Firefly and Serenity
Posted on December 29, 2005
Ok, so I'm a bit late to the Firefly thing. I'm really not sure how I missed it on TV. Other than reminding me of Time Enough for Love, which Joss Whedon doesn't credit when he talks about how he came up with the idea, I really enjoyed the series and movie. Interestingly the move didn't start out that well in my opinion, compared to the series. I finally saw Serenity last night. The dialog between the characters seemed a bit forced and “different” from the TV show. But by about half-way through, it seems the writing and acting fall back into place. I really enjoyed watching the cut scenes, and one could only guess they were cut to shave off time from the movie, as they sure added to the story. If you've not seen the show and are a sci-fi fan, I highly recommend renting or buying the boxset, digesting that, then moving on to Serenity. It does clean up some loose ends but they killed off one too many people for me to think there will be any followup films or ressurection of the tv show. Books are coming in 2006.
Time Enough for Love and Firefly
Posted on December 19, 2005
It occured to me as I was watching the Firefly DVD #2 yesterday how much Firefly's old-west settlers, towns, etc remind me of a section of Time Enough for Love by Heinlein. In the section of the book, about midway through, where Lazarus is talking about Dora (name sake for his ship) and the world they lived on, including their trip to settle some land, he describes a very old-west setting well in the space travelling future. I can't help but wonder if this very book is Joss Whedon's inspiration for most every planet, dress, and speech in Firefly. Another similarity of note is that in Time Enough for Love prostitution was dealt with in a very similar way to Firefly's portrayal of “companions.”
