Customer Reviews

Farscape - Season 3, Collection 3 (Starburst Edition)

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Warning: Spoilers

Actually, the spoiler alert was fairly needless since the official editorial review provides some pretty major spoilers without a warning. But I believe in following protocol.

For me, this set is where all the great things that happened in the first three seasons of FARSCAPE paid off. I know of no more poignant, painful, and heartbreaking episodes in all of TV history. The closest I can come is perhaps the great final episode of Season Two of BUFFY where Buffy is forced to kill Angel after he regains his soul. In the 3.1 set we saw John Crichton cloned into a copy so perfect that not even the most stringent testing will reveal who is the original. The 3.2 set collecting the central set up episodes saw the consummation of the love between one of the two Johns and Aeryn and then the death of that John. Meanwhile, the other John has been anxiously awaiting the return of Aeryn. This final set deals with Aeryn's struggle to overcome her grief over the death of the one John and her hesitation to become involved with the other, for a host of powerful reasons. One sympathizes with both John and Aeryn, John because she really has fallen in love with him and expressed her love for him, but with a different copy of himself. Aeryn, on the other hand, has to contend with a situation that no other lover in history has had to contend, the simultaneous death and survivor of the man she loves.

In the final episodes of the 3.2 set, John was able to unlock the wormhole technology hidden in his head and is able via videotape to communicate to the other John the importance of this fact. The final episodes of the season deal with John's realization that he has to take the offensive to Scorpius. These are some great episodes filled with wonderful details. The scenes in which Aeryn has to struggle with her return to a Peacekeeper base are affecting, as is Crais's return. One of the great visual images in a very visual series occurs when Scorpius, his world in ruin, slowly descends a staircase as he contemplates the enormity of the devastation that John and his friends have wrought.

But in the long saga of the love between John and Aeryn, few are as moving as the final episode. For several episodes they have not had to deal with their situation or confront what had happened with the other John. Now, however, all changes. In perhaps their greatest scene together, John does his best to persuade Aeryn to not give up on their love, while she remains determined to leave. Finally, they agree to flip a coin, and though at the moment it appears that she won, as she puts it in Season Four, they both lost. An Old Woman who has mysteriously appeared on Moya (she returns as a regular in Season Four and gains a name) and who possesses remarkable medicinal powers informs that Aeryn is pregnant. In another of the great images that FARSCAPE seemed to create so effortlessly we see John in his space module outside Moya staring determinedly straight ahead, Aeryn in her prowler to John's left gazing at him, trying to get him to acknowledge her before she leaves. We don't see her leave as much as just fade out of focus. And thus ends one of the great romantic arcs in the history of television.

This bears repeating. Forget that this is Sci-fi rather than drama or comedy or whatever. I honestly believe the romantic tensions between John and Aeryn in Season Three represents the most outstanding romantic arc in the history of television. Television is littered with dozens of great romantic couples, and even when they don't end up with each other at the end of a series, there is a sense that they were meant for each other. Most of these romances proceed in ways that seem obvious as they are happening. We might be surprised, but rather are we stunned. There is almost nothing that happens between John and Aeryn that happens by any book that has ever been written in the history of the medium. Their romance simply has no other parallels, no analogs. Even now, after having watched these episodes several times, I remain in awe of how brilliantly conceived this season was. Season Four would also be a great season on more than one level, but neither as a whole nor as a romance could it match Season Three.

I have told numerous friends that they need to watch FARSCAPE for two reasons: first, it is just a great series as a whole, but second, they need to watch it if for no other reason than to get to Season Three. I honestly believe that this is the single finest season of any Sci-fi series ever made, and it all comes to fruition in the marvelous episodes in this particular set.

Finally, I can give this series 5 stars. As with many other people, the first 6 collections were very problematic, freezing, skipping, popping or just flat out not playing. While some die hard fans mark my reviews unhelpful as I report the disc quality and not the quality of the show! (I figure you know what you are buying! and would better like to know the quality of what you are getting.) The series is a solid 5 in my book, and has always been so, but not the first 6 collections due to the double sided, dual layer format that caused so many to be returned, as with other folks here I too had to return 4 of the 6 before I was able to get a collection that would play properly. WITH THIS COLLECTION ... ADV finally saw the light! They released the collection on single sided disc, and while I'm not happy with ADV as I asked if there was a problem with them long, long ago and they just acted as if it was the first time they heard anything. I had to contact them as I was having trouble getting a RMA AGIAN for a bad disc, by correcting the release and putting them on 4 disc instead of 2 they have all but admitted there was in fact a PROBLEM! Even though they would not admit it months ago. I even have an email from them stating there was no plan to release them on 4 disc! I guess they got as tired of complaints as buys got of returning them. The single sided collection is far better than the prior as you would think in quality, no skipping, no popping, no freezing, nothing but good solid Farscape fun and entertainment, without having to try and skip over bad spots or fiddle with to get it to play.
We can only hope that ADV will offer a trade in offer on those releases already out to upgrade to the problem free collection. Sure it will cost them money, but it cost those of us with bad disc time and money to find one(s) that worked. (A 80 mile roundtrip drive for me in rural Kentucky) The very least they could do is to offer a replacement collection at cost for the first 6 collections. As of this writing I do not know if they plan to release the first 6 collections (2 seasons) on single sided disc or not, however a wise company would. My guess is you will find a lot of 2 disc collections on eBay if they do. Again a great series finally on enough disc to justify buying it. Plenty of extras over the boxset releases, albeit again many are repeated from disc to disc and collection to collection, overall good video and audio quality for hours of viewing. Well worth adding to your collection for those Farscape fans, just hope the first 6 releases are corrected and re-issued.

It is my belief that one of the largest blunders from the Sci-Fi channel was to cancel Farscape. I thought it was an excellent series. Although many people were turned off by the modest use of muppets for some of the aliens, it was my opinion that allowed for a wide array of alien life.
Season 3 is a tough season to start with. I would highly suggest starting from Season 1 to get familiar with the characters, but by the time this series hits season 3, this train will be moving! Farscape - Season 1, Collection 1 (Starburst Edition)

I highly recommend Farscape if you enjoy a non-run-of-the-mill science fiction, space tv series.

This show was one of the best science fiction shows around. Third season was even better than the first two.
Wish it was never cancelled.

The history of the three seasons, all the character development, and plots comes all together in one big explosive climax in the last few episodes. Crichton goes for an end-game - he wants Scorpius off his back. Can he trust Crais to help him when he can't even trust some members of his own crew? I liked the development of the characters in the final moments and also did enjoy seeing life on a Command Carrier. We do get a lot of insight into the characters while expanding the universe of Farscape. But the ending's cliffhanger is a tad too much, for me anyway, which is why I took a point away

Farscape was Americas and Australia's version of DR. Who. It has great characters wonderfully acted by Ben Browder, Claudia Black, Gigi Edgely and many others. Jim Henson produced the series and his hand was very evident by the character of Domina Ridgel who looked like an overgrown snail who was a de-throned ruler of billions of his kind. True to form he was ruthless and a thief but still had a few good traits on occasion. It was that rare SCI-FI show that didn't loose itself in special effects. Instead it had great acting and stories. Watch one or two shows and you cared about John, Aeryn and the others. I found buying the Starburst set cheaper than the boxed set. It was a shock that the series was cancelled after 4 seasons but they did wind up the series in a classy way with a movie.

I thought this show portrayed one of the most realistic views of a universe far from our own, and how a guy surprisedly stranded there would behave. This is not the utopia of Star Trek, where we humans are always good and everyone else ends up being so impressed by us in the end. These creatures have seen lots of different sentient beings, and we are just one of them. In fact, we are evolutionarily far behind most of them, and the human is at best tolerated, and at worst, teased for his cluelessness. The only reason anyone chases him is because a more advanced being put knowledge in his head that has worth, and he accidentally killed the brother of an important official. Our space hubris was put aside in this show, making it so much more touching and amusing. I had no problem playing any of the discs.

Farscape is tied with Red Dwarf and the Stargates as one of my favorite shows of all time. I love the starburst editions for their price and the considerably smaller shelf space compared to the previous release of Farscape on DVD. My one complaint is the cases are crap. Most of the cases for the starburst collection have 1-3 disc hubs broken. I forget where but I eventually found the case manufacturer and was able to order repacements. The replacements were the exact size but the disc hubs had been greatly improved.

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.

Farscape is a unique and highly entertaining show. The drama in Season 3, Collection 3 is at its most intense and hard to beat. A must have for fans of the show.