You Cant Take the Sky from Me

Well, what do you know? GWJ comes through again with its impecable record of not steering me wrong.

Yes, that's right, Im talking about Firefly. Though this happens to be the second pass. I remember the gushing during its short run and I recall watching an episode or two. I remember feeling blase' and not being complimentary towards a few of the actors. I believe I couldnt stand the intro theme. I felt the captain and doctor were wooden. I didnt care for the shepard character at all and I thought the engineer was cute and youthful but one dimensional. I thought the western and sci fi mix clashed and looked cheaply made. The ship looked awkward and unbelievable performing acrobatics in atmospheric flight.

But a show with 9 fully developed characters cant be just jumped into. Everyones introduction was critical to understanding the show. Thats why the pilot episode was so important. The pilot episode explained the background of the Mal and Zoe first so you had a base from which to explore the other characters. Whedon was pretty masterful in how he moved you through the plot getting the characters on the ship with flashes on insight as to who they are and then giving the background more detail later and in other episodes.

Case in point, I was moved when the Shepard got shot, and returned to the ship saying,"Its good to be home." I want to know his secrets. (the ID card, "he's no shepard", manhandling the marshall) The doctor became a whole new character to me. He was so desperate to protect his sister he bartered surgery on Kaylee. I was moved when he decided to stand next to his sister and his willingness to be burned at the stake as a witch with her.

I dont know what it is about Joss but he knows how to get to me. In the episode, "The Messenger" the electronic message to Mal and Zoe was genuine and sad. The "Out of Gas" episode was brilliant and perfectly staged between flashback, flashback of flashback and Mal's struggle in the present. You gotta get a good grip on the type of universe they live in when someone not only kicks you when you are down, but they shoot you and take your ship as well. Mal was anything but wooden in that episode.

The way I figure the show is its an allegory of american indians being pushed into ever shrinking reservations. Except, the Serenity crew's reservation is the outer rim of planets, the "sky".

So, the Serenity's Dad is Mal. Its mother is Inora. Its conscience is the Sheperd, yet, as was hinted, the sheperd will learn just as much about morality as he will teach it. Zoe is loyalty. Kaylee is the energy and optimism. Jayne is the backwater muscle who you want to root for eventually becoming worthy of his statue in Jaynestown. The doctor is nobility. And then there is River... Should we be scared that Whedon is adept at creating convincing characters on the edge of sanity?

So the perplexing puzzle of the moment is, how is he going to make a Firefly movie? He cant redo the pilot and release it as a movie. However, I fear that those not familiar with the show may run into the same first impression I had before seeing the pilot episodes?

I had never even heard about this show when it was being run. About 6 months ago, my brother had been lent the dvd box set of the first (and only) season of Firefly. He watched a few of the episodes and told me I should check it out, and reluctantly, i did.

I watched one of teh episodes, and I fell in love with the characters. All of them were so well drawn out, and each one had a mistery behind them, whether it was shepherd''s background or the truth behind what really happened to River. When I finished watching the series finally, I truly felt sorry that the show had been cancelled. I wanted to know what was going to happen next.

I think the reason why the show''s ratings were so low was because it wasn''t promoted well enough. If this show would have been promoted as well as Smallville, Enterprise, Angel, or any of the shows that are running now, it would probably be by its season 3 or so.

I really do hope they make this movie, I know the cast and crew are up to it, and I hope that it does the show justice.

P.S. I signed up just so that I could reply to this.

""Out of Gas"" may be one of the best episodes of genre television ever made, at least within its context of a whole arc. I never get more dispondent about network television than when I''m reminded that Firefly was cancelled. I''m literally frothing with aniticpation over the movie ''Serenity''. There are so many elements that simply must be revisited and resolved.

On a side note, the Joss Whedon commentary on Objects in Space is absolutely not to be missed. It''s such an insight into the depth of thought put into this show.

The way I figure the show is its an allegory of american indians being pushed into ever shrinking reservations. Except, the Serenity crew''s reservation is the outer rim of planets, the ""sky"".

That would work, or it could be an Allegory for America itself, as federal power increased encroaching on the frontier of the West. Or the Civil War (state''s rights vs. federal rights). Considering the non-alliance people look like they''re from the Old West and the Alliance is technologically advanced and bureaucratic I''d guess the Old West scenario.

On a side note, the Joss Whedon commentary on Objects in Space is absolutely not to be missed. It''s such an insight into the depth of thought put into this show.

That was awesome! It really gives you an idea of what he''s thinking when he writes. I wanna watch the rest of the commentaries now, I completely forgot about them.

By the way, for those who don''t know there''s an Easter Egg of Adam Baldwin singing ''Hero of Canton'' on disc 4. Just go to the special features, scroll to ''Joss sings the firefly theme'' and then press left. The squigly line next to the cast image will be highlighted. Select that, and prepare to be serenaded.

"Elysium" wrote:

By the way, for those who don''t know there''s an Easter Egg of Adam Baldwin singing ''Hero of Canton'' on disc 4. Just go to the special features, scroll to ''Joss sings the firefly theme'' and then press left. The squigly line next to the cast image will be highlighted. Select that, and prepare to be serenaded.

Bring earplugs!

Okay, it isn''t that bad, but it is an extra helping of cheese. Whedon''s version of the theme wasn''t bad though.

P.S. I signed up just so that I could reply to this.

Good to know Im doing my part =)

Welcome, and be sure to check out the earlier Firefly and related sci fi posts. Im definitely not the first one to sing its praises. In fact, had it not been on sale when I was looking for season 3 of Angel, I dont think I would have picked it up. My loss for sure.

edit: also good to know Im not the only one who thought ""Out of Gas"" was exceptional storytelling.

Not only was this show promoted very poorly, it was shown out of order, and if I remember correctly pre-empted a couple of times as well. FOX (those god dam bastards) did everything they could to sink the series.

""Out of Gas"" took my breath away when I first saw it.

I so can''t wait to see the movie. I really hope it does really, really well and Joss is able to do more with the series, and that FOX doesn''t get 1 red cent from any of it!

Firefly was pre-empted three nearly consecutive times, I believe, for Baseball playoffs and the World Series. Just one more good reason to hate baseball.

Starting with ""Train Job"" wasnt a necessarily bad decision. I remember the comentary on the negotiations between Joss, Tim Minear and Fox. They didnt seem unreasonable other than they wanted instant numbers/action/audience. Firefly wasnt the show they wanted, but it could have been more successful without ADD expectations. Like I mentioned before, had I not seen the episode I saw first(Neska was such a cliche'' he made all that clashed stand out more), and saw the pilot or ""Train Job"" or ""Out of Gas"" I might have been hooked during the show''s run.

The funny thing is, if this was called ""Star Trek: Early Frontiers"" it would be a smash that couldnt possibly have had a shorter run than Voyager.

Firefly was pre-empted three nearly consecutive times, I believe, for Baseball playoffs and the World Series. Just one more good reason to hate baseball.

Makes ya wonder why all the urgency to ramp up the show if they had baseball to cover prime time...

Neska was the one character I found to be totally un-compelling. I liked his nutso-knife-fetish-but-got-sucked-into-the-turbine henchman more.

I have to say that I eagerly await ''Serenity'' with all the drooling fanboi-ism I can muster. The thought that Enora and Mal... well... or that there might be some explanation of Blue Hand Group and how Booke fits in with the Feds. Oh! It''s practically titillating! And what about Wash and his dinosaur fascination? Perhaps the doctor''s flashback about River talking about how dinosaurs were used in an attack is really foreshadowing that the crew will be stranded on a dinosaur planet, fighting for survival!

The possibilities are limitless!

You guys brought Firefly to my life, for which I already wrote a thank you at some point. I''ve been slowly loaning our DVDs out to friends, and making fanboy converts...

I still laugh hysterically if I just hear a bit of ""hero of canton."" And will now have it running through my head for a while. One of the funniest things in the commentary, pointed out to me by my wife, is that all of the actors sing along with the theme song in the commentaries.

Excellent show. I really hope movie opens up better deal, longer air time, etc etc etc.

I''ve already announced to my wife that if I''m ever forced to sing karaoke, it will be the Firefly theme song. I practice, much to her dismay, with every episode we watch.

So when can we all download your version Sway?

How hilarious would that be to make a copy of us all singing it on teamspeak and put it up on the website. I gotta find a copy of the lyrics!

Anyone play guitar?

I''m still bummed that Firefly got canceled. I wasn''t impressed when I 1st watched it, but after seeing 3 episodes it grew on me.

I use to be a trekie till babylon 5 came out, and I still like babylon 5 but now I''d chose firefly over them anyday.

I was excited when I heard sci-fi was going to pick up Firefly, but wouldn''t you know with all the cheesy crap they do choose to show they passed.

Anyway I got a membership to costco for christmas, and while checking out the dvds I saw the firefly box set. I got weak in the knees. It had never before shown episodes!

Since then I''ve let many a friend borrow it, and it never fails they initially are hesitant but by the end they''re angry that it''s over. I hope the movie does well and firefly gets back on tv. My one fear is it won''t be the same actors and if so it will not have the messh that it did.

Once again I must proclaim my love for the show. How I wish it were on. I haven''t even been watching much TV since it got cancelled.