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Sci-Fi

Farscape (Kinda) Returns 140

Posted by CmdrTaco from the what-the-frell dept.
westlake writes "In a weekend press tour, Sci Fi announced that Farscape would be resurrected on-line in ten short webisodes to be produced by the Jim Henson Company. There are hints that Ben Browder and Claudia Black will both be both "available." Browder has another project to keep him occupied, at least part of the time: Sci Fi also announced that it had picked up Going Homer, a miniseries he developed with "Farscape" director Andrew Prowse. Greek and Roman deities walk among us, but only 12 year old Homer Ulysses Jones can see them for what they truly are. When Homer and his father are forced to flee a custody battle that would likely separate them, they journey from Los Angeles to the home of their ancestors — in Ithaca, N.Y."
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Farscape (Kinda) Returns More

Farscape (Kinda) Returns

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  • They can use that time to explain how/why they edited a season of story down to a couple hectic hours.
  • what they meant when they said "to be continued"....

  • Farscape's strength was its weakness (Score:3, Interesting)

    by PhrostyMcByte ( 589271 ) <phrosty@gmail.com> on Wednesday July 18, 2007 @10:50AM (#19901015) Homepage
    Farscape's super-long story arcs meant you had to be watching from the start, or at least for a very long time, if you wanted to understand what was going on. I fear this doomed it in the end, as people weren't able to just channel surf and get into it.

    I wish they'd bring back the show, but I guess this will do.

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by Control Group ( 105494 ) *
      Farscape's super-long story arcs meant you had to be watching from the start, or at least for a very long time, if you wanted to understand what was going on. I fear this doomed it in the end, as people weren't able to just channel surf and get into it.

      Which made it perfect for release to DVD...if that had been done in a better (ie, cheaper) fashion. Not, of course, the Farscape was or is alone in charging prices that made it infeasible to buy an entire season.

      Really, I think there's an untapped market segm

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by gsaraber ( 46165 )
        Tivo already does video push, you can subscribe to a bunch of 'channels' and it basically downloads short 2-10 minute videos from places like cnet, NY times, rocketboom and a whole bunch more..
        and you can do video download rentals from amazon's 'unbox' service, the quality is about what my regular tv looks like, so very watchable, with specials for $0.99 per movie, its hard to beat..
      • Thankfully, the Farscape DVDs have been re-released as "Starburst" editions. More special features (including exclusive interviews and several new commentaries), and a much cheaper price. That's how I got to see the series, and glad of it.

        Did I mention how excited I am that Farscape is returning?! Hopefully these "webisodes" will be longer than a few minutes each, I don't see how you could tell much story in something too short.

        And yes, I would gladly pay for more episodes of Firefly. *sigh*
        • Unfortunately, the Starburst edition DVDs are now out of print as well. If you run across a 1.2 Starburst set, let me know, my wife wants it BAD. Existing stock is all that's left for most of the DVDs.
          • Wow, I didn't believe you until I checked Amazon! These just recently came out, too!

            Well, I had heard that they were going to reissue the first two seasons Starbursts with more discs (instead of the double sided ones. I had to return one set three times before I got a working one!) They weren't going to until they ran out of their existing stock, so maybe they'll start a new printing soon. One can hope.

            Otherwise... wow... I don't know what to say. I'm glad I picked mine up! Strange if it really is out of pr
          • More info on the repressing of the older Starburst editions at TV Shows on DVD [tvshowsondvd.com].

      • Really, I think there's an untapped market segment there; not just for Farscape, but for certain kinds of TV shows in general. I think it might eventually be a successful business model to plan your show around only having a few episodes on television, solely as marketing for the DVD release of the full season.

        The way things have been going, I've been wondering whether there might be a market for episodic material released directly to DVD, iTunes, and pay-per-view. Maybe I'm alone, but most of the TV I w

    • That was only part of it the original also suffered from "going way out there" at times. It pushed the limits past where some people could bear the strangeness. It was fairly well grounded in the first two seasons, but in the third it went to places that just about (and for some perhaps did) required LSD to get the story to make sense. I had my wife into the show, she is a SCIFI fan of the BSG, Stargate, DR Who, Trek and Star Wars type. FarScape just turned out to be WAY too much for her at times.

      It also honestly suffered from the same thing that every SCIFI channel show suffers from, utter lack of programming consistency. What day and time is that on? what months of the year? 13 weeks at a time and its coming back when? What other shows are on with it on SCIFI channel that night? Didn't that other show used to be on before it? after it?

      SCIFI channel was doing good for a while they had both StarGates and BSG all on the same night on Fridays. That was great, sit down watch all the good shows, great. Then they moved BSG to Sundays, put something else on not as good, the shows were not even in lock step as far as premiere and finale weeks anymore. SCIFI really needs to get clued in on the whole seasons thing, thats the way most people esspecially the casual watchers that could help improve the overall ratings prefer to watch TV.

      Don't even get me started on the "its getting its full run in England before its on in America" thing. Thats a great way to will ratings since the primary audiance are all going to bit torrent it so they can watch it at the same time as there peers on the otherside of the pond so the discussion boards are not a huge spoiler fest.

      • >> I had my wife into the show, she is a SCIFI fan of the BSG, Stargate, DR Who, Trek and Star Wars type. FarScape just turned out to be WAY too much for her at times.

        The same thing happened for my wife. She is not that big of a sci-fi fan, but she likes Stargate and is usually fine watching much of the sci-fi I watch, but Farscape got too much for her. (Dr Who was too much for her too, but a different kind of too much.)

        • Re: (Score:1)

          by teal ( 4252 )
          Oh my God, this strangeness as you call it was so wonderful. A story line where you couldn't predict the ending 10 minutes into the show. A story line where you genuinely cared and empathized with the characters. A story line that made you pay attention and think once in a while. Not your usual bland TV fare but oh so much fun.
          • I didn't have any problem with it; my wife did. I thought it made for some very interesing episodes, but I could see how it would turn some of the audience off.

            I think going way beyond what Star Trek or Babylon 5 would ever do has a lot of merit, but I've seen a lot of the fans of those shows just kind of blow Farscape off like it never existed.
          • Agreed. Scifi is, oddly, one of the most predictable genres out there on tv. I loved that I could actually be surprised by farscape, in almost the same way that a science fiction book would be surprising.

      • That was only part of it the original also suffered from "going way out there" at times. It pushed the limits past where some people could bear the strangeness. It was fairly well grounded in the first two seasons, but in the third it went to places that just about (and for some perhaps did) required LSD to get the story to make sense. I had my wife into the show, she is a SCIFI fan of the BSG, Stargate, DR Who, Trek and Star Wars type. FarScape just turned out to be WAY too much for her at times.

        That's int

      • Don't even get me started on the "its getting its full run in England before its on in America" thing.

        Have to agree with you on this one. I was SHOCKED when I tuned into Dr. Who the other night to see Sci-Fi running the just completed season of Dr. Who. Was actually expecting to see the last 2 seasons with Billy Piper...which is what I'm seeing on BBC America.

        At least 1 good thing about Sci-Fi...only had to wait about 15 weeks...rather than 1-2 years to see what those in the UK had all ready seen. N

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by daigu ( 111684 )
        I had the exact opposite experience.

        My wife knows next to nothing about Sci-Fi, and we watched the entire Farscape series on DVD - watching a few episodes a night for a few months. We almost never watch TV, and we have never before or since stayed in to watch a show (much less on DVD) rather than do something else. I eventually also talked her into watching Firefly - partly because of the good Farscape experience - but I think she had more trouble with it because it was too familiar. I think it is much more

  • Jim Henson Company (Score:5, Funny)

    by FlopEJoe ( 784551 ) on Wednesday July 18, 2007 @10:50AM (#19901019)

    produced by the Jim Henson Company

    It's gonna be filmed with Muppets? Talk about chintsing on the budget!

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by haplo21112 ( 184264 )
      The original Farscape was a Henson company production.

    • Re:Jim Henson Company (Score:5, Funny)

      by MontyApollo ( 849862 ) on Wednesday July 18, 2007 @10:52AM (#19901065)
      Uh, it was always filmed with muppets. Never seen it?

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by fm6 ( 162816 )
        And, ironically, it was canceled because Sci Fi decided it cost too much. Muppets don't work cheap!

        • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

          by zippthorne ( 748122 )
          Broder and Black can't get a break. First Farscape, now Stargate. And what did they cancel stargate in favor of?
          • Some crappy British serial treknobabble-comedy trash whose principle virtue I can discern so far is that it's "been on the air a really long time"?
          • A "mutant X" ripoff complete with it's own ubiquitous and unquestioned racial epithet?
          • A "Friday the Thirteenth: the series" ripoff with (ok, it would be hard to ripoff that series without improving it...)?
          • Wrestling? wtf? how scifi is wrestling? Th

          • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

            by fm6 ( 162816 )
            Sci Fi's programming choices make no sense from the viewer's POV. But when you run a cable channel, you don't worry that much about keeping your programming non-ripoffy and consistent with your theme. You mainly worry about keeping your costs down without losing too much audience. It's not like cable companies can say, "Our viewers are sick of the Sci-Fi channel, we're going to drop it in favor of ..." For one thing, there isn't anything else that appeals to the same audience. For another, Sci-Fi belongs to
            • It's not like cable companies can say, "Our viewers are sick of the Sci-Fi channel, we're going to drop it in favor of ..." For one thing, there isn't anything else that appeals to the same audience.

              Then

              Me, I don't care that much, because I've opted out of the whole cable TV ripoff. Which means waiting for shows to come out on DVD,

              Sounds like you found what people can drop them in favor of. I did the same thing, and we're not even close to being alone in that. Which is one of the reasons I think th
        • The actors used to (jokingly, I think) complain that Rygel costed more than any of them did. This may explain why they quickly developed a habit of smacking around the Muppet whenever they could. (Mind you, there were actually several Rygels, including a face model, a normal model, and a stunt model. Still, I wouldn't be surprised if any one of them first two costed more than any given actor's salary.)

    • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

      by PhrostyMcByte ( 589271 )
      The original was from Jim Henson Company, and it had several muppets in it >:)

    • Re:Jim Henson Company (Score:4, Funny)

      by InvisblePinkUnicorn ( 1126837 ) on Wednesday July 18, 2007 @10:56AM (#19901141)
      Several main characters in the show were "muppets", including Pilot, Rygel, and Beaker.

      Err, wait, that doesn't look right...

    • It's gonna be filmed with Muppets?

      As opposed to the previous episodes, which were filled with actual aliens...

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Lars T. ( 470328 )

        It's gonna be filmed with Muppets?

        As opposed to the previous episodes, which were filled with actual aliens...
        Actually, only the peacekeepers were played by aliens.
    • The original even had the odd guest appearance from the Skeksis, so why not?
    • Looks like with a lot of people, the joke went farscape over their heads.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Temposs ( 787432 )
      Henson-style puppetry is no trivial feat. Even though he became famous doing puppetry programs for children, he was(he's dead) an amazingly accomplished artist besides, in the realms of painting and sculpture [si.edu].

      If you don't know of Jim Henson's more serious work, I recommend you watch The Dark Crystal [wikipedia.org] which is an excellent serious fantasy film.

  • please no! (Score:1, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward
    FTA:

    They are not going to do 10 full, 44-minute episodes for the Web. Each episode will be a few minutes long.

    Ugh... I hate webisodes. Please don't ruin Farscape. Anything less than 30 minutes is simply not enough to develop even the most trivial story, not to talk about the time our brain requires to adapt itself when one starts watching a show.

    Make it as a 3 part 45 minutes regular TV episodes and it won't suck like a webisode miniseries certainly will.

  • I'd rather have my SG-1 back. SG-1, Eureka, and recently Dead Like Me are the only things I've managed to like on SciFi. Farscape was always far too silly for me (pun unintended).
    Unrelated Obligatory Sarcasm: Wrestling is Science Fiction!
    • >>Farscape was always far too silly for me

      It really wasn't that silly. The muppets would kind of lead you to believe that; you just had to get used to them.

      I actually got my wife to watch it for a while. She got past the muppets, but could not get past the existentialism.
      • Ah that was the word I was searching for in my Post "existentialism"
      • Muppets - or rather, sophisticated animatronics - look far more alien than bumpy-headed prosthetic-covered actors. They were always portrayed very realistically too, the skill of the puppetry is really astounding!

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by scoser ( 780371 )
      The only way I can figure that wrestling counts as "Science Fiction" is that the matches and storylines are the fiction part and the science part refers to all the work that went into creating the steroids the wrestlers consume.
      • Or how they can be bloodied up in one match, and yet can come back later in one show perfectly fine and never have any scars in later matches!

        They must pick some actual SciFi show to spend their medical insurance on...
    • I don't watch it much either, except for Eureka, SG Atlantis, and The Dresden Files. The problem with SciFi is that they don't have a budget for these types of shows. Dresden at least keeps the special effects down to a minimum. I hope they bring it back.
    • Interesting...I can't stand SG-1. Banal and predictable, formulaic tripe. The few sci-fi shows I truly enjoy are Doctor Who (of course), Blake's 7 (fondly remembered series from my childhood in New Zealand, and now I have started watching the DVDs I find the tense forward-looking storylines are just as exciting to watch), and Farscape.

      For me, especially the latter two series had well-thought out plots, which went through the series and kept you hanging on. None of this oh-so-predictable nonsense that passes

    • Re: (Score:2, Troll)

      by cerelib ( 903469 )
      I love SG-1, but you have to admit that they had excercised all possible story outlets and even made some not so great ones up. While the Ori story arc was interesting, it was really just a rehash of the Go'uld (sp?) story arc. Atlantis is in danger of falling into the same trap and just reimplementing SG-1. The end of the last Atlantis season indicated a possibility of a new direction. So I am hopeful for the future of the Stargate universe.
      • I never thought they did a particularly good job of dealing with the fallout of the downfall of the Goa'uld. I had this whole expectation of off-world prison camps for zealot Jaffa, and on going massive battles with the Goa'uld merely just using human cannon fodder. And possibly tying the origin of the Egyptian mythology and specifically the creation myth of the BNBN (sp?) stone being like a crashed vaguely upside down Ancient ship piloted by Atum or something. Anyhow, they moved on to the (yeah, similar) O
    • Nothing against SG-1, but it had the best run of any scifi show in America. Ten seasons, a spin-off, and more possibly on the way.

      Farscape got a mere 4 seasons, cancelled while they were wrapping up the end of the 4th season, and were promised a 5th - so many threads were left dangling. Thankfully the fans got a miniseries to wrap it up, but it's so heavily compressed another season would have been so much better.

      Farscape had a sense of humor that I loved, but it was not silly. It was actually quite dark, i

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by aled ( 228417 )

      Farscape was always far too silly for me


      YMMV but it was very good to me. Themes from maddnes, adult relationships and very bad words in alien language (Frell!) made it like no other.
      Galactica was very silly. I couldn't take more than a couple of episodes.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by slapout ( 93640 )
      I'd rather have First Wave. But I guess I should be glad they at least gave it an ending and didn't leave it hanging.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by neglige ( 641101 )
      Farscape wasn't silly, it just had a quirky humor. One episode featured Rygel in black latex as a dominatrix. I almost choked from laughing, but I'm sure not everyone found it THAT funny :) And if you're not into pop culture references, then you miss/don't like 50% of Crichton's dialogue...

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by LMacG ( 118321 )
      You can have a little bit of Dead Like Me [moviehole.net].

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by kihjin ( 866070 )
      Dead Like Me is great. Definitely could have gone on longer than two seasons!

  • hmm. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by apodyopsis ( 1048476 ) on Wednesday July 18, 2007 @11:08AM (#19901329)
    Why do I have this ghastly, ghastly feeling that this will do for Farscape, what "Crusade" and "Legend of the Rangers" did for Babylon5.

    I feel a grave disturbance in the.......

    *sigh*.

    Am I alone in saying bring back Firefly, bring back Farscape - but do it with the same creative team and format or just let them well alone.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by ArcherB ( 796902 ) *
      Am I alone in saying bring back Firefly, bring back Farscape - but do it with the same creative team and format or just let them well alone.

      I agree. I'd also like to see Drive come back as well. I'm getting real tired of seeing excellent, original programming get canceled and replaced with either a game show, reality show or hospital drama! I would have already canceled my cable TV if my wife hadn't blocked me!

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by john83 ( 923470 )
        You forgot 'forensics'-heavy cop shows.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by aled ( 228417 )

          You forgot 'forensics'-heavy cop shows.


          You know, there is not an CSI Irak... yet.

          How many times you can repeat the same show with different names?

      • ...get canceled and replaced with either a game show, reality show or hospital drama!

        You know, I can almost deal with one of those... except that Farscape was replaced by "Tremors: the series". I mean, really, WTF?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by slapout ( 93640 )
      You left out "what Episodes I-III did for Star Wars."
  • You don't t-off the viewership by killing off the main characters unceremoniously just to get back at the network, and then come back wanting to have it the other way.

    I'll be skipping any future Farscape material. If I need a dose of Sci-Fi I've got The Lost Tales [wikipedia.org] to look forward to.
  • I wonder if they're actually going to film the series in Ithaca. I went to college there and always thought it'd be a cool location for a movie/TV show/etc. (During the summer, at least. In the winter, it's a post-apocalyptic nuclear-winter hellscape.)

    Plus, having the recording crew in town would give the city some impetus to get its act together and finish up the construction projects that have closed 3/4 of the streets, so the local populace would love it.

    Plus, there'd be tons of film students at I
  • I've heard sanctioned web star trek web-only episodes too from two of the former actors at scifi conventions. (There lots of unsanctioned stuff on the web now).
  • My issue with the series is the price and format of the seasons on DVD. It is more expensive than Star Trek, which is saying something, and also grouped in a strange format (half seasons). I really want to support the series by buying the DVDs, but not at the prices I see in my local DVD store. For me SG1 is an example of a TV series using an easy to understand format and approachable pricing.

    See here for Amazon.ca pricing:

    http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw/104-2424159-3 290317?initialSearch=1&url=sea [amazon.com]
  • If the Farscape movie didn't suck so hard. Let's face it, Farscape was one of the best sci-fi series ever made, but it ran its course - it's done.

    Also, "Homer Ulysses"? Whaa?
    • farscape movie ? are you talking about the peacekeeper miniseries
      and seriously i loved those, if you wanna complain about bad quality in the farscape universe
      then talk about the game not the miniseries

      i'm absolutely delighted about this news, i just hope they don't fuck it up
      since at the moment farscape is my favorite sci-fi with firefly, stargate sg1, space above and beyond, b5 and st: next generation following next.
  • This is great news. With SG-1 and BSG going off the air, I'm glad they decided to test the waters again with a great show. With luck and the fans, Farscape can make a come back!

    HELL YEAH!

    • yessir .. bring back farscape .. 100% top dollar scifi

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by jkiol ( 1050424 )
      Farscape has been my favorite show of all time until well Lost. In a lot of ways the 2 shows are similar. I've gotten a few people hooked on farscape after it was canceled with the Dvd box sets. But I can definitely say if you don't watch it from the absolute beginning to the end in order, it will be too "far out", but if you do, even non sci-fi people will like it. I really like the lack of technobable, and the lack of explanations unless really needed for the episode, and even then its usually glazed over
  • Greek and Roman deities walk among us, but only 12 year old Homer Ulysses Jones can see

    first thing I thought of ... The Lightning Thief [wikipedia.org]
  • i think i just peed my pants

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