Ben Browder gives complicated science fiction an approachable human centre. We recommend his work in Farscape for the relationships he helps make convincing, though its early melodrama tests the patience.
Fi1m perspective
John Crichton wants to get home, a straightforward wish that makes the strange creatures of Farscape (1999) easier to accept. Ben Browder gives the astronaut an approachability that matters in Rockne S. O’Bannon’s series, where so much else needs explaining or taking on trust. We rate him as a lead who can make such company worth spending time with, though the programme takes a while to settle. He gives us a reason to stay before the crew’s shared history can do that work.
Claudia Black’s Aeryn Sun and Anthony Simcoe’s Ka D’Argo are important to that success. Both give Browder someone to contend with, and the ensemble avoids becoming a collection of onlookers waiting for the astronaut to speak. The encounters within the crew become as absorbing as the space travel, giving Browder more to play than homesickness. We grew fonder of Crichton than we expected because Browder and Black make his relationship with Aeryn feel credible amid all the strangeness. The early melodrama still gets in the way, and an approachable lead cannot make the ageing effects disappear.
His breakthrough came with Farscape, where he also wrote two episodes. Writing for the programme also meant attending to characters such as the ship Talyn, who does not speak. He returned as Crichton in the miniseries Farscape: The Peacekeeper Wars (2004). Joining Stargate SG-1 in 2005 as Cameron Mitchell kept him in science fiction and reunited him with Black, but meant entering a series for its final two seasons. His physicality and stunt work suited that action-oriented role.
Later work has included television guest appearances and a cameo as the Sovereign Admiral in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017). Those brief assignments are not where we would begin with him. The appeal of his Farscape performance depends on time spent with the crew, rather than any single display of leading-man authority. Start there, with some tolerance for its awkward early drama; the relationships are worth waiting for.
Biography
Ben Browder is an American actor and writer. He was born on 11 December 1962 in Memphis, Tennessee, and grew up in Charlotte, North Carolina. He studied psychology at Furman University and trained in drama at the Central School of Speech and Drama in London.
Browder is best known for playing John Crichton in the series Farscape (1999–2003) and for writing two episodes of the show. He later portrayed Cameron Mitchell in Stargate SG-1 (2005–2007). He has received two Saturn Awards for his work on Farscape. He is married to actress Francesca Buller.
