Posted five days ago at the Bronze:
(Sun Feb 24 05:35:05 2002)
really, anybody could claim to be joss says:
Gotta go. Pressing business. As far as Firefly goes, it starts filming a week from tuesday. I'm mind-bogglingly excited about it. But don't think for a SECOND it's gonna lessen my involvement in th' Buf. I've got next year so WIRED! Angel, too. Couldn't be more psyched. I'll stop by when I can to give you all insights on any of the shows I can. (though I reveal nothing...) Of course, you just have to go to Ain't It Cool to see that Firefly is clearly a rip off of Andromeda, Farscape, Babylon Five, Dr Who, Quartermass, Imitation of Life (the one with Sandra Dee and Susan Kohner, not the black-and-White one) the Time-to-make-the-donuts ad campaign and of course, Star Trek (the board game, not the show.) But maybe I'll tell you more soon anyway.
So take care, young talkbackers. Joss watches. Joss judges. Joss misspells “Quatermass.”
And he appears to be off to a great start with "Firefly." “Princess X” calls it entertaining, teeming with surprises and a “whacking good adventure.” She also deems the show’s big bads so “truly fucking scary” they’ll “have you standing on your couch.”
“Firefly”/Twentieth Century Fox/Fox
Joss Whedon, master of pop culture, manipulator of genre, is attempting to place his third series on the air. This time as a futuristic sci-fi two-hour back-door pilot for Fox, and this time he’s writing and directing. Barring any disasters, this thing is certain to go to series. Since those who are reading this care far more about the contents of this pilot than my opinion (no kiddin’?) I’m going to cut right to it. Ahem….mee mee mee mee mee…..
Fade up on: Sgt. MAL Reynolds. Looks awful. Had a bad day, a bad week, maybe a bad life. He peers into the sky, listening, as the sound of engines gets closer. Voices are heard: that of ZOE, a female soldier, and another, a male. Their cries to attract the incoming ships have a desperation, a hoarseness that shouldn’t be there. “What colours they flyin’” asks a voice. “Doesn’t matter” says Mal. He smiles the smile of a crazy man. “Go on” he says laughing now, “Give ‘em a yell”, and now we see what has driven him to this point, what’s given the desperation to the voices of the others. The camera pulls back to reveal frantically waving arms, bloodied faces, torn uniforms, torn limbs, and bodies. Bodies everywhere, the world black with them. Bodies over this hill, and the next, and the next….
Six Years Later. Deep Space. Zero G. Mal, in full space gear now, is leading an illegal salvage expedition of a derelict ship. He’s accompanied by Zoe, and a new tough-guy, Jayne. Just as they gain access to the cargo hold and their booty, an Alliance (government) vessel hoves into sight. This is not good, because Mal and his crew live on the edge of the legal world, and what they are doing now is definitely on the wrong side of that edge. However, if the Alliance can’t find them, they can’t arrest them, so playin’ possum it is, sir. The only thing that could go wrong is if the Alliance does a heat sweep of the wreck. Doh! Heat sweep! The jig is up! Mal’s ship “Serenity”, Firefly Class, is attached to the derelict, and on board WASH, the pilot, and KAYLEE, the mechanic, scramble to get the ship’s power back up. Mal, Zoe and Jayne sprint their treasure over into the Serenity’s hold. All’s aboard, and they are outta there. Serenity’s back end gives the bird to the Alliance as she fires away into space. About to give chase (and teach these ruffians a thing or two) the Alliance ship’s attention is distracted by a weak distress signal. But there’s no distress. Mal has set a decoy that pulls the Alliance ship away in another direction, far away from the Serenity.
This is a world at once fantasy, and yet completely reality. It’s space as the new frontier. The Wild West. With it’s own infrastructure, subcultures, and stakes as high as survival vs. death. Chinese is the colloquial language of choice; it’s used to express strong emotions. Although at this point, we don’t see what the rest of society is like, we know our crew live hard. Hand to mouth, like gypsies. And we guess that there are many others like them, living between law and order, binding together as a surrogate family, ekeing out their existence.
This booty that Serenity now carries is a problem. Opening the crates reveals hundreds of gold bars, all with the stamp of the Alliance upon them. If they’re caught with the goods, it’s curtains for certain. They’ve got to dump them at the nearest moon, and pick up some passengers to give themselves an air of respectability. Wash, who is married to Zoe, also wants to take some R&R with his wife. Wifey though, won’t say boo without her captain’s permission, so Wash is feeling rather frustrated.
By the time Serenity docks, the APB’s are out, and they can’t unload the cargo. What they can do is leave with their load of paying passengers. Fate and circumstance have brought on board SHEPHARD BOOK (a monk of sorts), DOBSON (henpecked husband), and a tightly wound yuppie with a large and Very Mysterious Package. This is SIMON, and the reason he’s on Serenity is because he was warned to get lost, and fast. Immediately, something about Simon gets Mal’s back up. There is one other in this motley crew, and it is the “Ambassador” Inara. She’s a prostitute, a “companion” and in this world, all ships carry at least one. But that doesn’t mean Mal likes that either. Mal’s a pretty all-round grumpy guy, it seems. He’s very tense.
They aren’t 15 pages out of port before someone on the ship attempts to contact the Alliance. Fortunately, Wash was able to jam the signal. But who sent it? Simon has snuck into the cargo hold, and he’s caught by Mal & Co. messing around with his Very Mysterious Package. As I mentioned, Mal is very tense, and in a minute, Simon will be very dead. A voice peeps up, it’s Book. You’ve got the wrong man, he says. Mal whirls, unbelieving, to stare straight down the barrel of a gun held by Dobson. You’re a damn fed, says Mal. Drop the gun, says Dobson. Very grumpily Mal does as he’s told, and isn’t he surprised when Dobson says, “Simon, you are under arrest”. “Oh hey”, says Mal, “Is there a reward?”.
Dobson, unfortunately, is also tense. There’s a skirmish, and poor ol’ Kaylee is shot in the stomach. I don’t know what they teach monks in the future, but in move that would make Miss Piggy bow, Book takes Dobson down. Kaylee is most certainly dying. She has one hope, and that’s Simon. He’s a surgeon. Top of his class, best in the business, and he just might be able to save her. But he has one condition, and it will change Serenity’s fate forever. The Alliance is bearing down, and he will only help Kaylee if they turn and run. This does not help Mal’s mood, but he does have a heart. There’s really only one choice. They run. Simon operates on Kaylee, and for now she is stable and alive.
Mal has had it up to here. With Dobson secured and the realization they’re truly fugitives from justice, he is gonna open that damn Mysterious Package. Much clattering of latches, and whooshes of dry ice later, the box is open. Not what anyone was expecting, I’ll reckon. It’s a girl, lying in some kind of cryo-chamber. According to Simon, and supported by the shrieks the now-awake girl is making, she wasn’t supposed to get up until at least..um…next Tuesday. The girl is RIVER and she is Simon’s sister.
I’m sure River plays a bigger part in future episodes, but for now I’ll just say….she’s an uber-genius who was sent to a school for big brains, which turned out to be a front for government experiments, and Simon risked everything to get her out which is why the Alliance wants her back and why they’re now in a whole heap of trouble aboard the Serenity. In a word.
Contraband in the hold, pissed off Fed in a closet, whacked-out government-secret girl in the infirmary. What to deal with first? There’s a rare moment of calm while decisions are being made, so Simon digs into the history of “Serenity”. Remember the beginning? Well, it turns out that Serenity was a horrible battle in which nearly half a million people died. As more officers died, Sgt. Mal Reynolds commanded more and more, until they too were killed. When the battle was finally over, it took a week for ships to come. In that week, more died of their wounds, of thirst, of rot. By the end, only Zoe was left out of Mal’s original platoon. This crew are just some of the survivors of war. Not the winners, maybe the losers, the ones who were in the trenches and got nothing when it was all over.
This lovely story sets the stage for something truly fucking scary. Another ship is spotted by Wash, and this one’s not an Alliance vessel. It’s an older ship, long out of service, and according to scans, running with suicidal levels of radiation. It means Reavers, and that’s Bad. Very bad. Sweaty palms, warn the passengers, everyone looking very grim, b-a-d. Jayne pulls back a curtain in his room to reveal an incredible arsenal. Inara digs out a small hidden box containing a syringe and vial of black liquid. Reavers are men gone savage, living and killing at the edge of space. They may pass, they may board, but if Serenity runs, they’ll take the ship. And if they do they’ll rape the women to death, eat everyone’s flesh, and make clothing from their skins. And hopefully, they’ll do it in that order. See? Bad.
Phew. Reavers have passed in the night, but we still have all those other pesky annoyances. Mal, though, is the man with the plan. He’s going to sell the goods to an old acquaintance on a frontier planet, dumping Simon and River at the same time. Problem solved, lovely budgie. But the negotiations are too quick, too easy, and Mal knows something’s afoot. A plan is hatched; Mal, Zoe and Jayne check out the meeting place, and Jayne is sent to find the expected ambush. But there’s one small snag. Earlier, Jayne was sent to question Dobson, and was offered a large bribe to turn on his captain. We don’t know his decision, but we do know there’s no love lost between him and Mal.
Spoiler:
Remember the gold bars? They’re food, one being enough to feed a family for a month, and certainly enough to kill over. The showdown is spectacular, a true shootout in the OK corral, down to the horses and the desert. Jayne has Mal’s back right to the end, and our crew walk out with the money, having successfully dumped their cargo.
Oh, I’m sorry, you thought this was over? Nope. Down in the airlock Dobson has gotten loose and is attempting to escape with River. No way, no how, says Simon, and they have a set-to. Meanwhile, up on the bridge, Wash has noticed a very serious issue that must be dealt with immediately, both by the folks on the ground, and those in the ship. The Reavers are back. “Reavers!” shouts Wash into the walkies, “Reavers incoming!”
The standoff continues in the airlock. Simon found his gun first, and trains it shakily on Dobson. Dobson taunts him, does the you’re-a-healer-how-can-you-kill guilt trip on him, and Simon is at a loss. Wash is upstairs freaking out because time’s a wasting, and the Reavers are bearing down. Have no fear, as Mal & Co race over the rise, riding flat out on horseback, hell bent for leather. Wash opens the airlock, Mal dismounts, strides in, sees Dobson with the gun, shoots him in the face. Well, that’s done. There’s still the Reavers issue, but Wash has an idea. Kaylee is wrangled out of bed, and with some awesome teamwork she and Wash push little Serenity, Firefly Class into some of the mightiest flying it’s ever done. The Reavers are history.
So all’s well that ends well. Wash gets laid by Zoe. Simon gets to stay on board as the medic, River along with him. Book finds his calling saving these and other lost souls. We have the beginnings of a series.
Initially, I was surprised at how dark and relatively humourless the story was, and how it seemed to be treading ground that had been tread before. But it evolves, revealing itself, surprising continually, and most importantly, entertaining. It doesn’t let up. In the way of Whedon, even the familiarity of the genre is used against the reader to twist expectations. There is humour, don’t misunderstand me, but it’s honest to the world he’s created. It’s from the characters, and appropriate to the moments.
This has the potential to be the post-millennium Star Trek, and I mean it that as a compliment. Don’t expect aliens, it’s human and human behaviour. It explores themes of family, morality, survival, and the existence of God, all packed into a whacking good adventure. Mr. Whedon knows how to tell a story, and he’s a hell of a director. Expect moments like the Reavers (to which I haven’t done justice) to have you standing on your couch. I believe that even audiences who would normally avoid Sci-Fi will find something real here for them. For audiences who are looking for a new Buffy, or Angel, you haven’t found it – you’ve found something different, darker, but ultimately satisfying.
The pilot shoots in Los Angeles in the next couple of months, and stars Nathan Fillion (Mal), Alan Tudyk (Wash) Sean Maher, Adam Baldwin (Jayne), Jewel Staite, Gina Torres, Ron Glass and Summer Glau. There’s also been some talk of a second airing on the Sci-Fi Channel, but that’s yet to be determined.
The Fox net is said to have ordered 13 episodes and plans the launch Serenity this autumn.
I warn you not to defy Joss Whedon!!
