Slashdot Mirror
First Clip from Firefly Movie to be Shown at Comic-Con
Snaller writes "It's almost a tradition. At Comic-Con a few years back, Joss Whedon showed a stunned audience the first clip from Serenity, the pilot for his new show Firefly. Although the movie isn't due to open until April 22nd next year, Whedon is ready to show the first clip from from Serenity, the motion picture based on the Firefly series. He'll do it this weekend at Comic-Con, also present will be the cast from the series/movie (all 9 actors), editor Lisa Lassek, special effects guru Loni Peristere and producer Chris Buchanan.
It will take place on Sunday July 25th, 1-2pm, Room 20, afterwards there will be a signing session in room 28DE.
This was reported on what used to be the official Fox board, by the user 'AffableChap' which has previously been confirmed to be Chris Buchanan."
They eat their poops!
--neko
isn't Joss a girls name?
Lets wait for something to happen three times before declaring it a part of our regular cultural fabric, eh?
Athletic Scholarships to universities make as much sense as academic scholarships to sports teams.
Maybe the answer is an entirely new distribution channel like Mark Cuban's HDNet. Whedon should not be burdened with product placements and FOX-style scorecarding.
..um, it's perhaps terribly ignorant and un-geeky, but what's a "Firefly Movie"?
Please oh please, not a bunch of kids on a mission to save earth (or something like that)
http://efil.blogspot.com/
I thought it got cancelled after around three episodes. I bet the cast members at the signing will outnumber the fans.
They should make a crossover movie with "Firefly" and "Battlestar Galaxia" and that one with all the muppets and call it "War of the Failed Sci-Fi Franchises"
Why is it that geeks are the only "grown" men (well, other than those with an elementary school education) that still read comics?
John Kerry is a Joke!
I loved the series and I can't wait to see this. No doubt Joss will give us something that leaves us begging for more.
Meanwhile, a hint about my thoughts on Fox...
: We shall rule over all this show, and we shall call it... this show.
: I think we should call it your grave!
: Argh, curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal!
: Raaaaaaaarghhhhhhh!
: Raaaaaaaarghhhhhhh!
(Apologies to Joss Whedon).
Parent is plagiarised from another slashdot user, go to anti-slash, click on "tools", then "use the database tool". Search for "Joss Whedon" and it comes up verbatim on the second page.
Making the moon less necessary since 1998.
Nobody cares about you and your hard-on for completely proper use of the English language. If you don't have anything useful to say, shut it instead of making a useless first post about grammar.
I'm having mixed feelings about the prospect of a full-blown Firefly movie. One side of me is skipping and jumping with joy, but my more skeptical side is wary of several things, even though I've learned to trust God^H^H^HJoss Whedon implicitly.
The original two-part pilot for Firefly was about the length of a full feature film, and yet it only introduced the characters, the universe and some of the backstory. The movie will have to do the introductions all over again, since I'm thinking they'll try to lure in more than just the fans of the TV series. How is the movie going to relate to the aired episodes? Is it a complete retelling? How much time will there be to tell a decent story that would satisfy an already-converted Firefly fan? Or how big a priority is that, anyway?
Maybe the film SHOULD be directed at the average moviegoer at the cost of mildly displeased fans. I mean, if the ultimate goal is to draw crowds large enough for the network to bring back the series (is it?), then maybe the hardcore fans should accept a "lesser" film than they'd hoped for, in the interest of this goal.
It remains to be seen how many compromises Whedon ends up making to cater to both interests: fans AND average moviegoers, many of whom may not have any prior contact to Firefly. I'm just afraid that the end result will be a film that tries to cater to so many various tastes and expectations that it ends up pleasing nobody.
I have no doubts that the movie will be entertaining and a pleasure to watch, at some level - it's just that I'm afraid I'll have to pretend the series never existed to feel that way.
Well, Whedon usually manages to surprise me positively, so in any case I remain carefully optimistic.
Geek (n): A person with a devotion to something in a way that places him or her outside the mainstream. This could be due to the intensity, depth, or subject of their interest.
.. .. ...
....
The simple curiousity and imagination that is "hammered" out by the desire to conform and perform faced during the adolescence. Geeks are happily unaware of the "peer pressure" in this 13-18 period which often mould the "grown" man in the form of his peers.
John: and we had so much fun at the beach
Teacher: That was very good John . Now, Kevin , tell the class what you did for the summer vacation
Kevin: I went to my grandpa's and we worked in the garden and he had this first edition Spiderman comic
Imagine the response an average kid will get and the results
I'm at the Comic-Con this year. I can't wait to see Whedon's work up close and personal and hopefully, ask him a question.
I'm here for the experience, not the Hyperbole.
Tops responsibility
A space cowboy, a space priest, etc all in a very unrealistic setting flying about in spacecraft which much cost a small fortune just doesnt do it for me. This show was cancelled for a reason, it just wasn't good. In fact many people think its terrible.
Yes, good sci-fi is hard to come by and its difficult to make it into either TV or Film, but this show really puts the 'Wheadon is a goldenboy' meme to rest.
The movie is supposed to take place about 6 months after the series ended, and centers on a reaver attack on a planet, and a very very efficient alliance agent tracking down the doctor and his sister.
And it is indeed meant to be seen by everybody. That's the reason its going to be called "Serenity" and not Firefly. Universal felt that it wouldn't be good for business if people thought "oh its a movie based on a tv series i never saw, i probably won't know whats going on". So there apparently there won't be any references to the series.
If Google really cared they would fix Android Chrome to reflow text, instead of discriminating
I wonder if hollywood will ever wake up to the fact that sub-cultures and small fanbases can have nearly the same income potential as the large dis-intrested masses.
I for one am a HUGE firefly fan...i was skeptical of the show at first..western in space, BAH...
but after watching the show i was instantly hooked...the subtle char interactions and the real depth they are given makes for an incredible watch.
Wich brings me to my point...i love this show so much i would...no question...pay 150$ a year for a dvd set with the entire season on it, and I dont think i'm the only one out there that feels this way. I have no problem paying for somthing i enjoy...
Producing a high quality show like firefly and bringin it straight to dvd would definetly be risky...but i really belive it could pay off in the long run..based on the sales of the 1st season compilation we are talking multi millions in revenue.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
This is MY galaxy...go find your OWN!
...present will be the cast from the series/movie (all 9 actors), editor Lisa Lassek, special effects guru Loni Peristere and producer Chris Buchanan. It will take place on Sunday July 25th, 1-2pm, Room 20, afterwards there will be a public lynching of the Fox executives who cancelled the show. Book your tickets early as this one's going to be a sell out.
at my fr33lance
I'm sure this is going to make me unpopular, but here goes...
As much as I liked Firefly (and I liked it a lot) in almost every episode I watched I kept on thinking, "if Whedon wanted to do a Western, why did he set it in space"? I assume that it was to do with selling it to the studios, who wouldn't have bought a new "Wagon Train" or "Rawhide".
But really every plot could have been done just as easily in the 1870s rather than the 2700s (or whenever it was meant to be). The psychic girl could just as easily have been a mystic rather than surgically enhanced, most of the other characters (the preacher, the prostitute, the hard-bitten veteran) would be basically the same. Most of the plots would be exactly the same (e.g. the train robbery).
I think it would have been even better to just do a Western-set "historical" series (with fantasy elements) rather than shoehorn things into a far-future, science fictional setting. But probably the networks aren't buying Westerns any more (though there was that TV version of The Magnificent Seven a while back).
-- Nothing unusual happened today
BFD.
BTW, frizzy pizzy! (That's first post for you l4m3rs!)
and i'll be in my bunk *g*
If Google really cared they would fix Android Chrome to reflow text, instead of discriminating
Do you remember Brisco County Jr.? Great Bruce Campbell series, western, good characters, quirky humor, started and cancelled in the same season they started X-Files. Folks these days are turned off by the whole western theme and don't look past that to the core of the story.
Hmmm, am I seeing a pattern? If it's on Fox and I like it, it's doomed.
Brisco County Jr.
Space Above and Beyond
The Tick
Firefly
If it isn't a bootlegged reality concept or something about attacking critters, Fox isn't interested.
WOO HOO!
I have been going through the DVDs and at the end of each episode I think to myself "Damn you Fox! This is one of the best series I have seen in a long long time and ranks right up there with Band of Brothers in terms of TV quality. How could you have screwed this up?"
By looking at the air dates of the episodes and seeing how everything was played on TV out of order (it's a linear series, it's not a good idea to play a series that was written in order all jumbled up) I can understand how a whole lot of people would have just given up on in.
But thank goodness for the DVDs and if this movie is as good as the series I will be very excited come next spring.
The Firefly series was just too out there for the average TV viewer... it would have done great if it had the same positioning as Farscape... It will do really well in theaters as a movie because it has the look and feel that will work. Can't wait to see it.
-- $G
I loved the series and I must say that any science fiction that respects the "no sound in space" rule gets additional kudos in my book.
(That would be SiChemist's Big Book O' Kudos for the curious.)
God is imaginary
Ok, I may get flamed into oblivion for this, but I'm genuinely curious, so:
What's the big draw of Firefly? I loved Buffy and Angel, but I just don't see why so many people seem so taken with Firefly. I saw all the eps that aired on TV and it just seems mediocre to me. Is it that I'm not a big western fan?
...releasing the first clips of the movie so far in advance.
I used to *hate* trailers that gave away a movie's storyline (back when I used to go to movie theaters), now I'm starting to get sick of 'driblets' and trailers and all the 'leaked production clips' that seem to end up sprinkled all over the net.
Lacking any sort of self-control, I frequently download said clips, and by the time the movie comes out, I've seen 2/3rds of it. It sucks.
Aside from that, there's the whole difficulty of keeping a fanbase whipped up for so long. Maybe Joss'll take a page from Gabe Newell: "oh, we were GOING to release the film in September, but someone hacked our email so we're going to have to 'check' it for the next 12 months before ACTUALLY releasing it."
-Styopa
in my precaffeinated state this morning, i was skimming the /. headlines, saw Joss Whedon's name and the phrase the pilot for his new show Firefly, and just about shat.
new show? firefly reborn?
then i woke up enough to read the first part of the post, "a few years back." sigh.
when the show was on, i thought it was a trek-killer, a new (to prime-time american audiences, at least), less anaesthetic vision of the spacefaring future, sure to spawn movies and probably become a *gasp* franchise, like whedon's other creations. i just thought it would be on for a few seasons first.
and yes, i'll go see the movie, even if everybody tells me it sucks. and yes, i'll buy the DVD. if only because it has jewel staite in it.
- Entertaining Bits from the Ancient Kernel Tree
How is this scored as Informative? It's the only post where I burst out laughing. Shouldn't it be Score:5, Funny?
First off, lets understand the simple fact that all art is subjective but this show did fall into many bad cliches. I thought it was an excellent pilot and up until they started "expanding and explaining" the universe it was set in it was good but..
It was a vehicle for more cheesy western tales with a sci-fi twist. That's cheesy star trek as you can get, and lets not fault star trek too hard as it was original at its time.
Then the cheesy religious figure, the pathetic attempts at building drama with 'faith vs reason.' Again, Kirk v Spock was a lot more interesting in this regard and new 40 years ago.
The girl who was experimented on really didnt go anywhere and seemed horribly out of place.
It was a bad show held up by a lack of other decent programming and Whedon fan-boyism. I can't imagine too many investors staying aboard after the last few episodes. Sometimes cancelled shows deserve to be cancelled. Unlike, say, Futurama they had a stable time slot, promotion out the wazoo, lots of internet support, etc and they couldnt pull it off because a critical mass of people tuned in and said this sucks. I'm one of those people. You may not be. But lets not dress up its cancellation as some big mistake and lets be honest with the fact it was a cliche ridden show that blatantly stole from both star trek and cowboy bebop, except it stole badly.
If you're a devoted fan none of this is going to change your mind, nor should it, but you have to realize that if youre trying to win in a media which measures success by popularity you have to contend with the masses. Sometimes the masses are right,sometimes not. In this case I think they were.
>those of us with more than 2 braincells with nothing worth watching.
Its this kind of elitism that makes people wonder why theres so much shitty sci-fi out there like Firefly, Lexx, badly produced and translated anime, etc. From the perspective of non-fanboys your love of some of these shows makes you look like the very same idiot you decry.
Sci-fi is popular and everywhere. Being a fan of the genre doesnt make you some kind of uber-man.
And then consider the people who dont even watch TV, they must think you're an idiot for not cracking open some good books.
In other words, glass housing is relative and you're setting yourself up for a fall defending some show, especially when TV entertainment is so very subjective.
Not to mention your condescending attitude doesnt really make any point other than "I'm a fan, I'm better than you non-fans!!!" Which is pretty sad.
LMAO- That was funny.
www.facebook.com/DareDefendOurRights
www.fairtax.org
Unlike Buffy the Vampire Slayer?
Whedon use some obviously unrealistic settings in order to tell some very realistic stories about being human. Unlike almost all other TV which use some apparently realistic settings to tell very unrealistic stories about humans.
Firefly had the markings of a show that could have been great, had it not been for the interference from the network and the premature death.
The lack of sound in space as depicted in the series is a good thing, sho nuff. But am I the only one who was irritated by the assertion that Vera (that over-accessorized tart of a rifle) required air to function? They put the thing inside a space suit, fer cryin' out loud, in order to shoot it in a vacuum.
Firearms work fine in a vacuum. In fact, if you think it through, they'd work far *better* in a vacuum. If you don't want to think it through, just look up the Glock "sub aqua" pistol variants to find pistols that work fine without air while submerged.
Maybe there was a reason Vera needed air but I've been through the DVDs with a fine-toothed comb and I don't see any explanation about why.
My "willing suspension of disbelief" has taken a big hit here. Can anybody help me get it back?
Thanks for the really funny post. I'd throw you mod points if I had them.
Just a comment, though, on the viability of the movie and the inclusion of the "airhead slut." Here goes: If Whedon wants to guarantee that the movie is a smash hit with much of the current fan base, all he has to do is emphasize that "slut" stuff.
Even in her work before Firefly, Jewel Stait just makes me drool...
He forgot to mention the space-hooker.
It's amazing how stupid you can make something sound. I thought it was good, though, and I didn't like Buffy or Trigun (the painful space-cowboy/space-priest anime) much.
and hopefully, ask him a question.
"Who does your hair?"
Ok. If it takes three times to make something a tradition, then two times is certainly "almost" a tradition.
The Mongrel Dogs Who Teach
"whatever it's called".
Sorry.
Those who sacrifice security to condemn liberty deserve to repeat history or something. - Benjamin Santayana
When Fox was first starting out, they took a lot of chances, and the result was great shows like BCjr.
Unfortunately, now that they are "established", they have become as entrenched in the mainstream as the other three major networks, and for the most part are afraid to try anything new or innovative.
Those who sacrifice security to condemn liberty deserve to repeat history or something. - Benjamin Santayana
Very few SF shows are "pure" SF.
They almost always have elements of other genres in them.
(But, really, that's true of any genre.)
I just really thought that show sucked. Maybe Whedon didn't have the time to devote to it with his work on Buffy and Angel. I watched both of those shows and am a big sci-fi buff. I'll give most sci-fi programs at least a season to let it get going. But this show stunk. And I thought the concept was actually pretty good. Maybe the western theme was a bit much. If it had been toned down a bit maybe it would have had a better appeal.
It is interesting how similar firefly is to the anime Cowboy Bebop in the sense that it is a western set in space... I think the combination of the stale western theme with the sort of over-played sci-fi theme really brings something new and fresh to the table... go Joss!!!
as a response to many of the salient points raised in the smashing of this show I'd like to offer some arguments. Some have probably been mentioned in other posts, but these are mine and my reasoning alone
1. Western in space - anytime anyone sees the low slung pistol belt and horses, the comparison to a western will be made. Simply put, the same problems and attitudes with which the American frontier was settled, would translate into any "push in the bush". Tech level would drop to a point where it could be maintained on a local level, with various exceptions based on money/power. Sci-Fi references to this situation abound..."Ringworld" "Time enough for Love"
2. Incoherent story line - Fox producers didn't think that the original pilot had enough draw power to snag the target demographic so Joss and crew had to gin up the train job episode. Maybe a smarter move would have been to show the pilot as a movie first, but we'll never know. Also directly related to this , IMHO, is the fact they put the show in a timeslot that pretty much guaranteed that the demographic that the show would appeal to (intelligent non-teenagers under 50) would be unlikely to see, mostly because those folks usually aren't watching TV on a Friday night! Sunday's would have been better, ferchrissake!
3. Characters are one-dimensional. That's opinion, but I think that, just like in life, it takes time to really know a character, and just when you think you got them down, boom, here comes the curve ball. Mal's character went through the most changes, again IMHO, from reserved and sullen, to a likable, loyal rogue. River's tragic character didn't have time to properly develop and we only got hints at it, primarily from the last (in series not televised) episode. She went from pitiful and weak to downright scary powerful and it would have been interesting to see how the others in the group reacted to this new wrinkle. The preacher Book had a past obviously, ripe for exploration. Kayleigh's savant like talent for machinery and obvious need for acceptance was fully grounded in reality. Zoe could have been a great role model, loving and tender one minute, strong smart and able to kick @$$ the next. Jayne's full-on mercenary character is rooted in today's society(willing to sell out anyone to make a buck...remind you of the Fox network?). Simon and Wash's characters didn't have enough time to truly develop, but I suspect Wash was Joss's way of putting the viewer into the mix, plus the fact that he was the archtypical classclown of the group. The supporting characters and long story threads we re interesting to me. It showed that the writers were willing to invest as much time as the viewers. Niska and Saffron were different sides of the same coin and most of us "know" these characters in our lives. Add the ever present Alliance, with the Blue Sun corporation over sight, with the majoirty of the population going along with it as long as they get entertained, food on time, and creature comforts at the expense of freedom and a misguided sense of safety, and you've got an analogy to every powerful society ever concieved by man.
4. The comparisons to every other Sci-Fi space opera franchise ever. This isn't another iteration of Star Trek. Not knocking ST, but it did get preachy at times. Not star Wars, with it's convoluted sense of self. Farscape, interesting, but they kinda lost me early with the muppet character and the Alien for the sake of Alien tone. This was the story of humanity reaching the stars and bending them to it's will, for good or bad. That's what we do, we bend the environment around us to suit us. So it's only logical that we continue this practice into the future, not the "Prime Directive", which ignores the viral aspect of human behavior. This show takes the stance that man is his own worst enemy. And that, my friends, is damn interesting TV, much easier and more interesting than the "alien invader" scenario.
In closing, Firefly could have been the flagship series for Fo
So it would need to have an explosive charge to make the bullets fire.
What makes you think it wouldnt need air? No air -> no fire -> no explosion -> no propellant.
>Cowboys doesn't seem quite right -- more kind of bandits.
Hmmm...Sidearms modeled after long-barreled cap and ball Smith and Wesson revolvers, worn low on the hip in gunslinger rigs, at least one episode where people are riding horses and wearing dusters and cowboy hats, they actually haul cows as cargo, and so on. Since I own horses and ride a lot, I don't see any of this as a bad thing. The Firefly universe is a bit seedy, but it works. You not only get westerns, but a bit of Dickens thrown in as well.As parent notes, the characters worked. The Ron Glass character was developing nicely, as was the very messed up River. And, I would be happy to sit for hours and watch Jewel Staite do anything, anything at all. Seriously too bad the show got cancelled. It had some real potential.
Some mornings it's hardly worth chewing through the restraints to get out of bed.
I for one will go see the movie.
Recently a friend loaned me the DVD set, so I got to watch them all in a row in the correct order.
Due to the time slot, I only saw one or two episodes on TV.
Sure there are problems with the show (later episodes gathered more and more) but I was genuinely entertained by it.
Plus, you gotta think that any show placed in the far distant future that shows Windows XP as the operating system running a dumpster is pretty cool.
[The "steal the laser" episode where Sapharron makes her second appearance. The dumpster they highjack to get the loot has windows on it's screen.]
Hi,
A space western is certainly a Sci-Fi standard and has been around longer than me (and at 37 that's a while!).
Firefly gave us nine fully formed characters who were instantly lovable thanks to the fantastic writing team of Joss Whedon and company. Each show broke more rules and presented exciting new scenes, ideas, and most notably FX from the incredible artists at Zoic! Truly the new standard for space ships in screen (can't wait for thier Battlestar Galactica stuff to come!)! If only FOX hadn't ssabotaged the show from day one we might still be enjoying the best Sci-Fi show to arrive on TV since the original Star Trek.
After the cult success of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, and now the massive fan support for Firefly, it's easy to tell that Joss is THE new voice in Sci-Fi today.
Or are you little geeks gonna try and tell me that childrens shows like B5 and SG1 are somehow better?
They were caricatures of the "American Cowboy" dream (which is a complete fabrication itself).
Oh! Why didn't you say you hated America? That makes everything so much clearer, now.
--grendel drago
Laws do not persuade just because they threaten. --Seneca
If there aren't any, will that change the chances?
You have the technology to go faster than light. You have the energy to take a ship out of a damn deep gravity well w/o sweating and you don't have the technology to breed cattle from embryos and you have to ship it around in a spaceship which is full of forementioned technology.
We have the technology to go faster than sound, we have the energy to take a ship out of the damn deep gravity well, we have the technology to breed cattle from frozen embryos.
Doesn't mean everyone has the budget for it.
Have you ever been faster than sound? Or out of the gravity well? Why not? You have the technology don't you?
You know that right now, on this planet, there are people eating genetically altered foods grown hydroponically while working on the latest fusion rector designs, while somewhere else, on this very planet, someone is planting rice, by hand, and worrying about the health of the family donkey? A donkey they need to get their rice to the market! What will they do if the donkey dies? Use a fusion reactor to move their rice from their crappy hand-built hovel to the market?
Similarly, you have a ship which can go in space but your "cowboy mates" still sit in 1850s kitchen to have their lunch.
It just doesn't work.
Yes, because, as soon as you invent FTL travel, you have no more need for a gorram kichen table.
Look at us now, its the 21st century, we have telecommunications satellites and doors that open by themselves when you walk up to them. No one, no where, uses wooden tables anymore!
Personal anecdote:
I once took a jet plane to mexico, from the airport I rode in an air conditioned pick-up to a comfy solar-powered fith-wheel trailer in a camp ground. There, I watched as vacheros (mexican cow boys) on horses hurded their cows to the nearby village.
According to your logic, this is impossible. If we have the technology for jet propulsion airplanes, therefore everyone on the planet is rich enough to afford all the latest technology and will therefore never EVER again ride on a horse (a self-replicating, self-refulling, edible, semi-autonomous all terrain vehicle) to herd cows (self replicating food sources that can be used as farm equipment AND that fertilises the very soil it uses to feed itself). As soon as a commercial spaceship goes on sale, WHAM, all of humanity stops herding cows.
I mean, as soon as someone invents something high-tech, humanity as a whole has no more use for its low-tech predecessors. Right?
And right now, as throughout all of history, some people live in high-tech luxury, while others have to run barefoot for hours to find barely-drinkable water. They think a fat insect is a feast. They struggle to scratch a living off the dry dirt they had the misfortune be born on, or were displaced to forcibly by well-armed thugs. This is reality: People are poor, people are uneducated, dirty, desperate, while others are rich, educated, comfortable and well fed. Any other setting is unrealistic. Having very rich people in one place and very poor people in another, THAT is realistic.
You can't take the sky from me...
As impatient Firefox fans and George Castanza would say.
And for those of you that are going to the SF Worldcon in Boston, there are two "Firefly" shows on the ballot for best dramatic work, short form. Rather than have them knock each other out of the voting, I'd like to see everyone concentrate their votes on "The Message," so that Joss can get the Hugo he should have gotten years ago for "Buffy." The other nominated episode, "Heart of Gold," wasn't written by Joss, and I don't think it's as good.
Also, in answer to the question "why set it in space?" Alan Tudyk answered that in a recent interview on NPR. Tudyk was being interviewed because he plays the robot in "I, Robot," and the interviewer (obviously a fellow sf fan) asked the question about "Firefly." According to Tudyk, it's a plot point. The cheapeast way to settle newly terraformed planets is to land some people on them with tools and horses, and leave them to their own devices. It also effectively gives the Blue Sun Corporation, which is paying for the terraforming and the transport of settlers, indentured serfs who are totally at their mercy.
dionwr (dee-uh-NOOR; it's Welsh)
Make a man a fire, and he's warm for a day. Set him on fire, and he's warm for the rest of his life.
He actually wanted to do a sci-fi show, the western theme is there for flavour.
And remember, space-cowboys is a time honoured sci-fi sub-genre, dating back to the early days of science-fiction itself.
The psychic girl could just as easily have been a mystic rather than surgically enhanced [...] Most of the plots would be exactly the same
Well, for what we actually saw, the one-show plots, yes. But he was definatly going somewhere with this, he had a meta plot that wouldn't work in a simple western setting. The psychic was made that way by a group within the Alliance government, there is a conspiracy story there that wouldn't be the same with a mystic, psychics aren't designed by western governments, they are designed by sci-fi governments.
really every plot could have been done just as easily in the 1870s rather than the 2700s (or whenever it was meant to be).
I think the main reason why he made a story in the future rather than in the past is because of the storytelling freedom it gives him. He can shape the future any way he wants to, but the past has to conform to what we read in the history books.
In his future, humanity lives under a bicultural hegemony, the Anglo-Sino Alliance. In the past, that wasn't so. He couldn't have had everyone biligual in english and chineese in an actual western. In fact, it was part of the mood of the show, to have a western feel while at the same time have the chineese a dominant force, while they were dominated and abused in the actual western past.
I'm sure this is going to make me unpopular
Nah, there's plenty of trolls for us to hate, we won't pounce on you for having an honest opinion.
I think its actually interresting too, most people complain that the sci-fi was tainted by the western, you see it the other way around : )
Personally, I think that mixing the two together is one of the aspects of the show's feel, its intrinsic nature. Its a constant dichotomy:
The show was made of opposing things mixing together, yin and yang, it made it the fascinating watch that it was.
You can't take the sky from me...
It's not that the show was bad (I thought it was good). Probably just didn't smash the ratings charts for the megabuck$$$.
Under capitalism man exploits man. Under communism it's the other way around.
So if Vera looks like a given level of technology, why would that technology have undergone such a regressive evolution as to require environmental oxygen to function? It just makes no sense.
Does Jayne know this?
Jayne is handy with a gun, but does he know about oxydisers and such? He's the one who said Vera needs air to fire...
Also, maybe there is some kind of pneumatic system in there, a recoil dampener or whatever that does need air to fuction properly, we just don't know.
But mostly, if you disagree with the scientific validity of what Jayne "if I wanted schoolin', I'd had gone to school" Cobb says, you take it up with him.
;-)
You can't take the sky from me...
You make a lot of great points but I have to ask, What show were you watching? I did not see nearly as much depth as you did based on point number 4. I wish someone would make a show that would be a more realistic portrayal of humans staking there claim to other worlds and having to survive in a unsanitized environment. But this show wasn't that. I thought it took a few things a bit too far as far as the western theme goes.
That is going to be one of the worst smelling rooms in the history of worst smelling rooms.
I saw all the eps that aired on TV and it just seems mediocre to me.
Considering that I was hooked from the first show and that I made a lot of effort to try and catch them all, but couldn't, I have a hard time believing that someone would manage to watch them all if he found it mediocre.
When Fox first aired them, they would advertise it to be on friday nights at 8, and sometimes it was, but sometimes it didn't play at all, or played at 12:05am, another time at 12:20am... you just couldn't know in advance.
I did try my best to watch them all, but missed one or two.
But in case you got a magic TiVo, or by "aired on TV" you mean not by Fox, and not in the states:
What's the big draw of Firefly?
Great FX, great writing, great characters, serious sci in their fi, and Kaylee. Hmmmm.... Kaylee...
You can't take the sky from me...
Firefly is the only SF series to ever have NO SOUND IN SPACE! No whoosh as spaceships go by, no booms when things blow up in space. The only other piece of SF to do this was 2001.
At a quick glance, Firefly seems like a dumb old hicks in space western, even using a similar theme of many old westerns, a group of disenfranchised post Civil War southerners just trying to get by after being reamed by "the man".
Fortunately, it survived and used this premise very well and develop strong characters as well as a wide range of stories from action adventure to horror to comedy. Every time I introduce someone new to the DVD they can't believe they missed it during its run.
p.s. The "sonic boom" of the Enterprise going to warp (along with its colorful burst effect) has got to be the stupidest gimmick ever.
Who wants to wait until Sunday?
You're delusional. In terms of movie and book sales, scifi/fantasy comprise a very small portion of the total amount. Reason? *Most people don't care for scifi or fantasy*.
But once again you think your personal opinion is actual fact, regardless of evidence to the contrary.
I would now like to draw your attention to the top ten highest-grossing movies of all time:
1. Titanic
2. Star Wars
3. Star Wars: Episode I
4. E.T.
5. Jurassic Park
6. Forrest Gump
7. Lion King
8. Return of the Jedi
9. Independence Day
10. The Sixth Sense
Six of ten are sci-fi.
The top books of 2003 put a "mere" 3 sci-fi/fantasy books in the top ten. (including #1 and #2) Not a majority, but 33% is hardly a "very small portion of the total amount." Especially considering that the rest of the top ten includes two diet books, a self-help book, and two biographies. So... of the top 10 books of 2003, there are only five fiction books, and three are sci-fi.
It seems the original poster is not the only one mistaking his personal opinion for actual fact.
I think I saw all the ones that were on Fox, but it's possible I missed a few.
;-)
And maybe if it had gone on longer or if I'd seen them in the proper order (as opposed to the aired order), I have liked it more.
No complaints about the effects. The characters were likable enough, but I thought the writing wasn't nearly as good as for Buffy & Angel. (Overall, that is.)
Well, I suggest getting your hands on the DVDs to see them in order. Its better that way.
I really enjoyed it myself, and, I'm not exactly sure what you mean by "writing", maybe you had a problem with the future space-southern accent? Anyway, the general consensus seems to be that getting the proper order makes a BIG difference.
You are right about series needing time to hit their stride, though this series seemed to hit it much faster than most. By "objects in space"...man, it was getting intense. I was actually caring about these people, that's not something I'm familiar with
Though if you already don't like it...
You can't take the sky from me...
It also effectively gives the Blue Sun Corporation, which is paying for the terraforming and the transport of settlers, indentured serfs who are totally at their mercy.
Blue Sun Corp is probably also the people behind the government school that fucked up River's brain. Some of her "acting out" is against stuff with the Blue Sun emblem. The food cans that she peeled labels off of, for example. Jayne was wearing a Blue Sun t-shirt when she attacked him.
And of course, there's the blue hands men...
On that movie list, seven of ten are sci-fi/fantasy, if you're willing to count the Sixth Sense. I was on the fence about that one, but I think it will do.
I think the movies, good or bad, will be just movies. They'd have to be as amazing as Indiana Jones or Star Wars for me to prefer them over a solid television series, and with an ensemble cast of nine characters and Joss's skills all having been honed on long television story arcs? I'm not expecting the moon here. Firefly is not designed to work well in a movie theater. It's designed for slow development.
What I AM hoping for is that enough fuss will be kicked up and enough of a fan following generated through PR stunts like clips being shown at comic shows, that another shot at a television series will be granted.
On the other hand. .
If Joss decides that he actually wants to make a great movie, then he's suddenly got this weird, round-about chance. What an interesting way to snag a shot at the big screen and a big screen budget! Not everybody, even well respected TV producers, are offered a chance to make a film every day!
If he totally re-thinks and re-works things, (that is, if he demonstrates adaptability, which he certainly has done in the past), then he could well put together something which could stand out brilliantly; something which could not have otherwise been done on a TV budget or a small screen.
After all. . . Including Darth Vader, Star Wars had eight central characters, and that film worked out okay. .
-FL
Get an original idea and maybe people would give a shit. Recycling already done stories/plots is just absolutely pathetic.
I mean really, what the fuck!