by Sherry Ginn
As a writer (primarily as a poet) with introverted tendencies, I often work alone. Even as introverted as I am, however, I still work with other writers as first readers, editors, and collaborators. For example, I ran ideas for this essay by several different people before I even started to do my research. Then I had readers who could look through different versions before I sent it to the editor, who then had to work with the publisher to finalize everything. Of course this does not even touch on the number of times the piece had to go through revision. The ideas and words may start with me, but where do they go if I do not have anyone with whom to share them?
Collaborate and Listen
As I researched this essay I learned that, as with many television series, the Farscape writing staff had a very collaborative process which Ben Browder, Commander John Crichton to Farscape fans, joined during the third season of the show. Browder wrote two episodes for the series in which he starred: the Season Three episode “Green Eyed Monster” (3.8) and the Season Four episode “John Quixote” (4.7). Ben Browder describes writing a Farscape episode as such:
The story is broken [down] with all the other writers and then the script is subject to notes from all of the key staff. So you go through a process of writing, then rewrites and then more rewrites. It then goes through production, which says, “This and that can or can’t be done,” for money or time reasons, meaning I have to go back and restructure an act or two. By the time you finish a Farscape script you’ve re-written every word at least three or four times. It’s an exhausting and time-consuming process that our writers go through every day, every script, to make the episodes as good as they can be [Spelling].
Browder explains that he spent a lot of time in the writer’s room between takes rather than spending time in his small trailer.1 I feel it is this small action that started Browder’s journey towards the writing desk. Actors do provide feedback about their characters and the inner workings of the show,2 but hanging out with the writers moved Browder from one layer of interaction, as an actor, to a second tier of collaboration as a writer.
The Red-Eyed Writer Tells His Tale
Browder did not start writing his first episode of Farscape until filming began for the third season. After he received the story from the writing staff, Browder went through four or five outlines, often working in the early hours of the morning when his scenes were not being filmed, to flesh out his story with feedback from the other writers.3 “Green Eyed Monster” opens with John Crichton in his room aboard Talyn, the hybrid offspring of the Leviathan spaceship Moya. Well, one version of Crichton is aboard Talyn. In episode six of Season Three, “Eat Me,” Crichton was “twinned” by a creature using cloning as a means of feeding itself.4 Throughout Season Three we see the crew members separated and living on different ships—Moya or Talyn—as they continue to explore the Uncharted Territories looking for supplies, and perhaps a way home. Because of the twinning, even with the regular cast divided between the different ships, John Crichton’s character is still able to appear in all 22 episodes of Season Three. As a matter of fact, he is the only character who does appear in all of the series’ 88 episodes in addition to the final movie/mini-series.
In “Green Eyed Monster,” the audience’s first glimpse of Crichton reminds one of the first time Crichton boarded Moya in the first episode (“Premiere” 1.1). After being transported across space in his experimental spacecraft Farscape 1, the first “aliens” he encounters are the DRDs, tiny robots that help maintain the living ship Moya. Crichton is initially frightened by the DRDs aboard Moya, but they become the first alien entities with which he can communicate successfully. Crichton’s relationship with the DRDs aboard Talyn, however, is not as sunny. These DRDs are working to repair Talyn, but Crichton assumes that Crais, the first enemy he made in his new world, is purposefully sending the DRDs to bother him. Crichton allows his aggravations with Crais to surface and he blames his frustration on the DRDs’ activity. However, it is not just the DRDs that are the cause of his frustration. Rather Crichton is jealous of Crais, for many reasons, but largely because Crichton is afraid that Aeryn will turn her affections to Crais, who is of the same species/race as Aeryn. He is not only a Peacekeeper, but a Sebacean as well, whereas Crichton is the only human being in this part of the universe.5
When Crichton tries to confront Crais over the intercom about the DRDs and Winona (his weapon, which is also missing) he cannot reach the bridge. A failure to communicate arises frequently in this episode (and in the series as a whole). Crichton has to leave his quarters in order to confront Crais. It does not take long before Aeryn has to step in to separate the two. She tries to diffuse the situation by asking: “Talyn, you’ve seen them both naked. Perhaps you can tell us who’s bigger.” Aeryn is the axis around which the three main male entities—Crichton, Crais, and Talyn—revolve in this episode. The only other prominent characters in this episode, in fact, are also male: Rygel and Stark. Testosterone, therefore, dominates the episode. (One could even argue that the budong the crew encounters is stereotypically male: only concerned with his survival and appetite.)
In the midst of the argument on the bridge, the crew realizes they are in danger of colliding with what they initially think is a moon. It is Crichton who realizes it is in fact a budong and not a moon. Talyn, who is still a young ship, does not react quickly enough to the threat and is swallowed. Crichton says: “Yo, Jonah! We have been swallowed, that is DOWN, and I for one do NOT want to be budong chow!” They do not want to be swallowed because they once encountered a budong: they know the insides of one can destroy Talyn and the people aboard him (“Home on the Remains” 2.7).
In a 17 June 2001 online interview Browder freely admitted pulling in the Jonah-in-the-whale motif:
There’s nothing new in this universe, even in the Uncharted Territories, and I was vamping on a classic story. I love when we do that, whether it be a science-fiction standard or an old standard. And this is an old standard. This is biblical. I sort of swallowed that story and worked it into ours and got a chance to play on some relationships which I thought were interesting to explore [see note 3].
This is not the first mention of a biblical story, or in fact Jonah, in the series because Crichton explains to Aeryn in an episode early in the first season (“They’ve Got a Secret” 1.10) that the closest thing he can compare, from his world, to being inside Moya is the story of Jonah and the whale.
Here Browder is doing what writers do: he is pulling from the stories around him. The cliché is that there are no new stories; however, there are new ways of telling them. Composition teachers (including me) tell their students, whether in composition studies or creative writing, that there are two ways to go about writing something: either say something no one else has said or speak to a common theme in a new way. Browder, as a writer, is using an old story in a new way in order to explore the characters of Farscape—one of which, at the time when he wrote episode 3.8, he had spent the last two seasons playing.
Being swallowed by the budong has put Talyn and the crew in danger. They cannot reach Rygel and Stark for rescue so they stabilize themselves to keep from falling any further into the creature. As they work on their tasks to try and get out of the budong’s upper GI tract, Crais continues trying to convince Aeryn to take the neural connection that would allow her to help pilot Talyn. Talyn originally chose Crais to be his captain (“Mind the Baby” 2.1) after Crais became, like Aeryn and the others, fugitives from the Peacekeepers, but Crais has found there is a cybernetic bleed back from the neural connection. He cannot control Talyn without, in some way, being controlled as well. He tells Aeryn that they can share command, that Talyn wants this relationship, and that Aeryn will take on a much safer interface. Crais wants to be physically saved from his injuries by taking Aeryn on as co-pilot, but Crais also admires Aeryn and wants her to be his companion on the ship. After all, Aeryn is “special.” Browder joked that the episode, before the final title was chosen, was called “It’s All
About Aeryn” (Spelling), as all three male entities are drawn to her. Like all “families” that form in the Farscape series a union between Aeryn, Crais, and Talyn would not be conventional, but could hold the likeness of mother, father, and son.
We will later see the physical damage to Crais from the bleed-back, but before that happens Talyn reveals his jealousy of Crichton when he tricks Crichton into going to Crais’ quarters. Crais is not there which just serves to agitate Crichton further. Talyn leaves a video chip in Crais’ room which like a diary left open on a bed Crichton cannot help but watch. In the video Talyn twists actual video footage and makes it seem that Aeryn has traded sexual favors with Crais for working with Talyn. When Crichton storms back up to the bridge Talyn, having successfully riled up the green-eyed monster even further inside of Crichton, allows Crichton to enter the bridge just in time to view a potentially damning scene in which Crais is struggling to put back on his jacket. However, it is not what Crichton thinks: Crais is showing Aeryn his injuries, which serve to push Aeryn into accepting the neural interface with Talyn.
Why does Talyn, a warship, exhibit jealousy? Because he is a living ship—a young, male living vessel—a hybrid Leviathan born with weaponry as a result of a breeding program designed by the Peacekeepers. This is not a natural state for Leviathans, the ships of Moya and Talyn’s species. Talyn is going through a dangerous puberty. Talyn chose Crais as his captain in the second season (“Mind the Baby”), but did he perhaps regret his decision, especially now that Aeryn is onboard? Is Talyn worried that Crichton will take Aeryn away from him? Despite how Crichton’s character is presented in the episode, Talyn’s worries will be justified.
Browder, in taking on the writing of this episode, does not actually portray his own character in the best of lights. Crichton is a bit whiny. He is just going through the motions of saving the ship. He says, “I’m doing the good little soldier bit.” But, it is not just Crichton who is portrayed negatively in this episode: it is the “male” gender that seems off-kilter. It will be Aeryn, the one female in this episode, who comes across as truly honorable as the story develops.
As the episode progresses Rygel and Stark have their own conflicts aboard their ship as, in typical Rygel fashion, once they narrowly miss being eaten by the budong he just wants to escape. Stark, on the other hand, insists they stay. He devises a promising, yet risky rescue plan for the doomed crew onboard Talyn. The plan will require someone to go outside of the ship. Crais, unable to function because of his injuries, and Aeryn now alone to work with Talyn, means Crichton has to be the one to enter the interior space of the budong outside of Talyn in order to prepare an escape.
Meanwhile, Aeryn has to learn how to control Talyn. Talyn attempts to trick Aeryn—by attempting to block what she can see through the neural interface—into abandoning Crichton because Crichton is taking Aeryn’s attention away from Talyn. Crichton realizes what is going on before Aeryn when he addresses the ship, saying:
Talyn, I’ve been reviewing the situation. Aeryn’s pretty pissed at me, but she kinda likes me. Crais? Well, he hates me, but he’s not stupid. He knows if he kills me, that Aeryn would do the math and his shot at domestic bliss would be cut off along with his balls. That leaves one suspect. Open the door, you soulless pinheaded adolescent prick!
Once Aeryn understands what Talyn has done she chooses Crichton, despite her bond with Talyn. She, and perhaps Stark, are the only ones in this episode who do not appear to be blinded by the green-eyed monster.
Once Talyn and the crew are safely out of the budong, Aeryn speaks with Crichton in his quarters. She has had a difficult time dealing with the fact that there are now two Crichtons: how can she possibly “love” one incarnation over the other? Aeryn is still unsure how to deal with this emotion called “love” given that the one male that she has claimed to love she ultimately betrayed (“The Way We Weren’t” 2.5; see Ginn, “Ballad” in this collection). Aeryn speaks of how difficult it has been adjusting to her life outside of being a Peacekeeper:
I had this life. I liked it. It had rules. I followed the rules and that made everything right. And then you come along and you frell everything up... You are like a plague, John Crichton, and you have ruined my life. And yet, I just keep coming back.
Crichton’s response to Aeryn is to show her the star chart he has been creating. On the chart, the brightest star is the one he has named Aeryn. He tells Aeryn that it is that star which is his constant and guide. Crichton asks Aeryn if she will help him name the stars. This is quite romantic (at least by human standards), and it is also a moment of redemption for Crichton. He appears to be finally free from the worst throes of jealousy. Despite what he continues to learn about Aeryn’s past, he holds onto how much she has grown and changed throughout their time together, as has he.
Ben Browder could have taken his screenwriting debut as an opportunity to pen an episode that narcissistically made his own character look good, an episode that would further his own “career” on the show. But I do not think that is what Browder did. This episode is ultimately an episode about love and not just romantic love. Browder was able to expand on the relationship between his character and Aeryn Sun. In addition, he was able to consider what other types of love (friendship, parental, platonic) exist in the Farscape universe. This episode was a chance for Browder to dive in as a fan of his own show; he had a chance to participate in the ultimate fan fiction.
And Then There Were Two
Those who spend time analyzing literature and writers have been known to say that anyone’s first book has a narrative/personal connection to their own life, and that their second book tends to be more of a project-based item as the writer tries to move on to other subjects. This is not necessarily true of every writer perhaps, but it is an interesting lens through which to discuss the second episode that Browder wrote for Farscape, which aired in Season Four. Browder’s first writing attempt, episode 3.8, utilized simple motifs: jealousy, a love triangle, and the story of Jonah and the whale. These are not only very accessible literary devises for the audience, but for the writer as well. Browder’s first writing attempt pulled from what he knew about solid, traditional storytelling. Browder’s second episode “John Quixote” is a whole different animal.
The hopeful ending of the episode that Browder wrote previously is night and day from where the characters are a cycle later. The Crichton that we saw at the close of “Green Eyed Monster” died, and Aeryn could not quite deal with trying to “love” the other Crichton. He is essentially the same man, with no memory of the time that Aeryn and Crichton-Black shared aboard Talyn. Aeryn, conflicted, leaves Moya for long period of time, and her return creates new tensions which are further complicated by her decision to bring Scorpius back with her. Scorpius, who in Season Two replaced Crais as Crichton’s chief adversary, has been offered a sort of asylum by Aeryn because Scorpius apparently saved Aeryn’s life. Crichton is suspicious and confused by Aeryn’s conduct, given Scorpius’ actions toward Crichton in the past.
Jool, a newer crew member, opens the episode by asking Scorpius to play a board game. The audience sees Scorpius locked away in one of the cells that formerly held the crew when they were still Peacekeeper prisoners aboard Moya. The audience will learn, quickly, that—as in his first episode—Browder’s second screenplay for Farscape finds the crew members on different ships. Crichton is, in fact, one of those not aboard Moya. He is on a transport with Chiana.
As Chiana and Crichton are looking through new cargo aboard the transport, Chiana finds a virtual reality game. In typical Chiana fashion, she dives into the game, taking Crichton with her. She does not even consider the fact that they are alone on their ship. Chiana is like a teenaged girl: sexual and over-trusting. She is a devious and dangerous character in many ways, but also loveable, endearing, and vulnerable. It is Browder’s love of story and character that comes through in this quirky episode. The title “John Quixote” itself is an obvious allusion and reveals just which chara
cter Crichton will play.
When Crichton and Chiana first enter the game they are on the planet where they first met Jool, who was working on an archeological dig, but it quickly changes to a Monty Python-like scene complete with castle. Crichton and Chiana are now in their costumes as Don Quixote and his squire, Sancho Panza. They find themselves in a parking lot and parking deck, settings that would be familiar to any human being such as Crichton, yet the engaged audience will realize how foreign these props might look to Chiana, the alien. This setting choice, however, was not the original plan for the episode. As previously discussed, writing a television show is very collaborative process. Browder was told that the budget for sets was small. He had to use his imagination, as well as the skills he knew his cast and crew possessed, to make the setting work (“John Quixote” DVD commentary).6
As Crichton looks up at the castle, he is hit in the head by a television, just before the opening credits begin. After the credits another Crichton appears in the repaired television. This Crichton looks much like Max Headroom—the 1980’s character who was a virtual talking head from a British television show that had an almost entirely American cast. The use of his Max Headroom clone is, of course, another pop culture reference (which Crichton is known for making), but it is also another example of Browder considering the Farscape production staff. Browder originally wanted there to be two Crichtons in the episode. He knew this would be both expensive and time-consuming to film so he found another way to make the scenes involving “John” Headroom work (“John Quixote” DVD commentary).