Farscape: The Peacekeeper Wars
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.
Farscape: The Peacekeeper Wars
Rockne S. O'Bannon
David Kemper
United States
Australia
English
2 (list of episodes)
David Kemper
182 minutes
18 October 2004
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.[1] 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, 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.[2]
Home video release[edit]
The miniseries has been released on DVD in the US and UK by Lionsgate Entertainment and The Contender Entertainment Group respectively, as well as in Australia. The US version features both segments edited into a three-hour movie, while the UK version is a two-disc set with one segment per disc. Both versions contain a making-of documentary, with a selection of deleted scenes being exclusive to the UK disc. The Australian version has one disc with no extras. In 2014 the distributor Alive released a German region free Blu-ray of the miniseries marketed as "Farscape: Season Five- The Peacekeeper Wars",[3] the following year other Blu-ray editions were released in the UK[4] and Australia.[5] As of 2015 there has been no mention of a Blu-ray release of the miniseries in North America.