DVD REVIEW: FARSCAPE: THE COMPLETE SERIES

Boil It Down:  Disappointing video specs aside, the complete series box set is just as sexy as the show it contains. 

THE FLICK
What is Farscape?  Well, in the universe of the television show, Farscape (actually Farscape One) is a space module which transports astronaut John Crichton (Ben Browder) to a distant galaxy filled with aliens of every shape, size and color.  But in relation to giving a definition to the series, Farscape is an action/adventure, dark comedy, thriller, romance and family drama wrapped in the trappings of science fiction.  It's much more than any of those things, in the end.  Farscape is endlessly inventive, dynamic, fresh, compelling, twisty and unlike anything on TV before or since.  Oh yeah, and it deftly blends live action, CGI and muppets from the Jim Henson studio to create the world of the Uncharted Territories.  (Yes, Henson as in Kermit the Frog...)

At the center of the show, at least initially, is a small group of escaped prisoners, a former Peacekeeper and Crichton on board a living vessel named Moya.  See, Moya-also known as a leviathan-is a prisoner transport ship used by the Peacekeepers-a law enforcement group of sorts made up of human looking people known as Sebaceans.  On board Moya are Ka D'Argo (Anthony Simcoe), a warrior Luxan accused of killing his wife; Pa'u Zotoch Zhaan (Virginia Hey), a blue-skinned Delvian Priestess; the floating Dominar Rygel XVI (Jonathan Hardy provides the voice), a foul-mouthed and arrogant former ruler of the Hynerian Empire; and Pilot (voiced by Lani Tupu, otherwise known as Commander Crais), the being who interfaces with Moya directly.  In the first episode, this motley group is joined by Aeryn Sun (Claudia Black), former Peacekeeper.  And they're on the run from Crais, a Peacekeeper Captain hellbent on getting to Crichton for killing his brother.  Then there's Scorpius (Wayne Pygram), Stark (Paul Goddard), Chiana (Gigi Edgley), Jool (Tammy McIntosh) and a vast array of other characters, all designed to expand the ever-increasing serialized Farscape universe.

Make no mistake: Farscape is as serialized as a series like Lost or Battlestar Galactica.  What does that mean?  Each episode is dependent on everything that has come before.  Whereas a series like Star Trek: The Next Generation were largely self-contained stories that didn't require much knowledge of the characters to enjoy any given episode, Farscape demands a viewer get on board early and not miss a single episode.  The early going of the series contains a fair number of episodic, or unconnected, stories with the ostensible purpose of creating the universe the characters get to play in.  This is both a blessing and a curse for the show.  By connecting the episodes, a large tapestry of personalities, long-term relationships and a sense of reality can be brought to the screen.  But by making the show so completely "insider-y," new audience have an incredibly difficult time jumping in at any given point.  Occasional network specials used to bring audiences up to speed can't possibly cover all the relevant bases without causing utter confusion on the part of the audience.

I called Farscape, among other things, a dark comedy in the open.  Just by looking at the episode titles, the playful attitude of the series is on full display.  "Back and Back and Back to the Future" (a pun on Back to the Future), "That Old Black Magic" (also the title of a Frank Sinatra song), "A Clockwork Nebari" (A Clockwork Orange, obviously), "Scratch 'N Sniff" (just funny), "Lava's a Many Splendored Thing" (Love's a Many Splendored Thing) and others are the tip of the iceberg.  There's also Crichton's continued reference to modern American pop culture.  Listen for the Federation and Buffy, allusions to Mad Max (an Australian production like Farscape), The Little Rascals, The Wizard of Oz and Trek.  The cumulative effect of these name drops is providing an air of levity to the episodes, letting the audience know no matter how bad the situation gets, the lead will always have a sense of humor.  Comedy is also implanted within the show proper.  Rygel, for example, farts helium when he gets nervous.  Sure, it's not high brow humor, but provides countless moments of laughter for this family.  It should also be noted the writers make full use of the language difference between the characters, as in when Aeryn says "She gives me a woody."  Of course, she means "willies," but that's not the point.  The way Black delivers the line in a straight, serious monotone only adds to the comedic elements.  (Entire episodes placing the characters in oddball situations-such as the blue-skinned Chiana in a bikini on Earth-milk the concept for all its worth and don't feel out of place precisely because of the humor inherent in the series.)

I also mentioned this is a family drama.  Throughout the series, the core characters, plus more, need to learn how to get along together when their personalities may not be the most conducive to working together.  In effect, they are a family of outcasts.  And like a family, as the series progresses, they end up betraying one another in various ways, though it's hard to ever see them splitting apart.  A strong strain of respect develops between D'Argo and Crichton through the first season, resulting in extremely heartfelt moments displaying the path their relationship takes.  There's obvious sexual tension between Aeryn and Crichton from the get go, yet the writers take their time putting the two together romantically.  Why?  Because Farscape allows its various storylines to mature slowly, to unravel organically without really being pressured.  Recurring characters join the main crew and leave, just as people enter and exit lives in real life.  That's the great success of the show: for all its science fiction plot elements, wars and chases, it is all about the people behind those things.  When the people work together (as in the extraordinary second season trilogy "Liars, Guns and Money"), Farscape is at its best.

Something must be said about The Jim Henson Company's puppets.  Both Rygel and Pilot are main characters on the show, though the company contributes a great many other characters to the production, all of which interact fully with the live action actors nearly seamlessly.  In one of the bonus features, Executive Producer David Kemper (a writer for various Trek shows) mentions how this program is different from anything else on TV.  On Trek, he says, the aliens all have bumpy foreheads and funny noses, but two eyes, a nose, mouth, two arms and two legs.  In other words, rather mundane.  On Farscape, a blue vampire-like creature can tower over the actors on the set in one episode, giving the universe a unique and unknown look as anything on a Trek series.

Farscape has a couple over-arcing storylines, nearly all of which are too complex and involved to completely get into.  Some deal with science fiction premises while others are purely driven by emotions like revenge.  What each and every one does, though, is give the series a specific storyline to follow.  Sure, the characters make side trips which don't involve Crais or the evil Scorpius, wormholes or Scarrans.  There's a road map from the pilot episode for the scripts to follow, a natural "end point," if you will, for the Crais/Crichton dynamic.  Just as that arc seems to reach an endpoint, something more sinister evolves.  The second season tends to fall off a bit from the high the first leaves off on, at least in the first handful of episodes.  It's almost as if the production was awe-struck by their success and ran off the track just a little bit.  However, even "bad" Farscape is better than most televised science fiction, especially back when it was in first run.  (A TV critic makes that point, again in the bonus features.  He calls Enterprise "lumbering" while heaping praise on this series.  Also, while the sexuality in Enterprise feels forced and cheap, in Farscape it is organic to the characters and story.)

With a program like this, the journey is much more important than the eventual outcome.  On that note, a word of warning.  Farscape ends with a cliffhanger.  Not a "We are the Borg"-type cliffhanger, but one that almost literally blows the entire universe apart.  The words "To Be Continued" even flash on the screen.  Be advised there is a follow-up miniseries/television movie titled The Peacekeeper Wars not included with this set.  Aired over the course of two nights on Sci Fi, it wraps up all the plot lines and characters in satisfying ways.  To say anything more about any part of the series would be spoiling all the twists and turns which makes Farscape sexy, smart, engaging, entertaining...everything modern science fiction should be.

THE LOOK
I guess we'll start with the good news.  As the series progresses, the video tends to look better for whatever reason.  An increased budget, different cameras, better post-production...that is, until we hit Season 4.  Ironically, the final season is the 16:9 year (the rest of the series is 1.33:1).  But let's start at the beginning.  My guess is the episodes have not been remastered from the last time they were on DVD-the Starburst Edition sets from ADV Films.  Seasons One and Four present a whole host of problems from pixelation to haze, ghosting and halo effects, blocking and...  Oh, alright.  I'll say it.  The bookends to the series look pretty miserable, all things considered.  Deleted scenes for the fourth season look much better than the actual episodes, strangely. (A minor note on the Season Four anamorphic widescreen ratio: roughly 1/4-inch on the left and right sides of the screen contain no information.  In fact, they're black bars on a 46-inch television, almost looking as though there's not enough picture to extend to both ends of the screen.)

Season Two is a step up, with the image becoming a bit sharper, black crush (or blocking) starting to recede and colors popping just a bit more.  Season Three tends to be the best season for a whole host of reasons (skip down to the Bonus Features discussion), but in terms of the look, the series gets "adultified" here, with the same color palette subdued just a bit.  There's still some problems with all the aforementioned areas, but this is easily the best the series looks in this set. 

THE SOUND
Included on every episode are both English 5.1 and 2.0 soundtracks.  Unlike the video portion, there isn't anything to criticize on either of them.  Dialogue is clear, even with all the Australian accented actors, while sound effects and the score are neatly separated from the spoken word.  Distortion is not a problem in any octave; really, the 5.1 version handles bass extraordinarily well, booming just enough to give the impression the Command Carrier is actually firing into the viewing area.  Directional effects are solid, as is the auditory information sent to the rear speakers.  DRD's, weapons fire or a subtle breeze are picked up quite easily, creating a rich environment.  English subtitles are available. 

THE STUFF
The Complete Series set includes all four seasons (six discs apiece, also available separately) and the two-disc "The Archives."  All come packed in black, regular-sized keepcases.  The box for the series version should be opened with the utmost of care: it is quite literally a regular box.  There are "flaps" on both sides; only one side needs to be undone to open the box.  Only the first season set has an insert: a promo for Farscape statues and collectibles and a fold-out comic book advertisement.  From the main menu of each season disc are options for individual episodes, a Play All option, Bonus Features and Set Up.  Clicking on an episode title will bring up a selection of six chapter stops.

Extras are sprinkled on all the discs, with one disc per season set being the repository for anything spanning the entire season.  Going forward, discs will be named by their season and disc number.  For instance, Season 3, Disc 4 will be labeled Disc 3.4.  Running times for all the video-based features are also included, for the following reason.  As far as I can tell, almost everything on the previous releases of the series have been ported over with very little new material being added here.  Trailers, listed on the original releases, are missing (outside of Season 3); image galleries are likewise missing.  Actor and actress profiles may have been repurposed and renamed into interview segments for this set.

The box claims a total of 31 audio commentaries across all four seasons, though I only counted 30 (the difference being Season Three; I count 8 on the season while the packaging says 9).  Everyone from Browder, Black, Simcoe, creator Rockne S. O'Bannon and Kemper participate, along with a host of other personalities.  Rich with behind-the-scenes information and genuine warmth between the participants, they tend to be substantive, not to mention truthful, than many tracks of their ilk.  To point two out: Disc 1.4 contains a commentary on "Jeremiah Crichton" otherwise called "When Bad Things Happen to Good Shows."  It details everything which befell the episode, making it a must listen...but only after working through the entire series.  The other track to highlight is on 4.6, on the finale named "Bad Timing."  There's a melancholy feeling to the entire endeavor which is hard to shake even after knowing exactly what happens in the episode.

Disc 1.6 contains a plurality of the Season One bonuses in the form of "Making of a Space Opera" (22:25) and "In the Beginning: A Look Back with Brian Henson" (38:09).  The former is a generic promo featurette designed to bring new viewers to the series while the latter is much more in-depth.  Both of these have been available before, though I hesitate to mention too much about them for fear of spoilers.  If time allows for only one, make it In the Beginning.  Henson is, much like the cast and crew, open and articulate about the show, detailing just about anything a viewer might want to know from behind the camera.  Also on this disc is "Farscape: In the Raw Director's Cut Scenes" for "Flax" (18:54) and "Through the Looking Glass" (23:05).  They're the first of a great many deleted and extended scenes in the set.

Deleted scenes are abound on Season Two, with excised footage for eight different episodes on their respective discs.  (For the record, the episodes are: "Mind the Baby"-3:18; "Taking the Stone"-0:36; "Crackers Don't Matter"-0:45; "Dream a Little Dream"-3:58; "Look at the Princess Part I"-1:39; "Look at the Princess Part II"-1:29; "The Locket"-0:56; and "Liars, Guns and Money Part II"-1:33.)  Of more consequence on 2.3 is the original version of the second season premiere "Re: Union," a set of bloopers (6:37) and eight more "Farscape: In the Raw" segments ("Re: Union"-9:01; "Mind the Baby"-7:41; "Vitas Mortis"-10:22; "Taking the Stone"-7:28; "Crackers Don't Matter"-6:59; "Picture If You Will"-16:56; "The Way We Weren't"-28:36; and "Home on the Remains"-13:14).

Season Three sees the deleted scenes for another 10 episodes: "Season of Death"-2:24; "Thanks for Sharing"-0:26; "Losing Time"-2:51; "Incubator"-1:18; "Scratch 'N Sniff"-1:50; "Revenging Angel"-0:34; "The Choice"-0:50; "Fractures"-4:16; "Into the Lion's Dean Part I"-1:18; "Into the Lion's Den Part II"-7:08; and "Dog with Two Bones"-7:10.  This season also adds Sci Fi Channel trailers for every episode, also on the same disc as their episodes.  They range in length from 0:16 to 0:32 and are presented in windowbox format.  3.5 also has "Season Three: A Look Back with Executive Producer David Kemper" (44:36), another promo featurette.  "From the Archives" (4:37) features composer Guy Gross talking about the revamped third season theme.  And a collection of interviews round out the disc.  Black (35:27), Simcoe (27:11), Browder (5:23), Pygram (24:19) and Edgley (17:54) all contribute to talking about the show and their characters.

For the last season, it's quite evident whoever originally created this content gave up on doing anything revolutionary, or keeping in line with what came before.  Gone are the promo spots and a bulk of the commentaries; 13 episode's get deleted material ("Crichton Kicks"-3:10; "What Was Lost Part I"-1:58; "Promises"-3:03; "Natural Election"-2:15; "A Perfect Murder"-2:18; "Kansas"-2:27; "Terra Firma"-4:27; "Twice Shy"-1:54; "Mental as Anything"-0:26; "Bringing Home the Beacon"-0:53; "A Constellation of Doubt"-18:06; "We're So Screwed Part II"-1:18; and "Bad Timing"-2:47).  4.5 includes "Farscape: The Story So Far" (26:31), another promo piece designed to bring viewers up to date.  "From the Archives: On the Last Day" (3:36) features Executive Producer Kemper addressing the cast and crew on the final day of shooting.  He reads a write-up by TV Guide critic Matt Roush which very nearly brings the entire company to tears.  (Roush makes several good points, to be sure, and is incredibly flattering to the production.)  Three additional featurettes fall under the "Inside Farscape" banner.  The first runs 30:43, detailing the Save Farscape campaign.  The other two, Villains (15:08) and Season 4 Visual Effects (9:35), delve into, obviously, the bad guys and effects of the series.

Oh, but there's two discs left.  "The Archives" Disc One sports "Farscape Undressed" (44:01), a promo featurette aired in March, 2001, which has never been available on legitimate home video before.  Guy Gross is back with a dozen "Listening In" segments; he talks about the music for each in broad terms, giving snippets of information on the way the score is composed for each episode.  For the record, there's "The Way We Weren't" (9:19), "My Three Crichtons" (11:27), "The Locket" (9:49), "Die Me, Dichotomy" (10:48); "Eat Me" (10:32), "Revenging Angel" (8:19), "The Choice" (11:13), "Into the Lion's Den Part II" (8:59), "Crichton Kicks" (7:07), "John Quixote" (8:05), "Terra Firma" (9:22) and "Bad Timing" (9:11).

Disc Two kicks off with an additional six behind-the-scenes interviews featuring Simcoe (29:17), Pygra (22:06), Jonathan Hardy (20:44), Rebecca Riggs (29:14), Lani  John Tupu (23:34), David Franklin (16:55) and Paul Goddard (4:21).  To be honest, by this point, there isn't much information left to talk about, but all the actors are game to try.  Video profiles on both Kemper (12:06) and O'Bannon (19:36) talk about how the show came into being and some of their previous projects, among other topics.  The final extra spends a half hour with Hey ("Zhaan Forever"), who is largely absent from the rest of the features.  She's passionate about the character of Zhaan and is quite candid about her regrets over the way she left the show.

Based on information from the website Farscape World, the first season is in its proper production order (though the United Kingdom and United States air order vary); Season Two follows the US air dates; and the last two year's are perfectly synched up between the production order and UK/US airings.

Farscape is available on DVD: Season 1, Season 2, Season 3, Season 4 and the Complete Series.