Serenity - The Movie
- Thread starter Jeff M. Hopper
- Start date
mike wightman
SOC-14 10K
Remember those strange fellows from the TV series with the blue hands who were after River...
they could have the tech to raise the dead
But we have to make sure there's a sequal by getting people to go and see it first.
Critics' reviews here in the UK have been excellent for a sci-fi film - 4/5 from most sources I've seen.
And don't forget to buy the DVD when it appears...
they could have the tech to raise the dead
But we have to make sure there's a sequal by getting people to go and see it first.
Critics' reviews here in the UK have been excellent for a sci-fi film - 4/5 from most sources I've seen.
And don't forget to buy the DVD when it appears...
As far as a sequel goes, there are several different routes Whedon can choose. Each with its own prerequisites, benefits, and stumbling blocks.
- The theatrical release; i.e. Serenity-II. Well, we've all seen the numbers bandied about, relatively 'weak' first weekend (albeit with no advertizing), over 50% drop off, etc., etc. IMHO, it will all hinge on DVD sales. Myers' first Austin Powers movie sank like a stone at the theater. (IIRC, it got hammered by Titanic) DVD sales gave Myers another chance at it.
- TV movie or TV mini-series. Look at BSG or B5 for that matter. Why wouldn't the boobs at the Sci-Fi channel want a multi-part Firefly follow-up?
Looking at the numbers, I'd say TV is Whedon's best bet. It fits his story telling style much better too.
Bill
- The theatrical release; i.e. Serenity-II. Well, we've all seen the numbers bandied about, relatively 'weak' first weekend (albeit with no advertizing), over 50% drop off, etc., etc. IMHO, it will all hinge on DVD sales. Myers' first Austin Powers movie sank like a stone at the theater. (IIRC, it got hammered by Titanic) DVD sales gave Myers another chance at it.
- TV movie or TV mini-series. Look at BSG or B5 for that matter. Why wouldn't the boobs at the Sci-Fi channel want a multi-part Firefly follow-up?
Looking at the numbers, I'd say TV is Whedon's best bet. It fits his story telling style much better too.
Bill
Just saw it last night, as well...
It is a good Traveller movie but not the Traveller movie. The series was more faithful to Traveller this was a hybrid Buffy-Traveller creature faithful to Wheldon's imaginations.
As for the sequels, there is nothing to say that they couldn't have cloned Wash and company heck retrieving their clones with River & Simon in tow breaking into an advanced medical facility sounds like one of the episodes which would occupy a good 2/3 of a movie. The advance of the Blue Sun story arc also is a story needing to be told.
In the last part, I could also see the invention of the FTL drive and the powers that be wanting to suppress it, for then they would not have not have loyal slaves with the whole galaxy of worlds to choose from be the underlying story.
We also don't have much about the story of Jayne or Kalyee or Inari, for that matter, each one of these characters can be explored and given complexity that the TV series skimmed over and the movie largely ignored.
Not to mention the old standby of invaders from another world...this time the invaders could be people of Earth left behind. Finally, bootstrapping themselves and pursuing those intergalactic outlaws that fled to this system taking most of Earth's resources with them or perhaps they were the original psychics/Illuminati.
Alternately, if it is true that Joss is indeed inspired by Traveller, there is always the Vilani to be reckoned with.
It is a good Traveller movie but not the Traveller movie. The series was more faithful to Traveller this was a hybrid Buffy-Traveller creature faithful to Wheldon's imaginations.
As for the sequels, there is nothing to say that they couldn't have cloned Wash and company heck retrieving their clones with River & Simon in tow breaking into an advanced medical facility sounds like one of the episodes which would occupy a good 2/3 of a movie. The advance of the Blue Sun story arc also is a story needing to be told.
In the last part, I could also see the invention of the FTL drive and the powers that be wanting to suppress it, for then they would not have not have loyal slaves with the whole galaxy of worlds to choose from be the underlying story.
We also don't have much about the story of Jayne or Kalyee or Inari, for that matter, each one of these characters can be explored and given complexity that the TV series skimmed over and the movie largely ignored.
Not to mention the old standby of invaders from another world...this time the invaders could be people of Earth left behind. Finally, bootstrapping themselves and pursuing those intergalactic outlaws that fled to this system taking most of Earth's resources with them or perhaps they were the original psychics/Illuminati.
Alternately, if it is true that Joss is indeed inspired by Traveller, there is always the Vilani to be reckoned with.
I am sorry, it is impossible.
Thermodynamics is a not a made-up science. The water on Europa is just speculation. It is very plausable, and I'll bet on it, but it is unproven. If liquid water exists it will be under a kilometer of ice, and frozen CO2, under tremendous pressure. Not in the open where you can drink it or swim in it, or irrigate a farm.
And this is my whole problem with Mr Whedon's writing. He is lazy. He probably gave the graphic artist no guidance.
I don't think he made deliberate choices on FTL/no FTL, big system vs multiple systems, I think he is winging it. He has a good story to tell and he is not going to waste even a minute of his time straightening out these inconsistancies, even impossibilities. (Remember Jayne putting his rifle in a spacesuit so it could "have air to operate"?)
Buffy drew from popular mythology to add vampires and demons to teen-age angst. In Firefly/Serenity he is adding spaceships and strange worlds to a crackin' good adventure story.
I will continue to support the adventure story, but he has put less thought into his World than even Gene Rodenberry did forty years ago. I don't have to applaud that. I don't even have to forgive it.
(Oh, and Mr Whedon may have refereed Traveller but he never played in it. Or Jayne would have had one grenade in his pocket, just in case (so would Zoe and Mal). Any job is always going to be hairier than it looks.)
I have gleaned this info in the last few minutes.
Here is the image of the 'compound system' I was talking about.
http://pictures.greatestjournal.com/userimg/4958747/1047183
Apparently that's the gist of it, several stars orbiting a central one, all with a few planets, near enough for sublight travel. link here.
http://www.greatestjournal.com/users/the_signal/1990.html#earth
from the rpg, so canon enough for now.
(btw, some Serenity rpg resources here):
http://home.comcast.net/%7Ewavesintheblack/wavescargohold.htm
Now I can't explain the physics of all that. My point before is that until we've actually been out there and looked we can't say for sure what is possible. There's no particular reason to think that all solar systems are similar to ours, and the evidence we've inferred seems to think many are not. And since even astrophysics needs mcguffins like dark matter and dark energy to make the model work, I think there's enough room for JW's imagination. After all, which breaks the laws of physics more, a crowded solar system or FTL travel?
Here is the image of the 'compound system' I was talking about.
http://pictures.greatestjournal.com/userimg/4958747/1047183
Apparently that's the gist of it, several stars orbiting a central one, all with a few planets, near enough for sublight travel. link here.
http://www.greatestjournal.com/users/the_signal/1990.html#earth
from the rpg, so canon enough for now.
(btw, some Serenity rpg resources here):
http://home.comcast.net/%7Ewavesintheblack/wavescargohold.htm
Now I can't explain the physics of all that. My point before is that until we've actually been out there and looked we can't say for sure what is possible. There's no particular reason to think that all solar systems are similar to ours, and the evidence we've inferred seems to think many are not. And since even astrophysics needs mcguffins like dark matter and dark energy to make the model work, I think there's enough room for JW's imagination. After all, which breaks the laws of physics more, a crowded solar system or FTL travel?
Jeff M. Hopper
SOC-14 1K
While keeping the science intact is good, I don't think it kills the enjoyment of the movie to know that Joss Whedon has chosen story over science. We may not be able to realisticly model a one-sun system with multiple inhabited/terraformable planets and moons, but a close approximation could be made in Traveller. A trinary system maybe?
Having had a really good look at that image it seems like the stars are clustered as such that the planets in the outer orbits of the rim stars would be warmed by the central sun and the neigbouring suns.
When they head to Miranda in the movie it seems they are crossing from one stellar system to another, and the reavers live in he dark in between.
That would make the stars in this cluster very close together. Maybe they're near the centre of the galaxy....???!
When they head to Miranda in the movie it seems they are crossing from one stellar system to another, and the reavers live in he dark in between.
That would make the stars in this cluster very close together. Maybe they're near the centre of the galaxy....???!
Alan,
Okay, if you're going to be that way about it.
If they had FTL, why stop at a system whose worlds required you to make atmospheres from scratch? Why not move on to systems with planets that already have atmospheres? That way you can start terraforming the existing biopsheres into terran biospheres from the very start.
The films introduction shows a huge industrial facility pumping out a breathable atmosphere on an ice covered world. The dead scientist whose message the crew finds on Miranda mentions that the 'Pax' gas was added to the planet's atmosphere via atmospheric processors.
So, why spend decades building from scratch if you have FTL capability? Why not look around further?
Bill
Shadowdancer
SOC-14 1K
Yes, he made deliberate choices. I hate to quote/reference the official visual guide to the movie again, but in it they include several of Whedon's pre-production memos in which he outlines his thoughts in several areas for the movie (photography, lighting, music). One of the memos is a backstory of the migration from Earth and coloniziation of one solar system with several large planets and many moons. (I think the quote from the teacher of "a dozen planets and hundreds of moons" is a little vague to keep future options of locations flexible)
There is no FTL. They leave Earth by colony ships. He even mentions that one generation 'never knew the outside' of the ships they were traveling on.
As for the Miranda star map -- I don't see several stars close together with planets clustered around each. I see a non-proportional map of a single system with a single star in the middle, several large planets arrayed around it, and many (if not all) of the planets with moons clustered around them. The map is obviously not drawn to any consistant scale nor is any attempt made to portray accurate proportion -- they had to make it fit on a single page for a book! There also was no attempt to accurately array the moons in their orbits around each planet -- most are just clumped up on one side of their mother planet.
Yes, Whedon chose story over science for much of his setting. But the setting choices were not made haphazardly. Everything in his pre-production memo for the film correlates to everything I read in interviews with him prior to the series' debut on TV, while it was on, and shortly after it was cancelled. He had a vision and he has stuck to it pretty consistantly.
OK, he is not qs lazy as I thought he was. Rather than ignoring the issues, he deliberately chose the impossible. Not that it would have been hard to work around it. Maybe a binary like Alpha Centauri, and that astrography could have been used to add color, maybe even plot devices. Pity he didn't care enough.
And maybe we haven't been there. I haven't been to Canada either and I am reasonably sure that the Yukon is colder than Toronto. The errors in Serenity's universe are equally basic.
You don't have to chose story or science. You can have both, but you have to care.
Edit: 8 stars in a cluster? That is less repulsive, but it is not within 25 ly. That makes the Generation Ships Millenia Ships. Otherwise, it sort-of works.
He still goofed putting the rifle in the spacesuit, so he now ranks with "Lost in Space", but with better characters.
And maybe we haven't been there. I haven't been to Canada either and I am reasonably sure that the Yukon is colder than Toronto. The errors in Serenity's universe are equally basic.
You don't have to chose story or science. You can have both, but you have to care.
Edit: 8 stars in a cluster? That is less repulsive, but it is not within 25 ly. That makes the Generation Ships Millenia Ships. Otherwise, it sort-of works.
He still goofed putting the rifle in the spacesuit, so he now ranks with "Lost in Space", but with better characters.
