Terra Firma: Jack Crichton

[so-much-4-sanity]

Ok, I liked Terra Firma, quite a bit actually and would chalk it up as one of my fav S4 eps. However, I'm not too crazy about Jack Crichton here, or more specifically, his using 9/11 for not wanting to share Wormhole Tech. My hope is not this does not become a policitcal debate but just a place to gauge where people are the state of (for lack of a better term) "national security" :huh: .

When Jack mentions we are a country under seige in 2003, I can't help but disagree with him. I do not feel threatened, or uneasy, or unsafe...perhaps, however, I'm just insulated out in my little Pacific Northwest town, or perhaps I have one more year removing me emotionally from those events. I feel almost like it was a plot device to awknowlege the events of 9/11, since the show didn't have the opportunity to do that previously and I think they could have done it better if so...

I'm curious what others think about this and if this has already been discussed, I apologize, I've only recently watched the ep.

[JrMissToughChick]

Not gonna get into a debate but... I always though it was to show how humans were not what he remembered they were Paranoid "Xenophobes and bigots even among their own kind" as D’argo put it.

[so-much-4-sanity]

Originally posted by JrMissToughChick
Not gonna get into a debate but... I always though it was to show how humans were not what he remembered they were Paranoid "Xenophobes and bigots even among their own kind" as D’argo put it.

Hmm...more please, can you elaborate on that?

[JrMissToughChick]

John thought when he went back home everyone would be happy to see him that was right he also thought that His wormhole tech and everything he learned would “unite mankind” because that’s what he was taught growing up he even told his dad it was “his dream” and asked him “what happened” to change that Jack replied “September 11” later after he left and when he talked to his dad in BT Jack said “the worlds coming together like you wanted son” I’m not completely sure I buy that but I’m sure the line was in there for a reason.


edited because I'm an idiot

[Antrobus]

I do not feel threatened, or uneasy, or unsafe...

I think if you lived in a big city you might feel differently. I don't live in a city now, but I have in the past and I can easily see myself being concerned about the current state of affairs regarding terrorism if I were still there.

[Dangermousie]

I live in a big city, DC in fact, and I work not so far from the White House so yes, I do feel afraid sometimes.

As to the TF question: I think FS dealt with the issue in a very good way. Not too preachy or pushy or anything.

Though, I think even if Earth of Crichton's return sdidn't have a massive terrorist attack, US government (or any other Earth government) would not have wanted to play nice and share. Just the nature of the beast.
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But it is cool that we find out later that Earth did pull together after all.

[Chi27]

I think the point was to show John (and perhaps us) how much he had missed since he had been off this planet. While he has seen some of horrific things in the UTs, he had also missed the single most horrific event of this century. I was watching TF the other night and said to myself that John is the only person on planet Earth who never witnessed first-hand on TV what happened on 9/11/2001 and who didn't know of the event until his father told him. He's definitely rather removed from the event as it's probably doesn't seem very real that it happened.

As for the under-seize remark, I don't feel that way, either. Perhaps Jack felt that way because the country has been under those terror alert status' like orange.

[Ouroboros]

In the hands of a reasonable nation wormhole tech would be useless as a weapon as by its very nature it would kill the user if he attempted to deploy it on his Earth born enemies. Terrorists and psychotic fundamentalist groups however might be able to concoct themselves a reason why blowing up the entire Earth and everyone on it would be a good idea.


In the larger scope it also served to illustrate how small and petty by contrast the problems of our world seem when compared to all that John has experienced. Dad’s worried about people with shoe bombs and religious grudges when there are entire alien Empires with planet killing warships just looking for a chance to add all important Earth to their list of inconsequential conquered worlds.

Earth and its galactically trivial problems could be erased at the press of a button by people like Stalleek and Grayza.

[so-much-4-sanity]

Originally posted by Antrobus
I think if you lived in a big city you might feel differently. I don't live in a city now, but I have in the past and I can easily see myself being concerned about the current state of affairs regarding terrorism if I were still there.

Sorry, I was being sarcastic (doesn't always translate well for me) though we're not huge, I live in Seattle. It's because of my personal feelings that Jack's reasoning seems forced to me; but you are right when you point out how practically meaningless wormhole tech would be when targeting another on your planet. Perhaps that fear pointed more towards pulse tech.

I can take the pettiness of our problems as the lesson to be learned, it goes back to John telling his father "You can't concieve of the big picture" and Jack's subsequent support of John.

[Nessus]

Originally posted by so-much-4-sanity
Ok, I liked Terra Firma, quite a bit actually and would chalk it up as one of my fav S4 eps. However, I'm not too crazy about Jack Crichton here, or more specifically, his using 9/11 for not wanting to share Wormhole Tech. My hope is not this does not become a policitcal debate but just a place to gauge where people are the state of (for lack of a better term) "national security" :huh: .

When Jack mentions we are a country under seige in 2003, I can't help but disagree with him. I do not feel threatened, or uneasy, or unsafe...perhaps, however, I'm just insulated out in my little Pacific Northwest town, or perhaps I have one more year removing me emotionally from those events. I feel almost like it was a plot device to awknowlege the events of 9/11, since the show didn't have the opportunity to do that previously and I think they could have done it better if so...


I though it was brilliant stroke of writing genius for a couple of reasons:
1) IMHO it was a really believable reason for Jack to change his whole world view regarding the purpose of the Farscape project
2) It very convincingly conveyed the fact that Earth had changed a great deal since John had left. When I first saw the episode I remember being really impressed by that scene and how it reminded me that the writers had really effectively created a fluid world for the characters.

So to sum it up, I thought it worked really well.

Edited to add-
And as goes the extent to which 9/11 has changed our society, which is the only president since LBJ to use the word Evil repeatedly in just about every speech he gives?

[buckwheet the 16th]

Originally posted by Chi27
, he had also missed the single most horrific event of this century. I was watching TF the other night and said to myself that John is the only person on planet Earth who never witnessed first-hand on TV what happened on 9/11/2001 and who didn't know of the event until his father told him. He's definitely rather removed from the event as it's probably doesn't seem very real that it happened.


I think that this statement is a very ethnocentric view of the 9/11 attacks. Although horrific, I believe that the massive amounts of genocide in Rawanda, WWII Germany, Serbia and countless other events in relitively recent history were much more horrific.

But this just serves to back the point John was making. Until we (humans) see everybody on the earth as equals there will always be resentment of others, leading to at least on a planitary scale, a "civil war" which will get us no where. He just wants to recognize that what he was bring to earth was bigger than one nation and would require the backing of the entire world!