Firefly on DVD

[RavishingRickRudo 0]

 

I got the Box set yesterday (yeah, that's right, I bought it instead of Buffy Season 5 :swerve: ), and I'm just blown away. This is, without doubt, the best first season (and the only season, therefore having an near-perfect record for quality episodes) that I have ever seen... and I'm only done Disc 1 & 2! I've watched the first episode "Serenity" 2 1/2 times in the past 24 hours (The second half -I had seen it before, and had seen the 1st half again last week), then again with Commentary, then again forcing a friend to watch it), and it's such a good fucking show. It's full of... oh what's that called... oh yeah, DICKERY! Everyone is a bastard, in someway, on that show. Gotta love it.

 

Ok, THOUGHTS?

Edited January 4, 2004 by RavishingRickRudo

[Mole 0]

I got half way through "Serenity" and stopped to go to sleep.

 

I haven't gotten around to watch the rest of it, I haven't had the time.

[RavishingRickRudo 0]

SLEEP?! Who needs sleep?! Overrated if you ask me. You be a fuckin trooper and force yourself! WWJD?! What Would Jayne Do?!

[Downhome 0]

I never heard of Firefly untill you RRR, and all that I do know of it is that it's a TV show.

[RavishingRickRudo 0]

Same with my buddy who I forced to watch it. I can't name any shows on Fox right now that are on Friday nights - where, unfortunately, Firefly was saddled (no pun intended).

 

I'll explain the premise as best I can.

 

"It's a Western in Space" = Short Version.

 

To expand on that:

 

"Five hundred years in the future there's a whole new frontier, and the crew of the Firefly-class spaceship Serenity is eager to stake a claim on the action. They'll take any job, legal or illegal, to keep fuel in the tanks and food on the table. But things get a bit more complicated after they take on a passenger wanted by the new totalitarian Alliance regime. Now they find themselves on the run, desperate to steer clear of the Alliance ships and the flesh-eating Reavers who live on the fringes of space."

 

- Back of the Box

 

What I really like about the show is that Joss has a knack of giving you the impression of one thing - but goes in a totally different direction. For example:

 

Spoiler (Highlight to Read):

They pick up a crate off an abandoned ship - inside it looks like bars of something, you think it's gold. In the end they turn out to be foodbars.

 

I love the universe he has created. This is no star trek, nothing comes easy, there are no replicators and there sure-as-shit ain't no Federation Values. The two villains, the Alliance and the Reavers, represent two of the more seedy side of humanity. The Alliance being the cold, corporate, government, let's-buy-a-$150-typewriter-and-give-nothing-to-the-homeless type. They are what humanity becomes when thinking about the bottom line rather than truth. For example:

 

Spoiler (Highlight to Read):

The character "Book" - a preacher - is dying, and they take him to the Alliance ship for help... well, they don't. That is until they find out that he's important and worth caring for.

 

The Reavers, well, they fucking scare me. In the first episode they are established as a huge threat - but it doesn't really sink in until "Bushwhacked" where

 

Spoiler (Highlight to Read):

You see a survivor of a Reaver attack - someone whom they made watch as they brutally attacked and kill the rest of the crew... or as Zoe puts it "First they'll rape us to death, then they'll eat us, and take our skin and put it on their clothing.. hopefully, in that order."... and the only way he can compensate is by "becoming" like one of them, so he mutilates himself, speaks irrationally, and goes around killing folk - some pretty fucked up stuff. Really makes the Reavers seem threatening. They're a bunch of Hannibal Lectors, only more psychotic.

 

They are the opposite of The Alliance - they are the primal side.

 

In this universe, various planets and moons are terriformed and colonized - they are not like Star Trek where resources are unlimited; they have to start over, which is why you have the wild west motif. Makes sense, says I. It takes the original Star Trek premise further and does it in a way that doesn't talk down to you in technobabble.

 

Which is another quirk I really like - the culture here isn't all American; there's an influx of Chinese culture. You'll hear various Chinese phrases (usually when they are mad and cursing) as well as Chinese lettering. Cultures have merged and formed a new one.

 

I also like how they talk about the destruction of earth as an afterthought and not made it a big deal. You hear it as an off-hand comment rather than a history lesson.

 

The names aren't "normal" but that's cool cause I actually remember them... which is actually quite amazing considering that I suck at remembering names. You have Mal, Zoe, Wash, Jayne (male), Kaylee, Book, Simon, Inara, and River.

 

The Dickery. I love people being bastards.

 

Spoiler (Highlight to Read):

Mal has a guy down after a bloody sword fight and has his blade pointing. "Great men give Mercy" *Pokes guy in Gut* "I guess I'm just a good guy" *Pokes again* "I'm ok"

 

The Women are Hot. Small point, but Inara is so very fuckable. Which is another fun thing about this universe - Whores (or "companions") are actually looked up to and is a respectable position (for the most part).

 

The Camera work is really, really, um, not usual. It gets arty sometimes, and they take a lot of risks with a lot of their shots. It's not conventional and it really enhances the universe created.

 

I really like the characters. Mal is like, fucking awesome. Nathan Fillion does an excellent job here. There's so much depth to his character, that I won't go into it.

 

Spoiler (Highlight to Read):

The scene were he tells Jayne to get up and go from the table was just fucking sweet. Joss said in the commentary that that was were he said "This guy is a star" (or something to that regard) and I totally agree.

 

Wash is hilarious, the scene with the dinosaurs had me on the floor. I can't wait to see more of him and listen to his commentary.

 

Jayne is the typical tough dumb guy, but he fucking owns that role so it's not so typical. "Remember, I just want you to scare him" "What? Pain is Scary" He is not the bastard with the heart of gold like Mal is; he's just a bastard.

 

Book, River, and Inara have their gimmicks, and Book and River plays theirs really well, but Inara kinda sleeps through it... but that doesn't really matter cause she's has the aforementioned fuckability.

 

Zoe and Kaylee are good, Kaylee has me between fucking annoying at times and that's such a sweet girl at other times. Zoe does the best she can with what she gat; and she does it well.

 

Simon is particularly excellent.

Edited December 31, 2003 by RavishingRickRudo

[Hank Kingsley 0]

Yeah, I think I'm stopping by Borders today to pick it up.

[starvenger 0]

"It's a Western in Space" = Short Version.

Which is basically what I hated about it. I like Sci-Fi, but I don't like westerns. Still, I gave it a try, went "bleh", and moved on.

 

I can suspend all sorts of disbelief for sci-fi, but one where EVERY FUCKING WORLD is back to the era of the western. This is the opposite end of the Trek scale, where I hate that everything is happy happy (which may explain why I like DS9 the best out of the Trek series).

 

But the main thing here was that none of the main characters really appealed to me - I didn't think that any of them were particularly likeable. And when you have that lack of connection to the show, you're gonna tune out.

[Downhome 0]

Thanks for the details, I'll download the first episode and see if I like it. If I do, I'll pick it up.

 

Why was it cancelled exactly? Did they give any reasoning behind doing so after only 15 episodes?

[Edwin MacPhisto 0]

The main story is that its ratings weren't good enough for the show's prohibitive cost. Fox never really got behind it marketing-wise, either. It's very strange - they picked up an expensive show helmed by one of TV's best-regarded writers, and didn't care to let anyone know they had it.

[The Ghost of bps21 0]

My take on Firefly:

 

After watching all the episodes I can honestly say that it has passed Quantum Leap on my list and is now my SECOND favorite show ever.

 

The first is obviously Buffy...

 

And what REALLY pisses me off...is that Firefly's first season is as tight as Buffy's third...which really makes you wonder how good the rest of the show could have been.

 

I have little doubt that if Firefly was given a few years instead of months...it could have passed Buffy as my favorite show ever. And with as much as I love Buffy...that is saying ALOT.

[The Ghost of bps21 0]

I should add...

 

Once you get to the episode "Out of Gas" it's over. That's the point where the show goes from neat to excellent and every passing moment of greatness makes you want to blow up Fox for cancelling the show.

[Hank Kingsley 0]

Well, I got it today, and after just seeing Serenity, I'm hooked. Nathan Fillion is just AWESOME. I thought Carlos Jacott (the fed, he also played Ken in the Buffy ep "Anne") was a great actor and I'd like to see more of him

Spoiler (Highlight to Read):

even though Malcom shooting him just kicked ASS

.

[starvenger 0]

Why was it cancelled exactly? Did they give any reasoning behind doing so after only 15 episodes?

Here's the reason: Friday, 8pm ET. X-Files somehow spoiled Fox into thinking that this is the perfect time for a fanboy-oriented drama, when really, it's more of a "TGIF" night.

 

Some of the shows that have appeared (and failed) in that timeslot:

- Millenium

- The Lone Gunmen

- Dark Angel (which was dumped because they were so high on Firefly - which of course they cancelled halfway through the season. Sound logic, eh?)

- Firefly

- Whatever was there last year. Fastlane?

[RavishingRickRudo 0]

Which is basically what I hated about it. I like Sci-Fi, but I don't like westerns. Still, I gave it a try, went "bleh", and moved on.

 

I don't like Westerns either and the first time I saw the show I was like "eeeeh, I dunno bout this" - then I saw Mal and Zoe on Buffy and Angel and caught it again in re-runs up here and have now come to enjoy the Western element.

 

I can suspend all sorts of disbelief for sci-fi, but one where EVERY FUCKING WORLD is back to the era of the western.

 

It's not every. In Ariel they go to Ariel, which is a core planet (meaning, one they actually developed) and it's high tech and whatnot. In Trash, they go to a planet that has colonies suspended in ships above water. They occasionally go to planets like these, and it's a bit of a treat when they do, but Mal likes to keep on the fringe and avoid 'places like those'.

 

This is the opposite end of the Trek scale, where I hate that everything is happy happy (which may explain why I like DS9 the best out of the Trek series).

 

It's happy happy? Admittedly, Joss has said that he lightened up the show due to Fox saying it was too dark and needed more humour, but it still certainly has it's darker elements. The Alliance/BlueSun/River 'thing' and the Reavers definitely aren't happy happy. Me, I like Happy Happy, so when those moments do happen I feel all warm inside. Joss has made it quite apparent when you listen to his commentary on "Serenity" that he wanted it on the opposite end of the Trek scale.

 

But the main thing here was that none of the main characters really appealed to me - I didn't think that any of them were particularly likeable. And when you have that lack of connection to the show, you're gonna tune out

 

That was definitely the main reason I couldn't get into it the first time. There's no reason for you to watch the show if you don't know any of the cast members. There's no reason for you to cheer Mal Reynolds. Then he showed up on Buffy as Caleb - so I got to see more of him - and the next time I was watching out for him, I had an "in". Now that I've watched the series, I can't imagine anyone NOT liking his character - I think you're crazy.

[RavishingRickRudo 0]

I LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVED "Out of Gas", I couldn't get the smile off my face when watching it.

 

Spoiler (Highlight to Read):

Wash with a mustache - BRILLIANT~!. Jayne turning on his crew for better pay - BRILLIANT~! Kaylee getting fucked by the old mechanic - not so brilliant. I didn't picture Kaylee as a slut, hmph! There goes that. And the way they weaved the flashbacks together was amazing - never messed up the flow once. And the beginning with them sitting around the table = when the big-ass grin on my face began. When Mal was lying on the hospital bed at the end = the big ass grin still there. That is certainly a must-see episode.

[RavishingRickRudo 0]

Introduction

 

I have watched every episode of Firefly but "Objects in Space" - and I don't think I will ever watch that episode. I don't want this journey to end, I don't want that sense of finality, I don't want these characters to die. If I watch that episode then I've watched the whole series; It's over. Sure, I'll enjoy watching the shows again and again and again, but I will have nothing to look forward to. As long as "Objects in Space" remains unwatched, there will always be 'something' out there.

 

That may sound a lil crazy, but that's what this show has done to me. Over the past few days I have fallen in love with Firefly. I love this show. I think I love this show in a way I have never loved another television show before. Melodramatic? Sure. The Truth? Oh yeah. The sense of satisfaction I get, the smile on my face, the pure joy I have from watching this show can only really be paralleled by my enjoyment of PRIDE - and even then, it's different.

 

When I first heard about Firefly, I was already a fan of Joss Whedon, but I was abit skeptical on this project. It didn't "fit" into the same mold as Buffy or Angel. The commercials I saw for it didn't help matters either - as all it did was confirm what I already knew; this was a Joss Whedon show, in space. The first episode I saw - and quite frankly, only saw a little bit of it - I was clueless. I didn't know these characters, I didn't know the actors; the only attachment to this show that I had was Joss Whedon - and that doesn't go very far if I don't know who I'm watching. I really wanted to like Firefly - since I like both Joss and Sci-fi, but I didn't.

 

Then along came Caleb and Jasmine.

 

I didn't think Nathan Fillion was right for Caleb - he wasn't what I pictured after reading the spoilers. In the end, I ended up liking him in that role. But I loved Gina Torres as Jasmine. Torres isn't a drop-dead bombshell, but there is something about her that takes your attention and keeps it. So now I knew 2 of the Firefly crew. I had someone to cheer for. This is perhaps the biggest stumbling block in watching any show - attaching yourself to the characters and actors. I think that's probably why the Buffy and Angel fans will have the easiest transition into the show, while "outsiders" might have trouble. But I can tell you this, if you get through "Serenity", if you really force yourself to get through it even if you don't know what's going on and who the hell these people are, you should become hooked. Besides, it's not that hard to "get through" the first episode...

 

Episode Review's coming...

[The Ghost of bps21 0]

Objects in Space was my second favorite episode of the series (after Out of Gas).

 

If and when you do watch it...look for Richard Brooks (from the first couple seasons of Law and Order) giving an absolutely brilliant performance in a guest role.

[Mole 0]

Wow, I really need to watch some more episodes.

 

It will be done tonight.

[RavishingRickRudo 0]

**spoilers within**

 

Serenity

 

"Serenity is a place that once you're in, you never leave" - Gina Torres, Firefly

 

These are the words that Zoe says to Simon in a deleted scene found on the DVD. It's a shame that scene was taken out of the original episode since it sheds so much light into the name of the ship and the mindstate of Malcolm Reynolds.

 

The episode begins in the midst of a battle - the Battle for Serenity valley, infact. Sgt. Malcolm Reynolds is giving his ever-shrinking numbers of troops orders as well as trying to inspire them to keep fighting, keep living, keep going on. He tells them that back-up is on its way, and that if they hold on that much longer, everything is going to be alright. He kisses his cross before he heads off from the bunker - that faith gets tested, and destroyed, when he finds out that no support will be given. In that deleted scene mentioned above, Zoe tells Simon that the Independents (her side) and the Alliance made a peace treaty and left both sides in that valley for a week before coming down to save them. What was once a squad of 2000 was widdled down to 150, all under the command of Sgt. Reynolds. (This is from memory, if I am wrong on a few numbers, correct them ). On will alone, Mal and Zoe made it.

 

"Just keep swimming, just keep swimming, just keep swimming" - Ellen Degeneres, Finding Nemo

 

That is what Mal is doing. He keeps fighting, he keeps moving. He is a force. As long as his ship keeps flight, he is alive. His crew members are attracted to that strength, that force. They get power from it. I could write a novel on Mal, his character has that many complexities. He is good, he is bad, he is funny, he is tortured, he wants love, he doesn't want complications - and what is love but one, giant, complication? He is noble, he is a coward, he always does the right thing, he is a criminal. He is, what Kris Kristofferson would say, is a "walking contradiction".

 

Why is it so important to know Mal? Well, he's the hero. If you can't like Mal, you can't like Firefly. If you don't get Mal, you don't get Firefly. Mal is lots of things, as is this show. And that's what "Serenity" is; lots of things. In 2 hours (ahem, 88 minutes), we are introduced to a whole new UNIVERSE. A universe where prostitution is not only the oldest profession, but a respected one as well. Where the last two superpowers left are the US and China; meaning people speak both languages and the Alliance flag is a merging of the Red and White stripes and the Yellow Stars. Where various planets and moons are terriformed and the Government leaves the colonists to their own devices - hence the Western Motif. This is most interestingly shown in the payment Shepard Book gives for passage on the ship; Strawberries (as well as other produce). Money is still exchanged, but bartering is just as popular. Why care about gold when you are starving? Wouldn't you rather have food (or in this case, a foodbar)?

 

I think the biggest selling point was the humour. Wash playing with the dinosaurs was so much genius it was genious. "And I shall call this land... "THIS LAND". "She's dead" *slow motion running, Book sadly leaves room, Kaylee's hand falling, Kaylee waving* "He's psychotic" "I'm a bad man, I'm a bad man". Shooting the horse, shooting the cop, both so fucking practical. All these moments had me on the floor. This show is funnier than 99% of the comedies I've seen, legit. Whedon knows Funny, and Funny knows Whedon.

 

Whedon also knows booking. In his commentary, he notes about the Reavers and Jaynes fear of them, "When the big tough bad guy is scared of them, then you should be". The Reavers scare me, but they scare me in the way that I want to be scared and I want to see more of them, and for me, that rarely ever happens.

 

Review Continued later

[Placebo Effect 0]

I had Netflix send me the first disc.

 

I went into the thing with an open mind. Not liking sci-fi, nor westerns, I didn't expect much. And that's exactly what I got. To me, it was very underwhelming.

 

I loved some of the dialogue, the characters were intriguing, etc. But when it came down to it, I just couldn't get into the story.

[RavishingRickRudo 0]

Whether you liked the show or not, you can't exactly say that they 'gave' you 'nothing'. There's a TON of stuff here to grab ahold of.

 

As for the main story, there isn't really much of one... and that's the way it's supposed to be. It's not like Angel or Buffy where there's this Big Bad there all the time and giving them an objective; the objective is just to keep the ship in the sky. The subplots are where the real action is: Mal and Inara's relationship, Simon and River, Jaynes inevitable betrayal, Wash and Zoe's marriage, Simon and Jaynes feud, the various interactions with the Alliance and Reavers, Simon and Kaylee, Jayne and Kaylee, Book and just about everyone, Mal and Zoe - there's a ton of stuff to get into. I think the main "hook", at least for me, is to find out what they did to River and why.

 

In other news, I just watched "War Stories" - which is perhaps my favourite episode - with the Commentary on... *drools*... Nathan Fillion IS GOD. Alan Tudyk is VERY CLOSE. Best commentary yet (I still have 2 more to go, and that last one is the "Objects in Space".. *lighting* *thunder* duhduhduh!). Why was this show cancelled again?

[starvenger 0]

This is the opposite end of the Trek scale, where I hate that everything is happy happy (which may explain why I like DS9 the best out of the Trek series).

 

It's happy happy? Admittedly, Joss has said that he lightened up the show due to Fox saying it was too dark and needed more humour, but it still certainly has it's darker elements. The Alliance/BlueSun/River 'thing' and the Reavers definitely aren't happy happy. Me, I like Happy Happy, so when those moments do happen I feel all warm inside. Joss has made it quite apparent when you listen to his commentary on "Serenity" that he wanted it on the opposite end of the Trek scale.

No, the Trek universe is happy happy. Firefly is the opposite of that. More or less. Sorry, I reread what I wrote and realized that it was confusing...

[Tawren 0]

Damn you RRR, now I want to pick this up!

[RavishingRickRudo 0]

RANDOM (and HILARIOUS) Quotes!

 

Wash: "Everything looks good from here... (beat...playing with plastic dinosaurs over his console) Yes. Yes, this is a fertile land, and we will thrive."

 

(as Stegosaurus) "We will rule over all this land, and we will call it... 'This Land'."

 

(as T-Rex) "I think we should call it...your grave!"

 

(Stegosaurus) "Ah, curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal!"

 

(T-Rex) "Ha ha HA! Mine is an evil laugh...now die!"

 

----------------------------

Inara: (pissed) "What did I say to you about barging into my shuttle?"

 

Mal: "That it was manly and impulsive?"

 

Inara: "Yes, precisely. Only the exact phrase I used was 'don't'."

 

----------------------------------

 

Zoe: "Proximity alert. Must be coming up on something."

 

Wash: (alarmed) "Oh my god. What can it be? We're all doomed! Who's flying this thing!?" (deadpan) "Oh right, that would be me. Back to work."

 

-----------------------------------------

 

Mal: "It's a real burn, being right so often."

 

------------------------------------------

 

Harrow: "You have to finish it, lad. You have to finish it. For a man to lay beaten... and yet breathing? It makes him a coward."

 

Inara: "It's humiliation."

 

Mal: "Sure. It would be humiliating. Having to lie there while the better man refuses to spill your blood. Mercy is the mark of a great man. (lightly stabs Atherton with the sword) Guess I'm just a good man. (stabs him again) Well, I'm all right."

 

-----------------------------------------

 

Harrow: "You didn't have to wound the man."

 

Mal: "Yeah, I know, it was just funny."

 

-----------------------------------------

 

Jayne: (mock reading Simon's journal) "Dear Diary...today I was pompous and my sister was crazy." (flips page) "Today, we were kidnapped by hill folk never to be seen again. It was the best day ever."

 

---------------------------------------------

 

Mal: "Well, look at this! Appears we got here just in the nick of time. Whaddya suppose that makes us?"

 

Zoe: "Big damn heroes, sir."

 

Mal: "Ain't we just!"

 

----------------------------------------------

 

Inara: "So, explain to me again why Zoe wasn't in the dress?"

 

Mal: "Tactics, woman! Needed her in the back. Besides, them soft cotton dresses feel kind of nice. There's a whole airflow."

 

Inara: "And you would know that because...?"

 

Mal: "You can't open the book of my life and jump in the middle. Like woman, I'm a mystery."

 

Inara: "Best keep it that way. I withdraw the question."

 

-------------------------------------------

 

Book: "If you take sexual advantage of her, you're going to burn in a very special level of hell. A level they reserve for child molesters and people who talk at the theater."

--------------------------------------------

 

Mal: "I would appreciate it if one person on this boat would not assume I'm an evil, lecherous hump."

 

Zoe: "No one's saying that, sir."

 

Wash: "Yeah, we're pretty much just giving each other significant glances and laughing incessantly."

 

----------------------------------------------------

 

Mal: "Are you offering me a trade?"

 

Jayne: "A trade!? Hell, it's theft. This is the best damn gun made by man. It has extreme sentimental value. It's miles more worthy than what you got."

 

Mal: "What I got? She has a name."

 

Jayne: "So does this!" (caresses the gun lovingly) "I call it Vera."

 

Mal: "Well, my days of taking you seriously are certainly coming to a middle."

 

----------------------------------------------------

 

Zoe: "You paid money for this, sir? On purpose?"

 

Mal: "What? Come on, seriously, Zoe. Whaddya think?"

 

Zoe: "Honestly, sir? I think you got robbed."

 

Mal: "Robbed? What? No. What do you mean?"

 

Zoe: "It's a piece of fei-oo." [fei-oo. = junk]

 

Mal: "Fei-oo? Okay, she won't be winning any beauty contests anytime soon. But she's solid. Ship like this, be with ya 'til the day you die."

 

Zoe: "Cause it's a deathtrap."

 

--------------------------------------------------

 

Book: "Yes, I'd forgotten you're moonlighting as a criminal mastermind now. Got your next heist planned?"

 

Simon: "No. But I'm thinking about growing a big black mustache. I'm a traditionalist."

 

----------------------------------------

 

Mal: "When I want a lot of medical jargon, I'll talk to a doctor.

 

Simon: "You are talking to a doctor."

 

Mal: "Yeah, okay, my point is could've been you she might have shot just then. The doctor, as you just made note of. And who exactly could fix you? Not nobody. We're deep in space, corner of No and Where. You take extra care with her, 'cause we're very much alone out here

 

------------------------------------------------

 

Wash: "Psychic, though? That sounds like something out of science fiction."

 

Zoe: "We live in a space ship, dear."

 

---------------------------------------------

 

Early: "You know, with the exception of one deadly and unpredictable midget, this girl is the smallest cargo I've ever had to transport. Yet by far the most troublesome. Does that seem right to you?"

 

Simon: "What'd he do?"

 

Early: "Who?"

 

Simon: "The midget."

 

Early: "Arson. Little man loved fire."

 

--------------------------------------------

 

Mal: "Well they tell you: never hit a man with a closed fist. But it is, on occasion, hilarious."

 

------------------------------------------------

 

JAYNE: "You know what the chain of command is? It's the chain I go get and beat you with until you understand who's in ruttin' command here!"

 

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[RavishingRickRudo 0]

MORE! Quotes!

 

Mal: You could have got off with Shepard Book at Bathgate Abbey. You could have been meditating on the wonders of your rock garden by now.

 

Jayne: Well, it beats just sitting.

 

Wash: It is just sitting.

 

------------------------------------------

 

Mal: You called the Feds.

 

Jayne: What? I got pinched!

 

Mal: Which is what happens when you call the Feds

 

----------------------------------------------

 

Mal: No one's gonna hurt you... anymore than we already did.

 

-------------------------------------------------

 

Book: I believe there's a power greater than men. A power that heals.

 

Mal: Reavers might take issue with that philosophy. If they had a philosophy. And weren't too busy knawing on your insides.

 

-------------------------------------------------

 

Jayne: I ain't going over there with those bodies. No ruttin' way, not after Reavers messed with them.

 

Zoe: Jayne. You'll scare the women.

 

----------------------------------------------

 

Simon: I swear -- when it's appropriate.

 

Kaylee: Simon, the whole point of swearing is that it ain't appropriate.

 

------------------------------------------------

 

Jayne: I needed to find some tape.

 

Simon: So you had to tear my infirmary apart?

 

Jayne: Apparently.

 

--------------------------------------------

 

Simon: My god. You're like a trained ape -- without the training

 

--------------------------------------------

 

River: They say the snow on the roof was too heavy. The ceiling will cave in, his brains are in terrible danger!

 

Book: River? Please. Why don't you come out?

 

River: No! Can't! Too much hair!

 

Zoe: River, honey, he's putting the hair away now.

 

River: Doesn't matter. It'll still be there... waiting.

 

-------------------------------------------

 

M: It's my estimation that... every man ever got a statue made of him was one kind of sumbitch or another. It ain't about you, Jayne. It's about what they need.

 

---------------------------------------------

 

Jayne: St. Jayne, it's got a ring to it!

 

Book: I'm just trying to remember how many miracles you've performed.

 

Jayne: I once hit a guy in the neck from 500 yards with a bent scope. Does that count upstairs?

 

Book: Oh, it will be taken into consideration.

 

Jayne: You made that sound kind of ominous.

 

--------------------------------------------

 

Jayne: Anyone remember her coming at me with a butcher knife?

 

Wash: Wacky fun....

 

Jayne: You want to go, little man?

 

Wash: Only if it's someplace with candlelight.

 

--------------------------------------------

 

Early: Is it still her room when it's empty? Does the room, the thing, have purpose? Or do we... What's the word?

 

Simon: I really can't help you.

 

----------------------------------------

Simon: So you're a bounty hunter.

 

Early: That ain't it at all.

 

Simon: Then what are you?

 

Early: I'm a bounty hunter.

 

--------------------------------------------

 

Jayne: All them years of priest training, taken out by one bounty hunter.

 

Book: Don't get me wrong, I gave him a hell of a fight.

 

Jayne: Epic, I'm guessing.

 

Book: There'll be poems and songs, just you wait.

 

Jayne: At least you got some play. I missed every damn thing.

 

------------------------------------------

 

Zoe: "Get her running again?"

 

Mal: Yeah.

 

Zoe: So, not running now?

 

Mal: Not so much.

 

----------------------------------------------

 

Jayne: Now Inara, she's gotta have some funny whorin' stories, I venture.

 

Inara: Oh, do I ever. Funny and sexy -- you have no idea. And you never will.

 

--------------------------------------------

 

River (about Book looking to the Bible): Don't be afraid. That's what it says, don't be afraid.

 

Book: Yes.

 

River: But you are afraid. You're afraid we're going to run out of air, that we'll die gasping. But we won't -- that's not going to happen. We'll freeze to death first.

 

---------------------------------------------

 

Wash: Even if some passerby did happen to receive it, all it would do is muck up their navigation.

 

Mal: Could be that's true.

 

Was: Damn right it's true! They'd be forced to stop and dig out our signal before they could even go anyplace.

 

Mal: [gives him a 'think about it' stare]

 

Wash: Well, maybe I should do that, then!

 

Mal: Maybe you should!

 

Wash: Okay!

 

Mal: Good!

 

Wash: Fine!

 

Jayne: What do you two think you're doing, fighting at a time like this? You're going to use up all the air.

 

-------------------------------------------

 

Mal: If it's Alliance trouble you got, you might want to consider another ship. Some onboard here fought for the Independents.

 

Inara: The Alliance has no quarrel with me. I supported Unification.

 

Mal: Did ya? Well, i don't suppose you're the only whore that did.

 

Inara: Oh, one further addendum -- that's the last time you get to call me "whore".

 

Mal: Absolutely. Never again.

 

--------------------------------------------

 

Mal: Well, looks can be deceiving.

 

Jayne: Not as deceiving as a low-down, dirty... deceiver.

 

Mal: Well said. Wasn't that well said, Zoe?

 

Zoe: Had a kind of poetry to it, sir.

 

-----------------------------------------

 

Jayne: Tell us where the cargo is so I can shoot you.

 

Mal: Point of interest? Offering to shoot us might not work so well as an incentive as you might imagine.

 

-------------------------------------------

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Oh yes, and credit:

 

http://www.sunnydale-slayers.com/firefly/quotes/

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Here is an AWESOME Q&A with Joss and Tim about Fox and Firefly. READ!

 

CREDIT:

http://64.5.52.62/%7ecfqcom/nuked/modules....article&sid=166

 

Firefly: The Firefly Episode Guide, Part One

 

Joss Whedon and Tim Minear take fans through every episode of the short-lived series now available on DVD. by Ed Gross

 

For the 2002-2003 television season, the Fox network had had an internal debate over renewing James Cameron’s Dark Angel for a third season, or picking up Joss Whedon’s new science fiction series, Firefly. Ultimately they chose the latter, but more or less gave up on it before it even hit the airwaves, most notably by rejecting the show’s two-hour pilot and demanding that Whedon and co-executive producer Tim Minear write and create an episode that could serve as the first episode. This was not a good first step and, indeed, it felt as though to a large degree the network had abandoned the show even before it made it to the air.

 

Now the complete series is being issued on DVD in a box set available on December 9th, and to herald its arrival, both Whedon and Minear have agreed to discuss the making of each episode with CFQ. Their views will be presented each week day beginning today until the show reaches stores.

 

For those unfamiliar with Firefly, the show’s official DVD description is as follows: “Five hundred years in the future, there is a whole new frontier, and the crew of the Firefly-class spaceship Serenity is eager to stake a claim on the action. They'll take any job, legal or illegal, to keep fuel in the tanks and food on the table. But things get a bit more complicated after they take on a passenger wanted by the new totalitarian Alliance regime. Now they find themselves on the run, desperate to steer clear of Alliance ships and the flesh-eating Reavers who live on the fringes of space.”

 

CFQ: Looking at the fact that you’ve got this box set of Firefly coming out, is there a certain sense of vindication on your part?

 

JOSS WHEDON: Big sense of vindication. Not just because there are episodes that nobody in the States got to say, but it represented someone in the Newscorp Corporation saying that we had something worth selling. And it came from, I’m told, the foreign markets just sort of going, “Well, where is it?” Fox said, “Well, we sort of cancelled it.” And they’re like, “Yeah, but where is it?” The fact that that desire is out there is a huge thing, but it’s also the fact that anyone can now pick it up and see what it was we were doing, when so people got the chance when we were actually doing it. So it’s enormous vindication and surprising.

 

TIM MINEAR: We actually got an “A” in Entertainment Weekly. Now does that provide vindication? Let’s put it this way: I finally agree with one of their reviews. Their feeling was that it was smart, cool and that the extras were really nice, and that there were three unaired episodes, which would be like “crack to the Firefly fans.” As a DVD enthusiast, I’d buy it.

 

CFQ: It seems to me that the following for the show really seems to have been growing since the cancellation.

 

JOSS WHEDON: Even on the Internet its following has increased since after it was cancelled, which is….bittersweet. Last week it was particularly gratifying when they got it over in England and I got to see posts from people watching it for the first time, and in the right order on a regular schedule.

 

CFQ: I don’t think you can really blame the audience. I think Fox bungled this one.

 

JOSS WHEDON: I don’t blame the audience. According to reporters, some people liked it and some people hated. I don’t know who actually hated it. I’m sure there are people who did because it didn’t work for them, but it was never a question of people hating it, it was a question of nobody seeing it. The fan base was as devoted as Buffy’s was after three years in the space of 11 episodes. It was sort of amazing. It didn’t surprise me that much, because I loved the idea for the show, but when we were putting the show together and making it, I felt it was extraordinary in a way that I had never felt about anything I’d done. More than any single thing. The cast jelled. The show, creatively, just looked and felt the way I wanted it to. It didn’t feel like it was the first year. It felt like we had found our footing from day one, and I’d just never been with a bunch – both cast and crew – who made me feel that this was meant to be in such a strong way. In truth, it’s not as easy a sell a concept as Buffy – young girl fights vampires. Boom! You get it. Now you get it everywhere. This was a little different, but to me it was the most grown-up, fulfilling and best experience I’ve ever had. That’s why I’m desperately trying to keep it going.

 

TIM MINEAR: It didn’t surprise me, in a way, that the show didn’t find an audience by the time we started airing. First of all, it was the weirdest thing on TV, in many respects. Is it a space show? Is it a western? Is it a Civil War show? Is it a comedy? Well, no, it’s a Joss Whedon show, so the answer is yes to all of those things. But when Fox refused to air the pilot, I knew we were screwed.

 

CFQ: What are the odds of a movie version? I know there was the whole announcement that Universal was going to make a movie….

 

JOSS WHEDON: That was a little premature as there is no green light. I can’t play the odds, I can’t really count the odds. They’re not bad. The interest is genuine. It’s up to me to turn out a script that’s worth making, which is what I’m busily trying to do. I’m dealing with good, smart people, which is both good and bad. It’s good because of the interest they’ve shown, but it’s bad because I can’t pull one over on them. So it’s really up to me to see if that works and I should know soon.

 

CFQ: It’s fairly unusual for a studio like Fox to relinquish the rights for another studio to pick it up.

 

JOSS WHEDON: It was extremely gracious of them and unexpected. A lot of people were, like, “Nobody would do that.” I think they felt bad that it didn’t work out, however that may have happened, and didn’t want to get in the way of something they knew I was that passionate about, which I really, really appreciate. I do have a contract with them, and you could say this was smart business. People can do smart business in two ways, and one of them is the gracious way, which is as rare as it is beautiful.

 

CFQ: In putting together the DVDs, obviously you sat down and rewatched the entire run of the series again. Overall, what was your feeling in retrospect?

 

JOSS WHEDON: Overall, the more I watched, the angrier I got. I think some of the best stuff we’ve ever done is in that show. Seeing every episode, some are better than others, especially because you’re dealing with so many facets of creating a science fiction world on television. There’s budget, you can be a little uncertain about the chemistry of certain costumes or ideas or traditions. Some things register better than others. I see them and I think, “This is really cool.” I’m just a big fan geek as always. Every one of them has something in it that makes it really worthy, and that’s pretty much the goal in television. And a couple of them are classics. Actually, my favorite episode was not written or directed by me, which is annoying, but we’ll get to that.

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THE FIREFLY EPISODE GUIDE “SERENITY”

DVD Plot Description: The crew of Serenity is eager to rid themselves of an easily traceable cargo they salvaged from a vessel adrift in space, totally unaware that a passenger has brought an even more dangerous cargo aboard.

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JOSS WHEDON Q&A

 

CFQ: In turning to the episodes themselves, I’d like to get your feelings about them, beginning with the pilot, “Serenity.”

 

JOSS WHEDON: The infamous pilot. For me, the strength of the thing was in its pilotiness, which is different in being a two-hour pilot than any movie. You’re sort of introducing people to a world, asking a lot of questions that you’re not going to answer and setting everything up. I love the way it did that. It captured exactly what I was looking for and was the first time that I got to realize that all of my actors were extraordinary and embodied the people they were playing to a frightening extent. Everything was so easy, which should have been my first warning. Everything went so well. The director of photography, David Boyd, is an extraordinary guy who was thinking exactly along the lines that I was. When stuff was coming out too pretty, he swapped up the lenses for some old Panavision lenses so we could get ourselves some good flares. My whole mission statement was a sort of ‘70s Western kind of feel to it, which is very much a lot of TV shows nowadays with a lot of handheld and sloppiness. That was done to get away with the science fiction kind of pomp, the stately, sterile morality tales that I just thought were a little dull. I wanted to do something that felt very contemporary and the way we were able to experiment – some of the prettiest frames I’ve ever had the opportunity to make are in that show. And of course when we were working on the set, we were working over the tank they had dug for Alien Resurrection, so I felt like there was an exorcism of sorts going on.

 

CFQ: You brought up the handheld approach. Some of the shots in the pilot, where the camera would suddenly snap into focus to see a spaceship, reminded me a bit of September 11th and that footage taken from the street, when the photographer suddenly raises his camera and there’s the first jet that hit the Twin Towers.

 

JOSS WHEDON: That was the idea and the guys totally got it. It never felt like, “And now, an establishing shot. And now, the story. And now, the establishing shot.” It was always meant to look as dirty and found and, “Oh, there happened to be a camera there” as possible, while still controlling everything people are seeing very specifically but pretending that you’re not.

 

CFQ: I know for the sake of realism you didn’t want to have sound in space, but did that become a continuing criticism during production?

 

JOSS WHEDON: Most people were very excited because it had been so long since anybody had remembered that rule. There was one time when I looked at something and said, “Sound would have helped the clarity of this,” but apart from that you can really accomplish from music what you get with sound.

 

CFQ: Who was the last person to have done that, Kubrick with 2001?

 

JOSS WHEDON: I’m sure it was done between that and Star Wars, but if you were to look at bench posts, I think that would be the last major attempt.

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TIM MINEAR Q&A

 

TIM MINEAR: I thought the pilot was incredible and complex. People are going into science fiction television, particularly anything with space ships, with certain preconceived notions because of Star Trek and everything else. You really needed those two hours to orient yourself to this Western future where there weren’t bumpy-headed aliens. There were nine characters that needed to be introduced and a whole sort of political backdrop that needed to be understood. It wasn’t all that complex, but you had to at least understand that Mal fought in a civil war and was on the losing side and that a large, totalitarian, Alliance government had taken over. You had to understand all of those things to understand the show. But Fox didn’t like it, and when I found out that they didn’t like the pilot, I kind of knew that we were doomed. If the network can’t embrace the DNA of the thing that they bought, they’re going to have a really hard time promoting it and selling it to the audience. So there was kind of a stink put on the show because people knew that they had taken the pilot out of rotation; that Joss had written and directed this two-hour expensive television pilot, and for some reason the network didn’t want to air it. And it’s not because it bashed Ronald Reagan [laughs]. They honestly didn’t think it was very good. So suddenly the show, before we ever shoot the first regular episode, is labeled as troubled. Then the problem was that they couldn’t look at this two hour pilot and imagine what an hour episode would look like, and they wanted a little more humor, more action, they wanted the captain to be a little more likable. They wanted us to pitch them some ideas. Joss and I joked, “We should write a script over the weekend to serve as an example of a one hour episode.”

 

CFQ: But that’s exactly what you ended up doing, right?

 

TIM MINEAR: We ended up doing that because they asked us to and we were, like, “You’ve got to be joking; it’s impossible.” So we broke the story [for “The Train Job”] really fast where he wrote two acts and I wrote two acts, and we were up for two days and on Monday morning it was on their desk. Look, we were producing two television series out of that building [buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel], and it’s not the first time that we did an all-nighter to get a script written.

 

CFQ: But this was a new show. It’s not like you can say, “We’re doing an episode of Angel, let’s crank one out.” Now you have to introduce this show in a one-hour format.

 

TIM MINEAR: That’s true. It wasn’t easy and it was flawed because of that. But, if we hadn’t done it, they wouldn’t have picked up the show. We thought it was a given that they would pick up the show, that there wasn’t a question. Suddenly there was a question and then there was a big question, and then it was all about, “We have to do whatever we have to do to get this thing picked up so that we can start making episodes.” We did it, but it was a compromise from then on out to some degree.

 

CFQ: It what way?

 

TIM MINEAR: We skewed certain things to please the network, I think, which you do anyway, because they’re the people putting up the money. But the thing is, when you ask Joss Whedon to create a television show for you, it’s going to be in your best interest to just let him do his thing. It was interesting, because there were people in high places at that network who had worked with Joss before, and the more involved I was with Firefly, the more I came to understand that they had a fundamental misunderstanding about what it was that we did. They thought we were comedy writers.

 

CFQ: Are you serious?

 

TIM MINEAR: Yeah, they thought this thing was going to be kind of a wacky romp, which every once in a while it was, because that’s the way we write television. Sometimes things are gut-wrenching, sometimes they’re funny, or whatever. But they seemed to think that because of Buffy possibly, it would be a comedy. The fact that anyone would think that Buffy the Vampire Slayer was a comedy means….

 

CFQ: That they don’t watch their own shows, possibly?

 

TIM MINEAR: Definitely. A lot of people couldn’t get past the name Buffy the Vampire Slayer and they assumed it was some sort of campy, Scooby Doo thing and they never quite understood that it was, in fact, totally real, totally about the human experience and that more than making you laugh, it ripped your heart out and then danced on it. That’s what we wanted to do with Firefly. There were much, much darker places that we wanted to go with it, which we never quite got to. But at the end of the day, we got to make the show we wanted to make. Our biggest problem is that in certain factions of the network, they had written off Firefly very early on and we were sort of heading for a cliff and there was no way to avoid it. They just didn’t understand it. The fact is, though, I’m doing Wonderfalls for Fox right now, and they love it. It’s like working for a different network.

 

The thing that killed me about “Serenity” is that it’s so clearly great and the network just decided they didn’t like it. The network had certain notes and certain reasons for not liking it. Joss went out and shot additional footage. He added the battle footage at the beginning, for instance. He went through and found places to lighten things up, add jokes and tighten some areas that might have been a little flat. He answered every single criticism that the network may have had about that two-hour pilot, and they didn’t even look at it. That’s my understanding. Maybe somebody popped in a cassette at home or something, but my understanding is that they put it on a shelf, decided not to air it even after those changes were made. And those changes were made in the hopes that they take a fresh look at it and decide that it was worth airing first and would help support their new television series. From what we know, they never even looked at it. One important thing to keep in mind is that with the things that were changed, Joss didn’t feel he was compromising the show at all. He thought he was making it better, and he did.

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IN PART TWO, JOSS WHEDON AND TIM MINEAR DISCUSS “THE TRAIN JOB” AND “BUSHWACKED”

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Firefly: The Firefly Episode Guide, Part 2

 

Source: http://64.5.52.62/~cfqcom/nuked/modules.ph...article&sid=169

 

Behind the Scenes with Joss Whedon and Tim Minear, by Edward Gross

 

 

 

THE TRAIN JOB

Official DVD Summary: Mal has second thoughts after discovering that two boxes of Alliance goods his crew has been hired to steal are full of badly-needed medical supplies headed for the mining town of Paradiso.

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JOSS WHEDON Q&A

 

JOSS WHEDON: “The Train Job” is a funny little piece and generally tends to be discounted, though I like it a lot. The network said, “We don’t like the pilot, write another one.” It was Friday afternoon around 5:00 and they said, “You know how we wanted you to pitch us a story to give us an idea of what the show would be like? Actually, we want you to write a new pilot that’s one-hour long and it has to be on our desks before we get into work on Monday.” So Tim Minear and I looked at each other and said, “Okay.”

 

CFQ: That was the full force of the response, huh?

 

JOSS WHEDON: Well, in two days we wrote “The Train Job,” which had the extraordinarily difficult and ultimately self-defeating task of trying to introduce nine people who have already met to an audience without making it sound really, really hokey. As a result, a lot got lost on people and the resonance of the relationships disappeared. In the pilot, we really let things sit and take their own time a little bit. That was sort of a mission statement for the show, because it wasn’t originally going to be as action-oriented as it ended up being. I told Fox I didn’t really think we could afford that. That’s why we were doing a drama in space and why we have so many people, with some action and, obviously, humor. And they were, like, “Okay, so when you say drama, do action.” So “The Train Job” just didn’t have the time necessary to make you care about all of these people. You just sort of saw them go by in a flash and hoped you picked up who they were and what they did. But I still think the episode was extremely fun and funny and has a really cool floating train in it.

 

CFQ: And a great ending in which Mal kicks the guy into the ship’s engine.

 

JOSS WHEDON: Yes, and that also represents a sea change based on notes. I never would have killed somebody in a gag. The reason I do it in the pilot is that it follows a lot of soul-searching about what they’re going to do with this guy, then the moment comes and Mal decides a decision has to be made and he shoots the guy. In “The Train Job,” I did it as a joke and was saying, “Okay, we’re going to be killing folk.” The studio said, “We want a larger than life villain,” so I gave them one and then I kicked him into the engine. It was just a joke on all of those conventions and it was really fun and beautifully rendered.

 

CFQ: Come to think of it, I remember watching an earlier cut of the pilot, “Serenity,” that did not have the big action/war opening. Was that another network “requirement”?

 

JOSS WHEDON: That was a circumstance where their notes very much jibed with my own. I looked at the beginning I had shot and was, like, “Okay, I’m depressed. This is bringing me down.” Originally the idea was that we saw a sort of defeated Mal and it wasn’t until late in the two-hour episode that we really learned who he used to be and how he got to be the guy that he is. The network came back with, “No, no, no, no. We want to love him from the first moment,” and I had felt, “Well, I need to open with a bang. It is TV and you do want to keep them in the seats,” so I sort of switched the idea to let’s see him before and after. Before he’s a God-fearing, hope-giving great leader, and we get to see the moment of his disillusion as opposed to the audience hearing about it. So our thoughts were pretty in sync and we went out to the Valley and got ourselves our action on. I don’t consider that as something that destroyed the show; it was something that was my idea.

 

CFQ: The truth is, not every network note is going to be pointless.

 

JOSS WHEDON: Yeah, I know, but that’s something you have to learn and always remember. You can’t just close your ears like some show runners do.

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TIM MINEAR Q&A

 

TIM MINEAR: I would say that the most compromised episode of any of them was “Train Job,” and it’s not like we’re ashamed of that. If that came in as the second or third episode after the pilot and was kind of a light-hearted heist episode, people would have loved it. A lot of people liked it fine and a lot of people like it more now that they’ve seen the rest of the series, but coming into the series with that episode was awkward and it confused people. By the way, if it was the second or third episode after the pilot, you wouldn’t have a first act where everyone was going, “Hello, my name is…” You wouldn’t need that.

 

CFQ: I understand how and why “The Train Job” came together the way that it did, but what’s your feeling about the episode?

 

TIM MINEAR: I actually like the episode. It will never be my favorite episode, but I like it plenty. Actually, I probably like it more than a lot of people, because now that the pain of that weekend is over and the fond memory of being punch drunk with exhaustion and going up to Joss and saying, “I don’t want to write the action scenes. Can’t I take some action scenes from one of my Angel scripts and change the names?” And he was all for that, because we both hate writing action scenes.

 

 

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“BUSHWACKED” Official DVD Summary: After encountering a booby-trapped spacecraft carrying the lone crewmember of a horrific Reaver attack, Serenity is boarded by an Alliance Commander looking for Simon and River.

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JOSS WHEDON Q&A

 

JOSS WHEDON: First of all, the episode scared the shit out of me. Minear, of course, who creates such a beautiful frame, particularly that shot of River as she wanders into the ship like she’s in a fairy story. Love all that. The thing I remember about that is that I have always been extremely strict with my actors about dialogue. To the very comma. I will go nuts on them. But when we got to the basketball scene in this episode, we had a bunch of scripted stuff. I was saying to Tim, “You are going to turn the cameras on them and let them play for a while, right?” Tim is, like, “Yeah, totally.” And we ended up throwing out all of the scripted stuff and only using the improv stuff while they were playing. All of that was just them having a great time, which they really were. We let Alan go on and on in the interrogation scene, and we used some of that stuff. That kind of looseness and trust and freedom is a new thing for me. I’m a very controlling filmmaker. That’s just an example of the way we liked to make the show and how much that set was a creative place. That’s a huge deal for me. It’s not that we used anything that was out of character, but they never were out of character. They were making us laugh. Of course we didn’t tell the cameramen what they were going to do, because we didn’t know. So the reason it felt so real and had such joy at the beginning is because it is. The other thing I remember about that episode is that they, for some reason, felt the need to have real food on the set, so we had rotted beans in that kitchen set on the other ship. Sorry, but no art is worth that.

 

CFQ: Tim Minear wrote and directed this episode. How difficult was it for you to let go of your baby and let someone else take control?

 

JOSS WHEDON: I didn’t direct the first Buffy, though I directed parts of it. The executive producer is responsible for everything, but he doesn’t have to create anything. He just is responsible for it. If it’s good, good, he was doing his job. Sometimes that means letting other people do their job and that sometimes means telling them how. There’s not a story in that show that I didn’t break significantly, but if there’s any single person in the universe that I trust, it’s Tim Minear. He really is as talented a writer and director as I’ve known, and was with me from pretty much the start. He was somebody I felt that I could – and I had to because I had two other shows and was determined to keep the quality up on them – turn to and walk away when I had to. I didn’t get to be there when they shot the basketball scene, I’m sorry to say, because I was back on Buffy. Sometimes things happened on Firefly that I didn’t approve of. You fix those with reshoots and edits the best you can, but the problems always came from outside. Tim was never outside, he was always in the heart of the thing.

 

CFQ: I was heartbroken when he left Angel.

 

JOSS WHEDON: It was not something that I wanted to do, to take him off of Angel, but I was convinced, and I think rightly, that if I didn’t have him on Firefly, I would never be able to leave because I wouldn’t have that lieutenant, and then Buffy and Angel would have suffered enormously. Ultimately I felt it was something that I wanted to do and something that Tim, though he never asked for it and never would have, very much wanted, because he loved Firefly the way that I did.

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TIM MINEAR Q&A

 

CFQ: Let’s leave “The Train Job” behind and move on to “Bushwacked.”

 

TIM MINEAR: That was the first one that I wrote by myself and directed. The Reavers, who made their non-appearance in the pilot, were fascinating to me. Again, in the first couple of episodes we felt as though we had to constantly reintroduce everything, because we didn’t have the luxury of the two-hour pilot to explain things to people. This was a way for me to do several things things: to introduce the crew again and what their relationships were to one another; to introduce the barbarians on our show, which were the Reavers, and the closest thing to an alien life form on Firefly, though, of course, they’re really human; and to introduce the Alliance. So, really, the story is about how our crew on Serenity makes their own civilization out there in space. The question is, what is civilization? They’re stuck between these two extremes; this behemoth bureaucracy, which is the Alliance, and this completely savage, lawless group known as the Reavers. The two extremes of civilization and barbarity. And our people have found kind of a medium place where they don’t go too far in either extreme, because either extreme is mass murder. That’s really what that story was about. I just had a great a time making that episode.

There’s a sequence in there that’s one of my favorite things that I’ve done, which is the interrogation sequence. It’s all intercut and it was a way for me to, again, let the audience know who these people are. The interrogation is a great device to use, because somebody is there literally asking questions. It all builds up to the question I was asking in that part of the story, which is where Simon and River are hiding. Everyone is being interrogated and the commander of this Alliance ship is asking where this brother and sister are and we see these people tearing Serenity apart. The camera pulls out through the top of the ship and we see them in space suits, hanging on to the edge of the ship and the camera just keeps pulling back until they’re tiny and Serenity is tiny and we see a dock at the bottom of this tremendously large Alliance cruiser. That was three elements and Loni Paris [visual effects supervisor] totally deserved his Emmy to help me create this shot which you just don’t see on television.

 

CFQ: After having been involved with Angel for so long, was it strange to be on a different set, directing a different group of actors or was it more freeing?

 

TIM MINEAR: It was freeing. It was fantastic. I thought it was going to be incredibly daunting to sit down and try to write these nine new voices, but I think I got the hang of it right away. It was incredibly easy for some reason. As far as directing, that was really freeing, though the directing was as different as the writing was. Angel is slicker in a way; it’s a lot of cranes and dollies and not a lot of hand-held stuff. It’s a beautiful style that I love, but this time I got to come in, everything was hand-held and I jumped the line and got to go all over the place with the camera in a way I never really could on Angel with zooms and things that you haven’t seen since the ‘70s.

 

COMING TOMORROW: “SHINDIG” & “SAFE”

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Firefly: The Firefly Episode Guide, Part 3

 

Behind-the-Scenes Episode Guide with Joss Whedon & Tim Minear, by Edward Gross

 

 

 

“SHINDIG” Official DVD Summary: In order to secure a job transporting cargo off-planet for a client, Mal attends a social event where a dance with Inara leads to him being challenged to a swordfight in defense of her honor.

 

JOSS WHEDON Q&A

 

JOSS WHEDON: “Shindig” was supposed to come along a little bit later than it did, because we sort of looked at it and thought, “All of a sudden we’re into hoop skirts, people might still be wondering about horses. Have we gone too far?” Any chance to feature Mal and Inara going at each other is very important to me. Those guys are just delightful together. The thing that blew me away the most in this was Jewel in her big old dress, which was just about the cutest thing I’d seen in a long time. The way she plays it, she is just so adorable. It’s happened with all of them, but it was a moment for me when I said, “Oh, okay, she’s a star, too.” And, hey, floating chandelier – what more could you ask for?

 

CFQ: I love the juxtaposition of images on this show. Some time ago we had discussed that great image in “Serenity” of people on horseback racing for a starship. In “Shindig,” you’ve got a swordfight in the middle of everything else.

 

JOSS WHEDON: The whole point of the show is that we take our cultures with us. They mutate and meld and disintegrate, but they’re always there. If you have a world that doesn’t have roads, you’re not going to use a car, you’re going to use a horse. If you are in a civilization that is new, you’re going to take the oldest traditions because you need something to hold on to. If I ever said the show was about anything, it was about the way we create civilization in a void. What each one of us brings with us that we need, which we touch on sometimes. It gives you a chance to tell what is ultimately a big immigrant story, which is really what America was.

 

CFQ: So this is really your opportunity to retell our history.

 

JOSS WHEDON: The Civil War is what started the germ of the idea. It was based on Reconstruction as an era. The great thing is you can read about freedom fighters through history and it’s applicable. All of history gets mashed up and served out. That’s how the world works and it’s really fun to go backwards to more general things.

 

CFQ: It’s interesting and necessary in a show like this, because you need to know that there is some heart beneath the superficial things.

 

JOSS WHEDON: Anybody can make a cool spaceship but that really doesn’t cut it. It really is always in the execution. Let’s face it, the question you have to ask is whether or not there is talent and heart. You can make something like Resident Evil, which I think is quite good, or you can make Underworld, which I think is the scourge of a nation. Two nations, actually, because Kate Beckinsale is British. Filmmaking as a whole should be shut down and punished because that film got to be made. It’s not a thing a gentleman would say, but what the hell?

 

TIM MINEAR ON “SHINDIG” “Shindig” was the hilarious Jane Espenson. Vern Gillum directed, I think really well, I loved the dancing in that episode. Just a fun, romantic episode and it also gives you a lot of Inara/Mal banter. One of the fun things about Firefly is that we kind of got to go and do Gone With the Wind with the costumes and swordplay. And of course the return of Badger, the Cockney scoundrel from “Serenity.” It was fun to see him back. Overall, just a fun episode on a lot of levels.

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“SAFE” Official DVD Summary: When Simon is kidnapped by a group of villagers in need of a doctor, Serenity is forced to make contact with an Alliance ship in order to seek medical help for the critically-wounded Book.

 

JOSS WHEDON: This was an example of things not going the way that we wanted originally. We had a completely different bunch of flashbacks with a completely different bunch of actors. The message of the thing was very important to me, which was the idea of Simon realizing that he had found a home; that a real parent isn’t somebody who’s extremely great, but only when it’s convenient. It’s somebody, no matter how rough they might be, will never let you down. That’s sort of what Mal becomes in that episode, and that meant a lot to me. It showed a lot about why Simon was so protective of his sister. But we did the flashbacks and they were just sort of histrionic and just didn’t feel right, and we didn’t have the one with the two little kids. It started out with River already in trouble, and I said, “Let’s see the two of them together.” Then we couldn’t get the original people who had played the mother and father, because they had booked something else, so we had to cast that again. It was all very complicated and strange. And then we felt, “We’ve got our big damn heroes, we’ve got the crucible, we’ve got the witch hunters and, generally speaking, everything is coming together. But, we could really use a shot of humor.” So I said, “Lock the thing, give me 30 seconds in this act and 15 seconds in the next act and I’ll write some Jayne scenes and we’ll do them to time.”

 

So at the last minute, days before we were supposed to air, Adam Baldwin came in and did his going through Simon’s stuff scene, knowing that he had about 16 props he had to work with one after the other, and exactly 30 seconds to accomplish everything. That’s the time you’re very glad for professionalism. It’s one of my favorite scenes in the series. It’s hilarious and it helps thematically the idea that they might leave them behind, they’re not a part of the group, and then his thing about, “Glad you’re back.” Just hilarious. You know, sometimes we get cuts and hate it, and it’s because we haven’t communicated with the director of they haven’t captured what we’re looking for, or we structurally we were missing a piece and just didn’t get it until we saw the cut. You never know, even if you’re on set a lot, something can come out wrong. The other exciting thing about “Safe” is that it had River dancing, which is fun and was one of the first moments where we could look at her and say, “Oh, she’s not miserable all the time.”

 

TIM MINEAR: This was kind of a troubled episode initially. I remember we shot the episode and Joss and I hated it. We kind of blew it on the script, we weren’t crazy about the way that it was shot and there were certain wardrobe elements that we didn’t realize was going to happen until we saw it on screen, like big floppy hats and scarves. So we actually put it on hold for a while and returned to it. Later, Joss wrote a bunch of new scenes. For instance, the fans will recall where Jayne is rifling through Simon’s room after Simon has been kidnapped, and it’s a hilarious scene. That was actually added, because the show came in short after we ended up cutting all the stuff that we hated. We went back and wrote some new material and shot new scenes. By the time we put it all together, we were pretty happy with it.

 

TOMORROW: “OUR MRS. REYNOLDS” & “JAYNESTOWN”

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Firefly: The Firefly Episode Guide, Part 4

 

Behind the Scenes with Joss Whedon and Tim Minear, by Edward Gross

 

 

 

“OUR MRS. REYNOLDS”

Official DVD Summary: After a celebration in which the crew is honored for ridding a planet of a group of bandits, they return to Serenity to find a woman named Saffron who claims that Mal married her during the festivities.

 

JOSS WHEDON Q&A

 

JOSS WHEDON: This was a really interesting one for me. I just never had a writing experience like that before. I literally wrote stuff down, looked at it and said, “Where did that come from?” I just couldn’t stop writing.

 

CFQ: You mean that it sort of wrote itself.

 

JOSS WHEDON: Yeah, it did, and I’ve never said that about anything. When Mal starts talking to Saffron about his life, I didn’t know any of that stuff; I hadn’t planned out any of that stuff and didn’t know where I was going with it. I read it and I said, “Where did that come from and why is he talking so much? Oh, because she’s one of those people who make people talk so much.” And then Wash does the same thing and you realize she’s one of those people that gets you to open up and kind of sets you against everybody else. The amount of fun I had writing that just could not be greater. And that was a tough shoot.

 

CFQ: What made that particularly tough? What I mean is that it doesn’t seem any bigger than most of the episodes.

 

JOSS WHEDON: That would be me and the director not seeing eye to eye. The actors were so completely in the pocket; they were all so funny and knew exactly what they needed to do. Morena, after she’s been drugged, is maybe the funniest thing we ever did on that show. Just adorable. It came together so nicely. The original mission statement of the show was have nine people so you can throw a pebble in the pond and that’s your show. You don’t need a giant big guest star or an explosion monster. You can just do one thing and then have the show be everyone reacting to it. That show demonstrated that so well.

 

CFQ: As a writer, I would imagine that with a scene like the Mal one you discussed a minute ago, it has got to be a great feeling to have a creation come to life in that way.

 

JOSS WHEDON: It is literally one of the two or three best experiences I’ve ever had as a writer. That just doesn’t happen. I plan things out very carefully and I had my act structure, but apart from that I didn’t really have an outline for this. They just kept talking until it was time to stop. Actually until it was about 10 minutes over the time to stop.

 

TIM MINEAR: Joss wrote that and I thought it was one of the best scripts he’d written in a long time, which is saying something. It was just so funny and such a great twist. I really thought it was terrific because he captured the personalities of the whole crew. He took this character of Saffron and she was basically a pebble cast upon the water and she caused all of these ripples. It was a great way to get to know who these people were, and a lot of it took place in space, which I thought was great, on the ship, because in a show like this the ship more or less becomes one of the characters.

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“JAYNESTOWN”

Official DVD Summary: When the crew returns to a planet where Jayne participated in a heist gone bad, they’re shocked to discover that Jayne’s past actions have turned him into a local hero of Robin Hood-like mythic proportions.

 

JOSS WHEDON: This was one of the first times we began to realize what a force we had with Ben Edlund, who pitched the idea. Very few ideas are actually pitched to me. I tend to come up with them myself or in concert with Tim or Marti Noxon or David Greenwalt. Or I tend to come in with at least some idea of, “You know, I think we need to feel scared. I want the insecurity of….” It’s usually a process of developing the idea from something I’ve pitched out. On Firefly we were hearing pitches and would have had more opportunities to do stuff that came directly from the writers. But Ben is one of those guys who comes up with ideas – and he’s doing it on Angel, too – where you just go, “Uh, yes. Okay, I’ll just be here, go ahead.” By the way he wrote a hilarious script and a really nice song. I really love that show and Adam wasn’t exactly unhappy either. For some reason he felt good about the episode. He’s an amazing character and to get underneath without sort of lying, without saying he’s the sweetest thing that ever lived. He’s basically somebody who’s decent enough to be frustrated at the fact that people think he’s more decent than he is. That, to me, is a fun character.

 

TIM MINEAR: We had interviewed a bunch of writers at the beginning of the year. Ben came in. He had created The Tick and now he’s on Angel. So he came in, pitched a bunch of ideas that weren’t actually right for the show, but I knew immediately that we should hire this guy. He was really funny and really smart and I just thought, “Okay, this guy’s perfect for Firefly.” And it turns out I was right. He came up with the idea for that episode, but it’s not that often actually that somebody just comes up with a right idea for an episode of the show. Usually it’s Joss who comes up with the basic idea, but I remember that Ben had come up with the idea of Jayne as Robin Hood, basically, or a Robin Hood that didn’t mean to be Robin Hood. And then there was the whole idea that there were mud farmers – everything about it was just perfect. You know, when Firefly got cancelled, I said, “Ben, you have to come to Angel with me,” which I wish I hadn’t done because I wish I’d brought him over to Wonderfalls.