Farscape is a science fiction cable television series that chronicles the life of an astronaut, John Crichton, who's thrown into another part of the Universe by means of a wormhole. He appears in the middle of a space battle, accidentally killing the brother of an important alien commander just before taking refuge with a group of escaped prisoners of various species. As the series progresses, his life is turned upside down when he is given advanced knowledge of wormholes by an even more advanced alien race. This knowledge causes him to be hunted down by the dominant species of the region who think it will give them a strategic advantage against their enemies.

The Movie:

Farscape 2.3 is a two disc set from the show's second season that details the events in the life of John Crichton and crew over the span of 5 episodes. I'll list the episode synopsis for each to keep the spoilers down to a minimum. I've been a fan of the series since it first premiered and don't want to ruin anyone's fun by casually tossing around detailed episode data without good reason.

Out Of Their Minds: When Moya is blasted by a Halosian ship, the minds of her crew are thrown into each other's bodies! Into this confusion come the Halosians, an aggressive bird-like race whose merciless code of "kill or be killed" has our jumbled crew squarely in its sights.

My Three Crichtons: A spherical, automated research vessel sent to collect unfamiliar life forms attempts to carry off Crichton for analysis. When Aeryn fires on the sphere to stop it, it imbeds itself into Moya and spits out not one, but three Crichtons- the one she knows, a "caveman Crichton," and a super-evolved "future Crichton!"

LOOK AT THE PRINCESS:
Part 1: A Kiss Is But A Kiss:
Part 2: I Do, I Think:
Part 3: The Maltese Crichton:
The crew stumbles across a Royal planet at coronation time. Princess Katralla cannot assume the throne and keep the peace without a DNA-compatible mate, but her treacherous brother, Clavor, has poisoned her genes. Enter Crichton, with compatible DNA! Enter Scorpius, in pursuit of Crichton! Next, to escape capture by Scorpius, Crichton agrees to marry Princess Katralla, and be transformed into a living statue for 80 cycles! But his life is still in danger as familial, political and military forces collide! Far away, Zhaan and Pilot meet Kahaynu, Moya's deity, who says it's time for Moya to die. Then, as living statues, Crichton and Katralla stand side by side in the Royal Court. Clavor is still intent on the throne, and to achieve this, Crichton must die. To save Crichton, D'Argo and Scorpius must form an uneasy alliance.

I was pleased that the folks at ADV kept the 3 episodes of Look at the Princess together, as this keeps the storyline easier to follow. The interesting thing about these episodes is that you needn't have watched all the previous shows to follow the action although I'll admit such prior knowledge will give you insight into some of the minor subplots (of which there are many).

Video: In short, it looked great. I watched it twice and saw no artifacts or other problems. It's so clear that you'd almost think you were in the same room as the crew. For those who care, it was in full frame, just as shown on cable.

Audio: The sound was great too! I listened to it in both Dolby Digital 5.1 and 2.0 and heard nothing but pure, clean program. Quite a change from my local cable version I might add.

Extra's: It had conceptual art on each disc, character background on Zhaan, a biography of Viginia Hey, a brief description of each alien met on each disc, a dictionary of food and drink items, trailer for the Farscape computer game, 8 trailers for other ADV releases
Note: It did not have deleted scenes as promised on the dvd case.

Final Thoughts: I really liked this dvd set. It's not just that I like the show itself, which I do, but the dvd adds some real value to it's presentation. Now that the show has been announced as cancelled, perhaps ADV, The Jim Henson Company, and Hallmark can get together and finance a movie or two to tie up all the loose threads the series has generated. In any case, this is one series that greatly benefits from the dvd treatment it has received. Good work ADV!