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Sci-Fi

After Petition, Farscape Miniseries Trailer Online 224

Posted by CmdrTaco from the not-all-aliens-are-aussies dept.
Myrmi writes "The four-hour Farscape miniseries will be aired on the Sci-Fi Channel starting October 17th. The trailer for the miniseries is to be hosted at Apple Trailers and starting today at 3PM EST." Here's the trailer page. As eve11 writes, "Apple.com agreed to host the trailer after a write-in campaign from Farscape fans. Until today this trailer had only been shown during the July 24th Farscape panel at Comicon in San Diego. More info here."
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After Petition, Farscape Miniseries Trailer Online More

After Petition, Farscape Miniseries Trailer Online

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  • Bad News (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 25, 2004 @03:44PM (#10071614)
    Sci-Fi says despite thousands of people wanting to see the trailer, they're going to have to cancel it.

    • Re:Bad News (Score:2, Informative)

      by the_mad_poster ( 640772 )

      Fine by me. I canceled my cable TV non-service partially because stations like Sci-Fi were showing such utterly worthless shit and canceling the good shows.

      • Re:Bad News (Score:3, Informative)

        by Kryxan ( 767161 )
        True, Sci-Fi channel shows way too much crap now. cant they save that for the middle of the night when everyone knows that nothing good will be on TV anyway? i dont care if i see re-runs of old sci-fi shows all the time, at least make it sci-fi, not random B movie about some giant insects or whatnot. i remember getting cable just so i could watch sci-fi, now its just another channel that i sometimes watch.

  • Will this be worth watching? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Matt Perry ( 793115 ) <perry.matt54@ya[ ].com ['hoo' in gap]> on Wednesday August 25, 2004 @03:47PM (#10071644)
    Will this be worth watching for someone who's never seen Farscape? I've heard good things about Farscape but never bothered to watch it as I knew the story wouldn't be completed due to the cancellation of the series. Does any hardcore Farscape fan know if this mini-series will stand on its own or expect me to have watched Farscape before to understand what's happening?

    • Re:Will this be worth watching? (Score:5, Informative)

      by Robotech_Master ( 14247 ) * on Wednesday August 25, 2004 @03:51PM (#10071688) Homepage Journal
      Well, the narration that opens the trailer seems to suggest they're going to do a "The story thus far" segment. I'm pretty sure that if they want to attract viewership, they'll do something of that nature.

      I don't doubt that there will be more rewards for those who have watched the entire series than those who haven't, but they'd be stupid not to try to reach out to new audiences. This is, after all, the last chance they have to build a bigger audience and show they're worthy of being brought back for another year.

      Either way, if you'd like to catch up on everything that's ever happened in the series so you'll have a better idea what's going on in the movie, there's always the Farscape Primer [farscapeworld.com].

    • Re:Will this be worth watching? (Score:4, Informative)

      by IEEEMonkey ( 669772 ) <[Paul.Herbstritt] [at] [GMail.Com]> on Wednesday August 25, 2004 @03:53PM (#10071717)
      I bet, as with most of the Babylon 5 movies, that there is enough of an explanation to make it interesting for someone who has never seen the series. I would suggest, being a fan of the show, that you rent it and watch the show. The first four seasons can be rented from www.netflix.com.
    • I don't know much about the plot of the mini-series but you are given the basic premisis of the series in this trailer for the mini series soo i think you would be able to follow it. I'm speculating ofcourse but it would be pretty stupid to alinate new viewers and i think they will do a pretty good job setting the story up. Hopefully without ruining it for the hardcore fans

    • Re:Will this be worth watching? (Score:5, Informative)

      by Digital_Quartz ( 75366 ) on Wednesday August 25, 2004 @03:57PM (#10071749) Homepage
      Watching the entire series is 100% worth the time. I had just finished the end of season 2 when the series was cancelled (we get Sci-Fi channel stuff a little slowly up here in Canada, since we don't get the Sci-Fi channel). I watched it through to the end, and I'm very glad I did.

      You should keep in mind when I say this that I watch next to no television at all. Farscape was a truly unique series.
    • Actually, if you even jump in the middle of the series you're kinda going to be lost. I started watching it about a year ago by renting the DVDs from netflix in order. My netflix account expired so now I'm only catching the reruns and with a plethora of new characters, sub-plots, and storylines I'm decently confused. Hell, the last episode had a new character I've never seen on the ship, no Moya or Pilot, a dead guy invading the mind of the main character, and 2 good guys trying to kill each other in a c

      • Re:Will this be worth watching? (Score:4, Informative)

        by deranged unix nut ( 20524 ) on Wednesday August 25, 2004 @05:09PM (#10072409) Homepage
        If you watch episodes out-of-order, you will get a bad experience. You want to watch them in-order, or else pick a season and watch it start to finish.

        That said, this is a unique show that is well worth watching.

        • If you watch episodes out-of-order, you will get a bad experience.

          Boy, is that true! I never really connected with Farscape since I couldn't figure out what's happening! I'd watch one episode, where everyone on Moya is at each other's throats. Then - in a different episode - the characters like each other. Even within an episode, the plot is often nonlinear so I often get really confused if I was late and haven't seen the first act. Furthermore, the alien words - frell, cycle, etcetera - don't mak

          • Having a TiVo helped me quite a bit when watching farscape. I watched the first episode and was religiously hooked to it ever since. When I would go on vacation or for some reason wasn't home when the episode aired, I could always still see it in order using my TiVo.

            As far as the alien words go, I don't think they ever say what some of the words are, but after a while you do get the gist of their meanings.

            It is a bit of a soap opera, but it is also a mind-warp and a lot more intelligent than many other

            • Geeze I wish I had a PVR like a TiVo. I am also a little confused by describing Farscape as intelligent. To me, that means the plots and themes inspires the viewer think deeply about issues (like Star Trek) or neat logical dilemmas (like hard sci-fi such as Asimov's book, I, Robot). Sometimes Farscape satifies these requirements, but often the show is just about character development for the sake of character development. What's the point in developing characters in fiction if it doesn't have a deep

      • "Revenging Angel", Season 3 Episode 16

        A great episode. You've indicated the one real flaw in Farscape that even die-hard fans have to acknowledge. Many of the episodes are hard to understand unless you've seen all the earlier shows.

        With so many of the Farscape episodes as 2 or 3 part it isn't something they could have fixed without dumbing down the plot.

        On the meta-plot axis; you have the weak meta-plot shows like Star Trek (orig and NG), single plot threads (voyager) and multiple plot threads (DS9,

        • A great episode. You've indicated the one real flaw in Farscape that even die-hard fans have to acknowledge.

          Umm, no, those of us with attention spans of more than an hour realise that Farscape is ultimatly one very long story; of John and his journey, the 'people' he meets along the way, and the experiences he goes through to get there.

          People have become so accustomed to the 'Star Trek' universe where the entire universe is (almost) reset for the beginning of each episode simply don't seem to grasp the
    • I think this is the issue a lot of movie makers run into. How much do you focus on new viewers and how much do you focus on those that already know the storyline/environment? This has been an issue with a lot of movies including LotR.. Jackson had to balance boring the long time fans of the books with those that had never read them. Its a tough balance to reach for anyone.
    • "Gear up for the new miniseries by watching all 88 episodes of Farscape, airing in order every weekday from 9AM-4PM ET/PT, Oct. 1 through Oct. 15"

      This is when a DVR comes in handy. I'm glad I bumped up the storage on my Tivo.

    • will there be any alien boobs in this?
      • Unlikely, other than what you normally see on Farscape (which, mind you, is quite a bit compared to the likes of Star Trek), seeing as how it's being shown on SciFi and not HBO/ShowTime/.
    • I've watched a far share of Farscape and while the set design is excellent, I've never been as enamored as others obviously are. The plots seem, to me anyway, Babylon 5 level of complexity, and it's not a show anyone could really watch casually.

      That said, I support Farscape because it's far better than the drivel that rules the rest of the television landscape. To support Farscape is to support a genre, one that is populated by personal favorites like Futurama and Firefly (which I both enjoy far more th
    • Ask for people's opinion get modded interesting, state one of your own and get modded troll. Interesting :)

  • petitions actually work? (Score:5, Funny)

    by obli ( 650741 ) on Wednesday August 25, 2004 @03:47PM (#10071649)
    I thought petitioning was a way to raise the hope for people by making them feel like they actually were doing something to help, I'd never think they'd make a difference. Well, it's always nice to hear about a succeeded one :)
  • It's been so long since I finished Farscape that I don't even remember half the characters- the crew of Moya & Scorpie obviously, but who's the big blue baddie, and the lady dressed in all black?
    • Scorpie sort of went rogue, the lady in black is sort of like the third in the series (Kryace, Scorpie, Lady in black). Kryace was violent, Scorpie cunning, she's manipulative.

      Big blue dude is, IIRC, the Skaren Emperor - you know, those guys the peacekeepers are terrified of, and are basically a race of juggarnauts.
      • I can't remember; was that guy they were dealing with (big blue) in the last few episodes the Emperor, or just some upper governor who was trying to claw his way up? I thought he was the head of the regional outpost or something.

        And, the Lady in Black (assuming you're not referring to Aeryn) is not only manipulative, she sweats a transdermic, hallucinogenic aphrodesiac. Just think "black widow" and you've got the picture.

    • Re:I dont remember (Score:3, Informative)

      by Thieron ( 584668 )
      The lady in black is "Commander Cleavage" or basically, a high ranking peacekeeper that took Scorpi's command away from him. She has some hypnotic ability with chemicals she excretes to control males.

      The big blue baddie is one of the top, if not the top, Scarran.
      • The lady in black's name is Commandant Grayza (if not proper spelling, that's how it's pronounced)

        And yeah, most of the scarrans in the trailer are probably high-ranking ones, not that I recall ever getting many names during the 3-parter at the end of season 4.

        Also, there are definitely some new faces there in full frame shots that indicate a focal character :)

        • First up, you got the spelling right, it is Grayza.

          Next up, the critical Scarrans in the final episodes were War Minister Ahkna, and Emperor Staleek and captain Jenek (who was nuked).
    • Oh, boy. Pregnant WIB (Woman In Black) is Commander Grayza, recently relieved of command (possibly back in command) who was making a deal with the Scarrans (the blue meanie is a ruling-class Scarran, the warrior-class are more lizardlike and primitive).

      The long-haird WIB is Aeryn, the mother of John Crichton's child.

      The fuzzy-headed WIB who walks up walls is Sikozu, Scorpy's girlfriend, with a major hair and clothing restyle.

      I was confused by the question for a sec - every gal but Pip was wearing black!

  • False Causation Link (Score:5, Interesting)

    by RobertB-DC ( 622190 ) * on Wednesday August 25, 2004 @03:50PM (#10071681) Homepage Journal
    Apple.com agreed to host the trailer after a write-in campaign from Farscape fans.

    I RTFA'd, but I don't see the direct link implied in the summary. Event A (write-in campaign) happened before Event B (trailer is available), but I don't see any evidence that Event A caused Event B.

    But then, it's nice to feel like you have a voice. They held elections in the old USSR... or should that be, "In Soviet Russia, Elections hold YOU!" ?

    • Re:False Causation Link (Score:5, Funny)

      by Otter ( 3800 ) on Wednesday August 25, 2004 @04:01PM (#10071781) Journal
      Wow, someone understands the difference between correlation and cause? Apparently you're overqualified to be a Harvard researcher or a JAMA editor [cnn.com].
      • This is not a case of correlation vs. causality. In fact, we can pretty clearly say that if Farscape petitions are correlated to Farscape trailers, then Farscape petitions cause Farscape trailers. (Their temporal succession makes this a pretty easy argument, don't you think?) What we don't have data about is the correlation, since there has been just one experiment that we know of.

        • Re:False Causation Link (Score:2, Informative)

          by eve11 ( 628505 )
          A few people had emailed the folks at apple.com and asked to see the trailer there after comicon. Apple.com said something about talking with the Sci-Fi channel (they actually don't usually host TV trailers) -- but actually it was Henson who owned the trailer. The staff at www.watchfarscape.com (I am also a staff member) brought the folks at apple up to speed on who owned what, and encouraged site members to write in to apple.com telling them about their desire to see the trailer. After a week of such em
          • Huh? I'm replying to someone who says that there's a confusion of correlation versus causality in the quote "Apple.com agreed to host the trailer after a write-in campaign from Farscape fans." I say there is no such confusion, because this is not an empirical correlation. Your story is an argument for causality, but it is not a rebuttal for my claim.

            If you'd like to argue with me about causation, I can pull MS statistician-going-on-PhD on you and start talking counterfactuals and Directed acyclic graphs,
    • The poster didn't say it was causal - they said "after a write-in campaign".

      So, who made the False Causation Link?

    • Re:False Causation Link (Score:5, Informative)

      by thelexx ( 237096 ) on Wednesday August 25, 2004 @04:18PM (#10071938)
      From a chat [watchfarscape.com] with Brian Henson:

      ( ChatMod) (Nessus) to (ChatQ): Where did the funding for the mini come from?

      ( BrianH) It came from a consortium of financers who would not have heard of us if it weren't for all of the attention the fans bought to the cancelling of the series.
      ( BrianH) So thanks to all of you, the mini series was funded

    • And after the Farscape fans' write-in campaign, the fighting in Iraq intensified! Won't someone please think of the children!!

  • SweeeT (Score:5, Funny)

    by teamhasnoi ( 554944 ) <teamhasnoi AT yahoo DOT com> on Wednesday August 25, 2004 @03:50PM (#10071685) Journal
    All I need now is for Farscape and Firefly to come back in full-time series, and TV would be good again.

    Of course, nothing will ever fill the hole that 'Suddenly Susan' has left in my heart.

  • How Does Apple Profit? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by idonotexist ( 450877 ) on Wednesday August 25, 2004 @03:53PM (#10071720)
    I've seen many movie trailers on Apple.com and I'm sure many others have too. Certainly this media is not gentle bandwidth usage.

    How does Apple profit? Do studios pay Apple to have trailers on its site?

  • IRC Information (Score:5, Informative)

    by KILNA ( 536949 ) * <kilna@kilna.com> on Wednesday August 25, 2004 @03:56PM (#10071739) Homepage Journal
    For those of you who popped in to irc.scifi.com during the campaign to get the show back on the air, that server has gone the way of the dodo. Many folks have ended up at #scapers on irc.scifi-fans.net and alternately #farscape on irc.chorn.com. Happy yakking!
  • Thanks to fans writing in... I noticed that the Family Guy is on Fox tonight. (check local listings).
    • That wasn't fans writing in, that was DVD sales.
  • Is this different than the trailer Sci-Fi has been playing during their normal rotation? I only watch two shows on Sci-Fi, and I see that trailer, along with the Galactica mini series at least two times per show. And that's been at least a month now.
  • ...so long as the creators don't decide to rerelease it 30 years later as a special edition with new CGI effects and green aliens shooting first ;)

    WARNING: SPOILER FOR THOSE WHO NEVER SAW THE ORIGINAL SERIES AHEAD.

    I'm interested in how they resolve the cliffhanger ending of the original series. I mean, are they going to do a Dallas ("it was all a dream") or what?

    It's hard to walk away from being a pile of shattered red glass...
    • I think just before the pilot shoots them he gets the call to 'bring them in'. I could be wrong about this as its been so long since Ive seen it. If so it means the crystallisation (sp) weapon isnt lethal. Instead it must be an immobiliser.
    • Lucas will be busy redoing 1,2,3,4,5,6 while makin 7,8,9 (and hopefully die before getting to Farscape)

      Fortunatelly he's the world only stupid enough to do stupid thing like this
    • If Chrichton can walk away from being a metal statue with its head ripped off, he can walk away from this.
    • Could be lots of things, Here are the theories I think hold the most water:

      1) The "weapon" is actually just a device used to capture. The "victim" converted into red dust in one place and he reassembles elsewhere.

      2) Pilot has John's wormhole knowledge now, so he takes the crew back in time and they prevent the entire nasty incident from happening -- though I have no idea how they can do this without creating an "unrealized reality".

      3) Something else.

      The point is, there are many many good ways to reso
  • What kind of a crazy consumer culture have we created where people demand MORE advertising. Personally, I always thought of Farscape as Lost In Space with Muppets, but to each their own.

  • Direct large version link (Score:5, Informative)

    by Universal Nerd ( 579391 ) on Wednesday August 25, 2004 @04:02PM (#10071795)
    In case you just want to download the video...

    http://movies.apple.com/movies/independent/farscap e/farscape-peacekeeper_m480.mov [apple.com]
  • when Scorpius joined the crew. I could go along with Crais, a bit of a stretch but who knows. Since then the show has gotten bigger. Bigger effects, bigger story arc, more extreme characters, every thing but better writing. Sorry guys you lost me somewhere around mid season 3..

    • [Farscape jumped the shark] when Scorpius joined the crew.

      He didn't exactly "join" the crew, unless you think that being kept in confinement or under supervision is *joining*. It was a matter of mutual survival with a number of sub-plots. The one involving Jool was probably a red herring, but we never got to find out. Strange alliances are Farscape's forte. Scorpius was still after John's knowledge, and John knew it, which led to the whole sniffing-drugs-to-forget-Aeryn thing (pause for a breath) bec

  • I just hope they don't ignore the last cliffhanger (Score:4, Informative)

    by kalirion ( 728907 ) on Wednesday August 25, 2004 @04:05PM (#10071827)
    There's only a single line in the entire trailer that might possibly be referring the the last season's cliffhanger. I really hope they do a good job of resolving it, as opposed to a cop-out quick fix (you know, the kind that Misery chick hated.)
    • I really hope they do a good job of resolving it

      I thought that for a while, but I've decided I really don't care.

      Farscape thought they were done. They could have wrapped up the series nicely, be it sad or happy, but they didn't - the ended the series with a cliffhanger.

      That was a real kick in the teeth to viewers who were watching the show for a decent story arc. It was a book with the last page left out on purpose.

      They thought they were canceled - they destroyed the sets and everything. It's only th

  • New theme music! (Score:5, Funny)

    by ChuckleBug ( 5201 ) * on Wednesday August 25, 2004 @04:24PM (#10071980) Journal
    Wow - they finally found the right theme music! Nice lyrics:

    It's time to play the music
    It's time to light the lights
    it's time to meet the Muppets on the Farscape Show tonight.

    It's time to put on makeup
    It's time to dress up right
    It's time to raise the curtain on the Farscape Show tonight.

  • Irony: But I don't WANT to see the trailer... (Score:4, Interesting)

    by the_skywise ( 189793 ) on Wednesday August 25, 2004 @04:24PM (#10071988)
    I love the story so much I don't want to be teased by it. I KNOW it's going to be good, I know it's going to have suprises. I don't want any hints, I want to savor it as I experience it!

    That has to say something about its quality.

    Of course, Sci-fi will cancel it when they see the low trailer hits...

  • Direct download link (Score:5, Informative)

    by david.given ( 6740 ) <dg@cowlark.com> on Wednesday August 25, 2004 @04:32PM (#10072046) Homepage Journal
    3 MB low-resolution download [apple.com]
    6 MB medium-resolution download [apple.com]
    18 MB high-resolution download [apple.com]

    Needed to poke around inside the original .mov with a hex editor to get them, too...

    • Really? I just downloaded the wrapper, ran it through cat, and went to the url that was in the midst of the gibberish :)
      • Really? I just downloaded the wrapper, ran it through cat, and went to the url that was in the midst of the gibberish :)

        Interesting; what I got was a 272-byte binary MOV file. I found the word 'farscape-peacekeeper_m480.mov' in it, so I tried that in the obvious place and it worked.

        Maybe I just missed the human-readable version when groping through the HTML source trying to find where the movie actually was. Sigh. Damned movie plugins. I wish people would just supply real download links for those of us

  • This page contains information of a type (video/quicktime) that can only be viewed with the appropriate Plug-in. Click OK to download Plugin.

    That's all I get when I go to the link in the article. I've tried Firefox, Opera, and Konqueror and it still doesn't work. So if this is indeed a Microsoft-only story, then the headline icon is wrong, eh?
  • Farscape was one of the few sci fi series in which character development was given precedence over technobabble and stale sci fi conventions. I'm looking forward to the miniseries.

  • Now to really throw them for a loop... (Score:4, Funny)

    by Tom7 ( 102298 ) on Wednesday August 25, 2004 @06:07PM (#10072882) Homepage Journal
    ... Boycott!!

  • if you have mplayer set up correctly, you can save the quicktime stream to your hard drive with this command (YMMV)

    mplayer -dumpstream -dumpfile farscape-peacekeeper_m480.mov http://movies.apple.com/movies/independent/farscap e/farscape-peacekeeper_m480.mov

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