This collection contains a small group of materials that were brought together as auction items to fund an ongoing fan effort to prevent the cancellation of the science fiction television series Farscape (1999-2003).

The materials in this collection are less important for their inherent value, perhaps, than for the fan phenomenon they represent. The Save Farscape movement was a major grass-roots campaign by concerned fans to influence the broadcasting decisions of a television network. It was not the first of such campaigns, by any means. Fan campaigns to save beloved shows date back to 1967-1968, when an unprecedented effort of protest letter-writing and phone calls by an organized group of fans influenced NBC to renew Star Trek for a third season. In 1984, the group Viewers for Quality Television was founded, initially to "rescue" the series Cagney and Lacey from cancellation; its advocacy was successful and CBS retained the show, which gained subsequent popular and critical acclaim.

The 1990s saw the introduction of the Internet as a weapon that fans could utilize to mass popular support for pressing networks and production companies to retain beloved shows. Fans created message boards and websites to spread the word and direct protests to the appropriate authorities. Some of these efforts over the years have been temporarily successful (i.e. Once And Again, Jericho), while others have not (i.e. Mystery Science Theater 3000, Roswell). Some efforts, from galvanized fannish communities, have helped influence networks to revive shows that have been cancelled for years (i.e. Family Guy, Futurama).

The Save Farscape campaign represents a significant, large-scale effort in this regard. Following the September 2002 announcement by the Sci Fi Channel that it was rescinding its renewal of Farscape for a fifth season, angered fans leapt into activity with a multi-tiered effort. Besides the now common tools of phone calls, letters and e-mail messages, fans broadened their responses to call more attention to their cause. Many of them sent Sci Fi Channel executives packages of crackers, in homage to the title of a favorite Farscape episode, "Crackers Don't Matter." They actively worked to recruit new audiences to the series, including an attempt to find enough "Nielsen families" to visibly boost the show's ratings. In a more media-savvy age, the Beyond Hope Fund (later retooled as Where's My Riot?) was created to supply press kits for the media, purchase ad space in newspapers, and fund other publicity efforts (these include the auction of which the materials in this collection were a part). Some fans even attempted to locate funding that would free Farscape from the financial restraints of network television and make it a purely viewer-funded series. All of these actions represent a new type of multi-faceted media campaign that both built on lessons learned from similar fan protests in the past and evolved new forms of attack.

In the end, the campaign was partially successful. Although the Sci Fi Channel did not renew the series itself for a new season, it did agree to air a four-hour miniseries that would wrap up unfinished storylines from the series. Farscape: The Peacekeeper Wars was broadcast in October 2004.

Unless otherwise noted, all items are autographed by Richard Manning, who was Farscape's consulting producer (1999-2000), co-executive producer (2000), and executive producer (2000-2003).