Firefly to spearhead Universal's new HD Channel?

Kayla said:

No, the film wasn't quite as good as the series. Serenity was created to be viewed be people who has watched the series and people that hadn't. A lot of time was used to introduce the characters and the world they lived in. I still really enjoyed Serenity, but it was always going to be difficult to get a movie to the same standard and depth as 14 episodes of TV. I still really liked the movie, and I watch the series and then the movie.

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Agreed. The problem with Serenity was that the story was a massively compacted telling of what would've been the season 2 story arc, mashed together with redundant character introducing moments for the people that hadn't ever seen Firefly.
I still enjoyed it, but in no way was it anywhere near the quality of the Firefly series, and there's no way it could've been. And I think that what made the movie more tedious to watch was that the film was a string of "could have been" moments, knowing that everything there was supposed to be more in-depth and meaningful.

Apparently he is working on Wonder Woman the movie and Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 8 comic.
I don't know if he has anything else in the works.

He's off Wonder Woman, that project has been more or less cancelled for now. Apparently, the studio didn't like Whedon's script, but they had no idea what they wanted. He asked them what they'd like changed, what they wanted to see and, by Whedon's report (make up your own mind how accurate it is) they said they had no idea. So the plug was pulled.
He's got another movie in the works, the name of which I can't recall at the moment. It's been on his backburner for a while now.

Personally I'd rather see him do TV rather than film.. His strength is in the TV format I feel. But I'm not a big fan, either.. I didn't like Buffy or Angel at all. But Firefly was brilliant.

I just dislike the entire vampire genre!!

His blog states pretty much what Gallifry said on Wonder Woman.

He's written a few comic books. I read the first one in about 10 minutes at Barnes and Noble. They are a very good bridge between the events in shows 14 and the movie.

In particular it goes into more detail about the "hands in blue; two by two".

I am happy to say that Buffy is one of a dozen shows including Friends, the Sopranos, and Survivor, that I have never watched. I couldn't even pick up Sarah Michelle Geller out of a lineup if you asked me. I didn't even know that was Buffy till a few years ago.

I did watch about 15 minutes of the movie though. When Donald Sutherland said he was 800 years old or whatnot that's when I changed the channel. I will say I was disappointed in not getting to see PeeWee Herman as the vampire. Whenever Gen Y'ers broguht up how great Buffy is to me I could only mention the movie. Then they say, "oh yeah, I heard there was a band movie with what's her face but I've never seen it."

The one thing about the whole Browncoat save Firefly thing that get's me is that its so contrived. Whedon managed to save Buffy this way and he must have thought he could do it again. Well it did get him the movie.

It's bizarre these fans. A new format comes out and they have to pick up a few for the kids at Christmas or the new co-worker that's never seen it.

BTVS the movie I did not like that much. Whedon's concept was completely changed and that's why he wanted to do the TV show. At first I thought it would be pretty lame, but I love it. I think Firefly is the best Whedon work, then Angel then Buffy, but Buffy is still excellent. I made my other half watch it and he was complaining at first, but then he was very happy to watch it.

Kayla said:

BTVS the movie I did not like that much. Whedon's concept was completely changed and that's why he wanted to do the TV show. At first I thought it would be pretty lame, but I love it. I think Firefly is the best Whedon work, then Angel then Buffy, but Buffy is still excellent. I made my other half watch it and he was complaining at first, but then he was very happy to watch it.

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I enjoyed the Buffy movie way back when, but not because it was actually good, but it was silly. The series I just couldn't stand. The characters annoyed the heck out of me.
Angel was palatable, I could watch it if I had to, and it was much better than Buffy. Firefly indeed was the pinnacle of Whedon's work thus far.

I didn't like Buffy (Gellar) and think someone else would have been a much better Buffy, but I loved the characters of Faith, Willow, Xander and Giles. I didn't like Angel in Buffy, but I loved Angel in Angel. I think my favourite character was Wesley due to the development from bumbling Watcher to quite dark and willing to sacrifice everything for what he thought was right, despite the consequences and personal price.

I agree, I didn't really mind Sarah as Buffy, but I didn't find her particularly striking either.

I absolutely detested Xander, however. I was never able to put the end of the second season 'Angelus' story arc behind me. Simply put, the Scoobies found a way to restore Angel's soul and return him to normal. Willow's only mistake was to trust Xander to tell Buffy the plan so that she wouldn't destroy Angel. When Xander made the conscious decision not to tell Buffy and allowed Angel to be destroyed out of jealousy he betrayed the trust the woman he loved and of all of his friends.

I never saw Xander the same after that, he simply became the bad Scoobie to me... the one they couldn't trust. I took great delight in the fact that he became the group 'butt monkey' -- couldn't happen to a nicer guy. Then years later when he was marrying Anya they showed that he was still that guy... the bad Scooby you couldn't trust.

I see your point, but I think it shows a more realistic character than the Scooby "tally ho, there is evil afoot" mentality and showed he made bad choices, wasn't mature and was left out. He was largely ignored and mocked by the Scoobies, and I think from a writing point of view he was a very well written character with human frailty, jealousy and internal confliction.

I just finished watching the Firefly series again ... and I still can't fathom why they canceled that show.

If I ever get my hands on the guy who made that decision I'm going to show him why I got classified as a D&D Fighter (instead of the RPG Watch standard of SpellSword) and "tear him a structurally superfluous new behind"

fatBastard() said:

I just finished watching the Firefly series again ... and I still can't fathom why they canceled that show.

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In essence, because Fox botched the entire thing from the start. They refused to air the pilot episode first, instead opting for the train robbery episode to premiere, which left most people confused at to what was going on.
There was almost no promotion for it, and they aired it against Farscape.
Fox tends to cancel shows when they don't get massive ratings right off the top, and because it aired at the peak of the reality TV show boom, the ratings for Firefly just didn't match up, so they jettisoned the show.

Can't wait for Battlestar Galactica to start up again.

Oh me too!
I watched the premiere of Bionic Woman last night, and all through it I just kept wanting new BSG.

The BSG TV movie Razor airs in November, but the show proper doesn't start up until sometime in January. And the broadcast of Razor is going to be cut, the full version will be released on DVD.

While we've hijacked the thread anyway let me just ask: As a Babylon 5 and Firefly fan, is Battlestar Galactica worth my time and money?

We're a lot behind here in Denmark when it comes to American shows and once they finally do air it is usually on one of the annoying commercially financed crap stations that I simple can't stand watching (I hate, HATE, HATE commercials), so BSG isn't being shown on any of the available stations yet (Heck, B5 has NEVER been aired here and the show stopped 10 years ago). As a consequence I'll probably have to invest in the DVD boxes if I'm to watch BSG.

Heck yes.
BSG is one of the best tv shows I've seen in a long time. Great writing, wonderful characters that have depth, flaws, personality and that are believable. The production values are superb, and the pacing and direction are riveting.
Aside from sharing plot points here and there, it has no resemblance at all to the original BSG - the new one is gritty, harsh, brutal.

The new Battlestar Gallactica is boring, dark and has cheap production studios and an uptight Edward James Olmos who protested and picketed shows being done in Canada and not in Los Angeles.

Its nothing like the original show at all.

Also, a friend of mind designed at least one of the helmets. He rigged up a wire to a remote control that adjusts lights that flash back and forth. He says he's never watched the program.

Olmos is a bit of a nut, but he's a fantastic actor and his portrayal of William Adama is superb.
I'm not really sure what you think is cheap about the show.. It looks incredible. The production values are very, very sound. Great sets and lighting, the costuming and make-up is extremely well done, the CGI is solid and the music is phenomenal. It's one of the few TV shows that has music I enjoy listening to outside of the show itself.

It is dark, but not boring. Season three had a slower pace, but that suited where the story was. There was a lot of furious internet postings from people angry that it wasn't about fighting Cylons and big space battles and whatnot. But the third season looked at the psychological effects that were impacting the characters, of which there are many. So I really liked it, things took a turn from the external conflict to the internal.

You're right that it's not like the original series at all, which is a good thing. When I was a kid I loved the show (never watched the "Galactica 1980" series though), and it can certainly stand up now (it did some really good stuff for TV back then, and was clearly influenced by the Star Wars movies), but it was very light. The new Battlestar is almost the opposite, the other side of the coin I suppose.

Umm did you ever watch space 1999 along with Galactica 1980 :lol:

http://www.space1999.net/catacombs/main/epguide/t18tle.html

Galactica 1980 I've seen some of, enough to know that I never want to see more. Space 1999 is one of those shows that's just managed to completely elude me, I've never seen an episode.