Farscape Season Four, Collection 4 (TV)

 

Picture: B-     Sound: B-     Extras: C+     Episodes: B-

 

 

As is always the case, any cycle of live action Fantasy these days will have at least one entry from The Jim Henson Company.  Among the many belated Star Trek spin offs, and wanna-bes like Andromeda, Babylon 5, Stargate, and even Mutant X, Farscape offers the twist of the Henson signature creature shop and how this is also applied partly to actors as human or semi-human alien characters.

 

This two DVD set offers two shows a disc and now that I have got to see this show uninterrupted by commercial breaks and with the better fidelity of DVD, it is a cut above its rivals.  This may only be marginal, but the show takes itself more seriously than most of the current cycle and that in itself is an achievement.  The innovations the Henson Creature Shop made as far back as feature films like The Dark Crystal pay off here and because of the pride and craftsmanship involved, far less digital is used than in any of the competitors resulting in the show that will endure ten, twenty and thirty years form now the most.

 

For those who do not know the show, John Crichton (Ben Browder) gets lost in space, and time, when his ship enters a wormhole.  Back on Lost In Space and the underrated live action TV version of Planet Of The Apes, it was sufficient enough just to get lost, without explanation.  Now that we have the concept of wormholes in the mainstream, I hope that does not rob the fun of simply being lost.  It is not as if wormholes are like interstate highways.  He and his friends must drift through adventures as they try to find a way back, and they do this with better teleplays than Star Trek Voyager, for which no scientific explanation is available.

 

With that said, the episodes are:

 

Mental As Anything

Bringing Home The Beacon

A Constellation Of Doubt

Prayer

 

Yes, we have seen some of this before, but genre fans will appreciate how well this is done.  There is a consistent tone in all this and it takes its fans more seriously than most such franchises of late, so that is a plus.  The performances are also better than what we have been getting from such TV for a long time.  It is not a masterwork of TV, but Farscape is a genre show being done with some pride, and that alone is something we are not seeing enough.  With even George Lucas abandoning Henson-like Yoda designs for a digital equivalent, this is especially refreshing to see.

 

The anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image is unusual, offering a mix of sharpness and slight pastiness.  You would expect this on the creatures, but it also sometimes happens on the faces of the actors, and I mean when it is their flesh faces.  This is an odd thing we have never seen before on DVD, but it is still slightly above its competitors just the same.  Russell Bacon is the cinematographer.  The sound is available in a Dolby Digital 5.1 mix and the less efficient, more common 2.0 Stereo with Pro Logic surrounds.  Extras include a sets/props/costume gallery set to music that lasts nearly nine minutes, text facts on the show, deleted scenes, a Behind The Scenes with Wayne Pygram and an “alien encounters” clip on DVD One, while DVD Two repeats everything except for different bloopers (this time from Season Three) and a Behind The Scenes with David Franklin.

 

This all adds up to a good set and does a nice job of continuing the Henson legacy.  Farscape may not work for everyone, but it is ambitious enough and that is something TV has been sadly lacking for years.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo