MAY - JUNE 2003 ARCHIVES

CSI: MIAMI IMAGES AVAILABLE

May 6, 2003: Last night's CSI: Miami featured Ben Browder in his first role since Farscape was cancelled. We have loads of images from the show available for you to download. Click Here to go to the image files.

As far as CSI: Miami goes, let me just say that if Farscape had been as badly written and plotted as this show was, none of us would be here now. 

There are two new Ben Browder interviews regarding Farscape and his role on CSI: Miami, one at SciFi Wire and the other at TV Guide Online. Thanks to Europa Europa!

CSI MIAMI IN THE UK

June 27, 2003: On Saturday, June 28th, UK viewers will be able to watch "Tinder Box" the CSI: Miami episode in which Ben Browder guest stars. It will be shown at 21:00 on Channel5. Click here to see loads of vidcaps from the episode. Thanks, Sue, for the info!

FOUR BIDS SUBMITTED FOR VIVENDI UNIT

June 25, 2003 FROM THE NEW YORK TIMES: Four companies submitted bids for Vivendi Universal's entertainment assets which include the SciFi Channel and USA Network. There is also interest from a fifth entity: NBC. Click here to read the article. If that link doesn't work, click here to read a copy of it.

COMIC CON UPDATE

June 20, 2003: We have the specifics for the Farscape panel at Comic Con. It will be on Friday, July 18th from 1-2:30 pm in Room 6CDEF. Farscape guests scheduled to appear are: Ben Browder, Fran Buller, Wayne Pygram, Lani Tupu, Jonathan Hardy, David Franklin and Virginia Hey. For more convention news, check our Conventions Pages. Thanks to Jean for the heads-up!

CONVENTION UPDATE

June 24, 2003: I've updated information on several of the Farscape-related conventions with new guest information. Check it out on the Convention News pages. Thanks Jean for several of the new items!

LEGO® ANYONE?

June 19, 2003: Are you a Lego® fan? If you are, click here to check these out! There are more to come soon - Crichton and Aeryn are on the way.

CONVENTIONS UPDATE

June 19, 2003: There are now two Farscape guests confirmed for Galaxy Con II: Melissa Jaffer (Noranti) and Murray Bartlett (DK)! The convention takes place on October 4th and 5th in Baltimore, MD, USA. For more convention news, check our Conventions Pages

SCI-FI'S LOOKING FOR AN EMMY

June 19, 2003 FROM THE OLYMPIAN:  The Sci-Fi Channel is undertaking its first Emmy campaign, president Bonnie Hammer says, sending voters an orb containing miniseries candidates "Taken" and "Children of Dune."

FARSCAPE WINS FIVE GENRE AWARDS!

June 09, 2003: The votes are in for  SyFy Portal's Genre Awards and Farscape was the big winner, taking Best Series/Television, Best Actor (Ben Browder), Best Actress (Claudia Black), Best Supporting Actress (Gigi Edgley) and best music! Click here to read the article.

VIDCAPS OF BEN BROWDER INTERVIEW ON SCIFI UK

June 09, 2003: You can read the interview, download it in two parts or look at the loads of images at benbrowder-online. Don't miss this one! Thanks to Chris for passing this along.

CONVENTION UPDATES

June 08, 2003: ScaperCon has announced yet another guest - namely Rebecca Riggs, Commandant Grayza herself! This will be Rebecca's first convention appearance in the USA.

Ms. Riggs will be joining Lani Tupu (Crais & Pilot's voice), David Franklin (Braca), Bianca Chiminello (Jena), Anthony Simcoe (D'Argo), Jonathan Hardy (Rygel's voice) and Wayne Pygram (Scorpius). 

Thanks to Heather for passing this along!

For up-to-date convention information, be sure to check out our Convention News pages.

TV ZONE'S FARSCAPE SPECIAL

Jun 07, 2003 COMPLETE: The newest issue of  VisiMag's TV Zone Special is loaded with Farscape goodies. There are interviews with Rockne O'Bannon, Ben Browder, Wayne Pygram, Paul Goddard, Rebecca Riggs, Melissa Jaffer and Dave Elsey. 

Want to know what they had to say? Click Here to go to the DataStores and read all about it! To order your own copy (a must - this issue is fantastic!) Click Here to go to Visual Imagination's website.

GIGI EDGLEY JOINS GUESTS AT OFFICIAL CONVENTION!

June 06, 2003: From Creation Entertainment's email:

We're happy to announce today that the wonderful GIGI EDGLEY (Chiana) will be making a rare Stateside appearance to join us at THE OFFICIAL FARSCAPE CONVENTION set for November 14-16, 2003 in Burbank, California

GIGI joins BEN BROWDER, LANI TUPU, VIRGINIA HEY, RAELEE HILL and FRANCESCA BULLER at the convention!

For up-to-date convention information, be sure to check out our Convention News pages.

Rebecca Hunt & Dave Elsey

WHAT'S UP WITH THE CREATURE SHOP?

June 01, 2003: Dave Elsey, Rebecca Hunt, Colin Ware and Lou Elsey, the Creature Shop wizards who made made the creatures that Farscape was famous for, have started their own company and now have their website up and running. The company is Image Creative Partnership.

Right now they're handling the creature effects and prosthetic make ups on Star Wars Episode III. The website features loads of images of creatures from Farscape, some of which haven't been seen before. Wait til you get a look at an unused design for Sikozu, not to mention the oldest looking 19 year old I've ever seen! 

Click here to check out Image Creative Partnership's website.

Thanks to Dave Elsey, Rebecca Hunt, Colin Ware and Lou Elsey for passing this along. Karlsweb wishes you the best of fortune in your new enterprise and we hope to see you creating new Farscape people again soon.

VIACOM STILL INTERESTED IN SCI FI CHANNEL

Jun 05, 2003: Viacom Inc. Chairman and Chief Executive Sumner Redstone told investors at a Sanford Bernstein conference in New York his company was more interested in Vivendi's Sci-Fi network than its general entertainment USA network because the latter did not have the growth potential of the niche channel. But Redstone added it was unlikely the French-American conglomerate would sell one without the other.

Click Here to read the whole article

NINE MORE EPISODES OF SCARE TACTICS

June 03, 2003: According to Television Week, the Scifi Channel has ordered nine more episodes of Scare Tactics. Oh, good grief!

NEWS ABOUT THE SALE OF VIVENDI'S ASSETS 

May 29, 2003: Thanks to e b for sending me the following article from today's Multichannel News. The article included a one picture - a picture of Farscape!

The field of potential bidders for Vivendi Universal S.A.'s U.S.entertainment assets got a little bigger last week, with former Seagram Co. Ltd. chairman and VU vice chairman Edgar Bronfman entering the fray — possibly with Cablevision Systems Corp. as a backer. Click here to continue.

VIACOM IS EXPECTED TO BID ON SCI-FI

June 27, 2003: According to the LA Times, Viacom Inc is expected to make an offer for some of Vivendi's US media assets, and is said to be particularly interested in the SciFi Channel. Click here to read the LA Times article.

LANI TO APPEAR IN PHOENIX May 29, 2003: Lani Tupu will be a guest at CopperCon 23 on September 5 - 7, including a "special event on Thursday night for pre-registered members. For more convention news, go to our Convention News pages.

NEW POLL

Don't forget to vote in our newest poll, the finals in the "Worst Villains" series. The final four are: 

Season One: Durka (not even 100 years of mental cleansing by the Nebari could turn him into a good guy)Season Two: Natira (the eyeball muncher with the Discovery Channel sex life); Season Three: Kaarvok (the Leviathan-eating, Crichton-twinning criminally insane dude from "Eat Me"); Season Four: Ahkna (the Scarran War Minister whose hat was scarier than most people's nightmares)

NEW ARTICLES WORTH A READ

May 27, 2003: Here's another lovely quote from Bonnie Hammer from an article at CBS MarketWatch: 

"Our entire team loved, loved, loved the series. It helped launch us into the original fiction world," she said. "But it became too 'in.' Even the fans started turning away because it became too hard to understand. It was brilliantly written, for the most part, it was amazingly well produced, but it became such an in-joke, if you will, that people couldn't follow it any more." 

There's a second article at CBS MarketWatch that deals with cable channels with a narrow viewership titled "Where do the diehards go."

If the links above don't work, click here to read the entire articles.

BEN (sigh) BROWDER, KICK YOUR AGENT

May 13, 2003: Television Without Pity has done a review of  Tinder Box, the CSI: Miami episode that Ben was in last week. The author, Sobell, is obviously a Farscape fan who loves Ben (sigh) Browder but isn't so hot for CSI: Miami. Click Here to read the hilarious review. If that link doesn't work, click here.

PROPOSED COVER FOR THE 2004 CALENDAR

May 10, 2003: The 2004 calendar is in the works and is scheduled to come out in August, which probably means we can expect to see it sometime in October. The artwork on the front is what's been proposed, but it still needs to be approved by Henson. The important thing here is that there will be another calendar.

CONVENTION PAGES UPDATED

May 24, 2003: Due to several announcements over the past few days, this summer is shaping up as a convention-goers dream! Check out our Convention News pages for more information.

Both Ben Browder and Fran Buller will be attending San Diego Comic Con on July 17 - 20. Previously announced guests for Comic Con are Lani Tupu, Wayne Pygram, Jonathan Hardy, David Franklin and Virginia Hey. There will be a Farscape panel as well as autograph signings for some of the guests following the panel.

Creation Entertainment has announced new Farscape guests for two of its conventtions. The Official Farscape convention now has Lani Tupu, Raelee Hill, and Virginia Hey as well as previously announced Ben Browder and Francesca Buller. This year the've introduced a new feature to the convention: Photo Ops. You can have your photo taken with the above guests. For a fee. Check out Creation's website for availability and prices.

Lani Tupu and Virginia Hey will be appearing at Creation's New York Sci-Fi Summit convention on November 28-30. This is the same weekend that Farscape's NY convention was held the past two years. Check out our Convention News pages for more information. 

ANIMAL LOGIC

Check out Animal Logic's website - they have loads of information about their work on Farscape's third and fourth seasons, complete with screen shots of some of their work. 

UPDATES

May 23, 2003: More new links today! First, there's a new site for all of you RPG fans (and everyone else, too) called Farscape Five. It's a creative writing RPG and all of the main Farscape characters are up for grabs. 

IGN FilmForce has an article about Enterprise = Farscape through the "Berman/Braga Crap-O-Vision Machine."

Scare Tactics gets another horrible review in the Las Vegas Mercury. What a shame, huh?

May 22, 2003: There are some new Who's on First items to watch: both Ben Browder and Kent McCord will be in Murder, She Wrote later this month. Also, several new articles have come out today about the Vivendi sale of their US entertainment assets,  and Cinescape has a short but sweet article about Farscape at the Saturn Award ceremony. Click here to go to our Article Links page.

May 21, 2003: This is old news by now, but I want to mention that Farscape won the Saturn Award for Best Syndicated/Cable Television Series. There are loads of pictures of the event, the best being at Duchovny.net. Congratulations to everyone on another great Saturn Award!

Finally I've done some reviews of new Farscape merchandise. So far I've completed reviews of The Season Four set of trading cards, Farscape: The Illustrated Season 4 Companion, and the new set of Bobblehead dolls from Rittenhouse Archives. Click Here to read the reviews.

Who's on First has a much needed update with loads of shows to watch with Farscape cast members. The links to articles page has also been updated.

Thanks to artood2 who passed along this link to vote for Pilot as the best creature and Farscape as the best show. 

Farscape World has posted a transcript and images of the UK SciFi channel's interview with Ben Browder. Click here for the interview and pictures. 

David Franklin (Captain Braca) can be seen in The Matrix Reloaded. He plays the part of a maitre d'. Thanks to KADD22 for passing this along!

TPTB'S THOUGHTS ON FARSCAPE'S FUTURE

May 13, 2003: Newscape has compiled a few statements made by Rockne S. O'Bannon, David Kemper, Ben Browder and Brian Henson, all of whom are guardedly hopeful of seeing more Farscape in one form or another some time in the future. Click here to read what they had to say.

BEN & FRAN TO ATTEND OFFICIAL FARSCAPE CONVENTION

May 20, 2003: Creation Entertainment has just announced that both Ben Browder (who will not be signing autographs at the convention) and his wife Francesca Buller will be guests at the official Farscape convention to be held on November 14, 15, and 16. For more information on the convention or to order tickets, go to Creation Entertainment's website.

MELISSA JAFFER SCHEDULED FOR GALAXY CON II

May 13, 2003: Melissa Jaffer (Noranti; Nilaam) is the first guest to be announced for Galaxy Con II, shceduled to take place on October 4th and 5th in Baltimore, MD. For more news about upcoming conventions, go to Newscape's Convention Pages. 

NEW POLL

May 10, 2003: Counting down to the Final Four, this week is your chance to vote for the worst villain in Season Four. Next week is the playoff! Click here to vote.

ILLUSTRATED SEASON FOUR COMPANION

May 8, 2003: If you've been debating whether or not to order the latest volume in this fantastic series, we have an excerpt from the chapter "Into Season Four" which should convince you that you need this book. 

Click here to read the excerpt.

The book is now available from Amazon's UK website for £7.69 (about $12.50) plus shipping.

NEW PICTURE GALLERY AT THE BBC'S FARSCAPE SITE

May 8, 2003: The BBC has a new group of images ready for download called "Sexy leather picture gallery". If you'd like an image of Chiana and Sikozu in their leather costumes titled "looma-tastic" or of Crichton's middle third called "wowza wowza, ladies!' click here.

Thanks once again to Bazza for the heads up!

KERMIT IS COMING HOME!

May 7, 2003: The Jim Henson Company is about to come back into the hands of the Henson Family. Brian Henson announced today that he and his brother and sisters have purchased the company back from EM.TV for a fraction of what it originally sold for back in 2000. Farscape is specifically listed among the assets being reacquired. 

The sale still requires approval by EM.TV's shareholders. This is set for their annual meeting on July 20th.

To read more about the sale, click here. For more links, click here. 

Thanks to Europa Europa who was the first person to send this to me.

NEW VIRGINIA HEY INTERVIEW

May 7, 2003: The BBC's website has put up another Virginia Hey interview this week. It's the abbreviated version with the full version expected to be posted soon. Click Here to read what she has to say in answer to questions about the most fun she ever had on set, her motto for life and others sent in by fans.

IMPORTANT DATE CHANGE

May 6, 2003: I just received an email from Creation Entertainment that the Official Farscape Convention has changed its dates from November 21-23 to November 14-16 (one week earlier). If you've already made hotel reservation at the Burbank Hilton, please contact the hotel to change the dates of your reservations.

Guest information will be coming soon from Creation Entertainment Click here for more Farscape-related convention news.

ANTHONY SIMCOE ADDED TO SCAPERCON

May 6, 2003: We just received some good news from ScaperCon. Anthony Simcoe has been added to the guests scheduled to appear in Chicago at ScaperCon in August. Click here for more convention news.

UPDATES

May 3, 2003: Lots of new goodies today! First, there are new conventions to check out in our Convention News pages. DataStores has an interview with Dave Elsey from Modeler's Resource and another one with Gigi Edgley from Starlog 2000.  

We have a new poll ready for voting - Stinkers of the Uncharted Territories, Part 3. In our countdown to the final four, vote for the best of the worst (or the worst of the best?) Season Three villain. Previous winners are: Durka for Season One and Natira for Season Two. Click Here to vote for Season Three's baddie.

Who's on First has several movies and TV episodes listed where you can catch up on both new and previous roles for Farscape's cast.

COMIC CON IN PITTSBURGH

May 5, 2003: Thanks to Chi-fi-Eagle, we have a report on Comic Con 2003 from Pittsburgh. He spent quite a bit of time with Bianca Chiminello (Jena from LATP)and learned what she's up to now and what may be on for the future. Click Here to read what he has to say.

DAVE DOES STAR WARS!

May 2, 2003: According to the official Star Wars site, Dave Elsey is filling the position of Creatures Supervisor for Star Wars, Episode III which will be shooting this summer in Australia. Congratulations, Dave!

COMMANDO AERYN SAYS "THANK YOU!"

May 3, 2003: You voted and Toy Vault listened! Back in March, with the Aeryn figure in danger of never seeing the light of day, Karlsweb ran a poll to get your input. Rather than see Aeryn disappear forever, you voted overwhelmingly for a limited edition figure at a premium price and we sent the poll on to Toy Vault. 

Aeryn is now being offered to stores as a limited edition of 3,000 figures. The retail price will be $29.95 and she's scheduled to ship in August. Included with Aeryn are a blaster rifle, a headset and tracker and a metal stand. This could change if dealers don't order enough to make production worthwhile, so be sure to pre-order the toy ASAP.

Click Here to see more great photos of this phenomenal figure.

BEN TALKS CSI

May 2, 2003 FROM Zap2it: "In 'Tinder Box,' Browder plays Danny Maxwell, a doorman and bouncer at a South Florida nightclub where a fire kills 16 patrons." 

To me, Ben sounds very sad. He misses the excitement of working on a show like Farscape. He says, "It's hard, coming off any show, but a show like 'Farscape,' it's very difficult. The majority of roles that are available are, he's a cop, he's a lawyer, he's a cop who used to be a lawyer, he's a lawyer who used to be a cop, he's a retired cop." Click Here to read the complete article.

SCI-FI PULLS TREMORS & CLEO 2525

May 1, 2003  From The Futon Critic: Sci Fi's hot streak could be coming to an end as the cable channel announced today it has pulled its original drama "Tremors: The Series" and repeats of former syndicated series "Cleopatra 2525" from its Friday schedule. Encores from "Stargate SG-1's" sixth season will take over both hours (8:00/7:00c and 9:00/8:00c) beginning this week. Fellow Friday series "Scare Tactics" however will continue to run fresh installments at 10:00/9:00c. 

No reason was given for the move however based on "Tremors'" 35% drop in audience between its first and second weeks, low ratings are likely the culprit. Such news could mean the end of Sci Fi's 11-month streak of building on year-to-year averages, the longest by any network, broadcast or cable. Final numbers for April however will not be available for several weeks.

Currently, "Tremors" is set to return on Friday, June 20 at 8:00/7:00c for the remainder of its 13 episode order. The drama will undoubtedly be helped by the return of "Stargate SG-1" to the schedule when its two-hour seventh season premiere hits June 13 at 9:00/8:00c.

As for "Cleopatra 2525," no return date has been set.

CSI: MIAMI WON'T BE SEEN IN PROVIDENCE, R.I.

May 2, 2003 A Providence-area CBS affiliate won't air the May 5th  episode of "CSI: Miami" (Ben's episode) that deals with a nightclub fire out of respect for the victims and survivors of the West Warwick blaze that killed 99 people. Click Here to read the full story. Thanks to Europa for sending this along!

RATINGS FOR TREMORS AND SCARE TACTICS:

May 2, 2003 From The Futon Critic