2 Farscape
“Eat Me” to “Infinite Possibilities (2): Icarus Abides” (2001)
Farscape must be the only show ever to have a format-breaking multi-story arc. Never a series to do anything to formula, it came up with an audacious scheme in season three. In the sixth episode Crichton is "twinned" by an alien, so there were actually two Crichtons hanging around. That’s not an original and a copy, but absolutely identical Crichtons, absolutely equal in every way. When the crew of Moya is forced to split up in order to mislead a Peacekeeper battalion, one Crichton resumes his task of getting back to Earth, while the other Crichton is stranded with Aeryn. For the next few episodes the action alternates between the two storyline; one episode will feature one Crichton, the next episode will feature the other. Until the one with Aeryn dies, which remains incredibly moving, even though we - as an audience – knows that there‘s still another Crichton going strong in another part of the universe.
Of course, if you want to pin the show down to one specific format-breaker, there’s always, “Revenging Angel”, with multiple sequences done in the style of a Tex Avery cartoons. But on Farscape , that actually didn’t feel so extraordinary…
Go to format breaker number 1
