Farscape: The Complete Seasons Blu-ray Review
To boldly go where several have gone before.
Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman, November 5, 2011
Is there really anything new that can be crafted in the realm of television science fiction, especially space dramas?
Probably not, but that
doesn't mean that interesting and even compelling new soufflés can come along every few years. Few people had any
hopes for
Star
Trek: The Next Generation when it came along, and in fact star Patrick Stewart rather sheepishly admits that the
only reason he
accepted a role he then deemed beneath his Shakespearian talents was that it would be some quick (and abundant)
money and the show
would never last for the six season commitment his original contract required. So much for making plans.
Farscape probably didn't
raise many eyebrows when it was announced when it simultaneously premiered in Australia and Canada, and then
matriculated to the
United States on what was then known as the Sci-Fi Channel (I still find it hard to accept the patently silly Syfy
rebranding). But over a
relatively short time span, the series developed a rather ardent fan base, one that went through original
Star
Trek withdrawal when
Farscape met an ignominious cancellation at the end of its fourth season, despite that season having ended
with a major cliffhanger
and a fifth season having already been promised. That particular upset was remedied by a miniseries which was made
possible at least in
part by fans' insistence that they at least be brought up to speed with several dangling plot elements (the miniseries is
not included
in this set, as it's a Lionsgate title).
Farscape is a frankly not very
well hidden amalgamation of ideas from any number of previous television science fiction properties, including
Lost
in Space, Star Trek,
Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Voyager, Stargate, Babylon 5 and
Battlestar Galactica (with maybe even a passing
nod to the old
Irwin Allen series
Land of the Giants), but that very proclivity—a
little this-a and a little
that-a—manages to deliver a fairly nourishing casserole of characters and ideas. The show may wear its sociopolitical
heart on its sleeve in
much the same way that the Roddenberry outings usually did, and some of
Farscape definitely has a
déjà
vu feeling about it,
but often the series manages to be immensely enjoyable, visually striking and intellectually engaging if not exactly
challenging. In fact one of
the most compelling analogies between
Farscape and
Star Trek is the vociferous support of its fans, and
the swell of outrage
from them no doubt helped pave the way for the miniseries which wrapped up the series (more or less, anyway) if not
providing for an
outright resurrection. What the intervening decades between the cancellation of the original
Star Trek and
Farscape may
have proven more fascinatingly than the mere uprising of fan support is how much the rapid dissemination of
information over the internet
has changed the face of entertainment in the 21st century. Had the internet been around in 1969, in other words, we
might have had that
full five year mission that Captain Kirk's voiceover in the
Star Trek opening credits always promised.
Ben Browder portrays John Crichton, a NASA test pilot who has a theory about the gravitational pull of planets being
able to catapult spacecraft into super-fast speeds he wants to check out. On his test flight, he's sucked into a massive
wormhole which deposits him lightyears away in an unknown part of the universe, though one of course strangely
rather densely populated by various alien types, many of whom seem to be engaging in a fierce battle as Crichton
erupts from his columnar portal. Crichton's propensity to get sucked into things continues as he's magnetically drawn
to a massive spaceship and deposited in its docking bay. He soon discovers that he's been drawn aboard Moya, a
"biomechanoid" (in the series' verbiage) from a sentient species known as Leviathans, who are both huge "space
whale" like creatures which also serve as spacecraft. Moya is one of
Farscape's more innovative concepts, and
in a certain way presages
Avatar, as Moya has been bonded since early life with her Pilot (named, well, Pilot).
Crichton soon finds out that the crew of Moya, such as it is, is a bunch of renegade ostensible criminals who are
attempting to escape from some evil space villains known in a sort of nod to Orwellian semantics as Peacekeepers.
Crichton is also quickly introduced to another stranger in a strange land, a female Peacekeeper named Aeryn Sun
(Claudi Black) who like Crichton has been pulled aboard Moya against her will. The supposed criminal crew of course is
not thrilled to have Aeryn aboard, and she returns the favor, seeming to reserve special disgust for Crichton. Can love
be far behind?
The first two seasons of
Farscape see the slow evolution of relationships between Crichton and the crew of
Moya, including warrior Ka D'Argo (Anthony Simcoe), a kind of quasi-Klingon looking character who is volatile but also
strangely vulnerable when it comes to his missing son, who has been kidnapped by the main villain of the series' first
season, a Peacekeeper named Crais (Lani Tupu). Also on board Moya is a seductive blue (and bald) Priestess named
Zhaan (Virginia Hey), a sentient plant species who has a number of spiritual powers, including one that is suspiciously
close to the Vulcan mind meld. Rygel provides a lot of the comedy relief of the series. A puppet creation of the Henson
Studios, Rygel is sort of the Ted Baxter of Moya, a once despotic ruler who is completely full of himself and who can't
quite believe he's forced to slum with these supposed lowlifes. There are several other supporting characters who
appear throughout the series' four year (plus a little) run, but the bulk of the stories revolve around this group. Two
other main plot arcs though concern Chiana (Gigi Edgley), a sort of street kid (if space had streets) who is brought
aboard Moya midway through Season One and who attempts to defy her society's insistence on conformity; and
Scorpius (Wayne Pygram), a nefarious villain whose shenanigans take up the bulk of the second season's plot arc as he
attempts to obtain the secrets of the wormhole by implanting Crichton with a neural chip which literally drives the
astronaut more than a bit batty.
There is no denying that there is the scent of shows that have gone before wafting over large elements of
Farscape. Both Aeryn and Chiana are redolent in their own way of
Star Trek: Voyager's Seven of Nine,
as Aeryn is trying to reconnect with her emotions, buried after years of being a warrior, and Chiana is attempting to
escape from her race's insistence on absolute conformity. And the Borg connection is perhaps even stronger with
Scorpius, a character who is fairly reminiscent of Lorcutus, the Borg-afied (if that isn't a word, it should be) version of
Captain Jean-Luc Picard. And of course getting
Lost in Space through a
Land of the Giants-esque space
anomaly that is somewhat like a
Stargate only ups the "been there,
seen that" feel to the series.
But you know what? Against considerable odds,
Farscape succeeds a great deal of the time, mostly due to
some very sharp writing and an invincible sense of humor about itself which keeps the proceedings from getting overly
pretentious (for just one great example of this tendency, take a gander at some of the episode titles listed in the Supplements section
below, which are frequently a collection of horrible puns). There's a literally childlike sense of wonder to many of these episodes, helped
immeasurably by the
wonderful creations of Henson Studios and some very good makeup effects on the human actors. As Brian Henson
mentions in one of the many supplements included on this 20 disc (!) set, the initial inspiration for
Farscape was
the bar scene in
Star Wars, and the series' creative staff wanted that wild and wooly mix of incredible alien
characters to fill every nook and cranny of their series, and to a large degree, they've succeeded admirably.
Farscape actually gets off to a fairly standard start and some viewers may give up when Crichton and Aeryn lock gazes in supposed
hatred of each other and most will not be wondering if they'll ever get together but
when they'll get together. The show actually
picks up considerable steam as it goes along, and by the middle of the second season it's regularly delivering one knockout episode after
another, especially after Scorpius starts working his nefarious magic. Seasons three and four are often really spectacular, with some
extremely inventive storytelling (my personal favorite is the quasi-homage to Chuck Jones' cartoon career, "Revenging Angel"), and in fact
the series seems to really have found its authentic voice in these final two years, once the relationships of Moya's crew had been set and
characters were well established enough for the writers to take off on some considerable flights of fancy.
This immense new set will most likely be a welcome addition to
Farscape's fans' collections, though many will probably be distressed
that the miniseries
The Peacekeeper Wars which sought to wrap up some of the dangling plot threads left frayed at the end of the
fourth season's finale isn't included here (as was mentioned above, it's licensed by another company which probably has a lot to do with this
decision). Maybe fans
can mount another internet petition drive and get that excellent conclusion out in HD soon, too. They've proven how powerful they can be
already.
All countries
Argentina
Austria
Belgium
Brazil
Bulgaria
Chile
China
Colombia
Czech Republic
Estonia
Denmark
Finland
Greece
Hong Kong
Hungary
Iceland
Indonesia
Ireland
Israel
India
Latvia
Malaysia
New Zealand
Norway
Philippines
Poland
Portugal
Romania
Russia
Singapore
South Africa
South Korea
Sweden
Switzerland
Taiwan
Thailand
Turkey
Ukraine
United Arab Emirates
Use the thumbs up and thumbs down icons to agree or disagree that the title is similar to Farscape. You can also suggest completely new similar titles to Farscape in the search box below.
