Farscape: The Illustrated Companion

Farscape: Novels & Guides

by Paul Simpson, David Hughes

An illustrated guide to the popular TV series about an Earth astronaut who finds himself aboard a living ship with a colorful variety of escaped prisoners is accompanied by character and cast biographies, a detailed episode guide, behind-the-scenesAn illustrated guide to the popular TV series about an Earth astronaut who finds himself aboard a living ship with a colorful variety of escaped prisoners is accompanied by character and cast biographies, a detailed episode guide, behind-the-scenes anecdotes about the creation of the series, and more. Original. 25,000 first printing. (A SCI-FI Channel series, starring Ben Browder, Claudia Black, Anthony Simcoe, Virginia Hey, Gigi Edgley, & Paul Goddard) (Performing Arts) anecdotes about the creation of the series, and more. Original. 40,000 first printing. (A SCI-FI Channel series, starring Ben Browder, Claudia Black, Anthony Simcoe, Virginia Hey, Gigi Edgley, & Paul Goddard) (Performing Arts)

Genres: Nonfiction, Tv, Media Tie In, Reference, Pop Culture

160 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2000

Reviews

[Valerie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I know everyone loves Battlestar Galactica, which I'm sure is a fine show, but how could you not love a show where a key character says "I'm no-one's puppet." Except he is.

[John Peel · Rating 4 out of 5]

A detailed guide to the first season of fan-favorite SF show "Farscape". Nicely done and enjoyable, with lots of relevant interviews. If you like the show, you'll love this.

[Dark-Draco · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a nice little companion to the first series of Farscape. An introduction to the characters and the actors who play them, plus lots of behind-the-scene stuff on how the series came about and on the special effects. Not as interesting as other books of this type though, but it did leave me with a wish to re watch the programme.

[Sheldon Wiebe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Behind the scenes book covering season one of Farscape. Nicely done. Clean, concise and actually ptrtty insightful.

[Deena Wilde · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lots of good info on the series. Stories, sets, makeup all the behind the scenes goodies. If you like the series, you're going to love this book.

[Raymonds009 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great companion piece to the series. Excellent pictures.

[Jaime K · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great companion piece to the first season of FS, which was obviously written shortly after the season ended.

- There are 3-page synopses of the episodes, with a short recap and some production background.
- There is a brief overview of the main characters, and shorter snippets on the recurring characters. This includes how most were casted (or operated/voiced)
- There is a section on the effects and the efforts/new developments the Jim Henson's Creature Shop put into the show.


One doesn't always realize how much TIME it takes to develop a show. In the case of FS, it was thought of in 1993, went into pre-production in 1998, and finally aired in 1999. The Henson company provided feedback and innovations throughout the course of those years.
We also see just how far CGI had gone in 3 years: from Independence Day to FS...there is more CGI in 1x01 than there was in ID.

The images are blurred, as if they're screenshots. Which, they might be. But even some of the concept art wasn't very clear/easy to read and see.
I wish the air dates were given, just so that we have a better understanding of when the show was viewed.

[James Crawford · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book covers the first season of the series. It starts out with a foreword and then has a brief section on the history of the show's development. Then it has a section on each episode, with a recap of what happened, various photos, a cast listing, who wrote it and who directed it, and a quote from Chichton. All but the first episode also have a small section which talks about the creatures they encounter during that episode.

The next part of the book has information about the various characters, and this is followed by a section on the special effects used during the show. The book has a lot of information and is worth getting.

[Arkady · Rating 3 out of 5]

There are two parts in this book:

· The first one has a two page commentary on every episode of the first season with quotes from actors and details about some scenes. This part would be more enjoyable if read just before or after watching the same episode.

· The second part contains a short essay about each character, and then the story of how special effects and animatronics (mechanic puppets) were designed and made.

It is amazing how much work and creativity went into this show... I am looking forward to read about the miracles that were made in the following seasons.

[sologdin · Rating 1 out of 5]

not sure if this is a true tertiary or merely marketing material (which would be a quarternary, no?).

[Wendy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed going behind the scenes of Farscape, and reading about how the show came together, interviews with the cast and crew, and summaries of all the season one episodes.

[Margaret Young · Rating 1 out of 5]

Overly simplistic and really not that helpful.