Crackers, apparently, do matter!

Farscape is back! Finally! Hip-hip-hooray! That's the good news. The bad news is that it's back where it started--on the SciFi Channel. There was some seriously bad blood exchanged between the Jim Henson Company and the SciFi Channel a year ago when the Channel reneged on its contract for a fifth Farscape season. Lots of accusations flew, but the fact of the matter remains that Farscape was one of SciFi's two top shows, but was axed as part of a short-term money-saving move ordered by cash-strapped SciFi parent company Vivendi/Universal. With the sale of USA Networks (which owns SciFi) to General Electric (which owns NBC) the purse strings have apparently been loosened a bit. In addition to Farscape's return, we'll see another Dune mini, a mini based on A Wizard of Earthsea as well as a previously announced Battlestar Galactica ongoing (yeah, Starbuck's still a girl and the redesigned Galactica is ugly as sin, but whatcha gonna do?). Reuters has a good, if brief, summation here: SciFi Channel moves ahead at warp speed

NEW YORK (Hollywood Reporter) - A host of new series, movies and the return of the popular "Farscape: Peacekeeper War" miniseries took the spotlight at Sci Fi Channel's presentation to advertisers Monday.

Such projects are part of Sci Fi's rapidly rising spending threshold, which a company spokeswoman said is estimated at $150 million and $200 million this year -- four to five times greater than what it was just a few years ago.

Some of those other projects look interesting, but Farscape is the biggie as far as I'm concerned. The cliffhanger of the final season four story arc, "We're So Screwed: Bad Timing" (tell me they hadn't heard about season five's cancellation when working up those titles) ended with Aeryn Sun and John Crichton confessing their love for each other on an alien world, whereupon they are zapped by bug-eyed aliens, which turns them into pillars of something not-entirely-alive that crumble into dust. The star-crossed lovers are apparently dead, but then again, John was turned to stone and decapitated way back in season two's "The Maltese Crichton," so to paraphrase Monty Python, "They're not dead yet!"

Wanna read a summation of SciFi's recent announcements from a really clueless reporter? Then take a gander at Sci Fi Channel's Upfront: More Than Just Space.

Sci Fi Channel isn't just about aliens and humans in far-flung reaches of the galaxy anymore.

That's evident when you look at what the channel has in store for the next year or so. Sure, you'll still find some spaceships, lasers, great special effects, and all the other requisite science-fiction staples. But Sci Fi has loosened the strict bonds of the species, focusing on more down-to-earth locales with a twist, as Sci Fi chief Bonnie Hammer said.

Now, anyone with half a brain will tell you that the SciFi Channel has never actually had all that much science fiction on it. I've got a video trailer from 1991 they sent out before they even launched, and despite lots of promises, the only thing they delivered in those early years was lots of schlock, including endless Incredible Hulk and Land of the Giants repeats and bad B-grade horror films. After the network launched, news articles for years referred to it as "the increasingly inaccuratly-named SciFi Channel." Not even good B-grade horror films. The Dune miniseries and Farscape were exceptions to this in recent years, but then as a result of parent company Vivendi/Universal's cash-flow problems, the channel became enamoured with mediocre paranormal programming such as Crossing Over with John Edwards and Scare Tactics. Coincidentally, these were dirt cheap to produce. With the return of Farscape and Ursula LeGuin's A Wizard of Earthsea (okay, that last one's fantasy. But at least it's straightforward genre, not some half-breed paranormal reality crap) it looks like they're finally putting some genuine science fiction back into SciFi.

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