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Farscape (first broadcast 1999) is a science fiction television series produced in Australia by the Jim Henson Company with the backing of US cable broadcaster the Sci Fi Channel.
Originally conceived in the early 1990s by Rockne S. O'Bannon, Brian Henson and writer/executive producer David Kemper under the title Space Chase, the show centers on American astronaut John Crichton (played by American actor Ben Browder), who has found himself flung through a wormhole to a distant part of the galaxy, where he is constantly caught in the middle of conflicts between planets, empires, and the incompatible personalities of the escaped prisoners he has taken refuge with.
Farscape is one of the new generation of science fiction TV shows, in which the main concerns are surviving in a hostile, chaotic universe and dealing with interpersonal conflicts, instead of exploration, warfare or law enforcement. See also Lexx and Firefly.
Henson has traditionally specialized in puppetry, and Farscape is no exception; two regular characters are puppets: the miniature deposed Dominar Rygel XVI of Hyneria (voiced by Johnathan Hardy) and the ship's Pilot (voiced by Lani Tupu), a multi-armed elephant-size creature physically and mentally bonded to the living Leviathan ship, Moya.
In 2002, Farscape won two Saturn Awards for Best Syndicated/Cable TV Series and Best TV Actor (Browder), as well as receiving nominations for Best TV Actress (Claudia Black as former-soldier Aeryn Sun) and Best Supporting TV Actress (Gigi Edgley as the pixieish rogue Chiana). Farscape completed production of its fourth season in September, with a fifth season contracted but with an uncertain fate.
In September 2002 the Sci Fi Channel, which was then owned by ailing conglomerate Vivendi, unexpectedly opted to withdraw its funding of the fifth season, threatening cancellation of the popular, critically-acclaimed show. Fans mounted a massive letter, phone, e-mail, and advertisement campaign hoping to pressure Sci-Fi into restoring the show or another, more financially solvent, network to take over.
Although the network cancelled the series, early plans to have the sets scrapped when production of the fourth season wrapped were quickly reversed; the sets were instead put in storage pending future decisions.
In May, 2004, the Sci Fi Channel announced that it will air a four-episode miniseries beginning Sunday October 17th 2004 at 9pm. Called December 2003, the Jim Henson Company started production of the 4-hour miniseries to wrap up many of the threads dangling at the end of Season 4, episode 4.22 "Bad Timing". Creator Rockne S. O'Bannon and Executive Producer David Kemper were writing the episodes and Brian Henson was rumored to direct.
Interestingly, the 4-hours are being referred to, by Henson, as episodes 4.23-4.26, though the New South Wales Film Office refers to the production as a '2 x 2 h. Telemovie'. Production of the miniseries was expected to wrap in March 2004 and aside from the announced airing on the Sci Fi Channel in the U.S., it is likely to be broadcast in the UK on BBC2.
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