Farscape Season 4: Vol. 4.2 [DVD] [1999] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC]

If you're looking for great acting,stories,effects all wrapped into one show then this the place to start!I don't think any episode of season 4 is bad,so what are you waiting for anyway?? I just can't understand why Farscape didn't catch on like Star Trek.I guess because Farscape doesn't play it safe and it's definitely not predictable.Of course there were some eps that weren't that good(only a few),but how many shows have a perfect batting average in the first place?? The acting isn't boring like the Star Wars prequels and the characters are more interesting,too.....HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!!!

The common denominator for four of the five episodes collected on volume 2 of the fourth season of "Farscape" is that Moya gets attacked. Usually that is the subplot for these episodes, but it is starting to get to the point where Pilot is going to leave the crew stranded somewhere and take Moya to a safe quadrant of the universe:

Episode 406, "Natural Election" (Written by Sophie C. Hopkins, Aired July 19, 2002) begins the attacks on Moya when a large organism attaches to hull and starts eating her skin and penetrating her systems. All this is after Crichton successfully predicts the opening of a wormhole, which is going to be a handy talent down the road. The crew also finally picks a captain for Moya (and I guessed right!). So the beginning and ending have some importance and the middle gives the crew something to run around and do in between.

Episode 407, "John Quixote" (Written by Ben Browder, Aired July 26, 2002) is a wild episode where Chiana gets Crichton trapped in a virtual reality simulation and have to win a game run by an unstable Stark to get out alive. This is another one of those "Farscape" episodes where things get totally weird. D'Argo is the Wicked Witch, Aeryn the Princess that needs to be rescued, Rygel the Black Knight, and you have to see what happened to Zhaan. Meanwhile, Moya is in danger of being attacked from within by Scorpius, which is not going to be a good thing. There is little to do with the fourth season story arc here, but the absurdity does comment on the characters and their involved relationships.

Episode 408, "I Shrink Therefore I Am" (Written by Christopher Wheeler, Aired August 2, 2002) is another fun episode as a gang of ruthless bounty hunters seizes Moya to capture Crichton and shrinks the crew. Then they can slip the wee folk into their body armor as a way of protecting themselves from Crichton. But then it turns out that Axikor, the head bounty hunter, turns out to be something other than he pretends and with a different agenda from the rest of the gang. Things get a bit silly in the end, but that is what happens when people can change sizes at the punch of a button. Still, there are some key developments with Scorpius, who is obviously going to play a role in something important this season, but at this point we have no clue of what it might be.

Episode 409, "A Perfect Murder" (Written by Mark Saraceni, Aired August 9, 2002) has the crew trying to get assistance on a world ruled by warring clans. The peace process gets derailed when Aeryn is accused of assassinating the next leader of the clan while Chiana cannot help but say the wrong thing pretty much every time she opens her mouth. This one gets a bit convoluted and to no great end in terms of the larger picture.

Episode 410, "Coup by Clam" (Written by Emily Skopov, Aired August 16, 2002) finds an alien doctor named Tumii has poisoned Moya's crew with deadly mollusks while they are being held in quarantine and will not give them the anecdote unless they pay through their collective noses. Things progress to the point where Aeryn and Sikozu have to go into a club for "gentlemen," but before you get excited about that you need to know that this one ends up with Crichton and D'Argo in drag. Of course, in the context of "Farscape" this is actually a good thing.

These are entertaining episodes, which is pretty much a constant for the "Farscape" series, but collectively they are just treading water. However, things pick up big time with the third DVD in this series as Crichton discovers that apparently you can go home again.

I'm British and I get the region 2 DVDs, but I CAN say that these episodes, while not being the best of the seasons, are a welcome return to the season one stories. Although many think that season four is the weakest, while I agree to a degree, Farscape still remains as the best written, best acted SF show on telly.

And to that guy who thinks that A Prefect Murder is edited wrongly by ADV, maybe he should watch the episode again. The first four scenes are repeated over and over for the first ten minutes of the show from the different character's perspectives. It's an artistic thing, a different way to tell a story, it's EXPERIMENTAL, and it's one of the reasons why I love the damn show.