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Farscape Fans Reinventing Television
JoeCotellese writes "With the recent cancellation of Farscape, this Salon story discusses the creative ways fans are trying to save the show.
Specifically it talks about how grassroots organization through the internet has helped them to the point where they are discussing fan funded production of the show."
that doesn't like farscape?
The Twiligh Zone(old), Sliders, The Outer Limits(new), and better shows fell from the waves. Why is everyone so concerned with farscape?
In all fairness I haven't seen more than five episodes of the show, but I have never been attached to it. Why are so many people obsessed with it?
This is a serious question, not a flame.
You can't judge a book by the way it wears its hair.
You're just begging for a subscriber to post the full text.
Salon fans reinventing hand-outs as a business model. It worked so well for Linux companies, after all.
Could be an interesting way of doing things however I can't see it really working as shows need a guaranteed, regular income stream.
I would personally love Farscape to be continued, especially having seen the cliff-hanger of a final episode last Monday on BBC 2..........
I wonder if you could do things like give people who donate over $xxx amount a walk-on part or something? Guided tours of the sets (yeah I know they need to be rebuilt)? Signed anythings. I guess you could try a fund raising event like the US PBS shows do - or the lartge charity fundraisers we have in the UK. Would work if we found some big starts who would support the thing for free......
Hmm
Troc
Troc's dubious podcast and blog: http://www.trocnet.net
Campaigning may have worked for a while... but now EVERY show that gets canceled gets a campaign to save it. It's losing its potency, even if they do reinvent how its done.
When the folks at TNT told J Michael Strasinski to make Babylon Crusade "WWF wresting mixed with Baywatch" I pretty much lost any hope in being able to communicate with TV execs in English. Grunts and fist loads of money seem to be the only way.
Fuzzy Knights: New RPG Strips Tuesday and Friday!:
http://www.fuzzyknights.com
Never. Going. To. Happen.
It would be nice to read this article but unfortunately you have to subscribe to Salon to finish it.
So is it illegal to copy and paste the article here?
When did Salon start this "you have two options to read the rest of this article" crap. I don't really mind sitting through an ad (especially for powell's books, a fantastic bookstore), but then it didn't even take me to the rest of the article. Instead it dropped me back at their main page with no clue where to go next.
Oh, there it is all the way at the bottom. Grrr.
Well they;re welcome to try, if they like it that much. It'll just be hard to bring up to the standards of modern tv shows.
Although with programs like blender etc.. going oupen source, it might have the nice cgi that a sci-fi flicks requires.
good luck to them.
So, anyways, let me ask some questions. Is the big deal that Sci-Fi bitched out on the final season that it promised or that the fans just want the show to go on forever? Or just the fact that the series ended with a cliffhanger and you need resolution? Moreover, what makes the Farscape fans so persistent and loud about what they want? And will scraping together enough money for an episode (which I thought was a plan at one time) really do anything?
How come the NYT gets an obligatory 'free registration required' warning while Salon doesn't merit an 'expensive and probably futile registration required' fatal error?
Kind of sucks that one can't read the whole article.
Can we moderate a user down if they give a really crappy link?
he wants his cadence back.
Much of the funding for PBS programs come from "Fan" funding. How is this essentially different?
The Farscape producers were under the assumption they were going into a fifth season. After all, SciFi bought it for a fourth and fifth season. Thus, they left season four on a huge cliff-hanger and were going to wrap it all up in season five, much like Babylon 5. However, the end result is a cliff-hanger that may never be resolved.
So, to answer your question, the fans want a fifth season, they want resolution of the series and they want more Farscape.
this all reminds me of a few years ago, when a show called "brookyln bridge", got cancelled, then everyone started bitching for it to be put back on the air, then they did put it back on the air, then no one watched it again, like before, and it got cancelled, again. the studios and stations know that this is the most likely scenario already, and as such i am sure they are ready to move on to the "next big thing", unfortunately. i watched a few episodes of the show, it is pretty cool, but I am not going to lose sleep over the fact that the show got cancelled. chalk it up to "the man trying to keep you down" or something. meanwhile, you can still watch reruns.
I hate sigs.
If you're criticising Farscape, I'm really hoping that you've actually watched more than two episodes. Personally, I think Farscape is one of the *best* SCI-FI shows ever made (right up there with Stargate and TOL), based simply on the quality of production and creativity in making the 'actors'. :)
(I mean honestly, tell me Pilot just isn't the coolest muppet ever?!)
"they are discussing fan funded production of the show." And while they're doing that Jack will make the producers a great meal while Chrissy flirts with them. But of course the whole deal falls through when Mr. Furley shows up!
Grow up people, shows such as Farscape cost MILLIONS of dollars to produce. There is now way in heck fans would EVER be able to afford it!
If someone says he and his monkey have nothing to hide, they almost certainly do.
Please get over the show people. To be so attached that you are considering funding the show? That is just insane. There are much better things to do with your time than get caught up in TV or movies. All this stuff is imaginary and it is just taking you away from reality of the real world.
why would people waste their money on this? it's TV! get a life!
...nobody rides for free!
(-1, Insightful)
Save Farscape was created for the explicit effort of saving Farscape. I sure hope it is saved, since it's probably one of the best sci-fi shows in existence. Pretty much all I watch for TV shows are Junkyard Wars, Farscape and Enterprise.
It is an interesting show. I enjoyed diversity in alien species and cultures. But every once in a awhile it is muppets in space.
They are talking about doing season 5 as an anime series. Which, if done correctly, could be really great.
I loved farscape because it tried to stay away from the star trek cliche, and pretty much succeeded. Also because it was actually very well written, acted, and full of really great one liners that really threw you for a loop.
Watch the last episodes of season 4, and you'll probably see the best sci-fi tv in a lonnnng time.
I do understand how some don't like it, as it is very serial. But on the flip side, I know quite a few people who watched the between-season intro episode where they tried to introduce new people to the series, and absolutely were hooked. I mean, even my sister and her husband, who are not sci-fi nerds started watching it.
"Computer games don't affect kids; I mean if Pac-Man affected us as kids, we'd all be running around in darkened rooms,
I think this is their best chance to get their message out. If hundreds of true fans marched down to their local stations and set them selves on fire, something would have to be done. Namely, putting Farscape back on the air and making new shows.
the onlything that was cliffy about itwas that it ended in to be continued
honestly this was the best ending any scifi show ever had, super anti climax.
OK I admit i would verry much apreciate a movie that ties up the lose ends, farscape just like any scifi show has tons of them (not as much as startrek but you dont want me to go there)
i'd realy like to stress 1 "ONE" movie
and not start an other never ending franchise that becomes more and more feeble every episode that is aired
If you've watched the show from the very beginning, you have to have seen several differences between it and 'typical' American sci-fi programming.
For one, the show focussed on several issues that were 'uncomfortable' to american audiences. Applause there for forcing us to stretch our brains a bit!
Also, the characters were much more involved with each other, in real ways, than most other crap you see on the 'major' networks. These relationships made several viewers addicted to the show even though they watched almost no other science fiction programming. Applause for making us re-examine our own interpersonal relations a bit!
Semi-finally, just about every major character in the show was physically different from 'human' in ways to remind us of the plurality of life. Crichton's best friend had tentacles growing off his face, and a very long tongue with an adaptive toxin in the tip. The first sexy chick you saw (at the beginning of the series) was a gorgeous sky blue in color, with no hair at all. Ear-splitting applause for showing that Different is Good!!!
I hate to use the past tense so much in this commentary. But, the show is effectively killed by corporate politics/greed/stupidity. I'd be quite surprised to see it continued by fan support.
Best chance for the show to return anew would be for the son/daughter of some ultra-rich individual finding the right button to push on daddy's emotions to force funding to flow.
Sigh.
Any show that would make my non-sci-fi loving wife watch it over ER should have stayed on the air for a long time in my book.
I'm saddened to see it go. Here's hoping that a paperback book series or something more will start up to expand the universe a la Star Wars and Star Trek. There've been three so far that I've found & read, and they were true to the heart of the Farscape story.
As a rock-in-roll Physicist once said, No matter where you go, there you are.
Put it this way, when your girlfriend (or your friend's girlfriend, or your mother, or whatever) says "OMG THAT'S SO DEEP AND MEANINGFUL" about some crappy daytime soap, and you roll your eyes.. well, this is what I'm doing when some Slashbots talk about the deep-throated meaningfulness of science fiction. Flashy gadgets and spaceships don't automatically introduce any more purpose, message or point, ok? There is nothing "intriguing" about the relationship between made-up in-your-head aliens and humanity, nothing "worth contemplating" about meeting some pale green higher lifeform with 15 tentacles. You are being no more intellectually stimulated than when you watched He Man 15 years ago.
EOR
The series plot goes like this: an earthman gets "shot through a wormhole" and finds himself in a distant part of the universe, surrounded by aliens, and with a burning desire to get home to Earth!
Well, as they say, be careful what you wish for: he gets home to Earth (finally), realizes just how much the people there suck big donkey balls (war, politics, Israeli/Palestinian thing, people wanting to vivisect his buddies, myside/yourside), and leaves again with all his Moya buddies! Even Scorpius is preferable...
So now the series is left without a "big picture" plot line, just innumerable random "oh we've been betrayed by ANOTHER alien" type plots. It's like Gilligan's Island *after* they get rescued! Or the Hulk after what's-his-name figures out how to turn the Hulk-effect off (and gets his ass kicked in the next mugging, oops).
Either way, I won't be watching that abortion they call "Tremors." I could barely watch the first movie without ripping the tape out of the VCR. I certainly won't be wasting my time on a series.
They say the first thing to go is your penis. Well, it's either that or your brain. I forget which...
Ever since Bjo Trimble faked all those letters back in the late 60s, pathetic fanboy whining has been usual for the soap opera-type science fiction shows that get cancelled.
I'm already seeing several questions about why Farscape (FS from here on out) is so good, or people talking about how they can't stand (and then admit they've only watched a few episodes). So, to answer those posts, I'm going to give you X number of reasons (where X equals the point where I get tired of typing or can't think of anymore) why FS is a fantastic show (especially SciFi show, but even among other shows).
These are in no particular order.
1. Continuity matters - What happens in one episode usually has an impact on a later episode, even if you don't realize it at the time. This ranges from X happened last epsiode, and now it has impact Y on the next one to X happened a season ago, and helps explain Y in this episode a season later. There are a few other SF shows on TV right now that do this (Enterprise), but not many. Unfortunately, this has a downside, in that grabbing new viewers midstream becomes problematic.
2. Complex characters - Sometimes the "good" guys act bad and some times the "bad" guys act good, and sometimes the "bad" guys turn out to be not so bad and really it can get a little hard to tell who the good and bad guys are a lot of the time. All of the time you're left guessing at most of the characters motives. Friendships and allegiances bend and break. Sometimes the "good" and "bad" guys have to cooperate to achieve shared goals.
3. Unpredictability - Farscape has done some stuff I never saw coming (or my wife, who's better at guessing plot twists than I). They killed off a main character in the middle of a season. They "cloned" the main character and had both walking around for nearly a season. Normally, you sort of realize that the central character can't get killed off, but when there's two of him, you never know if/when one might get wacked.
4. Somewhat more creative aliens - This is due in part to the Henson involvement. It allows them to create non-humanoid aliens that are very believable. Among those are the "ship" itself, the somewhat symbiotic pilot of the ship and Rygel. Even the humanoid aliens are fairly different from one another. One of the main characters is a humanoid meat-eating vegetable. Nearly a season's worth of episodes are focused on the pregnancy of the ship, how the crew deals with it, how it affects their run from the law, etc.
5. A great ensemble cast - For the most part, every main character is well acted (and via some episodes we get to see them stretch their abilities) and well written. This interplays with having complex characters, but unlike some shows, there's hardly a dud in the bunch (I'm looking at you Harry Kim or, sorry Wil, Wesley Crusher).
6. Comedy - I know a lot of SF shows are good at inserting humor, but Farscape does it as well as any other. I would rank it right up there with Firefly. If nothing else, the voices in the main character's head are handled perfectly, just skirting the edge of slapstick but not quite turning into the stooges.
7. Fresh characters - The cast has been changing since the first season. New characters show up, others leave the show. And this isn't just "add a hot babe to boost ratings" changes. Think more along the lines of old ugly witch-doctor woman who cooks meals and occasionally drugs the crew.
There are so many other reasons, but I can't think of them all right now. If you can get your hands on them, go rent the first few DVD's which will have the first six episodes or so. Watch them all, and I think you'll see what I mean.
I have little sympathy for fans of cancelled TV shows. The typical response I hear from Farscape fans is to say that everyone else's show is "written to the 13 year old level". Ironically the writer of that remark illustrates his comment by attacking of all shows CSI as "95% star-trek style technobabble around a loose and predicable crime scene". Maybe if fans would show a little more respect for the tastes of others I would have more sympathy. But to be honest, if their attitude is that everyone else is inferior for not watching their show, then I am happy that their show is cancelled.
Why can't Farscape or other SF fans find a way to praise their own show without questioning the intelligence of fans of other shows?
I don't know why people have to feel that the only way to advocate their tastes is to tear down the choices of others. Do these people go around saying that everyone else's cuisine sucks because they really like one of their own particular dishes? Maybe the shows would have more fans if their advocates weren't always acting like a bunch of juveniles.
I clicked on the sponsored day pass and was delivered to a blank page.
Does that mean there's nothing behind the curtain at Salon?
There are a number of cancelled shows that have fans campaigning for their return just as adamantly. Savethatshow.com
I don't think any of these attempts are not going to bring any results. Most of these movements consist of a core of diehard fans who write letters to executives under 50 different pseudonyms and periphery of people who'd like to see the show come back but aren't really gonna do much besides puting their name on an "internet petition". Of course we all know the jarring and influential nature of the all-powerful internet petition.
With all that said I think the Invisible Man. A show that was cancelled from scifi at around the same time has a fan movement similar to that of farscape. This is a show that I was REALLY into and would have loved to see come back. However the day it was cancelled I was relegated to the fact that it was never coming back.
Perhaps better than all the attempts at bringing these shows back, is some individual's attempt at creating a "virtual season". Pretty much a fanfic that continues weekly where the series left off. Due to it's consistency and quality it's accepted by alot of fans as the continuation to the series. That's probably the best one can hope for with Farscape.
I watched most of the first series and thought it was pretty good, in a fun sci-fi early-evening watching way.
But, as with so many shows, the writers stopped concentrating on each episode and instead went for the long-term storyline thing. It happens to so many shows, and it generally means they've outlived their useful lives. If you've run out of ideas to write a decent storyline for each show, stretching the storyline out over n seasons isn't going to help.
Look at Babylon 5 - it started out pretty good, then I stopped watching for a bit and suddenly you had to have watched the last 32 episodes to understand what was going on. Or Buffy - the first few series had simple ongoing plots which could be summed up in 20 seconds of "previously on Buffy...". From the series with Adam onwards, the "previously" bit was almost a whole programme on its own. Or look at any Friends series after Ross and Rachel got together (shudder).
Makers of shows like this should realise when their horse is dead.
The fans don't have to necessarily fund a full season. It would require more writing but it's likely the cliffhangers could be resolved more quickly then was planned, perhaps in three or four episodes made with extreme attention to cost-savings. This might be an attainable goal, esp. if all the fans go out and buy three or four copies of the DVD releases; it might look profitable to make a final DVD or two just for that. ;-)
I would never expect them to fund a full season but they might be able to get enough. It might seem a bit hurried to the fans but surely they'd understand. I don't watch Farscape so I don't know, but if the cliffhanger was intense enough, the speedy pace might even fit into the story.
Perhaps the story mentioned this. I don't know, because I can't view Salon stories. I can't see the ad I'm supposed to watch to get the day pass, nor do I really care, so please no RTFA comments; I would if I could.
1. Chiana is hot and has a dominating personality, i.e. nerd dream date. I think someone in this thread mentioned that he liked Farscape because "Chiana was totally hot". Uh-huh.
2. Crichton is portrayed as being smart AND good looking, not a hacker in a greasy t-shirt and coke-bottle glasses.
Stroking the egos of the sci-fi community is not a good reason to keep a show on the air. I'll probably get flamed to a crisp for going against established Slashdot dogma, but somebody has to point out that the obvious.
Aren't you excited. Lots of Michael Gross.
For those of us that miss Family Ties and
just couldn't get enough of him as Dr. John
Carter's dad on E.R. We feel blessed!
"For god sakes folks it's just a TV show! You took a thing I did as a lark and turned it into a colossal waste of time! I mean you, have you ever even kissed a girl?"
Seriously, I love Sci-Fi too, but I think people have forgotten its just a TV show. Go and live life, I mean you can't be that bored that you decide to use up the precious moments in your life campaigning to maintain a FANTASY world. Get away from TV, and go out with your friends and family.And we are not in the world of 'Norther Exposure'. We are in a world where networks have to make TiVo a non issue by delivering programs that people want to watch at the time it is broadcast, complete with embedded advertising, and cheap enough to make so that a profit can be made by one or two broadcast. The most common model is the reality show.
"She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
The bigger question is WHY? The show is total crap, down there with the likes of Andromeda and Lexx.
Can "Farscape" fans reinvent TV?
When the Sci Fi Channel canceled "Farscape," angry fans launched the usual protest movement. Now they're dreaming of a rebellion that could overthrow TV empires.
- - - - - - - - - - - -
By Adrienne Crew
March 13, 2003 | Like so many stories, this one begins with an ending. Or, rather, the announcement of an ending.
Early last September, thousands of fans of the science fiction television series "Farscape" logged in to a chat room maintained by the Sci Fi Channel, which distributes the series in the United States. The Jim Henson Co. actually produces the series, mainly with licensing fees paid by Sci Fi, although Henson also syndicates the show in Britain, Germany and other countries.
"Farscape's" fans (and I'm among them) consider it one of the most innovative and best-written things on TV. The show follows the adventures of astronaut John Crichton (Ben Browder), who is marooned in space after an aeronautical accident. Buff, brainy and kinda goofy, John allies himself with a band of outlaw aliens aboard a sentient spaceship that's being pursued by the military arm of a totalitarian regime.
When fans logged on in September, Sci Fi had just broadcast the first 11 episodes of the show's fourth season, with the balance to come in the spring after a short break. "Farscape's" staffers and actors celebrate the end of each season's production schedule by communicating online with the fans -- from Australia, where the show is produced -- to discuss upcoming episodes and drop "spoilers" about the season finale.
The fans received more than spoilers this session. Immediately following a phone conference with Sci Fi programming executives, "Farscape" executive producer David Kemper, along with actor Ben Browder and co-executive producer Richard Manning, informed the "Farscape" faithful (known as "'Scapers") that Sci Fi Channel had just reneged on its commitment to purchase the fifth and final season of the series. Effectively, the show had just been canceled, leaving the audience with a series finale that ends in a cliffhanger.
Predictably, within hours of the cancellation announcement fans had gathered on message boards and in chat rooms to create strategies for protesting Sci Fi's decision. What began as a collective of fans bemoaning the loss of their favorite show has become the Save "Farscape" campaign, one of the largest and most sophisticated fan campaigns in television history.
The Save "Farscape" campaign is hardly the first grass-roots effort to save a television series. In 1968 NBC would never have realized that people were watching "Star Trek" if superfan Bjo Trimble hadn't encouraged other viewers to protest the series' imminent cancellation. Dorothy Swanson organized a successful letter-writing campaign in 1983 to save "Cagney and Lacey," and subsequently founded Viewers for Quality Television to assist other worthy but ratings-deprived shows, such as "Designing Women." Fans of the late-night cult classic "Mystery Science Theater 3000" brought fan-based campaigns into the Internet age when they launched a Web site to find a new home for the series after Sci Fi canned it in 1999. (The site continues to bring "MSTies" together, although efforts to relaunch the show were long ago abandoned.)
In the '90s, grassroots efforts to save canceled shows have gained momentum. Fans protesting the cancellation of the ABC drama "Once and Again" persuaded the network to finance enough episodes to conclude open-ended storylines. Creative "Roswell" fans caught the attention of WB programmers and bought their show more time by sending them bottles of hot sauce as a reminder of the condiment favored by the aliens on the series.
Each successive campaign absorbs and improves upon lessons learned during previous protests. 'Scapers have taken the best from all of them; they sent Sci Fi executives packages of crackers, in homage to the title of a favorite "Farscape" episode, "Crackers Don't Matter."
But protests are perhaps also
OtisAardvark writes "With the recent cancellation of Salon, this Salon story discusses the creative ways fans are trying to save Salon. Specifically it talks about how grassroots organization through the internet has helped them to the point where they are discussing fan funded production of Salon."
;-)
Ever get the feeling that there are only 5 stories in the world?
After all, they've shown Braveheart. :-) I'm just wondering what excuse they'll use to do what everyone else is doing when they someday feature The Godfather or The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.
Or I suppose I can look forward to the inevitable James Bond marathon week...
March 13, 2003 | Like so many stories, this one begins with an ending. Or, rather, the announcement of an ending.
Early last September, thousands of fans of the science fiction television series "Farscape" logged in to a chat room maintained by the Sci Fi Channel, which distributes the series in the United States. The Jim Henson Co. actually produces the series, mainly with licensing fees paid by Sci Fi, although Henson also syndicates the show in Britain, Germany and other countries.
"Farscape's" fans (and I'm among them) consider it one of the most innovative and best-written things on TV. The show follows the adventures of astronaut John Crichton (Ben Browder), who is marooned in space after an aeronautical accident. Buff, brainy and kinda goofy, John allies himself with a band of outlaw aliens aboard a sentient spaceship that's being pursued by the military arm of a totalitarian regime.
When fans logged on in September, Sci Fi had just broadcast the first 11 episodes of the show's fourth season, with the balance to come in the spring after a short break. "Farscape's" staffers and actors celebrate the end of each season's production schedule by communicating online with the fans -- from Australia, where the show is produced -- to discuss upcoming episodes and drop "spoilers" about the season's finale.
The fans received more than spoilers this session. Immediately following a phone conference with Sci Fi programming executives, "Farscape" executive producer David Kemper, along with Browder and co-executive producer Richard Manning, informed the "Farscape" faithful that Sci Fi Channel had just reneged on its commitment to purchase the fifth and final season of the series. Effectively, the show had just been canceled, leaving the audience with a series finale that ends in a cliffhanger.
Predictably, within hours of the cancellation announcement fans had gathered on message boards and in chat rooms to create strategies for protesting Sci Fi's decision. What began as a collective of fans bemoaning the loss of their favorite show has become the Save "Farscape" campaign, one of the largest and most sophisticated fan campaigns in television history.
The Save "Farscape" campaign is hardly the first grass-roots effort to save a television series. In 1968 NBC would never have realized that people were watching "Star Trek" if superfan Bjo Trimble hadn't encouraged other viewers to protest the series' imminent cancellation. Dorothy Swanson organized a successful letter-writing campaign in 1983 to save "Cagney and Lacey," and subsequently founded Viewers for Quality Television to assist other worthy but ratings-deprived shows, such as "Designing Women." Fans of the late-night cult classic "Mystery Science Theater 3000" brought fan-based campaigns into the Internet age when they launched a Web site to find a new home for the series after Sci Fi canned it in 1999. (The site continues to bring "MSTies" together, although efforts to relaunch the show were long ago abandoned.)
In the '90s, grassroots efforts to save canceled shows have gained momentum. Fans protesting the cancellation of the ABC drama "Once and Again" persuaded the network to finance enough episodes to conclude open-ended storylines. Creative "Roswell" fans caught the attention of WB programmers and bought their show more time by sending them bottles of hot sauce as a reminder of the condiment favored by the aliens on the series.
Each successive campaign absorbs and improves upon lessons learned during previous protests. 'Scapers have taken the best from all of them; they sent Sci Fi executives packages of crackers, in homage to the title of a favorite "Farscape" episode, "Crackers Don't Matter."
But protests are perhaps also becoming more sophisticated in reaction to the insensitivity of media monopolies. Movie buffs filed class-action lawsuits in Chicago this February against two movie theater chains for screening commercials before the start of movies. People are beginning to realize that lett
Yes, I am a Muslim. No, I am not a Terrorist.
The last episode airs this coming Friday at 8pm EST on SciFi. (It aired last Monday in the UK). Be sure to watch it (I've seen it, and it's a fantastic episode).
Just like Dale Earnhart and Elvis, Farscape is D. E. A. D. DEAD DEAD DEAD.
Get over it, you wankers.
Well StarTrek offers a counter example. A show that was cancelled, and when brought back was 10x as popular as the original.
For ghusake, boyo, if you're not a fan of this show, or any show, then it's none of your business. Why should you care what other people do with their lives?
People who tell others what to do with their lives should find a life, probably as a preacher or similar buttinsky? Yes, yes, I know - pot... kettle... black. Point being the poster probably doesn't like being told what to do with his worthless life anymore than the fans of Farscape like to be told what to do with theirs. He should keep that in mind before he posts.
end_sect rant;
Q-vacks!
ok, i saw farscape a few years ago and thought it was crap(i still think season 2 and 3 are crap), but when sci-fi picked up stargate and put it on before farscape last year, there was nothing better on, so my tv stayed on farscape. i began liking the show after a little while, and now i actually tune into sci-fi channel before stargate since they moved farscape to be an hour before it. i am mentioning this because on page 2 of that salon article it says that moving stargate to the sci-fi channel was one of the main cutbacks in farscape's ratings, when, at least in my case, it was what helped it; though i don't see how two programs airing on the same network can be in competition for ratings to begin with.
We really need to get the unemployment rate down in this country...
PBS hasn't been interesting since they took DR. Who and Cosmos off the air, maybe this isn't such a bad idea after all.
I finished my Masters (terminal degree) in 1983, which would give me about 20 years experience in the real world. The argumentative fallacy -the appeal to your educational "authority"- does not impress me either as a logician, nor as a person. If you're what the education system claims as doctoral material, we are in a sad educational state indeed.
Your failure to grasp what was written, and instead write excuse on a tangent indicates a lack of thought? You think my statement is about being a fan or not being a fan, and that is the furthest from the truth. Being a fan has nothing to do with my statement. My statement was about "telling other people what to do with their lives". My point is: don't tell people what to do with their lives, unless you want someone to insist they know what you should do with yours.
You say "I truly don't care", which denies the fact that you posted! If what they do, didn't bother you; you wouldn't have posted! The fact that you did post indicates you are concerned even though you deny it now.
You have a choice of what to do with your life. They have a choice of what to do with their lives. You should not advise them that your choice is the best choice or the only choice, which is very much what you did in your two line guilt trip. I do care when people try to make others feel guilty for choosing their own, rather harmless path and when such messages appear; I post as I post.
Its' gone deal with it.
I meant $250 per fan per SEASON!
If someone says he and his monkey have nothing to hide, they almost certainly do.
Thank you for supporting my point below. Whether popular or not, people should support something in their lives, even something as inconsequential as good production values on the telly. Supporting something is far better than apathetically supporting nothing, or claiming to have a better life by supporting "more important things", especially when each person should have an equal chance to decide what is important to them.
I have a very hard time believing that the SciFi channel cancelled Farscape because of the money or the ratings. They continue running the incredibly lame series Stargate SG-1. I liked Richard Dean Anderson as "MacGyver", but he should have stuck with that. If that wasn't bad enough, SciFi has been running ads for "Tremors - the series" - okay, the movie was bad enough. This is the kind of thing that you could easily see on MST3K - poor writing and cheap effects ("special" intentionally omitted.)
Farscape requires a bit more intelligent viewer to follow and understand the storyline and the depth of the character development. So yeah, it would be harder to get ratings than with a waste like "Friends."
As I understand it, the first three seasons of Farscape were designed to be able to be wrapped up in case SciFi cancelled the series. The producers left season four in a cliffhanger, which indicates how much of a surprise it was when the SciFi execs pulled the plug. Its really too bad. There is so little quality television programming anymore that I've taken to keeping FoxNews on most of the time.
There is very little future in being right when your boss is wrong.
They are talking about doing season 5 as an anime series.
Actually, no they aren't. From what I've heard, the anime series is going to be a tie-in, but apparently unrelated plot-wise to the TV series itself. (Even if that's not true, David Kemper has stated that he has no involvement with the anime, so whatever they come up with, it won't be what he intended.)
Editor Emeritus and Senior Writer, TeleRead.org
I suspect "discussing fan funded production of the show" will end when they find out how expensive television is. I realize that Farscape didn't cost as much as let's say ST:TNG or something but I doubt each episode cost less than $500 000. I'm not trying to be a troll here but I honestly don't understand the devotion that people had to this show. Sub-par writing and sub-par acting the whole way.
You want to know who isn't running Firefox 2.x? They spell it "definately" and "rediculous".
And they matter how?
I just got finished reading on MSNewsweek that the US economy is as large as the next 3 added together (Japan, Germany and Britain). Our military budget (4% of our GDP, lowest in any wartime in history) is as large as every UN member country's added together (191 countries). What I see is a majority of the world ruled by nationalist gov's trying to protect THEIR interests who don't let their people express views like we are allowed to here --- with state-owned medias, who don't show us what their citizens really think, only what CSPAN with its anti-american biases filters for the local audiences.
I see Iraqis who fled their homelands actively protesting Saddam, and supporting american liberation of their country.
I see Turkey opressing their Kurdish populations, with a government against the US because they don't want the Iraqi Kurds to have their own nation-state.
I see Arabian & OPEC countries protesting the US because they are about to lose their dominance of the oil market -- Iraqi freedom fighters have already said they will not honor Geman & France's existing contracts for oil exports when Iraq is democratized. Iraq has the worlds's second largest oil reserves, most of which are still untapped. Middle eastern nations live in fear of this reserve coming under US control.
I see Germany's socialist government on shaky ground about to collapse with an almost 11% unemployment rate. Don't forget that in Germany's January elections, the existing anti-american socialist party lost LOTS of electorates. Not to mention that Iraq is a good customer for German weaponry... Germany doesn't want the world to discover that they are arming these tirants.
I see France living in fear of the "National Front" party, consisting of Islams who are persecuted by the French government, like African-Americans were in the US in the 40's and 50's. They will not do anything to anger this sector of population, or Chirac and his socialist party are sure to be kicked out (which if you recall he almost was, two years ago by Le Pen during a run-off)
Then you have Britain... All these stories about Blair being in danger of being removed for supporting Bush. Don't forget that they have a parlimentary system -- the people don't vote for Blair, they vote for the party, and the party appoints Blair. And the labor party hates Blair now, even though 75% of likely voters would support the war if the UN says go.
The united states is experiencing a surge in support rallys, but the television won't show them. The rally in Atlanta yesterday (of several thousand people) was reportedly larger than the one in Washington DC, but the anti-war ralley got the 12 hours of TV time in CSPAN. Today's ralley in Valley Forge PA is expected to be even larger.
Ask yourself, who is really against the united states? the governments (who only wish to protect their personal interests), or the populations themselves who don't have a voice? As long as the anti-conservative media controls what we see, we'll never have the real picture presented to us. Only those that bother to keep themselves know that the citizens of the world NEEDS the US to act, and that these misguided governements need to fall.
One of the things I really love about Farscape, is the fact that the people doing it aren't afraid to punish the protagonist for his good intentions. I mean, when you have the hero trying to do the right thing or whatever and you make it actually the very worst thing he could do and you have it all blow up in his face...that can make for some pretty interesting story telling. Its the idea that no matter how good our intentions are, the actions we take have consequences that we have to live with. Its the idea that, whether you're fixing the time-line on some planet to save the universe or you're trying to help the mujahadine to protect their home from the Soviets...the end result might not be as good as your intentions. I also really really like the character of Scorpius, especially after the "Incubator" episode where they explained his motivations and ended up making him a much more complex character (and arguably a tragic hero rather than a RichardIII type villain).
Granted, Sliders was not the best show on television. But before you knock, please realize that BEFORE Sci-Fi got ahold of it, and BEFORE Fox started medling with it, Sliders had some of the crispest, most creative writing on television, in addition to cast that was initially fabulous. Unfortunately, Sliders strayed from its original vision when the original creator left the series, and new producers were brought in who didn't understand the series. As a result, the show became very corny and "sci-fi"-y, and characters/actors were written off faster than you could say "Slide without me....!"
So....yes, if you just saw it on Sci-Fi, you probably caught mostly crap episodes. But back in the day, it was really cool. *ducks*
1) You know the Sci Fi Channel is full of it. Okay, so maybe the show cost a little to produce. Heck, maybe it even cost a lot to produce. But, if there was some kind of funding shortfall, I'm pretty sure that just one of those godawful Sci Fi Original Movies would have paid for it. Take Epoch or Antibody. I'm under the impression that the Sci Fi Channel actually pays people to put out these films. If so, the budget from one of two of these forgettable disasters could easily cover a Farscape shortfall.
2) This is the end of it for me and the Sci Fi Channel. First, the end of MST3K. Well, I'll live. I was kind of peeved about them cutting off The Invisible Man, which had been a much better series than I had intended. Farscape is now the last show they have that I'm interested in. They're replacing it with Tracker ... hey, this guy, with superpowers like ... sucks light out of the bad guys, at least one an episode. Same guy as Highlander. Same show as Highlander. Oh, and let's not forget Tremors: The Series, which was supposed to be cheap, but is months late because it ran over budget, etc. And this is going to be better than Farscape how?
The Sci Fi Channel has totally lost its mission and has no sense of who its viewers are. How does a remake of Psycho belong on a channel about science fiction? And that Viper show ... wow. They couldn't rerun The Flash? Where's Max Headroom in this lineup? It had a short run, but no shorter than the incessantly-played (if still good) Brimstone. The most sci-fi thing they have going for them now, aside from Stargate: SG-1 is, well, their little station bits with the melting sumo wrestlers and big-eared alien tongue-touching pets.
It's as if they have decided to stop running decent science fiction shows in exchange for ... vaguely sciency programming that cost them a dollar to buy the rights for. They no longer understand who their audience is. Once the last show I cared to watch is gone, I doubt I'll do more than flicker over the station on my cable box. Goodbye, Sci Fi. Goodbye, Advertising Dollars.
That having been said, I'm going to run out and buy some Farscape DVDs. Here's hoping for a movie or a six-episode wrapup show released straight to DVD.
Damned show sucks canal water. I keep thinking the only reason why the show is still on the air is because of the MacGuyver (sp?) rip-offs in the show.
As for Farscape... I liked the Aussie hotties in there, and wouldn't mind snogging and frelling them. The cartoon episodes sucked, but I thought the series was intriguing enough for me to watch since the show started.
If Sci-Fi wants to bank on something, it could work on some souped up episodes of the Children of Dune, but the folks would soon say it was too expensive to continue filming. Sci-Fi channel will soon become the Cartoon Network of sci-fi shows (re-runs galore, B-rated flicks, old black-n-white space movies, etc.).
Le Roi Est Mort, Vive Le Roi! [Enigma]
So Farscape is prohibitively expensive to make per episode as a TV show. Fine. Great. Why a TV show then? If all we do want is the plot to be finished up, why not a novel?
http://angryee.blogspot.com
I know the Golden Age of SF is fifteen, but you guys who missed out on the split-level stylings of Jim Henson's cultural subversion masquerading as kiddie fare JUST DON'T GET how WRONG it is to use Muppets to push cliche SF. Imagine Bart Simpson explaining the PATRIOT Act to a bunch of second graders and you're pointed in the right direction.
Henson would sum Farscape up and rip it in half in sixty seconds flat. And then Statler and Woldorf would throw it down and dance on it. It would be just another "bit."
Guided tours of the sets (yeah I know they need to be rebuilt)
The fact that the physical objects used to actually make the show no longer exist is just a parenthetical consideration when blue-skying ways to "save" it. I stand in awe.
Here is something I just don't understand.
Maybe someone can explain it to me like I am a 4 year old, that might make me understand.
What gets my goat about the Farscape cancelation isn't really the cancelation part. It is the insult to the fans of canceling a series in the middle of an end season cliff hanger.
I respect Sci-Fi's perogative to decide that shows are underwatched and overbudgeted and need to go. At the end of the day it is a business and all that.
But the fans that love Farscape, we are the same people that made the Sci-Fi channel what it is today.
Why can't the people at Sci-Fi just pull Jim Henson productions and the writers aside and say "We are canceling the series, it is done. No use arguing. However we are going to fund a 2 hour series finale for you. Tie up your loose ends in that.".
That is all I want, a series finale (hell it doesn't have to be 2 hours, it can be one hour) that takes care of this cliff hanger and ties up the loose ends of the series.
That would be a nice gesture from Sci-Fi. I don't think they need to fund a 5th season.
And as a fan, I'm actually quite content with the way Farscape ended on a cliffhanger. I don't NEED a tidy Hollywood wrapup which would go something like: Season 5, Ep 1: Crew finds an alien that reassembles main characters molecules; Ep 2 - 23: Yadda yadda wormholes harvy baddies yadda. Ep 24: Everybody lives happily ever after).
--
Power to the Peaceful
I like what this guy said.
Oh wait... I said that.
3cx.org - A truly bad website.
Does every freak have a planet!?
You can't judge a book by the way it wears its hair.
I wholeheartedly agree. The day the professor died is the day it started to suck.
You can't judge a book by the way it wears its hair.
The yellow one with the black stripe is Pikachu. Past that, I got nothin'.
Fiona Apple is back, but she doesn't know how to pronounce David Bowie's name this time around.
Yet another Mormon girl was sexually abused and the usual denial-ridden cover-up is only slightly hampered by the fact that everyone in the world knows her name... except me.
It takes practice, but you can do it.
Uh...dipshit? Did you actually read the Salon article? Nah. You're too smart for that. You've got it all figured out. That's why your comments are a waste of calories to read; you're too bum-ass lazy to do your homework and discuss the SUBJECT, rather than blabbing just hear the clatter of your own keys.
Since you apparently didn't have time to read the article, I'll do a little 'previously on SCI-FI' for you
1. First show to ever organize it's very noisy and media savvy International revolt *entirely* over the internet, six months prior to the end of the show because...
2. The fans and the creators (Henson Co) and actors communicate by email & IRC, which is how the fans were tipped by the producers that SCI-FI had reneged on paying for their share of the promised fifth season. (It's shown in 13 countries, but since your lazy ass probably doesn't know the names of any of them, I'll just focus on this one.)
3. The fan/creator relationship is completely unique in the industry as comments from the fans, communicated by IRC, directly affected the direction the show went.
4. Within 24 hours of the news breaking over IRC (with the producer tapping the news out from the studios in Australia, oops; you know where that is, right?) SCI-FI channel's IRC had crashed from the overload, the PBX had crashed from the phone load and CNN was covering the massive internet coordination, which is why TV-Guide, Entertainment Weekly and Salon are all still giving it press this week, seven months after it 'should have' faded quietly away.
5. The universal response from media critics (ya know...non-geeks) and industry people was that SCI-FI had lost their @#$&*^ marbles by giving up the only show that made the stinking channel watchable.
So...exactly what rock have you been under? You're entitled to whatever your opinion is about the show, but the SHOW isn't the subject; the subject is the new and unique way the internet has been integral to the development, production and fan activism regarding the show, a distinction that you apparently missed while rushing to assault us with your off-topic opinions.
Read the article, bub, before you shoot off that hole in your face.
flames > dev/null
Farscape seems to be a show that people either love or hate. If you hate it, fine but those of you mindlessly repeating "Its a tv show, get a life loser" can go die in a ditch somewhere.
It was somewhat like being slashdotted. Even the bbc's site, which is reserved for fan-based discussion forums was taken out by the number of new visitors. Savefarscape had no prior warning and their forum database and site collapsed too.
Whilst everyone here is aware of the /. effect where a large number of people are directed towards a site, this one of the few times (other than a major disaster) that it has occurred elsewhere.
You decide to use that bit of stock footage of LA, *then* you find that it is a recurring requiring royalties per showing. Maybe it isn't much but it all adds up. This also why nobody wnats to be in on percentage points of the profit, just of the gross.
If you own/produce the show, you can manage the costs a lot better with tight control on the recurring costs. Then even if you don't make money on the first showing, you can pick it up on the reruns/DVDs or whatever.
Sure they have a convention scene and so on, but the series doesn't really take itself too seriously. This means that it has a fan base, but they aren't into it religiously as some trekkies are.
I can understand the criticism from some regarding the fact that it is just a TV show. The SNL Shatner line was hilarious! LOL. I admit it took the second season to hook me. The series is an epic story. If you catch one or two episodes, its like opening a novel and selecting one or two random chapters. You may be disappointed. You may be confused. I see each episode as a movie rather than a television show. I demand quality and as a result I watch very little television programming. "Sopranos", "Six Feet Under", and "Farscape" comprise the three hours of my weekly TV viewing. The rest of my time is well spent with family and friends.
For those that dislike the Farscape series, I hear and respect your opinion. To each their own. For those who have only seen one or two episodes or those who have not seen the show, I will warn you that each episode is unique. The writers and producers take huge risks to break the mainstream science fiction mold and truly experiment with the character and plot development. The term "plot twist" takes on a whole new meaning here. You never know what to expect from each episode, thus I use the analogy of a roller coaster ride. It has its high points and its low points, but the total ride is a blast. If you like a rich, complex plot with special effects that define true suspension of disbelief, then you might enjoy Farscape.
Here's a list of what I enjoy about Farscape:
Intelligent Writing - Some episodes exercise the grey matter more that others, however, you always have to pay attention. I like that interactive requirement. A few episodes in Season Four have focused exclusively on wormholes and space time. Cool subjects. My favorite episode from the series is 4x11 Unrealized Realities. Like some of Sagan's and Hawking's work, this episode will have you thinking for days.
Pop Culture/Humor - From Willy Wonka elevators to Bill Gates bashing you're guaranteed a hearty laugh. How about the age old problem of using the bathroom in space. Nothing is taboo on this show. Did I mention helium farting aliens that urinate explosive fire? You don't see that everyday.
Intense Emotions/Drama - The series boasts some very intelligent and sexy characters. Some relationships cycle between friendship and love. The two main characters John and Aeryn are truly star-crossed lovers. Their relationship is very complex. The acting required to deliver the emotions resulting from this relationship is extremely demanding. Viewers receive an n-dimensional look at each character as they experience and express the entire spectrum of emotions. Note that the romantic side of the series has drawn a very large female audience. I only see this level of drama and intensity in my other two shows. I personally enjoy the leather clad females that can handle themselves as well as their weapons.
"Authentic" Aliens - The Farscape series received a 2002 Emmy nomination for 'Outstanding Costumes For A Series'. Only a handful of movies have produced costumes and creatures this intricate. An enormous amount of work is placed into constructing what I believe is a true suspension of disbelief. I will reference one species of aliens, the Scarrens, as truly amazing. These characters possess a bullet-proof exoskeleton with a heat gland that can read minds or melt organs. Wicked cool.
"Good" Vs. "Bad" Ambiguity - While the series begins with a defined "hero" and "villain", the characters evolve and blend their traits. The line between good and bad is blurred. You can't easily judge the actions of the characters. You have to really understand their past to interpret the present. The show explores trust and betrayal at many different levels. The series also weighs the act of killing to survive. How much is too much? Many viewers adopt a "lesser of two evils" mentality.
Darkness/Despair - Every episode doesn't have a "happy ending". There is an enormous amount of pain and suffering in the show. Character
I'm a fan of the show and I've been watching the "save farscape" effort through a friend and coworker for whom the show had a lot of meaning. She has participated in some "guerilla marketing" activities to help save the show, and kept me informed of general trends.
.emacs files, and those people are actually a significant minority, not the majority. Most people never notice, didn't read the announcement we sent out, and don't care. So it is with cancelling TV shows. The ones who bitch are the ones who really were the target audience with respect to the writing. Everyone else either doesn't care or won't notice. The one's who complain just had their .emacs file broken.
I have a few musings that came to mind as I read the responses to this article.
First - on cancelling shows in general. No matter what, some people will gripe. While this expression of dissatisfaction should not be taken lightly, it should also not be taken too seriously unless it passes a certain threshold. My reasoning for this is based on dynamics I encounter at my job, where I manage the open source tools used by a world-wide corporation. Whenever we change the default version of emacs or xemacs for people, someone bitches. Without fail - they bitch. I've learned the people who bitch are the people who have heavily customized
Second - Farscape as a show has some real value going for it. For me it was the show I picked up after Babylon 5. It is my sci-fi fix. Farscape is serial in that it has a major story arc. It's sometimes episodic - isolated episodes stand on their own. Very Bab 5-ish.
Third - The show is funny (usually). The show plays with innuendo and sarcasm. Often I'm guffawing with laughter at the antics of the characters.
Fourth - It has drama. Good drama, though since blowing up the Scorpi's ship it hasn't been quite as good.
Fifth - The show takes left-turns. Real left-turns. Some of the episodes from time to time are surreal and left-of-center in terms of how they were produced or directed or both. Scratch-and-Sniff and "John Quixote" are two that stand out in my head.
It has some down-sides two.
One - The John/Aaron thing is geting old.
Two - Sometimes the characters are acting out of character to facilitate the plot. John especially is overwritten as a stubborn punk-ass human who needs to be taken down a notch or two.
Three - The arc has lost its momentum as of late
.
Four - I dunno... There's probably a four but I'm too tired now...
Cheerio.
All the fans have to do is to finance the short-fall, but that is a lot of cash. Some syndicators have had success with the series, i.e. the BBC and may be persuaded to pay a little more, others screwed up badly (German TV) by poor scheduling so aren't even interested in Series 2.
Farscape Rocks!
:)
I dont know why ppl dont like it. It is highly original, theses days original shows a far and few between! I think thats the saying. Well, please support farscape.
I AM FARSCAPE
IT NEVER ENDS!!!!
Crichton will never
ever
*EVER*
get back home.
Oh sure, he'll have all kinds of hallucinations about getting home, but when this series ends, he will never have made it back.
There will never be closure in Farscape.
In Babylon 5, there was closure. The Shadow War was put to an end, and the old races left, and then NEW things came up (the Earth civil war, the Drakh annoyance and the fall of Centauri Prime, etc.), and they, too, achieved closure. Babylon 5 evolved from one quest to another.
Crichton, on the other hand, is stuck on one quest that will never be fulfilled.
If Farscape were done by JMS, or even the makers of Starate SG-1, Crichton would have gotten home by about Season 3, and all of Earth would have been dragged into it as Crichton's return would have brought the mess home with him.
Now THAT would rock.
--- Grow a pair, liberals... stop letting the Republicans bully you!
Simple put yes...
Unless you're a Dallas fan of course.
Government of the people, by corporate executives, for corporate profits.
The use of COBOL cripples the mind; its teaching should, therefore, be
regarded as a criminal offence.
-- Edsger W. Dijkstra, SIGPLAN Notices, Volume 17, Number 5
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