Farscape 4.4

Fantasy

Claudia Black	Aeryn Sun
Ben Browder	Jonathan Robert Crichton
Virginia Hey	Pa'u Zotoh Zhaan
Melissa Jaffer	Utu-Noranti Pralatong
Anthony Simcoe	General/Captain Ka D'Argo
Gigi Edgley	Chiana
Paul Goddard	Stark
Wayne Pygram	Scorpius/Harvey
Raelee Hill	Sikozu Svala Shanti Sugaysi Shanu
Alyssa-Jane Cook	Gilina Renaez

Director	Tony Tilse; Geoff Bennett (II); Andrew Prowse; Rowan Woods; Ian Watson (II)
Producer	Sue Milliken; Andrew Prowse
Writer	David Kemper; Justin Monjo

The fourth volume of Farscape's fourth (and final) series does all those things that the later stages of any season should do: individual episodes play interesting games with how we think television works, while the tension of the overall story arc builds and builds. Of the individual episodes here, "Mental as Anything" is an ensemble piece for the male members of Moya's crew: D'Argo's back-story gets some sort of resolution and Scorpius puts John Crichton through hell for the best of reasons. "Bringing Home the Beacon" is rather more fun-- the women of Moya frustrate a Sebacean/Scarren peace treaty--but ends in stark tragedy. In "Constellation of Doubt", Moya picks up, and the crew obsessionally watch, a documentary from American television about their recent visit to earth: Crichton gets to see human paranoia and wishful thinking through cold, intelligent alien eyes. Finally, in "Prayer", Aeryn suffers terribly at the hands of her Scarren captors and Crichton makes a devil's bargain with Scorpius to save her. By this point the season is building to the surprises of its last episodes: Farscape was about to be cancelled, but it never lost its edge.

On the DVDs: Farscape, Series 4 Vol. 4 includes a dictionary of alien slang and technical terms with illustrative clips from the show, as well as text files on the villainous Peacekeepers Braca and Grayza. The high point of the extras, though, is an interview with the wonderfully flakey Gigi Edgeley (Chiana) and a lot of deleted scenes from "Constellation of Doubt", with footage of Chiana, Aeryn and Noranti interacting with Crichton's family in bizarre and touching ways. --Roz Kaveney