With the excellent cliffhanger episode at the end of Season 2, Season 3 of Farscape starts off with high expectations. What will happen to Crichton, with Scorpius' neural chip removed but with his speech centers still unconnected? How is the show going to deal with Aeryn's apparent demise? Will Moya recover from the damage inflicted by burning out the infestation she suffered last season? These loose ends seem to suggest that we're in for a good ride in Season 3.

Unfortunately, Farscape seems to have trouble with solid season openers, though. While Season 2 closed on an exciting note, the opening episode of Season 3, "Season of Death," fumbles with the material. The awkward handling of not just one, but several deus ex machina resurrections suggests that the writers had gotten themselves into a corner at the end of last season and couldn't quite work out a narratively successful way of moving forward. This initial episode also feels like an odd combination of rushing events to get back to the status quo, and fluffing out story elements that had already been sufficiently established, such as the attraction between Chiana and Jothi.

The second episode in this collection, "Suns and Lovers," confirms the return to the status quo. Here, the crew of Moya has to deal with mysterious storms that are targeting the commerce station where they've stopped to restock and regroup. The main plot threads are oddly pointless, involving a rescue of trapped children on the one hand, and the resolution of the mystery behind the storms on the other hand. Neither is particularly compelling, and neither has any relevance to the larger story arc of Farscape, so the effect on the overall progression of Season 3 is to apply the brakes to the narrative interest before the season has even gotten warmed up.

The following two-part episode "Self-Inflicted Wounds" starts things moving in a better direction; Farscape works best when it's developing a complex story over multiple episodes. In this case, though, the story in this two-parter is self-contained and doesn't connect to any of the ongoing threads in the story arc. Here, Moya is damaged by a collision with an alien ship, and the crew must extricate her and rescue themselves. It's a a premise that would have been fairly simplistic for a single episode, but here it's stretched out over two, probably because here we're introduced to the new character of Jool and say goodbye to the character of Zhaan.

"Different Destinations" is a relatively ordinary "adventure of the week," in which Stark, Crichton, Aeryn, and Jool are accidentally transported back in time and have to restore the timeline. "Eat Me" has some interesting elements (specifically, the characters getting cloned) but is otherwise a fairly standard adventure. The set wraps up with "Thanks for Sharing," which starts moving the story forward once again: Talyn is damaged, and the crew ends up getting shaken up by what happens as they attempt to get medicine for him.

Overall, Season 3 Collection 1 is a set of episodes that will appeal more to die-hard fans of the show than to more casual viewers who are looking for a strong and well-written story. A lot of attention is given to the characters' relationships, such as Crichton and Aeryn as well as D'Argo and Chiana, but I think that the writers of Farscape don't have a good sense of how to pace this kind of material. The "character development" scenes always feel too drawn-out and inflated. Since I don't think these relationships are particularly convincing in the first place, the awkward pacing doesn't help matters any.

The DVD

For the Starburst Editions of Season 3, ADV has gone to a new packaging format, most likely because of quality-control problems with the double-sided discs in earlier sets. The discs are now single-sided, so Collection 1 has four DVDs. They're packaged in a double-wide case, and are very awkwardly arranged: the discs are held two on each side of the case, overlapping each other, so you have to remove the top disc in order to reach the one below it. It's a real nuisance, and I hope that they'll settle on a more user-friendly case design soon.

Video

Farscape continues to look satisfactory here. The episodes all appear in their original 1.33:1 aspect ratio, and look clean and attractive overall.

Audio

The Dolby 5.1 soundtrack is, like the video transfer, quite good. The dialogue, special effects, and music are all well balanced and clear.

Extras

Several audio commentaries are included for episodes in this collection. "Self-Inflicted Wounds Part II: Wait for the Wheel" has a commentary from Claudia Black, and "Eat Me" has a commentary with composer Guy Gross. Several deleted scenes are also included. Across the board we get the text "Cool Farscape Facts" and "Alien Encounters," along with TV promos for the episodes.

Disc 4 contains the bulk of the special features. Several of these have "spoiler alert" notices appearing before the featurette, which is a very considerate touch for new viewers. We get an interview with Claudia Black (7 minutes) and Anthony Simcoe (13 minutes) and a substantial piece on Virginia Hey called "Zhaan Forever" (30 minutes). Fans of the music will enjoy "From the Archives: Composer Guy Gross Discusses the Season 3 Theme" (4 minutes) and "Listening in with Guy Gross on Eat Me" (10 minutes). A two-minute trailer for the season as a whole, created for the Television Critics Association, and a production design gallery (14 minutes) are also included, as are ADV previews.

Final Thoughts

Farscape Starburst Edition: Season 3 Collection 1 is really only worth a purchase for dedicated fans of the show; with its slow start despite the great cliffhanger from Season 2, this collection isn't going to win over any casual viewers. I'll suggest it as a decent rental choice if you've been enjoying the show overall. Rent it.