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Farscape: The Complete Series 
Actors : Ben Browder, Claudia Black, Anthony Simcoe, Lani John Tupu, Gigi Edgley
Studio : A&E Home Video
by A&E Home Video
Brand : A&E Home Video
Release Date : 2009-11-17
Publisher : A&E Home Video
Availability : Usually ships in 24 hours and eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25.
EAN : 0733961169430
UPC : 733961169430
Avg. Customer Rating: (based on 247 reviews)
List Price : $149.95
Our Price : $65.99
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Description |
John Crichton. Astronaut. Flung through a wormhole and lost in a galaxy far from home. He finds himself in the middle of a prison break, surrounded by hostile aliens, soaring through space inside a glorious living space ship called Moya. Hunted by the relentless Peacekeepers, he allies himself with his unimaginably alien fellow refugees and searches for a way home.
So begins the epic sci-fi classic Farscape. A fusion of live action, state-of-the-art puppetry, prosthetics and CGI, Farscape features mind-boggling alien life forms, dazzling special effects, edge-of-your-seat thrills, irreverent humor and unforgettable characters — all brought to life by the creative minds at Jim Henson's Creature Shop. No wonder it's been called the most imaginative sci-fi series in television history.
Here, in time for the series' tenth anniversary, are all four Farscape seasons, 88 episodes, together for the first time in one epic collection. These are the adventures of Moya's crew — Crichton, Peacekeeper Aeryn Sun, warrior Ka D'Argo, azure priestess Zhaan, spritely thief Chiana, Dominar Rigel, Pilot and many others. Like Moya herself, this package contains amazing surprises including hours of bonus materials, making-of featurettes, commentaries, interviews, deleted scenes and much more. Prepare for Starburst! |
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This is the way space opera should be! |
First let me start by saying that this is a review of the Farscape series not of this set, I do not have this set I have the English two discs per box collection. I however did not feel like making 20 reviews so I will rather talk about the series itself. That being said unless you really want the additional extras on the English sets this one seam to be a good idea, for let me tell you that 20 DVD sets take up allot of space on your shelf.
Ok now to the series itself. In case you do not know what it is about Farscape focuses on an astronaut who is on an experimental flight, accidentally he get sucked down a wormhole and ends up in a far distant galaxy. When his ship emerges it has an accident with another ship resulting in the death of the other pilot, it turns out that our astronaut have arrived in the middle of a space battle. He is taken in and eventually befriends a group of aliens, escaped prisoners who are fleeing from the Peacekeepers a vastly powerful army. The pilot the protagonist accidentally kills when he emerges is the brother of one of the Peacekeeper higher officers so now he is hunted to.
Most of this series is about the astronaut John Crichton and the rest of the small but memorable crew of outcasts trying to survive. While things get more epic in later seasons, the first two seasons is really all about trying to stay alive in a very difficult situation. I think this gives Farscape some of the same appeal as Firefly, though Farscape is far more science fiction than Firefly with loads of interestingly designed aliens. However a big portion of the show's appeal to me was that the characters where not flying around in the Starship Enterprise which is more powerful that most other ships, they are just a bunch of refuges without to much resources. I also like the fact that the character's are not the best of friends after two episodes, at first they work together out of need only and is more than willing to betray one another, but as time passes they develop real friendships, this character development is done very well.
Farscape is semi episodic, meaning that usually you have one story per episode, however there is also a overarching storyline, but there is no problem in watching one episode now and then, the overarching plot moves slowly, however both it and the individual episode stories are very well made.
Costumes and alien design for this show is brilliant There is not much computer graphics, there is a little, but for the most part all alien effects are done with make up, prosthetics and puppets. As for the latter I have to say that the puppets on this show is really impressive. There are two puppet characters on the main crew, Pilot who fly the crew's living, sentient ship and Rygel as small, frog like creature that used to rule and empire. Both puppets are extremely expressive and I often found myself forgetting that I was watching dolls and emotionally connected to Pilot and Rygel in the same way as with the character's played by human actors.
The aliens in this show is in many ways your basic soft science fiction assortment. There is the large, angry warrior breed Luxans, a peaceful spiritual breed Delvians, a small deceitful and greedy breed Hynerian, a space faring, huge brained breed, Pilots and even a lizard like evil breed Scarrans. However there is also a huge number of fairly original races and even the rather cliché ones are done in an original way. Delvians for example while they have their version of mind meld and grow very old and have spiritual powers are more than Vulcans in a new pancaking. They are blue skinned living plants with a very interesting culture and well balanced set of strengths and weaknesses. The same go for the other races, one can recognize the archetype from other space opera shows, but they are done in a rather creative way. Perhaps the most interesting species of Farscape is Leviathans, living, thinking ships. The majority of the show takes place on such a ship, Moya, a converted prison transport. All in all the selection of races are excellent. There is even a human appearing race Sebacean, which gibes our main protagonist a good chance for a love affair.
This leads me to one of the things that annoyed me about Farscape, the relationship between Crichton and this human appearing alien Aeryn it is so back and forth. While some hidden feelings and reluctance to accept love and so on is great story elements it just never ends with these two, it is back and forth and back and forth the whole F****** series, by the time in the last few episodes they finally make up their minds I was tired of their relationship and did not really care anymore. Lucky this is just one of many plotlines and it is just a minor complaints. I have only two other complaints about this show, one is the intro music, I found it loud and obnoxious. I am sure some would like it, however for me I could not stand it. The actual music in the show itself however is fine so it do not really matter, I can wind over the intro.
My third complaint about this series is the ending. Like so many shows this one was canceled before it got time to unfold it's story. The last season ends on a cliffhanger and there was obviously intended to be more seasons following them. The miniseries Peacekeeper wars do tie up the loose ends and give the series a sort of worthy finish, however it do feel rushed and I regret that we will not get to see how the story of Farscape could have unfolded if the show had gotten a few more seasons.
All in all I love this series. It is my number one favorite science fiction series and except for a few minor grips it is perfect. If you like space opera you will like this, if you do not like space opera then you might like this anyway just for the character development and how the surviving against all odds drama that fills the majority of the series. There is also good action scenes. I hate one to five rating as it is hard to give a fair rating with it but I give Farscape five stars, if this was a one to ten rating I would give the series 9 out of ten. I really can not say anything else than this is one of the best space opera shows ever created. |
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Fantastic Sci-Fi-Series |
SciFi-series with great cast and most extravagant characters. The setup (few crew members on a big space ship) seems similar to other series like Andromeda, however acting and stories are much more imaginatve than anything I've seen before. In Farscape you get everything: various things that live in space, cloning, space disease, looney tunes, cunning villains, mean villains, stupid villains, living space ships, worm holes, vampires, an enormous lot of more things and finally Rygel XVI - Dominar of the Hynerian Empire and leader of 600 billion subjects!
The only bad thing about it: Season 5 was ready to go in production, but got stopped almost last minute - a real shame. However, you lucky guys out there, who haven't seen them yet, still have those superb 4 seasons to enjoy ahead of you. Be sure that I'm a bit jealous of that ;-)
Additionally to "the complete series" I bought The Peace Keeper Wars, which was produced later and adds a grand finale to the series. |
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Disappointing outer box |
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I haven't started watching the actual show yet. While I'm sure the video quality should be good enough (I'll append my review if needed), the outer box is enclosed on all sides. The case is flimsy enough that you'll wear it down pretty fast if you actually store the dvd cases in it. I'm excited about the show it's just clear this is a budget release. Waiting to release a sturdier slimpak version later? |
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Farscape complete series |
Incredible value for money...
Plays on all (as sold in the Netherlands) Philips DVD players, made region free with a few keystrokes. |
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Farscape: The Complete Series |
The best scifi series ever!! If you like scifi movies and series this is a must have in your collection.
I hated when this when off the air and how it was taken off the air. The scifi(sorry Syfy) channel has wrestling on it now... What world are we living in!! |
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