Studio: Lions Gate Home Ent. Release Date: 02/14/2006 Run time: 182 minutes Rating: NrCreated at least in part due to popular demand, Farscape: The Peacekeeper Wars will provide some closure to fans who were dismayed by the demise of the popular science fiction television show in 2003 and campaigned mightily to bring it back. Indeed, this miniseries (originally broadcast over two nights on the Sci-Fi Channel) will likely appeal primarily to the Farscape faithful, as the somewhat convoluted storyline may prove baffling to the uninitiated.
A brief bit of backstory explains how John Crichton, an astronaut from Earth, went through a wormhole and ended up on Moya, a living spaceship, with a motley group of aliens, including D’Argo (Anthony Simcoe), Chiana (Gigi Edgley), various puppet characters (designed by the Jim Henson Company), and Aeryn (Claudia Black), Crichton’s love interest, who’s expecting their first child. As The Peacekeeper Wars begins, our heroes find themselves in the middle of a war-to-end-all-wars between the lizard-like, implacably evil Scarrans and their rivals, the Peacekeepers. Crichton is the lynchpin in all of this, as his knowledge of “wormhole technology” is coveted by all, including his old nemesis Scorpius (Wayne Pygram), who captured and tortured Crichton back in season 1 and with whom Crichton must now form an uneasy alliance against the Scarrans.
Over the course of the three-hour miniseries, we get lots of weird- and cool-looking aliens, some nice sets and special effects, plenty of battles, and lots of portentous talk about the fate of the universe–nothing especially original, but all presented with outstanding production values. There’s drama and action, love and betrayal, tragedy and triumph, war and, ultimately, peace, with a suitably spectacular ending (and a nod to Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey). With a 30-minute “making of” documentary among the DVD special features, The Peacekeeper Wars is a fitting way to end the Farscape saga. –Sam Graham
Buy “Farscape – The Peacekeeper Wars” For Only $8.22
January 15, 2006
#1
I just have to love all of these people who jumped on the Farscape bandwagon after watching this miniseries. As a loyal Farscape fan from day 1, episode 1, this miniseries “Peacekeeper Wars” is the nail in the coffin of what, for 3 seasons, was the one of the best shows on television. But weren’t there 4 seasons you ask? Unfortunately. However, when bad scripts and weak new characters became the benchmark of the end of season 3 and the entirety of season 4, it’s understandable and highly recommended that you forget season 4 altogether. I had high hopes for the Peacekeeper Wars” to bail it out. I guess I was aiming too high.
With its endless force-feeding of trite, dried-out “Chrichtonisms” every 2 lines, this miniseries set about to force on us what we once welcomed so much; Crichton’s wit at all the RIGHT times and places. To take Chiana, the best possible compliment to the original cast, and systematically butcherize the best (and sexiest) sneak/thief/vixen in sci-fi, was a truly horrifying experience…and what’s with the cat’s eyes, did the writers get drunk while watching Wild Kingdom and come up with this hair-brained idea?
The list goes on, folks. The bottom line: Seasons 1 and 2 rock you senseless, a good part of season 3 will enthrall you. About the end of that, jump off that runaway train before it crashes and kills your expectations entirely with this 4 hour piece of high budget, FX saturated garbage.
Kudos, however, to the phenomenal acting throughout the first three seasons. It’s a tough break when mainly morons take over writing your scripts.
January 15, 2006
#2
There are parts of this science fiction drama that are genuinely entertaining and well done but it fiercely misses the mark. At times I thought I was watching the Muppets. The characters go from one impossible situation to another and the story goes nowhere. The “pregnancy” scenes were so poorly done that I wondered how the actors could keep from laughing out loud while doing the scenes. Then, saying it all, when it was cancelled, someone in authority is videoed (in the extras ) speaking to the cast saying it was the best @#$%^& SF series ever made. Wrong. It is one of the worst. Thespians at their worst!
January 16, 2006
#3
If you are a fan of the Farscape TV series, you may well like this movie. I have never seen the series and found The Peacekeeper Wars to be confusing because it assumes you know the history of the characters and story line.
Although I have found other Jim Henson productions engaging – I especially liked Labyrinth — I found this one to be seriously lacking in depth of character. They were walking paper dolls. Only ‘Pilot’ showed any real personality.
There was a plot twist at the end that I found interesting – even ironic – but it wasn’t enough to redeem the movie. I’ll be putting this one back up for sale: not a keeper.
January 16, 2006
#4
discs were great. It came with a clear plastic dvd case instead of the official case, but that’s fine
January 16, 2006
#5
I experienced Farscape as a marathon, 2 week journey through 4 seasons worth of DVDs, and the final miniseries on DVD.
At times Farscape was laugh-out-loud funny and cry-out-loud sad. It was true love and true loss. It was passionate and detatched. It was Shakespeare and slapstick, nail-biting and euphoric, smart and bizarre, rage and revenge.
It always maintained the wonder of a child, looking at the world for the first time.
It had a heart
Most importantly, it had a soul.
Unfortunately, “Farscape – The Peacekeeper Wars” had almost none of what made the four seasons great. It was 13 to 22 episodes worth of plot and characters (Season 5), compressed into four.
Any time a story is compressed like that, something has to be lost. The producers and writers seem to have chosen to focus on the plot that they had written, rather than accelerate and complete the emotional journey that they had been developing in Season 4.
What we wind up with is a fairly bland trip, with characters reduced to the point of irrelevency. The only part of the miniseries where Farscape’s “soul” shines through is the last half an hour.
It is impossible to fault the crew. They were given the basically impossible task of wrapping up the cliffhanger ending to the fourth season, along with the series, in only four episodes. My rating is two stars not because it was bad, just because Farscape was so good.
Ultimately, this is a sad, but necessary, end to one of the most evocative shows I have ever loved. It makes me wish I had the 20 million dollars it would have taken to fund a 13 show 5th Season.