John Wayne Movie:

		List Price: $39.98		Label: Adv Films Salesrank: 92317 Released: June 25, 2002
		Our Price: $1.63
		Used Price: $0.88
		MPAA Rating: NR (Not Rated) Media: DVD

Editorial Review:
Determined to avoid the villainous Scorpius's pursuit after the destruction of the Peacekeeper Gammak base, Moya--the sentient Leviathan spaceship that serves as home and transport for Crichton, Aeryn, D'Argo, and the rest of the crew--is forced to abandon her newborn offspring, Talyn, to the devious Peacekeeper, Crais, so that she and her crew can safely navigate the Uncharted Territories of space. As they traverse the galaxy in their quest for a way to their respective home worlds, Moya's crew must deal with the consequences of her decision, as well as encounter many hostile aliens and the dangers they present. Episodes: Mind the Baby, Vitas Mortis, Taking the Stone, Crackers Don't Matter.

Description of Farscape: Season 2, Volume 1 (4 Episodes):
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.

After the nail-biting cliffhanger at the end of the first season, the second season gets off to a shaky start in "Mind the Baby," as all the loose plot ends have to be gathered and resolved. Crais apparently has a change of heart, and Scorpius takes his place as Crichton's new nemesis. In "Vitas Mortis," D'Argo falls for a lonely Luxan, with catastrophic and barely plausible results for Moya. "Taking the Stone" showcases Chiana's grief in an episode that manages to be even more confusing. Fortunately by the fourth episode, "Crackers Don't Matter," the show has really hit its stride once again: the crew slowly succumbs to a state of paranoia-fuelled madness, fighting and trying to kill one another thanks to the presence of an odd light-seeking alien. Crichton has a string of great lines ("I hate it when villains quote Shakespeare") and a lot of fun doing an impersonation of Jack Nicholson in The Shining. --Mark Walker

Farscape: Season 2, Volume 1 (4 Episodes) Reviews:
Great show, but buy the boxed sets instead
2007-08-30 - If you have never heard of Farscape, I'm sorry- it is one of the best Sci-Fi shows ever. It is as simple as that. However, there are plenty of places for you to hear reviews about the show and even these specific episodes so my 4 out of 5 rating is based only on this specific volume of DVDs. To be clear, I'd give Farscape the series 10 stars out of 5.

However, since these "mini" sets are ~$20 each (times 5 for a season) you'd be better off buying the complete Season Two boxed set (Farscape - The Complete Second Season) for about $80.

If you are not yet a fan (and trust me, you will be) and are just looking to get your feet wet, you might look to one of the other individual sets. While "Crackers Don't Matter" is one of my favourite episodes, if I were making a top ten list for Farscape, the other episodes in this volume wouldn't make the cut.

Season 2 gets off to a slow start
2006-09-04 - This disc features two good episodes, but the overall quality is brought down by a couple of clinkers. "Mind the Baby" resolves the first season cliffhangers and gives the renegade commander Crais (Lani Tupu) command of Moya's offspring Talon, the only Leviathan armed with Peacekeeper weapons, setting the stage for some great future episodes. "Crackers Don't Matter" features a creepy alien (Danny Adcock) attempting to take over Moya, but the real fun comes from watching the cast overcome with suspicion of each other and Crichton (Ben Browder) trying to get them to cooperate despite his own burgeoning paranoia.

On the other hand, this set of episodes is hampered by "Vitas Mortis," which at least has the saving grace of offering a glimpse behind the scenes of Luxon culture, and "Taking the Stone," a messy story about a daredevil youth culture on a cemetary planet.

Great show, but not the best showing
2003-05-14 - Now - I love Farscape. I came into the show late in the game, but it has quickly joined my list of classics...a show not to be missed and now, after it's cancellation, to be mourned.

Knowing this, I must say that this set is not Farscape's best showing. So, if a new fan - don't start here....actually, start in Season 1, episode 1. It's imperative!

The redeeming feature of this set is the episode "Crackers Don't Matter." It *might* be my favorite Farscape episode of all time. The paranoia/hysteria are hysterical and chilling....and it sets up the Scorpius arc for the remainder of the season. This episode, at least, is not to be missed!

A rather disorienting start to Season 2 of "Farscape"
2003-05-13 - Season 1 of "Farscape" ended with as many cliffhangers as they could cram into the season finale. We had Crichton (Ben Browder) and D'Argo (Anthony Simcoe) floating in space; Moya new born baby boy turns out to have built-in Peacekeeper technology, which thrills Captain Crais (Lani John Tupu); Aeryn (Claudia Black) in a Prowler hiding from Scorpius (Wayne Pygram); and Moya starbursts away with Zhaan (Virginia Hey), Chiana (Gigi Edgley), and Rigel. To be fair, there was no "To Be Continued" announcement for that season finale, probably because the fate of the show was still up in the air, but with the "Farscape" crew scattered to the winds of space there was a sense of anticipation as to how they were going to get out of their respective messes.

That is why "Mind the Baby" is such a great disappointment. When I started watching the episode I thought I had the wrong one in the machine because suddenly Crichton and D'Argo are no longer in space. They must have saved a small fortune not having to do the special effects to show how this happened, but it comes across as a cheat to me. It really go the whole episode off on the wrong foot for me and every new revelation as to how things would be different in Season 2 ended up being met with skepticism. I liked the second episode, "Vitas Mortis" a lot better, which is rather ironic because the story has absolutely nothing to do with any of the new plot elements that were just established. D'Argo meets up with another Luxan, a Orican (holy woman) named Nilaam, who wants him to attend to her death. However, their association has unexpected consequences, both for the two Luxans and for Moya. This look at Luxan culture is rather brief, but it does give D'Argo some new depth to go along with the dark skin colors he picked up floating around in space between the first two seasons. After all the new information thrown at us in the previous episode, a character study of one of Moya's crew other than Crichton stands us in good stead.

Chiana takes center stage in "Taking the Stone," when she is driven by grief to visit a Royal Cemetary planet where she joins a group of decadent youngsters who engage in ritualistic jumping off of cliffs to test death. The group is led by Molon (Anthony Hayes), who has even more disdain for the visitors than he does for his own people. Meanwhile, Crichton is trying to convince Chiana not to "take the stone." This episode reminds me of the "Star Trek" episode "Miri," although Chaina provides it with much more emotional depth. "Crackers Don't Matter" is one of those episodes where the characters are driven semi-insane by alien forces and the actors get to cut loose (the cunning Pilot was my favorite). Behind it all is Traltixx (Danny Adcock), who was called in to help make Moya undetectable to sensors and instead is making her walls glow. However, it is only the fourth episode of the second season, so why would the cast need a change of pace episode already?

The DVD extras are pretty much a mixed bag, especially after the above average batch of additives from the first season set. There is a character backstory on John Crichton and an actor biography of Ben Browder, but they are both text pages that you have to flip through rather than filmed featurettes; they are also rather brief. There is a commentary track on "Crackers Don't Matter," which is mostly actress Claudia Black interviewing director Ian Watson about his craft in general. There are several deleted scenes just for something different this time around and more pages offering a look at the alien encounter with Nilaam and some conceptual drawings, including nice costume drawings for Nilamm. Finally, there is the Farscape Dictionary of alien slang so you can know what "blez," "frodank," and "loomas" mean. So these end up being rather average episodes of "Farscape," although obvious the season premiere is setting the stage for what is to come. I am sure we all had our problems with some of the new directions the show is taking at this point (Talon's choice for the big "honor" totally rubs me the wrong way), but judgment should be reserved until we see what the show does with them.

A great show
2002-10-03 - I love Farscape, and this collection has some fascinating episodes. I don't know what the fuss is about over the special features; THEY ARE GREAT! Some of them are text, sure, but they are interesting. As for there being few deleted scenes...if were loads of deleted scenes, wouldn't that indicate a problem with the show's direction (wasting money)? Farscape is one of the best directed and best acted shows in sci-fi. Few deleted scenes means everybody's doing a good job! I checked out the website for the British DVDs a couple of people have mentioned. I think it's a case of "the grass is always greener." The British and American releases look awfully similar to me! HOORAY FOR FARSCAPE!!