A mysterious ball of energy invades Moya and sucks up Crichton. When it spits him out again he is accompanied by two unexpected guests - and a deadline for sending one of them to their death...

"God, I love this. Okay, you want to stick to that routine. You want to be the next to mess with me, well get in line."

I should really hate this episode. I mean, it's been done soooo many times before that you can almost recite the plot by the time the opening titles kick in. For a start, it's been done ad infinitum in Star Trek (as far back as TOS episode "The Enemy Within", which - ironically - is the next one I have to see in that rewatch :rolleyes: :lol: ). But I have to say, for me at least, this episode rocks. It is just carried off with such energy and style (the visual flair Catherine Millar brings to the episode is, at times, breathtaking), and a little provocation of thought, that it actually works.

Okay, so how many times has a ball of energy come aboard the Enterprise and taken over one of the crew or somesuch? Well, here the ball of energy turns out to be a research vessel from another dimension, a nice new twist on a familiar theme. The vessel sucks Crichton into its mass and promptly throws him back out, along with a neanderthal-like creature that proceeds to run amok. It doesn't take long for Chiana, at her most perceptive, to work out that it is in fact a regressive version of Crichton, a fact that the rest of the crew find more difficult to accept, especially Crichton himself.

John: Chiana, I'm sick of it. It's bad enough being spat out of some green blob - now I've got Quasimodo here saying he's me.

Then the plot takes things one step further by having the sphere spit out another, far more advanced version of him. I'm not sure that the reason for creating a third Crichton is ever explained to my entire satisfaction. Had the sphere wished to return to its dimension with all three of them, to essentially study mankind's evolution, I could have understood it. But the sphere soon announces that it only requires one specimen, which doesn't make a lot of sense to me in this context, other than to set up the dramatic final act in which the three Crichtons and the crew try to decide exactly which version should go.

Of course, the nice thing here is that it turns out that Neandro was prepared to sacrifice himself immediately, whilst it takes Crichton some time to reach the same conclusion, and Futuro would never have done it in a million years, prepared even to kill one of his other selves in order to survive.

John: I always thought I was the good guy, Chiana. But it was the least developed one of me - the one I thought least likely - that did the right thing. Somehow you knew.
Chiana: I know you.

The tension is increased by having the sphere start to pull Moya and everyone aboard through into the other dimension when it does not get the specimen it requires. There's an element of ho-hum (technical term) about this, in that it sets a deadline for all the decisions to be made, but the production team carry it off by letting the sparks literally fly. The computer-generated cracks that start to work their way along the corridors are very effective, too.

Of course, most of the tension is diluted by the knowledge that there's no way they could split a character into multiple parts and leave him that way at the end of the episode. That would be a very brave and risky thing to do. It's just not done.

It's an episode designed to show Crichton that he may not be the superior being he considers himself to be. It's an episode about how intelligence can be evil, or how assuming a lack of it can be a huge mistake. Overall it shows us that we're going to evolve into a race that wears its brains on the outside and has extremely large teeth.

It's great fun! :)

Not a bad episode, not great.

Maybe this is an episode, that could give David the Red Dwarf comparison. The advanced version, not so dissimiliar to Rimmer :lol: :lol:

An interesting spin, on an old idea, a ball of energy swallows Crichton, and spits him out with doppelgangers, in various stages of evolution.

I have to say, when Farscape, takes an old idea, you can generally vouch, that the explanation, as to why it happened, will either be nothing like what you expect, or really advance the ongoing story arc. Very nicely done. :)

Things I liked about it. Crichton understanding himself better, and that being more intelligent, would desimate his humanity. You have to wonder, if the writers are trying to make some kind of point here, again power/knowledge corrupts.

Chianna instinctively recognizing, that the primitive Crichton was easily the more humane. The primitive Crichton, willing to sacrifice himself, and John realising he's not quite the nice guy, he thought he was.

I find this episode pretty boring.

Neanderthal Crichton is all hairy and heroic and stuff, yadda yadda yadda.
Future Crichton is a big brained, big toothed, pain in the butt (and a little psychotic).
And normal Crichton is just Crichton. Trying to do the right thing but messing it all up before coming good in the end.

As for the rest of the crew....... Rygel just thinks about himself. Pilot and Moya are prepared to sacrifice themselves for the others. Zhaan tries to figure it all out in the lab. D'Argo runs around with his Qualta blade out. Chi sneaks around and shows her sensitive side. And Aeryn acts all smug.

Whatever. This is one of the few episodes I actually find myself looking at my watch to see how long there is left :sleeping:

It actually suprises me that you don't like this one, Karen, but I can see where you're coming from. When it comes down to it the rest of the crew don't really do a lot, and were they actually contemplating letting "our" Crichton get taken by the research vessel. It is surprising that they actually contemplate making Futuro part of the crew, even with what he can bring. He's so obviously evil - I mean, look at those teeth! :lol:

So.....big teeth = evil? :blink:

Personally I've always thought that Ken Dodd is the most evil man on Earth. And I think practically every American president has big teeth too. :lol:

Hmmm.....Now I come to think about it, you could be right :o

Just out of interest Steve, why were you so surprised that I don't like this episode?

Because it's one of the better non-arc stories of season 2, imo. Plus I didn't think you'd ever find three (that's three) Crichtons boring. :lol:

LOL!!

I'm sorry but one has a little too much hair (and a possible hygiene problem), and the other? Well, I think we have already mentioned the big head and teeth thing. So not my taste.

I was gonna say three Crichton's may have possibilities but no. That would just be weird.

I'm quite surprised by the reviews of this one. I actually enjoyed it.

BB gets plenty to do, we get the crew's reaction to each version and their ultimate actions when it becomes clear that one of the Crichtons has to die.

Although I must admit to being astounded at Crichton's stupidity at one point in the episode;

Hello ??????? :lol:

As I said, I enjoyed this one, the pacing was quite good, it took some time to figure out what the hell was going on, and there was a nice little moral dilemna towards the end.

The best of the three episodes I've seen tonight, IMO :)

You're not alone, James, I really like this episode :)

I don't like it much :lol:

I prefer Out of their minds

Like the fact that its only Chi that sees the good in Neanderthol Crichton to begin with and defends him :)

I really don't like this episode of Farscape. so much so I definitely prefer Jeremiah Crichton over my three Crichton's!

What can I say that's positive about the episode? Hmmm well Chi was good in this episode proving she is more than a sexy little trelk by realising "caveman" Crichton was Crichton and standing up for him, while the rest of the crew seemed oblivious to who he was. Other than that the only good thing I can say about the episode is the credits at the beginning. Sorry.