I'm surprised no one has started a thread on this yet.

From tvguide.com:

Farscape is returning home to the Sci Fi Channel. The cabler has finalized a deal to air Farscape: Peacekeeper War, the highly anticipated four-hour miniseries that will tie up all the loose ends left dangling when the network axed the acclaimed drama last year. The project has already wrapped production and is slated to air at the end of the year.

I had such mixed emotions when I heard about this that I didn't know what to say if I started a thread. I'm still not sure how I feel about it.

das

Very cool that Farscape is returning
But, on Sci-Fi

If Battlestar is any indication, we should be seeing advertisements for it any day now.*



*Haven't tuned to Sci-Fi since SG1 ended it's season, maybe they are already.......

Damn you Bonnie Hammer. Damn you to hell.

D

After reading the thread title, I was excited -- until I got to this part...

Why?

Why they would go back to the Sci-Fi channel I will never know. I am just going to assume that they couldn't get anyone to finance this miniseries. So is this supposed to finish Farscape, or are the creators hoping to turn this miniseries into another show?

From the Sci-Fi (sic) press release:

"The miniseries will bring resolution - Farscape-style - to many of the burning questions left unanswered, and reunites John Crichton (Ben Browder), Aeryn Sun (Claudia Black) and the rest of the Moya crew for one final adventure."

Sounds like they are ending it. I too don't know how to feel about this whole situation. Seems like there were more attractive options being offered way back during the original cancellation announcement than what we're going to get.

Oh well, as long as the show (writing/production) is equal to the 4 seasons we got, I'll learn to be satified with this installment to tie up the loose ends. I would have preferred a full 5th season on another network or direct-to-DVD, but I suppose economic realities dictate otherwise.

I am extremely happy about the new mini series. While I'm still miffed at Sci-Fi for cancelling the show i'm grateful that the creators will be able to at least partially tie up any loose ends because the way it was left off was intolerable. Plus any chance one gets to see more Chiana is a plus.

just because they tie up the loose ends it doesn't mean that the show couldn't come back if the ratings were huge enough.

I fell in love with this show on DVD (the depth of my love being that I am going to buy all the seasons at the insane price point). But since all the DVDs aren't out yet I haven't seen the last half of season 4 (after they land on Earth).

What did Sci-Fi do to the show to cause such animosity? Besides canceling it, I mean. I know the show ends on a cliffhanger.

You could search the forum to see just how much they did, but in short: they guaranteed a 5th season to the fans, trumpeted the show as their most important asset and the future of the network; then after spending a bunch of money to buy SG-1's fanbase from Showtime, systematically sandbagged the show (e.g. holding the final 4 episodes of Season 3 hostage for over 8 months) to gain leverage to renege on their 5th season promise, tried to keep the cancellation under wraps so fans wouldn't find out in time to start a "Save This Show" campaign. After receiving bad press from the cancellation, they then proceeded to mount a misleading and disingenuous PR campaign, going so far as to mock their own viewers.

Suffice it to say, many of us have refused to ever watch the channel again, which presents an annoying situation after this most recent announcement.

das

Edit: I've also heard rumors that there's a video of Bonnie Hammer clubbing baby seals with a lead pipe wrapped within a Stephen Spielberg Presents Taken poster, but I cannot speak to the accuracy of that at this time.

There are WAY too many plot points to be wrapped in a 4 hour miniseries. Sure you could resolve the cliffhanger, but there was just way too much potential for many seasons to come with some of the threads they introduced. Sure, I'll take it because it's Farscape, but F sci-fi for making me have to settle in the first place.

Well I'm excited to see it but pissed that I'll have to watch the Sci-Fi channel to do so. I haven't watched that channel since the last episode aired.

das sums it up pretty well.

My main issue is from a creative standpoint. The writers of the show were promised a 4th and 5th season, and wrote the show accordingly. The entire season 4 that you are watching was planned out in advance on the assumption that they would have another full year to 'finish' the story. They already had the 22 5th season episodes mapped out and knew where they were taking the show. And then they just had the rug pulled out from under them.

I'll take a 4-hour miniseries if that's all I can get. But that is obviously not the equal of the 22 episodes that were promised -- to both the fans and the creators.

I'm just curious what were some of the offers?

I've gotten into the show very much after the fact. Through DVD's and other means I won't go into here, I've seen all the way up until the beginning of season 4. I still have about 20 eps to finish, but I really love the show and I'm glad that it will get a conclusion.

das summed up my feelings pretty well - I am completely torn. If I had a choice, I wouldn't settle for a measly four hours when we were promised (and the show needs) 22 hours to properly finish. It is, though, better than nothing, even though it means I will have to watch USA2 again. My boycott is for all things non-farscape on that channel, so I don't feel I've broken my oath in that area.

When Henson and Sci-Fi were in talks about continuing the show, Sci-Fi offered a couple of different options:

* Cut the budget in half (750,000 instead of 1.5 million per ep) and have a full season 5.

Henson declined that option outright, claiming that they could not produce a quality show on that budget, and pointed out that their budget is actually less than other genre shows (Buffy and Enterprise were specifically mentioned).

* Leave the episode budget as-is and do a shorter 13-episode season.

Henson also declined this, saying basically "all or nothing". They were promised 22 episodes, they had planned 22 episodes, and they wanted to get 22 episodes.

I certainly agreed with this logic at the time... but now that they have ended up right back where they started (on the Sci-Fi Channel) with only 4 hours of programming to conclude things... I have to wonder if it wouldn't have been better to go for the shorter final season and just condense the scripts.


Oh well, we'll see what they give us... I'm looking forward to seeing the Moya crew again, even if it is not as exciting as a proper 22-episode conclusion would have been.

I really hope they don't try to conclude all storylines in this 4 hour series. I think I would actually prefer another cliffhanger.

Sounds like they should have taken the 13-episode agreement at the time, even though they were promised 22. I know it's a matter of pride, but 13 > 4...

Thanks for the info bboisvert. I agree with Breakfast with Girls, they should have went for the shorter season. They don't really have too many "filler" eps, but I'm sure they could have made 13 work.

I wonder if SciFi will start to rerun Farscape half as much as they rerun SG-1 in order for new comers to catch up before the miniseries? BTW I happen to like SG-1, so I'm not bashing it(well up until and including season 5 anyways).

I think the issue at the time was that Sci-Fi was basically saying 13 episodes, with the thought that "maybe" they'll pick up the additional 9 later on if ratings warrant it.

So, I can see why the creators would have a problem with it... for a show that is so tightly written, where each episode builds off the next, with a specific flowing story, they were in a tough position.

They have 22 episodes "written" (I assume that most of these were just outlines, not completed scripts). If you condense these down to 13 episodes, do you assume that the show is over and actually build to an 'ending'? And, if you do, what if Sci-Fi gives you 9 more episodes? Or 9 more episodes and a 6th season? Or 9 more episodes, a promised 6th season, and then decide to stop at 5 seasons?


I think they were seeing Sci-Fi renegging on the promised 5th season and feeling that they could not create a quality show in an environment when they couldn't even trust how many episodes they'd have available... I think they just wanted the original plan (22 episodes in a final, 5th season).

But, again, with hindsight being 20/20, I don't think that this current miniseries is necessarily a better situation. I'd probably feel better about it if they didn't end up right back on the dreaded Sci-Fi Channel.

There are always episodes on my Tivo wishlist.