Good for them. Wish them well indeed.

However... Warning: slightly heretical and potentially inflammatory views.

First up, I dearly love Farscape, deeply mourn its passing and fervently hope for it to return in some form, ideally a new series, of course. Hell, I want to be a Peacekeeper if and when I ever grow up!

However, I have to say I'm not altogether surprised it was cancelled. The very things I love about it, the strong character development, intricate and ever-twisting story arcs, bizarre out-there ideas and grey areas are also the things that make it difficult for casual/mass audience viewers to get into ie I had friends who were deeply confused about things like how they got from rescue attempts for Aeryn to rescue attempts for Scorpius

Unfortunately, due to their sheer weight of numbers, they're the ones who count when it when it comes to deciding what shows are profitable.

While I have the greatest of respect for the makers of Farscape for pushing the envelope as much as they did and greatly enjoyed what they did, I can't also help feeling we'd have been more likely to see a fifth season if it had catered a bit better for casual viewers.

Of course, this may also mean I spent way too long as a management consultant and am irredeemably consumed by the Dark Side.

If you'll excuse, I really need to start making my way to my bomb shelter...

your right of course, but if we wanted arun of the mill scifi show, then farscape would have been just another Andromeda (sorry to all Andro fans but it doesnt exactly push the envelope)the reason i loved farscape is because it always challenged the viewer, it was said once that there isnt much fan fic for it out there because every time a way out story line was thought up by a fanfic writer the show would have already be doing that storyline. they werent afraid to try soemthing new or take an idea and twist it!
The main problem is the US, it wants its story lines spoon fed, no mystery everything explained....how dull.
But Farscape did get amazing ratings and praise from everywhere, so maybe just maybe that will help it along with incredible support it has had from fans both here and abroad. hell making a tv advert and showing it primetime in the usa takes some beating.

Hey, last thing I want is another Andromeda too and I somewhat concerned that I might not have much to choose from besides it in a year's time! Not even Lexa Doig can compell me to watch it. Hell, she couldn't redeem CI-5 either!

I'd heard a similar comment about Farscape fan fic, especially the dodgier/slashier side of things - that fan fic tends to explore the show's subtext but there wasn't any with Farscape, it's all just text. And, as I say, I loved all the weird, far out stuff they did.

However, I don't feel that and mass audience success are mutually exclusive. Buffy and perhaps Babylon 5 strike me as good examples of TV SF with strong,intelligent plots and characters but which managed to attract enough of a mass audience to more or less deliver their full stories (OK it was certainly touch and go with B5 - season 5, anyone?). Unfortunately, every show has to make its numbers and I imagine Farscape was probably more expensive than most.

Alas, I tend to see life is typically a series of compromises. I guess that's why I also tend to respect people who don't. And there will be few people happier than me if some sort of continuation comes to fruition!

I hope all this does go through.
I'm having Farscape withdrawel already, & I have seasons 1-3 on vid/dvd

It was such a popular & original show, I don't know why they cancelled it in the first place.

Anyhoo, I'd definately pay to see that movie & I'd probably even get up early in the morning to watch if they did an animated version...well...not too early.

well sounds like they may do what B5 did and make a number of tv movies. that way everything doesnt have to be condenced into 2hrs but spread over few longer stories. lets just hope that all the movies are good!
im glad Alias has come along when it did as i wouldnt have anything to look forward to after buffy has gone, apart from angel, but even thats got a noose round its neck at the moment. lets hope they see sense and keep that running.
I think farscape was expensive, but not say as much as some of the other shows the usa make. that was an excuse i heard at one point that it was too expensive to keep farscape running and it was better to go find another scifi show that scifi channel could back. if i was maiing a scifi show, i would nt have scifi channel endorsing it cos you never know when their gona lynch you, just look at first wave, funded by scifi, yet never promoted by them to a point that no one knew it was ever on, and i liked that show!

Now, I don't have any hard data for this but I understand it wasn't so much as issue of cost as profitability ie an expensive show would be fine as long as it brought in lots of money (ie viewers) eg Friends. My impression is that Sci-Fi decided Farscape didn't generate enough viewers to justify the cost of making it, especially not compared with SG-1, which it did opt to renew.

yeah its all about quantitiy not quality theses days. i love SG1 but it doesnt exactly push the envelope with budget 'oh look its another planet that looks like canadian countryside!' they could do an xfiles and paint the rocks red to look like they were in south america!!!

To be fair to Sci-Fi (albeit very reluctantly so) and other networks, part of the problem is that the advertising market has been in a sharp contraction the last couple of years or so (mainly because large parts of the Western economy saw fit to flush away huge sums of money in the dotcom and telecoms bubbles etc), with knock-on effects on everybody else - less advertising spend means it becomes harder for shows to break even.

Re: SG-1, that's harsh. The full range of offworld environments is much, much larger. There's also
1. Desert
2. Power station or factory
3. Vaguely futuristic urban area
and er... er... help me out here, anyone? And, granted, the world outside 2 and 3 does tend to be strangely reminiscent of Canada...

---

by Ming

Re: SG-1, that's harsh. The full range of offworld environments is much, much larger. There's also
1. Desert
2. Power station or factory
3. Vaguely futuristic urban area
and er... er... help me out here, anyone? And, granted, the world outside 2 and 3 does tend to be strangely reminiscent of Canada...

---

Dont get me wrong, i love SG1 , but....
1-desert- or same beach shot at an angle so you can't see the sea, or shot so you can! only once have they made an attempt at alien desert landscape with that VERY yellow sand with the blue sentient crystals in it. that was cool!
2-same factory as used in x-files i believe!
3-futuristic urban area-see vancouver tourist website for details!!

Sg1 gotta love it!!!

(Edited by nemesis 28/03/2003 19:12)

Hey, I know some people who went to the local tourist info outlet looking for the Poole (I think) sewage processing plant because it had appeared in an episode of Blake's 7!

---

by Ming
Hey, I know some people who went to the local tourist info outlet looking for the Poole (I think) sewage processing plant because it had appeared in an episode of Blake's 7!

---

my brother and sister in law went on holiday to vancouver about 5 years ago and did an unofficial Xfiles tour, cos there wasnt an official on ehten even tho -files was at its peek of popularity. they went to all the well known haunts including the sky ride and various facrories and such, they loved it!

'fess up time: A group of us once hired a cottage up in Yorkshire and spent a week trekking round various Blake's 7 locations up there, not to mention filming "Blake's 7: The Next Generation" at those locations! I got to play a murderous, evil Federation officer...

well hell im sure Commander garyza is a homage to Servalin (not sure on spelling there, but you know who im on about!)

Hmm... evil, ruthless, ambitious, sexy, short dark hair, inappropriately dressed for the occasion... I don't know, seems a bit circumstantial to me

According to the FT a few days ago, the Henson family has bought the company back from EMTV. The latter bought the company for $680m in 2000 and are selling it back for a mere $89m! Go to http://www.ft.com and search on Henson for more details.

Of course, not really clear what, if any, impact this has on Farscape's prospects. If price was indeed the sticking point for renewal, the Henson family might be more willing to compromise (EMTV was/is seriously cash-strapped).

well im hoping its good news. fingers and hesbots crossed!!

Something more on the subject posted on the Cult TV mailing list, following on from the observation in last month's SFX that various people had become terribly tight lipped and "unable to confirm or deny"-y about Farscape's future and "reliable" rumours of a mini-series to wrap up the story.

Anyone know any more?

From: Tony Bailey <thecontact_2000@y...>
Date: Fri Nov 7, 2003 11:48 am
Subject: Re: [CultTV] Farscape



Hi Guys

Just heard some interesting news...

As for any Farscape fans out there ...good news as the
Production team have just returned to Sydney to finish
the show off from where it was left as a cliff hanger
in Series 4!

My source is top secret, remember where you heard this
first.

TB
The Contact

=====
Time is an illusion! Lunch-time doubley so!
(Ford Prefect - HHGTTG)

Check out The Contact on-line at
uk.geocities.com/thecontact_2000

Spotted at http://www.darkhorizons.com/news.htm

Farscape (TV): The cancelled but highly acclaimed Sci-Fi Channel series which had its plug pulled earlier this year may be making a comeback. Last week an insider sent along this rumour: "Farscape is back in production - the series is to be wrapped up in 4-6 new episodes with the usual crew, cast and producers. The props and sets are being dusted off and are being assembled in preparation for filming in Sydney. The new mini-season will complete the story arc and bring closure". An interesting story and a solid source but still it sounded almost like wishful thinking and as there still hasn't been any official announcement about it I held off. After all, you would've thought Sci-Fi would have shouted it from the rooftops that its coming back to appease the ravenous fans of the show (incl. me). Then some people I know connected with the show started mentioning it's coming back and its confirmed that the Sydney production office is open again. I placed three separate calls to them on Tuesday to confirm/deny the rumours and all three calls were not only summarily cut off at their end but the secretary hurled nasty insults (courtesy is a dying art) - I've never had problems with these guys before so best guess would be they've been advised not to speak to press at all (which would explain the lack of coverage locally). That would also explain that when I got in contact with a US publicity rep for Sci-Fi, they said they couldn't comment on it at this time but will be releasing details when they're available soon. Something IS stirring, I guess we'll have to wait to find out what exactly.

FAR AND AWAY!: That Farscape press conference we told you about yesterday, during which producers were going to "announce an exciting new development in the campaign to continue" the franchise, has been postponed, a rep for the Jim Henson Company confirms. But never fear, 'Scapers. Sources tell me the media event will be rescheduled for sometime next week. (And trust me, it'll be well worth the wait.)

Source: TV Guide