What is the FWA and Why does it Exist?

Primarily, the FWA exists to help the fans of Farscape (aka Scapers) promote the show in order to get a fifth season of Farscape.

As many of you know, Farscape ran for 4 years on the SciFi channel and was promised a 5th year. Farscape, like shows such as Babylon 5, has a story arc. Scapers world-wide feel like a deeply engrossing novel which they were reading was yanked from their hands and the last chapter was ripped from the book. The fans want to know the end of the story and a campaign was launched to get Farscape back on the air. Generally, the aim of this campaign is to convince television programming executives that Farscape is a lucrative franchise.

How does the FWA Accomplish its Mission?

To get new episodes of Farscape Scapers have focused on two objectives:

1. Demonstrate to advertisers that the fans of Farscape are an attractive (aka affluent and intelligent) demographic. More than that, Farscape is unusual as a science fiction show. Most science fiction shows have a generally male audience. Farscape's audience is pretty evenly divided between men and women.
2. Increase the number of viewers. Scapers have been promoting Farscape every way they know how. Ads on radio, recruiting family members as fans, ads in newspapers, recruiting friends as fans, ads in movie theaters, recruiting coworkers as fans, donating Farscape videos to libraries, recruiting members of the armed services as fans, getting people like (male lead) Ben Browder interviewed on CNN regarding the abrupt cancellation, recruiting perfect strangers as fans.

Obviously, though Scapers promoting Farscape by word-of-mouth is important (and cheap), there are means of promoting Farscape which require money and team work. For example, it costs money to donate videos (both VHS tapes and DVD's for libraries), print brochures, run web sites, run television and radio ads, etc. It takes a team of people to design promotional materials, get them printed, research who in the television industry might be willing and able to give Farscape a new home, delivery of promotional materials, etc.

The FWA exists to give the fan base a trusted place to donate their funds. This trust is maintained by having clearly stated objectives and by publishing how donated funds are spent.

The Scaper community is amazingly diverse: different geographies, different ages, different skills, different comfort zones, etc. Not every Scaper is going to be motivated by every project (whether the project's focus is promotion, fund raising, or thanking our benefactors) but when Scapers work together in large groups it creates synergy, multiplying our efforts and making us greater than the sum of our members. The FWA desires to foster brainstorming among Scapers, sharing of information, emotional support, etc.

Isn't the FWA part of SaveFarscape.com?

While SaveFarscape.com was a driving force behind the creation of the FWA and generously provided an internet presence for most of the FWA's existence, the two entities have never been synonymous. The FWA is a loose confederation of several web sites, consequently, the specific implementation of the FWA's strategies and tactics, may or may not be representative of a specific member web site. Because of this it was decided that the FWA really should have a separate internet presence.

Disclaimer: All characters, situations and image material of Farscape are legal property
and registered trademark of Rockne S. O'Bannon, Jim Henson Co., Hallmark Entertainment,
and Nine Network Australia. No copyright infringement intended. All rights reserved.