Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #25711 in DVD
• Released on: 2002-10-29
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 11
• Formats: Box set, Color, Dolby, NTSC, Surround Sound
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 11
• Running time: 1100 minutes

Amazon.com
Farscape is genre television at its most ambitious, inspired both by the cult appeal of Babylon 5 and the continuing success of the Star Trek franchise, but taking a visual and conceptual leap beyond those shows. Making extensive use of CGI, prosthetics, and state-of-the-art puppetry, courtesy of Jim Henson's Creature Shop, the Farscape concept has a freshness that makes it look and feel completely original. Among the first season's 22 episodes, "Premiere" introduces the characters and the basic premise: American astronaut John Crichton (Ben Browder) is flung through a wormhole and comes out in the midst of an interstellar prison escape on the other side of the universe. When the galactic cops (called "Peacekeepers") mark him as the new public enemy number one, Crichton is forced to ally himself with the convicts: hulking warrior D'Argo (Anthony Simcoe), blue-skinned priest Zhaan (Virginia Hey), fugitive peacekeeper Aeryn (Claudia Black), exiled king Rygel (Jonathan Hardy), and Pilot, the giant insectlike nerve center of their living ship, Moya.

In the action-packed and stylishly directed "Throne for a Loss," a race of mercenary criminals called the Tavleks kidnap the imperious Rygel. "PK Tech Girl" and "That Old Black Magic" feature a peek into the pasts of Rygel and Zhaan as they hide from the fleets of Peacekeeper soldiers in the galactic frontier known as the Uncharted Territories. Leading toward the climax of the show's first season, "Nerve" and "The Hidden Memory" make for a bold two-parter that reunites Crichton with his Peacekeeper Tech girlfriend, Gilina, and introduces the dreaded Scorpius, who uses his Aurora Chair torture device to extract what he mistakenly believes is vital knowledge from Crichton. The final episode, "Family Ties," ends with a cliffhanger guaranteed to bring viewers back for more, as the duplicitous Rygel plans to turn traitor, which eventually leaves the fates of Crichton and D'Argo up for grabs and Moya's young offspring under the control of the conflicted villain Crais, among other developments.

Customer Reviews

Farscape's first season
Farscape is arguably the best SF ever produced for television. It takes a fairly common storyline of a group of travelers thrown together and being pursued by individual of near obsessive (and evil) qualities. This formula has gone bad before in several genres, western, SF, road movies etc. Here, an contemporary American astronaut is sucked through a wormhole into another side of the galaxy where he is immediately caught up in a "prison break" in space. What makes Farscape so successful is a mixture of qualities.

First the casting is excellent. Filmed in Australia, most of the characters (except the lead, John Crighton's) are from there giving it an "off" feel to American ears which contributes to it's alieness. Each of the character's is part colorful stereotype, has weaknesses and is extremely individual. The chemistry is fantastic, especially after the first two or three shows in the series. Especially notworthy is the chemistry between the love interests played by Claudia Black and Ben Browder (John Crighton).

Another plus is the writing. Non-stop action and story telling is the hallmark of this series. Little time is spent creating mood or atmosphere (that is done by the characters and background), everything advances the plot line. Additionally, most episodes are connected in that previous storylines are built upon and create a chronology of events for the later stories.

Farscape space is inhabited by aliens who pass gas, burp, have intimate relations, love, hate, get hungry and can be fairly dirty in their habits. Add to this the great cultural references made by Crighton, the viewer gets the feeling that this is a bit like what space would really be like. A far cry from the antiseptic cleanliness and "wonder" of the Star Trek franchise.
Lastly Farscape has a timeline in the sense that it's not an endless variety of adventures for no particular reason there is an actual endstate the writers and producers have in mind at the end of the series.

Let's hope that Sci Fi Channel has the good sense to let Farscape complete its last season and reverse its cancellation. Shows of this quality and with such a loyal fanbase are rare.

Great show, but currently relatively expensive
This is a great show. However, at $120 per season, it comes to a rather expensive $6.55 per hour of entertainment.

If you compare that to:

24 Hours: $2.33/hour
Alias: $3.18/hour
Westwing: $2.36/hour
Firefly: $3.11/hour
Six feet Under: $4.92/hour
Sopranos: $5.74/hour

and even movies like

Star Wars episode I: $6.32/hour
Star Wars episode II: $5.92/hour

Farscape's pricing is over the top. I'll wait until the prices come down before adding Farscape to my collection.

Hope this helps

Television can't get any better than Farscape
I've collected a lot of DVD's, some good, some bad, but there is no better set than Farscape. No matter what you crave, be it action, romance, drama, comedy, special FX, you will find it with FS. This is no ordinary series, the storylines, characters, acting & cinematagraphy rival that of movies like Star Wars, Star Trek & such. I don't think I've ever connected or gotten attached to characters as much as these. The acters are little known but they shouldn't be. Their skills rival the best that Hollywood has.

As you've probably read, Farscape is due to be cancelled which is to me just ridiculous being one of the most popular shows out there. However, it's rumored that if their ratings go up before the end of season 4 they may not cancel it.

Season one introduces you to the various characters, good and bad,and revolves alot around the main character, astronaut John Crichton. Most of the time you feel lost as he does trying to cope with new surroundings & a new way of life(which is very good acting by Ben Browder).

Season two evolves the other characters and their relationships towards each other.

Season three is loaded to the max with drama.

Season four is only halfway through but so far so good.

Each DVD is loaded with extras:Character back stories, acter biographies, behind the scenes, deleted scenes, interviews, artwork, specialFX, Photo galleries,& even alien language and meanings. You definitly get your money's worth.

Save Farscape!!!