Firefly returns July 14 - UniversalHD

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My favorite show is FIREFLY is also my daughter’s favorite show. She’s 12, I’m 46. Very few shows are written well enough to capture the attention of such a diverse age group. Fewer shows are able to inspire an audience and Firefly has dozens of fan websites, several fan forums, a spin-off movie and it was canceled by its network???

http://www.universalhd.com/Firefly/episode_serenity/images/firefly04.jpg

For those of you who are Science Fiction fans, the greatest Sci Fi show ever produced will be re-aired in High Definition on the Universal HD channel 🙂 They will start with episode 101 on Saturday July 14.

http://www.universalhd.com/images/series/firefly_235x132.jpg

Unfortunately many people have never heard of this show! The show features a motley crew who travel around on a spaceship. There is Shepard Book (a monk from Southdown Abbey who may be some future version of Catholic?), a mercinary named Jayne, a prostitute who prays, a captain who lost his faith, a tortured genius who tries to “fix” the Bible and several other key characters who make up the core cast.

http://www.universalhd.com/Firefly/gallery/gallery_images/FRF05GA_2_3.jpg

Five hundred years in the future there’s a whole new frontier, and the crew of the Firefly-class spaceship Serenity is eager to stake a claim on the action. They’ll take any job, legal or illegal, to keep fuel in the tanks and food on the table. But things get a bit more complicated after they take on a passenger wanted by the new totalitarian Alliance regime. Now they find themselves on the run, desperate to steer clear of Alliance ships and the flesh eating Reavers who live on the fringes of space.

http://www.universalhd.com/Firefly/gallery/gallery_images/FRF05GA_2_18.jpg

A little background:
  • This show was originally aired by FOX, but was aired out of sequence, and also pre-empted by world series baseball games. Consequently it did not garner a large fan base and was canceled before the end of the season.
  • The Sci-Fi channel aired all the shows last year and it was voted the BEST NEW SERIES ON TV.
  • There was a spin-off movie, called Serenity made. It has been voted the #1 sci-fi movie, beating out Star Wars, in a BBC worldwide poll.
    http://www.universalhd.com/Firefly/firefly_657x381.jpg
 
Yarr! The greatest Sci-fi show was Farscape! R.I.P. Though dont let your kids watch it.
 
redmars3000 said:
Yarr! The greatest Sci-fi show was Farscape! R.I.P.
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Farscape is another show that lives on the internet through chat groups, etc. It is still played on TV in my area, in reruns. Honestly I tried to get into that show but never seemed to be able to garner any empathy or interest in the characters.

But the beauty of of FIREFLY is that it carried a strong moral message through it, even characters like “Captain Mal Reynolds,” who lost his faith, is steered by a strong moral compass. Tortured girl genius “River Tam” tries to resequence the Bible and come to grips with some of the events. In a wonderful scene between River and Shepard Book, the two have an exchange where Shepard Book tells River: You can’t fix the Bible . . . the Bible is about faith . . . Faith fixes you.

http://www.universalhd.com/Firefly/episode_shindig/images/firefly_21.jpg

Another beautiful aspect of Firefly is that the undercurrents of Christianity run through the episodes, but are not at the forefront so it sneaks up on you. There are plenty of gun fighting action scenes, fantastic scripts that are intelligently written, it is really a space-western that appeals to a wide range of people. There is some ‘salty language’ and there are some adult themes, so it is best viewed by those age 12/13 and older.
http://www.universalhd.com/Firefly/episode_shindig/images/firefly_15.jpg
 
Aaargh! I intially read that as meaning they’ll make more Firefly, and got all excited.

And they aren’t going to.

At least we got the movie.

Sulk.
 
Lissla_Lissar said:
Aaargh! I intially read that as meaning they’ll make more Firefly, and got all excited.

And they aren’t going to.

At least we got the movie.

Sulk.
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All the actors signed up for 3 movies 👍

The only question is will we get the other two :confused:

I think the odds of ever getting FIREFLY back as a series are about ZERO, but I do think that we may see a “spin off” series at some point. It happened to Star Trek. And Firefly has beaten the odds on several counts.
  • What other canceled TV show ever got a major motion picture made after it was canceled?
  • What other TV show ever had a fan made documentary? Done the Impossible
  • What other TV show has gotten more popular with every passing year?
  • What other TV show was named the #1 new TV show after production stopped?
    Take a look at Amazon.Com and you will see where the box set of Firefly and the DVD of the movie Serenity are ranked as some of their best selling items. Last time I looked, Serenity was ranked in the top 20 for the entire year of 2006 and again so far in 2007.
 
“If wishes were horses, we’d all be eating steak.” So I guess this is some steak. 😃

Great show. Hope they really do make the other movies.
 
“Do you know what the chain of command is here? It’s the chain I go get and beat you with to show you who’s in command!”

YES!!!
 
melensdad said:
For those of you who are Science Fiction fans, the greatest Sci Fi show ever produced will be re-aired in High Definition on the Universal HD channel 🙂 They will start with episode 101 on Saturday July 14.
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I’ve heard of the show, and enjoyed Serenity, but I am sad that I’ll take a pass on this. (First my cable provider moved SciFi to the digital tier, now this on another channel I don’t get and don’t want) 😦

Maybe I’ll just shell out for the DVDs instead.

tee
 
tee_eff_em said:
Maybe I’ll just shell out for the DVDs instead.

tee
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Actually that is what I did. I was stuck in an airport for 12 hours and bought Serenity at the airport gift shop. That is how I learned about the TV show. Eventually bought the box set. Then I bought a second box set and gave it away to my sister in law. She’s hooked now!
As for the best lines in the show . . . who can forget River Tam poking her head into the infirmary after Jayne Cobb had betrayed her to the Alliance. While Jayne was stuck on the table, unable to move, River said: I can kill you with my brain. Out of context, it doesn’t seem very profound, but within the realm of the show, it is an awesome line!
 
Firefly is not about Christianity. The message of the show is to believe in something and it does not really matter what it is. The main theme that was started in the series was the redemption of Mal, but it was not a religious redemption.

In the movie Book gives the main message of the movie and it is about belief in something bigger than yourself.
*In the conversation between Shepherd Book and Mal, you raise interesting issues about faith and God. That shouldn’t surprise us, since other sci-fi epics like The Matrix and Star Wars dealt rather obviously with spiritual questions and conflicts. In the overarching story of Firefly, is there something besides the social and political themes, something spiritual you’re trying to bring across through this story?
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I think we all have different takes on it, we all have different things to say about spirituality. [Star Wars and The Matrix] used more deliberate religious iconography because they’re coming from that mythic place in a way that, I would say, Buffy did. But Firefly and Serenity don’t.
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Again, to come back to the question and the answer – in Firefly there was a conflict between Mal and the Shepherd that was deliberate, which was that Mal is an atheist and he’s beyond that… kind of faithless. He doesn’t trust people. He doesn’t really think of anything as a greater good. Even though he has a moral code himself, he can’t really admit or understand it. Shepherd Book is very clear on his faith, and there was a conflict between the two of them that was supposed to be ongoing throughout the series.
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Obviously, the movie being more about answers, I had one definitive statement to make, which was simply [that] the power of belief, the power of something greater than yourself doesn’t necessarily have to mean religion.
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Shepherd Book himself says that. He doesn’t say, ‘Find God.’ He says, ‘Find your way.’
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Shepherd Book obviously believes in God. He believes that God is a part of what’s going on. Mal doesn’t, but Shepherd doesn’t judge him for that. He says, ‘The point is not whether or not you believe what I believe. The point is that you don’t believe in anything. And it’s killing you. And it’s tearing your crew apart. And it’s making you do stupid things.’
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The word ‘belief’ comes into the film a lot for that reason. It’s a simple act of subsuming yourself to the idea of something that is great. Believing that there is something worth structuring your life around that will direct your moral decisions, and sometimes [help] you make harder decisions… that is important. What that belief is… is not.
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Whedon is very clear on his own atheism. He calls himself a “hard-line” atheist (whatever that is exactly).
a prostitute who prays
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Inara is a Buddhist.

And as for whether there will be another movie:
Production Budget: $39 million
Worldwide Gross: Worldwide: $38,869,464
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boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=serenity.htm
 
Well I’m pretty darn sure that I never said it was a Christan show, but I did say it is about a band of people steered by a strong moral compass (and it is often difficult to determine what basis of morality they identify with). I did say there are ‘undercurrents’ of Christianity that sneak up on you, and that is absolutely true. I also said that there is a prostitute that prays, I did not identify her religion, but just that she prays. She even talks about praying for Captain Reynolds with Shepard Book in one of the episodes.

It is easy to pick apart a show, but this show stands up very well to criticism and is not hostile toward our church. In fact, the characters like Capt Reynolds, who clearly have lost their faith, are played off very nicely and counter acted by those who obviously have faith.

If any of you like to listen to Podcasts you may want to dig through the SQPN archives of Fr Rodericks THE DAILY BREAKFAST. He has mentioned Firefly many times in his past podcasts as an excellent show worth watching.
 
melensdad said:
It is easy to pick apart a show, but this show stands up very well to criticism and is not hostile toward our church. In fact, the characters like Capt Reynolds, who clearly have lost their faith, are played off very nicely and counter acted by those who obviously have faith.
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Yes! 👍

If you recall, Mal was wearing a cross at the battle of Serenity. If the story line continued, he would eventually find redemption by trusting something outside of himself again. Of course, that’s speculation since Firefly has flown.

That’s what bothers me so much about this show: it didn’t run its course to have many story lines, incuding all of these ideas of faith, fully explored.

(Although “Serenity” did an okay job of tying up the loose ends, you know there was so much more!)
 
tee_eff_em said:
Maybe I’ll just shell out for the DVDs instead.
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Do it, you won’t be disappointed. I got DH both the series and the movie for Christmas last year–we had a Firefly marathon.

I didn’t know they’d agreed to do three movies; I hope they make them all.
 
Even if it doesn’t deal with religious redemption, the movie has a good moral message about the right to freedom, where the Alliance is trying to use those chemicals or something to mess with people’s minds (and inadvertantly creates Reavers) and Mal stands against them.

“They think they can make people… better”
 
Miserissima said:
Yes! 👍

If the story line continued, he would eventually find redemption by trusting something outside of himself again. Of course, that’s speculation since Firefly has flown.
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He did find redemption in the movie. It was kind of the main point of the movie.
 
Well here is something interesting for Firefly fans.

This is a link to the BBC website where they are taking a poll of favorite Sci-Fi movies. Serenity, the Firefly spin off movie, is beating out Star Wars!

news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/6517155.stm

When I looked, Serenity had about 35% of the vote, Star Wars 33%. That was with over 35,000 votes cast worldwide.
 
“My days of not taking you seriously are certainly coming to a middle.”

😃

Sigh. No more movies, but we got the series and Serenity. I guess that’s enough.

Firefly isn’t Christian, but most of the sf and fantasy I read and watch isn’t. sf/fantasy provides a wonderful space to grapple with very interesting questions about the nature of humanity, and good and evil. There are lots of very good authors/filmakers who are not Christian, but whose work I still find very interesting (Joss Whedon, Ursula K. Le Guin, Battlestar Galactica, Robert Heinlein, Robin McKinley, Neal Stephenson etc.) I may not agree with all their answers, but their questions are good.
 
Lissla_Lissar said:
Aaargh! I intially read that as meaning they’ll make more Firefly, and got all excited.

And they aren’t going to.

At least we got the movie.

Sulk.
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This is exactly what I thought, too… I’m gonna go cry now. :crying:

But now I want to watch the DVDs all over again!!!
 
Truly_Beloved said:
But now I want to watch the DVDs all over again!!!
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If you have a HDTV the show looks so much better on HD than it does on DVD. But either way, watch it with your surround sound system turned on, it really brings the music and sound effects to life. That show was produced to a very high standard of quality and it really comes up to the next level on HD, and better yet HD with surround sound 👍
 
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