I actually prefer the sequel, "2010". Director Peter Hyams shows a greater interest in character, and succeeds better at pacing and staying on story. There are good reasons why most filmmakers shoot their films more like Hyams, and less like Kubrick. Indeed, when we line up "2010" against most other sci-fi films made around the same time, "2010" stands up as an excellent and fascinating entry, one with a level of scientific accuracy and credibility that most of the others cannot truly approach. It truly deserved far more kudos than it ever got, unfairly glossed over in the shadow of its earlier counterpart.

• Audio commentary by Keir Dullea (Dave Bowman) and Gary Lockwood (Frank Poole)
• TV documentary "2001: The Making of a Myth"
• Featurette - "Standing on the Shoulders of Kubrick: The Legacy of 2001"
• Featurette - "Vision of a Future Passed: The Prophecy of 2001"
• Featurette - "2001: A Space Odyssey - A Look Behind the Future"
• Featurette - "What is Out There?"
• "2001: FX and Early Conceptual Artwork"
• Look: Stanley Kubrick!
• Audio-only interview with Stanley Kubrick
• Theatrical Trailer

• Vintage featurette - "2010: The Odyssey Continues"
• Theatrical trailer

Unfortunately, director Doug Liman and the screenwriters don't really craft a film that can properly take advantage of all the archetypal potentials up for grabs with the main ideas. Early scenes set up a sweet love interest potential for two of the main characters, but their interaction throughout the rest of the film is a dismal disappointment. Millie is constantly pressing to learn what's going on from David, who appears quite icky and wimpy in his constant avoidance of confiding in her. Though this dynamic may seem a logical beat for their relationship, it stretches out to consume about 80% of their screen time together, until it defines the relationship and makes it uncompelling viewing.

• 3 versions of the film:
  • Original theatrical version (1977, 2 hours, 14 min.)
  • Special edition (1980, 2 hours, 12 min.)
  • Director's cut (1998, 2 hours, 17 min.)
• "The Making of Close Encounters of the Third Kind" documentary (1 hour, 42 min. total):
  • Part 1 - We Are Not Alone (39 min.)
  • Part 2 - Production Stories (48 min.)
  • Part 3 - Putting It Together (15 min.)
• Interview with Steven Spielberg - 30 Years of Close Encounters (21 min.)
• 1977 Featurette: Watch the Skies (6 min.)
• Previews & trailers (10 min. total)
• Region 1 version has English, French, and Spanish audio tracks on all 3 version of the film.
• "A View From Above" as a poster contrasting the differences between the 3 versions
• 30th anniversary collector's book, with photos, biographies, behind-the-scenes info, and famous quotes.

• "A View From Above" as an on-disc branching guide
• Deleted scenes
• Photo gallery

Remember, EVERY Doctor Who story from William Hartnell's original pilot "An Unearthly Child" (story no. 1) to Peter Capaldi's debut "Deep Breath" (story no. 247) has an extensive, detailed review here on this site, and usually one that aims to highlight the positive philosophical qualities written into the adventure as well as its artistic merits. Browse the entire line sequentially with our episode guide catalogues, to find the exact review you want to see, or to find deals on whichever DVD's you still need for your collection....

Based on the tested formula of a group of characters traveling in a single ship, Farscape may be the best of such shows to resist anthropomorphism, keeping each alien species alien and true to its own culture, and with a unique and visually exciting look to match. Find out for yourself why this series remains one of the most loved in the annals of science fiction television, now in full season box sets with plentiful bonus features....

Season One:

(1999-2000) .... 22 episodes @ 45 min. each

Region 1 DVD Box Set Extras include:

• 14 audio commentaries
• Documentary: "Making of a Space Opera" (22 min.)
• Documentary: "In the Beginning: A Look Back with
  Brian Henson" (contains spoilers for the entire series)
• Director's cut scenes

Region 1 Blu-ray Bonus features include:

• behind-the-scenes interviews with
  Anthony Simcoe (Dargo),
  Jonathan Hardy (voice of Rygel XVI), and
  Lani John Tupu (Crais / voice of Pilot)
• plus all extras from the standard DVD version

Season Two:

(2000-2001) .... 22 episodes @ 45 min. each

Region 1 DVD Box Set Extras include:

• 5 audio commentaries
• Alternate version of "Re-Union" when it was to
  be the opening season 2 episode
• Deleted scenes
• Director's cut scenes
• Blooper Reel

Region 1 Blu-ray Bonus features include:

• "Listening In" featurettes with composer Guy Gross for 4 episodes
• Behind-the-scenes interviews with
  Wayne Pygram and David Franklin
• the rare "Farscape Undressed" special (44 min.)
• plus all extras from the standard DVD version

Season Three:

(2001-2002) .... 22 episodes @ 45 min. each

Region 1 DVD Box Set Extras include:

• 9 audio commentaries
• Documentary: "Season Three: A Look Back
  with Exec. Prod. David Kemper"
• Behind-the-scenes interviews with
  Ben Browder (John Crichton),
  Claudia Black (Aeryn), Anthony Simcoe (Dargo),
  Gigi Edgley, and Wayne Pygram.
• Composer Guy Gross discusses the season 3 theme
• Deleted scenes
• original TV promos for all episodes

Region 1 Blu-ray Bonus features include:

• "Zhaan Forever" in-depth interview
  with Virginia Hey (Zhaan).
• interviews with Rebecca Riggs and Paul Goddard
• "Listening In" featurettes with composer Guy Gross for 4 episodes
• plus all extras from the standard DVD version

Season Four:

(2002-2003) .... 22 episodes @ 45 min. each

Region 1 DVD Box Set Extras include:

• 3 audio commentaries
• Inside Farscape featurette "Villains"
• Inside Farscape featurette "Visual Effects"
• Inside Farscape featurette "Save Farscape"
• "The story so far..." clip reel
• Deleted scenes
• "On the Last Day" wrap speech from David Kemper

Region 1 Blu-ray Bonus features include:

• "Memories of Moya" HD retrospective documentary.
• Listening in with composer Guy Gross featurettes
  for 4 episodes
• video profiles of executive producers/writers
  Rockne S. O'Bannon and David Kemper.
• plus all extras from the standard DVD version

Seasons 1-4 Mega-Set: (1999-2003) 88 episodes, plus 15 hours of bonus features

Things get even better for you... Read further on down the page....

Region 1 DVD Box Set Extras include:

• 31 audio commentaries
• Documentary: "Making of a Space Opera" (22 min.)
• Documentary: "In the Beginning: A Look Back
  with Brian Henson" (~39 min.)
• Documentary: "Season Three: A Look Back
  with Exec. Prod. David Kemper"
• Inside Farscape featurette "Villains"
• Inside Farscape featurette "Visual Effects"
• Inside Farscape featurette "Save Farscape"
• Behind-the-scenes interviews with cast and crew
• Deleted scenes, director's cut scenes
• Alternate version of "Re-Union"
  as the season 2 premiere
• Listening in with composer Guy Gross featurettes
  for 12 episodes
• rare "Farscape Undressed" special (44 min. pseudo-ad)
• original TV promos

Region 1 Blu-ray Bonus features include:

• "Memories of Moya" HD retrospective documentary.
• video profiles of executive producers/writers
  Rockne S. O'Bannon and David Kemper.
• plus all extras from the standard DVD version

Epilogue: The Peacekeeper Wars

(2004 mini-series) totaling 3 hours, 2 min.

This mini-series somewhat makes up for the cancelled fifth season and
provides some resolution by tying up the loose ends of the series.

DVD Extras include:

• Making-of featurette (30 min.)
• interactive art gallery
• spacecraft gallery
• production storyboards

Seasons 1-4 plus The Peacekeeper Wars (1999-2004) Only the U.K. Region 2 PAL standard DVD version of this show has accomplished the obvious, which is to bundle all four seasons plus the resolution mini-series in the same box set. This is probably the only set that truly deserves to call itself complete.

Beware: There is a blu-ray set out there that LOOKS the same on the surface, but does NOT include "The Peacekeeper Wars".

This is an anthology series, where there are no regular characters. Instead, each episode is its own self-contained short story.... which also means you can watch the episodes in any order you please. This series is a hit with sci-fi fans and critics alike, taking the number 2 spot in the 1987 sci-fi TV poll in John Javna's "The Best of Science-Fiction TV" book.

Season One: (1959-1960) 36 episodes @ 26 min. each

Notable episodes include: "Time Enough At Last" "Elegy" "Long Live Walter Jameson" "The After Hours"

In total, these season one box sets contain 36 episodes averaging 26 minutes each, plus an extra unaired version of the pilot: "Where Is Everybody?" preceded by a filmed network sales pitch by Rod Serling. The regular episodes include the memorable fan favourite "Time Enough At Last" in which Burgess Meredith desires to read long past doomsday.

The vast majority of bonus features are audio only, and are presented as alternate audio tracks on the episodes themselves. On the standard DVD "Definitive Edition" set, these include 21 isolated music scores by Jerry Goldsmith, Bernard Herrmann, Van Cleave, and various library tracks including one by Les Structures Sonores. In addition to 6 proper audio commentaries, we also get audio recordings of Rod Serling's university film class lectures and vintage interviews of cast and crew by Marc Scott Zicree as he researched his Twilight Zone book - these lectures and interviews are presented as pseudo-audio-commentaries on related episodes. Finally, there are the Radio dramas - alternate versions of several episodes designed for audio only, typically between 35-40 minutes each and played over a still picture.

As an example, here's a detailed breakdown of the extras for each episode on
the STANDARD DVD version of season one - "The Definitive Edition":

No.	Episode Title:	Isolated Music Track:	Other Extras:
0.	Serling's Pitch plus Unaired Pilot: "Where Is Everybody?" (35 min.)		-Proper Audio Commentary by executive William Self -Rod Serling audio lecture -alternate opening narration
1.	"Where Is Everybody?"	Bernard Herrmann	Proper Audio Commentary by star Earl Holliman
2.	"One for the Angels"		Radio version starring Ed Begley Jr.
3.	"Mr. Denton on Doomsday"		Proper Audio Commentary by co-star Martin Landau
4.	"The Sixteen-Millimeter Shrine"	Franz Waxman
5.	"Walking Distance"	Bernard Herrmann	Rod Serling Lecture
6.	"Escape Clause"
7.	"The Lonely"	Bernard Herrmann	Radio version starring Mike Starr (found as a separate feature on the last disc)
8.	"Time Enough at Last"		-Zicree interview of star Burgess Meredith. -Video of Drew Carey's parody of the episode (1 min.)
9.	"Perchance to Dream"	Van Cleave
10.	"Judgment Night"
11.	"And When the Sky Was Opened"	Leonard Rosenman	-Proper Audio Commentary by star Rod Taylor -Rod Serling Lecture -Zicree interview with director Douglas Heyes
12.	"What You Need"	Van Cleave
13.	"The Four of Us Are Dying"	Jerry Goldsmith
14.	"Third From the Sun"	Library (including Les Structures Sonores)	Zicree interview with director Richard L. Bare
15.	"I Shot an Arrow into the Air"		Radio version starring Chelsie Ross
16.	"The Hitch-Hiker"	Library cues
17.	"The Fever"
18.	"The Last Flight"
19.	"The Purple Testament"	Lucien Moraweck
20.	"Elegy"	Van Cleave
21.	"Mirror Image"	Library cues	Proper Audio Commentary by co-star Martin Milner
22.	"The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street"	René Garriguenc	Radio version starring Frank John Hughes
23.	"A World of Difference"	Van Cleave
24.	"Long Live Walter Jameson"		Proper Audio Commentary by star Kevin McCarthy
25.	"People Are Alike All Over"
26.	"Execution"
27.	"The Big Tall Wish"	Jerry Goldsmith	Radio version starring Blair Underwood
28.	"A Nice Place to Visit"	Library cues
29.	"Nightmare as a Child"	Jerry Goldsmith
30.	"A Stop at Willoughby"	Nathan Scott	Zicree interview with producer Buck Houghton
31.	"The Chaser"	Library cues	Zicree interview with director Douglas Heyes
32.	"A Passage for Trumpet"	Lyn Murray
33.	"Mr. Bevis"
34.	"The After Hours"		-Zicree interviews with star Anne Francis and director Douglas Heyes -Radio version starring Kim Fields
35.	"The Mighty Casey"		-Rod Serling Lecture -montage of rare photos (23 seconds)
36.	"A World of His Own"		Zicree interview with writer Richard Matheson

Also on the "extras" disc is:

• Rod Serling's filmed Netherlands Sales Pitch (4 min.)
• A segment of Rod Serling hosting the 1970's game show "Liar's Club" (21 min., colour)
• Rod Serling Blooper (12 seconds)
• Rod Serling accepts Emmy Awards for Twilight Zone (3 min.)
• Twilight Zone sponsor commercials (2 min.)
• Main Photo Gallery (2 min.)
• DVD-ROM .pdf file of a 1963 issue of Twilight Zone comic book.

Blu-ray gives you all of that, plus much more of the same, and then some... There are 19 new proper audio commentaries, though you can expect a lot of those to be from modern writers inspired by and in appreciation of "The Twilight Zone" rather than people who actually worked on the show. We also get part one of a "vintage" audio interview of Director of Photography George T. Clemens - with further installments on sets for later seasons. Plus, on film, we get the rare unofficial Twilight Zone pilot "The Time Element" written by Rod Serling, and an early "Tales of Tomorrow" version of the episode "What You Need". Plus, interviews with actors Dana Dillaway, Suzanne Lloyd, and Beverly Garland.

To compare the two:

Season Two: (1960-1961) 29 episodes @ 25 min. each

notable episodes include: "Eye of the Beholder" "The Silence" "The Invaders" "Long Distance Call" (Billy Mumy) "Night of the Meek" "Nick of Time" (William Shatner)

-Mike Wallace interview of Rod Serling
-clips from "Tell it to Groucho" and "The Jack Benny Show"
-photo gallery
-comic book DVD-ROM .pdf

Season Three: (1961-1962) 37 episodes @ 25 min. each

Notable episodes include: "Little Girl Lost" "To Serve Man" "It's a Good Life" (Billy Mumy) "A Quality of Mercy" (Dean Stockwell, Leonard Nimoy)

Season Four: (Winter/Spring 1963) 18 episodes @ 50 min. each

Notable episodes include: "Death Ship" (Jack Klugman, Ross Martin) "In His Image" "Miniature" "The Bard" "On Thursday We Leave for Home"

Season Five: (1963-1964) 36 episodes @ 25 min. each

Notable episodes include: "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet" (William Shatner) "A Kind of a Stopwatch" "The Masks" "Living Doll" "In Praise of Pip" (Billy Mumy) "The Encounter" (George Takei)

Most of the extras from the DVD version are here, but the 90-minute documentary "Submitted for Your Approval" is NOT INCLUDED in the Blu-ray version!)

The Complete Collection: (1959-1964) All 156 episodes

The evolution of Lorne Greene's character of Adama might even symbolize a healthier message if presented to the audience in reverse - as indeed it was when I saw season two first in 1980, then later most of season one, and then finally the 3-part pilot movie. Adama is a pseudo-God-like figure at the end, descending to Earth from the heavens, the wise old man with a white beard, with his angels Troy and Dillon preceding him and preparing the way. Back up to season one, and learn that he is just a man like any other, stemming from a more technologically advanced society than our own and doing his best to lead his people through a difficult time. Back up to the pilot, and you get to see and feel some of the things that may be influencing his decisions, and see why they are not always the wisest ones possible. This deconstruction of a popular image has stuck with me and influenced me to this day, helping me to dig deeper than most for theological and philosophical meaning. Though the presentation of things here may not be the most ideal when taken at face value, the images are memorable and evocative, and a good trigger for initiating debate. All this from a series that remains a lot of fun even today, and had me absolutely giddy with anticipation for each new episode when it first aired.

The saga comes on six double-sided discs, which is a bit weird considering that discs 4 and 5 only have material on one side each. Special features are spread out across all discs, which really benefits the deleted scenes in keeping them closely associated with the episodes they came from.

Episodes were generally about 48 minutes each, but as you may already know there were a LOT of multi-episode stories in this series. Most of them are presented episodically, but both the three-part pilot and the two-part "Greetings From Earth" are presented here as movie-length stories instead.

DVD Box Set Extras include:

• Audio commentary by actors Richard Hatch (Apollo), Dirk Benedict (Starbuck),
  and Herbert Jefferson Jr. (Boomer) on the triple-length pilot (2 hours, 20 minutes).
• "Remembering Battlestar Galactica" making-of documentary (45 min.), adding Laurette Spang (Cassiopeia),
  Anne Lockhart (Sheba), Terry Carter (Colonel Tigh), Noah Hathaway (Boxey/Troy),
  Patrick MacNee (Count Iblis / Narrator / Voice of Imperious Leader), Lance LeGault (Bootes / Maga),
  writer/creator/producer Glen A. Larson, writer / story editor Terrence McDonnell, and
  directors Richard A. Colla, Rod Holcomb, Christian Nyby Jr., Alan Levi, and Winrich Kolbe.
• interview of creator Glen A. Larson discussing the myths and legends inspiring many of the story ideas (6 min.)
• interview of composer/orchestrator Stu Phillips on how the shows were scored (5 min.)
• Featurette on the challenges of realizing the Cylons (5 min.)
• "Working with the Daggit" featurette (5 min.)
• Deleted and alternate scenes (and bloopers) on most episodes (over 3 hours total!)
• Photo Gallery

Season Two (Galactica 1980): starring Lorne Greene, Kent McCord, Barry Van Dyke, Herbert Jefferson Jr., and
guest starring Dirk Benedict

Then in 2003, I eagerly tuned into the backdoor pilot TV movie for the new Battlestar Galactica, and was completely disappointed.

Part of it was stylistic - the show now looked and felt too much like any other modern Earth-based one, without actually taking place on Earth at all as the ad campaign had led me to assume, and had lost its fun, escapist, other-worldly cultural aspects. Exciting visuals that used to be center-stage were now tossed off into the background. The enemy Cylons spent most of their screen time also looking like everyday people.

What seemed to take center-stage instead was something I had already grown tired of seeing from head-writer Ronald D. Moore during his days on Star Trek The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine, and that was the indulgence of his fetish for making characters suffer losses and deaths, generally wallowing in high levels of dysfunction for long periods of time. For those of us well-educated in self-help material, the protagonists were falling too far behind the audience, lessening our ability to engage emotionally and invest in their struggles.

I think I might even have found all of that forgivable, if not for the biggest disappointment of all. We didn't get a continuation of the saga in 2003, even if the evolution of the Cylons seemed to be continuing from where they had been in the 1980 episode "The Night the Cylons Landed". Instead, Ron Moore decided to remake the original pilot, and give the impression that with this new style he intended to tell the same story all over again. I lost interest. And perhaps this is the biggest reason why so many people love one version of this show but not the other - they compete with each other more than they complement.

The final insult was that my favourite character, previously played by the A-Team's Dirk Benedict, was now a woman. If it had been the original character's daughter or granddaughter or niece or something, fine. But to pretend to be the original character, played as the opposite gender, was just wrong.

I watched and taped the 2003 miniseries, but have not been able to bring myself to re-watch more than 20 minutes of it since, and I have not tuned in to any of the continuing stories that came after. Maybe I'm missing something, but that's my choice. There's still so much other sci-fi out there that I'd prefer to explore. I do retain my affection for the original series though, and will gladly promote my vote for it as the better of the two versions.

That said, this is a great sci-fi movie, with some powerful ideas and philosophical territory to explore, lots of eye-catching effects that pushed the boundaries at the time, and featuring the debut of an iconic robot prop/costume that would go on to appear in countless other movies and television shows for the next decade or more. If fact, it's uncanny how similar many of these ideas are to the Montauk phase of the Philadelphia Experiment.

• "Exploring the Far Reaches of Forbidden Planet" featurette
• "Robby the Robot: Engineering a Sci-Fi Icon" featurette
• Deleted Scenes and Lost Footage
• TCM original documentary "Watch the Skies!: Science Fiction, the 1950s and Us"
• Bonus 1958 MGM feature film "The Invisible Boy" (also featuring Robby the Robot)
• Bonus The Thin Man TV Series Episode "Robot Client" (featuring Robby the Robot)
• Excerpts from The MGM Parade TV Series with Walter Pidgeon
• Trailer Gallery

In a unique move for a series this short, the cast and crew quickly reassembled to produce a feature film called "Serenity". This film ties up the loose ends of the series, but works as a movie in its own right even if you've seen nothing of the series. Many would rank it better than the Star Wars film that came out the same year.

The spin-off theatrical feature film: (2005) starring Nathan Fillion & Gina Torres. written and directed by Joss Whedon.