Farscape: The Complete Series

Farscape is often overlooked in favour of the more mainstream and popular Star Trek and Stargate series where many people have either never heard of Farscape, or been put off by "Muppets". Well that was their mistake because unlike the previously mentioned series Farscape is a truly imaginative science-fiction show that blends great drama, terrific storytelling, wonderful three-dimensional characters that grow and change as the show develops and a healthy dose of comedy.

Also unlike other contemporary sci-fi rivals Farscape endeavours to bring aliens that actually look alien, rather than just facial prosthetics which is the norm. Okay some may not have worked but the Henson's team created a wonderfully diverse and imaginative universe for the stories to take place in.

Farscape features some wonderfully rich characters and none more so than the shows hero John Crichton played by Ben Browder. Crichton a human stranded far from Earth after being shot through a wormhole while testing a scientific theory. He is then brought aboard a ship, a living ship, filled with strange alien life-forms, prisoners escaped from the peacekeepers... I won't say any more as I don't want to spoil you but needless to say the exploits of John Crichton and the crew aboard Moya is a fantastically fun and rewarding experience. Adventures and mystery aplenty, sometimes strange and wacky fun, romance and laughs plus of course a few tear-jerking moments tugging on your heart strings.

I should imagine this box-set is the same as the recent region one release plus The Peacekeeper Wars which if I am correct will make this release literally the most definitive Farscape DVD set to date and should be jam-packed with extras - although you'll have to check-up closer to a release date for the full details to be certain. Regardless it's an amazing series and a must for anyone who loves great television... Available at a terrific price for four complete seasons, 88 episodes in total and the 3hr mini series Peacekeeper Wars!

For any parents put off by the 18 certificate rating that really only applies for one episode in season 2 the majority of episodes are either PG or 12 certificate.

"home on the remains" is the 18 certificate episode from season two.I'd say watch the episode yourself before decieding if you think it's suitable for your kids/teenagers.

There are also a few 15 certificate episodes including...

From season 1 "A Bugs Life", season 2 "Won't Get Fooled Again", "look At The Princess" trilogy, from season 3 "Season Of Death", "losing Time", "Scratch n' Sniff", & from season 4 "Prayer".

The rest are either U, PG or 12 certificates .

So Farscape finally makes its way to Blu-ray, but it definitely comes with a 'buyer beware'. I say this because, as you may already be aware, the 35mm negatives and prints used to create this landmark cult series have gone on an Australian 'walkabout'... they're nowhere to be found. This led A&E to source the highest quality versions of the episodes in existence, which happened to be PAL 720x576i master videotapes, and employing the use of state of the art upscaling algorithms and other digital trickery, they have created an upscaled 1080p 'HD' transfer. As a result, while you should not expect anything like a series of similar age sourced from original film negatives, the results are still impressive. There is a subtle overall increase in sharpness and detail in comparison to the DVD's, and a definite increase in quality as regards compression... or rather lack of it compared to the previous DVD sets. Contrast and colour have also been tweaked to show the details that were already there in a far better light. What you end up with is a 'psedudo HD', for want of a better description. Of course I'd have preferred real 1080p from 35mm film, but I absolutely love the set all the same. If you don't feel confident of purchasing the set based on what I have to say, seek out the interview online with New Video's Dan Kenny, and the accompanying before and after screenshot comparisons. You will see that the increase in detail is subtle to say the least, but it is there, and there is an overall sharper look to the characters features. Of course it still has a certain softness to it, but I guess that really couldn't be helped given what they had to work with.

This is for all the "it should have come in widescreen" brigade:
The first 3 seasons were SHOT in the 1.33:1 aspect ratio. That's "full screen", or 4:3... i.e. NOT widescreen. Meaning on Blu-ray you have forced black borders at the sides of the screen on a widescreen TV. This is a GOOD thing. It respects the way the show was produced, and to have gotten a widescreen transfer from the source material they would have had to pan scan/zoom. Meaning faces cut off at the eyebrows, or chopping people's legs off. Too much top/bottom screen information is lost, and it looks *ridiculous*. I own a couple of series that got this treatment and it makes for horrible, claustrophobic viewing. Further, what detail was gained from the upscaling process would have been lost. I've added this paragraph to my review in answer to ill informed reviewers low scoring the set or other Blu-ray sets like it (Star Trek The Original Series, for example) for something that was unavoidable. Farscape Season 4 was shot in 1.78:1 widescreen, so that plays in widescreen... filling the entirety of your 16:9 TV.

Seeing as they couldn't give us an all singing, all dancing full HD picture, they have really gone to town on the audio. The DTS-HD MA track is a whole world away from all previous releases that used compression based formats. There are sounds here I have honestly never noticed before, and the sweeping title score really gets the ol' goosebumps tingling. Channel separation is amazing, and the rear speakers are respected as much as the central speaker's dialogue. It sounds amazing... and very punchy.

All the extras from the last DVD set have made the journey over, which will entertain fans for many hours. The audio commentaries from the previous set are also present and correct. Unlike the previous DVD release, we also have subtitles, if only in English. However, the real meat on the bones of the set's features is an exclusive, newly shot 36 minute full HD featurette, 'Memories of Moya', featuring the musings of the stars and production crew as they look back on their time making Farscape. As all the previous DVD extras were made some time ago, this new featurette gives fans a new and fresh perspective as regards the cast and crew's thoughts on Farscape.

Due to licensing issues, A&E were not at liberty to include The Peacekeeper Wars on the set, which is a great shame, but I have it on fairly good authority that the license owner is working on a Blu-ray of the mini-series. Of course a Peacekeeper Wars Blu-ray has already been released in Germany, but the transfer is poor and it apparently contains no extras.

Overall, I'm more than happy with the set. However, I knew what to expect. I'm not so sure impulse buyers or those expecting a crisp true HD picture quality will greet it as warmly. But if they come across my review I'd ask them to consider the future. If they ever buy a larger TV or 2k/4k screen, the DVD's can only ever get worse. This is the best Farscape will likely ever look, at least for many years, and with uncompressed audio it is certainly the best it will ever sound. For fans who already own the DVD set asking if they should upgrade, I'd say it depends on the individual. If you're the type who, like myself, will take that subtle increase in picture quality and be glad of it, of course. Same for those with very large screens, and those capable of decoding the amazing HD audio. This will no doubt leave a good deal of people who will be happy to save some money and keep their DVD sets, or at least hang around for a considerable price drop.

If you know the show, you know what you're getting so no reviews about that.

This set includes most of everything released previously in a single box except for a few features that remain limited to the Starburst series. Those may never again see the light of day if the rights were never acquired by AETN which produces this set now.

What you get are the four seasons on separate doublewide amaray cases - each housing 6 discs with 2 on front and back and 2 on a flapper. Bad point number one here, you can't remove certain discs without removing the other since they are 'stacked' in the case so some minus points there already.

An extra doublewide amaray case holds 6 DVDs of bonus materials with the following content
Disc 1 - includes "The Farscape Effect - BTS of a cutting edge scifi show", "In the beginning - a look back with Brian Henson", "The Flax Director's Cut" and "Through the Looking Glass Director's Cut"
Disc 2 - includes "Union - bonus episode", S2 bloopers, Director's cut of selected episodes (unlisted on content ... haven't viewed it yet)
Disc 3 - Deleted scenes, TV promos, BTS season 3
Disc 4 - Deleted scenes, Save Farscape Featurette, Inside Farscape Villians Featurette, Farscape visual effects
Disc 5 - Farscape Undressed, Music featurette and "Listening in with composer Guy Gross"
Disc 6 - BTS with the cast, Video profiles and Zhaan forever

The final single amaray houses a 2-DVD set of Peacekeeper Wars.

Video quality is great for a show that was produced in standard definition ... don't get your hopes up on a bluray release (don't think it can improve that much anyway looking at the source material). There are negligible and most often unnoticeable compression faults and artefacts but they go past very fast and do not detract from the content material. Audio is the same 5.1 (or maybe 5.0 since it was upmixed from Dolby Surround) and works very well.

Improvements on the US Complete Collection? Well, Peacekeeper Wars is now included as opposed to the US set. The box has been improved and is now a paperboard slipcase instead of the thin box which many customers complained about because it tore easily. Pictures have been uploaded to Amazon UK for you to view the actual boxset contents.

UPDATED : see comments on more details.
UPDATE 28/11/2010 : Further inspection shows the set has poor quality control as each season has DVDs that will not play.