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Farscape: Collection 3.2

Sci/Fi Channel execs must sure feel dumb. A few months back they cancel their brilliant flagship show, Farscape, for bogus reasons; fast-forward to May 20, 2003; Farscape has just won its THIRD consecutive Saturn Award for Best Cable/Syndicated Series and DVD volume 3.2 is released. Of course I am an unspoilery reviewer so all I can say is that the Season three episodes are consistently better than any other show on TV today (or any day). ADV has done it again with supreme sound and video quality, as well as some great extras…

This DVD gets 5 out of 5 across the board from this Scaper!Disc 1 ...DIFFERENT DESTINATIONS While at a Peacekeeper memorial, Crichton and the crew are pulled back in time into a great siege between Peacekeepers and the Venek Horde. As they try to stay alive and get back to their own time, they realize that every action changes the course of history -- with devastating effects on the future. EAT ME Their Transport Pod damaged, Crichton, Chiana, D'Argo and Jool are forced to land on an old, diseased Leviathan in a Peacekeeper Control Collar. Their fears of running into Peacekeepers are soon replaced by terrifyingly real foes: mutant scavengers...and Kaarvok, a madman with a horrific taste for brain matter.

Disc 2 THANKS FOR SHARING Crichton has been duplicated into two identical Crichtons. Moya's crew, trying to buy a healing agent for the injured gunship Talyn, become embroiled in a planet's deadly politics. Meanwhile, Aeryn discovers that her own mother is leading the Peacekeeper Retrieval Squad sent to recapture Talyn.

GREEN EYED MONSTER When Talyn is swallowed by a giant Budong, Crais's neural connection to Talyn malfunctions, and he asks Aeryn to help him control the hybrid gunship. Warily avoiding the Budong in a Transport Pod, Stark and Rygel come up with a way for Talyn to escape, but Crichton's jealousy complicates the plan... Includes commentary track with Ben Browder.

LOSING TIME After passing through a magnetic cluster, the crew experiences blackouts and periods of lost time. They discover that Pilot has been possessed by a strange being. The being inside Pilot warns our crew that an evil "Energy Rider" inhabits one of them, and if that person isn't found -- and the Rider extracted -- the crew will all die.

ADV Films has done a great job with all their TV releases. The image on all their FARSCAPE releases has been phenomenal. Colors are rich, contrast is dead-on, no pixelization or any artifacting. A very few darker scenes have some noise, but I don't think it's the fault of the transfer. Many people have been complaining that these releases have been in full frame (Sci-Fi aired season 4 in Anamorphic Widescreen)… But, I personally emailed ADV Films about this and their reply was, "Farscape was not filmed in widescreen until Season 4, therefore in order to continue our practice of maintaining the original aspect ratio, Season 4 DVD releases will be in Anamorphic Widescreen." So there you have it from the horses mouth, this release is in its original aspect ratio.

ADV's Dolby Digital 5.1 tracks are among the best TV tracks I've ever heard. Unlike the Trek audio transfers, which seem to focus on ambience, ADV audio tracks are homogenous in quality… every scene has been transferred with the greatest care. I challenge anyone to find fault in this audio track.

ADV has been consistent since the Season 1 DVDs with includeing some decent extras. But, these Season 3 releases appear to contain a few more than past Season releases. First, ADV appears to consistently be including audio commentaries on each release. Second, each Season 3 release contains multiple interviews and deleted scenes.

A cool addition to these releases is the "Cool Farscape Facts" which is a slideshow with interesting behind the scenes trivia facts. These facts vary in tone. The "Alien Encounters" details each species encountered… good for those like myself who really keep track of this awesome Farscape universe. There are also set/prop gallery slideshows that navigate themselves and are accompanied by some of Guy Gross' excellent scoring.

Also new to Season 3, are the original Sci-Fi channel Farscape trailers. Some of you may remember these, they're the trailer that end with, "I am Sci-Fi." Cool trailers, but they sure make me miss the good old days of the Sci-Fi channel. The days of Farscape, Lexx and the Invisible Man. Now Sci-Fi, only plays bottom-line programming…

I wish ADV would stop bothering with these 2 disc at a time releases and start doing whole seasons (I know many people refuse to buy any TV DVDs unless they are Complete Seasons), but these are so well done I don't mind buying them this way. Plus I love Farscape that much!

Note to TV Execs: Bring back FARSCAPE now!!!!