Farscape Season 1, Vol. 4 - PK Tech Girl/That Old Black Magic

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Farscape established itself as a darker, more volatile alternative to the relative utopian ideals of the Star Trek universe, right down to its gloomy, claustrophobic look, but nowhere is that more apparent than its journeys into the hidden pasts of its fugitive heroes. The fourth volume of episodes features a peek into the pasts of Dominar Rygel and ninth level Priestess Zhaan as they hide from the fleets of Peacekeeper soldiers in the galactic frontier known as the Uncharted Territories.

Rygel spent years imprisoned and tortured aboard the Zelbinion, the most feared Peacekeeper battleship of all time, and when they find it a drifting derelict in PK Tech Girl, his memories come back to haunt him. While he battles his demons of the past, the defenseless crew takes on a fleet of ruthless, froglike scavengers ("They spit fire? How come nobody tells me these things!") while American rocket jockey John Crichton finds romance with the a pretty Peacekeeper technician abandoned aboard the wreck (resulting in emotional fireworks from the jealous Aeryn).

That Old Black Magic pits the crew against an evil magician that has been draining the souls of his planet for years and craves the fresh minds of Moya's crew. "I feed on death," the psychic vampire cackles while pitting Crichton against his bloodthirsty nemesis, Peacekeeper Captain Crais, and only Zhaan can save him by unleashing the angry, evil former self she had spent years burying deep within her soul. --Sean Axmaker

Description

"PK Tech Girl": Our crew encounters the drifting derelict of the most feared Peacekeeper battleship, Zelbinion. The discovery has a devastating effect on Rygel… it's the first ship on which he was imprisoned. And Aeryn is finding herself jealous of the attraction she witnesses between Crichton and Gilina, the PK technician they have met aboard the Zelbinion. But as our crew comes under attack by the Sheyangs, a race of savage scavengers, all must put their emotions aside and focus on the battle they face…

"That Old Black Magic": A simple trip to a commerce planet turns into a life-or-death nightmare for Crichton when he is tricked by the dark sorcerer, Maldis. As his spirit literally gets torn from his body, Crichton is transported to a dark supernatural world and forced to battle his arch enemy, Crais, in a deadly game designed to entertain Maldis. It is up to Zhaan to save Crichton, but to do so, she must rekindle a dark side within herself that she thought was buried forever…

Customer Reviews:

Not as good as most Farscape, but better than most other TV .......2004-11-06

Crichton (Ben Browder) finds love on an abandoned Peacekeeper battleship in "PK Tech Girl." This irks Aeryn (Claudia Black) and gives us our first clear hint of the potential for the great romance that is to come. Meanwhile, D'Argo (Anthony Simcoe) and Zhaan (Virginia Hey) bluff a dangerous intruder and Rygel confronts old ghosts. A strong episode.

"That Old Black Magic" is less successful. A powerful sorcerer (Chris Heywood) kidnaps Crichton and brings him face-to-face with Crais (Lani Tupu) in order to feed off the resulting emotion. Despite a powerful performance by Heywood, the tremendous power his character must possess in order to bring Crais into the story makes him too implausible. In addition, much of the episode is talky and consists of our hero running around in a maze, which becomes tiresome after a while. However, we do receive some important and intriguing insight into Zhaan's character and history.

Best Sci-Fi Show EVER!!!!.......2003-10-29

I am 37 year old and have watched Sci-Fi all my life. Farscape is definitely the most creative, original, dynamic, intriguing, sophisticated, intelligent and exhilarating sci-fi show ever produced. YOU MUST SEE THE WHOLE THING!!!!! If you want to learn more about what Farscape is about visit www.savefarscape.com.

A pair of pivotal PeaceKeeper episodes (but no commentary?).......2003-01-24

Well, here I have been watching the Season 1 "Farscape" DVDs and praising the tag-team great commentaries I had been enjoying as the best in fan friendly extras (not to mentioning why Joss Whedon has been so skimpy with such commentaries on the "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" DVDs). So I get to Volume 4, which is the best pair of episodes I have seen to date, and guess what: no commentaries. I was all ready to give this volume 5 stars but I have to subtract one in protest because I am so disappointed.

"PK Tech Girl" does offer the old chestnut about the prisoner who falls for the captor, in this case retelling the tale (quite self-consciously it must be admitted) with the titular character, Technician Gilina Renaez (Alyssa-Jane Cook), a PeaceKeeper technician found on an abandoned PK super cruiser, and John Crichton (Ben Browder) in the familiar roles. What makes this episode work a bit better than that is how this affair irks Aeryn (Claudia Black), plus the fact that this is not a one shot deal for Gilina, which makes this more than a brief but close encounter. There is also a nice little subplot with Rygel, who was once tortured aboard this Peace Keeper ship and needs to confront a rather significant ghost.

I had been wondering what had happened to PeaceKeeper Captain Bialar Crais (Lani John Tupu), who has vowed to hunt down Crichton in the pilot episode. Well, in "That Old Black Magic" Crais and Crichton are brought together by a warlock vampire type being who wants them to try and kill each other. Crichton has long wanted an opportunity to explain that the death of Crais' brother was an accident. This episode gives him a chance to reason with the PeaceKeeper, for all the good it is going to do him. Meanwhile, Crichton's crewmates are trying a way to rescue him, even though they do not know exactly what is going on. Again there is an interesting element to the story involving the difficulty Zhaan (Virginia Hey) is having in taking advantage of her long dormant dark side in being part of the rescue effort. Of the first eight episodes, this is the best of the bunch.

The reason that both of these episodes are above average is because they both have implications for several of the story and character arcs in "Farscape." Like all great science fiction shows, the characters and their relationships are the best part of the show. By this point in the first season we are starting to learn some interesting things and the characters and their relationships are starting to click. On to Volume 5, please.

Farscape is the greatest show on TV........2002-04-26

Anyone who does not understand why one would buy DVD's of this show is not a fan. The DVD's last forever and you can revisit the show when ever you want through them. I'm not getting these for right now. I'm getting these for ten years from now.

4th FARSCAPE DVD is a Good View.......2002-03-05

Well, it was bound to happen. The fourth DVD based on the FARSCAPE series came out, but it was the first one without any real special features at all. While the DVDs are nice to have simply because of the quality of the graphics and the extra footage not seen in North America, is that really enough? I don't think so.

This one starts out with "PK Tech Girl", one of my favourite Season One episodes. When the crew of Moya find the wreckage of a legendary Peacekeeper ship, the Zelbininon, floating in space, they go aboard to see what they can find starchart-wise. But the Zelbinion is not deserted, as Crais left a tech team to go over the ship, and the only survivor, Gilina, hits it off with Crichton. Meanwhile, Rygel must come to grips with having been tortured on this infamous ship, and the fire-breathing scavengers, the Sheyangs, who arrive on the scene don't make the situation any easier. This is a lovely story with some good stuff in it, marred only by the Sheyang at times, but the extra footage here doesn't really make or break this episode. Still, it puts certain story elements into the forefront, provides some background on Rygel, and give Crichton a lust interest that he's not really been given a chance to have yet. Plus, it acts as the catalyst for several storyline developments down the road (notably in "Durka Returns").

The second episode, "That Old Black Magic", has the crew of Moya visiting a commerce planet searching for a remedy for Rygel's case of flu. An evil sorcerer, Maldis, rules the planet through fear and intimdiation, and when he captures both Crichton and Crais and pits them against one another, Zhaan is forced to bring her dark side to the surface to save her shipmate. This episode is a terrific story with some great acting by Lani Tupu as Crais and Chris Heywood as Maldis, and brings the Crichton/Crais relationship back into focus. The extra footage here is worth the price, simply because it adds significantly to the background of Crais and a whole new dimension to some of the morality and ethics of the story.

With no commentary versions or any other special features, other than the terrific D'Argo/Anthony Simcoe profile, this DVD is very light on extra features for the price. I don't know what the reasoning for this was, other than that it was a Henson Company decision, but having the episodes on DVD is the real bonus here. I gave the episode four stars, rather than three, simply because the Anthony Simcoe interview was illuminating and because the extra footage in "That Old Black Magic" made the DVD worth the price alone.

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