The Worlds of Farscape Read Online Free PDF Page B

live in another’s body—and consequently, come to a better, if also somewhat uncomfortable, appreciation of their differences. An even more telling instance of this sort of challenge to subjectivity occurs in “My Three Crichtons” (2.13) in which an alien probe strikes Moya, engulfs Crichton, and produces two genetic copies of him; one is an evolved version with advanced mental capabilities, and the other a prehistoric version with heightened sensory capacities. Even as members of the crew find themselves more attuned to one or the other versions of Crichton—causing him to wonder about his own acceptance in the group—John must come to recognize that both versions are, as he says, part of “what I am.” And when confronted with the cold, unfeeling logic of his evolved self—a self willing to sacrifice either the throwback or the original Crichton to save himself and the ship—he ends the episode worried about what this “one possible genetic path,” as D’Argo puts it, might mean for the future of humanity. It is a worry that speaks well of him and that, along with the less-evolved Crichton’s willingness to sacrifice himself for the group, helps demonstrate to the others what humans are (or should be) really like—emotional, caring, even self-sacrificing.
    Such accidental encounters with the alien other, even the alien self , and with difference thus consistently create challenging mirrors, both for Crichton and for the other members of Moya’s crew. In another early episode that details an accidental replication of the crew members (this is, tellingly, a recurrent theme), “Exodus from Genesis” (1.3), the Delvian priest Zhaan sees Rygel painting a portrait of himself and, curious at the rather crude image he has produced, asks, “Is that how you see yourself?” Later, she redoes his “artwork,” producing what she terms a “spirit painting,” that is, a portrait that captures the true spirit of a person. In this case, it underscores a resemblance between Rygel and one of the most revered leaders of the Hynerian people, his ancestor Rygel the Great. More than just a kindness, Zhaan’s effort provides an ideal for which Rygel might aim, while it also points up the series’ ongoing effort at bringing characters more in line with their best possibilities, allowing them to grow. Through their encounters with difference, with other species and other characters who have dissimilar desires and motivations, the crew of Moya—themselves already accidentally thrown together in their efforts at escaping the Peacekeepers—are constantly challenged to consider how they see themselves, how others see them, and how they might, in effect, “touch up” their own images.
    Another key cult feature of the series and of Crichton’s character is a persistent media and cultural self-consciousness, as the show repeatedly refers to films, other television series, key events in American cultural history, and a broad array of pop culture icons, ranging from Albert Einstein to Marilyn Monroe and Ronald Reagan. In weaving this sort of web of cultural referentiality, the show effectively establishes a line of communication with an audience already situated in and saturated by such material, offering them an unusual perspective—for science fiction television—on the series’ plot events, a sense of accidental communication . In such situations it is as if we had suddenly stumbled onto an unexpected dimension of the scene. As an example, we might consider the “Kansas” episode (4.12) wherein the hard-edged Peacekeeper warrior Aeryn sits down in front of an Earth television and, trying to learn the English alphabet, intently begins watching Sesame Street , which is, of course, populated by muppets produced by Jim Henson’s Creature Workshop, like Farscape ’s central characters