Farscape and Stargate: John and Daniel
Oct. 22nd, 2004 10:15 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
butterflyI've been thinking about the differences between John Crichton and Daniel Jackson.
They do have interesting, glancing things in common. Each of them is a student turned soldier, a man of emotion and reason in a time of war.
Both of them change drastically over the course of their shows. In each case, I do think that the earlier version would be more than a little horrified by what they become.
Minor digression:
War is a popular idea to play with in fiction -- more than that, the idea of a war so vast that there is no place to escape it, forcing the characters to live out their entire time on-screen in a warzone. Highlander does it, the constant threat of other Immortals, the knowledge that there can only be one in the end. Buffy and Angel have their characters on the vanguard in a secret war, where the other side is ruthless and determined to take back was once theirs. In Stargate, Daniel opens the door a different world and, in the process, makes a powerful enemy aware of Earth. And John Crichton, catapulted into another galaxy, is forced into a battle he doesn't desire, forced into battle after battle until he's willing to destroy the universe to stop the fighting.
One huge difference between Daniel and John is that Daniel's used to losing worlds. When John was set into the Uncharted Territories, he was a bit of a golden boy and one of the primary themes of Farscape and of John's arc is the father/son element. Daniel, on the other hand, was a brilliant, arrogant orphan searching for something that he probably couldn't have articulated. John went to his new world by accident -- Daniel went to his by choice, stayed by choice. Daniel has been always been much more of a master of his own destiny than John. He chose to go to Abydos, knowing that he might never see Earth again. He chose to unbury the gate, knowing that that meant others could come back through it. He chose to go with Oma, without knowing that he would ever see his friends again. He chose to break the rules, knowing the high price that the Others have been known to extract. He knew that there was a possibility for tragedy in any of these choices and he knew that it was a choice. So much of what happened to John was so out of the realm of imagination that there no way he could have entertained it as a possibility. The idea that testing his module would create a wormhole that would shoot him across the galaxy? Woah, dude, that one would have been hard to predict.
John and Daniel, while both being very charismatic, are so in different ways. John starts out friendly, rather like an adorable puppy that you can't help petting. Daniel's pull is much more brittle, the haughty welcome of a cat, inviting and yet distant. Daniel is always much more self-contained than first-season John. They start out in very different places -- Daniel's... naive in some ways in the beginning, as in John, but those ways are very different. Daniel starts off more jaded than John does. John's fall is so much more explosive because he had further to fall. In the first season, Daniel was capable of killing sentient children of an alien race (Bloodlines). In the second, he threatens the life of a helpless and desperate enemy (Serpent's Song).
One other huge difference between them is children -- John feels the need for them (and now has at least two bopping around -- the one from Look at the Princess and the new one), while Daniel... doesn't. Daniel seems to like children well enough, though he tends to treat them like short adults (even his gentleness with Cassie in Singularity is a non-child-specific reaction -- he does the same thing with Jack in Abyss). He has no overriding "Children First" drive, such as John seems to have. Possibly this is one of the reasons that I identify more with Daniel. I don't get the kidlet thing.
Both are married at one point and their marriages are, of course, very different creatures. We start Stargate SG-1 with the loss of Daniel's wife and his quest is to save her, while in Farscape, the romance of John and Aeryn is a major plotline. Sha're and Aeryn are both very strong women, but in extremely different ways. Interestingly though, both Daniel and John would be able to say that they love(d) their wives for their bravery and their intelligence.
Most of all, their central character arcs are extremely different. Daniel was a seeker, (though underneath it all, he sought an anchor, a place to belong, a place he couldn't leave behind) one who searched for hidden and lost knowledge. John was a creator, a builder of things. Daniel was a scholar, John was a scientist.
One other thing they have in common? They both look very hot with guns. Very. Gah.
And, of course, talking about Daniel at all makes me think of Jack. They're such a complementary pairing. Vulnerability and strength playing shell games. Yet Jack was always an anchor for Daniel, a knowledge now made explicit in the story. Jack lets go of what he loves, waiting to see if love will find its way back to him. And it does, and Daniel's grown into this place he has chosen to belong, has become part of it. Yet despite that, he hasn't lost the desire to seek. Roots and wings.
They do have interesting, glancing things in common. Each of them is a student turned soldier, a man of emotion and reason in a time of war.
Both of them change drastically over the course of their shows. In each case, I do think that the earlier version would be more than a little horrified by what they become.
Minor digression:
War is a popular idea to play with in fiction -- more than that, the idea of a war so vast that there is no place to escape it, forcing the characters to live out their entire time on-screen in a warzone. Highlander does it, the constant threat of other Immortals, the knowledge that there can only be one in the end. Buffy and Angel have their characters on the vanguard in a secret war, where the other side is ruthless and determined to take back was once theirs. In Stargate, Daniel opens the door a different world and, in the process, makes a powerful enemy aware of Earth. And John Crichton, catapulted into another galaxy, is forced into a battle he doesn't desire, forced into battle after battle until he's willing to destroy the universe to stop the fighting.
One huge difference between Daniel and John is that Daniel's used to losing worlds. When John was set into the Uncharted Territories, he was a bit of a golden boy and one of the primary themes of Farscape and of John's arc is the father/son element. Daniel, on the other hand, was a brilliant, arrogant orphan searching for something that he probably couldn't have articulated. John went to his new world by accident -- Daniel went to his by choice, stayed by choice. Daniel has been always been much more of a master of his own destiny than John. He chose to go to Abydos, knowing that he might never see Earth again. He chose to unbury the gate, knowing that that meant others could come back through it. He chose to go with Oma, without knowing that he would ever see his friends again. He chose to break the rules, knowing the high price that the Others have been known to extract. He knew that there was a possibility for tragedy in any of these choices and he knew that it was a choice. So much of what happened to John was so out of the realm of imagination that there no way he could have entertained it as a possibility. The idea that testing his module would create a wormhole that would shoot him across the galaxy? Woah, dude, that one would have been hard to predict.
John and Daniel, while both being very charismatic, are so in different ways. John starts out friendly, rather like an adorable puppy that you can't help petting. Daniel's pull is much more brittle, the haughty welcome of a cat, inviting and yet distant. Daniel is always much more self-contained than first-season John. They start out in very different places -- Daniel's... naive in some ways in the beginning, as in John, but those ways are very different. Daniel starts off more jaded than John does. John's fall is so much more explosive because he had further to fall. In the first season, Daniel was capable of killing sentient children of an alien race (Bloodlines). In the second, he threatens the life of a helpless and desperate enemy (Serpent's Song).
One other huge difference between them is children -- John feels the need for them (and now has at least two bopping around -- the one from Look at the Princess and the new one), while Daniel... doesn't. Daniel seems to like children well enough, though he tends to treat them like short adults (even his gentleness with Cassie in Singularity is a non-child-specific reaction -- he does the same thing with Jack in Abyss). He has no overriding "Children First" drive, such as John seems to have. Possibly this is one of the reasons that I identify more with Daniel. I don't get the kidlet thing.
Both are married at one point and their marriages are, of course, very different creatures. We start Stargate SG-1 with the loss of Daniel's wife and his quest is to save her, while in Farscape, the romance of John and Aeryn is a major plotline. Sha're and Aeryn are both very strong women, but in extremely different ways. Interestingly though, both Daniel and John would be able to say that they love(d) their wives for their bravery and their intelligence.
Most of all, their central character arcs are extremely different. Daniel was a seeker, (though underneath it all, he sought an anchor, a place to belong, a place he couldn't leave behind) one who searched for hidden and lost knowledge. John was a creator, a builder of things. Daniel was a scholar, John was a scientist.
One other thing they have in common? They both look very hot with guns. Very. Gah.
And, of course, talking about Daniel at all makes me think of Jack. They're such a complementary pairing. Vulnerability and strength playing shell games. Yet Jack was always an anchor for Daniel, a knowledge now made explicit in the story. Jack lets go of what he loves, waiting to see if love will find its way back to him. And it does, and Daniel's grown into this place he has chosen to belong, has become part of it. Yet despite that, he hasn't lost the desire to seek. Roots and wings.