Farscape: The Peacekeeper Wars is a military science fiction television miniseries written by Rockne S. O'Bannon and David Kemper and directed by Brian Henson. Following the original series' cancellation in September 2002, it aimed to wrap up the cliffhanger and tie up some elements of the series in general. It was broadcast on 17 and 18 October 2004. Henson and others have attributed the return of Farscape to the ongoing campaign of fans. Production began in December 2003. In May 2004 the Sci-Fi Channel, now owned by NBC Universal, announced that it would run a two-episode conclusion titled Farscape: The Peacekeeper Wars.
Henson refers to the three hours as episodes 4.23–4.26, though the New South Wales Film Office refers to the production as a "2 × 2 hour telemovie" (including commercials). Production of the miniseries ended in March 2004 and, in addition to the announced airing on the Sci-Fi Channel in the US, was also scheduled to be broadcast in the UK on Sky1 on 16 and 23 January 2005, and by Five on 8 March. The Peacekeeper Wars earned a 1.7 household Nielsen rating, drawing 1.96 million viewers and making the Sci-Fi channel the #1 non-sports cable network for people aged 25–54 and 18–49 for the time period over the two nights. However, the ratings were lower than those of most other Sci-Fi Channel miniseries, and not a significant improvement.
Early fan speculation hoped that high Nielsen ratings would prove the viability of renewing the series, but since the ratings were unexceptional, continuation was ruled out. Brian Henson has stated on many occasions that he would like to bring the Farscape saga to the big screen, but there has been no development on that front for years. In October 2005, Farscape entered syndication in the US, airing on Superstation WGN and on a variety of local, cable, satellite and broadcast affiliates including Ion Television, but vanished from syndication after about two years. In 2013, the channel Pivot started airing the entire series in syndication. All four years' episodes were also available to Canadians and Americans on Netflix until November 2016.
On the date of the show's twentieth anniversary – March 19, 2019 – all four seasons of Farscape as well as Farscape: The Peacekeeper Wars were made available on Amazon Prime Video in the U.S., United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Scandinavian countries, and several other countries around the world.
Source: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)
No comments yet — be the first.
Sign in — Sign in to leave a comment or review.