I was disappointed by the first two thirds of Farscape's second season, as I felt that the series had too many lackluster "adventure of the week" episodes, and that the story-arc episodes were awkwardly written and often over-acted. Still, there was a sense that if the pieces were just put together a bit better, the show would hit its stride. The last collection of episodes from Season 2 shows that this wasn't just wishful thinking: while there are still several forgettable episodes here, the season wraps up in a strong enough manner to make the viewer sit up and say "OK, I want to see Season 3!"

Eight episodes are included in this Starburst edition, finishing up Season 2.

"Won't Get Fooled Again" suggests that we're going to see more of the story arc involving Scorpius and the implanted chip in Crichton's brain. Crichton apparently finds himself in an Earth hospital, with a doctor who looks like Aeryn. It's not a bad idea, but it's also not really enough to merit a full episode. "The Locket" is a completely stand-alone episode (except that it reintroduces Stark) that has Crichton and Aeryn growing old together when Moya gets stuck in time. For viewers who really enjoy Farscape as a character-based, rather than story-based, show, this is probably a reasonable episode, but I don't care for the characters enough to find this to be particularly compelling (especially since I've never been quite convinced by the Crichton-Aeryn relationship).

"The Ugly Truth" reintroduces Crais and Talyn, Moya's weapon-bearing child-ship, with another fairly ordinary plot: the crew are put on trial by an alien race who have had a ship destroyed by Talyn. "A Clockwork Nebari" gives us a Chiana-centered episode, as her people come on board Moya to recapture her, and mentally cleanse the rest of the crew along the way. Of course, a few crew members can resist the cleansing (or else there'd be no story, right?), and the plot rolls on.

So far, there's nothing outstanding, though there's nothing really terrible either. When we get to the three-part "Liars, Guns, and Money," the pieces start coming together much better. In Part I: "A Not So Simple Plan," the crew find out that D'Argo's son Jothee is being sold as part of a lot of slaves. To get the cash necessary to buy his freedom, they decide on a massive bank heist... not knowing that they're going after Scorpius' money. As you might imagine, things don't exactly go as planned, which leads us to Part II: "With Friends Like These," in which the crew attempt to pull the pieces of their fractured plan together so they can still save Jothee. Unfortunately, Scorpius is hardly a passive participant here, and in Part III: "Plan B" we find that his ultimate goal is to get his hands on Crichton once again.

All three parts of "Liars, Guns, and Money" are solid episodes, though interestingly enough, they also showcase both the strength and the weaknesses of Farscape as a whole. In the "strengths" category, we have excellent use of previously established backstory, a complicated and interesting plot, and the usual Farscape merits of nice sets, costumes, and alien designs. The big weakness offsetting these strengths is that Farscape still doesn't have a good sense of pacing, so that we often have unnecessary lulls in the progression of the story. I don't mean that we have to have shoot-em-up action all the time - too much of that is a pacing problem as well - but that the story should always be moving forward and developing in interesting ways. When Farscape works well, it does exactly that. But many times, I think Farscape is a little too much in love with its own characters, sets, and aliens... yes, they are nicely done, and are an asset to the show, but lingering too long and showing too much just takes the edge off the tension and excitement of a good plot. In a way, it's the dilemma of having to appease dedicated fans: in order to create an effective story that works as a story, not just as fan fiction with good production values, the filmmakers can't linger over those cool sets, and can't include every detail of a conversation between two main characters; they have to keep things moving along. "Liars, Guns, and Money" works well, but it would have been exceptional if it had been compressed into two rather than three episodes (or if more story had been created to fit into the three episodes, especially in the slightly sagging middle part).

The season finale, "Die Me, Dichotomy," is a perfect way to wrap up Season 2. It has all the good elements that I've mentioned for "Liars, Guns, and Money," with the added benefit that the pacing is significantly better. There's a lot happening in this one episode, from start to finish. Moya is severely injured as a result of events in "Liars, Guns, and Money," and Crichton is not-so-slowly going insane from Scorpius' neural chip. The crew head out to find a doctor who can help both Moya and Crichton, and it seems that they do... but things most certainly don't go according to plan, even by Farscape standards. Crichton finds himself intermittently controlled by Scorpius, and while I won't reveal any spoilers, let's just say that bad things happen. As the "To be continued" message flashes on the screen at the end of the episode, there are many questions left open as to what will happen in Season 3. The crew seems to have broken apart, and several main characters are at clear turning points (or are beyond the point of no return), while a number of key secondary characters give signs that they're going to be significant players in the future. Farscape may have taken a while to get up to speed in Season 2, but "Die Me, Dichotomy" sends a clear signal that Season 3 has potential to start off strong from the beginning.

The DVD

The eight episodes included here are presented on two double-sided DVDs, which are packaged in a single-wide plastic keepcase.

Video

The episodes are presented in their original television aspect ratio of 1.33:1, and look quite good overall. Colors are natural and pleasing to the eye, contrast is handled well, and overall the print looks clean and attractive.

Audio

The Dolby 5.1 soundtrack is clean and crisp-sounding, with a reasonable use of the surround channels to provide an enjoyable listening experience. A Dolby 2.0 track is also included, as are English closed captions.

Extras

There are fewer featurettes on this Starburst DVD, but several new commentary tracks that will appeal to fans.

First of all, we get a commentary for "Won't Get Fooled Again" with director Rowan Woods and executive producer/writer Richard Manning. Next up are two commentaries that are new for the Starburst edition: one for "The Locket" with Ben Browder and Claudia Black, and another for "Die Me, Dichotomy" with Ben Browder, Claudia Black, and executive producer/writer David Kemper.

Two "Listening in" featurettes with composer Guy Gross are included: one on "The Locket" and the other on "Die Me, Dichotomy"; along with a few deleted scenes, that wraps up the main bonus content.

For minor special features, we get the usual text material: "Cool Farscape Facts," "The Farscape Chronicles," and "Alien Encounters," along with the FarSpeak Game. Along with this, there are character backstories for Chiana, Rygel, Stark, Scorpius, and Pilot, and actor biographies for Jonathan Hardy, Wayne Pygram, and Lani John Tupu.

Final thoughts

After some slow moments throughout Season 2, the last episodes of the season give Farscape some of the punch that it's been promising but hadn't been delivering. The Starburst Edition's Season 2 Collection 3 set wraps up the season with some decent and several quite good episodes, including a very nice season finale. I'll bump this up over the rest of the second season with a "recommended" rating.