DVD Review: ‘Farscape’ Complete Series DVD
Written by Ian Cullen on March 19, 2010 – 11:30 am -
Synopsis: Thrown into a distant part of the universe, an Earth astronaut finds himself part of a fugitive alien starship crew.
The Review: I received a copy of the complete series of Farscape on DVD a number of weeks back only to find that after getting about halfway through the series my DVD player breaks down. So please forgive the lateness of this review. I only have the one multi-regional DVD player, and it chose the worst possible time to break down on me.
Farscape centres on the adventures of astronaut John Crichton who, after an experiment with creating an artificial wormhole, goes wrong winds up trapped in an uncharted region of space along with a group of fugitives on a bio ship called Moya. John’s one wish is to get home. However, as the series develops, things become more complicated.
Joining Crichton on his misadventures are Ka D’Argo, Officer Aeryn Sun , Pilot, Dominar Rygel XVI, Chiana and Pa’u Zotoh Zhaan.
Unlike many shows, which you can describe in one or two easy sentences, Farscape is anything but easy to describe. But to have a stab, I’d cite Farscape as the original anti- Star Trek show in as it wasn’t preachy, it didn’t have an issue of the week to preach about, nor was it deeply layered. If anything, it was a very character-driven show.
Simply put, there are shows that quietly redefine the SciFi genre and just get on with it, and there are shows that make redefining the genre a part of their marketing campaign. Farscape is the former and, in a time when Star Trek was getting frankly boring, many genre fans flocked to Farscape for its new take with an assortment of characters, which pushed the envelope somewhat in bringing us a hodgepodge of truly dysfunctional characters who reluctantly work together, and eventually after some time learn a grudging respect for each other, but never really entirely trust one another.
The series didn’t get the strongest of stars, in my opinion. The pilot was a bit slow in parts, but the fact that you were learning about the alien characters through Crighton’s eyes made that somewhat of a necessity. Most of the first season builds these characters up and does so in such a way that as a viewer your more than happy to wait it out somewhat because the writing and acting is simply so good that you’re drawn into the whole world without really realizing it. Before you know it, you’re hooked.
The special effects on the show considering it had budgetary issues were really good. But like all good science-fiction series, the FX were only really there to help the story.
It isn’t really until the second half of the first season that the series starts to kick into gear, which is when we learn that the ship Moya is pregnant! This fact brings the crew a whole new set of problems to deal with and forces them to put aside their differences somewhat in order to keep Moya safe.
As we get to the second season, the series really starts to pick up. One of my favourite second season episodes is ‘The Way We Weren’t,” which gives us a peak at Aeryn Sun’s past as a Peacekeeper and her involvement in the death of Moya’s original pilot. That episode led to many of the shows subplots and was kind of integral to much of what was to come. The beauty of Farscape was that no story opportunity was wasted.
The third season saw the death of Pa’u Zotoh Zhaan, which was dealt with beautifully, and unlike most American SF series, the writers chose not to fall for the cliche of bringing Zhaan back to life, something for which I’m grateful because it would only have undermined the wonderful way in which her death was dealt with.
If good SciFi Villains are what you’re after, Farscape had them in spades. In fact, in many episodes, even our heroes wound up skirting the edges of becoming villains, and some of the villains proved to be not-so-much villains, which is a testament to the writing, given that nothing about Farscape was simple Black Hat and White Hat stuff.
The best of the villains though had to be Scorpius, who was played beautifully by Wayne Pygram. Scorpius is basically a scientist with a unique set of ethics. He is not beyond torturing and disemboweling live subjects in order to get what he wants. A fact that Crichton learns towards the end of the first season.
In many ways Farscape seems to feel like more of a British SciFi show than Australian/American. Upon careful inspection, you can actually see some similarities between Blakes 7 in terms of your fugitives on the run from an oppressive federation scenario. It could well have been inspired by Blakes 7.
So as far as Farscape the series goes, it ended far too soon and was never really replaced with anything that was as good in my opinion.
Extras: The complete Farscape series box set is packed full of extras. The only thing it doesn’t have is the mini series Peacekeeper Wars, which was released to wrap up the story.
Amongst the extras are 31 episode commentaries, an alternate version of the Season Two premiere, which was called “Re:Union,” an episode, which was later scrapped in favour of episode two.
You have tones of documentaries with comments and interviews regarding all four seasons of the show, which include a feature called ‘Listening In’. A 12 episode featurette looking back at the music of specific episodes with composer Guy Gross.
A blooper reel is included, which is good for a laugh.
All in all there’s enough here in the way of extras to keep you going for hours and hours. In fact you could probably watch the whole of this set, and come out with a University Degree on the subject of Farscape, or even go on Mastermind.
Credit where credits due: Farscape is the creation of Rockne S. O’Bannon and starred Ben Browder, Claudia Black, Anthony Simcoe, Gigi Edgley, Virginia Hey, Lani Tupu, Wayne Pygram, Jonathan Hardy. The show was produced by The Jim Henson Company.
Note: This review is for the region one edition only.
Score 9/10
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Tags: Ben Bowder, Claudia Black, DVD Review, Farscape, Jim Henson Company
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