It’s another quick and dirty review this week. We should be back to regular reviews next week.
- The biggest problem with “My Three Crichtons” isn’t that it’s stupid, although it is pretty stupid. The episode’s biggest problem is that it’s way too overly serious for something that’s as as stupid as it is. This episode involves Ben Browder in a fursuit and with giant fake teeth and a brain cap! They should be having the time of their lives. It should be funny, and goofy, and really playing the tropes to the hilt in true Farscapian fashion. Instead, everyone’s just angry and depressed the entire way through—which is also a perfectly valid Farscape tone, but again, this episode is not smart or interesting enough to earn it.
- That said, let’s talk about why this episode is stupid. I really hate stories that equate intelligence with coldness, lack of empathy, and amorality. I think it’s a reductive way of looking at intelligence, and offensive to both people who society considers intelligent and those it doesn’t. It pops up all over the place in science fiction, from Star Trek’s “Statistical Probabilities” to the final season of Fringe, and it has never once been done in a way that says anything at all interesting about intelligence, emotion, or morality.
- I am a predictable person, so obviously my favorite part of this episode is how heavily it leans into John and Chiana’s relationship. The episode sort of pairs Brain!Crichton up with Aeryn, but unlike Chiana and Caveman!Crichton, Aeryn and Brain!Crichton don’t really like each other. Which possibly does say something about what Aeryn likes about Crichton, though the episode isn’t explicit about it.
- I do really enjoy that Ben Browder decided that Brain!Crichton should be much more noticeably Southern than regular Crichton. It’s an atypical choice, which makes it one of the actually interesting things about the episode.
- I think the biggest missed opportunity of “My Three Crichtons” is that they don’t give the Crichtons many opportunities to interact. The fun of the episode is that there are three Crichtons! Let them bounce off each other!
Please tag spoilers for future episodes in the comments.
Next Monday, August 23, Crichton has a heart of stone, as we cover 2×11, 2×12, and 2×13, the “Look at the Princess” trilogy.