Another Farscape Update:

Ben *will* be on CNN HLN in about an hour.

There is no news yet of the meeting that was supposed to have taken place yesterday. The only thing we know is that Barb told us in chat that things are looking bad at Scifi.

A few scapers went to a talkshow today in Save Farscape t-shirts and were filmed extensively!

Oh, and I think you should head over here if you're a Scaper: http://www.quanfu-cafe.com/index.php

Some thoughts about the coming weeks and months:

(an open letter)

Hello Scapers.

I have some suggestions on how we may proceed now that the euphoria of last week's constant media coverage on our effort wears off.

Whatever beef some of you may have with Barb, she's right in one thing: we're in this for the long haul.

I know it hurts to realize this, and I know the publicity we got last week made it easy to delude ourselves to the effect that we would succeed quickly, but the bitter truth we need to face is, no matter how much fuss we made in one week, that is not enough to convince the execs at Scifi. We're still only a small segment of the audience to them, and they probably still think we will forget about this in a few weeks.

And there is indeed the danger that we may, or rather, that we give up hope and stop working towards our goal because it seems unreachable.

Other shows *have* been brought back by fan campaigns that sometimes lasted years and at the very least lasted months. It took the Save Star Trek campaign in the sixties months to save the show for one more season; it took them years to get a movie. I think we should keep this in mind and get ready for a long campaign.


There are three things now we need to do:

1.) Keep up writing to UPN, Showtime, probably even Scifi; keep up signing petitions, going to rallies, printing and distributing flyers; those daily To Do Lists at savefarscape.com are a great way to keep that concentrated effort going!

2.) We must *not* let this community fall apart when the media coverage wanes.

I have found I can actually fight on without a lot of hope. I can't say I have no hope at all anymore, but the hope I have is small and distant. Still, I will keep fighting, systematically and continuously, and I hope you all will, too. I know I am one of the more fanatical people around (although most international Scapers probably don't know me, as I'm mostly active in German FS fandom) and I think we, the most fanatical fans ;-) need to keep the flame burning, in a manner of speaking, and motivate others to also keep fighting in the weeks and months to come.

It may be a good idea to find a few Scapers in your area (via the global directory or the chat room) and start a circle that meets once a week, or once a fortnight, or once a month to watch Farscape... I've been a member of such a circle for a year now, and it's great fun! And it should help to keep us all together and motivated. We also have Farscape Weekends here in Germany, where we meet for a weekend to watch lots of Farscape. Farscape is hardly ever on the air here, and this has been a great way for people to catch up with the newest episodes (and apparently also a good way to establish the fandom - last I checked the Fanscape Enumerator, German FS fandom was the largest non-English speaking group, although the show has been off the air for quite a while here and has just been finally cancelled by the network that was carrying it here.)

3.) Find new 'converts'!

Now this is the main reason I am posting this. I think we need to really spread Farscape and not just the news of its cancellation.

Star Trek fandom grew while the show was cancelled. I've heard people claim we are the trekkers of the new millennium. Well, let us *be* the trekkers of the new millennium! We need new fans, more fans! I'm sure I'm not the only one here who is also active in other fandoms. Generally fannish people are often open to giving a show they haven't seen yet a chance. And Farscape has a way to even convince some non-fannish people to watch, in my experience. So recommend the show to everyone, and give people a chance to see it!

So, if you've started a circle for watching Farscape, invite people over who haven't had much (or any) exposure to Farscape yet... or let them borrow your tapes or DVDs. Spread the show. I have recently given my CDs (downloaded, but I'm getting the DVDs now) to a guy I met at a Tolkien fan meeting, and he and a friend of his are now big fans of Farscape; one of them watched 67 eps in 12 days! Then, when you've made some 'converts', you can enlist them for our efforts! :-)


Scape on - now more than ever!

Hmpf MacSlow

PS: Feel free to spread this to any board, forum, mailing list or newsgroup you frequent that has a few Scapers! :-)

__________________
'Hope, D'Argo. It's what keeps you going. You're gonna find your son. I'm gonna go home. Hope. I got hope, or I got nothing.'
-- John Crichton, 'Look at the Princess'

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In the non-FS news department: although I only went to bed at 6:30 a.m. today this actually was the first day in a long while that I actually got a few things done. I worked on the rings I'm making for Claudia, and started sifting through my notes for the first paper I'm to write for uni... so, I don't feel as guilty about devoting so much time to FS today as I did the rest of the week. Let's see if I can keep up this new trend of being effective on both sides of my life for a while...

YAFU (Yet Another Farscape Update)

The bad news is this: Ben Browder just confirmed on CNN Headline news that Scifi will definitely not produce a fifth season of Farscape.

The good news is this:

>> Just talked to whoever the operator is at UPN, and she said she had been hearing a lot of buzz about UPN seriously considering the show, and that she has just been totally inundated with calls, especially right...well... now. Hey, I'll hold on to anything at this point<<

(from: http://www.wdsection.com/community/showthread.php?s=8c7fb204f42884978d2692ae6c26fe50&threadid=3181 )

So, everyone, write to UPN! Oh, and writing to Showtime can't hurt, either.

Here's the contact info:

UPN
Todd Lituchy (Sr VP, Sched & Aquisitions)
Danielle Greene (Alternative Development, Current programming)

United Paramount Network
11800 Wilshire Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90025
Phone: 310-575-7000
fax: 310 575 7210
E-mail: feedback@upn.com

SHOWTIME
Mathew Duda (VP, aquisitions and planning)
Gary Levine (VP., Original programming)

Showtime Networks
10880 Wilshire Blvd. Stes. 1500 & 1600
Los Angeles, CA 90024
phone 310-234-5200
fax: 310-234-5393

and on the East Coast

Frank Pintauro (Sr VP, Creative Director, Original Programming)
Showtime Networks
1633 Broadway
New York, NY 10019
phone: 212-708-1600
Fax: 212-708-1217

Also in the good news department: We will have an ad in the Hollywood Reporter. They gave us a free upgrade to a full page!!!! Said they were 'glad to help'!!!! Here's the text:
http://benbrowder.net/pssst.htm

If you want to donate a bit for that ad and similar efforts, you can do so at http://benbrowder.net - I wish I could, but I don't have a credit card, so paypal is not my friend. :-(

That's it for today. I have to go to bed, it's almost 4:00 a.m. again...

Scape diem! ;-)