hmpf

(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'

-----------

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...

First of all, you need to disregard this article: http://sg.news.yahoo.com/020916/1/32ss3.html -- it is old news rehashed as new, may even be completely bogus, we don't know - and although it does look bad - probably very bad - for Farscape on Scifi, at this moment nothing is written in stone yet.

A Sydney newspaper that printed the same bit of news made this public later this day: >>FARSCAPE update: at the time Sydney Confidential went to press, Farscape producers were having a meeting in New York with the heads of the Sci-Fi channel. We'll keep you posted on the outcome.<<

***A word about our effort***:
We think we may need to continue this campaign for a while, possibly a long while. This has the potential to become the Star Trek Campaign of the new millennium, but for that to become true, we need to keep the pressure up, we need to keep the letters coming, even without such good news as in the last days. We must not give up.

Some of the great folks at http://www.savefarscape.com (formerly known as farscape.wdsection.com) have started a habit of assigning 'homework' to Scapers every day. The 'homework' is a To Do List for every day, detailing who to target on that day and how to target them, making it easier for us to decide what to do every day. If you want to participate in this, you can either head over to savefarscape.com every day, or you could also join the savefarscape announcement list at yahoogroups. Here's a link:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SaveFarscapeAnnouncements/join

The task for Monday and Tuesday is this: http://divinecollective.bitchenvy.com/IAmFarscape.html

Also, you should take a moment to help the Farscape Fanscape Enumeration: http://farscape.noidea.us/ fanscape/ - This is a project that tries to determine the audience demographics of Farscape for use in letters and in trying to sell the show to other networks. Please be truthful, so it will be as accurate as possible.

I suspect one of the next 'homeworks' will be 'selling' the show to other networks, most probably UPN and Showtime. If you want to write them letters - and I think that would be a really good idea! - you can find the necessary contact info here: http://farscape.wdsection.com/newnets.htmls - Mention shows you are watching on their network and tell them why you think Farscape would be a good addition to their program.

As unusual ways of helping the show out go, this is also quite... uhm... Oh, check it out for yourself. The Farscape Fund: http://www.ipetitions.com/campaigns/FarscapeFund/ - Sounds immensely silly at first, but if you read their explanation, it actually does make sense.

Another petition - the biggest one: http://www.ipetitions.com/campaigns/SAVE_FARSCAPE
This has over 30.000 signatures.

Last but not least, Ben Browder may be on CNN Headline News Tuesday night. We don't know yet.

As always, for more information head over to: http://www.savefarscape.com (formerly farscape.wdsection.com)

Oh, and if you need some convincing why you should even bother doing all this - Caitlin R. Kiernan, comics writer and novelist, has some very good reasons for you: http://www.revolutionsf.com/article/ 1421.html
http://www.sfsite.com/09b/far136.htm0

I'm sure I've forgotten something here, but I can't think straight anymore (it's past 5 a.m. here)... Anyway. Any help anyone here can offer is greatly appreciated. Nothing is lost yet if we keep fighting.

Barb just confirmed in chat what I had suspected: don't believe a word of that letter! And please, everyone, continue deluging them with e-mail to all available addresses, just like before. And faxes. And letters. :-) Do not make it easy for them!!

This is a new development: Anthony Simcoe, who plays D'Argo on Farscape, was in chat just now and told us some kind of big decision will be taken on Monday at Scifi. There's a meeting scheduled.

So, we have to make an impression till then.

That means send e-mail, faxes and possibly, if you're within the U.S. even letters as soon as possible (and as much as possible) to inundate their offices with signs of our protest again.

If you want to help, here's all the contact info for the Scifi Channel:

(Taken from farscape.wdsection.com:)

The Sci-Fi Channel
USA Networks
1230 Avenue of the Americas, F115
New York, NY 10020-1513
Phone # 212-413-5000
extensions = the first letters/numbers of the last name.
Fax # 212-413-6531
Fax # 212-413-6522

**"I am getting my faxes through to the execs at SCIFI @ 1-212-413-6503 on a pretty consistent basis."

Programming Phone # (212) 413-5821
Comment Line # (212) 413-5577
New comment line # 212-413-5679

*Michael Jackson
The SciFi Channel
1230 Avenue of the Americas, F115
New York, NY 10020-1513
Mr. Jackson's extension
1. Dial 212-413-5000
2. It should give you the option to spell his name.
3. Just keep entering letters until you finish his last
name. 5225766 - Jackson. End with a #, then enter
his first name. 6424235 - Michael.
4. If you hit # after your message, you can choose to place the call priority.

Ms. Bonnie Hammer, Senior Vice President of Programming
c/o Sci-Fi Channel
1230 Avenue of the Americas, F115
New York, NY 10020-1513
Phone:212-413-5000
bhammer@usanetworks.com


ADDITIONAL NET EMAILS

scifiweekly@scifi.com
program@www.scifi.com
feedback@www.scifi.com
series@usanetwork.com

---

Hmpf again here. Additional Scifi e-mail:

tvontv@scifi.com

A note on those two weird e-mail addies with the 'www' in them: Those *may* be wrong, but I've simply used both 'program@www.scifi.com' AND 'program@scifi.com' to make sure my mails arrive.

Thanks for helping.

We've been on CNN Headline news again. Twice, which makes a total of four short reports on the FS situation in the last two days. I should add Renay San Miguel (CNN Hotwired anchor) to my list of heroes cause he treats us with great respect - no sneering at geeks at all, and he's in fact asking us to keep the campaign up! They also said something to the effect that they're reporting on our campaign because they think it could rival the legendary Save Star Trek campaign of the 1960s.

We are Scapers. Hear us roar!

Hehe.

That is, as I am told, not exactly CNN, but close enough. Apparently it was a positive note about our effort, with a quote/interview/blurb from Matt Roush, critic from TVGuide.

[ Just in: download the clip here: http://www.alligan.co.uk//CNN%20FS%20Stream.rm ]

I've spent the day spreading flyers to comicshops and fantasy bookshops in Frankfurt and Wiesbaden. Now I'm writing letters and preparing packages of flyers for at least four other major German cities, and waiting in the scifi channel farscape chat for an announcement from moderator/activist Barbarella... And did I mention we were just on CNN Headline News?!?!

A little list of heroes:

- David Kemper, Ricky Manning, and Ben Browder, for coming into chat and telling us, last Friday, despite Scifi's intentions to leave us uninformed till March. (Wanna read the transcript? http://farscape.wdsection.com/dkchattrans.html)

- everybody who's created a Save Farscape website after last Friday

- Barbarella, who's even spent most of her birthday moderating the farscape chat and coordinating our efforts, and who's declared she's even missed sex for us! *g*

- AnduraNova and Dashan who helped me make the flyers.

- Caitlin R. Kiernan for writing wonderful articles about why it's not just okay, but a really good idea to fight for Farscape. Go here:
http://www.revolutionsf.com/article/1421.html

Well, it's only a small thing, but I think we can call this our first success: wonderful scifi chat mod Barbarella who has taken it upon herself to organize our protest to some degree, and is keeping us up to date on news directly from scifi has told us this:

I'll tell you this


I closed the floor for this


Our efforts have at elast postponed the chainsaws


now instead of destroying the sets


they're disassembling them


so keep pushing scifi and EMTV


our efforts are working


we MUST stay united


I know the flooding and the scripts tick you guys but I have
to say...it kept you in the room...normally clone floods can drop an entire
room

thanks for listening and putting up with the speech remember
NEVER SAY DIE!!!!FARSCAPE LIVES!!!!!


Right now, that little bit of news makes me happier than would be rational...

Keep the letters coming!

Too tired to post anything coherent. I'll let 'The Big Guy' (someone high up, may be Rockne or Froon or DK, who knows) speak for me:

"Everybody's got to keep the pressure on hard and heavy -- and without winding down. I believe what Sci-Fi Channel is counting on is that fans will squeal for a few weeks, swear they hate the Sci- Fi Channel, but when the mini-series Taken airs in a couple of months, and the series version of Tremors premieres in January, the fans will sample them anyway, and just sort of forget about Farscape. I'd hate to see their cavalier treatment of sf fans triumph.

Some have thought a good idea would be to call their cable company and cancel their subscriptions to Sci-Fi. YES! Do this - and say WHY you are doing it when you call. (Then re-order JUST before they air the end of Season 4 and SAY WHY YOU ARE ORDERING). This will make a great impression.

Keep writing, faxing and calling! You guys are amazing!- Very High Up Source"

Or, I could let DK speak for me:

"[DK] We are all hugely sad.
[DK] I am shaking as I write this.
[DK] Yesterday, we all cried on the set.
[DK] Yet, as we are, at the end of the line
[DK] so to speak
[DK] being just the people who make the show
[DK] and not the corporate entities that fund and air it
[DK] we are as helpless as anyone.
[DK] And we are sad
[DK] And we are shattered.
[DK] And we are sorry.
[DK] And we wanted to come online
[DK] and talk to YOU,
[DK] our core fans who have stood
[DK] beside us for such a long and great journey."

Damn, shouldn't have posted that. Now I'm crying again.

I could also let Mr. Roush from TV Guide, an influential TV critic (so I'm told) speak for me:

"This decision is likely to be compared years from now to NBC's short-sighted cancellation of the original Star Trek after a mere three seasons."

What else can I say? Petitions are up to 14.000 or more signatures now, we are all writing letters like mad (12 here, today, plus countless e-mails, spending a frelling fortune on postage). There's probably going to be a protest at the SciFi Channel's offices in New York, too.

Please, if you can take the time, write a letter or two to the people responsible for this decision (that would be mostly Michael Jackson of the Scifi Channel - here's his address:

Michael Jackson
The SciFi Channel
1230 Avenue of the Americas, F115
New York, NY 10020-1513
USA

You should also go here - THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT!!!:

http://sho.com/util/custhelp.cfm

This will take you to a form where you can tell the US Network Showtime that you would like to see them buy Farscape off Scifi. Showtime has expressed an interest in the show and has asked us to go through this form so they can count us better. This may be our best chance, so go there, folks. You might need to get the browser Opera, though - I'm not sure how it works with other browsers. Opera is a great browser, though - I can really recommend it, have been using it for a while now...

If you want to send letters to Showtime, here's their contact info:

East Coast

Showtime Networks
1633 Broadway
New York, NY 10019 USA Phone: +1 212-708-1600
Fax: +1 212-708-1217

Mathew C Blank (Chairman, CEO)
Frank Pintauro (Sr VP, Creative Director, Original Programming)

West Coast

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

Matthew Blank, CEO & Chairman, Showtime Networks
Jerry Offsay, President, Programming, Showtime Networks
Mathew Duda (VP, aquisitions and planning)
Gary Levine (VP., Original programming)

Actually, I think we should really concentrate our efforts on Showtime now. They seem to be a somewhat unconventional network, and they are the only network that has openly expressed an interest in buying Farscape. I think we should start flodding them with letters!

Frell, I can't concentrate anymore. Need to go to bed, sleep a bit... tomorrow I need to be in 'full working order' again... I have so much stuff for university to do, and that stuff won't go away just because I'm sad...