Brief synopsis:
When an advanced research vessel comes aboard, the ship is damaged, and as the vessel begins its research, two new Crichtons are produced. When the original is sucked in to the orblike ship, he is returned with two friends, an advanced version and a devolved copy. The research ship demands one sample is returned to the owners, otherwise Moya will be destroyed as a result. The question is, which Crichton has to die?

The Main Story:
Aeryn begins scavenging parts from Crichton's module to use on her Prowler, but before Crichton can get angry, Pilot interrupts to say that some kind of energy ball is heading towards Moya, and will intercept in 15 microts. Once inside Moya it investigates each crew member gradually until it reaches Crichton. Unfortunately for him, Aeryn is present, and shoots the orb above Crichton's head. This makes the energy ball expand and engulf Crichton. It becomes quite large, so that Rygel can actually see it on the level below the maintenance bay where Aeryn shot the orb.

Shortly afterwards, Pilot detects further energy fluctuations, and this causes Crichton to be expelled from the orb, but he isn't alone. Following closely behind him comes some kind of hairy ape-like creature, which runs off into the depths of Moya, leaving Crichton to be cared for by Aeryn and Zhaan. John has no memory of what happened in the short time he was gone, other than seeing blinding light, but somehow blood is on the maintenance bay. Zhaan realises it must belong to the creature as Crichton is unhurt. D'Argo and Rygel go and hunt down the creature, but its actually Chiana who finds it, where the creature says Chiana's name.

Chiana panics at first, but quickly realises that the beast is actually Crichton. He recognises her, and also Zhaan as being blue. He shows Chiana Crichton's uniform, which he puts on as Chiana takes him back to the maintenance bay. Meanwhile, Zhaan tests the blood from the incident, and finds that its Crichton's despite Crichton not being cut. When Chiana arrives with the other Crichton, they all talk, but the real Crichton is understandably sceptical, and his doubts cause the beastlike Crichton to start a fight, ended by a sleepshot from Zhaan's syringe. Chiana certainly seems to support the primitive version of Crichton, saying that it isn't just blood they share, but memories too.

The debate is cut short however by the arrival of another Crichton, this time a "highly evolved" version, with a more developed brain, but less developed in other areas. Again Crichton is sceptical, but this Crichton has better memories of the past than even our Crichton has, and remembers details that Crichton had temporarily fogotten. Pilot then alerts them to further changes in the orb, saying that there are more energy fluctuations, this time quite different, and that they are opening an interdimensional portal, leaving less than a quarter of an arn until they are pulled through.

Both the advanced Crichton and the regular Crichton have the same idea at once, using the defence screen to counter the pull of the portal. However it takes Futuro Crichton's expertise to point out that the shield shouldn't be set at full power, but 85%. This buys them four arns, which allows Futuro Crichton to meet Neandro Crichton. After this, a noise erupts from the orb, and only the Crichtons are able to interpret it. From this they learn that the orb is sampling different species, and that one of the Crichton's must go in the orb and through the portal, otherwise all in the surrounding area will die. Futuro Crichton is impressed by the orb, a pure research vessel, but already plans to get rid of the most "expendable2 Crichton.

The Neandro Crichton interprets the message for Chiana, and says that he will be the one. Crichton refuses to give up though, determined to find a way to save them all, and throughout this time, Futuro Crichton knows what will happen, and states that Crichton will come to the same conclusion, only a lot slower. When the defence screen finally gets fried with no hope of repair without dropping the screen entirely, even Crichton accepts what must be done, and they head off in search of the Neandro Crichton. However, Chiana has already thought of this, and allowed him to escape and hide, forcing the other Crichtons to fight it out. Futuro Crichton's instant, cold logic tells him to go after Crichton, and although Aeryn tries to stop him, she fails, and Futuro Crichton heads off to cause trouble.

Crichton manages to find Neandro Crichton, in a familiar hiding place, but decides to let him go, realising that he was the most harmless of all the Crichtons. He then meets Futuro Crichton in the maintenance bay, where the "superior being" turns on him and tries to put Crichton in the orb. He says that he views Crichton in the same way Crichton views the Neandro Crichton. The two fight, and eventually as the situation becomes desperate, Crichton volunteers to go to the sphere. As he prepares to jump though, Neandro Crichton arrives and knocks out Futuro Crichton. He then drags him to the sphere, and lets the pair of them go into the orb. He says that only the real Crichton belongs here and that both he and the Futuro version must go back as specimens.

The orb leaves, and Moya is safe again, but Crichton has been left with a worrying image of what the future could hold for humans - cold hard logic, without any emotion. D'Argo points out that it was only one possible future, and Chiana reassures him with the fact that she was very impressed with the way he offered himself at the end. All along, Chiana knew where the kindest hearts lay.

Trivia Quiz:

References and continuity:

Crichton: "Chiana, half of this galaxy has my memories."

Everywhere he goes, he has bad guys sniffing round his head. Maldis pitting him against Crais (That Old Black Magic), Scorpius after the wormhole knowledge (The Hidden Memory onwards), the Ancients (A Human Reaction), the Delvians (Rhapsody In Blue), the list goes on.

• How does Aeryn know what John looks like naked? She comments on Futuro John's small, erm, tools, having seen Crichton's in the very first episode, Premiere when he was stripped and locked up by Moya's crew.
• Did you know that this was one of the only times that Chiana calls Crichton John, the rest of the time its 'Crichton', or 'deficient'.
• John refers to Quazimodo, who looks a little like Neandro Crichton, as he was fairly hairy, hunchbacked, and hid himself away in a tower.
• John also refers to "Bill and Ted land", the duo of teenage guys who managed to get themselves in wacky adventures through time, travelling in a phone booth.

Aeryn: "For a start, John has more hair... among other things. Are you going to blame that on being cold?"

Aeryn is straight out with the insults for Futuro John's slightly smaller toolkit.

Futuro Crichton: "There are some physical differences..."
D'Argo: "Just some?" (causing Aeryn to laugh)

Worth two goes that one, Future may be superior intellectually, but he is lacking in other areas. Futuro Crichton: "You're very predictable." Crichton: "I like to think of it as reliable." The Futuro Crichton seems to have a slight edge intellectually, but Crichton doesn't let himself get phased by it. Crichton: "Yes, Mr Bad News." Crichton comes up with a great name for Pilot, who always calls when Moya is about to be attacked or invaded.

Crichton: "No, I am widening my perspective, that's what I do, its what makes me, me."

Futuro Crichton may have the clearest logic, but he doesn't see life anywhere near as clearly as the other two Crichtons.

Writer:

Writers Gabrielle Stanton and Harry Werksman were also responsible for:

Director:

The director of this episode was Catherine Millar. She also went on to direct the following Farscape episodes:

New Aliens:

Researching Species

Though the species themselves are never seen, we can tell they are quite an exceptional race. They have magnificent power, able to clone and alter any being they contact, and have a vessel that appears to be pure energy, changing in shape as necessary, and travelling from one dimension to another. Its impressive that a species with this power is only interested in research. Admirable.

Farewell to:

Futuro Crichton		Knocked out by Neandro Crichton and taken to the research vessel.
Neandro Crichton		Sacrifices himself to the research vessel in order to save Moya and crew.

Guest Stars:

There were no guest stars in the episode, but in addition to the regular writer and director positions, there was also a teleplay written by Grant McAloon. Grant McAloon was also the writer for three Farscape episodes:

Personal Opinion:

This was quite an interesting episode, playing on the fact that Crichton is new to this part of the universe. However, it leaves a lot open to question. What species was the research vessel from? Why are they so powerful? If they are so powerful, why don't they try and do what all the other evolved species do, and take over the galaxy? Its all a little bit Star Trek.

I guess it was probably better at the time, but having seen the episodes following season 3's Eat Me, the idea of having more than one Crichton in the long term completely over shadows the attempt made in this episode, and annoyingly there was no attempt to play with the multiple Scorpius's inside each Crichton. Would each chip have been up/downgraded? The episode had its good points though, with Aeryn getting more great lines, and Chiana showing her good judgement of character. One thing I was a little disappointed with though was the fact that the primitive Crichton has more differences to the regular Crichton than the advanced one does. Its easier I guess to look back at our origins than to think of what might happen in the future.

	It was good, alright, bad. A mixture of three.		6/10