Farscape: The Complete Series – DVD Review

The Series:

Science Fiction is a genre full of hit or miss movies, television shows, direct-to-DVD releases, literature. Thankfully cream always rises to the top. Farscape is definitely at the top of the science fiction ladder.

It combines breathtaking visual effects, muppets, solid acting, and witty dialogue to create one of the most memorable shows ever. When astronaut John Crichton (Ben Browder) reluctantly departs on a mission in an experimental spacecraft, he is catapulted through a wormhole into the middle of a space chase involving alien races that fly around in space ships he had previously only seen on late night television.

It doesn’t take long for Crichton to get his bearings and join his new alien friends their search for home and battle for survival. Their efforts to find their way home are often thwarted by the peacekeepers, a group of human-looking militants that always get their man, or alien.

As it plays out Farscape introduces a host of interesting characters and villains. Scorpius (Wayne Pygram) is by far one of the best bad-guys to ever grace the boob tube with his personal brand of evil, and Chiana (Gigi Edgley) is one sexy alien.

The partnership between SyFy and Jim Henson proved to be fruitful. The muppets are lifelike, scene stealers, and nothing about the show is anything less than stellar. The only complaint I have is the seres’ ending. It leaves a lot of questions unanswered. It would be nice if SyFy made a motion picture out of this amazing show like with the other top notch show, Firefly.

If you already own the series in the previously released season sets, you probably won’t want to pick this set up. If, however you don’t own the previous releases, or even if you only own a few of them, I would highly recommend picking this set up. Farscape: The Complete Series is absolutely a killer series.

The DVD:

Audio/Video

The audio tracks are loud and clear and deliver a solid home theater experience. The video however isn’t quite as solid. The first three seasons of the show were shot and presented in fullscreen and the rest was shot and presented in widescreen. I know that’s the way the show was made, but it was slightly irritating. Also, the clarity of the images could have been better. Quite a bit of quality was lost when the show was compressed into a box set.

Special Features:

Commentaries: There are 31 commentary tracks in this collection. I’ll state right now that I didn’t listen to them all, but I did scan all of them and they where very entertaining.

Farscape Undressed: A behind the scenes special that is worth watching. I enjoyed every second of this feature.

Deleted Scenes: There are a ton of cut scenes as well as scenes cut by the director and an alternate version of Season 2′s premiere. This is a solid collection of material.

Interviews: A host of cast and crew interviews are presented in a behind-the-scenes fashion. I enjoyed hearing the actors and creative team rant about their love of the show.

Lisening In with Composer Guy Gross: Featurettes that focus on the music behind this stellar series.

In the Beginning: A Look Back with Brian Henson, Making of a Space Opera, A look Back with Excutive Producer David Kemper, Farscape: The Story So Far: Four solid documentaries that examine the work that went into the show during its humble beginnings.

The show’s original Television Promos are also on this disc and a few other features as well, so overall the disc is pretty packed. I hope a blu-ray version of this is released one day so that fans can see the show in all it’s glory, but until then this set is worth the price. Positively a killer series.

The Series: Rating:

The DVD: Rating: