I'm a big fan of science fiction, especially television series that take on the challenge of presenting a continuing story arc, like Babylon 5 or Star Trek Deep Space Nine. I'd only caught a few casual episodes of Farscape before, not enough to get hooked, but I'd heard such good things about it that I decided to give it a try with Season 4. You'd think it would be tough for a series with an ongoing story to pick up a new viewer in its fourth season, but in fact Farscape managed to get me pretty much hooked within just a few episodes from Collection 1.

For those viewers who aren't familiar with the show, it follows the adventures of John Crichton, an astronaut from Earth who is accidentally drawn into a wormhole and tossed halfway across the galaxy, to find a whole assortment of alien civilizations. He ends up throwing his lot in with a motley crew of escaped prisoners on board a huge, living ship, while trying to find a way back home. Thanks to a very useful "The Story So Far" featurette in the special features of Disc 1 in Collection 1, viewers who haven't seen the previous three seasons can get filled in with the broad outlines of the events that have happened to Crichton since then, as he has made powerful enemies as well as devoted friends.

A number of good things are immediately apparent about Farscape. One is that it's one of the most imaginative and original series that I've had the chance to see. The universe of the story is genuinely alien in a way that few sci-fi shows manage to evoke, and the alien characters are far more than just "humans with funny foreheads." The show's extremely high production values are certainly a help here: Farscape has an expansive feel, with no sense of being restricted to a few studio sets, and everything that we see, from aliens to props to locations, looks polished.

Another strong point of Farscape is that the story is quite interesting, building as it does on what has come before. Some episodes are more focused on the overall story arc than others, but even the more stand-alone ones like "Lava Is a Many-Splendored Thing" lack the episodic feel that they'd have if the same plot were used on a show like Star Trek: Voyager (a show that has the same overall premise of "character(s) trying to get home"). The individual adventures are smoothly integrated into the ongoing story, so that the story feels like one long adventure.

That's not to say that I didn't spot a few things here that I didn't like. For all I know, this may be heresy to Farscape fans, but I really don't care for Ben Browder, the actor who portrays Crichton; he plays the character far more as "dumb jock" than as the "intelligent astronaut" that his part would seem to call for. The show also has a strong streak of humor that, in my opinion, just doesn't work. While a few lighter touches here and there can add a lot to a drama, the humor here seems to be either joking pop-culture references from Crichton that just fall flat, or crude humor on the level of fart jokes (literally). It's an odd and rather grating combination, since the humor seems to be aimed at a child's level, but the show itself is squarely adult.

But the fact that Farscape isn't perfect doesn't prevent it from being one of the nicest discoveries I've made lately. The five episodes presented here are all highly entertaining, with intriguing stories both on the level of the individual episode and the larger story arc.

The DVD

Farscape Season 4 Collection 1 is a two-disc set, packaged in a double-wide plastic keepcase. It contains five approximately 50-minute episodes: "Crichton Kicks," "What Was Lost Part 1: Sacrifice," "What Was Lost Part 2: Resurrection," "Lava's a Many-Splendored Thing," and "Promises."

Video

Farscape: Season 4 Collection 1 is presented in a very attractive widescreen anamorphic transfer, at the 1.85:1 aspect ratio. Farscape began filming in widescreen starting with the beginning of Season 4, so this is the correct aspect ratio. While the image doesn't offer perfect quality, it's a visually pleasing presentation that deserves high marks. Colors are strong and natural-looking, and though some scenes are a bit on the dark side, contrast is handled well. The print is clean, with no noise or flaws appearing in the image. The only real fault I'd find with the image quality is the presence of edge enhancement, which is moderate in most scenes but more apparent in others.

Audio

The Dolby 5.1 soundtrack for Farscape 4.1 is a bit of a mixed bag. On the positive side, the overall viewing experience is enhanced by the use of the surround sound, and for the most part, the sound is clean and clear. However, the dialogue is often a bit difficult to understand, undoubtedly due in large part to the tendency of some of the actors to mumble their lines, and the volume balance between quieter dialogue-driven scenes and louder special-effect-filled scenes is not handled well. The result is that if you turn up the volume enough to follow the dialogue, the action scenes will sound unpleasantly loud. A Dolby 2.0 soundtrack is also included.

Extras

While it's not a special feature per se, one thing that's quite well done here is that each episode starts with a short montage of "previously on Farscape" scenes. It's different for each episode, reminding the viewer of the important elements from the past few episodes.

Also in the category of "getting viewers up to speed," Disc 1 has a useful 28-minute featurette called "Farscape: The Story So Far." As the title suggests, this gives a quick overview of Crichton's adventures so far, and a who's who of his friends and enemies. It doesn't fully explain all the backstory, but it offers enough background that viewers who haven't seen the earlier episodes or who have forgotten them can feel confident about watching the Season 4 episodes. This featurette contains some scenes that were originally filmed for "Crichton Kicks" but were left out in the final cut, so even viewers who are familiar with the backstory may find it interesting to watch. The DVD also has an insert booklet that gives character backgrounds for Crichton and Aeryn Sun.

Disc 2 contains several other featurettes of interest to fans. "Behind the Scenes with Rebecca Riggs" is a 30-minute interview with Riggs (Commandant Grayza) in which she talks about her experiences with the series. It's intercut with a generous number of clips from the episodes, but will be worth watching for fans. "Inside Farscape: Season 4 Visual Effects" is a nine-minute piece that shows animatics of various special effects sequences while visual effects supervisor Benita Carey discusses the production process in a voiceover. This featurette has a lot of clips from later in the season, though, so it's not the best thing to watch if you want to avoid spoilers. The last featurette is a six-minute set of bloopers from Season 2. They're nothing special.

Both Disc 1 and Disc 2 have several minor features: "Cool Farscape Facts" (text snippets of behind-the-scenes information), "Alien Encounters" (text blurbs about various aliens, with clips from relevant scenes), "Set, Prop, and Costume Gallery" (a total of about 20 minutes of not-very-interesting design drawings), and previews of other ADV releases.

Final thoughts

If the first collection of episodes from Season 4 is representative of the show as a whole, it's no surprise that Farscape has a devoted fan base. But even for a viewer who hasn't seen the previous three seasons, Season 4 Collection 1 does a great job of drawing you into the intriguing universe and story of Farscape. Given that ADV has given these episodes a nice anamorphic widescreen transfer, it's easy to rate Farscape: Season 4 Collection 1 as "highly recommended."