This is just a post to thank everyone for the many, many great comments on my recent post about Firefly. As you can see, I am doing my part to evangelize for Firefly/Serenity and spread the word to a few more viewers. (My brother will be getting all 5 DVDs as a gift soon.) In this way, we can all help make Fox look just a little bit stupider for canceling the show.
In this respect, I was particularly delighted to see that the Firefly series DVDs have been hovering all week in the top 5 on Amazon, despite the fact that they have been out since late 2003 (!). On Amazon there are also well over 2,000 largely appreciative comments posted. As someone who recently learned the ins and outs of Amazon.com (publishing a book will do that to you), I can only bow, remove my (cowboy) hat and say, "Now that's success!"
P.S.: Just took the same sci-fi quiz as PZ and Orac, and like PZ, I too got assigned to Serenity as the ship onboard which I'd be most comfortable....the Millennium Falcon was second.
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Enjoy your Firefly...but don't forget Battlestar Galactica when you have finished.
After these two, you'll be hard pressed to sit through an hour of any of the Star Treks ever again.
We are all Browncoats now. Well, we all should be, anyway!
I have to agree with the Star Trek comment. After seeing how a TV SF show could be with Firefly, I'm finding Star Trek: The Next Generation (now playing on G4) to be insufferably cheesy. I liked this as a kid? How?
"I liked this as a kid? How?"
Because you were a kid. Kids don't know better. For me, I suppose the equivalent is _Lost In Space_, which I saw a few episodes of recently. Oye, gevault.
The sad bit is when adults never grow out of their childhood faves. I find it hard to believe that any adult can have fond thoughts of the original _Battlestar Galactica_, but they exist. The new "BG" must be a truely strange experience for these fanboys. To steal a line from Bruce Sterling, "like seeing a favorite uncle stumble in, blasted on bad acid and mumbling cosmic obscenities."
Beyond the childhood fondness factor, I think there has been a change in who is writing these shows . . . see my rant in the previous set of comments. The various "Treks" were broadly appealing and easy to watch. You didn't have to keep track of complex plots and depthy characters. They had producers who kept it from getting too transgressive or brainy for Middle America. Starting with "Babylon 5", things started to change.
Hmmm, I got a tie for Serenity and Nebuchadnezzar (Matrix). I don't think I could do much astronomy from a sublight ship though!
Don't knock the kid's sci-fi too much, it inntroduced you to the basic tropes and forms of the science fiction you now enjoy. It's important for creating the next generation of science fiction fans.
There is a growing problem in science fiction literature -- the market is greying and shrinking. As the stories get more adult, the audiences get smaller. Subscriptions and purchases of the major science fiction magazines, like Asimov's, Analog, Fantasy and Science Fiction, are gradually shrinking and dwindling away.
Fewer books are published. Fantasy has been dominating the shelf space where science fiction used to dominate.
Anybody here read Asimov's, Analog or Fantasy and Science Fiction?
I also scored Serenity. Why? Because you can't stop the signal.
I took the quizz and was surprised. It appears I'm Deep Space Nine -- dark side of Star Trek.
Come to think of it, I did like that show -- and I do believe some of the Battlestar writers were DS9 writers previously.
Hey Chris....
Agree with you totally about this show........I was hooked by the third episode. I results show me suitable for Serenity too,
http://10poundbrown.com/?p=94
Keep up the good science work and take the time to enjoy quality sci-fi.
Hm. My husband and I were both Serenity, and we're on almost opposite ends of the sci-fi spectrum. Given the preponderence of serenity results, I'm starting to think it's a thinly disguised propaganda machine for Firefly....
Don't think this is a scientific quiz--just for fun.
It was obvious which questions to answer if you wanted to get X-Files, for instance. Just say you want to work for the FBI and you believe in conspiracies.
The short story as a piece of popular literature basically died 40 years ago. The fact that Asimov and Analog survived for so long is more of an anomaly than anything else. If I were a fan of the SF story, I'd be overjoyed that these magazines lasted this long. As for full-length fantasy novels outpacing SF in major stores... that's got to be an outgrowth of the mega-popularity of Lord of the Rings. I'm sure that once a big SF movie or movie series comes out, the tide will begin to turn the other way.
Norman,
You are right in your belief that BSG and DS9 shared writers, most notably the creator of BSG was Ron Moore who wrote most of DS9 (and the Klingon TNG eps), he's a brilliant writer who almost always produces great works
Chris,
Another good sci-fi show that got cancelled, although it enjoyed 4 or 5 seasons is Farscape. It's a little weird at first (took me about 3 or 4 episodes to get into it) but once you do, it's a pretty wild ride.
If I may toot my own horn for a moment...
The death of the SF Mag is not the death of the SF Short Story. It is the death of one of the forums for SF Stories. The problem with the short story is about profit. It is difficult to make money from short stories. Thus, if you like to write short stories, you have to either gather them in some sort of anthology, or you find a forum to place them. Perhaps a place for free. Perhaps like a blog. What the blog does for news magazines it can also do for SF and other magazines...
I realize that I'm not spectacular at it, but it is fun and it is free... I won't make any money at it, but it also doesn't cost me anything.
Serenity is fabulous! They are looking to see if there is interest in making a second season. http://www.fireflyseason2.com We can only wait to see what happens...
Joss himself has said that Firefly's dead. Why in the world would he be interested in continuing with that project?
Joss himself has said that Firefly's dead. Why in the world would he be interested in continuing with that project?
If there's still demand in another 5-10 years and he comes up with a few ideas, why in the world WOULDN'T he be interested? Trek restarted with about the same....
Serenity was Whedon's test of Firefly's mainstream appeal. It simply didn't fly.
It's just not going to happen.
Serenity was Whedon's test of Firefly's mainstream appeal. It simply didn't fly.
Well, it didn't fly in the theatres but it did do awfully good in DVD sales.
The short story may not be as dead as it seems. Jim Baen is starting a new web based magazine for the story format. http://www.baensuniverse.com/
have you found the Firefly fanfict? It is not as developed as the Xenia, but still fun.
Cath