Customer Reviews

Farscape - Season 1, Collection 2 (Starburst Edition)

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

As my review for the Starburst Edition Vol. 1 said, this is just fantastic how ADV Films is now releasing the Farscape DVDs. Capitalizing on the tele-broadcast of the Peacekeeper Wars, ADV decided that for stores that can only afford to keep newer titles on the sale racks, the best way to get new fans into Farscape (now that the Season 4 cliff-hanger has been adequately resolved) is to re-release the series in an easily affordable format. Instead of the rather expensive method the last time, $30-40 for 4-5 episodes, ADV is releasing 7-8 episodes for half that! Amazing deal for those who passed on the initial releases. Not only that, these new Starburst Editions come with new extras that have been updated to contain relevant info from the entire series, including the Peacekeeper Wars mini-series. Plus you get audio commentaries on just about every episode. On the first volume, you got 6 commentaries out of the 7 episodes. Pretty good deal, eh?

I was one of those who did pass on the first releases because I didn't like the way the first season was released. 11 single-wide* volumes of just 2 episodes each? BAD DEAL! Now way was I going to buy this series like that. Fortunately, for Season 2, they went the Andromeda route and did 5 double-wide** 2-disc volumes with 4-5 episodes each. Not bad, but still cumbersome for an entire season. But now with the Starburst Edition, you get 7-8 episodes in a single-wide 2-disc set. This is good for two reasons. Less volumes to buy per season and overall, and less space. Instead of 11 volumes plus 15 double-width cases, you can get the entire series on 12 single-wide volumes. So you can see, you will save a ton of shelf space. Then of course, if you buy the Peacekeepr Wars disc, that'll makew it 13 in total. Still a whole lot better than the original way. And if you're like me and constantly running out of room for your DVDs, this is great.

But anyway, about my experience with the show itself.... When Farscape first started back in 1999, I made an effort to watch. However, due to real-life circumstances, I couldn't catch it religiously. So I missed out on it and it finally got to a point where I just didn't even bother to watch it. Well, when the first Farscape DVDs hit the market, I kind of expressed some interest in getting them. But when I saw how they were releasing them at first as stated above, I said, "Screw that, I ain't buyin' them that way." It was a shame too, because despite having some misgivings about the Jim Henson Creature Shop effects in the series, I always like good sci-fi. And after seeing numerous trailers about Farscape on other ADV releases, I have decided that with these Starburst Edition releases and now that the series has adequately finished up with the Peacekeeper Wars, that I will dive into this series head first. After viewing the first volume, I can't wait for subsequent releases.

Great picture quality and an unbelievably emmersive 5.1 soundtrack. Watch "PK Tech Girl" to hear what I mean. Shame the Trek releases weren't this good in the sound department.

Like I said above, because I haven't really seen much of this series past the first third of Season 1, I can't really comment on the greatness this show became. It's a shame too, because I can't wait to collect and experience the entire show.

So if you want some great Sci-Fi at a cheap and affordable price, don't hesitate to buy Farscape: The Starburst Editions. Oh, by the way, the little extra "cool factoids" about the series in the DVD extras, are quite informative and interesting. Interesting trvia about the show. Good stuff.

Like many fans of FARSCAPE, I've only now started turning in my old recordings of the show for DVDs now that we are finally getting acceptably priced copies of the show. Although there have been other TV series that have appeared in overpriced editions-THE X-FILES springs to mind-FARSCAPE was the only one in its original edition that could be said to be prohibitively so. I'm not sure about other fans, but there was simply no way that I was able or willing to pay for a set that listed for well over a hundred dollars. One could make some complaints about the new Starburst edition-for instance, I'm still not clear on why they have to dribble these out two discs at a time, instead of releasing an entire season at once-but two things one cannot carp about: the cost and the number of extras. As to the former, I've been about to find each disc in the Starburst so far from various resellers listed on Amazon for no more than $16 apiece. As to the latter, each of the three sets making up each season is stuffed with a variety of special features. Some of the special features feel a bit like filler, but a number are substantive. Three of the seven episode feature commentaries and there are video profiles of Virginia Hey (who gets my vote for the most beautiful fifty-year-old woman in the world), Anthony Simcoe, and Rygel and his team of puppeteers.

Although I love every season of FARSCAPE, the series completely matured, I believe, in the final third of the first season, with the addition of Chiana and Scorpius to the cast. Both of those characters changed the chemistry of the show dramatically and took it in entirely new directions. The episodes in this set, therefore, are the last in what one could call the early days of the show, the last ones featuring the original core crewmembers. To a degree that surpasses the episodes on the first Season One set, Moya's crew become more and more a team, committed to helping one another and bonding to form a genuine team. "That Old Black Magic" therefore shows Zhaan revisiting her dark pages in order to help John escape the clutches of the remarkable villain Maldis, a sorcerer of sorts who acts as a vampire on people's fear and anger. It is also the episode where the foundation for the eventual humanizing (sebaceaninzing?) of Crais, as he and John are summoned by Maldis to struggle against one another. Yet the guys immediately regress to every-man-for-himself in "DNA Mad Scientist," in which Zhaan, Rygel, and D'Argo struggle to find a route back to their home worlds, while Aeryn is the object of a devious genetic experiment. The scene in which the three mentioned above remove one of Pilot's arms is one of the more disturbing moments in all of FARSCAPE. The episode also features one of the more compelling aliens in the title character, a strange creature who walks on goat like legs. Yet the next several episodes find them thrown closer together both by circumstances and by inclination, as they discover not only that they need each other but that they have come to know each other in ways they hadn't before, even to the extent of learning some of the secrets that they carry with them. In particular, we learn a great deal about Zhaan and D'Argo, of her violent past and her efforts to overcome her own propensity to violence by becoming a priest and his marriage to a Sebacean, her murder, and the child they had together.

Fans of the two BABE films unquestionably recall Mrs. Hoggett, played by the remarkable comedienne and actress Magda Szubanski. She appears as a guest star in "Till the Blood Runs Clear" as a mechanic on a planet that could come straight from DUNE, albeit she is almost unrecognizable in her baggy overalls and make up. I have, in fact, shown this episode to two other people who know BABE, and neither recognized her at all. This episode is followed by the very fine "The Flax," in which John and Aeryn get stuck in an invisible outer space net in one of Moya's transports. The highpoint--and the moment that confirmed what we knew all along: John and Aeryn have the hots for one another-is unquestionably John and Aeryn, convinced that they are about to die, showing what they would do if they knew they had only a few minutes left to live. D'Argo interrupts them just before things get too far along and although they later claim that their moment of passion was either the heat of the moment or a lack of oxygen, no one can doubt that this would be their last such moment.

All in all, these are another strong group of episodes in one of the most innovative series to appear on TV in recent decades. But as strong as these episodes are, the ones that come immediately in their wake are even better.

I love the fact that these are being re-released in more "compact" volumes. A certain mall retailer broke the street date on this item. Both collection 1 and 2 are both excellent! The extras on them are spectacular. Quite a few interviews and character bios.

The only downside I had with them were that instead of putting 3 or 4 episodes on a single sided disc, they put 2 episodes per side. So it's a little annoying flipping discs over. But, it's a small price to pay for the excellent extras and the lower price than the original releases.

Additional information on this set: As with the first "Starburst Edition" set, this will have 7 episodes with extras, leaving eight episodes for Season 1 Set 3. Officially this is set 2 of 12, meaning the entire four-season series will be released 3 sets per season.

I had not purchased this series (opting instead to rent it...) because of the high price and MASSIVE packaging of the original release. These new releases are very nicely done, however, and it looks as though I'll be picking them up as they come out.

Outstanding that ADV chose to rerelease these so quickly when they realized what huge demand there was. Kudos the the folks who are putting these together.

8-episodes, 4-Discs, audio commentaries, lot's of extras. I think I'm one of the few people who enjoyed the episode "Jeremiah Crichton", so the audio-commentary on it was great!! The narrators included the producers w/ Claudia Black and Ben Browder. I'm looking forward to buying the next "Starburst Edition-Collections." Stay away from the previous dvd offerings, "Starburst" is the way to go!!!

I started watching Farscape in Season 3. I watched all episodes and reruns I could get my hands on. I think they were INSANE to drop it from television.

I eventually bought the entire collection at once.

The only reason I gave this a 4 out of 5 stars, is because of the quality of the DVD. The inner clips of the box break very easily. The DVD always defaults back to subtitles between episodes, which is really annoying.

Even with the problems of the DVD, I love this set.

I was unsure if I wanted to spend money to purchase the Farscape Season 1 (Starburst editions)when many of the reviews claimed to have problems viewing the disks...or that the disks were of poor quality. I haven't had ANY problems with my disks. I'm glad I took the chance. My family and I LOVE Farscape and are very happy with our purchase!!

This show just keeps getting better and better. Great characters and great plotlines. I only wish it were still on tv now. One of the most original and entertaining shows ever created.

Okay, I rarely review products unless there is something wrong with them, but I can see I'm going to have to take it upon myself to address this bad disc issue. I own all the Starburst Editions season 1 through the current releases. Yes ADV did a poor job manufacturing these discs. I can see the defects in waves beneath the suface on some discs and what looks like glue on the suface of others, but the thing is ever disc I own plays perfectly. Well there is one disc that stops after the "Prepare for immediate starbust" clip, but it works fine if I just hit the menu button before that. These double sided discs may have trouble playing on older players or cheap non-brand name players, but I have tested them on 6 players, PSTwo's, and PC/Mac drives in my home and they all work.
For those of you still not satisfied though ADV has replaced these with the same single sided discs in thicker boxes as the ones they started using in season 3. I know this because Season 1 Collection 2 was the only hole in my collection. I had it on backorder at both Amazon and CdUniverse for nearly a month. CdUniverse finally came through a few weeks ago with this volume's re-issued discs. If any of the volumes are on backorder from before season 3 just wait before you cancel your order and try to get them somewhere else. This means in all likelihood they are waiting on the fixed re-issue discs.

This reveiw is more about the quality issues with the disc more so than the content of the disc. For the record ADV has added a lot of extras that is not anywhere else. Albeit many are repeated multible times on different disc of this STARBURST series release that could have been better used reducing the compression ratio. As for the quality issues, these are recorded on dual layer double sided disc and as of this writing I have had to send 3 of the 6 currently released back to be exchanged due to skipping, frame freeze, audio cracking etc. The disc were checked on 3 players and a computer and did the same on all of them. So the issue is with the quality or the lack thereof. I have contacted ADV about the quality issues and they have more the most part said ... 'Oh well.' The more pricey collection did not have these issues, but lacked many of the extras and you get what you pay for. Granted to be fair when the disc work, the video and audio quality is fine, but it is annoying to get to the middle of a show and the disc freezes up and up have to skip over 10 or more minutes to get it to play. ADV simply tried to squeeze to much into to small of a space. This collection really should have been put on 4 disc instead of 2. They did not include scene selection either, you can only choose which episode you want to see then fast forward through the tracks after that. As I said I love the show and it is a healthy 5 but this release's quality is a sickly zero.