The fourth set of episodes from Farscape's fourth season follows up the intense Collection 3 with another four outstanding installments in the award-winning science fiction series. We find the characters struggling to make their way out of the increasingly tight set of circumstances surrounding them: the Peacekeepers, led by Grayza, are on the hunt for them, Crichton has strong grounds to mistrust Scorpius even though he has become a de facto member of the crew, and Earth, far from being a haven for Crichton and his friends, has turned out to be xenophobic and unwilling to accept its place in the larger galaxy.

"Mental as Anything" opens with Crichton and D'Argo reluctantly enrolling in a "mental training" program suggested by Scorpius, with the aim of being able to resist the Scarrans' mind-probes. Matters start escalating very soon, however: D'Argo comes face-to-face with his wife's murderer, and must confront demons from his own past, while Crichton finds himself at the not-so-tender mercies of Scorpius, who appears to believe in a "make him or break him" approach to instruction.

While "Mental as Anything" delves primarily into the backstory of Farscape, the next three episodes move the plot forward with a vengeance. It's not possible to describe "Bringing Home the Beacon," "A Constellation of Doubt," and "Prayer" individually without giving away key spoilers, so I'll stick to considering them as a single story unit. Aeryn, Chiana, Sikozu, and Noranti head to a trading area to buy a camouflaging device for Moya... and while they're there, observe the arrival of a Peacekeeper vessel. More to the point, it's Grayza, and she's meeting secretly with the Scarrans. Aeryn convinces the others that they should take advantage of this coincidence, whether to eliminate an enemy or to just find out more information about what the Peacekeepers are up to. Things don't go according to plan, however. In fact, it soon becomes apparent that things have gone most horribly wrong, and back on Moya, Crichton is forced into making a devil's bargain, or face losing what he holds most dear in the universe.

Fans of Babylon 5 will recognize the technique used in a large part of "A Constellation of Doubt": showing story events through the lens of Earth television news, and specifically showing how the news media manipulates and distorts news events to serve political purposes. It's sadly far too easy to see how realistic the portrayal of news "reporting" is here. "A Constellation of Doubts" is the most slow-paced of the four episodes here, but not overly so; the alternation between the TV footage and the reactions of Crichton and the others on board Moya makes for a well-paced episode.

"Prayer" is very dark, taking good advantage of Farscape's track record of giving story events real consequences. We really don't know what's going to happen, and it's certainly not at all clear whether things are going to turn out well or very badly indeed. As the closing episode of the set, it's sure to make viewers eager to get their hands on the fifth and final volume of episodes for Season 4.

The DVD

Farscape: Season 4 Collection 4 is a two-DVD set, packaged in a double-wide keepcase. The four episodes "Mental as Anything," "Bringing Home the Beacon," "A Constellation of Doubts," and "Prayer" are included.

Video

Farscape continues to look outstanding in its DVD transfer. The anamorphic widescreen image, presented at its correct aspect ratio of 1.85:1, offers strong colors and excellent contrast, and has a crisp, clean look overall.

Audio

The sound quality for Collection 4 is likewise very solid. The Dolby 5.1 soundtrack balances dialogue, music, and special effects handily; a Dolby 2.0 track is also included.

Extras

Collection 4 offers a nice set of special features, some on each disc. Disc 1 has an interesting 22-minute interview with actor Wayne Pygram (Scorpius), who discusses his thoughts on the role and on the development of the character, and Disc 2 has another worthwhile interview, this time a 17-minute one with David Franklin (Captain Braca).

The deleted/extended scenes sections are quite substantial on this set, totaling about 17 minutes overall. There's also 12 minutes of images in the "Set, Prop, and Costume Gallery," and a 9-minute set of bloopers from Season 3. As with the other sets, Collection 4 also includes the text "Cool Farscape Facts" and "Alien Encounters" sections, and ADV previews.

Final thoughts

If you've been enjoying Farscape so far, then of course you should go buy this set: what are you waiting for? It's more of the outstanding science fiction storytelling that we've come to expect from Farscape, ratcheting up in intensity as the season nears its close. If you found the description intriguing, but haven't seen Farscape yet, then by all means backtrack and find out what you've been missing! Highly recommended.