I love a good Sci-fi show as much as the next guy. Well, unless the next guy happens to go to 30 conventions a month in order to plunk down $20 for an autograph of his favorite star or stars from days gone by. When I get into a series, generally that’s limited to simply watching it and telling everyone else they should watch it, too. Over the last couple of years I’ve gotten to ramble on a bit about some of my favorites. I’ve waxed rhapsodic about whole seasons of “Babylon 5” and “Stargate SG-1”, and even some of the various ‘Trek’ series have fallen beneath my pen (keyboard?). But there have been a few series that still elude me, generally because of the earlier lack of cable in my home. Most of the ones I’m most curious about are already into multiple seasons and I hate coming in at the middle. Of course, the one I’ve most been interested in seeing had unfortunately been cancelled. The series… “Farscape.” Ever since “Farscape” premiered on the Sci-Fi Channel back in 1999, it’s been at the top of my list of series I most wanted to see.

I just kept hearing over and over again what a terrific show is was, and the fact that Henson Studios had a hand in it was enough to pique my interest. Actually Jim Henson was my hero growing up, so it was driving me nuts that I couldn’t find the opportunity to watch it. Generally anything coming out of the ‘house that Jim built’ has that immediate stamp of quality. But again, I didn’t have cable at the time and didn’t want to bug my friends to tape it. Since it had been unceremoniously cancelled, I could only look to DVD to quell my curiosity.

I finally had the opportunity to watch the entire 1st season set of “Farscape” last year and I’m pleased to say that if curiosity killed this cat, satisfaction most certainly brought him back. My wife and I zipped through the 1st season in a week’s time and decided by the season finale that we had just bore witness to one of the greatest sci-fi shows ever created. We had to have more, but while we were able to secure this set to review, subsequent season DVD sets were not forthcoming. If we wanted to watch the last 3 seasons, we were going to have to shell out some serious dough.

I don’t know if this will give you any idea of how highly I regard “Farscape”, but this is the first series that I have ever even considered buying. This isn’t to say there aren’t other shows out there worthy of purchasing, but sometimes the cost is just out of my acceptable price range. The “Farscape” sets are amongst the most expensive available, and yet I went ahead and bought 3 full seasons. It took me about 4 months to decide to take the plunge, but after watching the entire series, have not regretted our purchase one bit.

Just in case you’re one of the poor unfortunates who, like me, had never seen the show, the premise is as follows. The series starts out with an astronaut by the name of John Crichton (Ben Browder), who attempts to prove the possibility of interstellar travel by ‘bouncing’ a ship off of Earth’s atmosphere. Theoretically, the ship should be able to use this extra push to give it the propulsion necessary to go ‘where no man has gone before’ (to borrow a phrase). Fortunately, Crichton is correct. Unfortunately, he is unable to tell anyone because his ship is flung through a wormhole to some distant part of the universe. He ends up smack dab in the middle of a firefight between escaping fugitives and those we come to know as ‘Peacekeepers.’

Of course, Crichton has no idea what’s going on and is pulled into the escaping ship moments after another smaller ship bounces off of his and explodes against some floating debris (more on this little plot point later). Once inside he sees the fugitives in question, D’Argo (Anthony Simcoe), Zhann (Virginia Hey) and Rygel (Jonathon Hardy). The ship they are aboard uses a faster-than-light drive, known as a Starburst (no, not the fruit chew) to make their escape. The ship however wasn’t quite ready for the Starburst so they in turn end up a bit lost. To make matters worse it turns out that they dragged along a Peacekeeper ship piloted by Aeryn Sun (Claudia Black).

As events continue to unfold, all of the fugitives find themselves on the run from the Peacekeepers, while Crichton is on the run from a Peacekeeper by the name of Crais (Lani Tupu) whose brother happened to be in the ship that exploded. Added to their group is Aeryn Sun, who reluctantly joins them after being deemed ‘contaminated’ by her exposure to Crichton. We also learn that the ship they are on, known as Moya, is no ordinary ship. She is a Leviathon… a living ship.

As the series continued over the full 4 seasons, characters came and went, but the arc of the series hardly changed. We learn that Crichton has a lot more knowledge of the Wormhole technology in his head than even he realized. It was put there by an advanced race of aliens, and everyone and their brother wanted a piece of it. There seemed to be no end in sight for the crew of the Moya, as they endured extreme torture and heartbreaking loss in order to protect the technology as well as their lives. Over time, we are introduced to the Scarrans who, like the Peacekeepers, want to rule everything. As the final season played out, the grudge between the two races turned into an all out war, with our heroes caught smack dab in the middle.

Yet, for all the action and special effects, it was the smaller storyline that was always at the forefront of the series… the relationship between Crichton and Aeryn. The two went through all of the rollercoaster of emotions that you would find in a normal relationship, but thanks to the amazingly creative writing, they also endured situations that were tragic beyond words. For me personally, I don’t think there has ever been another TV series couple that I wanted to see live ‘happily ever after’ than Crichton and Aeryn.

So when I saw the final episode of the 4th season, I sat stunned and honestly depressed that there was to be no more. It was bad enough that it ended on a cliffhanger (it was shot before the creative team knew it was going to be cancelled), but it was a cliffhanger than took the knowledge of the character’s love for each other and Aeryn’s pregnancy and (quite literally) blasted it into a million pieces.

Thankfully, I wasn’t the only one who thought the ‘powers that be’ were idiots for canceling the series at the height of its popularity. There were also thousands of fans around the world who weren’t willing to sit back and say, “Well… okay…” There were letter writing campaigns, some paid for magazine ads, others went so far as to create TV spots and purchase air time, and on and on it went. There was so much hoopla, that someone actually took notice.

Realizing that the idea of bringing “Farscape” back as a weekly series wasn’t going to happen, there was at least the chance that the studio could create a mini-series TV event that would finally bring closure to the story. The result was “Farscape: The Peacekeeper Wars.”

Directed by Brian Henson (of the Jim Henson studios), “Farscape: The Peacekeeper Wars” aired over two nights towards the end of last year. Again, it wasn’t a weekly series, but it was as close to what the fans wanted as they were going to get. Having become a rabid fan, I was going to watch it when it aired, but chose not to. I knew there was going to be a DVD release (hopefully sooner than later), so I opted to wait. That way I wouldn’t have to surf through commercials, or see those horribly annoying scroll advertisements that all the networks are playing over their shows. (Someone really needs to be hung for coming up with that idea).

I was right to wait. This month marks the release of Lions Gate’s DVD release of “Farscape: The Peacekeeper Wars” in a glorious 2-disc set. My wife and I set aside a night, turned off the ringer on our phone and sat down to see if this mini-series would deliver. It did. In spades. It was “Farscape” on a grand scale. The war between the Peacekeepers and the Scarrans was in full swing, and the special effects budget appeared to be in overdrive. The situation that happened in the 4th season finale was resolved in a manner that was truly Farscapian, and totally satisfying.

For spoiler’s sake I don’t want to get too much into the story and resolution, but suffice to say it amounted to being one of the BEST ‘episodes’ of “Farscape” ever produced and it tied up every loose end that had been dangling since the cancellation. If I hadn’t mentioned before, “Farscape” was always as much an emotionally charged series as it was a special effects one. The latter half of 3-hour event left my wife and I in tears (yes… I am a wimp…) because of the directions the story went. It’s hard to explain all the feelings we had as the movie finished up, but I guess the best one to sum everything up was that we were fulfilled. The story that had begun back in 1999 had come to a close, with no loose ends and no questions as to the future of the characters. We sat there drained, stunned and content.

But that was not to be it as far as the studio was concerned. The DVD sets had a second disc, so after a cooling off period, we put it in to see what it held. There we found a 30 minute “Making of…” featurette that went into great detail on how the movie was created, as well as offering all of the actors and creative team the opportunity to talk a bit about how much the show meant to them (beyond just a paycheck). It opened with a look at the cast and crew as they heard the announcement about the cancellation and ended on the note that there is still the slight chance we might see “Farscape” again, perhaps even on the big screen. (Let’s hope…) There are also some galleries with pictures of props and some of the ships, as well as some storyboard footage.

While I may never forgive the Sci-Fi channel for canceling “Farscape”, I am at least thankful that the cast, crew and fans were given the opportunity to finish up the story. This new DVD of “Farscape: The Peacekeeper Wars” is a very welcome addition to our collection, and one that I would recommend to everyone who has even a passing interest in sci-fi. (Though I would also highly recommend watching the 4-season run of the series first, if you can…)

On a side note that brought a bit of cheer to our household, Ben Browder has recently been cast as one of the new lead characters for the upcoming 9th season of “Stargate SG-1” (another fave show of ours). Richard Dean Anderson is going to be in fewer episodes (in order to spend more time with his family) and Browder is going to step up to the plate. He is a perfect choice, especially if his new character is a much of a wise-cracker as Crichton was. Even better news is that Claudia Black is going to be introduced as an alien character in the 8th season, and there is a strong chance the two actors will be reunited in the new season. I read an interview with Browder that gave me even more hope that we will see “Farscape” again in some form. He said that he hopes to use the attention he will get as an actor by joining such a high profile show in such a way that his cast mates from “Farscape” will benefit as well.

Directed by: Brian Henson
Starring: Ben Browder, Claudia Black, Anthony Simcoe, Gigi Edgely, Wayne Pygram
Extras: The Making of “The Peacekeeper Wars”, Interactive Conceptual Art Gallery, Production Storyboards, Spacecraft Gallery
Specifications: Widescreen, Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound, 2.0 Dolby Stereo Surround
Studio: Lions Gate
Release Date: 1/18/2005
Region 1
MPAA Rating: NR
Website

We'll give Farscape: The Peacekeeper Wars an A+.