As a naturalized American citizen who has served in the Israeli military, I am familiar with the price that a soldier must pay for serving his country.   It is a price that does not only come for the possible ultimate sacrifice he or she may be required to give, it is also the price his family and loved ones must pay as well... alive or dead.

Sophocles told of the warrior’s suffering in his plays Ajax and Philoctetes, 2,500 years before we coined the acronym PTSD. The story has been rewritten and told again numerous times throughout history and shows us a portion of the price we pay for our wars. It is a price that grows greater in the dark silence of ignorance. As more men and women come home from the Middle East, we should retell this tale lest more veterans die amidst the ignorance and apathy of a citizenry which has forgotten the lessons of the last hundred wars.

Most people will immediately know what that means, even though when I last checked most of us are not in the habit of carrying swords about these days. If one stops to wonder about the phrase and its origins we may in our short-sightedness conjure images of Seppuku (ritual suicide) performed by Japanese soldiers in WWII. But the origins in Western Culture run much further back in time.

Origin is a direct continuation from the two-part season opener, Avalon, wherein we were first introduced to Ben Browder as SG-1's new leader, Lieutenant Colonel Cameron Mitchell. Originally intended to be a stand-alone episode, executive producer Robert C. Cooper says in the Season 9 companion book that it just wasn't possible to conclude the opening story at the end of Avalon:

In 2005, Stargate Command was forever changed. The former leader of Blue Squadron and hero of the Battle of Antarctica against the forces of Anubis - the man who protected SG-1, sacrificing himself and breaking his back and legs in the process, who almost became a quadriplegic, yet made a miraculous recovery - Lieutenant Colonel Cameron Mitchell, was given command of the elite team SG-1

When I was a child, my favourite story was about a man who lived forever, but whose eyes were heavy with the weight of all he'd seen. A man who fell from the stars. 

A Town Called Mercy is a wonderful episode of Doctor Who and part of the reason is that Ben brought verisimilitude to his role of the world-weary but extremely competent sheriff.

Off the Grid is famous for the scene where Ben as Cameron Mitchell decides - against the advice of his team - to pose as a drug lord, while trying to gather intel about the Kassa corn operation, a genetically engineered vegetable with a highly addictive substance. To quote Cameron, it's "evil Orville Redenbacher."

Mental As Anything is D'Argo's revenge story. Because Scorpius arranged for advanced training with an alien named Katoya, poor John has a special nasty Scarren training he's forced into. I always focus on his torture/training and skip D'Argo's trials fighting Macton.

Die Me Dichotomy is the perfect double entendres title for this harrowing extreme cliffhanger to the second season of Farscape. David Kemper, Executive Producer, and writer of this episode that sees Harvey finally take over John Crichton body and soul despite the efforts of Aeryn and the crew to help him stop the madness. It sees Ben Browder play a distraught John who can't even pull the trigger of his pulse pistol to end his misery plus who is able to play John as Harvey and has Wayne Pygram's unique speech patterns and walk so down that they had to step back from the full Scorpius costume when a British fan magazine published Ben's photo rather than Wayne's for the episode. 

The commentary to A Human Reaction is brilliant. Ben and Claudia dissect the episode which is directed by Rowan Woods and given a distinctive indie movie feel. Ben was very sick with an infection from surfing and kept lying down between takes. That gives him the pale, gaunt look we see throughout the episode.

Memphis Belle is a British movie with an all-star cast including Matthew Modine, David Strathairn, Billy Zane, Sean Astin, Reed Diamond, Eric Stoltz, John Lithgow, and directed by Michael Caton-Jones.

By the time that Ben was 15, he had been starring in commercials and a neighbor who was in the North Carolina film business as a casting agent saw them and cast Ben as Duncan's friend in a cute movie.

Elvis and Chiana arrive on Moya with a Wraith-- what's left of the Durka of the Zelbinion who tortured Rygel for over 150 years. We meet a dangerous new set of aliens, the Nebari, who so believe in conformity and utmost peace through the inability to commit violence that they tortured/brainwashed Durka for 100 years supposedly creating an obedient servant out of a madman. The ends justify the means. And Rygel wants revenge.

Ben gave one of his finest performances of the series in Collateral Damage. The episode is one of the rare gems amongst the Stargate series where the focus is more character-driven, as opposed to the usual action/cool pseudo-science/plot-driven stories.

One day on FaceBook, we got a call to go and post on a new Producer's group who was asking for actor's names to play an unnamed role in a horror movie with the ominous name of Bad Kids Go To Hell. We knew Ben's director from A Killer Within, Brad Keller, was helping produce the movie which was to be based on a graphic novel by two guys from Dallas, Tx. So we did what Scapers do and "puppy piled™" about Ben Browder and he was cast. 

I get a kick out of this episode of Stargate due to the impossible nature of Cam and Sam's predicament. Sam is working on an artifact brought back from one of Merlin's planets to figure out what it does. Cameron, worrying about workaholic Sam's lack of meals, urges her to come and eat with him. As Sam pushes a button, both teammates are shifted into an alternate dimension. The fun, in the beginning, is twofold: Cam tests the reality of the alternate dimension by poking Sam and Sam immediately pokes him back.

The commentary to A Human Reaction is brilliant. Ben and Claudia dissect the episode which is directed by Rowan Woods and given a distinctive indie movie feel. Ben was very sick with an infection from surfing and kept lying down between takes. That gives him the pale, gaunt look we see throughout the episode.

We're So Screwed (as the trilogy was named in the United States but not in the United Kingdom) deals with the rescue of Aeryn Sun, the re-appearance of Harvey and the subsequent rescue of Scorpius; all from a hidden Scarren base called Katratzi. There are major surprises in store regarding what makes the Scarren empire successful and a questionable strategy by John Crichton used to keep him and his shipmates safe during this perilous undertaking.

When asked what his favourite scene out of Stargate was to film, Ben said the "mud scene" from Camelot. Ben enjoys doing his own stunts and had fun with what he calls "the boy stuff." The day he shot the famous mud-slinging, sword-fighting scene against the Black Knight, it was raining, and Ben was slipping and sliding, but he loved every second of it.

Einstein: (tonelessly) Time. (John just stares - and the man repeats the word louder- demanding an answer) Time.

John: Is up?

Einstein: Time?

John: Flies.

Einstein: Time.

John: Bandits.

Einstein: (intrigued) Time. (he begins moving towards John as the association game continues, faster)

John: Wounds all Heels.

Einstein: Time?

John: (singing loudly) Rosemary and thyme...

Einstein: Time! (John pulls his gun and fires from almost point-blank at the man’s head)

John: Is up! (but his pulse blast stops in mid-air a few inches from the face of his intended victim and hangs there, twisting. The man turns away. He seems disappointed)

Einstein: (toneless again) Time.

David Kemper wrote one of the MOST BRILLIANT scripts to explain a highly arcane subject: space/time and theoretical wormholes in English in a way that we can understand so that the rest of the season can progress. The script takes the idea of "talking heads" and creates a Greek chorus of John's past that shifts and changes illustrating just how dangerous it is to mess with time and wormholes.

Along came a spider and 'sploded beside her.

Twice Shy is a strange cliched episode of Farscape that somehow works. I think it's because Talika the nasty spider lady isn't as important as the character developments we watch: John's main personality trait that keeps him going is HOPE.

tvtropes.com has an interesting entry from its recap of Terra Firma that I want to talk about here. Dad has become Jack in this episode. According to tvtropes, "The sudden switch in nickname or honorific when referring to a character, usually from their family name to their given name, is frequently used to demonstrate a significant change in the relationship between two characters, the desire for one by one party, that they have evaded listeners who require more formality, or that they are Not Themselves. Never using any formal indicators and just calling a character by their exact name is about as common to show the same thing."

Talion is centered around Teal'c, and there is no doubt that Chris Judge offers a powerful performance and shows the angry, darker side of his character, which is offset by Ben's equally strong performance as Teal'c's understanding and loyal friend, who tries together with the team to help the great Jaffa warrior. It is the final episode directed by Andy Mikita, who says in the Stargate SG-1 Season 10 Companion Book that the episode in its original form ran much longer, but several scenes were sadly cut for time.

The Road Not Taken may be, in my opinion, one of the best episodes of Season 10. The writing, directing, acting (especially from Ben), the very concept of the story - all of it is nearly perfect. In fact, the only real flaw in it is that we don't get to see more of Ben. However, what we do have is an Emmy-worthy performance by Ben which took everyone including Amanda Tapping (who is quoted as being "astonished" by his work) by surprise.

In 2016, Ben showed up in a very gory behind the scenes picture that was being shot in New Mexico by a small production company, JT Mollner's No Remake Pictures . This independent film turned out to be JT Mollner's "Outlaws and Angels" and we immediately rubbed our eyes at Ben's transformation. He had shaved his head and put on weight to play the character of George Tildon.

Mental As Anything is D'Argo's revenge story. Because Scorpius arranged for advanced training with an alien named Katoya, poor John has a special nasty Scarren training he's forced into. I always focus on his torture/training and skip D'Argo's trials fighting Macton.

Farscape did something unprecedented in standard television shows: they took John Crichton home to Earth before the end of the show. This two-part visit to Earth was bittersweet and difficult and not the joyous visits that you would think would happen. That's another Farscapean trope. You can't go home again.

Patricia Lynn Vanover watched Ben Browder-penned John Quixote yesterday. Ben wrote a tour de force script with Shakespearean sonnets, fairytale princesses, black knights, Breast milking, acid bathing, Ogre fighting, lying butlers, bad guys in lederhosen, bean-eating off stomachs, green and yellow doors and Max Headroom.

Viewing 1

Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2 cranks up the characters to 11. I loved the film and how each one of the original Guardians has family issues, whether it's Peter Quill's daddy issues (which are pretty complex given that he discovers his real dad is a planet or Celestial Body played with scenery-chewing gusto by Kurt Russell) or Nebula and Gamora who really should settle their sisterly conflicts more quietly; or Rocket who is still quite traumatized by his creation.

This is one of the first episodes of Farscape shot and they're still working out the kinks in the language and characters, thus you'll hear the aliens speaking English slang and there are other "errors" in makeup that get worked out as the show matures.

The Booth Brothers are famous for producing, writing and directing very gory horror films that win awards within this genre. Dead Still came about because they became fascinated in the 19th Century Victorian practice of making "Death Photos" whereby the photographer would pose dead people as if they were living. Because they are horror film aficionados, they of course wrote and directed a film that deals with a haunted camera that needs bodies so causes terrible deaths of anyone who gets their picture taken using an ancient camera.

When I saw this Season 4 Farscape episode I knew it would be silly and weird given that Moya had just passed from "unknown space -- The UTs" to Tormented Space. Farscape didn't go in for technobabble even to the names of areas of space. These practical, descriptive names must have been the PK grunt names for the areas because they're sort of nonsensical. Anyway, Moya was sick from the multitude of wormholes in Tormented Space so they stopped at a planet that reputed to be able to install filters that allow safer passage.

Stargate: Continuum is a brilliant, poignant and bittersweet film, both for its remarkable story and for the fact that it is the last of the Stargate films ever made. It is the ultimate "You can't go home again" tale, as Cameron Mitchell finds himself trapped in an alternate timeline and eventually, the past, unable to ever see his friends or family again.

This comedic episode has the unique honor of allowing Ben and Claudia to perform together and the results are a lot of fun. Bounty posits that Vala is so bored on the base that she begs a reluctant Cameron Mitchell to allow her to go with him to his high school reunion in Kansas. He is literally pushed into this situation and the first place the non-couple go is to his parent's farm.

Max Rainwater is a mysterious guy. In 2013, Ben described the role as playing Boo Radley of To Kill A Mockingbird. That was for the first time he played the character in Bad Kids Go To Hell which was a gory horror film. Ben's Max was the comedic relief in some ways with his moving things around and his dim responses to anyone who spoke to him. Yet, even in that movie there were hints that there was more to him than met the eye. Why was a janitor allowed in the Headmaster's office handling files? Why was he in the library and what's with the roaches he seemed to command?

Bad Guys is a terrific episode with a story inspired by an idea pitched by Ben himself, who received "story credit" for his concept.

SG-1 (with the exception of Samantha, who is visiting the President of the United States) is looking for the Clava Thessara Infinitas (aka the "Key to Infinite Treasure," and thought to be the "key" to finding a stash of weapons left behind by the Ancients). They walk through the Stargate and quickly realize they're in a museum.

When Farscape first began filming episodes they followed the Australian method which entailed shooting two episodes at a time. This episode and Thank Goodness It's Friday Again were filmed together. Luckily for Ben and the rest of the cast and crew, the showrunners discovered that such a project plan did not work with Farscape due to its heavy reliance on CGI, puppetry and practical effects.

Season 9's Babylon was a chance for Ben to show the deep strength of his character, Cameron Mitchell. Ben did the athletic stunts during both the training scenes, exercise scenes and final fight. He also gave a gorgeous performance detailing Cameron's faith and optimistic outlook.

The first of two movies made by Bridge Studios based on the television version of Stargate was Ark of Truth which finished the story of the Ori. I admit that the bastardized version of the Matter of Britain: Merlin, Arthur, Morgaine Le Fay and all left me cold so I skip the pieces that take place on the same fake medieval village set that they used in all the Season 9 and 10 episodes.

This experimental script is the outgrowth of David Kemper 's Unrealized Reality that told the story of how wormhole work through the use of "talking Heads". Each has the appearance of Crichton's friends, family and teachers changed to show moods and information. By the time of A Constellation of Doubt, John was obsessively watching a deeply disturbing interview show Pilot captured after Moya left Earth.

I have to admit that this is one of my favorite of the very early Farscape episodes mainly for its John Crichton whomp. I admit it, I'm a lover of protagonist whomping. There is so much character development in this episode as well as the stated whomping. We get a strong view of D'Argo's youth and his lack of control of his hyper-rage (whose consequences we learn more about in Season 4). Here, he's after John simply because he's another male. The humor is that John has learned to hide in Moya so well that nobody could find him for three days.

There's been speculation in Farscape fan fiction for years about John Crichton and Gilina Raenez and if they really would have hooked up and what would have happened to Aeryn Sun. Farscaped's One Good Day and One Eyed DVD's Unrealized Peacekeeper are two classic stories that center on early John's science geek and homesickness that focused on Gilina's technical knowledge and the fact she's a blond versus Aeryn's dark coloring and military bearing.