Lead character in
Farscape.The character is portrayed by
Ben Browder
John Robert Crichton, Jr. is the only son of Jack Crichton one of the
early NASA astronauts. John's mother died of cancer while he was still young,
so he was raised by his father and grew very close to him.
The elder Crichton was from the test pilot breed of
astronauts. Because of this, Jack lost out on the opportunity to be the first man to
step foot on the Moon to Neil Armstrong, who possessed a more science-based
background. Because of his loss, John's father pushed him over the years to
excel in education, forcing him to suppress his more athletic and adventurous
nature. Crichton's education at MIT and his ties to the space program landed him as a
missions specialist on a number of space shuttle missions.
John began to research a way to create a space craft that would travel vast distances.
His research was funded by NASA and John was given the opportunity to fly this
new craft. The name the project was given was Farscape.
During the first test flight of the Farscape project, the ship or module as
it was called, failed to perform as desired, but Crichton's ship was hit by
an energy wave, which opened a wormhole. A wormhole is a bend in space allowing a
vessel to travel vast distances in moments, the exact goal of the Farscape project.
Crichton and his ship were drawn into the wormhole and expelled far from Earth.
Crichton found himself in the midst of a battle between a military unit and
a group of escaping prisoners. Drawn into the prison ship, which is itself a
sentient being called Moya, Crichton soon found himself at the mercy of the
escaping prisoners. Crichton soon found himself allied with these prisoners and
has spent his time seeking a way home.
Crichton has proven himself to be a capable leader. He is a selfless friend, often times sacrificing his good for the good
of his companions. His athletic nature and ability to think on his feet have
served him well as he has gotten the ship and crew out of scrape after scrape.
He has found that he has also been given the knowledge of
how to create artificial wormholes by an learned group of aliens known as the
Ancients. The knowledge was locked into his subconsious and has recently begun to
surface. He is pursued by members of the Sebacean race, a group of human looking
aliens who exist in a military society known as the Peacekeepers, for that knowledge.
The Peacekeepers wish to use the ability to create wormholes as a weapon against
their foes the Scarrans. John, having seen how deadly a weapon it can be, is on the
run from the Sebaceans to keep it from them.