by Sherry Ginn
The final stages of the hero’s journey include the climax or final battle, flight or return to the threshold with the elixir, reentry into the everyday world, sharing of the elixir, and homecoming (Monomyth). While some of these steps are more difficult than earlier ones to pinpoint and name in regard to Farscape fandom, two seem very obvious: elixir and homecoming. Normally, a major reason the hero accepts the call to adventure and takes the journey at all is to secure knowledge, an object, or a blessing that will restore or redeem his or her community. The purpose of the homecoming is to gift that very knowledge, object, or blessing. As Campbell puts it, “the hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons on his [or her] fellow [humans]” (30). My claim is that the boon Scapers acquired was not The Peacekeeper Wars but the powerful narrative of their activist adventure, one that has already given and will continue to give hope and instruction to generations of fandoms to come. Therein lies the great significance of Farscape and its followers.
Significance
“A myth,” posits Karen Armstrong, “is true because it is effective, not because it gives us factual information” (10). Admittedly, I am skeptical when I read reports that insist fans have “forced” network executives to alter their decisions or find fan forums that assert DVDs sales can and do result in textual after-lives for television series. If Armstrong is to be believed, though, both my skepticism and the facts regarding fans’ (in)ability to influence executives are irrelevant. The real question is whether or not the myth of fan power works: “If it works, that is, if it forces us to change our minds and hearts, it is a valid myth” (10). How valid, then, is the legendary tale of Scapers’ heroic journey? Evidence from several sources suggests that it is valid enough and growing more so all the time.
Regarding admirers of Angel (1999–2004), the spinoff of Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997–2003), New York’s Daily News notes that those fans who were trying to save the series from cancellation shared a lineage with many “activist TV viewers,” including viewers of Farscape. Additionally, months after the airing of The Peacekeeper Wars, Newsweek’s Elise Soukup reported on the efforts of Fraggle Rock (1983–1987) enthusiasts to revive the series by way of DVDs quite a few years after the final episode aired on television. Soukup writes,
Note to obsessive fan sites everywhere: you’re being watched. That’s what Warrick Brownlow, a fan of the 1980s series “Jim Henson’s Fraggle Rock,” recently learned. In April 2002 Brownlow launched an online petition, pleading to have the series released on DVD. After garnering more than 30,000 e-signatures, HIT Entertainment, a licensing partner of the Jim Henson Co., announced that this month it would release selected episodes from the first season. “This is the direct result of fan support,” says Lauren McCabe, a HIT representative [10].
Brownlow, who learned of his influence from the magazine, was pleasantly surprised, calling the news “brilliant” and stating, “We knew they were watching us, but we didn’t think they’d do anything about it” (qtd. in Soukup 10). Studios rarely do, according to another of Soukup’s sources, Tom Adams, president of Adams Media Research. Specifically citing the success of Scapers’ campaign, Soukup claims that the trend of networks doing nothing is changing, though. Gord Lacey, founder of www.tvshowsondvd.com, confirms, “Studios have started to realize that listening to fans of shows will result in better products and build pent-up purchasing excitement” (qtd. in Snider 6D). Farscape may have garnered “international critical recognition, as well as three Saturn Awards and an Emmy nomination,” but those accolades did not save the series (Prescott T02). Instead, it appears that the fans did, and their raised voices telling their story can still be heard around the world, says Jean Prescott of Sydney’s Daily Telegraph (T02).
In the introduction, I claim that understanding the major role Scapers play in composing the myth of fan power says much about who we are as human beings and why we feel compelled to tell the stories we tell. As Leonard J. Biallas explains, “Myths are stories ... that help us become aware of our true selves” (v). In other words, discovering our identity is inextricably bound to our storytelling: we tell stories to find ourselves, and our stories reinforce what we’ve found.5 Among contemporary fandoms, the narrative of Trekkers begins to define what it means to be a fan and a fandom. It is a sacred tale, one that continues to be remembered, told, and retold. As a result, it still holds rich and authoritative meaning (O’Flaherty 27). Yet the Trekker tale is but one of many. As with most myths, it is “a story that is part of a larger group of stories” (27). Every subsequent fan community in some way contributes its own narrative, some narratives more potent than others. Put another way, Scapers’ journey has become one of those smaller yet potent stories in a larger group of stories. Together, these tales form a metanarrative of fan power. Among thousands of television series, a handful of remarkable examples actually provide too few instances to conclude that fan-driven, save-a-show initiatives have a real chance of succeeding. However, there are enough examples to compose a myth, and the heart of that myth seems to be this: Passion for beloved televisual texts united with tenacity, intelligence, and a little affluence empowers fans to influence executive decision-making and, ultimately, control their entertainment options and engagement. Of course, there is danger in telling and retelling this single story of fan power.6 But that argument is a tale for another time. For now, it is sufficient to end at the beginning. “There are legendary tales,” writes reporter Peter Haran, “of shows that have been saved by grassroots campaigns waged by devoted fans” (T35). Perhaps none, though, are as legendary as the tale of Scapers, or Farscape fans.
Notes
1. Note the gendering of the hero. In The Female Hero in American and British Literature, Carol Pearson and Katherine Pope posit that “our understanding of the basic spiritual and psychological archetype of human life has been limited ... by the assumption that the hero and central character of the myth is male” (4). This male hero is also often white, upper class, heterosexual, able-bodied, and politically, economically, or socially powerful in some way. Even when an effort is made to avoid this gendering, what Pearson and Pope call the “patriarchal habit” takes control. For example, though Campbell states that both men and women can be heroes, the pronoun he dominates his famous text.
2. In a footnote to The Hero with a Thousand Faces, Campbell cites Finnegans Wake by James Joyce (1939) as the original source of the term monomyth (30).
3. To avoid confusion, I am using the current name of the network: Syfy. From 1992 to 1999, though, the official name used was Sci-Fi Channel; from 1999 to 2009, the name was simply Sci-Fi.
4. Again, the decisions of studio executives have become as predictable as the micro-cult response to cancellation. According to Justin Rude, “When the networks pulled the plug on Firefly and Farscape a few years back, sci-fi fans were up in arms. After all, with the airwaves clogged with tawdry reality fare, wasn’t there room for one or two shows featuring character development and serial plot progression? ... Had fans taken a look at TV history, they may have realized the futility of their reasoning. Forward-thinking science fiction always has had a hard time on network television” (Y05). The predictable response of networks is to develop inexpensive, highly-watched options. Lately, that has meant a lot of “reality” series.
5. If we find ourselves through stories and stories reinforce what we find, the quality of those stories surely matters. Unfortunately, space does not allow me to explore this particular claim. Readers who are interested in doing so, however, could begin with two short contrasting yet complementary pieces on the nature of “narrative impact,” pieces by Djikic et al. and Foy and Gerrig.
6. I invite readers to pay particular attention to those stories—ancient or contemporary—that bend or shatter the Campbellian pattern and in doing so attempt to tell different or altogether new narratives. Also, I encourage those who have not already done so to view on TED.com “The Danger of a Single Story” presented by Chimam
anda Adichie. Adichie posits that any type of monolithic tale can cause harm—to our thinking and, therefore, to our relationships with others. However, a plethora of stories allows us to “regain a kind of paradise,” she says.
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Primal Scream—With Accompaniment
Jessie Carty
The music in Farscape, specifically the music used over the credits, is very primal, native, visceral, and almost discordant. The music is unusual and yet there is something familiar about its tones which create a disjointed harmony. This music is not unlike the show’s general premise: the known encountering the unknown.