to John is also of that nature. Her casual sexual encounters have probably been in some sense empty to her; one of the reasons she seems to isolate herself from those around her. John is probably one of the few men she has met that has had feelings for her that didn't involve sex. John clearly likes Chiana. He isn't in love with her the way he is falling for Aeryn but she is his friend and someone he supports and cares for. This is the warmth and sensitivity she sees in him and what attracts her to him. The scene at the end where she tells him she is glad things turned out the way they did clearly shows her feelings towards him.

As for John himself, I can't help but note the transitions he goes through in the course of the episode. When the initial problem presents itself he is the one who strives to find another solution. Future-John is ready to sacrifice someone and it seems that most of the crew is ready to do the same, except for some disagreement on who should be the one sacrificed. John only comes to their point of view when time is almost out but rejects it almost immediately after finding prehistoric-John. He confronts future-John but, after realizing that he cannot get through to him decides to sacrifice himself in order to save the others. It is interesting that one would normally think of things progressing from primitive to advanced but in this case John starts out agreeing with the advanced version of himself and progresses to agreeing with the primitive.

Overall, this episode has some interesting concepts and some nice character development with Chiana but it isn't one I would rate highly.