He was smart athletic clean-cut conscientious - the ideal soldier in fact. What the US military did not know when they accepted him at one of their top training academies was that he was also a murderer completely in thrall to his controlling and possessive fiance Diane Zamora.
It's clear right from the opening episodes of its third series that Farscape has finally developed into a grown-up show. There's a new self-confidence and a new maturity here that's entirely welcome after the often wildly erratic tone of the second series. The production design and high-quality effects work remain true to the show's original quirky style, although both the look and the more adult-themed scripts have become progressively darker. Season 3 is the year when the Wormhole story arc takes precedence, as the interactions between John Crichton and his nemesis Scorpius become ever more complicated (involving various different clones, real or "neural", of both antagonists). It's also the year that some major characters die, new ones are introduced and Crichton (well, one version of him anyway) and Aeryn finally consummate their relationship. Moya's crew endure a vertiginous emotional roller-coaster ride when powerful issues of love, loyalty and sacrifice loom large. They must also face their sternest challenge yet as the series' biggest story arc reaches an explosive climax aboard Scorpius' Command Carrier. Anyone who has not followed Farscape extremely closely from the very beginning of Series 1 will be utterly baffled by the convoluted plotting and complex character interactions. But for fans, this is the show's most rewarding year. --Mark Walker
Traditionalists were of course scandalised enough when the stop-motion animated Noddy TV series featured regional accents and (gasp) positive black characters. God only knows what they'll make of this. Try to keep up: what you have here is an Anglo-American co-production in which stories from the stop-motion series are sandwiched between frantic scenarios featuring live-action children and adult characters and puppets--a kind of Sesame Street in total overdrive. This, of course, seems hopelessly incongruous to everyone except the show's intended audience, which simply takes the whole thing in its stride. Individually, the two elements are commendable anyway; the first live-action episode--involving a parrot and an unstoppable vacuum cleaner--is a particularly fine piece of slapstick, while the original stop-motion stories are as gently rewarding as ever. This DVD is guaranteed to meet with approval from the jingly-hatted one's many young fans. --Roger Thomas
An international co-production of Jim Henson's Creature Shop, Australia's Channel 9 and Hallmark Entertainment, Farscape is genre television at its most ambitious, inspired both by the cult appeal of Babylon 5 and the continuing success of the Star Trek franchise. Making extensive use of CGI, prosthetics and state-of-the-art puppetry, Farscape takes a visual leap beyond previous shows. Admittedly, the basic premise may be borrowed from Buck Rogers (American astronaut catapulted to far-flung galaxy populated by strange aliens), while the crew have something of Blake's 7 about them (a motley bunch of escaped convicts pursued by a relentless foe), and ideas like the living ship are borrowed from Babylon 5, but the Farscape concept has a freshness that makes it look and feel completely original. The production design is all bio-mechanical curves and the script never takes itself too seriously (fart jokes and double-entendres pop up when you least expect them). It must have been expensive to make, but it certainly looks (and sounds in Dolby Digital 5.1) like every penny made it to the screen. In true Buck Rogers style, Ben Browder plays leading man John Crichton as an all-American astronaut, although with a more believable sense of bewilderment; the supporting cast is a mixture of Australian and British actors, mostly disguised under heavy make-up.In this second box set there are five episodes spread across two discs. Although the generic Star Trek-style storylines seem a little over-familiar, the witty and fast-paced scripts help to keep things fresh. In "Exodus from Genesis" the crew of Moya are invaded by space cockroaches, who, in a suprising twist then help them fend off the Peacekeepers. "Thank God it's Friday Again" shows D'Argo finding happiness in a hippy commune where all is not what it seems; Crichton has a Matrix-style worm inserted in his navel before Rygel's bodily functions prove to be instrumental in rescuing the crew. Crichton finds love with the "PK Tech Girl", much to the consternation of Aeryn Sun, who goes into full Lt. Ripley mode and spends the episode running around with a pulse rifle under flickering strobe lighting. In "That Old Black Magic", a malevolent magician forces a confrontation between Crichton and his nemesis, Crais; Zhaan must revive her bad old ways in order to save the day. "DNA Mad Scientist" is the most original episode, with a neat twist on the Frankenstein scenario thanks to the splendid villain, Namtar; a distinctly unpleasant side to some of the characters is revealed as they bargain body parts in exchange for a map home. On the DVD: Because the first disc contains three episodes instead of the usual two, special features are limited to a trailer and some conceptual art. The second disc also has a profile of Zhaan. --Mark Walker
Even Brian De Palma's staunchest defenders had to swallow hard with this gaudily gory bauble of a thriller that is built around a gruesome (yet surprisingly wittily staged) stalking and murder involving a female victim and a killer with a giant power drill. This is De Palma at his most sensational, in a story about a B-movie actor (Craig Wasson) with career problems and a habit as a voyeur. He witnesses the aforementioned murder, then teams up with a porn actress (Melanie Griffith) to try and find the killer. De Palma has a blast going inside the porn film industry, and even films a pseudo rock video with one-hit wonders Frankie Goes to Hollywood. Wasson is an unlikely leading man, bland and pasty, but he is perfect in the role of a decidedly imperfect hero. --Marshall Fine, Amazon.com
The second series of Farscape expands upon and develops the characters introduced in the ambitious first series. John Crichton's new nemesis is the deadly Scorpius, replacing Crais, who has taken the living ship Moya's offspring on a voyage into the unknown. Moya's regular crew--Aeryn, Zhaan, Chiana, D'Argo and Rygel--remain as divided and suspicious of each other as ever, yet somehow manage to pull together at times of crisis. The writers continue to exploit the show's gift for surprising as well as emotionally convincing character development, while the CGI effects, prosthetics and state-of-the-art puppetry--courtesy of Jim Henson's Creature Shop--continue to make Farscape the most original-looking SF show on TV. The witty scripts, peppered with postmodern pop-culture references and movie in-jokes, are also a breath of fresh air. Despite some wildly erratic shifts in tone, this is exceptional TV science fiction that continually pushes the accepted boundaries of the genre. --Mark Walker
A young man finds no luck in the Australian gold rush and drifts into petty crime. His life changes when he gets twelve years in an infamous prison.
A group of young environmental activists have boarded an abandoned North Sea oil rig and prepare to broadcast to the world in a protest against the rigs pending destruction. But the rig is not as empty as they first thought.The rig workers had summoned up an evil entity which inhabits the bodies of the living moving from person to person as it's will leaving the host dead. Locked in a battle for survival the group are forced to confront the evil.Can they work out who is possessed and deliver the final few to safety or will this evil entity escape and be released upon an unsuspecting world?
The year is 2525 and the world has been turned upside down. Monstrous airborne machines known as Baileys have taken over the surface of the earth and driven the people underground. While most of humanity has abandoned hope of ever reclaiming the surface of the earth there are those who remain fiercely committed to the cause. Among these brave souls are the female warriors Hel and Sarge. They are joined by Cleopatra a 21st Century girl who wakes up 500 years after being cryogenically frozen. They are united in the most courageous of quests: to restore humanity to its rightful place on the planet! Episode titles: Quest For Firepower Creegan Flying Lessons Mind Games Home/Rescue Run Cleo Run Choices Perception Trial And Error Double The Last Stand Hel And Highwater Parts 1 And 2.
In the summer of 1974 The Greater Washington Educational Telecommunications Association began videotaping a number of live operatic and concert performances at the Filene Center in Wolf Trap Farm Park for the Performing Arts in Vienna Virginia for telecast in an innovative new series entitled 'In Performance at Wolf Trap'. The series met with overwhelming success and set the stage for the many live performance telecasts which have since followed.In 1975 'In Performance at Wold Trap' presented Beverly Sills in perhaps her most acclaimed portrayal that of Queen Elizabeth I in the Donizetti rarity Roberto Devereux. When Miss Sills first sang the role at the New York City Opera in 1970 Winthrop Sargeant wrote in the New Yorker She was Elizabeth from the extreme pallor of her makeup to the royal sweep of her train. It was a characterisation that I shall never forget. The combination of skills she brought to her role made this a historic moment. Daniel Webster wrote in the Philadelphia Inquirer Miss Sills sang the towering role with such authority and portrayed Queen Elizabeth with such fervour that the opera unstaged (in New York) for more than 125 years now is one of the theatrical events of the year.
Episodes 6-10 of Farscape's fourth series continue the themes set at the start of the year while concentrating on one-off adventures. John Crichton is still upset that Aeryn Sun has not confided in him about her pregnancy; Aeryn is still trying to cope with the loss of his dead copy; Chiana is trying in her lascivious way to get them back together; Scorpius and Sikozu are gradually becoming integrated into the life of the crew, and John and the others are trying to learn to trust their former arch-enemy. In "'Natural Election"', the process of choosing which of the crew shall be captain becomes more urgent when the living ship Moya is attacked by a space-dwelling plant that hangs around wormholes; "John Quixote" has Crichton and Chiana trapped in a surreal gameworld full of old friends and enemies; in "I Shrink, Therefore I Am", Crichton has to rescue his friends from bounty-hunters who have shrunk them and hidden them in their heavily-armoured bodies. Aeryn finds herself compelled to homicidal violence in "'A Prefect Murder"' and time goes wonky on her; Crichton has to get into drag and Scorpius has to vomit a lot to save their crewmates from getting caught in the cross-fire of "Coup by Clam". These are enjoyable albeit routine episodes of the most imaginative space opera ever to hit the TV screen, though they only hint at the wonders that were to come later in this final series. On the DVD: Farscape 4.2 has a wealth of special features that include two deleted scenes--one of them a touching discussion of their love lives between Aeryn and Chiana--and a text guide to swearing in the Farscape universe. There is a documentary about the special effects and a prolonged interview with Claudia Black in which she talks about how the show stretched her as an actress. It is presented in widescreen with a visual aspect ratio of 4:3 and has Dolby Digital sound. --Roz Kaveney
An international co-production of Jim Henson's Creature Shop, Australia's Channel 9 and Hallmark Entertainment, Farscape is genre television at its most ambitious, inspired both by the cult appeal of Babylon 5 and the continuing success of the Star Trek franchise. Making extensive use of CGI, prosthetics and state-of-the-art puppetry, Farscape takes a visual leap beyond previous shows. Admittedly, the basic premise may be borrowed from Buck Rogers (American astronaut catapulted to far-flung galaxy populated by strange aliens), while the crew have something of Blake's 7 about them (a motley bunch of escaped convicts pursued by a relentless foe), and ideas like the living ship are borrowed from Babylon 5, but the Farscape concept has a freshness that makes it look and feel completely original. The production design is all bio-mechanical curves and the script never takes itself too seriously (fart jokes and double-entendres pop up when you least expect them). It must have been expensive to make, but it certainly looks (and sounds--in Dolby Digital 5.1) as if every penny made it to the screen. In true Buck Rogers style, Ben Browder plays leading man John Crichton as an all-American astronaut, although with a more believable sense of bewilderment; the supporting cast is a mixture of Australian and British actors, mostly disguised under heavy make-up.Box Set 4 includes four episodes, another gallery of conceptual art, and video profiles of everyone's favourite Hynerian Dominar, Rygel, as well as a profile of Moya the living Leviathan transport ship and her pilot. The episodes are: "Durka Returns", in which the crew meet the beautiful Chiana for the first time, as well as Rygel's old tormentor, Captain Durka; "A Human Reaction", where Crichton finally gets back to Earth but with unfortunate results for the rest of Moya's crew; "Through the Looking Glass" in which the crew and Moya are thrown into a dimensional schism inhabited by a strange creature; and "A Bug's Life", in which an intelligent virus is released on the ship after an encounter with Peacekeepers. --Mark Walker
A group of young environmental activists have boarded an abandoned North Sea oil rig and prepare to broadcast to the world in a protest against the rigs pending destruction. But the rig is not as empty as they first thought. The rig workers had summoned up an evil entity which inhabits the bodies of the living moving from person to person at it's will leaving the previous host dead. Locked in a battle for survival the group are forced to confront the evil. Can they work out who is possessed and deliver the final few to safety or will this evil entity escape and be released upon an unsuspecting world? Find out in 'Ghost Rig'!
Farscape is genre television at its most ambitious, inspired both by the cult appeal of Babylon 5 and the continuing success of the Star Trek franchise, but taking a visual and conceptual leap beyond those shows. Making extensive use of CGI, prosthetics and state-of-the-art puppetry, courtesy of Jim Henson's Creature Shop, the Farscape concept has a freshness that makes it look and feel completely original. The production design is all bio-mechanical curves and the script, which is peppered with post-modern pop culture references and film in-jokes, never takes itself too seriously. It may be expensive to make, but it certainly looks (and sounds--in Dolby Digital 5.1) like every penny made it to the screen. Ben Browder plays leading man John Crichton as a latter-day Buck Rogers but with an entirely believable sense of bewilderment, not to mention loss; the rest of the living ship Moya's crew also has plenty of difficult issues to deal with, allowing Farscape's writers licence to develop their characters in often unexpected ways. The result is episodic TV sci-fi that continually pushes at the accepted boundaries of the format. Box Set 5: these four episodes lead up to the climax of the show's first season. "Nerve" and "The Hidden Memory" make for a bold two-parter in which Crichton is reunited with his Peacekeeper Tech girlfriend, Gilina, and emotions are strained as he infiltrates a Peacekeeper base to find a cure for Aeryn's wound. But the story's most important function is to introduce the dreaded Scorpius, who uses his Aurora chair torture device to extract what he mistakenly believes is vital knowledge from Crichton. Scorpius, it soon becomes clear, is just not going to go away. In "Bone to be Wild" the crew is still on the run from the vengeful Scorpius and take refuge on a strange vegetation-covered asteroid where there's a deadly role-reversal of the beauty and the beast story taking place. Finally in "Family Ties" the season ends on a tense cliffhanger as Rygel plots with Scorpius, Crais intervenes unexpectedly, Moya's child turns out to be something of a handful, and Crichton and D'Argo must take a desperate gamble. Also on the disc is an interview with costume designer Terry Ryan and a profile of the Australian Creature Shop. --Mark Walker
Well over half way through its third season and Farscape has plenty more surprises in store. This box set concludes the cliffhanger of "Infinite Possibilities" with the extraordinarily brave "Icarus Abides", in which the battle between Crichton and his Scorpius clone is resolved, but with fatal consequences. Then, in a dizzying change of pace, we return to Moya and the "other" Crichton for "Revenging Angel", part of which is a madcap Farscape take on the Road Runner cartoons, with a furious D'Argo standing in for Wiley Coyote. Matters turn sombre again as Aeryn communes with the spirits of the dead in "The Choice", but the reappearance of her mum, the vengeful Xhalax Sun, creates problems for Rygel and Stark. Across these four episodes the action seesaws between the crews of Moya and Talyn until a reluctant and painful reunion takes place in "Fractures", setting the scene for the final quartet of episodes of this enthralling season. Anyone who has not followed Farscape extremely closely from the very first episode of season one should go right back and begin at the beginning. On the DVD: four uncut episodes are accompanied by the now-familiar gallery of extras. There are "Info Pods" on D'Argo and Pilot, some deleted scenes, "Farscape Facts", Sci-Fi channel promos and a picture gallery. --Mark Walker
In its fourth series Farscape is as much dramatic and romantic fun as it's ever been and it's even more stylish than ever before. A pity, then, that this series is also the show's last, following its abrupt cancellation by the Sci-Fi Channel. If at times the tone seems a little lighter here than in its gloriously doom-laden predecessor, that is because its story arc is the first half of what was intended to cover two series and some of the material is clearly here for the long run. It is, for example, probably no coincidence that the priests' chant in "What Was Lost" has been part of the show's signature tune from the beginning. There are five episodes here. In "Crichton Kicks", Crichton has been a castaway for months on a senile Leviathan which is waiting its time to die. He has worked out wormhole technology, trained an orchestra of DRDs to sing the 1812 Overture, and is generally content, until his worldly resignation is shattered by the arrival of the beautiful, bossy and untrustworthy Sikozu, a bunch of aggressive butchers and a somewhat battered Chiana and Rygel. "What Was Lost Part 1: Sacrifice" takes them to an archaeological dig where they join Jool, D'Argo and the mysterious, annoying old woman Noranti and start to uncover lost secrets that change everything. In "What Was Lost Part 2: Resurrection" Crichton, drugged into bed by the seductive evil Peacekeeper Grayza, regains his self-respect by helping save yet another world. "Lava's a Many-Splendored Thing" is a puzzle episode: how to rescue an amber-encased Rygel from the bottom of a pool of lava without getting crisped or shot by renegades and how to use D'Argo's ship to rescue him when it is keyed to his DNA. Finally, "Promises" takes everyone back to Moya to find a dying Aeryn Sun and a Scorpius she has promised to protect--the issue here is how to outwit both a Peacekeeper torpedo and an extortionist with a big ship and a taste for hiding behind holograms. On the DVD: Farscape 4.1 has a very useful guide to the show's back-story as well as an interview with Anthony Simcoe ( D'Argo) and various character profiles and galleries. The deleted and extended scenes are unusually interesting--there is an exchange between Scorpius, Braca and Grayza which turns out later in the season to have been especially important. The DVD is presented in 4:3 visual aspect ratio and has Dolby Digital 5:1 sound. --Roz Kaveney
By now it's clear that the third season of Farscape is the show's most exciting but also the most convoluted to date. The story so far: the crew has been divided across Moya and her troublesome offspring, Talyn; Crichton is literally divided into two; and Scorpius is sometimes real (but with a Crichton clone in his head) and sometimes the neural clone "Harvey" inside Crichton's head. Confused? Better follow events closely as multiple plot strands diverge and intertwine, characters from previous seasons pop up when you least expect them, and weird stuff generally keeps on happening. The four episodes in this box set take the various story threads still further apart. "Incubator" has the real Scorpius showing his Crichton neural clone the tragic truth about his upbringing. Scarrans, it seems, are the real enemy after all. In "Meltdown", Talyn is captured by a Siren Sun and Stark becomes even more unhinged, while Chrichton and Aeryn just can't keep their hands off each other. "Scratch 'n' Sniff" provides some welcome comic relief with an episode shot like a kinky David Fincher pop video and co-starring Ben Browder's real-life wife as the incredibly annoying Raxil. Finally, the gripping and action-packed "Infinite Possibilities, Part 1: Daedalus Dreams" returns us to the season's primary story-arc: the search for wormhole technology and its potentially dire consequences. The cliffhanger ending will have you yelling at the TV for more. On the DVD: only four episodes instead of the usual five, it's true, but every one is a corker. There are a handful of extras, including more "Info Pods", some deleted scenes and fact files to round out the set. --Mark Walker
An international co-production of Jim Henson's Creature Shop, Australia's Channel 9 and Hallmark Entertainment, Farscape is genre television at its most ambitious, inspired both by the cult appeal of Babylon 5 and the continuing success of the Star Trek franchise. Making extensive use of CGI, prosthetics and state-of-the-art puppetry, Farscape takes a visual leap beyond previous shows. Admittedly, the basic premise may be borrowed from Buck Rogers (American astronaut catapulted to far-flung galaxy populated by strange aliens), while the crew have something of Blake's 7 about them (a motley bunch of escaped convicts pursued by a relentless foe), and ideas such as the living ship are borrowed from Babylon 5, but the Farscape concept has a freshness that makes it look and feel completely original. The production design is all bio-mechanical curves and the script never takes itself too seriously (fart jokes and double-entendres pop up when you least expect them). It must have been expensive to make, but it certainly looks (and sounds-in Dolby Digital 5.1) as if every penny made it to the screen. In true Buck Rogers style, Ben Browder plays leading man John Crichton as an all-American astronaut, although with a more believable sense of bewilderment; the supporting cast is a mixture of Australian and British actors, mostly disguised under heavy make-up.There are five more episodes from Season One on this third DVD box set. "They've Got a Secret" has D'Argo being accidentally ejected into space, as a result of which, secrets of his imprisonment are revealed. "Till the Blood Runs Clear" finds Crichton and Aeryn confronting bounty-hunters. In "The Flax", the crew get all tangled up with some Zenetan pirates. Blue-skinned Delvian priestess Zhaan meets more of her kind in "Rhapsody in Blue", but madness is the result. Finally, "Jeremiah Crichton" finds our human hero stranded on an earthly paradise where no machines will function; falling in love is just the beginning of his troubles.On the DVD: Special features here are a gallery of conceptual art and another star profile, this time of Anthony Simcoe's Luxan warrior character, D'Argo. --Mark Walker
The second season of Farscape expands upon and develops the characters introduced in the ambitious first season. John Crichton's new nemesis is the deadly Scorpius, replacing Crais who has taken the living ship Moya's offspring on a voyage into the unknown. Moya's regular crew--Aeryn, Zhaan, Chiana, D'Argo and Rygel--remain as divided and suspicious of each other as ever, yet somehow manage to pull together at times of crisis. The writers continue to exploit the show's gift for surprising as well as emotionally convincing character development, while the CGI effects, prosthetics and state-of-the-art puppetry--courtesy of Jim Henson's Creature Shop--continue to make Farscape the most original-looking sci-fi show on TV. The witty scripts, peppered with post-modern pop culture references and film in-jokes, are also a breath of fresh air. The result is episodic TV sci-fi that continually pushes at the accepted boundaries of the genre. --Mark Walker
The fourth volume of Farscape's fourth (and final) series does all those things that the later stages of any season should do: individual episodes play interesting games with how we think television works, while the tension of the overall story arc builds and builds. Of the individual episodes here, "Mental as Anything" is an ensemble piece for the male members of Moya's crew: D'Argo's back-story gets some sort of resolution and Scorpius puts John Crichton through hell for the best of reasons. "Bringing Home the Beacon" is rather more fun-- the women of Moya frustrate a Sebacean/Scarren peace treaty--but ends in stark tragedy. In "Constellation of Doubt", Moya picks up, and the crew obsessionally watch, a documentary from American television about their recent visit to earth: Crichton gets to see human paranoia and wishful thinking through cold, intelligent alien eyes. Finally, in "Prayer", Aeryn suffers terribly at the hands of her Scarren captors and Crichton makes a devil's bargain with Scorpius to save her. By this point the season is building to the surprises of its last episodes: Farscape was about to be cancelled, but it never lost its edge. On the DVDs: Farscape, Series 4 Vol. 4 includes a dictionary of alien slang and technical terms with illustrative clips from the show, as well as text files on the villainous Peacekeepers Braca and Grayza. The high point of the extras, though, is an interview with the wonderfully flakey Gigi Edgeley (Chiana) and a lot of deleted scenes from "Constellation of Doubt", with footage of Chiana, Aeryn and Noranti interacting with Crichton's family in bizarre and touching ways. --Roz Kaveney
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