Review of Farscape: Volumes 1.1 & 1.2 (2 disc pack)

Introduction

Filmed entirely in Australia by Channel 9 & Jim Henson Home Entertainment, this series has grown to almost cult status here and in the USA, Canada and Australia. It is not hard to see why. The series combines good acting, scripting and directing; excitement, action, fun and some really great CG effects. It is aimed at the older audience (thankfully!) and is an intelligent sci-fi experience. It is certainly a match for the well-established favourites such as Star Trek.

This double-DVD boxed set contains 2 episodes per disk. It is planned that additional volumes will be released every 2-3 months and eventually build into the entire first series (22 episodes). At the time of writing, BBC-2 is showing the season 1 episodes, whilst the US and Australia are enjoying season 2.

The basic premise is that during a test mission, astronaut John Crichton (Ben Browder) is swept across time and space into a parallel universe. Landing directly into a raging space battle, Crichton immediately has enemies and allies forced upon him. This all makes for a good first episode as we are introduced to the key characters: Ka D’Argo (Anthony Simcoe), a fierce Luxan warrior; Rygel XVI, the slug-like Dominar of the Hynerian Empire; Aeryn Sun (Claudia Black), a deserted Peacekeeper warrior; and finally Pa’u Zotoh Zhaan (Virginia Hay), a serene Delvian priestess. All the characters are interesting and accessible and with the exception of Rygel (who is a puppet), are convincing actors who the viewer will ultimately grow to care about.

A run-down of each episode is shown in the above preamble, so I won’t repeat that again. Instead I will concentrate on the DVD itself and the material it contains.

Video

We are greeted with a sharp 1.33 full-screen picture, which manages a good amount of detail, colour stability and contrast. There are plenty of darkish shots in these episodes and these are handled well, with deep blacks and no sign of bleeding. There are no signs of artifacting, which is impressive as disk 1 runs to over 135 minutes on a single layer.
The CG effects are sharp and well rendered and the in-space scenes are very impressive for a non-Hollywood production.

Muppet-man Jim Henson lends his talented Creature Shop to the project and is responsible for some of the amazing alien creations we see. Although we are in an age of computer-generated everything-ness, I feel nothing can beat his wonderful animatronic characters.

Audio

This is one area in which this collection really shines. The DD5.1 soundtrack is superb - the full 5 channels are used to great effect with good bass extension. I wasn`t expecting the audio to be of this standard, and was very pleasantly surprised. Thankfully the vocal channel wasn`t drowned by the surrounds, and provided a clean and articulate experience.

Features

Although there aren`t a huge range of extras here, they are of good quality and worthy inclusions to the package. Each disk contains a video profile of one of the characters - volume 1.1 has John Crichton, whilst 1.2 showcases Aeryn Sun. These are interesting viewing and offer lots of behind-the-scenes gossip and give more of an insight into each character. Also on volume 1.1 is a `Behind the scenes` feature that takes a look at some of the special effects methods and visits the Creature Shop. I really enjoyed seeing how some of the amazing puppets were created.

Volume 1.2 also contains a trailer and some DVD-ROM extras - weblinks to Farscape websites and a screensaver.

Conclusion

I am now a big fan of this very promising series. I was slightly skeptical at the beginning, but as the story lines have built and the characters developed, I now find that I am hooked. I have missed all the television broadcasts of the series thus far and instead am buying the DVD`s as they are released. The only problem with this is the frequency at which they appear in the shops. Still, I suppose a few months isn`t that long to wait for my next fix. And besides, it gives me longer to admire the acting talents of Claudia Black ;-)

I urge you to beg, steal or at least rent this title to see what you are missing. You won`t regret it.