Best Scifi Series ever, canceled! (OT)

Owlman · #1 September 8th, 2002, 10:08 AM

Well folks, Scifi has decided to pull the plug on Farscape, the most inovative SciFi series since the original Star Trek. The show will run out season 4 and be done with it. If you werent familiar with the series, it followed the tale of modern day US astronaught (and fellow southerner) John Crichton, who was shot through a wormhole to a distant part of the galaxy. Apon arriving, he accidently kills a PeaceKeeper and is forced to flee with a group of escaped prisoners. The character of Crichton is more real and three dimensional than all the Star Trek crews combined. We watch him transform from a peace loving scientist, to a brutal, mercyless fighter in only a season. He struggled for his sanity in season 2, fighting a neural clone of his arch enemy inside his head. The sudden cancellation screws the series quite bad, since the "Emergency cancelation" ending was already used mid way in season 3 when it was belived that the series was going to go the distance. With the exception of the X-Files, Farscape was the only Scifi show to actually have many Emmy worthy actors. The show will be greatly missed. It dosen't seem fair that a horrible show like Voyager got to Last 7 years, while this gets canned. Ah well, I can't watch Enterprise to see the half-assed rip off of John Crichton that is captain Archer (except for the fact that Archer is a complete goody-goody compared to JC) Or watch the blatant rip off comming on Fox called Firefly. This is Farscape except with different names and grade D actors. Anyway, this sucks!

Magnum357 · #2 September 8th, 2002, 10:53 AM

Hmmm... well that is too bad. I liked Farscape, but I never got a chance to watch the 3rd season. Any reason why they are cancelling it? Bad Ratings? I've been out of the loop for a while.

I do agree with you about Voyager, that show actually could have been a 100 times better, but they messed it up big time. I would have approached the show in a completely different direction. I've never watched Firefly and don't plan to etheir. It looks stupied from the commercials and if its just a ripoff of Farscape, whats the point???

Thats the probablem with Sifi shows now. If any show gets popular, other networks try to copy the idea and see if they can sell it.

Deathstalker · #3 September 8th, 2002, 11:13 AM

"I've never watched Firefly and don't plan to etheir. It looks stupied from the commercials and if its just a ripoff of Farscape, whats the point??? "

Have faith.

Firefly will be anything but a ripoff with Joss Whedon at the helm. (The man who gave us Buffy, Angel and Aliens:Resurrection.) To compare I remember the beginning of B5 when all my friends called it a ripoff of DS9 and the Narn were just Klingon's in bad makeup. (that and Sinclair acted on the same level as Kirk

)

On the original topic I never really got to know Farscape, always worked when it was on (think I caught one episode which I did like).

dumbluck · #4 September 8th, 2002, 11:41 AM

How do you know it's being cancelled? This is the first I've heard of it. Not that I follow it, either. I work during it's airtime, too. Which kinda sucks, because I've heard nothing but good things about the show...

Owlman · #5 September 8th, 2002, 05:53 PM

Farscape writer David Kemper mentioned the that FS was being cancled at a recent chat. The cast had a cancellation party on Saturday and will finish their season (and final) shoot Tuesday. It was not cancled because of Ratings, in fact it is the Scifi channels number 1 draw. My theory is (Take me seriously) that Fox paid USA Networks to cancel the show. Scifi recived the rerun rights to The X-Files, something they usually could not afford. Now Firefly can run on the same time slot that Farscape did. In stead of competing with Farscape, FF is kind of replacing it. The only reason FS would be taken off the air in real life is beacuse of its high production values. Scifi is apparently content to run reruns of the Dead Zone and SG1 and use the FS money to make more really crappy movies or mini-series. Maybe the next Dune series will actually have a desert and not have a painted wall as a back ground for the great desert.

PS. By the previews, FF is very much a Farscape rip off. A smart *** gun slinger, a tough chick, a big tough guy, a ****, a whiney chick out of her element, a priestess, and they are all on the run from an evil military on board a freighter. The commit crimes to stay alive. Yeah, that is the cast, and very basic plot of Farscape. But then I always though B5 was a cheezy DS9 rip off.

geoschmo · #6 September 8th, 2002, 06:29 PM

Conspiracy theories aside, it is entirely possible that the show is the number one rated show on scifi channel and still losing money because of the higher production costs that you mentioned. Since televsion networks are in business to make money, not because it makes them happy just to have people watching their show.

It may just be that even though the Ratings were good, they weren't good enough to turn a profit.

Geoschmo

Gandalph · #7 September 8th, 2002, 06:40 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Magnum357:
Thats the probablem with Sifi shows now. If any show gets popular, other networks try to copy the idea and see if they can sell it.

This holds true with ALL shows these days.

disabled · #8 September 8th, 2002, 07:40 PM

Firefly is this :
A show that takes place in the west where are cast looks like cowboys from the west that travel around the rest via a spaceship out in the west. This is billed as the Anti-Star Trek.

I can see Fox paying off USA to pull farscape. With the X-Files dead, anything in a competing time slot except Stargate and the Simpsons will get utterly destroyed.

I hate Fox.

Also, Sci-Fi channel is supposed to be producing a mini-series based off the games myst and riven.

ZeroAdunn · #9 September 8th, 2002, 08:16 PM

Yah, it is sad to see farscape go, I thought they had renewed it for another season.

Geuss not. I can't see them wraping it up by the end of this season, I hope they end it good, not with a crappy cliffhanger. I would really like to see chriton get home, but realise his home is space now.

As for Firefly: It could be good. Don't judge things by the billing. I will wait to see it before I judge. I hope it is good.

Sci Fi is dying.... very sad. Very sad indeed.

AeoN2 · #10 September 8th, 2002, 09:12 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Owlman:
...But then I always though B5 was a cheezy DS9 rip off.

Actually the truth is probably the other way around in many ways.

What happened is that JMS (creator of B5), was going to many different film studios to try and find someone willing to fund and air his series... since they already had star trek, he decided to visit them first (can't remember what they are called on the top of my head though)

So he talked with them about it, and left them his huge "bible" of B5 material to study, which they did for a month or so...

Then they returned it and said they weren't interested in creating competitors to star trek, so JMS continued his search (ending up at Warner Bros.)

Then, some time later... wham... Deep Space 9 suddenly appears from nowhere... now I'm not saying the creators read all the things in JMS's notes and decided to make a star trek copy, but quite "coincidentaly" it has more than a few likenesses to B5 as mentioned, and it was written after the creators had access to JMS's notes...

--
AeoN2

[edit]
And he also considered sueing them for the ripoff actually... but he was more interested in getting his own series aired than starting a huge fight...

[ September 08, 2002, 20:14: Message edited by: AeoN2 ]