Crichton Kicks

Crichton Kicks
Written by David Kemper
Directed by Andrew Prowse

Original Airdate: June 7, 2002

Plot: Several months after losing Moya and her crew, Crichton is living aboard a dying Leviathan named Elak. Elak is journeying to a sacred Leviathan burial space when she is boarded by a mysterious alien woman named Sikozu Syala Shanti Sugaysi Shanua who is being pursued by a group of aliens called the Grudek. The Grudeks want to harvest some of Elak's neural tissue and sell it, but Crichton is determined not to let this happen....

Review

Warning: If you've not yet seen the fourth season premiere of Farscape, "Crichton Kicks" and want to go in unaware of any SPOILER information, you might want to turn back now. There are MAJOR SPOILERS just ahead....

In short: A nice start to the season.

If season three of Farscape was about at least one version of Crichton getting everything he'd ever wanted only to find that it wasn't all he'd hoped it would be, the fourth season premiere of Farscape is about Crichton trying to pick up the pieces and move on with his life. Last time we saw Cricthon, he was alone in space, lamenting the universe's sense of humor at leaving him stranded out in the middle of no-where, low on fuel and with no visible means of escape.

And in typical Farscape fashion, instead of showing us Crichton's rescue (which let's face it, the cliffhanger was an interesting one but not one that necessarily demanded that we pick up the action immediately, such as we had last year), we are told that some time has passed and are left to fill in the details. I have to admit that on a lot of levels I like that. It reminds me a lot of what Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel do--namely the shows allow three months to pass during their hiatuses and pick up the storylines from there. (Having cliffhangers that require direct continuation can be a good thing, so long as you get the show's internal continuity correct. For example of how to make internal continuity really confusing, see the X-Files.)

Crichton is living the life of hermit, on-board a dying Leviathan named Elak. On the way to a sacred burial ground, a new visitor comes on-board named Sikozu. She warns Crichton she is being pursued by a group of mercenaries called the Grudek who want to harvest part of Elak's neural tissue called toubray. Before you can blink twice, Cricthon is up to his ears in trouble and coming up with plans left and right to try and save Elak from this painful death and to allow her to pass away with the dignity he feels she deserves. Oh yeah, he also really has no way to get off Elak since his module is still low on fuel and Sikozu's ship crashed on arrival, so part of his decision is out of self-preservation.

In a lot of ways, this episode reminded me of season two's original season premiere, "Dream a Little Dream." Season two was supposed to start on a quiet note, with the audience not knowing the fate of part of the Moya crew. Instead, Sci-Fi asked Farscape to shuffle the episodes and we got a story that wrapped up the plotlines started in the end of season one and "Dream a Little Dream" was moved back in the rotation.

"Crichton Kicks" also reminded me a lot of the start of the fourth season of Babylon Five. On B-5, instead of immediately picking up the plot threads of what was happening, we had an episode that focused on the characters and how these things were affecting them. It's a unique way to start a season, and I've got to admit that I liked it. Seeing how the revelation that Aeryn is pregnant and the crew has broken up and gone their separate ways was nicely done. The early moments on Elak showed how easily Crichton can settle into his new life, while still bringing up memories of home. I loved 1812 and several of Richton's earth-bound references that were sprinkled throughout here.

We also get to see Crichton with a beard, which I think shows his hermit-like status. He is content to be aboard Elak, trying to find his way home. He wants to feel alone in the universe. It's only once parts of his old life show up that he shaves off the beard and begins to embrace the changes and move forward.

Indeed, it's interesting that Crichton has to have an outside motivation to get him off his butt and back into the business of living. Crichton has retreated into a cave--he's on a Leviathan, he is working on worm-hole tech and he's growing a beard. All of these things are ways to escape the universe and the events that surrounded him at the end of season three. It's only the arrival of Sikozu, who has a big time problem that kicks Crichton out of his self-imposed exile and allows him to start to move forward. We even see this in his Baywatch fantasy sequences with the Scorpius clone (and if the sight of Scorpius running on the beach with Crichton isn't one of the biggest laugh-out loud moments of the entire episode, I don't know what is). In the beginning, Cricthon talks to the clone and Aeryn about what his place in events is. In the end, we see him decide the time has come to possibly think about letting his love for Aeryn go. Indeed, her comment that she was the only real available choice and not really the love he thought she might be is particularly stinging and I wonder if it might not show that Crichton is, on some level, attracted to Sikozu. (I can hear those of you out there who are Crichton/Aeryn shippers screaming a loud, collective, "No!" but I think this what may be happening).

Once Crichton meets Sikozu, he realized the universe is about more than just his problems. He's pulled into a fight, to fight the good fight yet again and save an innocent life--in this case, Elak. And so, as is typical with Crichton, he jumps in, feet first without seeing what he's up against.

And he's up against some interesting aliens, who look a lot like Klingons. Give the show a lot of credit, it recognizes this fact and runs with it. Kemper's script could have asked us to suspend disbelief and just accept it, but instead it takes this fact and pokes fun at it. I've got to admit, I love seeing the show being as self-aware as it can be and usually is.

These aliens has have one ugly dog, who gets a good chunk of Cricthon. I'll admit that I never bought into this plotline as much--namely it seemed to be in there to fill some time and provide some tension and then disposed of quickly when the plotline was done. It looked great and was well-rendered using the CGI, but overall it didn't add as much to the plot as I'd hoped it would.

And, shades of "Dream a Little Dream" the two other Moya crew members who show up to help are Chianna and Rygel. Both are pretty rough and look bruised. It turns out that in fighting the good fight and stopping the wormhole project, Crichton has made a powerful new enemy in Gravza. She has taken back Scorpius's promises of amnesty to the Moya crew and is offering rewards for their capture. I have a strong feeling this will be the reason that the Moya crew reunites this year and if so, I can buy it. But I've also got to wonder if we'll deal with the seed we got last year--namely that the more Moya's crew succeeds, the more the PeaceKeeper's grip on the systems they have will begin to slip. If Moya's crew was infamous before, their reputation must be huge now, having taken on and destroyed a command carrier. Indeed, it may seem to some of these systems that the reward is a desperate attempt by Gravza to do what she can't do--bring the crew of Moya to justice.

As for the rest of the episode, it worked well enough. Crichton is given a chance to be heroic and save the day, which he does. And he's also given a chance to jump-start his life. Indeed, his offer to Sikozu at the end is interesting--she can join them, but he can't guarantee it will be a safe journey. Crichton has come out of his cave and is reaching out to others...and he's now ready to find the rest of the crew--specifically Aeryn and see where things go from here. And you can bet that this being Farscape, the road won't be easy or anything like we expected.

So, I guess that's about it for now, except a few small things...

--Wide-screen Farscape. Woo-hoo! I love it.

--The new opening sequence--anyone get the idea that Cricthon may try to get back to Earth this year?

--I loved 1812. I hope they keep bring him along when we get back to Moya.

--Where did Chiana and Rygel go? And weren't they last seen on Moya? I'm confused here.

So, overall, "Crichton Kicks" is a nice way to start season four. We got a chance to have some character time with Cricthon and from the previews for next week, it looks like the season four arc is about to get a big jump-start...

My rating: 8.0 (out of 10.0)

Next up: The crew is reunited...and Crichton comes under the influence of Grayza.