Farscape: The Peacekeeper Wars

Format

Two-part television miniseries^[1]

Director

Brian Henson^[1]

Writers

Rockne S. O'Bannon and David Kemper^[1]

Producer

The Jim Henson Company and Hallmark Entertainment^[1]

Network

Sci-Fi Channel (US)^[1]

Part 1 aired

17 October 2004^[1][3]

Part 2 aired

18 October 2004^[1][3]

Running time

182 minutes^[1]

In place of

A fifth season^[8]

Overview

Farscape: The Peacekeeper Wars is a 2004 military science fiction television miniseries directed by Brian Henson and written by Rockne S. O'Bannon and David Kemper.^[1] The Jim Henson Company and Hallmark Entertainment produced it for the Sci-Fi Channel, and it runs 182 minutes in total.^[1] SYFY Wire describes it as a four-hour, two-episode event series that premiered in 2004 under the title The Peacekeeper Wars.^[6]

Farscape was canceled before it could finish telling its story and ended on a cliffhanger; the miniseries exists to finish that story in place of the fifth season that had been announced and was never made.^[8]

Story

The miniseries is set in the wake of the cliffhanger at the end of season 4 and concerns the war between the Peacekeepers and the Scarran Empire.^[6] It opens far from the water world where John Crichton and Aeryn Sun have been crystallized, as a Peacekeeper fleet under Scorpius fights a Scarran fleet under Emperor Staleek.^[1]

Both sides want Crichton, whose mind contains the knowledge to turn wormholes into weapons of mass destruction, and the war will be fought over him.^[1] The water world where Crichton and Aeryn lie is the last outpost of the Eidelons, an empathic race whose abilities once encouraged peace and whose homeworld, Arnessk, was made uninhabitable 12,000 cycles earlier.^[1]

SYFY Wire notes that the ending is admittedly a bit rushed, because there is so much material to get through in just four hours.^[6]

Cancellation

Wikipedia attributes the cancellation to cost concerns, noting that viewership had fallen during the fourth season.^[2] It also points out that EM.TV & Merchandising AG had bought The Jim Henson Company in 2000 and that the company was in serious financial trouble by 2002.^[2]

The Companion, quoting co-creator Rockne S. O'Bannon, gives a different account: the Sci-Fi Channel raised cancellation as a negotiating ploy over the Season 5 licensing fee, and the new German owners of The Jim Henson Company accepted it.^[8] O'Bannon states that the cancellation was a business decision rather than a creative one.^[8] Wikipedia and The Companion therefore disagree on what drove the cancellation.^[2][8]

According to the "Save Farscape" DVD featurette, Henson, Kemper and Ben Browder broke the news of the cancellation in an online chat, and within hours supporters had launched an effort to save the series or move it elsewhere.^[2] Demolition of the show's sets was put on hold while those involved awaited word on a possible renewal or concluding event.^[6]

The fourth-season finale, "Bad Timing", ended with Crichton and Aeryn shattered into pieces and a "To Be Continued" card, even though the people finishing the episode already knew the series had been canceled.^[7][8] According to Den of Geek, the writers and director kept the "To Be Continued" ending because they chose to air the episode as written rather than rewrite it once the cancellation was known.^[7]

Fan campaign

Driven by an energetic fan campaign, the Sci-Fi Channel greenlit a two-part miniseries to settle the cliffhanger and bring closure to the show's main storylines.^[7] Henson and others credit the campaign with Farscape's return,^[1] and once it drew public notice, European investors approached Brian Henson with offers of funding.^[2]

Brian Henson later secured the rights to Farscape, clearing the way for the three-hour miniseries, which he directed himself.^[2]

Production

Production of the miniseries ran from December 2003 to March 2004, with David Kemper as executive producer and Guy Gross composing the theme music.^[1] Henson labels the three hours as episodes 4.23–4.26, whereas the New South Wales Film Office describes the miniseries as a 2 × 2 hour telemovie.^[1] Den of Geek reports that it brought back the series' leads and other key characters for a farewell story.^[7]

In May 2004 the Sci-Fi Channel announced that it would run the two-episode conclusion.^[1] In the UK, the miniseries was scheduled on Sky1 for 16 and 23 January 2005 and on Five for 8 March.^[1]

Lionsgate released Farscape: The Peacekeeper Wars on DVD in the US, and The Contender Entertainment Group released it in the UK; the US edition combines both parts into a three-hour film, while the UK two-disc set has one part per disc.^[1][2] In 2014 Alive released a region-free German Blu-ray of the miniseries titled "Farscape: Season Five- The Peacekeeper Wars".^[1]

On 19 March 2019, Farscape's twentieth anniversary, all four seasons and the miniseries became available on Amazon Prime Video in the US, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the Scandinavian countries.^[1] GateWorld reported that the miniseries had been remastered in HD for the Amazon Prime Video release.^[1]

The two parts

The miniseries consists of two episodes.^[1][3]

• Farscape: The Peacekeeper Wars, Part 1 (first aired 17 October 2004).^[1][3]
• Farscape: The Peacekeeper Wars, Part 2 (first aired 18 October 2004).^[1][3]

Both parts are on this page because the rights holder published them as a single full-movie upload on its official Farscape YouTube channel, which also hosts the full Peacekeeper Wars miniseries.^[4]

0:00 The Peacekeeper Wars, Part 1 The first part of the miniseries as published by the rights holder, from the start of the upload.

0:00 The Peacekeeper Wars, Part 2 The second part of the miniseries as published by the rights holder, from the start of the upload.

Reception

The miniseries drew smaller audiences than most earlier Sci-Fi Channel miniseries and failed to make a meaningful gain.^[1] On 14 July 2005 it received a Primetime Emmy nomination for Outstanding Special Visual Effects for a Miniseries, Movie or a Special,^[2] and it won the Saturn Award for Best Television Presentation in 2004.^[1]