VoyForums
[ Show ]
Support VoyForums
[ Shrink ]
VoyForums Announcement: Programming and providing support for this service has been a labor of love since 1997. We are one of the few services online who values our users' privacy, and have never sold your information. We have even fought hard to defend your privacy in legal cases; however, we've done it with almost no financial support -- paying out of pocket to continue providing the service. Due to the issues imposed on us by advertisers, we also stopped hosting most ads on the forums many years ago. We hope you appreciate our efforts.

Show your support by donating any amount. (Note: We are still technically a for-profit company, so your contribution is not tax-deductible.) PayPal Acct: Feedback:

Donate to VoyForums (PayPal):

[ Login ] [ Contact Forum Admin ] [ Main index ] [ Post a new message ] [ Search | Check update time | Archives: 1, [2], 3, 4 ]

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Date Posted: 17:48:00 12/21/02 Sat
Author: Cactus Watcher
Subject: CW's Writer's journal for Serenity. (Spoilers for the ep.)

Well, we’ve seen the eleventh and perhaps last broadcast episode of Firefly. We all seem to agree that had this episode been shown first as it was supposed to be, there would be no talk about cancellation let alone actually having the series already be cancelled. So what possessed FOX to do such a thing? As stupid as their decision obviously was, Fox isn’t in the business of driving their own programs off the air. I have to wonder if there wasn’t a horrific miscommunication between ME and FOX. Joss clearly believed he was going to be able to air a two-hour first episode. No matter what excuses FOX made, the real problem was that they had no intention of broadcasting a two-hour first episode of Firefly.

But, let’s be generous let’s say there was some reason FOX shouldn’t have aired this episode first. What could FOX have found wrong with “Serenity?” Let’s be honest. There are a lot of little things wrong with the episode. But, before I mention one major problem that might have turned FOX off, let’s compare “Serenity” with a couple other ‘first’ episodes. The planned first episode of the original Star Trek, not counting the original pilot with Jeffery Hunter as Captain Pike, was the dreadful “Where No Man Has Gone Before,” which guest starred Sally Kellerman and Gary Lockwood, as humans turned gods. The first episode of Star Trek actually shown was the forgettable “The Man Trap,“ a monster-of-the-week pot-boiler. Babylon 5’s first episode was a laughably bad two-hour movie. To say that “Serenity” was anywhere near as low quality as any of those is nonsense. So when I talk about a major problem with “Serenity” I’m talking about an excuse FOX could use to not run it when it should have been run, and certainly claiming it ‘ruined’ the episode.

Foremost, I have to believe that FOX hated Mal in ‘Serenity.’ To be honest I don’t like the guy very much. He’s not a hero, not even a hero in the sense of the romantic literature of the early 1800’s. He certainly has the checkered past that clouds his present. But when it all boils down, he’s still holding out in Serenity Valley. The war’s over. His soldiers are mostly dead. Mal needs the ship to keep going, not because he needs to make a living, not because he is needed, or even because he wants to feel needed. Mal needs to keep the ship flying because he can’t admit that despite his best efforts, his side lost. He’s still in shock staring out on to the battlefield. He can’t admit it’s over. He gives orders as if he were still the sergeant, even though as happened at one point in this episode, he doesn’t have the moral authority to give them anymore. He blames Simon for dragging the ship into a huge problem without letting anyone know what might happened when he brought his sister on board. But, Mal does the same thing when he walks into Badger’s place, having hidden from his crew the fact that the shipment was marked as government property. Mal is very close to being an emotionally crippled loser and a very dangerously secretive one at that. Add that to the fact that the crew openly proclaims they are not simply anti-establishment, but outright criminals, and you’ve got something that is going to scare any broadcast executive who hasn’t seen the show. The Mal we see in other episodes is a man seeking peace while being his own boss. I suspect ME was ordered to tone down Mal‘s personal problems, while keeping the action up and his sad ‘affair‘ with Inara going. In the process we lost all of the sense of why Mal was behaving as he was. I like Mal even less than I used to, but I like the story better.

Fox was looking for excuses. What they actually found and told Joss is between them and ME. Whatever, both sides lost out financially. And we lost a show worth watching…

Notes of the week

Fighting in red vests. - It reminds me of two things; the French army marching off to slaughter in World War I wearing red pantaloons, and the Star Trek red shirts. I have to presume that the vests were covering something on borrowed uniforms, that we weren’t supposed to see. Otherwise bright red over camouflage is … Well, you can guess what I’m thinking.

Hot glue - I really like the sticky metal burning stuff. It makes sense and it’s a neat piece of ‘technology.’

Wash playing with the dynos - “Curse your sudden, but inevitable betrayal.” They might as well have flashed the words, “Hey, this is foreshadowing!“ above his head, but I liked it. I love Wash.

The Cruiser Dortmunder - I’m always interested in naming conventions. I name ships after cities in my stories. Not very original. Many navies do. Joss at least makes his a citizen or something ‘of the city.’

Illegal Salvage - This concept bothered me the first time it was brought up weeks ago. If salvage was so valuable why did the Alliance just let the wreck sit for a week? Why don’t we see the cruiser signal base to have someone come pick up the pieces? Unenforceable laws bother me in real life.

The Cry-Baby - It was a little sad to have the decoy actually labeled ‘Cry-Baby.’ It screams “Teenage boy was here!” Oh well, the crew would have a lot of time on it’s hands between ports.

Kaylee - “It’s shiny!” - How many times did Kaylee say this one? After listening to Joss stories these many years, I’ve decided he really doesn’t have a very good ear for slang. This is better than most of his inventions, but he overused it this episode.

Inara’s not-quite-satisfied customer - You have to figure that Inara would run into this over and over in her life. Someone would always feel that he got less out of the visit than he’d hoped, or that she was rushing him out the door one way or the other. This was a touch I really appreciated. Also both of the customers we’ve seen with Inara have been immature son’s of powerful fathers. Does it say more about Joss or about ME’s perception of the customers of prostitutes?

At the port - The sign above the grill reads ‘Good Dogs’ - They ain’t hot dogs.

Badger picks up the bulletin about a firefly, and shows it to Mal. The streaming text was interesting, but ultimately how useful would it be without some kind of reader control?

Badger to Mal - “I’m above you.” Naturally, it reminds me of Cecily telling Spike on Buffy “You’re beneath me.’ But, this time it’s difficult to believe the speaker is not deceiving himself horribly. Another nice touch.

On Inara’s shuttle - She flips toggle switches to activate the docking sequence. - Mostly interesting because mechanical toggle switches are well out-of-style for most uses in real life. You can still get them, of course. But, it does make Inara’s shuttle a little look old and crude, perhaps on purpose.

The kitchen and dining area - Every author can pick and choose the terminology. Much of Firefly’s ship terminology is straight from the sea. Interestingly Joss chose not to use the word galley for the eating area.

“I have to ask you to stay in the passenger dorm while we’re in the air.” A wise precaution. While they’re actually in the atmosphere the trip is no doubt pretty rough. Of course, Mal doesn’t mean just that part of the trip. Chalk up a slip to Joss.

Terraforming - Darby already mentioned the bizarre idea of terraforming gravity. I’m always leery of terraforming “sunlight.” This was my big objection when the claim was made that the Firefly universe was essentially one stellar system.

Simon and Mal about Jayne - “What do you pay him for? …” “Public relations.” - It’s odd how often on Firefly that sick jokes that most everyone in the crew frowns on are quickly followed by less sick jokes we’re supposed to laugh at. Not that I mind the later jokes, it just the timing is a little odd, such that the good joke is somewhat cheapened by the purposely bad one.

Inara at her bath - “Ching jin!” (Please, come in) - With visitors aboard wouldn’t “Who’s there?” be more appropriate? Of course, that spoils the scene with Book. Sorry Spike fans. I’ll take half-naked Inara over naked Spike any day!

The arrest - The whole scene is okay in the flow of the story, but it makes no practical sense to attempt to capture people in space. While it does offer secrecy, the problems become astronomical as the story begins to point out. Given the limits of technology as presented in Firefly, it was a bad idea. The Alliance man was truly stupid to expose his presence, by communicating as he did on the ship. Could he have waited till he knew no one was on the bridge and been successful? Who knows?

Book disarms the Alliance man - This scene somewhat belies his distress later. He clearly is a man comfortable with the commission of violence to protect others. Whether or not he is comfortable with the idea is another matter. Either his true beliefs aren’t what he has professed them to be to himself, or he is acting falsely with Inara at the end of the show.

Underground movement - Simon says that it was some underground movement that actually rescued River. Wish the show would return so we could hear more about them.

Simon and Mal - “What is it that makes you so afraid of the Alliance?” “You don’t want to go down that road with me!” - This would have been a good point, even with Mal punching Simon, for Mal to decide to take the Tams under his protection. But he’s still talking about throwing them off at a later point in the show.

The reavers arrive the first time - The one memorable moment for me the first Star Trek movie was the appearance of the Klingons at the edge of the mysterious cloud. The music played when the reavers arrive is very similar to the striking Klingon theme in the movie.

Mysterious bad guys - Both the reavers scenes seem contrived and out of the flow of the story. Were they added after the original script was finished to make more action?

Inara’s suicide kit - The idea of Inara having one is very disturbing. It’s perhaps comforting considering the circumstances. But why does Inara have it? Is it something that all Companions have? What would that say about them? Is it just something Inara bought? What does it say about her past? Or perhaps about her vision of her future?

Mal - “The woods are the only place I can see a clear path.” As someone who actually grew up in the woods I might say, “I see paths where others only see woods,” but it amounts to the same thing.

“Kaylee’s dead” _ Of course, due to the order of the episodes, we knew she wasn’t, but I have to call it a sick joke on the audience, like the funeral scene after Cordelia was impaled on the reinforcing rod on Buffy.

Patience - Played by Bonnie Bartlett. Anyone remember her as Jonathan Edward’s wife in the early years of “Little House on the Prairie?”

The reavers come back - The quick flip the reaver ship makes to enter the atmosphere somewhat spoils Serenity’s ‘uncopyable’ maneuver later. The first time through it wasn’t as noticeable as on multiple viewings.

Crazy Ivan - So called because of the Russian glorification of air-to-air ramming in battle. As I understand it, there never was a policy in the Soviet air force advocating ramming. However in the extremely dark early days of the German invasion of the USSR in World War II, any accurately reported act of fighting to the end was important for keeping up morale. ‘Taran’ as the tactic is called in Russian wasn’t often successful, but it did give the hopeless some hope of at least doing equal damage to the enemy. Crazy Ivan as the American military knows it refers to the somewhat less desperate tactic of violent maneuver to fly straight at the enemy to feign suicidal behavior. It is similar in intent to “Playing chicken” in combat.

Wash's flying and Kaylee’s direction - ‘Twist ship’ is old naval order for the kind of maneuver Firefly made at the end. Doing it at a few knots was difficult for an old two screwed water-bound battleship. Reversing full thrust on one wing in the air at cruising speeds would tear any airplane we know of to shreds. The Serenity is truly a tough ship.

Wash following Zoe - “Work, work, work.” It’s a tough job, but somebody has to do it.

Jayne to Mal on his possible future betrayal - “That’ll be an interesting day.” - I doubt that what we’ve seen of Firefly episodes was the last of what Joss had in mind for Jayne’s possible betrayals. Hope we find out someday, in context.

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Replies:

[ Contact Forum Admin ]

Forum timezone: GMT-8
VF Version: 3.00b, ConfDB:
Before posting please read our privacy policy.
VoyForums(tm) is a Free Service from Voyager Info-Systems.
Copyright © 1998-2019 Voyager Info-Systems. All Rights Reserved.