Created at least in part due to popular demand, Farscape: The Peacekeeper Wars will provide some closure to fans who were dismayed by the demise of the popular science fiction television show in 2003 and campaigned mightily to bring it back. Indeed, this mini-series (originally broadcast over two nights on the Sci-Fi Channel) will likely appeal primarily to the Farscape faithful, as the somewhat convoluted storyline may prove baffling to the uninitiated.

A brief bit of backstory explains how John Crichton, an astronaut from Earth, went through a wormhole and ended up on Moya, a living spaceship, with a motley group of aliens, including D'Argo (Anthony Simcoe), Chiana (Gigi Edgley), various puppet characters (designed by the Jim Henson Company), and Aeryn (Claudia Black), Crichton's love interest, who's expecting their first child. As The Peacekeeper Wars begins, our heroes find themselves in the middle of a war-to-end-all-wars between the lizard-like, implacably evil Scarrans and their rivals, the Peacekeepers. Crichton is the lynchpin in all of this, as his knowledge of "wormhole technology" is coveted by all, including his old nemesis Scorpius (Wayne Pygram), who captured and tortured Crichton back in season 1 and with whom Crichton must now form an uneasy alliance against the Scarrans.

Over the course of the three-hour miniseries, we get lots of weird- and cool-looking aliens, some nice sets and special effects, plenty of battles, and lots of portentous talk about the fate of the universe--nothing especially original, but all presented with outstanding production values. There's drama and action, love and betrayal, tragedy and triumph, war and, ultimately, peace, with a suitably spectacular ending (and a nod to Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey). With a 30-minute "making of" documentary among the DVD special features, The Peacekeeper Wars is a fitting way to end the Farscape saga. --Sam Graham

PKW is surely a testament to democracy and fan-power if ever there was! A massive outcry from fans made this possible, a two-part mini-series that ties up the loose ends left dangling from season four. Basically, the entire fifth season is condensed into a mere three hours, so if at times it feels a bit overloaded that's understandable. But you know what, despite the occasional misstep (the pace is sometimes a bit uneven), this is a triumphant and at times brilliant return. Lots of action, intrigue, neat plotting and solid characterisation mark this as a sumptuous treat.

The epic scale and the lavish effects are breathtaking. My only qualm is that while the mini-series does a terrific job of tying up loose ends, it's so dense with little exposition or concession to newbies, that it was probably unlikely to capture the interest of new viewers. Still, welcome back Farscape! Keep an eye out for a series of 'webisodes' coming soon.

If you love Farscape and have all the 4 seasons of DVDs like I do, then you come to unfortunate decision of having to buy this mini series to wrap the program up. Although watching The Peacekeeper Wars is necessary because of the silly cliff hanger at the end of season 4, it has a bittersweet taste. Read the other more honest reviews here and you'll see why. There isn't any point in me going over what they've already said. My own personal opinion is that they should have wrapped the show up during season 4 if they were going to cancel. The plot during season 4 was going pretty well and with a little more work, they could have ended the show at the end of the season without needing The Peacekeeper Wars.

So much work through 4 seasons on building terrific, deep and brilliantly acted characters... The Peacekeeper Wars, although providing an ending to the show, is nothing more than a hurried, disrespectful, monosyllabic answer to a long burning question.

I was absolutely devastated when the show was pulled and left us hanging on the edge over what happened. It was a surprise - and a relief - to find this film was available to conclude the whole story. The ending was a little predictable, but for those who saw the end of season 4 and felt empty as a result, they will find this a fitting ending to the show.

Do not get me wrong I really enjoyed Peacekeeper Wars, it was a fun and energetic film and a fitting conclusion to an excellent series. However, I found myself wanting something else, it was as if something was not quite there. It seemed a little rushed, there was so much going on in a small amount of time. Some of the characters, well developed characters in the original TV Series were relegated to bit parts and I thought that they deserved a little more.

However, on reflection, it was only four hours long, what else could they have done. I did enjoy this mini series, the ending was particularly good. I would like to see more of Farscape, but I doubt that that will happen.

Farscape: The Peacekeeper Wars isn't a bad mini-series but it is by no means a victorious resurrection. It plays like a rough synopsis of what might have been, combined with a final farewell. It wraps up just enough from the previous four seasons to satisfy what the fans were clamoring for the most loudly, but does so with little invention in set piece after set piece, as if the writers were checking off a list detailing all the major plot lines and featuring almost every major character that made an appearance during the series' run.

However, because Peacekeeper Wars was financed by a third party, there was a price to be paid. The conclusion came at the cost of downgrading the supporting characters, once an integral part of Farscape, into traditional and expendable sidekicks, their story arcs curtailed or abandoned in favour of those of Crichton, Aeryn, and Scorpius. Any plot threads relevant to the supporting cast are concluded in a perfunctory and unsatisfactory manner or simply dropped; some characters are changed or rewritten (even if it contradicts canon), and at least one major character does not appear at all. This is almost certainly because Peacekeeper War's private backers wanted an action-orientated mini-series concentrating on only on the main characters so that it would be understandable for those who never have seen Farscape before (and therefore easier to sell around the world), and the production has been compromised for their benefit as a result.

And though fans hoped that Peacekeeper Wars would be a new beginning for Farscape, it's lacklustre ratings (almost certainly due to numerous reviews labeling it as a 'fans only' affair) has only proved that the network was correct to cancel. Far from reviving Farscape, Peacekeeper Wars has killed it.

And the frustrating thing is, had Farscape's producers had been more willing to negotiate with the network, they could have concluded Farscape with a shortened 13 episode season or 2-3 mini-series. Instead, they relied on the fans to badger the network into buying a full season of a show that fewer and fewer people were watching. The campaign failed, and the producers had to be bailed out by a syndicate who could only provide funds for one privately-financed and thematically compromised mini-series that belittles the cast's best efforts in the previous seasons, and wasted the talents of the supporting cast.