4. A Mini-Series
Not all TV shows are lucky enough to have the safety net of other shows to fall back on though. Despite this, some are popular enough that other people with big chequebooks will be willing to step in and help when their original networks wish to be rid of them. Usually the Mini-Series is a great way to start a full series without too much risk, as the most recent Battlestar Galactica can bear witness to. Luckily, it is also one that can come at the end of a series rather than beginning. Although the producers of Farscape ended season 4 with a few cliffhangers to keep the audience coming back, you can hardly blame them considering they had been contracted for another full season. In fact all four seasons of Farscape ended on cliffhangers, but unfortunately for a now engaged Chrichton and pregnant Aeryn, season 5 was not to be. The fact that they were attacked and left for dead by a hitherto unseen alien race left fans thinking their heroes never would have the happily ever after they so deserved. Thanks to a fan campaign to bring the series back, and the popularity of producer Brian Henson (despite the more adult themes, the show was indeed produced by the same folks as The Muppets and even Sesame Street), a number of other companies chipped in so that The Peacekeeper Wars could be produced. Not the fifth season the fans wanted (and to be fair were entitled to), but it at least gave them one last hurrah, and allowed the show to go out with a bang. As the name suggests, the war between Peacekeepers and Scarrans that Scorpius had long been predicting finally came to be (although he did start it himself), and almost too conveniently, everyone seems to get their hearts' desires. Stark gains a sense of inner peace, Dominar Rygel XVI gets his throne back, and with the birth D'Argo Sun-Chrichton fans had a chance to say good-bye to the characters, one in particular, who they had been following so long.