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Firefly Premieres Tonight
fm6 writes "Firefly, Joss Whedon's 'anti-Trek drama' premieres tonight, on Fox, 8 E/P. I normally despise hypespeak, but this time it's the only language that fits: this is groundbreaking, mind-boggling, totally original. I've seen a bootleg of the pilot (which, unfortunately, the network is holding back) and I promise you this is the most geek-friendly SF you've seen in a long time. Yes, more so than Star Trek and B5, and way past Star Wars. I've never seen the future so skillfully, realistically, and lovingly portrayed. Here is the Official Site and a leading fan site." This is the single new show this season I have added a season pass for to the old Tivo. But I'll probably watch it live. This looks like it could be as good as we hope.
This show's premise sounds like Blake's 7, a fantastic 70's Brit sci-fi show. Not quite as much under the gun as those characters were, but pretty similar.
Not that this is a bad thing; you can only churn out so many episodes with shiny happy future people like Trek has.
If your bitterest enemies are people who hack the heads off civilians, then I would say you're doing something right.
The prime audience has nothing to do on a Friday night ;)
Which is probably why I won't be watching it tonight, but maybe I'll download it later.
Ermm, I don't mean to nitpick, but how exactly have you arrived at the "realistically" portrayed part? Got a magic 8 ball and a lot of questions? :)
"They do not preach that their god will rouse them, a little before the Nuts work loose." Kipling, 'The Sons of Martha'
Keep in mind the best line from X-Men was Whedon's...
"How do I know it's you?"
"You're a dick."
"Okay."
Or something like that....
"God fights on the side with the best artillery." - Napoleon, Marshal of France - speaking truth to power
Really, is any sci-fi original anymore? I can think of little in sci-fi that hasn't been done already. Not to say this will be a bad series, but I've already seen a lot of what's in it in other places.
In fact, for some reason this show reminds me a lot of Outlaw star, just less cartoonish. Must be the girl in the box thing that makes me think of that particular Anime series. And the fact they are tooling around in a ship doing odd jobs for a living. And the fact that they have no real home port anymore after they have to blast their way off of the one place they called home.
You could also say they play the Hon Solo angle a bit as well other than the fact they have more to their crew than just a wookie.
I'll give it a watch regardless, it could be fun and maybe it will be surprisingly original, but I'll withold any hype or wild statements until I've actually seen the first few episodes.
--Won't that be grand? Computers and the programs will start thinking and the people will stop. - Dr. Walter Gibbs
Excellent, another Sci Fi series we get to see canceled prematurely. I say we get a heard start on the "save our show campaign" this time. I'll go start a petition to not cancel it at Petition Online (because those always work, ya know) and someone else go register www.savefirefly.com.
;).
I figure our chances are much better if we start before it actually canceled this time
No? Well, then, I guess this show doesn't "realistically" portray the future.
Might be a good show anyway, though. :-)
Use 'slashdot stuff' in the subject line in any email you send me if you want to get past the spam filter.
es, more so than Star Trek and B5, and way past Star Wars.
Not to geek out here but:
I always thought of Star Trek being much more fantastical and silly than the Star Wars movies. Star Wars had interesting politics (revolutionaries vs an empire), no teleportation beams, gravity/flight dynamics, death, drama, etc.
Star Trek always came off, at least to me, as more Joe Sixpack friendly with its sexy aliens, Kirk's unstoppable libido, uninspired sets, and lackluster storylines. Even TNG has a lot of this plus they made the set look more like a corporate office than a military ship.
Perhaps the poster take issue with the religious and paranormal aspects of the force. I'm as non-religious (some would call me anti-religious) as they come, but as an element in the film the force works perfectly and the films would be worse off without it. ST could write off the vulcan mind-meld thing and no one really care or probably even notice.
People say, "After Columbine, do you feel a responsibility about the way you portray violence?" And I'm like, "No, I felt a responsibility about the way I portrayed violence the first time I picked up a pen."
Wow, I think that's just about the most intelligent and responsible thing I've ever read about the influence of culture on behaviour.
"Mind, as manifested by the capacity to make choices, is to some extent present in every electron." -Freeman Dyson
Idealistic. You have a valid point, but if Firefly rejects idealistic conventions, it could be said to be realistic, if only because the characters behave true to the nature of people. I guess it depends on your point of reference. Star Trek, with its multicultural cast, and prime directive, etc. was idealistic. Compared to Star Trek, Firefly is realistic. Compared to "real life", its just a TV show.
Don't moderate flamebait as Troll. Know the difference or you will be Meta-moderated.
Dude, you're basing all of your complaints on the show's marketing. Stop and think for a minute. Does that really make sense?
Why don't you just sit down and watch the show. Or TiVo it, or whatever. Then you can bitch.
Besides, complaints about how it's not original will fall on deaf ears. Wasn't it Joesph Campbell who said there were only about seven stories? Most of 'em can be found in The Odyssey, if you just look. The theme of the story isn't what makes it interesting. It's the execution that matters. And none of us will know anything about that until 8:00 PM, Eastern and Pacific.
Or at least don't blatantly cut-and-paste them from other linked stories.
this show is gonna be a poor man's Lexx.
I thought Lexx was a poor-man's Lexx?
I fully agree. I mean it isn't the only one look at this one book I was reading:
Raskolnikov: Insane Student
Sonya Marmeladov: Kind Whore
Dmitri: Loyal Friend
Dunya: Close Sister
Alyona Ivanovna: Mean Crone
Lizaveta Ivanovna: Tragic Mistake
etc...
In short, don't be silly. Yes you can reduce them to simple cardboard cutouts, but that doesn't matter. It is like that old thing that there are only n (7, 28, 36 etc.) plots in the world. Well actually you can simplify it down to one plot: "Something happens". Reduction can make fools of anything, even the best work. So just watch the show, or wait for a review, don't complain because some intern wrote crappy copy for a website.
I'd do something interesting, but my server can't handle a slashdotting.
I'm actually sort-of-friends with Haken, the owner of fireflyfans.net. He hacked it together from ASP and other ActiveX technologies. I agree he did a very good job. People are often suprised when they find out he built it from scratch -- if using standard web components counts as "from scratch".
By contrast the official site is a simplistic HTML/Javascript/Flash thing, obviously done by a total newbie working sparetime and using FrontPage or something similar. If Fox or Mutant Enemy were going to spend a lot of money on web presence, I think they'd start by hiring a proper webmaster for their own site, before branching out into bogus fan sites.
I'm curious as to how you got so hot on Firefly. Is the pilot better than the first episode? Here's my synopsis of the first episode: cowboy movie in space, to the max; cartoon-level bad guys, clownishly scary but not particularly amusing; entire plot telegraphed ahead of time in the most obvious ways; mystery set up for future episodes like a clay pigeon shoot. I guess I could do with a little less obviousness.
Some of the CGI was nice though, and it was well-produced overall. There didn't seem to be any actual plot holes, which is always a bonus. But in general, I got more of a kick out of the PS2 commercial that aired near the beginning of the episode, than the show itself. I'd say it's watchable, if you're not expecting too much. I wouldn't be raving about it.
Actually, I'm having more fun watching the show after it, John Doe. At least the whole plot hasn't been given away yet, 20 minutes in.