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Firefly DVD Set Released

Posted by michael on from the consume dept.

Richard M. Nixon writes "As previously reported the DVD set for Joss Whedon's ill fated Western/Space Opera is now available. The DVD has all 11 episodes that aired, 3 episodes that didn't air, commentary on 7 episodes, and lots of bonus features including Joss singing the Firefly theme. It would make a nice Christmas gift for any Whedon fan who has not already run out and bought it. If DVD Sales are good enough, could we see a second season?"

15 of 297 comments (clear)

  1. Little late? by DetrimentalFiend · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Wow, this news sure is late for Slashdot. It came out a few weeks ago, I think.

    Anyway, it'll be interesting to see if firefly sells enough to come back. I heard that fox started thinking about bringing Family Guy back after its DVD sales did so well, so maybe there is a real chance for Firefly.

    1. Re:Little late? by koganuts · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Even Tim Minear, who worked on Firefly, couldn't find the DVDs: "Okay, so I just got back from the virgin megastore here in Hollywood. I was pissed because I felt that the Firefly DVDs should have been proudly and obviously displayed in the new releases. As I was I checking out I mentioned this -- and the guys there told me that the reason I couldn't find them was because they'd sold out almost right away. Saweeet-ah."

  2. AHHHH!!!! by SillySnake · · Score: 5, Funny

    features including Josh singing the Firefly theme. Well.. I *WAS* going to go buy it..

    1. Re:AHHHH!!!! by benk · · Score: 5, Funny
      is it against the DMCA to use the mute button? :)

      --
      -- "For every complex problem, there is a solution that is simple, neat and wrong." -- HL Mencken
    2. Re:AHHHH!!!! by koganuts · · Score: 5, Informative
      Well, Joss has a sense of humor about its inclusion:
      There's some crazy person singing the theme song, which, I can't stress enough, people should just avoid that particular extra. It was never meant to be heard by anybody. ... Yeah, that'd be me. I threw it down. I was like, OK, I'll just throw it down so they know the chords and then we'll get some great old blues singer to sing it and it will be cool. And they were like, "Let's put it on the DVD." And I was like, "OK." And then I listened to it. I was like, "I must die now [laughs]." I can't stress this enough--not a singer. ... But the embarrassment is outweighed by the fact that I love this show as hard as anything I've loved, and to have it exist on the DVD shelf and in perpetuity is such a great thing for me.
  3. Maybe a movie? by ChicoLance · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I'm still working my way through the commentary tracks, but this set is nicely put together.

    Everybody has gone their separate ways, so we won't see a second season, but at one point in the commentary they said they didn't want to spill all of the beans in case there is a Firefly movie.

    But I want to know all of the beans! There were so many good story lines to take advantage of, but were never explained!

  4. Josh who? by Keelor · · Score: 5, Informative
    If you're going to misspell the creator's name, please don't mention it three times in the article.

    Or, you could just get it right and call him Joss Whedon. Either way.

  5. Too Bad by adipocere · · Score: 5, Interesting

    While latter-era Buffy and Angel both suffered with Whedon being stretched too thin, the man has a real gift for dialogue, comedy, and story arcs. He's not without flaw, but I'd rather see his worst work than 99% of the shows on the air these days. Any sensible studio executive ("invisible pink unicorn") would say, "Star Trek sucks now ... how about making it work for the fans for once?" I have my as-yet-unwatched Firefly DVDs waiting for the holiday break. I bought them sight-unseen, if that tells you anything about what I think his talent is.

  6. Much Better The Second Time Around by Dr.+Wu · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I have to admit, I wasn't really drawn into the story that much when it was on the air (and I guess I would qualify as a major Whedon fan).

    However, I think a major part of the reason for this could have been the poorly chosen episodes that Fox decided to air. I think if the first two episodes in the series had been aired first, rather than last, it would have made a lot more sense to the fans.

    The extras are good, the stories are good, and at least in my opinion, it's a lot better than the 'Battlestar Galactica' mini-series. Plus, it has the added advantage of being both inexpensive (especially compared to the Star Trek series), and complete (no other seasons to buy at a later date).

    So I recommend it to any Sci-Fi fan, it's a great addition to any collection, especially if you are a Buffy or Angel fan, if only because the commentary by Mutant Enemy veterans (Like Joss), has a lot of tiny insights into those shows as well.

    Dr. Wu
    Yes, There's Gas In The Car

  7. Easter Egg by hero · · Score: 5, Interesting

    There is an easter egg of Adam Baldwin (Jayne) singing the whole "Hero of Canton" song from Jaynestown on the dvds.

    Throw in disc four that has the special features menu on it, and I think it's on the second special features menu. You just have to highlight the bottom left option and hit left again, and it will highlight a little thing on the side. Sorry I can't be more precise I don't have the info handy, it's not too hard to find with a minor bit of fiddling.

    -hero.

  8. Re:What's so good about Firefly? by AKAImBatman · · Score: 5, Informative

    1. Excellent characters
    2. Amazing story development
    3. Best special effects, bar none
    4. A space captain who isn't a wus. (e.g. In the pilot, a bad guy is holding the teenage girl captive while evil space cannibals are approaching. The captain arrives in the middle of the hostage situation, and instead of negotiating, he - without missing a step - simply shoots the guy, picks up his body and throws it out the rear cargo entrance so they can take off.)
    5. NO FSCKING "techno babble". No bloody deflector dishes, transporters, hyperspace gizmos, exotic particles, gravity wave engines or anything else.
    6. No sound in space.
    7. Soft title music that gets stuck in your head and won't let go.
    8. An interesting back-story. (e.g. the episode "Out of Gas")
    9. You can't take the sky from me...

    Go to suprnova.org (no typo) and download "Our Dear Mrs. Reynolds". You'll be hooked, I guarantee. :-)

    --
    Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
  9. Firefly by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    I heard that Firefly was going to be a western in space. Sure enough, when I watched the first episode, it was about the gang robbing a train, western style. I thought my worst fears were realized as this is the type of science fiction I hate most.

    Take any western and change the indians to aliens. Changes the horses and stagecoaches to spaceships. Presto! You have instant sci-fi. I felt that way through exactly one episode. By the third one, I was hooked on an amazing show.

    It looks to me like someone at Fox wanted to sink the show. You run it on Friday night (kiss of death), show the worst episode first, and then don't bother to show the first episode until much later in the season.

  10. Firefly was sci-fi that dared to be political... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    and politically incorrect. Go ahead and mod this post as flamebait, because here's a short excerpt from an opinion piece about why Firefly was really cancelled. Link appears after the excerpt:
    ______________________________________

    "Firefly's greatest transgressions against the modern American Statist Quo, however, were in my estimation twofold and related...this was not the mindlessly smarmy "optimistic" vision of the future that is Star Trek...Firefly, in its way, was, in this post 9-11 climate, almost downright seditious. The Alliance enforcers--the "bad guys"--were called "Feds." The attempt to unite and homogenize people was seen, by Firefly, as not a "good" thing...nor do most people agree with Captain Reynolds' words, "The government is a body of people, usually notably ungoverned."...Do not think that Firefly was not drawing allusions and parallels to our own society and its attendant beliefs, or that this implicit criticism went unnoticed by the powers-that-be...But most of all, living "beyond the law" as Reynolds and his crew had to, the moral universe of Firefly depended not on the "rule of law," but on its much-maligned and deliberately-misunderstood alternative, the rule of honor...And Firefly made the case...for the ultimate superiority of the rule of honor over the rule of law--at least...For you see, the rule of honor demands what law must defer: individual responsibility, personal culpability, what is fair and what is just, of every man (and woman) who lives by it.
    _________________________________
    http://www .fireflyfans.net/feature.asp?f=39

  11. Re:Been there, done that by deinol · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Now they're wondering why we don't watch TV...

    The sad fact is, while there are some shows I really like, I prefer to watch TV when it hits DVD. I would rather spend $40 a month on DVDs than cable. Star Trek, Farscape, Babylon 5, Buffy, Angel, and 24 are some of the many shows I have mostly watched from DVD (ST:TNG I saw mostly as it aired, but DS9 I'm only now catching up on through DVD.)

    I only saw the pilot to firefly, but I liked it. I'm looking foward to seeing it now on DVD.

    I wonder how many sci-fi shows have poor ratings because geeks like me can't be bothered to actually watch TV with commercials. Will it ever be possible for a series to survive in a straight to DVD format?

    --
    Got Apathy?
  12. Watched 'em already. :) by Mouth+of+Sauron · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I loved them all. I am not as much of a Buffy the Vampire Slayer fan, or of Angel for that matter. Firefly, on the other hand, resonated with me for some reason, and I'll try to put them into words.

    The reason I liked the series is because it shows that there is nothing new under the sun. People in the future will remain people, with all their faults and flaws. Long after we're gone people will still be killing each other, stealing from each other, trying to rule, trying to escape, trying to make a living. I believe Firefly went far beyond many science fiction stories in portraying this. Far too many sci-fi shows are utopian in nature, and with the notable exception of Babylon 5, nearly all of them fall into this trap. Slavery existed before, and still exists today. It is unlikely that this particular scourge will be eliminated totally in the future and may make a return. Likewise, the related concept of indentured servitude is one which make make a comback, for better or worse. People tend to dwell on the evil of slavery while forgetting that indenturing allowed the Americas to be colonized. And, as happened before the line between them became blurred, and this was portrayed (a little) in the show. The whole concept of migration, colonization, rebellion, and pacification were used as setting. For a television show, this is unusally broad.

    Firefly showed the good with the bad, in that of the individual as well as the whole of humanity. The characters, of course, are no exception. They each have positive and negative traits, show weakness at times as well as strength. Furthermore, they showed different kinds of weaknesses and strenghts, where most science fiction and fantasy tend to ascribe one key skill and fatal flaw per character. Spock had a heroically big brain or Heracles had heroically big muscles. Characters on Firefly were not necessarily good at things one would expect. Sure, they had their skills, but there were nuances, suprises even. How many times on Star Trek did Wesley solve a science problem or Worf handled a matter of honor. (As an aside let me say to Wil if he reads my post I hold him blameless. He didn't write the character) One thing that Whedon is good at doing is taking television characters in unexpected directions. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, bet at least he is unafraid to change his characters through the story.

    The technology in Firefly is another aspect which contrasts it from other science fiction stories. Some stories are all about the technology, often Star Trek fell into this, and others the technology is not the story at all. My example there would be Star Wars which is more fantasy than sci-fi. Firefly walked a different path, showing different levels of technology used by different people. On Star Trek the Feds have one level of technology and science, some worlds are more primitive, and some mysterious races possess more. Firefly wasn't afraid to show that people would natually have more or less. More or less money and resources, and theremore more or less fancy tech. There are haves and have-nots, and sometimes the most sophisticated technology is not the most reliable.

    Lastly, I would like to say a science fiction show absent of aliens is a treat. Turning humans into monsters shows unusual insight into the human condition. That humans could become aliens has been explored, but its nice to see a television show reach new, or rarely trod ground.

    All of this adds up to a uniquely entertaining show. I rarely make time for television, but I found myself eagerly waiting for Firefly to come on. I wish the Sci-Fi Channel would pick it up, but alas, it is now the Stargate Channel.