Re: Farscape: Why isn't it in print?
 

It took me most of the 1st season to get into it.

Re: Farscape: Why isn't it in print?
 

So far it most reminds me of new Who, which is just one of the things I feel I'd rather be watching or re-watching.

My impatience is someone else's reward. Sold my Best Buy exlusive on Amazon and made back what I spent. I'm sure I'll have moments of regret, but I'll Netflix if my curiousity remains

Re: Farscape: Why isn't it in print?
 

Glad to see you at least made your money back.

Re: Farscape: Why isn't it in print?
 

Man, that's too bad. I was so where you were when I started watching it. I could not have been happier that I stuck with it. It was one of those things where I could not believe I almost abandoned the series. Like you, I never thought it was "bad" or anything, but I just wasn't that into it.

The great thing about Farscape is there is never a "reset" button as far as the characters are concerned. There is constant growth and changes. I think the issue with the early episodes (the first time around, anyway) is you are stuck watching a group of people who don't know each other and don't like each other. Their relationships take awhile to develop which kinda mirrors the viewer's relationship to the show, IMO. All I can say is that it ends up being extremely rewarding and the time spent with those early eps isn't "lost".

Re: Farscape: Why isn't it in print?
 

I've actually liked it from the beginning. I'm sure that it will get better as well from what I've read, but I've enjoyed the first couple discs.

Re: Farscape: Why isn't it in print?
 

I don't think I would recommend Farscape as a blind buy to anyone.

It has more in common with British science fiction shows like Doctor Who and Blake's 7, where the main characters are renegades hopping from one exotic locale to another, than it does the militarized science fiction that most American audiences are accustomed to like Trek, Babylon 5, and Battlestar Galactica.

Farscape is the sort of thing that a certain subset of the science fiction fandom is going to love, and another subset is going to hate.

From what I've seen (up through part of season two), I'd rate the series somewhere between OK and GOOD. It has a lot of interesting ideas and exotic planets and aliens, but the tone tends to be a little on the "light" side with a lot of humor and winking at the audience that doesn't quite mesh with the darker themes present, and Crichton (as an audience surrogate) comes off like a fanboy in space, and I haven't warmed up to him yet.

Re: Farscape: Why isn't it in print?
 

I disagree, I don't think that had anything to do with how the DVDs ended up. The PQ problems plaguing the season 4 DVDs are the same types of problems that can be seen even on many big-budget movie DVDs; it all comes down to the choices made by whoever does the DVD mastering/encoding.

Also, if you look at the deleted scenes on the season 4 DVDs, you'll find they look much better than the actual episodes. It suggests how good the episodes could have looked if they had not been so overly processed.

Re: Farscape: Why isn't it in print?
 

It took me about 4 or 5 episodes to get hooked.

Also I have the first round of evil ADV DVDs and won't be upgrading till at least the blue ray, maybe the gen after that. I just can't justify it after spending a ludicrous amount on Farscape already.

Re: Farscape: Why isn't it in print?
 

Too bad you didn't unload those earlier (like this summer when this release was announced). Used Farscape were selling at a premium. Some people actually made money, or at least broke even with what they originally paid. And in the end, saved a bundle based on what they original paid compared to the cost of this set.

Re: Farscape: Why isn't it in print?
 

It is true, the results shown in the season 4 DVDs easily could have been a result of a bad job in the mastering/encoding process and not due to the budgetary constraints they were under. It has been a while since I've seen them, other then to recall that they weren't as good looking.

Re: Farscape: Why isn't it in print?
 

As for a Blu-ray release ever coming in the future, I wouldn't count on it. Like many shows the CGI effects apparently were added after the it was converted to video (in this case PAL). So the only options would be to try to upconvert the PAL to HD giving something a bit better then what we currently have (but not true HD), or redo all the CGI in HD and add it to an HD master.

This coming from Henson:

"Henson: You're the first person who's asked us about that. We have had inquiries, so I'll just a"nswer it honestly. There is a version of Farscape that is better resolution than what anybody in America has ever seen, because we shot on the British-Australian video format which is PAL, 625 lines of resolution. So it has better color resolution and better image resolution than American broadcast television. It's isn't high-def, though. It's 625 as opposed to 720 or 1080. So there is something better than what people have seen on TV. So it would bump up to high def and look better than a regular DVD, much better, but it wouldn't look as good as what people would think of as high def. So I'm not sure whether anybody will ever want to do it. If we were to do a Blu-ray release, which I think should happen at some point, it's never going to be high, high-def resolution. But it will be better than what people have seen on DVD. So at some point I'm sure we will revisit a Blu-ray release. I think I once budgeted it and I think it was something over $4 million a season to actually go back and upgrade the effects to high def. And that was when we still had the film in vaults. ... So maybe for the 20th anniversary? "

At $4 million a season it would have to be of Star Trek TOS following to warrant the expense to put out that kind of release.

I don't know about that. I blind bought the Farscape Starburst sets some years ago and found that I was only mildly engaged for most of the first two seasons, as I mentioned way upthread. But by the time I hit A Clockwork Nebari, toward the end of Season 2, I was hooked. It took a while for the characters and story line to engage me. Others, it appears, have had the same experience with Farscape. In that it is not so different from Babylon 5, which had an uneven first season, got better in the second, and was outstanding in the third.

Blind buys are always a gamble unless the people recommending them have similar tastes. I picked up Six Feet Under because "everyone" (it seemed) raved about it. I ended up disliking it, for reasons I won't bother to list, but slogged my way through the whole thing. I was very glad to sell my set at a profit after finishing it.

If it seems like a gamble to blind buy, there is always Netflix. But there are a whole lot of shows that take awhile to get going so sticking with it sometimes pays off. And sometimes it doesn't.

Re: Farscape: Why isn't it in print?
 

Yeah, I'd also have to disagree that Farscape kept up its "light" tone. It never loses its sense of humor and irreverence, but every single character goes through some pretty dark experiences. It's not as relentlessly grim as BSG, but Crichton as "fanboy" in season 1 is not the same man by season 4. Anyway, I don't want to spoil anything, just to agree with those saying how worthwhile it is to stick with it to the end.

Re: Farscape: Why isn't it in print?
 

For what it's worth, Farscape is actually a show where the "Best of..." collection not only made sense, but was arguably the best way to get introduced to the series. It took what amounted to the six strongest season one episodes, and presented them together. It's worth noting that the episodes selected were something like 1, 9, 15, 19, 20, and 22. A pretty good indicator of how much stronger the show got in the latter half; if you're iffy on the show after the first episode or two I'd suggest adopting the above watch-list, potentially throwing in episode 10 (I think? They've Got A Secret, in any case) since it actually reveals a point that ends up driving the final story arc of the season. Same applies to anyone who tries it out via instant watch--if you're going to give the show six or seven episodes, make it the ones above, not the first six or seven.

While I do think seasons 3 and 4 were quite a bit heavier on the drama than the first two, I also think if you get through the episode list above and aren't at least a little curious about what comes next, it's a pretty safe bet that this show likely isn't for you.

The lower-quality S1 episodes do, as has been mentioned, go better on rewatch. B5's weak first season is rewatchable largely because of how many little subtle things there wind up having Greater Meaning; Farscape's is less that and more that the characters have more depth than the early episodes let on, and it's easier to appreciate the episodic stuff when you know the characters will remain consistent throughout.

Re: Farscape: Why isn't it in print?
 

I picked this up and I'm really enjoying it. I do have a question about episode order. I happened upon IMDB's episode list and it's a different order than the order on the DVDs. So far, after 14 episodes, nothings seemed especially out of place watching them in the DVD order, but just to be safe, are there any episodes upcoming that I may need to change the order in which I watch them?

BTW, I'm watching this for the first time after only seeing a small handful of episodes years ago, and it's interesting because I just played Uncharted 2 and Dragon Age: Origins and I keep thinking "Wow, Aeryn Sun sounds just like Morrigan (or Chloe)". [Claudia Black did the voice of both of those video game characters]

Re: Farscape: Why isn't it in print?
 

In the first season they filmed a few eps at the same time, so the production order differed somewhat from the showing order. As far as I know, the ensuing confusion only affected the first few (7?) or so eps, which were sometimes aired out of sequence. The proper viewing order is the one on the DVDs.

Episode 15 and onward is where things really pick up. Enjoy!

ETA: Claudia Black has a great voice. I'd advise the commentaries, but some are a bit spoilery for newbies.

Re: Farscape: Why isn't it in print?
 

Thanks. I figured the DVD order would be the correct one, but had to ask.

I just watched 15 today and enjoyed it, and enjoyed the new cast member. I've been avoiding all extras so far. There's one extra on the first disc that said it included spoilers for the entire series, so I'm avoiding them all for now just to be safe. Hopefully I'll find the time to return to the commentaries eventually.

BTW, a question on episode 16 "A Human Reaction"

Re: Farscape: Why isn't it in print?
 

Re: Farscape: Why isn't it in print?
 

I have to wait until Christmas Eve to get this set which I have been waiting years for.

At least there's netflix.

What's everyone's opinion on the Peacekeeper Wars mini series? I remember not liking it too much when it first aired.

Re: Farscape: Why isn't it in print?
 

Though I don't feel that it lived up to the show's heights, it certainly wasn't bad in any way, and I would say that it was a fair representation of the show giving it a satisfying conclusion.

It's only real downside was that it did feel like an entire 22-episode season compressed into 4 episodes.

Re: Farscape: Why isn't it in print?
 

I'm as big of a Farscape fan as it gets, & I hated P-wars, I though it was an awful way to end the series. It ultimately felt pointless, & the characters never really interacted with each other, which was the basis of the series.

Re: Farscape: Why isn't it in print?
 

It's really hard to watch PKW and not think "damn you Sci-Fi". Like Slop said, it's an entire (previously promised) season's worth of plot elements and character development stuffed into 3 hours, but with a pretty huge budget, so maybe too much temptation to highlight the cgi whiz-bang.

That said, I'd far rather have it as a series wrap-up than nothing at all.

Re: Farscape: Why isn't it in print?
 

When SciFi aired the first season, they mucked with the order so the weaker episodes came later in the season. This didn't create any major continuity issues, but it made the character arcs hard to follow since, instead of seeing the crew slowly build camaraderie, their level of trust for one another fluctuated each week.. The biggest change was with I, E.T. which went from the second episode to the seventh. As the second episode it makes sense since they're still getting to know one another, but as seventh it seemed really out of place.

Another major change came with the second season premiere. I don't want to give any spoilers, but let's just say the first season ends with the crew getting split up, with one group left in mortal peril. The producers wanted to screw with the audience by making the season premiere about the other half of the crew, but the SciFi Channel said, "No, no, no, no. We don't want a million angry emails. Resolves the cliffhanger in the season premiere." So the original premiere got the Menagerie treatment, being moved later in the season and reworked as a flashback episode.