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There are definitely elements of Farscape that relegate it to an MST3K place in the pantheon of sci-fi on TV, but I have to tell you that my inner geek was substantially intrigued by this Complete Series collection. Yes, the series starts stronger than it finishes, and while there's a celebration to the fact that A&E is releasing this set in honor of the show's tenth anniversary - there must still be Farscapers out there somewhere! - many of the effects here are super-cheesy, almost to the point of embarrassment. 

But that's what makes Farscape so engaging and enjoyable: I never once got the feeling that the show was encumbered by its not-enormous special effects budget - the world it creates is inconsistent (sometimes we have Muppets; sometimes we have embryonic CGI E.T.s), but it's always lived in. If Farscape were being made now and had the kind of budget a Battlestar Galactica demanded, its technical savvy might hold up to its narrative presence, but these 1999-2003 episodes seem quite happy indeed in their own skins, warts and all.

The set-up is very Star Trek-y, and therefore quickly enveloping: It doesn't take long for poor astronaut John Crichton (Ben Browder) to get sucked into a wormhole that transports him to an alternate galaxy, one where a massive, expansive war is being waged, and his arrival pops him right into the center of it. He's brought aboard a prison ship that has been mutinied by the prisoners it was one carrying. It's clear from the get-go that John Crichton doesn't know who to trust or who to align himself with, but even though he sets his sights on somehow returning home, his day-to-day travails involve the random collection of vagabonds, royalty and space-wizards who share space with him on the spaceship Maya.

And yes, as season one turns into season two and so on and so forth, we follow John and the bad guys - a superbly misnomered band of meanies called The Peacekeepers - who can't seem to cross the street without making life hard for John and his compatriots. There are romances, murders, epic discussions of alien philosophy and protocol - Farscape definitely juggles a nice sci-fi discussion ethic with a handful of balls-to-the-wall fight scenes.

But to call Farscape an action series is both incorrect and somehow ignorant of what the show seems to aim to achieve. Even when Jim was alive, the Jim Henson Company was all about concocting alternate, almost hallucinogenic worlds that were both fantastical and excellently representative of the human spirit, and Jim's son Brian does a noble job of carrying that torch in Farscape. Sure, some of the Muppets are simplistic and unimaginative, but if a viewer finds her/himself on the wavelength of this show, that kind of detail doesn't really matter much.

I know, I know - even just editing the above paragraphs makes me realize I sound like a quintessential sci-fi nerd trying to establish to an unsuspecting public the intricacies and depths of a newly-beloved show, but the fact of the matter is that my sci-fi nerd kinda did fall in love with Farscape: The Complete Series. I don't know that I could defend its every plotpoint and character arc, but once I started it, I knew I was hooked.

Prepare for Starburst!

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