SAVING FIREFLY (12-13-2002)
By David Blackwell

FOX has canceled FIREFLY. It is a statement of fact. Now what can we do about it? I'll tell you soon. First I like to tell how much I love this show created by Joss Whedon. I'm watching the latest episode, "Objects In Space", as I write this column.

The latest episode sees a bounty hunter called Jubal Early (Richard Brooks) sneak abroad Serenity as he carefully sets up a plan to capture River and bring her back, but River has other ideas. Joss Whedon has written and directed this episode with such skill that has been seen in other FIREFLY episodes and BUFFY episodes directed by Joss. It hits the right beats and you clearly see the bounty hunter is clearly a sociopathic bastard who will do anything to get the job done. "Objects In Space" continues the storylines and develop the characters even more. I'm still wondering why did Early think Book wasn’t a Shepard. Just another piece to the puzzle. Did Early come across Book or know who Book was before? There is something to love about any given episode of FIREFLY whether it is Mal kicking the bad guy into the engine of Serenity (The Train Job) to Jayne’s screw up of a job that leads him to become a folk hero (Jaynestown) to the high sci-fi heist episode with the scary blue hands (Ariel) and so on. The best thing about FIREFLY has to be the compelling characters played well by good actors. Not one of the nine characters gets on my nerves which is a nice surprise when there is usually one character to irritate someone.

Here is the plot of FIREFLY in a nutshell. Captain Malcolm Reynolds fought against the Alliance in the battle of Serenity as a Sergeant and he commanded many people including Zoe. He buys a Firefly ship and names it Serenity. He crews it with Zoe, Wash the pilot (who marries Zoe), Jayne the mercenary, and Kaylee the engineer. He picks up a Companion Inara (Companions are like Geshias and have big advantages to a smuggler ship like Serenity), a preacher named Book (with a mysterious past connected to the Alliance), and two fugitives wanted by the Alliance: River Tam (who was rescued after being experimented on) and Simon Tam (a Doctor who rescued his sister River). Serenity does any job to get by, but sometimes they do the right thing.

Next week finally sees the two hour pilot episode (Serenity) seeing air on December 20th. "Serenity" tells the story of how Book, River, and Simon joined the Serenity crew. After that, FIREFLY is pretty much done on FOX. Now what can be done to save the future of FIREFLY and the crew of Serenity.

The best way is to get UPN to pick up three unaired episodes of FIREFLY beyond the airing of Serenity and order three to four more episodes. Air FIREFLY in BUFFYs time slot in March through the middle of April while BUFFY is in reruns. If BUFFY isn’t coming back next season and Sarah Michele Gellar doesn't re-up for an eight season, I say FIREFLY is a cheaper and better option than letting BUFFY continue (or let a spin-off take its place). The experiment is simple. FIREFLY followed by BUFFY reruns. If the experiment works, UPN has a show to return to for a second season and repeats to show of the first season during the summer. So I want everyone in the verse to read this column, pass it on and link to it through as many boards as you can, and lets hope this gets to Joss and UPN. This is the best way to save FIREFLY and it sure beats BUFFY reruns or any other reruns during March. Keep flying and nothing in the verse shall stop us. Serenity out.

Sites to visit:
FIREFLY: IMMEDIATE ASSISTANCE: http://www.fireflysupport.com/
FIREFLY FANS: http://www.fireflyfans.net
OFFICIAL SITE: http://www.fox.com/firefly (dead link)

This column is copyright 12-13-2002 David Blackwell and FIREFLY is copyright 2002 20th century FOX. Email any comments to: lord_pragmagtic@hotmail.com