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Editorial
Amazon.co.uk Review
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
Patchy at times but still a great show
Review date: 2007-11-13 Rating: 8 out of 10
Farscape's second season is a bit of an oddity. The first chunk of the season isn't all that dissimilar to the first season, Moya and her crew having separate adventures on each world they visit each episode. This first chunk contains some really great episodes but also some of the worst sci-fi ever made for television. As a huge fan of Farscape it's hard to admit it but some of these early-season-two-eps are just awful. Luckily the good material is good enough to keep you going though and when you hit the mid-point of the series everything changes.
The second half of this season is amazing, containing some of the best episodes Farscape ever made (including the incredible 'Won't Get Fooled Again') that really start to use what the show's makers had learned about it's strengths and weaknesses from the experimental beginnings of the season. It's a bizarre, insane world and it knows it. Every episode carries over into the next forming a larger tapestry of plot-lines and character arcs all building towards stunning climactic episode. This season principally follows Crichton's slow-but-steady mental breakdown after the traumatizing events that ended season one, this isn't thrown in your face but rather slowly built up through the season as his behavior becomes more and more reckless and suicidal, this method works especially well on DVD since it's much easier to pick up on early than it was when it first appeared on TV. It also contains a few hints at the larger political state around the events of the series but this only really comes into play in one three-part story near the middle of the season, mainly this is still about the same small group of fugitives just trying to find their way home.
Effects wise the season's pretty much the same as the first. All the costumes/body-paints/puppets for the main characters all look incredible even now several years later, though a few bits of the CG or guest-creatures are looking a little dated these days. What few pieces of effects do look dated don't detract from the quality of what you're watching here though as they're never there more than an episode.
Is season two better than season one? Yes, it probably is. Sure it's not as consistent and it's got more than the average number of bad episodes near the beginning, but when it's good it blows the first season away with ease, this is where Farcape started what would be cemented in season three - a transformation from an excellent sci-fi show into the best sci-fi show ever made.
If you watched season 1 and the ending part and you wonder whaty happens well in season you are left with how in the hell it happened bnut it explained slowly thoughtout the dvd.
The best part is scorpius and criton they have an amzing feud throughout the series and is great.
The worst part is the special features having no behind the scenes in terms the shooting of the film. it would been great if they put bloopers on.
You got toi buy it anyway cause if your looking at this then yoiu must of bought the first season so really i'm jhust confirming a decision you have already made. So buy it.
With Farscape you have to watch six consecutive episodes without adverts to start to warm to the characters. Once you do, you will be hooked by it's cleverness. This blows all Star Trek series (bar the original perhaps) so far out of the water that I see Enterprise et all as more of a comedy now. There is none of this episode cop out nonsense that turns every third episode of Star Trek into an episode of Trisha.
Put Pickard and the rest in the bin where they belong and buy this.
Season Two really kicks in just before the half way mark of the series.
Better than Season One with John getting more insane episode by episode until we reach the series best cliffhanger..
The acting is superb, the effects are superb and the package is superb.
About the boxed set
The set contains all 22 season two episodes divided in 5 sets of DVD's containing 4 or 5 episodes each. Some DVD's contain bonus features but these are merely comments and brief promotional videos and are a bit disappointing.
The DVD's have a nice layout but a bit annoying is a wormhole sequence which is played at absurdly loud sound level everytime you select an episode.
The set is nicely packaged but the quality of the package remains questionable since it is made out of paper. I own the season 1 and 2 and for now the package is not damaged but we will see about that when the show gets in the hands of some of my friends.
About the show
The story is about a pilot named John Chricton which during an experimental flight gets sucked in the wormhole and ends up on the other end of the galaxy. There he stumbles in the middle of a prison break and ends up with the escaped criminals on a living ship called Moya.
In the second season we see further development in character relations between the crew. Some fight and tensions as no one gets along all that well. We see some romances develop and some deals get broken. Nobody is completely without flaws but somehow they all pull together in tough spots and get through them.
My favorite episodes in second season are "The way we weren't" where we learn a little bit about Aeryn's and pilot's past and "Won't get fooled again" where Crichton wakes up on earth again. There is an excellent three part episode called "Liars, Guns and Money" when the crew of Moya decides to rob a bank to get enough money to buy D'argo's sun from slave traders.
The best episode must be "Die Me, Dichotomy" which is the last in the season but I won't spoil it for you.
Quality an conclusion
The picture quality is very good as the show is presented in 16:9 wide screen. The sound and special effect remain to be top notch. The creature and prosthetics keep getting better and more elaborate. If you loved the first season you'll love the second even more. The boxed set is much better than buying all the volumes separately.