Farscape Vol. 6
ADV Films
Cast: Claudia Black, Ben Browder, Virginia Hey, Anthony Simcoe
Extras: Previously Unbroadcast Footage, Moya Video Profile, Image Gallery, Conceptual Drawings, ADV Previews
Rating:
Continuing their episodic series of releases of the television SciFi series ’Farscape, ’ in this sixth installment ADV Films is bringing us the episodes ’Till The Blood Runs Clear’ and ’Rhapsody In Blue.’
While ’Till The Blood Runs Clear’ is a rather formulaic and straight-forward episode, borrowing from ’Star Wars’ on occasion, ’Rhapsody In Blue’ is a cleverly written, mind-boggling episode. It is episodes of this caliber that give the series its excellent reputation and fans of the series definitely want to look out for this one.
The transfer of these episodes is once again superb. Even upon closest scrutiny, the image quality is absolutely fantastic and reveals a incredible level of detail. Presented in the series’ fullscreen aspect ratio, the transfer is free of any blemishes and has in incredibly rich color reproduction that saturates the screen with otherworldly tinges at one time, and beautifully golden desert tones at others. Blacks are very deep, rendering a very dimensional image with great shadow delineation. The compression has been done perfectly, without introducing any sort of compression artifacting, hence leaving every bit of detail from the original picture intact. Once again, ADV proves that consistently delivering top quality product is a serious consideration for this publisher, showcasing it with every single release anew.
The DVD also features a full-blown 5.1 channel Dolby Digital audio track that is making quite aggressive use of the surround channels. The quality by far exceeds any broadcast presentation of the films, as the wide frequency response creates bombastic explosions and crystal-clear high ends. The dynamic range is also very good, creating effective moments in which the sound has an enormous impact on the scenes while in others, the quiet ambient noises of the environment take over.
The disc comes complete with a selection of extras around Moya, the transport ship. Concept Art from the series, such as inked sketches of Moya and other equipment, as well as storyboards of selected scenes from the series can be found here, as well as a photo gallery with images of Moya. Sadly these images are heavily cropped by a prominent on-screen mask that is overlaying every image. The heart of the supplements is a video profile of Moya, however, featuring interviews and footage that takes you behind the scenes of the production.
Once again, ADV Films is bringing us a top-notch release with ’Farscape Vol. 6’ Some may consider the price for only two episodes at a time a little steep, but one thing is clear. The quality of these ’Farscape’ DVDs is unbeatable!
