The following article appeared in various incarnations across Canada. The Vancouver Sun published this version with a picture of John and Scorpius: Farscape Star Says Cult Show Remains a Part of Him, and The Ottawa Citizen published the following version on March 23, 2005.

Don't forget to say thanks to Alex Strachan for writing such a postive article!

Fan Power
Farscape comes back to TV Friday, and it has a lot of dedicated viewers to thank for its salvation
By Alex Strachan

'The vast majority of people who read your article will have no fricking clue who I am," Ben Browder says. "And you know what? I'm okay with that."

Browder, who hardly looks his age, is the former U.S. college football star of Greenville, South Carolina and career actor who played smart-ass astronaut John Crichton in the late, lamented science-fiction cult classic Farscape, which was shot in Sydney, Australia. He's only now adjusting to his new digs in Vancouver, where he has joined the cast of Stargate SG-1.

Like the Scorpius character that burrowed his way inside Crichton's mind for the final three years of the series, however, Browder has yet to get Farscape completely out of his system.

"Some experiences you carry with you for the rest of your life," Browder admitted over an intense coffee with an earthy tone (and decidedly earthbound body) at a Vancouver cafe. "Having children. High school. Playing a sport. Farscape, for me, is one of those seminal experiences. Right now, to be honest, I'm entirely engrossed in a new and different experience, which is Stargate. But is it put to bed? No. It's still very close to me."

There have been almost as many science-fiction series as there are stars in the night sky -- but few burned as brightly as the nervy, intelligent Farscape during its four-year run on the outer rings of the TV channel band.

Uneven and eccentric, the tale of a sarcastic, pop-culture-quoting astronaut trapped in an alternate space-time continuum populated by marauding creatures constantly at war with one another was the brainchild of an unlikely constellation of creative forces: Brian Henson, son of the late Jim Henson, creator of The Muppets and founder of the Jim Henson Company; Hallmark Entertainment, which distributes the Hallmark Hall of Fame movies in the U.S. and Canada; American writer-producers Rockne O'Bannon, David Kemper, Justin Monjo and Richard Manning; and a largely Australian supporting cast and crew.

Farscape came crashing down to Earth in September 2002, victim of a hasty, last-minute cancellation by the U.S.-based Sci Fi Channel that left the Farscape actors and crew -- not to mention the program's small but devoted following of fans -- hanging in mid-air. The final episode, ironically titled Bad Timing, ended with Browder's character being vapourized into thousands of quartz crystals, followed by the words: "To Be Continued."

Those proved to be famous last words, as it turned out -- though it didn't appear that way at the time.

Farscape's cancellation was officially ascribed to mounting production costs, a shortfall in production financing and a change in creative direction at the Sci Fi Channel. The show's devoted followers refused to take the cancellation sitting down, however.

Heaven knows, they weren't the first group of fans to protest a show's cancellation. Hardly a science-fiction program gets cancelled without some renewal campaign or other mounted on its behalf. The difference with Farscape -- just one of several differences that distinguished it from virtually every other science-fiction series on the air -- is that the campaign worked.

Unnamed investors, impressed by the fans' devotion, approached the Jim Henson Company with an undisclosed sum of cash, and the result was television history.

The two-part, four-hour miniseries Farscape: The Peacekeeper Wars (9 p.m. Friday, Space) picks up where the last episode left off, with the entire original cast in one piece -- give or take a crystal. The total price tag: $20 million U.S., and the sense that, for once, the viewers got the final say.

The Peacekeeper Wars debuted in front of 1.9 million viewers when it aired last October on the U.S. Sci Fi Channel, the biggest audience that night for a non-sports cable network. This weekend marks The Peacekeeper Wars' Canadian debut, and Browder suddenly finds himself the focus of renewed fan interest in Vancouver, home to one of Farscape's more active fan chapters.

"Farscape was smart enough to take chances," Browder said, in trying to describe Farscape's appeal. "Otherwise it would have been like every other show where there's a hero and the hero is flawless. One of the great things about Farscape is that all the characters were flawed -- and not just Crichton. Flawed at the beginning and flawed to the end. And that makes for more interesting storytelling."

Cancellation came -- but not for four years. And for that, Browder is grateful.

"There is absolutely no bitterness on my part," he said. "We were destined for failure. And our failures are our shining moments. There was a line in the show, which was, 'It is unique in the known universe, and unique is always valuable.' Whether that's true or not, I don't know, but I think it reflects the history of what we were trying to be about."

The Peacekeeper Wars' tangled web of intrigue and alien malfeasance -- Browder and Australian stage and TV veteran Claudia Black were among the few actors to appear in the series without prosthetic makeup -- is apt to mystify most casual viewers.

Farscape's loyal following will pick up the tale of warring Scarrians and Sebacean Peacekeepers in a heartbeat. Those new to Farscape, however, will either be put off by the complex universe of characters or else find themselves lured by Farscape's strange energy and sardonic, acerbic one-liners and offhand pop-cultural references. The original episodes are still rerun from time to time -- Farscape occasionally shows up at odd hours on the CHUM network of satellite stations and MuchMusic's sister station, Space -- and are now available on DVD.

Farscape is not dead. Rumours persist that it will rise, phoenix-like, from television's ashes as a feature film. Passion in television is a rare thing, Browder acknowledges.

"The future of Farscape has always been in someone else's hands, not mine," Browder said. "If not for the fans, the miniseries would never have happened."