More Farscape?

Here is an intriguing bit of news for all the Farscape fans out there. It looks like the Jim Henson Company is looking to work a new Farscape project.

When it originally aired, Farscape was the Sci-Fi Channel's highest rated original program. After its third season, Farscape was renewed simultaneously for a fourth and fifth season. However SciFi later announced that there would be no season five - even though the last episode of season four had ended with a cliffhanger. Fans mobilized to create a "Save Farscape" campaign which was larger than any previous movement to reverse a television series. The fan effort proved victorious when Henson produced the four-hour miniseries "Farscape: The Peacekeeper Wars", The Peace Keeper Wars squeezed the plotlines of what was to be the fifth season into the miniseries. The miniseries concluded in a way that left the door open for a future Farscape productions but also provided satisfying closure if it ended up being the ultimate end of Farscape.

In the past Henson has kicked around and talked about the possibility and ideas for a movie, another mini-series or TV-movie, a direct-to-DVD project, an animated show, or even a spin-off series. However, until now nothing has ever been put into production or moved far into development. While Henson has been brainstorming ideas for Farscape's continuation, fans have been waiting for news of what's coming, if anything at all.

At a panel discussion on the "Mirrormask DVD" held last Friday at Wonder-Con, Michael R. Polis (of the Jim Henson Company) and Rob Valoy (of Tokyo Pop) took to the stage and talked to the audience. Some old news was mentioned: coming this fall is a set of three 160-paged "Labyrinth" graphic novels; an animated "Dark Crystal" series is in the work; Henson is working on a "Dark Crystal" sequel; blah, blah, blah. But an interesting bit of information came out when they made some indistinctive mention to a new "Farscape" project that the Henson Company is currently working on.

There have been lots of rumors and ideas kicked around by Henson in the past, but it sounds like they are finally moving on and doing something with the series. I contacted some people at Henson, and they have yet to respond with any substantial information to back-up or elaborate on these reports (but they have not denied anything). It is likely that they are seriously considering and working on a project with the Farscape brand, however at this point we just don't know what it is (but I'm still digging and searching, and I'll keep you posted).

Sales of Farscape on DVD have been so successful that ADV is on its second run of Farscape DVDs, releasing its "Starburst Editions". These sets hold about seven episode on two discs loaded with extras (both old and new). The latest release, "Season Three, Part Two" was released today, February 14.) I'll keep you updated as soon as I hear more on the future of Farscape.

Special thanks to D.W. McKim for the news tip.