this is a first... Firefly

This is one I have not heard of before.

Can anyone give me a brief review / overview of the quality of firefly?
Is it well acted and has it got good SFX?

Thank you R
[quoted original message omitted]

> On Thu, Jan 01, 2004 at 10:45:30PM -0000, Robin Fitton wrote:
 Is
> it well acted and has it got good SFX?

It's been mentioned once or twice here on the list - you might want to
check out the archives, http://lists.firedrake.org/gzg/ - particularly
around October of 2002 and December just gone (or just use the search engine).

Cheers,

> This is one I have not heard of before.
 Is
> it well acted and has it got good SFX?

As Roger mentioned, we had a bit of a chat about it around early-mid
December, and I posted an overview then. I can repost it if you can't find it
in the archives, or direct email it to you if you want.

It's VERY well written and acted, the SFX are good (but surprisingly
unimportant in most episodes!), and it was quite possibly far too clever for
the TV execs who pull the strings, which is probably why it got cancelled
("That's not Science Fiction! There are no people with rubber bottoms stuck to
their foreheads! And the spaceships aren't blowing each other up!! And they're
not trying to save the Galaxy either!").

It's probably the closest thing to life on a "Traveller" free trader that
we'll ever see on TV......

Watch it. You'll like it.  ;-)

Jon (GZG)

> ----- Original Message -----

> Roger Burton West wrote:

Another resource and a list of reviews are at Amazon.com for the Firefly DVD
set.

I ordered the set this morning and the ratings had it at 5 stars and over 350
reviews. A number of reviews go into more detail regarding the series, the
depth of the characters, and tension, excitement, and humor of the show.

It was at 330 reviews two days ago. In two days it has also moved from 14 to
11 in the DVD sales rankings.

> Jon Davis wrote:

> Another resource and a list of reviews are at Amazon.com for the

Well, after all the buzz about Firefly on the list I decided to check it

out. I remembered I still had a Borders gift card left over from my birthday.
So I picked up the DVD set for 39.99 plus tax. Just got done

watching the first two episodes (the pilot?). What can I say? It's great.

Thanks to all for bringing it to my attention. I had never heard of the

show before. It sure does remind me of all those hours I spent playing
Traveller. I was trying to explain this to my teenager as we watched. He said
he'd like to play Traveller sometime... like tomorrow. I said I'd dig the
books out of the basement so he could read them. He said, "Oh no, I

don't want to read all that. You just explain it to me." Kids.

> At 10:00 PM 1/1/04, you wrote:

> It was at 330 reviews two days ago. In two days it has also moved from

> and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they

Best Regards,

Do it. Read 'em the whole thing if you have to. Spend an hour writing down
contacts they might have in nearby systems so you can pull 'em out as needed.
Get ready to improvise.

> Ah Clem wrote:

> Well, after all the buzz about Firefly on the list I decided to check

> done watching the first two episodes (the pilot?). What can I say?

> over

Yeah, on the DVD the first two eps are collectively called "Serenity" and do a
damn good job on the series~ A pity Fox seemed to want the series dead.

> Well, after all the buzz about Firefly on the list I decided to check
 He
> said he'd like to play Traveller sometime... like tomorrow. I said

Yup. In the commentary Joss Whedon makes it pretty clear that the had no

real interest in Firefly for its own sake and wasn't comfortable with what
they had on their hands. He never goes near laying out any actual blame of
course.

But it's pretty obvious that the Fox execs involved never actually saw
the show - I suspect they did a LOT of fast forwarding if they looked at

tapes at all. This is good stuff. Given the X-Files old Sunday spot this

would still be on the air - if the execs wanted it. The fanbase is
rabid, and deservedly so. I just saw "Heart of Gold", one of the unaired

episodes, and was just stunned by raw emotion in several scenes.Cathartic.And
brilliantly written.

Jayne: "I'm in."

Heh.

> Sylvester wrote:

> Yeah, on the DVD the first two eps are collectively called "Serenity"
and do
> a damn good job on the series~

Well, after all the buzz about Firefly on the list I decided to check it out.
I remembered I still had a Borders gift card left over from my birthday. So I
picked up the DVD set for 39.99 plus tax. Just got done watching the first two
episodes (the pilot?). What can I say? It's great.

Thanks to all for bringing it to my attention. I had never heard of the show
before. It sure does remind me of all those hours I spent playing Traveller. I
was trying to explain this to my teenager as we watched. He said he'd like to
play Traveller sometime... like tomorrow. I said I'd dig the books out of the
basement so he could read them. He said, "Oh no, I don't want to read all
that. You just explain it to me." Kids.

I just got the DVD set also and your comparison to Traveller is spot on. Make
him read them.......)

Yeah, on the DVD the first two eps are collectively called "Serenity" and do a
damn good job on the series~ A pity Fox seemed to want the series dead.

They never gave it a chance putting it on up against the "World Series"
(that's baseball for the uninitiated). I hear rumor of a big screen offering
in the future. That might be wishful thinking however......)

> I hear rumor of a big screen offering

It *is* still moving foreword at least, here is a bit of news off the SciFi
Wire:
http://scifi.com/scifiwire/art-main.html?2003-12/23/11.00.film

Firefly is still on my too get list. I'm finally going through all the
supplementary material on the Fellowship of the Ring and Two Towers Extended
Edition DVDs and that is taking quite a while.

Then I just picked up the DVDs for 'Legends of the Galactic Heroes' series of
anime, all 110 episodes on 13 DVDs so it may be a while before I can fit in 14
episodes of Firefly.

I assume you have a non-region DVD player?  Lucky!

Later,

> Then I just picked up the DVDs for 'Legends of the Galactic Heroes'
series
> of anime, all 110 episodes on 13 DVDs so it may be a while before I

> I assume you have a non-region DVD player? Lucky!

Nope, Hong Kong put out an all-region set of LotGH DVDs with english
subtitles. I checked importers but found the best price on ebay. Here is the
auction I won:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3369622059&category=2
290&rd=1 With shipping less than $100.

Do an ebay search for and you will find lots of them out there. The 4th set of
DVDs was just released so they are starting to see more complete sets offered
instead of just each individual set.

Are those all still Japanese audio with English titling? Or are they dubbed
now? Or (best option) dual soundtrack?

> Then I just picked up the DVDs for 'Legends of the Galactic Heroes'
series
> of anime, all 110 episodes on 13 DVDs

I think they're just the Japanese audio with the english subtitlinh.

> Are those all still Japanese audio with English titling? Or are they
series
> > of anime, all 110 episodes on 13 DVDs

Last I heard, the cast is into it, Whedon has a script and he is looking

for money. IMDB has a page for it and says it's in preproduction.

A sucessfull movie could get the series picked up again. This *is* Joss
Whedon, he knows people and his stuff does make money and attracts a large
following who buy DVD sets. I think everyone on the list knows at least one
person who will buy or rent all seasons of Buff *and* Angel. A quick check on
Amazon shows that someone buying 6 seasons of Buffy right now will spend about
$200.

The project ought to be profitable. It could happen.

> Don M wrote:

> Yeah, on the DVD the first two eps are collectively called "Serenity"
and do
> a damn good job on the series~

> It sure does remind me of all those hours I spent playing

Nothing quite like running a small trader by the seat of your pants,
scrounging for spare parts, and making enough to pay that next ship payment.

> Star Ranger wrote:

> Then I just picked up the DVDs for 'Legends of the Galactic Heroes'
series
> of anime, all 110 episodes on 13 DVDs so it may be a while before I

Priorities, priorities...  :-)  So many good shows, so little time.

Thanks for the Sci-Fi news link.  It did touch upon the loose ends
that were left behind when the show was cancelled. I'm especially interested
in Book's past.

How did he manage to get medical assistance on the Alliance cruiser by just
showing them his ID?

How does he know so much about <blank>? Crime, weapons, etc.

Why does one NPC claim that "He's no Shepherd."?