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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."
People still watch Television?
I thought that went out of style after they cancelled ST:TNG?
Nooo lord please no.... I am puring kerosene in my eyes now.
Putp
The Revolution Will Not Be Televised
Why no link directly to the latest farscape news? Or perhaps the Cancellation FAQ and get some real facts!
/. no doubt ;)
A novel concept for
Is still canceled.
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.
Come to the University of Mars! Classes starting soon!
After that, it's over, ending in a helluva cliffhanger.
No Farscape for you!
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...
What a fucking joke, a marginal movie made into a series? Spend the money on Farscape and dump this dog NOW!!!
Now I can watch MUPPETS IN SPACE! again!
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.)
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.
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.
Vote monkeys into Congress. They are cheaper and more trustworthy.
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!
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.
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 ;-)
So we lose Farscape and get Tremors: The Series. I think I am going to go clean my brain with some Hydra-Shok.
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
The Revolution Will Not Be Televised
Anyone know of progress on the rumored animated version? Wasn't ADV involved somhow?
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
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!!
Buzzing the information Superhighway at Warp speed
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.)
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?
.technomancer
...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.
Syntax error: loose != lose, affect != effect, then!=than
All this pissing and moaning over a damned television show. STFU already. It's cancelled. Move on.
3cx.org - A truly bad website.
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.
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.
The bastards canceled MST3K.
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."Sic Semper Tyrannosaurus Rex."
Yes, everyone should be passive about changing the things they care about. Let it go. We're helpless. Drifting down the stream called life.
/. -- a real time-saver.
Hmm, that would eliminate half the posts on
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
"Information wants to be paid"
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.
"To confine our attention to terrestrial matters would be to limit the human spirit." -Stephen Hawking
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...
-- Good judgement comes with experience. -- Experience comes with bad judgement.
PS. Farscape is shit. Flush it away
... nothing. Actually it's kind of a compliment.
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
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.
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.
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.
MSK
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 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.
I'll finally be able to see what all the fuss is about. Geez...
-x
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.
Even Jesus hates listening to Creed.
the only thing that they have said that they are going to do in 2003 is to finish broadcasting season 4...
-- it's ridiculous how many people misspell ridiculous... (damn, damn, damn...)
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!
A Farscaper or a Farscapie?
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
If Google really cared they would fix Android Chrome to reflow text, instead of discriminating
... 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
If Google really cared they would fix Android Chrome to reflow text, instead of discriminating
Well, not everybody. Blind people, for instance, do not.
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!
3cx.org - A truly bad website.
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)
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.
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.
"Sometimes a woman is a kind of religion, she can save your soul & set you free from all your sins" - Bad Examples
And to you submission editors:
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
The Kindred was pretty cool. Short lived on Fox, but based on the Vampire:The Masquerade by White Wolf. Did it justice, too.
I'm not crazy,I'm actively irresponsible.
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.
The World's Worst Webcomic!
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.
The World's Worst Webcomic!
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.
A man who wants nothing is invincible
This has truly not been a good year of TV, for me.
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.
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