Farscape Executive Producer David Kemper is responsible for what John Crichton says in Farscape episodes. In the episode "Terra Firma" he had Crichton arguing a position that I find deeply irresponsible and naive. Picture alien technology hundreds or thousands of years more advanced beyond that of planet Earth. Then picture that technology being shared with all the peoples of the planet Earth. This is what Crichton advocated in the otherwise excellent "Terra Firma" episode.

Does this argument make sense? Move the argument into outer space and check for the consistency of Farscape's position on technology sharing. What we get instead is something closer to Star Trek's Prime Directive with John Crichton playing its advocate at the expense of considerable risk and suffering for himself and others. Crichton is trying to keep wormhole technology from both the Peacekeepers and the Scarrans. Why is that? Because the people who are in charge of those two civilizations have evil intentions. Duh. Are there no brutal ruthless governments or private groups on planet Earth who have evil intentions? Are there no alien technologies that would be incredibly useful for causing major destruction down here on planet Earth? Crichton has been at pains (and so has Kemper with the simulation episode where humans on simulated Earth dissected Rygel) to argue that humans are paranoid and unfair in their treatment of outsiders. But then Kemper brings out his liberal bleeding heart with Crichton's "We Are The World" attitude about sharing incredibly powerful and dangerous technology with the whole human race.

Mr. Kemper, start making sense. Has planet Hollywood become such a politically correct place that only aliens are allowed to be portrayed as having evil intentions? If so, then aren't even being consistent about it. You slipped up with the simulated Earth episode where Americans (and I think Australians) were portrayed as a bunch of paranoid xenophobes. Also, all of Crichton's own criticisms of culture on planet Earth are quite inconsistent with his attitude that extremely lethal alien technology should be shared with one and all.

Update: One other nit to pick on this was the way John father announced at the end of the episode that as the leader of whatever organization he's in charge of he was going to share the alien technology with one and all. Well, that's obviously a decision which is easily overruled by people at higher levels. It was more of a publicity stunt for John's position than anything else. But if John really wanted to get the message out that this was a necessary step he could have appealed directly by making his own speech to the press. Plus, he could have just broadcast some design schematics from Moya's databanks for all to record.

Here's what else is dumb about John Crichton's approach: if he really wanted to see the technology shared far and wide he should have explained why. He at the very least could have told the military that the whole planet needed to prepare defenses against vicious alien species. It seems too incongruous for him to simply say "trust me" and proclaim the sharing of the technology to be necessary. If he really is the capable charismatic figure that the show portrays his character as being then he should have realised that he needed to do a sales job.