Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #19439 in DVD
• Released on: 2002-10-28
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Number of discs: 10
• Formats: Box set, PAL
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 10
• Running time: 990 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
The first series of Farscape was a revitalising tonic for TV SF. An ambitious coproduction of Jim Henson's Creature Shop, Australia's Channel 9 and Hallmark Entertainment, Farscape launched itself with a refreshing mix of CGI, prosthetics and state-of-the-art puppetry to take a visual leap beyond other genre shows. The witty scripts, too, peppered with double-entendres and pop-culture references, are light years away from the staid style of Star Trek. Admittedly, the first season's basic premise is simply Buck Rogers updated (American astronaut John Crichton, played by Ben Browder, is catapulted to a far-flung galaxy populated by strange aliens), while the crew initially 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 all look and feel completely original. --Mark Walker

DVD Description
Season 1 Episodes:
Episode 1: Premiere
Episode 2: Throne For A Loss
Episode 3: Back And Back And Back To The Future
Episode 4: I, E.T
Episode 5: Exodus from Genesis
Episode 6: Thank God it Again
Episode 7: PK Tech Girl
Episode 8: That Old Black Magic
Episode 9: DNA Mad Scientist
Episode 10: They Episode 11: Till the Blood Run Episode 19: Nerve
Episode 20: The Hidden Memory
Episode 21: Bone to be Wild
Episode 22: Family Ties Clear
Episode 12: The Flax
Episode 13: Rhapsody in Blue
Episode 14: Jeremiah Crichton
Episode 15: Durka Returns
Episode 16: A Human Reaction
Episode 17: Through the Looking Glass
Episode 18: A Bug

Synopsis
This comprehensive collection presents the entire first series of the popular and inventive Henson-produced sci-fi series, FARSCAPE. During a test run in his experimental spacecraft, the Farscape, astronaut John Crichton (Ben Browder) is swept into a parallel universe. Hurled into the heart of an intense space battle, Crichton immediately gains both allies and enemies as his adventures begin. Episodes include: 'Premiere', 'Back And Back And Back To The Future', 'Thank God It's Friday... Again', 'Rhapsody In Blue', 'Through The Looking Glass', 'The Hidden Memory', and many more.

Customer Reviews

Unforgettable Sci-Fi you will watch again and again...
One year on (more or less) from the conclusion to the Farscape series (the mini-series Peacekeeper Wars) and I still haven't recovered from the loss of an ongoing Farscape story. One of the most gripping, thought-provoking, groundbreaking, and entertaining TV series ever made, Farscape's premature cancellation, despite winning many awards, still rankles.

Thankfully, ALL four regular seasons plus the 2-part mini-series conclusion (which brings the story to a satisfactory end at least) are available on DVD. That's 90 hours of perfect television at your fingertips. What more can you ask for?

At the beginning of Season One, John Crichton (superbly played by Ben Browder) is a contemporary American astronaut/scientist on a 'routine' mission outside the earth's atmosphere to test a theory of space propulsion which he has invented. While making his test, he is inadvertently shot though a wormhole instead and spat out 'on the other side of the galaxy.' He is then picked up by the crew of a leviathan ship—which turns out to be a huge benign creature who allows other creatures to live inside her—and is confronted by a motley group of aliens of varying species who have never heard of Earth, and are more concerned with eluding pursuit than with either Crichton or his planet of origin. Turns out this leviathan's crew are all escaped prisoners, and John is stuck on board with them—for better or for worse.

Crichton, the only human, is our instant reference point. He only wants to 'find a way home,' at least at first. Of course we can all relate to his point of view, but as the series develops, we get drawn, with him, into that universe on the other side of the galaxy which holds so many wonders for our displaced human. We get to watch John meet the challenges he faces, and discover, to our extreme delight, what a lowly 'human' such as himself brings into the mix.

The character of Crichton is an American, but the series was filmed in Australia with input from people from all over the English-speaking world, so Farscape is NOT a typical American good-guy-white-hat kind of story. John Crichton is a complex human being, with strengths and weaknesses we get to discover right along with him and his crewmates on the leviathan. We become aware that Crichton an INDIVIDUAL human being, not a race, or a national stereotype.

John Crichton is cheeky, resourceful, kind, intelligent, inventive, loyal, incorrigible, hilarious, intuitive, sexy, unpredictable, explosive, courageous, romantic and supportive. We love him truly—right from the start—and begin to ponder, at least by midseries, what the heck will happen if he ever does manage to 'get home' again. Won't earth be too small for him now? (Hold that thought.)

Season One is more episodic than the following seasons. Several story arcs develop subtly in Season One, including the incredibly moving and believable love story between Crichton and the stiffly-vulnerable Peacekeeper soldier Aeryn Sun (played by Claudia Black) but Season One is primarily where you get to know Crichton, get to know the other beings he associates with, get to know the larger 'world' of Farscape.

Some episodes are weaker than the others, of course, but they are all entertaining and all bear re-watching too. Season One ends by revealing to us the 'real' villain of the piece—the most memorable villain EVER recorded on film—but fortunately you don't have to wait a whole year to find out what happens next (like I did while watching Farscape on the BBC!) Not with all these wonderful DVDs on offer now...

I can only recommend that you buy ALL the Farscape DVDs right away, along with this one. You will love the show—I guarantee!—and will watch them all, again and again and again. Probably for your whole lifetime. Farscape is unforgettable stuff.

Colorful, refreshing, sexy and funny
The long awaited dvd-box-set of season 1 has arrived.
FarScape is a welcome breath of fresh air in the world of sci-fi. The Jim Henson Company tells a story about an astronaut who, during a test flight, gets shot through a wormhole, and ends up on the other side of the universe in the middle of a space battle. What seems unreal to him, looks pretty everyday to the aliens surrounding him. As events unfold, he is forced to team up with a colorful crew of escaped prisoners.
While finding a way home, they have to stay out of the claws of a race called 'the peacekeepers' which are, despite their name, actually a pretty ruthless and aggressive species.

The great thing is that, unlike some other series, everything is possible in this universe and no one feels the need to explain why it is possible. Just as you think you start to know how the series is going to develop, the next episode takes you by surprise.

Combine the amazing Jim Henson Studios creations with some funny and dead-sexy characters ("Ah you mean like The Muppets?" "Mmmm no, not quite!"), and you will have yourself a series to have and to hold. Forever.

Sparky, this is one of the best darn written shows on tv
Farscape's first season is a winner. Although clearly in its infancy, the series quickly estabished a group of interesting malcontents riding around on a living prison ship (which, contrary to the amazon.com review, the concept of a living ship wasn't borrowed from Babylon 5. It's been in science fiction literature for years and was first used in Star Trek: The Next Generation in the episode entitled Tin Man). Astornaut John Crichton has been flung through a wormhole while on an experimental space flight. He ends up on the other side of the glaxay. There he discovers that the Universe is filled to the brim with alien life forms. We haven't encountered them because our corner of the Milky Way still has too many vacancies.

He has to throw his fortunes in with a group of escaped prisoners and a Peacekeeper--the galatic military police force that keeps law and order. It's not the premise that matters (there are any number of great premises that fail to deliver).

What matters is the quality of the writing. Episodes like the Premiere, That Old Black Magic and others feature strong writing and witty performances by the ensemble cast. The direction is always interesting and even the weakest written episodes usually has something to recommend it.

The visual effects are marvelous and most on are a par with feature films. This isn't the finest season but it has many terrific moments that rank with the best in television science fiction.