Farscape to Return? Is Sci-Fi Channel Redeemed?

Cyno01 writes "I was just watching Firefly and switching to Taken during commercials (i'm a thief i know), and I caught a commercial for Sci-Fi 2003. It looks like there's going to be a few new actual sci-fi shows, and some not. Tremors: The Series, Children of Dune and another talkshow-esq looking thing called The Dream Team with Annabelle and Michael. Also it looks like Stargate: SG1 and yes, Farscape, are still alive and kicking."

Comments

Television...

[Anonymous Coward]

People still watch Television?

I thought that went out of style after they cancelled ST:TNG?

Tremors The SerieS!!!!

[puto]

Nooo lord please no.... I am puring kerosene in my eyes now.

Putp

Re:Tremors The SerieS!!!!

[henben]

The first Tremors movie was great. So there.

Re:Tremors The SerieS!!!!

[UnixRevolution]

I thought the tremors movies, though hokey and kinda un-scientific (as they were probably meant to be) were very entertaining. I'm looking forward to the series. BTW, i visited the tremors series webpage and took this from the description of the infra-red seeking, lion-sized bipedal shrieker:

"These extremely dangerous creatures reproduce hermaphroditically -- in effect, each Shrieker is "born" pregnant."

great. carnivorous tribbles. I wonder if these actually *do* like klingons? :)

Re:Tremors The SerieS!!!!

[FatRatBastard]

So was the second in a very B- movie way. I always end up watching it when I run across it on TBS. Haven't seen number 3, so I don't know if its crap or not.

Re:Tremors The SerieS!!!!

[Anonymous Coward]

#3 was OK for a second sequel, but it seemed more like a pilot for this coming TV series. A lot of the actors from the original movie reprised their roles in this one. (Even Victor Wong as Walter Chang makes a semi-cameo.) Interesting to note that the actress who played Mindy Sterngood (in both #1 and #3) was the "It's UNIX. I know this!" girl from the first Jurassic Park movie.

Re:Tremors The SerieS!!!!

[grub]

Tremors: The Series
Season 1, Episode 1

[town hick] Whoa Sher'f, y'all feel that tremor? Felt sorta like one o' them big ol' worms..
[sheriff] naw, them worms 're all kil'd off..
.
. much later
.
.
Season 13, Episode 9

[town hick] Whoa Sher'f, y'all feel that tremor? Felt sorta like one o' them big ol' worms..
[sheriff] naw, them worms 're all kil'd off..


unbelievable

Re:Tremors The SerieS!!!!

[WCityMike]

If I only had my moderation points ... :-)

+1 Funny

Re:Tremors The SerieS!!!!

[Anonymous Coward]

Ahhhh, c'mon.

It worked for Dan Vincent ! :>

possibly

[RobertTaylor]

Why no link directly to the latest farscape news? Or perhaps the Cancellation FAQ and get some real facts!

A novel concept for /. no doubt ;)

Re:possibly

[StormcallerESC]

Because there is no latest Farscape news there, and the cancellation FAQ is out of date and, for the most part, PR propoganda. For some real up to date news and facts, try savefarscape.com.

Re:possibly

[Anonymous Coward]

No..I was watching SciFi last night. It clearly said Farscap is on Fridays starting January 2003.

Re:possibly

[Anonymous Coward]

Just because someone uses the acronym FAQ doesn't mean it all contains facts.

There are several things notable in the faq which, well, sidestep the issue. The reality is, the later viewing time DID hurt the show. It comes at the same time as early newscasts (10pm) and people don't want to stay up to catch the 12am showing. Not only that, humans are still creatures of habit. If they are watching for a show to start at 9, and they don't see it, they don't think it's on.

The fact as they stated that Stargate did not cut into Farscape is almost funny. Networks look at the bottom line of the network as well as the shows both, not separately. A big budget on one show can negatively impact another show on a network that is sliding down. At the time of the cancellation, the ad sales for TV had been sliding for months.

The network committed to 2 more years. They withdrew using a clause in the contract. That's their right. There is no dispute of these facts. SciFi can try to spin it all they want. It was still their action that cancelled the show.

The promo'd the 4th season? Hah. I watch a LOT of TV. There was little promo'ing of the 4th season compared to earlier seasons. Heck, I knew about Farscape before I even had SciFi channel in my area due to their promo'ing on other channels. Come the end of the 3rd and more importantly the 4th season, the only reason I knew the 4th season started was because I was looking out for it. Not only that, they screwed up the 3rd season scheduling by splitting up the season 3 ways with at least 1.5 month breaks between and then changed the start of the 4th season twice.

Reruns? Please. Since the cancellation, they haven't shown the show. Period. No reruns. Nada. So they'll have a chain reaction on the 24th. Uh huh. Except for fans, what a horrible time to rerun. 1 day when everyone is shopping or travelling. Idiots. Oh, except for the recent pseudo-push, I haven't seen 1 commercial for Farscape in 3 months.

The real facts speak for themselves. Ignore the fans, and you'll still find TV execs and writers wondering what the hell SciFi channel did what they did. Whether you like the show or not, the fact is, it was cancelled by SciFi. We can debate the merits of the cancellation or the show all you want, but at least recognize when something is or is not accurate. I know the ratings went down--hell, I felt that way myself. I was half asleep by the time the show kicked in waiting for it on it's first run and had difficulty remember it was on at a different time. Then again, maybe I'm the only person in the world that once in a blue moon sits down on Tuesday night thinking Angel is coming on.

Its good to hear

[The Analog Kid]

I never watched the show, but I know a lot of people who do. They were very upset when they heard that they were cancelling the show. When that happened they wrote a lot of emails, and made many phone called to the Sci-Fi channel. Now I'll be able to bring them some good news if that don't know already.

Farscape

[cat_jesus]

Is still canceled.

Re:Farscape

[Photon Ghoul]

Exactly. Just because they are still promoting the final episodes of the series does not mean that it is now back in production. They are simply trying to squeeze what they can out of the rest of their investment by promoting the last of the season.

*mumbles something about a Slashdot story based off of some guy's malinformed impression of a TV commercial he saw as he was swapping back and forth between two shows*

Re:Farscape

[macdaddy357]

They can't afford to produce Farscape, and pay for the rights to rerun Lost In Space, so they are going with Lost In Space. That show was such a hit that the Star Dreck people ripped it off to make Voyager.

Re:Farscape

[Photon Ghoul]

Firefly started off, in my opinion, extremely boring. I continued watching it because there isn't much else on television that is science-fiction and I don't like Trek at all.

The last two or three episodes have become interesting. I'll miss the dark feel of Farscape and will never get over the western feel of Firefly... but if it actually makes it for a few seasons this may prove to be a very interesting ride.

Re:Farscape

[Twirlip of the Mists]

The last two or three episodes have become interesting.

Interesting? Is that the best you can do? Did you even watch "War Stories?"

Zoe: Hold it, Jayne. This is something the captain's gotta do for himself.

Mal: (fighting, muffled) No, it's not!

Zoe: Oh. (everybody opens fire)

Re:Farscape

[Kythorn]

Ah, but it's very likely that unless the ratings for the next two episodes completely rock that it'll never come out of hiatus.

Re:Farscape

[Photon Ghoul]

Yes and it is probably the episode that got me to think that "okay this series will keep getting better". To me "interesting" is a very good compliment for television programming because I can't stand and do not watch it. Farscape was the only thing I watched regularly. I generally don't watch TV (I only wanted cable for Farscape) because not much of it is appealing enough for me to sit and stare at a box fed programming by people that only think of me as another set of eyeballs for their advertisers.

I like the character development of Firefly, as it's progressing *very* nicely. I like the humor and there is enough action to balance things out. There are also no punches pulled when it comes to the dirty and bloody things that they go through. And for the drooling-needs-sex-badly-"boobies!" set there was a great woman-woman kissing scene last night. Although you will be dissapointed because it was done in good taste (network TV and all that).

The western theme is a serious negative for me, though. So much, that when I hear the theme song I wonder if it's really a show I want to watch.

Re:Farscape

[edo-01]

Interesting? Is that the best you can do? Did you even watch "War Stories?" Zoe: Hold it, Jayne. This is something the captain's gotta do for himself. Mal: (fighting, muffled) No, it's not! Zoe: Oh. (everybody opens fire)

I *love* this show - the exact moment I fell in love was at the end of the first episode, when Mal kicked the bad-guy into the engines - my eyes bugged out and I literally nearly spat coke over the screen.

Firefly has excellent production values (look at 'Ariel' - that episode looks like a feature film for chrissakes), the VFX are exquisite, and I say that with all due jealousy and admiration:-)

I'm constantly delighted and surprised by every episode and have yet to see one I haven't enjoyed (and I *hate* westerns)

Re:Farscape

[Anonymous Coward]

War Stories? With Oliver North on FOX News Channel? I love that show. It beats Buffy and all that sci-fi fake-shit to death.

Re:Farscape

[Twirlip of the Mists]

And for the drooling-needs-sex-badly-"boobies!" set there was a great woman-woman kissing scene last night.

"Our Mrs. Reynolds" actually had a much hotter girl-girl scene, although nothing happened. It was all steamy eye-contact and double entendres and whatnot. Hot as fire, though.

The western theme is a serious negative for me, though.

Matter of taste, I suppose. Personally I love it. Such a refreshing change from the aseptic Star Treks and the wormholes-and-wacky-aliens Farscape.

I guess it all comes down to bullets for me. Although I didn't plan it this way, I've found that I will watch any sci-fi show where they use bullets instead of laser guns or whatever. "Firefly" and "Stargate SG-1" are my two big ones these days.

I particularly liked Zoe's little side-comment to Simon last night, as she handed him a revolver. "Six shots, the drop it. Just move on."

Re:Farscape

[Twirlip of the Mists]

the exact moment I fell in love was at the end of the first episode, when Mal kicked the bad-guy into the engines

Right there with you. And amazingly, that hasn't been the high point of the show so far. Every week the bar gets bumped just a little bit higher. I'm still laughing about, "I'll learn as I go. (cut) So now I'm learning about carrying." Heh.

the VFX are exquisite

Man, yeah. I don't know anything about how they do things over there, but the 3D tracking can't be beat. Handheld background plates with CGI effects composited in, and the effects are positive bolted down. Really outstanding stuff.

Where the show really shines, though, is in the sets. They built the whole set for the Serenity, spent a fortune on it. It's like being there. Just amazing.

I'm constantly delighted and surprised by every episode and have yet to see one I haven't enjoyed

Yeah, the whole not-doing-too-well-in-the-ratings thing is kind of a letdown. Fox has been as supportive as anybody could ask so far, but it's tough going into the holidays not knowing what's going to happen. After he wrapped "War Stories," Joss said something like, "If we never make another one, I'm satisfied." Which is saying a whole heck of a lot, coming from him.

Re:Farscape

[Cyno01]

I love that they still use guns, but i gotta wonder if our standard gunpowder recipe has changed in 500 years. Last night all the gunfire sounded a lot different from what you hear on cop shows, action movies etc. Not that any of those sound like real gunfire, but still.

Re:Farscape

[ericdano]

Yeah, I too am addicted to the show. I hope Fox keeps it going, and if not maybe some other network will pick it up.

Re:Farscape

[Twirlip of the Mists]

Yeah, I've been trying to rationalize that all day. I mean, we can start with the fact, like you said, that TV gunfire doesn't sound at all like real gunfire. Pistols don't go "blam!" Pistols go "pop!" Pistols on "Firefly" almost go "ping!"

If I figure out an explanation for that one that makes sense in the context of the show, I'll let you know. But until then, I'm putting it in the same category as the ubiquitous artificial gravity: it just is, and the fact that it is isn't relevant to the story, so don't worry about it.

Re:Farscape

[spazoid12]

Praise Jesus! That show sucks!

I hope they burn the old footage so that re-runs will never happen.

Re:Farscape

[stirfry714]

My guess is that most of the guns are probably minature rail guns - using magnetic acceleration to propel the bullets.

Actually makes sense in a way. Assuming that we don't end up with phasers or some other energy-based weapon:

We'll inevitably continue the current bullet-kevlar battle... as they make better stronger kevlar, people will keep developing bullets to pierce it

Next assumption: At some point, the kevlar gets good enough that nothing you can do to the bullet lets you pierce it. Might break a few ribs, but no penetration.

So what's the next step? Add more energy to the bullet. Can't really increase the mass, so increase the speed... assuming no massive improvements in gunpowder efficiency are available, the next logical step is to dump gunpowder, and go with something next-gen, like magnetic acceleration.

Granted, this could all just be my pipe-dream, but it makes sense.

(And Whedon, if you see this, feel free to name the inventor of the magnetic guns after me in an aside from one of the characters... I'd prefer Kaylee. Thanks.)

Re:Farscape

[spazoid12]

flamebait?? heaven forbid anyone ever have their own opinion here on /.

this is a *sincere* comment: farscape sucks, and I hope it's gone forever. that's my opinion...if you don't like it, then eat your balls.

Re:Farscape

[Anonymous Coward]

its flamebait because this thread isn't for people who don't like farscape. Obviously the people who are interested in this thread are the ones who *want* farscape to come back. Your opinion doesn't matter to me. Neither does the parent. And thats because its not about opinions of, 'the show sucks' or 'the show owns'. Its about posting legitimate information on wether Farscape is coming back, still canceled, or airing the last portion of season 4. Also. I don't like your *attitude* on the basis of this 'i hope it's gone forever'. if you don't like the show, then don't watch it. Everyone could care less what you think, its not about your opinion.

Re:Farscape

[spazoid12]

I don't like the show *and* I don't watch it (did once or twice, that was plenty).

"this thread isn't for people who don't like farscape"...really? You decided? You set the rules? What about the people who aren't fans, who never watched the show, and are now curious about it because of all the misplaced fuss? I'll just slip in my opinion here so that they know there are people out there that don't agree with the /. sanctioned mind. That is a legitimate thing to do, even if it shocks the bra off your head.

"Your opinion doesn't matter to me"...so what? You don't matter to me. So what again!

Dude, you don't understand how things work. People are free to post their opinions whether or not they matter to you. You are not GOD.

And so, again, here is my opinion: Farscape sucks and I hope it is gone forever.

Re:Farscape

[Twirlip of the Mists]

My guess is that most of the guns are probably minature rail guns - using magnetic acceleration to propel the bullets.

Hmm. Sounds like kind of a reach to me. Railguns require enormous amounts of electrical power to accelerate even bullet-sized masses to dangerous speeds, and the guns they use on the show are small. They could be equipped with some kind of super-batteries, but that has all sorts of implications. Can's open, worms everywhere, and so on.

No, I think it's better to just assume that the guns are your typical chemical type, and that the bullets are powered by gunpowder or something like it, and that they sound different from real guns because of... oh, let's say magic.

Besides, remember the scene in "Our Mrs. Reynolds" when Mal wanted to use Vera to shoot their way through the net? They had to wrap her in a space suit because she needed ambient air to fire. Needing ambient air implies the need for an oxidizer, which implies combustion, which leads to the conclusion that it's gunpowder or something like it.

And Whedon, if you see this....

He hates it when people call him "Whedon." He doesn't even like "Mr. Whedon." It's just "Joss." ;-)

Re:Farscape

[vsprintf]

It's not coming back. They took chainsaws to the set. Moya is in a landfill. :(

Re:Farscape

[Cyno01]

They don't have 6 shooter rail guns. Look more closely next ep.

Re:Farscape

[outsider007]

That show was such a hit that the Star Dreck people ripped it off to make Voyager

I always thought it was a rip-off of gilligan's island. anyone remember gilligan's planet?

Re:Farscape

[Cyno01]

*mumbles something about a Slashdot story based off of some guy's malinformed impression of a TV commercial he saw as he was swapping back and forth between two shows*

Eh, what was that? :p

Re:Farscape

[stirfry714]

Hehehe, didn't want to be overly familar... :) I'll be better from now on and call him Joss.

Does Vera make the "ping" noise? Perhaps Jayne is so attached to "her" because she's the real deal.

But you're right, it's all a reach, as I pretty much said. Of course, I'm waiting for the explanation on how anti-gravity works. Heck, if they can do that, why not zero-point energy extraction in a handgun. :)

Re:Farscape

[stirfry714]

First of all, given that this is in the *future*, who are any of us to say what they do and do not have, until it's established. Maybe they *do* have 6 shooter rail guns then. Silly I know, but until it's in the show one way or the other.

I also saw a post somewhere - maybe on the Usenet group - that someone said the revolver chamber wasn't actually revolving. Didn't see that myself, but if so..

Oh well, it's just a show, and I'm far over-analyzing...

Re:Farscape

[Twirlip of the Mists]

Does Vera make the "ping" noise?

Didn't notice. Good question, though.

Of course, I'm waiting for the explanation on how anti-gravity works.

That's in the writer's guide. (Well, not anti-gravity, but rather ship's artificial gravity, which is what I assume you meant.) It's right there in black and white: the answer is magic. Ship's artificial gravity works by magic, which is to say that it's not important to the story, and it will never be important to the story. So don't worry about it. And if that's good enough for the writers, it's good enough for me. ;-)

Re:Farscape

[stirfry714]

Hehehe.. okay. Got a link for that writer's guide? Sounds interesting..

So let's call a truce, and just declare the gun pings to be created by magic as well. :)

Re:Farscape

[Twirlip of the Mists]

Got a link for that writer's guide?

No, it's definitely not on the web. As far as I know, it exists only in three-ring-binder form.

Re:Farscape

[albionsoft]

And so, again, here is my opinion: Farscape sucks and I hope it is gone forever.

Which just shows how selfish you are. Glad to show that off in public are you? Make you feel big?

I really hate people who are so intolerant they can't even stand someone else enjoying a different TV program.

Re:Farscape

[Vesuvius_2]

nasty opinion + no justification listed + 'never again should anyone have the right to see it' = flamebait heaven forbid anyone make an argument that is intelligent and respectful of other opinions. ps- go kill yourself dipshit, the 'eat your balls' comment was uncalled for.

Re:Farscape

[rela]

Needing ambient air implies the need for an oxidizer, which implies combustion, which leads to the conclusion that it's gunpowder or something like it.

Gunpowders have oxidizers already in them. Just an FYI.

Re:Farscape

[Twirlip of the Mists]

Gunpowders have oxidizers already in them. Just an FYI.

Yeah, I thought that might be true as I was writing my post, but I was too lazy to fact-check myself. Oops.

Can gunpowder burn, then, in a vacuum? Or does it still require ambient oxygen to ignite?

Re:Farscape

[spazoid12]

How exactly does stating my opinion show how selfish I am (one way or the other)?

You stated your opinion, too: "I really hate people who are so intolerant they can't even stand someone else enjoying a different TV program". Are you selfish? Are you glad to show that off in public? Do you feel big?

It's really a waste of time to point out how you don't understand the concept of intolerance...but it's hilarious. You might as well have said "I'm totally intolerant of intolerant people!!!". You'll learn this next year in 5th grade.

Re:Farscape

[spazoid12]

"flamebait", "troll". I see the Slashdot mind numb machine is turned on.

Note To Users: You will agree with the collective opinion of the elite /. user or we will do our best to muffle your opinion.

Nice, I chanced upon a "troll" that should've been "insightful" here.

Re:Farscape

[dnahelix]

*yawn*

Re:Farscape

[macdaddy357]

Yeah, Gilligan's Planet gave Disney the idea for Treasure Planet. Those are some serious rip-off artists at Disney, like Michael Eisner.

Re:Farscape

[gladbach]

firefly had me at the end of train job, when he kicked the dude into the engine and then turned to the next guy. but.... I am hearing rumors of firefly being cancelled, or are they just rumors? I like sg1 too, but I think farscape is the best of all of them. the only sci fi series I enjoyed as much was babylon five. this season of farscape *has* been lacking though, and what is suprising, is that they only aired the show once a week, so if you missed it, you were screwed, considering all of the plot lines you would miss. plus its on a friday night, when lots of people arent even home. here is to hoping that they will milk this "fan outrage" for all its worth, people will make sure to watch the last few eps, and it will be re-up'd

Re:Farscape

[Twirlip of the Mists]

I am hearing rumors of firefly being cancelled, or are they just rumors?

The Straight Shit:

Firefly has been placed on hiatus. What that means is that Fox has not ordered any additional episodes beyond the ones (15, I think) that have already been produced. This does not mean the show has been cancelled; when a show goes on hiatus, that means the network is trying to figure out what their next step should be. They can move the show to another night, or re-tool it somehow with the cooperation of the producers, or they can just give up on it completely. The decision has not been made yet.

I believe that Fox knows the show is in a timeslot-of-death. Friday night at 8:00 is not a particularly fertile ground in which to plant the seed of an hour-long, serious, continuity-heavy, science-fiction drama. So the prevailing opinion is that Fox is going to find a new night and time for the show. The leading candidate as of a few days ago was Monday night at 9:00, but rumors have surfaced around the office lately that they're considering Thursday night at 8:00, opposite "Survivor" and "Friends."

Moving Firefly to a new timeslot would be good, and an easy fix. A somewhat harder fix might come if the network decides to go to M.E. with notes. Joss doesn't typically respond well to notes. He's a reasonable guy and all, but he's not big with the compromising of his vision. See, Joss is a thinker, and he's already got most everything he wants to do with Firefly for the next year or two planned out in his head. If Fox comes in with notes that say, "Drop three main characters and introduce a romantic interest for the captain," he'll probably not be too agreeable. At that point, M.E. has the option of either going along to get along, closing down the show, or shopping it around to another network. And they're not in the greatest position to shop it around to another network right now.

But the bottom line is that Firefly has metric assloads of critical acclaim, and a positively rabid fan-base. Fox knows that it's possible to take a little show with a few dedicated fans and turn it into a hit: see X-Files, The. They're not in any big hurry to cancel the show until they're sure it's not going anywhere.

For evidence of this, just think about David E. Kelly's last show, "Girls' Club." Fox dropped that particular hot potato after only two episodes aired. They knew that the show was going nowhere, and had no particular hopes of saving it. So they cut their losses. The fact that they haven't done this with Firefly is reassuring in the extreme.

Re:Farscape

[Anonymous Coward]

"if you don't like it, then eat your balls. "
"You'll learn this next year in 5th grade."
etc.

and you wonder why you get tagged as flamebait/troll

It's not a conspiracy of the SLASHDOT ELITE against your uber-ness, you act like a jackass and you get modded down, live with it.

Don't worry, all that built-up angst passes once you touch a real booby.

Re:Farscape

[spazoid12]

First off, I don't wonder why the flamebait/troll. I know exactly why. That's my point!

However, I don't mind getting modded down! I don't mind getting flamebait/troll. But I think it's funny. It just goes to support the idea that slashdot is by, and for, a single mindset. You're probably sitting there all upset because I don't agree with you and yet I still visit the site. Ya know-- "if you don't like it then leave".

So, you might doubt my sincerity when I wrote a second ago that I don't mind the modding... why should I mind? I have "uber-ness". Things can only get better for me; especially considering I have yet to touch a real booby! LOL, that was a good one, BTW (and you might have a point...it's been a couple months as my wife is breast feeding our new baby).

Anyways, I've never once posted as anonymous coward. If I have an opinion and care to bother posting it then I'm not ashamed...I'm not too weak to let my identity sit with it. That isn't intended as a jerk comment. It's not an example of my "uber-ness". It's just a small indication that I'm being sincere: my opinion differs from the /. core very often; all I did was state it; and I get the typical reaction. Look, this isn't me saying something like "the truth hurts, eh?"...I'm just saying the typical /. reaction to "other" opinions is an odd thing. I find it all kinda curious.

Re:Farscape

[DarkVein]

This is false. The sets were scheduled to be chainsaw. Because of fan response, Sci-Fi decided to put the sets into storage for the interum. Even if they had, however, Moya's biggest expense was design. They've got blueprints and better ideas now, so rebuilding Moya would be materials and labor.

Check the Save Farscape website for more details

Re:Farscape

[albionsoft]

How exactly does stating my opinion show how selfish I am (one way or the other)?

You don't like Farscape. Fair comment. You're glad it was cancelled. That makes you selfish. Enjoying someone else's misery is selfish, if not down right nasty.

If you don't like Farscape, don't watch it. But taking pleasure in the cancellation of a program that millions of people enjoyed is selfish.

It's really a waste of time to point out how you don't understand the concept of intolerance...but it's hilarious. You might as well have said "I'm totally intolerant of intolerant people!!!". You'll learn this next year in 5th grade.

Wow, what a stirling put down. I'm quivering in fear of your intellectual skills here. "You're intolerant of intolerant people" is the punch line of an old Dilbert joke, and wasn't terribly good then. I'm intolerant of intolerant people? Yeah. I am. I also hate bigots, racists, etc. Don't make me a bad person...

Re:Farscape

[albionsoft]

You're probably sitting there all upset because I don't agree with you

Never minded people disagreeing with me. We'd all be watching celebrity big brother and listening to britney spears if we all agreed. Who cares?

What makes you a troll is the desire to enforce your opinions on others.

Re:Farscape

[spazoid12]

That is *so* funny! You are taking my point and passing it off as your own!

I want you to disagree with me. I want everyone here to disagree with eachother at least once in a while. That would be a good thing for slashdot.

BTW, that's not what troll means. It's a good thing that, if you have your own opinion, you try and defend it...see if it stands up. That has nothing to do with "enforcing"[sic] your opinion on others (which I never did).

Re:Farscape

[vsprintf]

Please provide a link to something substantial. There was a recorded chat on SciFi where Ben Browder said they had taken chain saws to the set.

SciFi wouldn't have any say in the matter, since the production company had the authority.

I'd really like to be proven wrong on this one. And rebuilding the set would be no small expense, blueprints or not.

Re:Farscape

[spazoid12]

"You're glad it was cancelled. That makes you selfish." No, it doesn't. It makes me glad it was cancelled. I didn't say why I'm glad.

"Enjoying someone else's misery is selfish, if not down right nasty." I also didn't imply any enjoyment of any misery.

"Wow, what a stirling put down." It wasn't a put down. Honest!

"Yeah. I am. I also hate bigots, racists, etc." OK. That's interesting to know. I'm also curious what your favorite color might be.

The fact remains...Slashdot is a horrible place for opinions. In fact, I suggest they change the Post Comment feature so that there's a new button. Instead of just "Submit" and "Preview" there should be a "Submit Canned Satisfactory Comment".

Re:Farscape

[albionsoft]

"troll"

"An individual who regularly posts specious arguments, flames or personal attacks to a newsgroup, discussion list, or in email for no other purpose than to annoy someone or disrupt a discussion."

(The Jargon File)

This seems to match your behaviour pretty well.

You are taking my point and passing it off as your own!

No. Your point was "I'm glad a TV program I didn't like has been cancelled" for which you offered no reason other than "Farscape sucks". When people criticised you for the selfish little bore you are, you claimed this was because we all wanted you to think the same as we do. Not true. I couldn't care less whether you like Farscape or not. My objection to you is that you take pleasure in someone else's misery.

By desiring programs you dislike to be cancelled for no reason than that you dislike them you are attempting to force the rest of us to only watch programs you like. i.e. Forcing us to conform to your opinions.

Note, also, that at no point have I actually expressed an opinion on Farscape itself, only on you reaction to its demise.

Farscape

[zaren]

Don't forget that they finished shooting the rest of hte shows for this seasn, and SciFi has stated that they will be releasing those shows starting in January. It's possible they're going to continue the series... then again, it's possible they're just using the material they have left, with no intention to continue the series past the new episodes they've shot.

Only the remainder of Farscape...

[CuriousKangaroo]

They're only going to be showing the still unaired last half of the fourth season of Farscape.

After that, it's over, ending in a helluva cliffhanger.

No Farscape for you!

No, sorry

[Anonymous Coward]

IIRC, they still had some episodes to air in the new year when we all head it was cancelled.

I thought...

[Hawkeye_RC5]

That Sci-Fi was going to air the last few episodes of Season 4 somewhere in 2003. If this is what the original poster saw, then this is a non-event.

What would be really interesting, and my question for Santa Claus this year, is that SciFi is going for another Season of Farscape, and perhaps even more. I know, it costs a lot of money, but it's damn well the best (Sci Fi) series I've ever seen...

Re:I thought...

[Anonymous Coward]

1. Show gets cancelled.
2. ???
3. Profit!!!!

I know I'm insane and, unlike others, I have the papers to show it. And I don't have this sort of money. But, hell, it's /. There's hardly any substance to half the cheese on here anyways.

savefarscape.com and all have this trust fund thing going, KFC receipts, etc. Their goal is to drum up or show support for the show, so their directive is somewhat different.

But maybe they should instead try something else like something similar to what OVAs seem to be for (depending on who you listen to, original video animation, or shows made for DVD/VCD release primarily).

Season 5 costs about $33 million for 22 episodes. Around 14.5 hours of material, given 40 minutes per episode. More for extra takes, bloopers, commentary. Maybe shoot it all in 16:9 wide angle. Maybe make it 50 minutes an episode (less editing).

Again, maybe I'm just nuts, but I'd think one could sell 250,000 copies of season 5 worldwide at $150 a pop for the DVD set, to break even. (Yes, I know the computation does not account for the interest borne on the $33 million as it sits there waiting for the episodes to be shot, but that's shifted because they don't typically need all $33million at once, so the difference is there.) I can't seem to find figures for their current complete season DVD set (season 1).

Or, release it 2 episodes by 2 episodes on DVD. Don't release the previous 2 episodes sales reach even. (Why 2? Release 1, and they don't like it, bleh, no one buys it. Never seen 2 episodes in a row be mediocre of this show, so at least 1 will sell.)

Tremors?

[Anonymous Coward]

What a fucking joke, a marginal movie made into a series? Spend the money on Farscape and dump this dog NOW!!!

Re:Tremors?

[Elbereth]

Farscape sucked, anyways. Who needs another Star Trek ripoff? We've already had a thousand Star Trek shows, Babylon Five, Battlestar Galactica, and a shitload of others.

I'm sick and tired of muppets in space plus humans who have funny noses. I'm glad farscape got cancelled.

Watch -- the Slashdot groupthink will moderate me down into oblivion. But this must be said, because not everyone is sad to see another Trek clone go off the air!

Re:Tremors?

[Joe Tie.]

Watch -- the Slashdot groupthink will moderate me down into oblivion.

Because you're the only person here able to form an independent decision right? If anyone disagrees with you it's not because different people value different aspects of story, or even God forbid that opinions other than yours might have been arrived at from a valid position. No, anyone disagreeing with you is obviously simply a mental incompetent. Must be a very comfortable view of the world.

Re:Tremors?

[TellarHK]

Tremors:TS looks like it will be -fun-. There's been a real lacking in action-adventure stuff on TV, and Farscape just seemed to mix up action-adventure with drama a bit too ineffectively for my tastes. I couldn't watch three episodes in a row without thinking "Damn muppets" or "This is boring". I've got some hope for Tremors, but I'm prepared for it to really suck.

From looking at the site, the premise, and the character bios, they might have a pretty decent shot at making a show that's actually watchable. And it's got Burt Gummer. If you've seen Tremors 3, you'll know that even if the movies weren't high-quality cinema, that Burt can just be a fun damn character to watch in action.

I'll admit, it's hard to give a logical explanation of why I'm looking forward to the series, but I am. And hey, they're getting Christopher Lloyd for two episodes to play a mad scientist.

Re:Tremors?

[Photon Ghoul]

Farscape is far from a Star Trek rip-off. It may lift some elements of the classic science-fiction shows, but it's usually done as an homage or even a slightly under-the-belt punch. Star Trek was made fun of several times on the show.

How do I know you've never actually watched Farscape?

1. Star Trek is in a nice clean universe where everything turns out fine at the end of the episode. Crewmen wearing certain shirts die or when that practice stopped death became an almost avoided subject.
Farscape is in a dirty, grimy universe where everything is out to get you. Major characters die. Enemies become friends... or at least necessary to trust them for a while.

2. Star Trek deals with holographic sentience, space-time anomolies/fluxuations, omnipresent alien beings, transwarp confibulators, blah blah blah
Farscape deals with manslaughter, death of loved ones, bounty hunters, torture, s&m, farts, piss, sexuality, emotional pain, intense love, uncomfortable situations, insanity, drug use, outright murder, seduction, loss of life on a massive scale, weapons of mass destruction, spirituality and many other more 'human' topics.

3. Star Trek uses a little bit of makeup on every single alien actor. Thus a universe of bipeds all roughly the same body type.
Farscape uses this method along with elaborate makeup/costumes and 'muppets' which are used to bring to life non-bipedal alien life forms or short stumpy annoying stab-you-in-the-back crew members whose farts cause a helium-like effect to those that inhale it.

4. Star Trek's crew is composed of mostly a bunch of stuffy, by-the-book Federation employees who are all good folk working towards the good of the universe.
Farscape's crew is composed mostly of a bunch of escaped prisoners along with a bumbling <injoke>erpling</injoke> astronaut, former antagonists, and rejects of the universe. It takes serious time and shared experiences for bonds to solidify enough that trust can be built. Everyone is looking out for number one.

5. Star Trek is straight science-fiction historically with a political or social message to bring to the masses while having a heavy focus on the technology.
Farscape is a dark comedy and a tragic love story that happens in a science-fiction setting.

I could go on and on about how Farscape has innovated in the realm of television science-fiction and how it is different than Star Trek, but I won't.

Re:Tremors?

[erpbridge]

Everyone is looking out for number one

In Star Trek, everyone is looking out for Number One as well.

Slight difference, however, between the two series.

Re:Tremors?

[Anonymous Coward]

The first movie wasn't bad, the second sucked, the third was a total non-event. I only found out there was a third when I was browsing DVD's. And I understand that they are now going to make yet another Tremors movie, after they finish shooting the first season of the TV series.

Re:Tremors?

[Happy Monkey]

In Star Trek, everyone is looking out for Number One [sixtiescity.com] as well.

Of course everyone is looking for her! It's like "Where's Waldo" with her! Has she been in "Voyager" or "Enterprise"? If not, she made up for it by being in "Babylon 5" and "Earth: Final Conflict".

Re:Tremors?

[UnixRevolution]

So what you mean is it's actually a lot like Firefly? :) i just had to. please don't kill my karma for it. I need my Karma!!!!!

Re:Tremors?

[Photon Ghoul]

Exactly. Now, which came first? :)

Really, though Firefly is much less dark than Farscape. Also, notice the lack of aliens - which is actually kind of refreshing.

Re:Tremors?

[Anonymous Coward]

Please mod down - at least two distinct references to flatulence.

Re:Tremors?

[erpbridge]

Well, I know she was the voice of the computer in NextGen and Deep Space 9. Looking at IMDB's listing for her, she was the voice for Voyager's computer on the pilot episode ("Caretaker"), but there's no credits for the rest of the series.

I haven't heard a computer voice for "Enterprise" yet, but I doubt we ever will (unless they do a time travel to 24th century, which isn't asking too much... they've already sent Captain to the 29th century...)

Re:Tremors?

[Pfhor]

WTF
there is a tremors 3???????

Must watch.

Re:Tremors?

[Xenographic]

All that can be summed up by saying that the Farscape universe is a lot more slimey :]

Re:Tremors?

[Anonymous Coward]

If I had mod points now, I would mod you down, all the while emitting evil laughter. Sucks if you care about your karma, I guess.

Re:Tremors?

[kubrick]

So, what you're really saying is that Farscape is like Babylon 5 with farting muppets, then?

Re:Tremors?

[Photon Ghoul]

Not at all. I'm a B5 fan also, but I have to say there are quite a few differences between B5 and Scape. Both (to me of course) have their strengths. B5 is more epic novel while Farscape is more gritty graphic novel.

Re:Tremors?

[mondainx]

i still cant believe theyre dumping Farscape for DreamTeam and Tremors? Tremors as a series has got to be one of the stupidest ideas for a show that i have ever heard of.

Who's more desperate for acting work...

[Anonymous Coward]

...Fred Ward, or Michael Gross? IMDB has Michael Gross listed in the cast of the series, so I guess he's the winner.

When will we see "A Very Special Tremors: The Series" with appearances by Meredith Baxter, Michael J. Fox, Justine Bateman, and Tina Yothers?

Will Skippy and Nick have brief appearances as Graboid victims?

Great!

[DAldredge]

Now I can watch MUPPETS IN SPACE! again!

Re:Great!

[Anonymous Coward]

And people wonder why great things fold. People have this insane bias.

"This band's album sucks because it isn't like their last album." (e.g. Smashing Pumpkins)

"Farscape is Muppets in Space."

"Blacks are violent! But they have BIG johnsons."

"Asians have little johnsons. But they're smarter than you."

"Whites are rascists."

Blah blah. Yeah, I know it's just a show, but it's sad when one's preconceptions throw up this crap. Yeah, it has the Henson name. But the show ain't no muppets. And 2 characters are "muppets". Not the entire cast.

Try to judge the show on it's merits or lack thereof, not because someone's father is such and such. Then again, there are those that would love to stick debtor's into prison and to make offspring pay off their parent's debts.

Re:Great!

[DAldredge]

It was a J O K E. JOKE.

From DICT.ORG
4 definitions found

From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) :

Joke \Joke\, n. [L. jocus. Cf Jeopardy, Jocular, Juggler.]
1. Something said for the sake of exciting a laugh; something
witty or sportive (commonly indicating more of hilarity or
humor than jest); a jest; a witticism; as, to crack
good-natured jokes.

And gentle dullness ever loves a joke. --Pope.

Or witty joke our airy senses moves To pleasant
laughter. --Gay.

2. Something not said seriously, or not actually meant;
something done in sport.

Inclose whole downs in walls, 't is all a joke.
--Pope.

In joke, in jest; sportively; not meant seriously.

Practical joke. See under Practical.

From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) :

Joke \Joke\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Joked; p. pr. & vb. n.
Joking.]
To make merry with; to make jokes upon; to rally; to banter;
as, to joke a comrade.

From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) :

Joke \Joke\, v. i. [L. jocari.]
To do something for sport, or as a joke; to be merry in words
or actions; to jest.

He laughed, shouted, joked, and swore. --Macaulay.

Syn: To jest; sport; rally; banter. See Jest.

From WordNet (r) 1.7 :

joke
n 1: a humorous anecdote or remark [syn: gag, laugh, jest,
jape, yak, wheeze]
2: activity characterized by good humor [syn: jest, jocularity]
3: a ludicrous or grotesque act done for fun and amusement
[syn: antic, prank, trick, caper, put-on]
v 1: tell a joke; speak humorously; "He often jokes even when he
appears serious" [syn: jest]
2: act in a funny or teasing way [syn: jest]

Don't think so...

[sparkler]

You obviously haven't even read the very links you posted! Check out the Farscape link and you will find (sadly) that the Sci-Fi channel is just running the episodes already filmed to finish season 4! According to the FAQ, the show has been cancelled and will not be returning for another season. (They will however, undoubtedly be endlessly re-running the shows already made.)

Tremors

[Sh0t]

I'd hate to see the tremors series. They've already beaten the original movie to death with the sequels, now this

Farscape is unwatchable

[Anonymous Coward]

Major lighting problems (too dark to see anything), presense obligatory Klingon ripoff alien, angry shouting in place of subtle dialog.

Won't miss it when it vanishes again. The turtle/mushroom muppets are kind of cool though.

Armegedon is upon us

[bryan1945]

The commercial for "Tremors: The Series" looks like a cross between the 1st Tremors movie and the "Dukes of Hazzard". The Dream thingy commercial is a bunch of women talking about how they have lesbian dreams. Stargate and Farscape seem ok, so far.

Overall, though, Sci-Fi is really turning into Shit-Fi. I didn't mind the horror movies as much as everyone else, since I like horror movies, this past Tuesday I stayed home 'cause I was sick, and all that was on Sci-Fi was 1 mystery and 2 thrillers, with only a minor sci-fi tie in.

Long have the days of petitioning Sci-Fi to re-up Bab5 or Crusade gone past.

So sad.

Re:Armegedon is upon us

[Anonymous Coward]

How can listening to women taking about lesbian dreams be shit? Where I'm from that usually costs $5.95 a minute. I expect this to be a hit show.

Re:Armegedon is upon us

[Anonymous Coward]

Not unless they would actually have lesbians, perhaps in command of a ship, who go around exploring the galaxy and interacting with other species, as well as the lesbian sex of course. But inter-species lesbian sex wouldn't be too pretty. I'm sure they could work something out though.

Dream Team

[thellamaman]

If the preview for the truly awful-looking Dream Team is any indication, the show is going to go something like this:

Dreamer: OK, so I had this dream last night..
Host A: Repressed lesbian fantasies!
Dreamer: No, wait, there wasn't even a girl in the dream!
Host B: Repressed lesbian fantasies!
Dreamer: I'm not even a woman!
Host A: Repressed lesbian fantasies!

Re:Dream Team

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm not a girl, but I have lesbian fantasies in my dreams.

Re:Dream Team

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm not a girl, but I have lesbian fantasies in my dreams.

Yeah but EVERY guy has lesbian fantasies. They definitely aren't repressed.

Re:Dream Team

[Chanc_Gorkon]

Really. I mean Annabelle was kind of funny on Dinner and Movie, but be honest, we did not really tune into see the dinner being cooked. We tuned in to SEE THE MOVIE!! Dinner and a Movie has just turned into an extra ad now with the hosts holding up a bottle of Dasani Nutri-Water or the "product" of the week. It's not even so much about the dish. Although they did come up with some fun dish names like Hail to the Chef State of the Onion Frittata for the movie The American President, or Obi-Wan Cannelloni for Star Wars. Now it seems like they either advertise an ingredient or a beverage in addition to the commercials they show also. Also the Man Made Movie thing sucks too. Granted the movies are ok, but I would rather see a Geek Made Movie where the show would show you how to build a geek friendly, yet wife friendly house with cat 5 in every room bewteen breaks of movies like Hackers and The Matrix.

Re:Dream Team

[VGR]

This is pretty much dead on. I consider dream interpretation to be a valid part of psychological science, but how is this science fiction?

This is just an attempt to compete with such late-night winners as "Blind Date," "Fifth Wheel," and probably "Wild On." Looks like it'll be 98% sex talk. What does this have to do with science-fiction? If ratings are more important than, y'know, actually airing science fiction, then why not just replace all the programming with Jerry Springer?

Every time I see the commercial for "Dream Team" or "Tremors: The Series," I can only think: They expect this to get better ratings than Farscape?

Re:Dream Team

[Anonymous Coward]

You're only looking at half the picture.

It's not just ratings, but the cost to get those ratings. A show that costs $50,000 an episode to make that brings in a 1.0 is more valuable than a show that bring in a 2.0 that costs $250,000 an episode to make. (Most of the time. Sometimes networks are willing to pay more for a series for the "prestige" it brings to their network, and their overall standing in the network world. Some people were hoping Farscape would be viewed that way.)

Re:Dream Team

[slickwillie]

Wasn't Annabelle on that hosted movie show where they cooked a meal each time? It was on TNT or UPN or something.

You linked to Farscape Page - BUT DID NOT READ IT!

[jackb_guppy]

A small clip from the SCIFI-FAQ:

Additionally, in past seasons, Farscape had built upon its lead-in program (i.e., had more viewers than the program preceding it - a standard industry indicator of a show's success). For example, during the summer of 2001, Farscape increased 44% in ratings and 51% in households over its lead-in, The Invisible Man. However, this past summer, Farscape lost 29% of its lead-in program in terms of ratings, and 27% in households.

Based on this FarScape lost market share when SciFi cancelled I-Man. Two great campy shows work better than one.

I guess I can not understand network programming.

PS: When you go to the FarScape page... A pop-up about the cancelation appears. My guess it is still cancelled.

Farscape

[edo-01]

Well, we wrap work on the VFX for episode 422 this week, and once that's done we're archiving everything to DLT and going our seperate ways... as far as I know it's still over.

I was at Animal Logic last week and asked our producer if she'd heard anything different from Andrew (one of the exec producers) - nada. It's all winding down - on Thursday we hit a local pub for the VFX wrap party then that's it :-(

Anyway, at this point I'm rooting for Firefly ;-)

Ugh

[Anonymous Coward]

So we lose Farscape and get Tremors: The Series. I think I am going to go clean my brain with some Hydra-Shok.

Re:You linked to Farscape Page - BUT DID NOT READ

[puto]

I agree with you. I had been living in South America for the past few years and when I got home I was looking for some Sci_Fi goodness after two years of 10 channel cable and dial up acess. So i decide to start up on farscape and caught some episodes about the invisible man and fell in love with the show.

IT was campy sort of a mix between:

1.Max Headroom(Edison had the brit fiora chick as a controller always a little sexual tension, invisible man has brit chick doctor.

2. The Hulk - Ivisible man gets to much quicksilver in the system and starts bugging out.

Edge of Night(whatever that vampire show is with Skanky and the vampire is a cop) Just like the Invisible Man he was an asshole in the past and is atoning for his sins, using his power for good, but they both lapse into old ways sometimes.

And you know, I never really made it to Farscape, cause I liked the invisible man so much, and I didnt realize I was watching an old show.

Puto

Re:You linked to Farscape Page - BUT DID NOT READ

[Anonymous Coward]

I guess I can not understand network programming.

Clearly, neither does SciFi.

Animated Farscape

[lunadude]

Anyone know of progress on the rumored animated version? Wasn't ADV involved somhow?

Re:Animated Farscape

[edo-01]

Anyone know of progress on the rumored animated version? Wasn't ADV involved somhow?

I'll ask around, but I haven't heard anything about it yet...

Re:Animated Farscape

[Cyno01]

There is (or was, not sure if its canned yet) a Stargate animated series. Satuday morning kiddy stuff, but still an ok addition to the franchise.

Re:Animated Farscape

[Anonymous Coward]

Nope. But most of the interviews say that it is still a possiblity, aka it's still mentioned as a project.

I would think ADV would be involved. They are, as you probably know, of the largest anime video distributors (for good or bad) as well as (again, as you probably already know) do the Farscape DVDs. If they were to do an animated version, it would be sort of silly for the producers to run around finding someone else to do all this.

Scifi redeemed itself...

[LtRazak00]

Has anyone been watching Taken by Steven Spielberg?...now that's good. Think Scifi has redeemed itself...i mean..it's a 20 hour miniseries for cryin out loud...=D Taken of Scifi

Re:Scifi redeemed itself...

[Anonymous Coward]

Taken...well I have watched and an not too impressed. Needs more gratuitous sex and sex. More 1950 tits and ass. 1960's beach bubbies giving head in old Caddy's. Annette FunnyJello sucking off a horse or two. Move into the 1970's and aliens walk among us with impunity, we were too stoned to notice they were odd looking, the acid made everyone look like that! String bikini's and the beginnings of silicone breasts! Thorazine to cut the acid burn. 1980's yuppy geeks telling their shrinks about having fantasies about alien blowjobs. When will it all end?

Re:Scifi redeemed itself...

[Anonymous Coward]

I like Taken, but I'm not sure it's really sci-fi. - It's set in the past up to the present
- It targets people who want to believe in Alien encounters
- Aliens are mostly secondary, it's really about the human families

Now look at the sci-fi commercial, what show are they airing? That dumb ass dream talkshow, that is NOT sci-fi. Tremors which is NOT sci-fi (Dukes of Hazzard as one poster said). Roswell, which doesn't look sci-fi to me, mostly Dawsons Creek with Aliens (vomit, scream, tear eyeballs out). Farscape which is most definitely sci-fi and Stargate, which is.

They're cancelling farscape, Stargate has been on the chopping block before. It would appear that teh Sci-fi channel is doing less Sci-Fi and more magical mysterious world: Tarot cards, Alien invasions, Dream reading, etc.

Yuck

Re:Farscape a Star Trek Rip-Off

[BeemerBoy]

Spoken like a true ignoramous who thinks all science fiction sprung from Star Trek! The two are about as similar as milk and Sputnik! Please think before posting such uninformed drek or you'll put your ignorance up on display for all! Sheesh!!

Re:You linked to Farscape Page - BUT DID NOT READ

[PugMajere]

You're thinking of Forever Knight.

That was one of the best vampire shows I've ever watched. Well, then again, there haven't exactly been a lot of even decent vampire shows, now that I think about it.

(Buffy + Angel and Forever Knight are all I can think of, honestly.)

Sci-Fi Redeem itself?

[Rahizial]

Not until it leaves the nudity in movies it shows.

Farscape 2003 news in SCIFI.COM

[Anonymous Coward]

Sorry gang. Check out:

http://www.scifi.com/farscape/news/

"THE FINAL 11 EPISODES of Farscape will begin airing in January of 2003, when SEASON FOUR concludes!"

Re:You linked to Farscape Page - BUT DID NOT READ

[technomancerX]

Hmmm... seems to me when they canceled invisible man they started time slot shuffling and running horribly out of order reruns... Gee, why would a sometimes it's on sometimes it's not and if it is on it's a rerun you've seen five times airing approach lower ratings?

Farscape still has a shot

[Anonymous Coward]

There is still a good chance it will return, tho my gut tells me not on SciFi but perhaps UPN who are having a problem with their own ratings.
There are radio ads starting to play in Jan paid for by the fans.
There is a USA ad going out in the national edition either Thursday or on the Friday 4x12 "Kansas" airs, paid for by the fans.

What David Kemper says (he produces Farscape) we need is a 2.0 or better rating which is unusual on the SciFi channel. He also said that compared with the last ratings, we are pretty much 6 Neilson households from that rating. 6 so you have a Neilson box or diary, WATCH. Give it a shot. It's a bit different but it's one of the best original series I've ever seen once you give it a few episodes. Hell go rent a Farscape DVD, Blockbuster has them in stock.

Rarely if ever have a given a crap about a TV like Farscape, but for a simple TV show to evoke so much emotion in people who are willing to pay to try to keep it going...

support your scifi

[Anonymous Coward]

guys in all reality , if we claim to exist in one, you want to make sure that your show your channel is doing the right thing is Pay Attention. Listen and support the team rather than cry and run...

Sci Fi now following the Comedy Central model

[frenchgates]

...imagine Comedy Central without the Daily Show: all Mannequin 2, all the time. A pageant of mediocrity and under-achievement.

They show cheap, mostly bad sequel films out of some library of second rate productions I assume they have some kind of generic access to...like Turner Classic Movies showing the films they already own.

Now they have canned the origial Star Trek (the only reason I watched Sci Fi) even though they have exclusive broadcast rights for the next several years.

Basically they suck.

For Christ's sake...

[kir]

All this pissing and moaning over a damned television show. STFU already. It's cancelled. Move on.

Re:For Christ's sake...

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah, seriously. Farscape was a shitty show in the first place, I don't see why people are so upset that they cancelled it. God, get a life.

Re:For Christ's sake...

[KillerBob]

Have you ever watched Farscape? One of the best TV shows ever produced, IM-not so-HO.

I'll admit that I didn't really like Farscape when it started out. A few months later, all I was hearing about at work was Farscape-this, Farscape-that, interspersed with the occasional bit of Everquest trivia. I decided to give the show another chance, and you know what? I liked it. I liked it a lot. It's involving, and they have fun with the story lines. When was the last time the Enterprise stopped at a pleasure planet and the crew dumped T'Pol and Captain what's-his-name off, insisting they don't come back for 10 days?

Just because you don't like it doesn't mean it's bad. A lot of people do like it, and think it's worth saving.

Incidentally, I'm glad that SG-1 is getting a reprieve, too. Others have said it, but it's not the best sci-fantasy, but it's at least it's consistently not-bad.

Re:For Christ's sake...

[MacAndrew]

I've been glad to here a bunch of people stick up for Farscape here. I was starting to worry it was the most obscure show in the universe. I also think it is clearly the anti-Trek -- all that is technological replaced by the biological. Thank goodness.

And, of course, it is now cancelled. The SciFi FAQ citied elsewhere is at least a balanced appraisal of their decision. I don't think some of their assumptions hold up, however; the time slot in particular irritated me. Friday night is about the weakest in the week. But this won't be the first time a network has chosen tripe over substance.

Cancellations, Etc.

[Scholasticus]

I'm sorry to see Farscape go, though I am glad that Stargate SG1 is getting a 7th season. Stargate may not be groundbreaking or visionary, but it's not bad compared to much television science fiction. Consider this comparison: in the most recent episode of 'Enterprise,' the ship encountered a black hole which for some unexplained reason turned everybody on the ship into an obsessive-compulsive (maybe the black hole was emitting 'a*s*ole rays'). In the Stargate episode in which the SGC encountered a black hole, what did they experience? Time dilation, gravity waves, tidal forces, increased gravity - and they still made a pretty good story out of it.

Firefly on hiatus according to EW

[Anonymous Coward]

Entertainment Weekly has said that this show is rated 99, below even such gems as Cedric the Entertainer.

This is going on hiatus, a prelude to cancellation.

Farscape still has 13 episodes left

[Cyberllama]

It hasn't been cancelled in the sense that they won't show it anymore, just that they won't buy any new episodes. The 13 episodes slated to start airing in January are the last 13, they were the ones being finished up when the word came down that sci-fi wasn't ordering anymore.

Re:Farscape still has 13 episodes left

[vsprintf]

There are only 11 new episodes. The negotiations for the shortened 13 episode season failed. The extra two shows would have give a small chance for some sort of ending to the series.

the SciFi Channel can never be redeemed.

[AugstWest]

The bastards canceled MST3K.

Re:the SciFi Channel can never be redeemed.

[Anonymous Coward]

The bastards show "Crossing Over". Might as well have dead air.

Re:the SciFi Channel can never be redeemed.

[Anonymous Coward]

Personally, I like "Crossing Over," but then again, I approach everything with an open mind. Unlike many techies, I haven't made up my mind to not believe everything that has not been "proven." I withhold my judgement and remember that "there are more things in heaven and Earth, Horatio, then are dreamt of in your philosophies." While science cannot prove life after death, astrology, and other "meta-physical" events, they have not been able to disprove them. I picked one topic, astrology, and researched it. I found that scientists who debunk it know absolutely nothing about what astrologers actually do or claim to do. Scientists just attack astrology on what they THINK astrologers claim to do.

There were also the remote viewing experiments the US and USSR performed that created a huge body of strong evidence that there is something to "extra sensory perception."

So, unlike many techies, I don't judge these things as false, I keep an open mind and realize there is A LOT I don't know and a LOT science has yet to understand. If I told ancient Greeks that it was sometimes possible to bring a person back to life by pounding on his/her chest, they would have thought that magic or unprovable. Just because science hasn't catagorized or taxonomized metaphysical phenomena doesn't mean it isn't possible.

Re:the SciFi Channel can never be redeemed.

[el_chicano]

This is a pretty funny comment, how in the world did some moderator find this flamebait?

I did not use (and thus lost) 5 mod points over the last couple of days due to finals, someone please mod this up!

Re:the SciFi Channel can never be redeemed.

[el_chicano]

My bad, I meant Offtopic. Farscape was cancelled by Sci-Fi, this is definitely on topic...

Re:the SciFi Channel can never be redeemed.

[BrodeCo]

Read what Penn of Penn & Teller has to say about "Crossing Over." Seriously. Magic exists, sure. But John Edwards is just incredibly cynical, evil and wealthy-- not psychic.

chrisd Changed The Subject

[Cyno01]

To everyone who's bitching that farscape is still cancled, what i meant by it is that it will still be on this season, with new episodes next month. If people are a little confused, my original title for this article was

2002-12-07 02:21:20 Sci-Fi Channel's Not Dead Yet (articles,tv) (accepted)

IMO they should keep Farscape, its one of the best Sci-Fi shows thats been on this millenium, but if they can't afford it, i guess cancling it is better then the Sci-Fi channel going bankrupt and being bought by FOX or something.

Re:chrisd Changed The Subject

[Anonymous Coward]

SciFi is owned by Vivendi which is IHMO much more evil than Fox could ever be.

Re:chrisd Changed The Subject

[fenix down]

SciFi is like Fox without Rupert Murdoch's need for respect.

Thank God for Barry the man-whore, or we might still have MST3K instead of 6 hours of Crossing Over.

Re:chrisd Changed The Subject

[glwtta]

but if they can't afford it, i guess cancling it is better then the Sci-Fi channel going bankrupt and being bought by FOX or something.

I don't see how that's better - I don't have my Farscape either way...

Just another indication

[Anonymous Coward]

That the editors and people who run slashdot are totally retarded. Ay DOY!!!

hehehe

[Anonymous Coward]

Farscape popup page:

Unfortunately, we will have to return the check for $60 that was sent to help pay for a new season.

I spent some time working at the post house that did Farscape down here. Let me tell you US$60 won't even get you a pixel.

Yes! PAssivity!

[MacAndrew]

Yes, everyone should be passive about changing the things they care about. Let it go. We're helpless. Drifting down the stream called life.

Hmm, that would eliminate half the posts on /. -- a real time-saver.

Really, the model here is the rescue of Star Trek for one more season, 30+ years ago. If no one says anything SciFi will only be sure that their judgment as to its declining popularity was correct (see the FAQ). I think the fan reaction is admirable in an age where people people complain about their TV shows, and politicians, and so on, without ever doing anything about it.

Now, if you don't like the dissensiom, "Move on." -- there are other stories to read.

as many others said...

[w4rl5ck]

its cancelled, its down, we live in fear and Crichton may never reach home again. They just paused the remaining 11 episodes til January. :(.............

Firefly on SciFi

[cat_jesus]

SciFi will probably pick it up, fool with the timeslot and cancel it because it lost ratings when compared to the original timeslot. They're quickly becoming as pathetic as the USA network.

Re:Firefly on SciFi

[KILNA]

Unfortunately for all of us, they ARE the USA network. That's SciFi's parent company, that's why you see ads for USA on SciFi all the time, and the face that The Dead Zone appears on both.

Farscape only 11 episodes left

[CryoStasis]

They are airing commercials for Farscape but as far as I know the show is still canceled. The episodes that they will be airing in Jan 2003 will be the last 11 episodes of the 4th season if I recall correctly.

Re:You linked to Farscape Page - BUT DID NOT READ

[simm_s]

That is somewhat of a contradiction. Why did FarScape's ratings go down after the cancellation of I-Man, but not recover while being paired with the hit series SG1? I believe the answer is that FarScape's early success had nothing to do with the fact it was paired with I-Man. Maybe, FarScape's fourth season really is not as good as the previous three seasons.

I actually stopped watching after the third season. IMHO Farscape really does not deserve to be cancelled after one bad season. They should have just lowered the production costs of the series and released a final fifth season.

NO REDEMPTION UNTIL MST3K COMES BACK

[Anonymous Coward]

DAMN THEM, THE SCI-FI CHANNEL, DAMN THEM WITH STRONG DAMNS. DAMN THEM, THE SHOW CANCELLERS.

No redemption until MST3K is brought back, with the same people, and a huge budget.

Mystery Science Theater 3000 FOREVER!

Re:NO REDEMPTION UNTIL MST3K COMES BACK

[The Evil Couch]

what's MST3K need with a big budget? it's a guy and a couple robots making fun of bad movies. it could operate with $10,000 an episode and be fine.

Re:NO REDEMPTION UNTIL MST3K COMES BACK

[el_chicano]

what's MST3K need with a big budget? it's a guy and a couple robots making fun of bad movies.

The special FX, of course! :->

Re:NO REDEMPTION UNTIL MST3K COMES BACK

[Anonymous Coward]

MST3K had to pay for the right to air the movies they were parodying. They could only afford to parody old B-movies. That's why you never saw them parodying a movie like Independence Day, even though the cast has said they would love to parody that movie.

It's cancelled......

[Phantom_24]

I recieved an e-mail form the OFFICIAL Farscape website the other day stating so. BUT, they also mention that a movie is quite possibly in the works.... as well as an ANIMATED series (granted that doesn't bring total resolution....but it's better than nothing). I for one would love to see Farscape hit the bigscreen, especially one with a bigger budget that the tv show !!

The poster is a retard

[Anonymous Coward]

They're just airing the second half of season 4 that they already finished producing. After that Farscape is over.

A few things to satiate you.....

[Phantom_24]

The official site....
http://www.farscape.com/

And the game...which is out finally.
http://www.farscapegame.com/

Re:Yes! PAssivity!

[JimPooley]

Really, the model here is the rescue of Star Trek for one more season, 30+ years ago.

That brought us such wonderful gems as "Spock's Brain", the one with the space hippies, and the one where Kirk swaps bodies with some woman so she can run the starship...

Yes. That third season of Star Trek was so worthwhile.

PS. Farscape is shit. Flush it away

From what dept?

[mraymer]

Hey, editors, let me clear something up...

First off, his name is John Edward. There is no "S" in Edward. Lastly, you didn't finish it... you should have said he is a big douche. Yet, that would still be incorrect. As we all know from South Park, John Edward is the biggest douche in the universe. Also, if he really believes that dead people talk to him, then he's a stupid douche.

Re:From what dept?

[Anonymous Coward]

You might as well mod this down right away. It's going to be labelled troll, since I mention what I've seen as a HUGE weakness in "geeks" and I've noticed that as smart as geeks are, they often aren't smart enough (or emotionally strong enough) to examine areas where they have room for personal growth.

Personally, I like "Crossing Over," but then again, I approach everything with an open mind. Unlike many techies, I haven't made up my mind to not believe everything that has not been "proven." I withhold my judgement and remember that "there are more things in heaven and Earth, Horatio, then are dreamt of in your philosophies." While science cannot prove life after death, astrology, and other "meta-physical" events, they have not been able to disprove them. I picked one topic, astrology, and researched it. I found that scientists who debunk it know absolutely nothing about what astrologers actually do or claim to do. Scientists just attack astrology on what they THINK astrologers claim to do.

There were also the remote viewing experiments the US and USSR performed that created a huge body of strong evidence that there is something to "extra sensory perception."

So, unlike many techies, I don't judge these things as false, I keep an open mind and realize there is A LOT I don't know and a LOT science has yet to understand. If I told ancient Greeks that it was sometimes possible to bring a person back to life by pounding on his/her chest, they would have thought that magic or unprovable. Just because science hasn't catagorized or taxonomized metaphysical phenomena doesn't mean it isn't possible.

So he thinks he talks with dead people. How do you know he doesn't? Have you studied the world's religions? Do you know what any of them, other than Christianity (a rather watered down religion created to enforce the control the Roman gov't and church at the time had over people) say about death?

Why are you so quick to be so nasty about something? Unless, of course, you've studied spirituality and looked into this subject. My experience is that most tech people (nerds, geeks, whatever) are so busy declaring the world of science right that they have no clue what people in spiritual disciplines or in metaphysical worlds are saying. I've tested this by asking scientists and astrologers (to take one field) about both fields. I've found most astrologers have a firm grasp of astronomy, but few scientists, expecially astronomers, have a clue about what astrology is really about.

But go ahead. Judge John Edward without knowing the full story. We never declare anything for sure about others, but our actions can show others who we are and what we do.

Your actions show that you make judgements without knowing the full story and that you are arrogant enough to assume that just because you believe something is so, that it is so.

Re:From what dept?

[Anonymous Coward]

Apparently this fucktard never saw a live taping of the John Edward show. I've never seen anything so rushed and haphazard in my life.
He'll start with a gender and a fairly common name and wait for someone to respond which will give him ideas to bounce off the poor mark in hopes of catching fire.
When John Edward hits it's after the mark has given all the information to him and he strung it into a string of pearls. When he misses most people don't care because John Edward is probably in communication with the ancestors of people who couldn't afford the tickets that night.
If you had attributed your post I would hunt you down, rape you, rape your family, set them on fire and make you watch them burn, screaming in agony cursing your name for being an idiot as they melt into puddles of suet before using the goo as lube while I rape your god damned face you piddling piece of shit who is not fit to lick the anus of Linus Torvalds after his Mexican-themed dinner. After I'm done, maybe you and your girlfriend John Edward can contact them to apologize for being such a douchebag.

Re:From what dept?

[Ed Bugg]

Let me first start by saying I don't know if he really can talk to the dead, and let me continue by saying, "I don't care!"

I have in the past watched specials here and there on ESP and para-psychology. I'm very interested in it, I grew up reading X-Men and day-dreaming that I could read minds and move objects with my mind. I find Crossing over farely boring and even worse monotonous. You watch a couple of shows and all the others are like them. The same stories of loved ones etc...

I just don't understand it. 'Crossing Over' which really can't be all that well watched gets tons of air time. Many times when I just witch over to see what's on, it's that show, but Farscape that seems to have a very large loyal base, who they complain isn't gaining any on it's viewer base. They break up the seasons and they never show any type of syndication showing, i.e. repeats at other times than it's time slots. you know a re-showing at 3 in the afternoon on sundays or something.

I'm just hopeing that another channel will pick it up... I'm hoping to be able to cancel my need for extended channels on my cable subscription (Only to get the SCI-Fi channel to watch Farscape, when they do show it)

Re:From what dept?

[Anonymous Coward]

Fucktard? Douchebag?

Well, I can see I'm responding to an intelligent person with an expansive vocabularly. Obviously this person has the ability to make his point deftly with some well chosen words.

So after being so rude and crude, and threatening me, do you really think that encourages anyone to listen to your opinion? Or are you just a troll trying to make others angry because you can't deal with your own insecurities and anger?

P.S. I can recommend a really good therapist to help you learn to control your anger and face all the other issues you seem to be in denial over. -- Yes, that's right, it all does show in a rude troll post like yours. I'll be glad to discuss the topic when you grow up and can have a rational discussion.

Re:From what dept?

[el_chicano]

I just don't understand it. 'Crossing Over' which really can't be all that well watched gets tons of air time.

It is cheap to produce, you can have 10 people in the audience and still make money off of the commericals.

The Sci-Fi network people are idiots, they cancel the Invisible Man and Farscape and show John Edward? Either that or they are cheap bastards!

Just for that I started to boycott Sci-Fi, plenty of other stuff on the other channels in addition to HBO, Showtime, Movie Channel, Encore, etc. It's too bad I don't have a Nielsen box...

chrisd...

[Anonymous Coward]

tard, it's just the rest of the remaining season. fucktard extraordinaire.

Children of Dune

[Sayjack]

Am I the only one who is more excited about the prospect of another Dune movie? The SCIFI version of Dune was so much better than the Hollywood rendition. So much so that it was ridiculous.

They're hitting the dryer portion of the series but it puts them a movie (2 books) closer to what I thought was the best parts of the Dune series; the latter post-God-Emperor-Leto books.

I just hope they cast the roles of young Leto and Ghola Duncan Idaho appropriately. Dune ruined me for other science fiction in that most stuff I have read since inhaling the series seems superficial in comparison. Dune's deep plotlines which take many books to unravel.

I'd also like to point out that the prequel novels undertaken by Frank's son Brian and sci-fi novelist Kevin J. Anderson really augmented my appreciation for how well thought out the Dune series really was. Much to my surprise, the Dune legacy is well represented by the collaboration of these two authors.

On a side note, I don't think the studios appreciate the fact that good science fiction movies/series might not bring in the immediate blockbuster bucks at the box office, but their shelf life is much greater than the latest Schwartzeneger film for example. Sci fi buffs will watch their favorite movies every time they come on, buy the DVD and other related items. The returns don't necessarily show up immediately, but the revenue is there. It's a sign of the stock market mentality ** MAKE MONEY NOW ** with little long term strategy...

Re:Children of Dune

[evenprime]

Am I the only one who is more excited about the prospect of another Dune movie?

No, you are not the only one. I was thrilled when I saw the commercial.

The SCIFI version of Dune was so much better than the Hollywood rendition. So much so that it was ridiculous.

I agree wholeheartedly. The CGI worms were a bit weak in some scenes, but certainly no worse than the rendering in major studio movies like spiderman. The thing that really shined in the sci-fi channel's adaptation was the character development. There's no way to get a book like Dune into a two hour movie without slaughtering it. By using the mini-series format, Sci-Fi allowed themselves more time to include details from the book.

A good example of this was their decision to show fremen-piloted 'thopters being used in the final battle. It's been years since I read DUNE, but I seem to remember a section in the book where Paul was shown a captured ornithopter.

Another good thing the sci-fi channel did was to have scenes that hinted at the future, like in Paul's vision of the sand worms prior to the battle. That scene showed the dunes turning into grass-covered hills. Obviously, that meant nothing to people new to Dune, but I was thrilled that they managed to slip that in.

Minor annoyance: I'd like to just once see a Dune adaptation with an ornithopter that takes off by flapping its wings.

Re:Children of Dune

[Sayjack]

Glad to hear I am not alone. I'm sure the CGI will be much improved given the improvements in the field. However, good writing more than makes up for the eye candy. Case in point, I can still watch old episodes of the Twilight Zone because the superior story lines.

There's no way to get a book like Dune into a two hour movie without slaughtering it.

Amen to that. It takes longer to convey certain things without the use of voiceovers for the thoughts of the characters. One of the few things that I liked about the hollywood version was their use of voices such as when Kynes asks himself "Could he be the one?" when Paul demonstrates an implicit knowlege of how to configure his stillsuit desert style. It was pretty unobtrusive and the only way to convey some of what was going on since much of the series occurs within the heads of the participants.

This is even more true in the case of Leto-God-Emperor's case. It's hard to understand the magnitude of his sacrifice to achieve the "Golden Path".

Stargate...

[Anonymous Coward]

Don't go away! We'll be returning soon!

Stargate is brought to you by Gates Foundation and Microsoft Windows... Opening gates to a new universe!

And StarOffice, your way out of the monopolistic forces of evil!

Da-dum!

PS: Standard legalese applies, including but not limited to the part which say brands belong to their owners (duh!) and this is fake.

Redeemed?

[Anonymous Coward]

A casting sheet for the new Battlestar Galactica production by Scifi Channel has been posted on the net and confirmed by producer Ron D. Moore himself to be accurate. Apparently the new mini series is going to reverse basically everything about the original. Naturally the fans are completely rejecting this new production and the only people that have anything positive to say about it are ones that never liked the original in the first place.

Re:Redeemed?

[Anonymous Coward]

I've dealt with Ron Moore. (I used to pitch stories to him when he worked at Star Trek: TNG.) He's a nice and helpful person. I don't have any right to say this, since he makes a living as a writer in L.A. and I'm back on the East Coast not writing, but other than his first 2 Trek scripts (which were bought before he became a staff member), I cannot say I think highly of his writing. He always seemed more interested with doing cool things with Klingons or plot games rather than developing a strong script around solid character interaction.

To be honest, even though I liked him, once I heard he was doing Battlestar Galacta, I gave up hope on it. And knowing how he always feels a driving need to change everything from the original, I knew it would be nothing like the original.

Re:Yes! Passivity!

[MacAndrew]

PS. Farscape is shit. Flush it away

Well over a million people disagree, in the States alone. Don't trouble yourself with improving our tastes. That you don't have the same preferences in "shit" means ... nothing. Actually it's kind of a compliment.

Is the Sci-Fi Channel Redeemed?

[TheWanderingHermit]

The Sci-Fi Channel can NEVER be redeemed. While the purpose of a TV network (broadcast or cable) is to make money, there are networks that do it while focusing on the content and at least pretending that they are doing what they do because they want to. (For all I know, they may actually NOT be just pretending, I don't know.) For example, TVLand (and it's sister/parent, Nick-at-Nite), Oxygen (for women), or Cartoon Network.

Sci-Fi, and it's owner, USA Networks, has never been about anything BUT money. They aren't going to give a show a second chance if they think it's good and can build. If a show doesn't produce the numbers, it's out. It's like the short story (and Sci-Fi did a movie on this) "The Cold Equations." They're about numbers and nothing less. At one time they focused on Sci-Fi and aired shows that told intelligent stories. Now it's nothing more than the Grade-B-Hack-'n'-Slash-Bad-Horror-Movie Channel. But the movies they often show, while insulting our intelligence, make money, so they do it.

Maybe it's worth it to get one or two movies a year that are fantastic (like their version of Dune). Personally, I stopped watching them years ago. I tuned in to watch a movie called "The Cube" and got so fed up with the commercial breaks that went on for 4 minutes (I timed them), that I set the VCR and left the room. I watched the rest later and haven't watch a single show on this channel since unless I could tape it and skip the commercials in playback.

Since I had friends into Xena, I started watching Xena when they were showing several episodes a night -- but they aired it in (almost) reverse order (and, for those that don't know, Xena is a show with a strong story arc). When they started showing it from the beginning, every day, they ended it at the end of a quarter, without finishing up with the episodes they had. Then they ran Hercules in the same time the next quarter and ended that, without ending the series, at the end of the quarter. I gave up. I didn't want to get involved in any series and start enjoying it only to have the rug yanked out from under me and not be able to see it all the way through.

There was also a well written and well acted show called "The Invisible Man." Sci-Fi stated that it needed to pull in certain numbers to remain on the air. It made those numbers, but they decided it wasn't doing well enough. At least they gave the prodcuers time to tie up the plot threads.

Face it. Sci-Fi channel doesn't care about SF, they care about money. We'd all be better off if we stopped watching it, let their ratings drop, then only watched their network when they aired intelligent shows. Maybe we, as SF fans, have ourselves to blame -- we keep watching and giving them high numbers when they air crap. They make so much off the crap, they can afford to cancel the less profitable shows like Farscape.

Re:Is the Sci-Fi Channel Redeemed?

[Psyienna]

I agree with you wholeheartedly. I was a big Babylon 5 fan when the show first aired and I was thrilled when Sci-Fi started showing the episodes in the afternoon. I was even encouraging my friends to consider tuning in when they pulled the rug out from underneath myself as well, and for what? Four hours of the X-Files?!?! I've totally given up on Sci-Fi- what a disappointment.

Henson may be bought out by someone else..

[bunnyshooz]

if you take a look over at Savefarscape.com's news, they have an article posted about it. I've heard some rumors about Showtime maybe picking up Farscape - don't know how reliable the rumors are, might just be hopeful speculation.

Re:You linked to Farscape Page - BUT DID NOT READ

[kaphka]

I guess I can not understand network programming.

Apparently not. I think you're confused about what "lead-in" means.

When "Farscape" followed "The Invisible Man", its ratings were 44% better than its lead-in. That means that a lot of people switched to Sci-Fi just to see "Farscape", even though they weren't interested in "The Invisible Man".

Conversely, this past summer, "Farscape" did 29% worse than its lead-in. That means that at least 29% of the people watching the previous program (probably much more) actually turned off Sci-Fi when "Farscape" came on. Inertia is usually one of the biggest factors in TV viewing preferences, so the fact that so many people not only weren't interested in "Farscape," but actively avoided watching it, is not a good sign.

You're right about it still being cancelled, of course.

I miss Farscape, but Firefly is excellent

[PetriWessman]

I miss Farscape and I'm still very pissed off that it got cancelled...

But I'm fast getting addicted to Firefly. Probably the best first season of any show I've ever seen, it's had me giggling out loud at time - not a pretty sight :). I seriously hope Fox gives this show a chance, it's a huge potetential hit. Every episode seems to be bettet than the last one. I was a bit put off by the genre-mixing at first (western/scifi) but it grew on me fast. This is original stuff.

...as was Farscape. And look what happened to it. Sigh.

I miss Farscape... but Firefly is excellent

[PetriWessman]

I miss Farscape and I'm still very pissed off that it got cancelled...

But I'm fast getting addicted to Firefly. Probably the best first season of any show I've ever seen, it's had me giggling out loud at times - not a pretty sight :). I seriously hope Fox gives this show a chance, it's a huge potential hit. Every episode seems to be better than the last one. I was a bit put off by the genre-mixing at first (western/scifi) but it grew on me fast. This is original stuff.

...as was Farscape. And look what happened to it. Sigh.

Cool! Repeats!

[xski]

I'll finally be able to see what all the fuss is about. Geez...

-x

It might be too late for Farscape, but not Firefly

[fahrvergnugen]

Firefly's ratings for Friday Dec. 6 came in and were worse than the show's average. Unless they get a larger share soon, it's probably going to get the can in the near future.

Say what you want about the start of the program, but this is seriously one of the highest quality shows put on broadcast TV in years. Last night had torture, severed body parts, some amazingly good masturbation jokes, execution-style murder, eastern philosophy, an assault on a space station, marital conflict, an role for each member of the ensemble cast that still managed to define and grow each character, and (at least last night) a hot lesbian sex scene.

Also a badass schizophrenic psychic chick who was able to put down 3 commandos with 3 shots, while her eyes are shut.

I know I'm raving here, but I need to go one further. The show revels in setting up situations like the ones you've seen in every other television show, and then cutting the moment off at the knees.

For example: Force a woman to choose between her husband and her best friend that she's known longer and trusts more. The one left behind will be tortured to death. They've spent the whole first 20+ minutes of the episode setting up this conflict and they're due for a commercial any time now, so it's no surprise when the following exchange begins:

Villain: "I think you can have just one. Which wou-"
Character: "HIM!" (points at husband) "You _were_ going to ask me to choose, right?"

The villain looks like someone just took his favorite toy away.

Farscape may be gone, but given a chance Firefly can become just as important to the sci-fi pantheon. There's 2 episodes with definite airdates left, one of which is the (reportedly not very good) unaired pilot episode.

Give it a watch during December and you'll be doing yourself a favor.

farscape...

[circusboy]

the only thing that they have said that they are going to do in 2003 is to finish broadcasting season 4...

Re:It might be too late for Farscape, but not Fire

[Anonymous Coward]

Exactly Firefly is the best new show of the season and is one of our last hope to keep good scifi on TV
to help save it, watch it, get everybody you know to watch and visit http://www.fireflysupport.com and www.fox.com/firefly/

Tremors is SciFi?

[zoomshorts]

The "SciFi" channel is becoming a mish-mash of stupidity. The early days of rappers, jocks and others proclaiming "I am Sci Fi" were and still are a joke. Someone with a misguided sense of management is working behind the scenes to screw up a decent concept. Taken? What a load of crap! I was hopeful that when I subscribed to the channel, things would be about Science Fiction. The DreamTeam? What is up with that? Leftover crap from Altered States? Stupid asshole and cunt INTERPRETING people's dreams? Smoke some better Ganja poeple and then drink some sugar laced coffee and WAKE UP! Speculative fiction is NOT Science Fiction. It would be better to do things based upon REAL science fiction writers, Asimov(Spare me the I Robot /Will Smith crap), Bester, Heinlein et al! REAL science fiction. Plenty of stories that are PD. Dune was a farce, based upon reading the actual BOOK. Done twice and messed up each tine. Why bother? SciFi should undertake to get a grip or attempt a movie based upon Stranger in a Strange Land. Read the book, get the rights from Virginia, and do it word for word. That would be awesome, but based upon past expierence, they would mess it up too! They BE SciFi!

Re:Tremors is SciFi?

[Anonymous Coward]

Zoomshorts, I totally agree! Think how much better that $40 million would have been spent on a mini-series of Ray Bradbury's The Illustrated Man - now THAT would be a legitimate event, something to get excited about. It's such cinematic material, but I'm afraid no one will ever take a risk on it.

So is FS fan...

[Trikenstein]

A Farscaper or a Farscapie?

Re:So is FS fan...

[Shipscat]

We're Scapers, which is a good thing, because scapies sounds like a disease... And Farscape is cancelled, is still cancelled, and the final 11 episodes are showing starting in January. However, the campaign to Save Farscape is hoping to get more people to watch, and raise the ratings for the last eps to give Farscape a chance to be renewed or picked up by another network. That's what all the fuss boils down to- all the press, the commercials, rallies, and newspaper ads. All these good things people here are saying abut Firefly are fine- I like Firefly, and I've been a joss Whedon fan for a long time. But there is nothing you're saying that isn't true of Farscape (except the real bullets part- Farscape has little yellow bolts of light). Farscape has great characters, breaks the rules of TV, long story arcs and character development, not to mention fantastic writing, directing, music, and great special effects. It's also funny as Hell- if anyone here saw Crichton in Aeryn's body, doing the titty shimmy, you'd know what I mean. the difference is that we've watched Farscape for four years! We're in the middle of the frelling story! And because Scifi did not see fit to inform them they were cancelled until two days before the end of shooting for season four, we're going to end on some god-awful cliff-hanger like every other season- but with no hope of resolution. All we want is another season to finish off the story- Farscape was cut off in it's prime, an untimely death.

its still cancelled

[Anonymous Coward]

They just have whatever episodes were still in the can. Once those have finished airing, Farscape will be no more.

And help Firefly...

[Snaller]

Farscape is gone, Firefly is still alive - so start early saving it!

http://fireflysupport.com/

Quality manages.. hang on, what am i saying this is for profit tv... oh well

Supportive?

[Snaller]

... according to fans online, Fox has run about 2 promos for the show? Since.. ever!
Ironic then, that another channel are running lots of promos for a canceled show.. tsk tsk

Re:Supportive?

[Twirlip of the Mists]

... according to fans online, Fox has run about 2 promos for the show? Since.. ever!

That's not exactly accurate. Fox has spent quite a bit on marketing for the show, even going so far as to set up a pretty impressive official web site with message boards and whatnot. They didn't have to do that. Fox spent a blessed fortune on the pilot-- the sets alone cost more than most episodes. When they got a pilot that wasn't exactly what they wanted, they could have cancelled the show completely and put the pilot on a shelf, but they didn't. They ordered some more episodes and decided to give it a shot.

And the most important thing is that they don't show up at story meetings every Tuesday with a briefcase full of notes. Amazingly, there hasn't been one "more sex," "more proactive," or "can you Rastify him by about 10%?"

Fox could have been a lot worse.

Re:Supportive?

[Snaller]

>>... according to fans online, Fox has run about
>>2 promos for the show? Since.. ever!
>That's not exactly accurate.

Actually yes it is, that is what fans are claiming - but i surmised I understand what you mean :)

> Fox has spent quite a bit on marketing for the
>show,

Well, that's not what people on http://www.fireflyfans.com or the offical board say, nor what they say in alt.tv.firefly or rec.arts.tv.sf - of course they may have been looking in the wrong direction.

> even going so far as to set up a pretty
>impressive official web site with message boards
>and whatnot.

Well, your milage may vary, but I don't think the official website is particularly impressive, and the messageboard is the one fox generally uses to all shows, simply adding some areas for Firefly is not that big a deal. However, the board is very interesting given that most of the actors hang out there inbetween shots, and some of them are down right chatty, and all come across as likeable people(instead of egomaniacs).

>They didn't have to do that.

I disagree. Because:

> Fox spent a blessed fortune on the pilot-- the
>sets alone cost more than most episodes.

If that is the case, one would think that they most definately would drum up interest to protect their investment.

> When they got a pilot that wasn't exactly what
>they wanted, they could have cancelled the show
>completely and put the pilot on a shelf, but
>they didn't. They ordered some more episodes and
>decided to give it a shot.

I suspect Berman likes Whedon from the old days... alas, money is her master in the end...

>And the most important thing is that they don't
>show up at story meetings every Tuesday with a
>briefcase full of notes. Amazingly, there hasn't
>been one "more sex," "more proactive," or "can
>you Rastify him by about 10%?"

This is of course paramount, that the tomato salesmen stay out of it - of course a cynic might say that its because they have already decided to cancel the show so they don't bother...

Don't get me wrong, i very much hope that they will keep their hands of it, place it in a good spot and run tons of promos so that it will grow into what they consider a hit... i just get a bit nervous when i read all the voices say that 'hiatus' is just another word for 'canceled'...

(And here hexapodia is not the key insight ;-)

Re:Supportive?

[Twirlip of the Mists]

Okay, so I have to eat a little crow here. Earlier I wrote that Fox has spent a lot on promotion. Turns out that this is, while accurate, not entirely complete. They spent a fortune on early promotion, before the show premiered, but ever since... well, I'll just quote what Joss wrote.

Needless to say, I'm BOWLED over by the RELENTLESS promotion our mother network has given the show. With the kind of campaign that can't help but reach hundreds of dozens of households, we can't fail to DEVOUR our timeslot.

Re:Supportive?

[Twirlip of the Mists]

Well, that's not what people on http://www.fireflyfans.com or the offical board say....

Can't say I'm too familiar with those sources; I don't spend a lot of time looking at any of those. But I did get something from Joss earlier tonight that implied that I was a wee bit mistaken. That is, I was right, but not completely so. I humbly corrected myself here.

(And here hexapodia is not the key insight ;-)

Hexapodia is always the key insight. If it doesn't seem that way, it's just because you don't have all the facts yet.

Re:Supportive?

[Snaller]

>>(And here hexapodia is not the key insight ;-)

>Hexapodia is always the key insight. If it
>doesn't seem that way, it's just because you
>don't have all the facts yet.

I admit to not being omnipotent ;)
(perhaps its just this zone that is slowing me down though :)

Request for slashdot editors

[Anonymous Coward]

Hi, could you stop printing moronic and false articles? Sci-fi's ads refer to the remaining unaired episodes that will be aired before the series gets the axe. There is no new season, the show is not being saved and unless these final episodes (which have already been shot, they haven't been ordered) do 5x the ratings that Farscape normally did don't expect anyone to care.
And also, sci-fi doesn't require "redemption", because it's USA Network that's making the decision to cancel Farscape and not the execs at Sci-Fi.

People still watch Television?

[Lobsang]

Well, not everybody. Blind people, for instance, do not.

Envious undeserving underserved

[Anonymous Coward]

The modest political unit to which I am geographically constrained is not deemed - by the multinational cable / movie / entertainment industry that holds a monopoly on sci-fi entertainment - to be worthy of either the sci-fi channel or any scifi movie less than 2 yrs old.

No matter how much you pay.

The usual "stock age" is closer to 5 yrs.

So much for globalization.

Riverworld

[Anonymous Coward]

My question is: What happened to Riverworld??

SCIFI had told everyone they were making a Riverworld mini-series, and then *POOF* nothing more happened. Personally, I think a Riverworld series that was faithful to the original would be awesome.

--

Swine pearls.

[Anonymous Coward]

SG-1 has one of the best infinite-possibility concepts since Phillip Jose Farmer's Riverworld.

Which I wouldn't mind seeing turned into a good long series of full-length movies.

Unfortunately, the movie industry's best would probably amount to no more than, say, Screamers. Probably with muppet-gigantopithecii.

Re:Yes! PAssivity!

[kir]

Maybe you didn't understand me. IT'S A TELEVISION SHOW. Yes, it's a good one (I never said I didn't like it). Your response sounds as if I said, "All this pissing and moaning over damned human lives. STFU already. They're dead. Move on."

Do you see what I mean?

Now, if you don't like the dissensiom, "Move on." -- there are other stories to read.

Ahhh... come now... leave? You can't make me! Nany-nany-boo-boo!

Logic gap

[Anonymous Coward]

Money seems to be less important than coming up with "new" stuff.

This is probably due to collective desire to climb the corporate ladder.

Jrs get noticed coming up with "new" concepts. Not to be outdone, Srs come up with their own "new" concepts - even if that means strangling their present breadwinners.

And they blame it on demographics and sponsor "turnaround". Or something like that.

The system is (too) corrupt.

guns in a vacuum.

[Anonymous Coward]

There shouldn't be any reason a modern gun should not be able to fire in a vaccuum. There might be a few factors that might be problematic.

One is temperature. Basically a bullet fires due to a chemical reaction started by the firing pin. All of the required oxygen is chemically contained in the bullet, but the reaction might require a minimum temperature to actually take place. Space is not all frozen. If you are close to a star (say for example, earth orbit close), it could actually be quite warm if you are in sunlight. It could be quite cold in shadow. However, since space is a vaccuum, there is no loss of heat through conduction to the air or through convection, only through radiation and conduction to the wielder of the gun. As a result, the gun (and the bullets), might retain sufficient heat to work for quite some time even in total shadow. Plus, the relatively simple addition of an elictrically heated firing pin would solve that problem. After the first shot, the heat from firing would heat everything up to sufficient temperature to fire, and it would not need to be heated again for quite some time.

The other heat problem is a lot more problematic. That problem is overheating. Even in an atmosphere a gun can become uncomfortably hot after a short period of time. With no conduction to the environment and no convection, the gun might get very hot. Hot enough for parts to expand and the gun to jam. So, the gun might need a cooling system. Possibly something clever might be worked out to carry away most of the heat with the bullets exhaust.

Another problem might be pressure. In a vacuum, the internal relative pressure on the barrel is going to be greater than it would in an atmosphere. Of course, it is unlikely that will make the barrel explode. I do not know how much pressure is normally generated inside a gun barrel when it fires, but I am sure it is much more than one atmosphere.

Still, it is possible that the lack of air pressure may affect the operation of the shell ejection mechanism. Probably only if it is poorly designed, however. This is more a problem with using guns in higher pressure environments than lower ones. I know there are a fair number of guns that jam past the first shot underwater because they do not eject the shell properly.

If we are talking about actually operating in deep space on the other hand... A lot of people in this thread have mentioned that they find the typical laser weapons and particle beam weapons and so forth in typical sci-fi ridiculous and think that everyone will still use ballistic weapons in the future (when I say everyone, apparantly that means literally everyone). That may be the case. Laser weapons and particle weapons and plasma projection weapons, etc. very well may be ridiculous... in an atmosphere. In space, traditional ballistic weapons are just as ridiculous. They might work well for close range anti-missile defense, but it is ridiculous to think of shooting at another space ship with them. I'm not going to go into all the details on that one but just think about it. Actual space battles are very likely to be fought at long range. That will mean that any physical projectiles, to have a greater than 1% chance of coming within a mile of their target, are going to need to have their own guidance systems and their own propellant. The reason for this is that I would expect any spaceship that might have a chance of being shot at to automatically make random course corrections. If it takes five minutes for a bullet to actually reach its target, it is very unlikely that the target will be there when it arrives. And, of course, rockets may impractical because they may be easily thwarted with simple, rapid fire ballistic weapons, or with other missiles, or with particle or laser weapons.

Well, anyway, that's my take on it.

Re:guns in a vacuum.

[The Evil Couch]

shell ejection wouldn't be an issue with a vacumn. it'd probably actually be easier in a vacumn. guns rarely fire well underwater because the increased friction of the water prevents the bolt from fully locking. any time that happens, the weapon simply will not fire, as a saftey measure. if the bolt's not fully seated and locked, the bullet will detonate instead of firing.

overheating is a serious issue with guns. I was a machinegunner for a year in US Army. it's not a matter of the gun being too hot to handle, you can always wear heat resistant gloves for that. Nomex was a godsend to the infantry. the issue with overheating is that the metal expansion will affect normal function of the weapon. the first part of a gun to overheat is the barrel, for obvious reasons. once the barrel gets overheated, it will expand and hamper the casing from being extracted and ejected. once that begins to happen, the overall cycle of the gun will slow down. I've seen a M240B machinegun go from 850 rounds per minute, to about 400, in the course of about 10,000 rounds, fired in controlled bursts.

a pistol is much less prone to overheating, simply because it does not put that many bullets out at once. honestly, I think that the "has to have atmosphere to fire" bit was just oversight on the script writers. most civilians don't know anything about guns or physics.

as far as the refreshing amount of guns as opposed to laser weapons, I think murphy's law would apply. "anything that can go wrong, will go wrong." hand lasers may be practical in this future setting, but simply too much of a pain in the ass to upkeep, fix and purchase, whereas gunpowder-based guns have been around for several centuries, are cheap and are proven and refined weapons.

Re:It might be too late for Farscape, but not Fire

[Fweeky]

There's 2 episodes with definite airdates left, one of which is the (reportedly not very good) unaired pilot episode.

Yes, 1x00 was pretty poor. Shame they didn't write it off and reshoot something stronger -- I'm sure if it had been shown as the pilot it would have damaged further ratings pretty badly :/

Of course, it might have been better without the crappy VCD format I saw it in ;)

(And yes, I'm currently downloading 1x09 -- we don't get Fox in the UK)

It's too late for Firefly as well.

[TheMime]

Just got the new Entertainment Weekly in the mail today. It says for the "loser of the week" Firefly. Fox has taken it off their schedule indefinitely. I guess its gone too.

You want Sci-Fi to do series again?

[mbourgon]

Sci-Fi has changed how they do programming, from what I've read/heard. Now, instead of doing series (we'll mention a few I loved that were cancelled - G vs. E, Invisible Man, Farscape), they'll do events (Dune, Taken, Firestarter), and apparently they can make enough money off of it to stop doing series (except for Stargate - add obligatory "how the frell did Farscape get canned and this piece of drek extended?" reference here).

And I'll breeze by the fact that Straczynski's "Legend of the Rangers" never went beyond the pilot, due to the fact that they're moving away from Space Opera.

But, we have a way to stop this. And I'm deadly serious. Don't watch the events. It's that simple. Show them that you don't care that they spent x million dollars on , that you want series. And do it by not watching the events initially. If you want, watch it the second time around. It's not like they're not going to show it a few more times, before the DVD release.

So, sit back, and wait 3 more months for Taken, Firestarter Remake 3, etc. And then tell them why you're not watching.

Fortunately, there's been a good amount of science fiction on for the past couple of years, and not on the Sci-Fi channel. But if they can survive by doing one gigantic event a quarter (read the old press releases), then they won't do series. Personally, I wish they could do like the Brits - a 6-episode run of a show. If it does well, another "season" next year. The problem is that Science Fiction is expensive to do, sets and all. They might need to avoid space opera, do more like I-man.

Anyhow, time to go watch last night's tape of Firefly - 2nd time will hopefully be even better.

Re:You want Sci-Fi to do series again?

[Anonymous Coward]

Ok, I have to admit, their commercials for Taken made the show appear very intersting.
Boy was I wrong!
I couldn't even drudge through the first show. it was so slow, so disjointed, and so pointless!
It's like they took most of the most famous UFO stories and tried to weave some sort of grand conspiracy between the aliens invading and the government covering it up.
People, this had already been done, and WAY better than Taken ever could. It was called "Close Encounters of the Third Kind".
This not only came off like a poor second cousin to that great movie, it EVEN USED ONE OF THE ORIGINAL LOCATINS.
Anyone else recognize that winding country road the girl was driving down? Specifically the corner she turned with the hill on the left side and the two-rail fence along the cliff side on the right?
PULEEZE!
And, on top of it all, they cancel a show like Farscape claiming they cannot afford it anymore, and come up with Tremors??? What the heck are they smoking!?
I can honestly say the only reason Sci-Fi is ever turned on is when my wife wants to watch old X-files re-runs (coincidentally NOT a show Sci-Fi produced!) and when they finally cancel THAT, well, cable might as well remove Sci-Fi from the lineup.

I am... NOT ... Sci-Fi

I wish I could mod down this story

[cybersquid]

Geez, do people do even the most basic research before posting a story?

And to you submission editors:

• Do you even look at the story?
• Do you even look at the Subject (see The Lone Gunmen Are Dead
• Just kidding: I don't think there are submission editors

degrees of separation

[Anonymous Coward]

I've been thinking that over the years (and this has accelerated drastically recently) SCI-FI is using a degrees of separation methodology for its choice of programming. Science Fiction has its own history and its offshoots that can be argued against really being or having ever been really science fiction. Even the very name, "Science Fiction" would suggest that the subject is actually about scientifically based (loosely or not) fictional advances or even changes. The first could be exemplified by Starship Troopers and the later by any number of Ray Bradbury "alternate timeline" based stories to where our society and thusly its symbiotic technology operate on a different basis than we know in reality like using organic methods instead of synthetic or just the classic of the A-bomb being invented before cars or flight type of development.

This "hard lined" view will cause its own flame war, so I digress. However with that in your mind now working around along side the voice saying, "Hey! lets get liquired up and screw" or "What is this guy getting at, I have a date later?" you will start thinking...

The degrees of separation could explain how a horror movie could be viewed as being on the Sci-Fi channel because of the similar suspension of belief with a futuristic mutation based evil-scientist model. Frankenstein of course comes to mind. How far can you bastardize that so that in the end you have a movie that is just pure smelly crap that is really not anything near Sci-Fi except for its chain of separations. Remember how you boil a frog?
Then we come to the old crap that had no business being aired in the first place but since it had robots, space ships and comical views of space will be seen as science fiction. No, HG Wells creations do not fall here simply because his method focused less on the "tech wow" factor and more on its effects on the human element in the story. (not to mention that he really set the stage himself so it cannot be said he really copied and shallowly mimicked)

However, I still will not ever understand why Braveheart was aired on the Sci-Fi channel. The best I can come up with is this:
Braveheart was complete fiction, with about 0.25 percent facts set in the Scottish Highlands primarilly and involving bloody battles with a nefarios king. Hmmm, sounds like either The Highlander or any number of Sword and Sorcery films to me, so that could cover one degree. Then you merely have to find the links for those respective movies and you are already set. This would even explain Robin Hood as well so YeeeeHaaaaaaw!

Note that no where except for a very ambiguous statement about "crap" did I ever give a personal opinion on the actual worth of these products. This is not about good or bad it is about categorization. Take for example this classic (classic in how it is so far widespread): Take a Country band, a blues band and a Hard Rock band. You would expect to hear songs from each on stations dedicated to the respective genres of music. However, the reality is that the stations choice of genre is based upon the style of actual music. After all is it marketing only that puts songs on the "I like" list of people based upon a certain genre? (well to some it sadly is) Would you listen to something that is hip hop if it was called Metal? Does it being labled as Metal or Death Rock actually make it so? However what happens is that a established band will release a song on a normal album (in other words it is not some "new outreach" crap like some artists do like Shania Twain... that is marketing) that is different music than what the band normally produces? Say the metal band releases a very much country song or blues song (it happens considering how they are related) or the blues releases country or rock and so on? What you will see is that the stations will not play those songs based on the actual song sound. Why? Because of marketting and small minds. If AC/DC for whatever reason, hypothetically released a very country (I'm talking George Jones twang here) song on one of their albums then you would probably still hear it on rock stations but not on country (well actually country stations are more likely but this is not about rankings). Sadly many would start liking country just because of that song, the little mindless sheep. Hmmm, this turned bad and I didn't intend it to... ok, end of rambling. Now my fingers are stretched out and I can get to work!

Tremors is the new Beastmaster

[Anonymous Coward]

:D?

Farscape fans are still hosed...

[Mnemennth]

No, Farscape is not still kicking - the episodes you see listed are merely the last half of season 4, which we should have gotten 5 months ago. Season 4 ends in a traditional Farscape cliffhanger, and after that, it's still byebye unless we pull off some miracle... Gee, why am I not grateful for the bone they tossed our way in the form of a Farscape Chain Reaction just before they kick off the last dozen eps? SciFi still remains in the top ranks of my dren list.
FRELLING DRANNITS!!!

Mnementh

Re:You linked to Farscape Page - BUT DID NOT READ

[Macgruder]

The Kindred was pretty cool. Short lived on Fox, but based on the Vampire:The Masquerade by White Wolf. Did it justice, too.

No news here

[cyclist1200]

Sorry, but the current season of Farscape is only about half-over, which means that the other half of the season has yet to air. Sci-Fi aired a promo at the time of the last episode saying that new episodes would return in January. Until there's a press-release saying otherwise, consider it still cancelled.

Is it true?

[Anonymous Coward]

that the dirty whore, Susan Surandon (sp) is playing in Children of Dune? Perhaps she plays a character that will use all her Bene Jeserit powers to get the little children naked at every opportunity! Wouldn't that be fun?

Firefly...

[Cliff]

Oh, but they have. Fox has announced that Firefly is truly cancelled. They have the pilot and then 2-3 other episodes that they plan on airing..."sometime", and then the show is done.

This has truly not been a good year of TV, for me.

Re:Firefly...

[Twirlip of the Mists]

Yeah, during the time between when I wrote that post and last Thursday, they made that very announcement.

I've got a journal article up about it, and I'm about to post another, if you're interested in joining in.

Last Post!

[alpg]

Every Solidarity center had piles and piles of paper ... everyone was
eating paper and a policeman was at the door. Now all you have to do is
bend a disk.
-- A member of the outlawed Polish trade union, Solidarity,
commenting on the benefits of using computers in support
of their movement.

- this post brought to you by the Automated Last Post Generator...