By David Wharton | 8 years ago

If you’re a fan of geek icons like comedian/podcaster Chris Hardwick, Wil “Don’t Call Me Wesley” Wheaton, and Felicia “She Will Be Mine” Day, you probably already know about the Nerdist Channel on YouTube. Launched off the success of Hardwick’s Nerdist podcast, the Nerdist Channel features shows like Face to Face with “Weird Al” Yankovic and Ain’t It Cool with Harry Knowles. One of their newest series, however, really caught my attention: “Farscape minisodes.”

If you’re as big a Farscape fan as I am, that last sentence has left you wide-eyed, rocking in your chair and making a “squeeeeeee” noise. But calm down: this news isn’t nearly exciting as you might be thinking. Because if you’re like me, you’re thinking, “Holy crap, new Farscape!” Sadly, these Farscape minisodes are only new in the sense that they’ve never appeared in quite this form before. Specifically, they’ve been recut into super-short “Reader’s Digest” versions of the individual episodes. So far they’ve posted these abbreviated versions of the first two episodes, the pilot (no pun intended) and episode seven, “I, E.T.” Why did they skip from episode one to episode seven? Because they’re apparently posting them in production order rather than airing order. That’s actually the preferred order, so kudos to you, Nerdist people.

What’s the point of chopping Farscape episodes up into less than half their length, leaving us with essentially Farscape: Bullet-Points Edition? There is actually a method to their madness. The hope is that these minisodes will be an easy way for people who’ve heard of the show but never watched it to get a quick sampling of Farscape‘s characters, style, and tone. While still beloved by many die-hard fans, Farscape is essentially dead at the moment. Sure, we at least got a conclusion via the Peacekeeper Wars miniseries. And sure, we got a decent run of in-canon comics that continued the story. There was even some talk over the years of the show returning with short, original webisodes (which, again, these are not). But the possibility of more new Farscape is a slim one…unless there’s a sudden surge in interest. It’s certainly a long shot, but hey, why not?

A decade ago, I would have said the chance of new Farscape content was zip. The cast and crew have moved on. Nobody’s going to throw money at a decade-dead TV series. But these days? Arrested Development is about to start filming new episodes, six years after its last episode aired, and it will be premiering first on Netflix. This is a brave new world, baby. Is new Farscape likely? Not really. Is it possible? I have to say…maybe. Just maybe. And even if all this does is earn the show some new fans and sell a few more DVD sets, I’d call that a win.

You can watch the two available Farscape minisodes below. If you’re new to Farscape: Welcome. You’re gonna love it. (And you can watch full episodes on Netflix, FYI…) And if you’re already a Farscape fan: What the hell is up with Ben Browder’s moustache? Seriously, my testosterone doubled just looking at it…