Farscape-The Complete Season Four (Beyond Home Ent) (1999)

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General		Extras
Category	Science Fiction	Main Menu Audio & Animation Audio Commentary-Crichton Kicks, John Quixote, Unrealized Reality Audio Commentary-A Constellation Of Doubt, Bad Timing Synopsis-The Story So Farscape Deleted Scenes-A Constellation of Doubt Featurette-Inside Farscape - Saving Farscape Featurette-Season 4 Visual Effects
Rating
Year Of Production	1999
Running Time	946
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered Multi Disc Set (6)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Pino Amenta Peter Andrikidis Ian Barry Geoff Bennett
Studio Distributor	Hallmark Entertain Beyond Home Entertainment	Starring	Ben Browder Claudia Black Virginia Hey Anthony Simcoe Gigi Edgley Paul Goddard Wayne Pygram Tammy McIntosh Raelee Hill Melissa Jaffer David Franklin Rebecca Riggs Kent McCord
Case	?
RPI	$34.95	Music	Guy Gross Braedy Neal Chris Neal

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.78:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	None	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

     Farscape is a well loved Sci-fi television series, made in Australia in the late 1990s, early 2000s. It has been released on DVD before by Universal back in 2005. The series is now being re-released by Beyond Home Entertainment both as individual seasons and as a box set including all four seasons plus the mini-series, The Peacekeeper Wars.

     In terms of the releases, this new one is a significant step up as it addresses the major issue with the original releases, video quality (see below for details).The box set also includes a three disc set called The Farscape Archives which will be reviewed in the near future.

     I am not planning to write lots of detail about the show as most readers will only be interested in how this release compares to the previous ones. This set contains all 22 episodes of Season 4 across 6 discs. The show was cancelled after Season 4, however after fan pressure a mini-series, The Peacekeeper Wars was made to round out the series.

Video

     The video quality is a big step up from the previous release although certainly not perfect. The feature is presented in a 1.78:1 aspect ratio which is the original aspect ratio. This was the first season made for widescreen. It is 16x9 enhanced.

     The picture was quite clear and sharp throughout considering the age of the show. The shadow detail was quite good. The previous editions suffered from bad MPEG compression issues resulting in picture break-up especially during fast motion. This new edition still has a few MPEG artefacts but nothing as drastic as the original edition. There is some mild grain at times and occasional minor MPEG artefacts. The colour is very good with no major issues to report. There was some edge enhancement from time to time but it was not overly distracting.

     There are no subtitles which is disappointing.

     The layer changes are fairly obvious.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The audio quality is very good.

     This DVD set contains an English Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack which if anything is a little too obvious in the surrounds. There is lots of front separation as well. Dialogue was generally clear and easy to hear although subtitles would have been useful from time to time.

     The score by Guy Gross is suitably dramatic.The surround speakers were used constantly for music, directional effects such as the worm hole and sounds of the ship. At times they were a little over the top drawing attention to themselves. The subwoofer was well used for thumps, thuds and music support.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

     Many of the extras on this edition were also included on the Universal release.

Menu

     The menu was functional but unexciting including music.

Audio Commentaries

     This set features five audio commentaries (all of which are repeats from the previous edition). They are all good natured, informative and easy to listen to. They are:

• Episode 1 – Andrew Prowse & Gigi Edgley

• Episode 7 – Sean Masterton & Tony Tilse

• Episode 11 – Andrew Prowse & Anthony Simcoe

• Episode 17 – Andrew Prowse & Anthony Simcoe

• Episode 22 – Andrew Prowse & Gigi Edgley

Disc 6

Farscape - The Story So Far (26:30)

     Summary of the first three seasons of the show.

A Constellation of Doubt - Deleted Scenes (16:30)

     Interesting scenes but the camerawork is pretty ordinary as is the video quality Not on previous release

Farewell (17:35)

     Cast reaction to the show being cancelled.

Inside Farscape - Saving Farscape (30:39)

     4x3. Featurette about fans reaction to the show being cancelled and the campaign to have it reinstated Not on previous release.

Season 4 Visual Effects (9:34)

     The process of creating the various visual effects including comparisons Not on previous release.

    This seems to be the best stand alone release available globally of Season 4.

     A much loved Sci-fi series gets a quality re-release which is a significant step up from the previous version.

     The video quality is very good and much better than the previous release. The audio quality is very good but maybe slightly overdoes the surround effects. The extras are good quality, with most of the important previous extras being repeated and new ones added. Others have moved to the Farscape Archives in the box set.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall