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“Thirdly, the fourth season going to debut in June regardless, because they won't be ready until then. The third season is, from all reports (both online, and from a conversation I had with David Kemper in New York last month), going to end on a ===NASTY=== note, one that will have everyone hungry for the fourth season to start. By pushing the end of the third season to March, we'll only have to wait three months instead of five.” –KRAD (bboard post)
NEWSWIRE: Sci-Fi Channel’s Bright Star Becomes Black Hole
Sydney, Australia - Today, rioting in the streets of Sydney and beyond resumed as angry mobs of fans from all over the world converged near the television studio sets of the Sci Fi Channel’s most popular series, Farscape.
Some fans succumbed to a mob mentality, overturning cars in the street, others using their computer keyboards, VCRs and remote controls as grenades, which they launched at the offices of Farscape’s production company, Henson and Company, and the windows of Executive Producer David Kemper’s office. There were also – strangely -- huge quantities of food thrown at the offices, mainly an assortment of pies. One fan had an apparatus, which she called a “twinkie launcher.”
Local police are baffled by this outpouring of protest, as thousands marched through the streets with placards and banners, yelling out strange things like “TPTB eat dren!” and “hezmana no, we won’t frellin’ go!” Special profilers have gathered the Farscape series on videotape and are watching the episodes carefully, as well as monitoring Sci Fi website board activity to develop a plan for dealing with, as they call themselves, “The ’Scapers.”
Following a three-year run of successful programming, the show developed a fan base of unprecedented proportions, and a ground swelling of popular support for its excellent special effects and moving, character-driven plots. Largely a grass-roots phenomenon, the Fandom showed its hidden strength and overwhelming numbers when, after waiting over six months for a third season four-part finale, their favorite show took a few nasty turns, and fans took to the streets. From newly opened fan headquarters in Sydney, they began to mobilize and their group continues to grow as American, Canadian and European fans fly in to join the movement.
It all began when the Sci Fi Channel decided to postpone its airing of the season three finale – four episodes usually shown in January before other networks engage in February sweeps. Due to the excessive costs involved in production of the show, its airing was postponed until March. Fans expressed some disappointment, but were more than willing to wait for the show’s creators to wow them with March’s month-long finale. The beginning of Season Four of Farscape planned for June would then follow the finale more closely. Instead of waiting six months for Season Four, fans would only wait three months for the conundrums of the season three finale to be sorted out.
Everything seemed fine as March approached. Fans were happy, and it seemed, were more in love with their show than ever, having filled in the time with reading Farscape novels and writing their own scenarios, known as Fan Fics, for other fans to read. "We were anxious for the new shows to begin," says Sheena Julestu, "but in a good way. More of an expectation and anticipation for that magical month." P.T. Dawg agreed, saying, "There were butterflies in my stomach nearly every day. I had to chase cars just to expend some of the extra energy I had building up inside. I must have gone through at least a hundred chew toys."
Other fans were dealing with the extra time in another way. "Although we knew that the episodes in March were going to be emotionally draining, we were ready for anything, having had the extra time to be in training. I feel the fan troops were as prepared as they could be under the circumstances," says Lt. P. Caminotruep, head of the National Fan Training Facility in Philadelphia. Weekly safety briefings were issued from this facility, and were dutifully carried out by fans worldwide.
"We felt ready, really prepared after our training and our mock battles which took place at least once a week," says soldier, Ban E. Elle. The mock battles, taking place with food as a substitute for live ammunition, was legendary among fans that wished to become more engaged in the activities and community service of the Fandom.
Randy Runnikovitz summed up the breaking point for fans. "When it came right down to what was happening in March, there wasn’t a single fan who was not outraged and, despite our preparedness, we knew something outside of the ordinary was taking place."
"We had to mobilize," says Mr. Dawg. "And it wasn’t a matter of us just being persnickety. This was the real deal."
"We’d been robbed," agreed Dr. Mya Crow, head of the psychiatric unit at Fandom Headquarters. "We keep our heads as level as we can and rely on each other for support, but now…" she trailed off and her eyes became moist.
"You can’t imagine the carnage," finished Steve Palmer, Farscape Fandom Social Chair. “We went from parties one moment to complete mystification and sadness the next.”
So, where did the Farscape creators go wrong? How could a simple Sci Fi show incite violence, protesting, marching and riots in the streets of Sydney?
The four March shows, which aired in the usual Friday night, 9:00pm time slot, began with a bang, as Moya, the biomechanoid Leviathan ship that the crew travels on, turned nasty. She blows the character Rygel out of an airlock in the first five minutes of the show. Rygel, a non-human character requiring five technicians to operate his many puppet parts, was a classic staple of the show, with his wily ways and conniving deviousness. It turned out that Moya was simply having a bad day, and Rygel’s death was shrugged off by the other characters with a minimum of fuss. Rumors on the Farscape set seemed to indicate that the five technicians required for just one character were creating a severe food shortage at the catering table, causing the executive producers and stars to get grumpy.
After this major blow to the show’s staple characters, the next disturbance involved Jool, a red-haired screamer, and D’Argo, the large Luxan warrior, seducing one another gratuitously and ending up in bed together. D’Argo’s former lover, Chiana, a monochromatic minx, walked in on them and pulled all of Jool’s hair out. Jool remained completely bald and intensely unpleasant to look at for the rest of the season finale. Also maimed was D’Argo, when Chiana took his warrior blade and carved up his face with it. Now, D’Argo is even more disfigured than his own son, Jothee; a character who appeared briefly in a previous season, and had numerous facial scars.
Stark, a character capable of spiritual miracles and physical dispersal, returned to the crew. Formerly a rather psychotic character, his odd interplay with other characters was a source of much amusement. Now, completely sane and sanitized, Stark sits around having conversations with Zhaan, who died in a previous season, causing much angst in the Fandom. Fans wanted her back, and badly. But instead of getting actress Virginia Hey back to the show, the producers decided on a replacement. And since Zhaan is technically dead, Stark brought back her spirit, which now resides in Moya and speaks to the crew from a communications device known as the “clamshell.” Problem solved, perhaps, but fans were disturbed by the actress-switch. One fan called it a “soap-opera ploy,” and a “half-assed attempt to placate us.”
After many episodes portraying the character Bialar Crais as a caring and compassionate man, instead of the original ‘crazed-madman on the loose,’ the producers and writers had a new twist in store for those who had finally come to believe that Crais was a valuable member of the Moya team. In the much-anticipated raid on evil Scorpius’ Gammack base, a deranged sword-bearing soldier immediately beheaded Crais, leaving the main characters Aeryn and John on their own in the Gammack base with nary a plan in mind. Crais’ head was placed among others in a trophy display, much as Crais himself used to have Hynerian heads in a trophy case. The swordsman turned out to be a young Peacekeeper male, who was later shown undressing, flexing his pecs and preparing to take a bubble bath underneath Crais’ mounted head. From the lingering pans across his abs, it’s clear he will be a returning character.
Another seemingly new character to the show is the Boolite, a creature that was blown apart in the last new episode last summer. An eye here, a tube there, it seemed this creature was never going to be whole, and many fans now wish it wasn’t. It looks like “The Blob” but has one blue eye that fills with tears whenever something quasi-emotional happens, like Stark professes his love for the new clamshell-encased Zhaan. Sparks between the Boolite and Jool were flying.
The Boolite also cries when Chiana, another perennial fan favorite, suddenly dies. She was struck with a mysterious illness that was likely the result of D’Argo poisoning her food. Clamshell Zhaan and serious Stark helped her over to the other side and her corpse was blown out an airlock.
And what did ‘fate’ have in store for the two main characters, the star-crossed lovers, the beautiful ex-Peacekeeper Aeryn Sun, and the handsome human, John Crichton? You may well ask. Naturally, they were also killed off. After they successfully stopped the evil Scorpius, in a very simple hand-to-hand battle that resembled a WWF scenario, they cut up his body into little pieces to let the audience know that this time he was really dead. (He’s been known to die and then not be dead before, in true villain fashion). Another favorite, the black vinyl-clad Scorpius provided the show’s balance, the yin to yang, the good to evil ratio. That a few simple blows could knock him out of commission after all this time surviving on the show was by any standards, ludicrous.
The celebratory Aeryn and John then took the wormhole technology and destroyed it, so that never again could anyone use if for evil purposes. They also realized that John would never return to earth. After a few tears over this reality, they realized that being together was all that mattered. They jumped in their prowler to return to Moya.
On their approach, suddenly a wormhole opened, spewing out an earthly module, which caught the prowler’s wing and sent John and Aeryn spinning out of control, crashing into a nearby planet. The module ended up on Moya, and as the remaining crew approached it, they noticed it was called, “Farscape II.” It opened and out popped John Crichton’s best friend from earth, the aptly named, DK. Once again, wormhole technology is on the loose in the form of a cocky, handsome earthling.
Later, it turned out that Aeryn Sun conveniently has a twin sister, who has been looking for her for “many cycles,” as she knew about Aeryn without Aeryn being aware of her existence. Yes, folks, Claudia Black’s contract did not expire. (Ben Browder has been relegated to performing the part of the Boolite’s voice.) It’s clear that there is sexual tension between DK and Aeryn’s twin, Eden, but how will they find love when DK is indirectly responsible for her sister’s death, with his blast through the wormhole in search of his buddy John and Farscape I.
Not content to simply kill off the two main favorite characters in a ball of flame, the writers included an implausible scene at the end whereby Aeryn and John made it to the nearby planet, not quite dead yet! In a total tearjerker of a scene, Aeryn places the dying body of John on a funeral pyre (somehow she managed to chop all that wood), and then threw herself on it, knowing that neither of them would recover from their injuries.
Farscape creator Rockne O’Bannon said that Browder’s disappearance would in no way hurt the magic of the production/writing team. “We really felt that the Crichton character had become useless, redundant if you will. Of course, Ben Browder is still a great friend. He understood he had to leave for the good of the show.”
Perhaps the story arc was to be expected, as executive producer David Kemper had told fans that the season finale would get “nasty,” and would be full of conflict. Additionally, the titles of the four season finale shows could have been a clue. “Cycle of Death,” “Microts Before Dying,” “Die Me, Die You,” and “The Way We Died.”
Kemper, in a recent interview said, “Season four, well, I really can’t talk about it, but fans, what’s left of the little buggers, will really be pissed off!” He nearly fell off his chair laughing. “Let’s just say that a new Hynerian, using the old Rygel puppet, will be the next hero of the show. The main focus of season four will focus on his pain and emotional trauma as he tries to deal with DK’s humanity. The Hynerian’s gaseous body is a great burden that he bears with such bravery and we want to explore that.”
During the interview, a huge chunk of moldy coagulated gravy flew through a broken window, landing on the floor with a plop. Outside, cheers could be heard and people yelling, splatt, splatt, splatt! Kemper brushed it aside with a wave of his hand.
“We felt that the success of the show really hinged on burning the fan’s fingers; making them as angry and irritated as possible.” From the looks of things, it seems that Mr. Kemper has succeeded.
