Subj : Re: Serenity: My Thoughtful Review To : alt.tv.farscape From : weirdwolf Date : Tue Oct 04 2005 02:50:11 From Newsgroup: alt.tv.farscape Jim Larson wrote in news:Xns96E4BD53C9BC53v234oiwofui3284af93@130.133.1.18: > weirdwolf wrote: > >> Jim Larson wrote in >> news:Xns96E4BAE389D1E3v234oiwofui3284af93@130.133.1.18: >> >>> weirdwolf wrote: >>> >>>> Jim Larson wrote in >>>> news:Xns96E4B521EB7BE3v234oiwofui3284af93@130.133.1.18: >>>> >>>>> weirdwolf wrote: >>>>> >>>>>> Jim Larson wrote in >>>>>> news:Xns96E4B19C342FD3v234oiwofui3284af93@130.133.1.18: >>>>>> >>>>>>> weirdwolf wrote: >>>>>>> >>>>>>>> Jim Larson wrote in >>>>>>>> news:Xns96E4ACA194E163v234oiwofui3284af93@130.133.1.18: >>>>>>>> >>>>>>>>> weirdwolf wrote: >>>>>>>>> >>>>>>>>>> Rick Savoia wrote in >>>>>>>>>> news:Xns96E4AC9D1F629rsavoiaNOSPAMyahooco@127.0.0.1: >>>>>>>>>> >>>>>>>>>>> Trouble wrote in >>>>>>>>>>> news:K_SdnR1O1_e93tzeRVn-jg@comcast.com: >>>>>>>>>>> >>>>>>>>>>>> RR wrote: >>>>>>>>>>>> >>>>>>>>>>>>> Jim Larson wrote: >>>>>>>>>>>> >>>>>>>>>>>>>>> I've got Disc 1 at the top of my Netflix queue and I'm >>>>>>>>>>>>>>> going to try and check out the flick this week despite >>>>>>>>>>>>>>> my ignorance. >>>>>>>>>>>> >>>>>>>>>>>>>> The movie is probably just fine on its own. However, >>>>>>>>>>>>>> certain events lose some of their impact if you haven't >>>>>>>>>>>>>> been along for the (regrettably short) ride. >>>>>>>>>>>> >>>>>>>>>>>>> I really would think that it would *have* to stand alone >>>>>>>>>>>>> to be worthy of having been made on such a scale. The >>>>>>>>>>>>> show's incredibly short run probably made that a fairly >>>>>>>>>>>>> easy thing to accomplish. >>>>>>>>>>>> >>>>>>>>>>>> Actually there is a little time lapsed between the end of >>>>>>>>>>>> the series, beginning of the movie, and the characters, >>>>>>>>>>>> while unchanged they have been dialed up a 'little' to >>>>>>>>>>>> recreate tensions that were alleviated in time during the >>>>>>>>>>>> series. The time lapse is sufficient for series watchers to >>>>>>>>>>>> understand things are strained 'again' and for non-series >>>>>>>>>>>> viewers to have tension and conflict to pin the story on. >>>>>>>>>>>> >>>>>>>>>>>> Sci Fi had been running the eps on Fridays, and had a >>>>>>>>>>>> marathon recently of eps... BUT, you should be able to walk >>>>>>>>>>>> into the theater without having seen the series, the first >>>>>>>>>>>> twenty minutes are laden with enough character dialogue and >>>>>>>>>>>> camera/characters-still-moving exposition enough to let you >>>>>>>>>>>> know who everyone is. >>>>>>>>>>>> >>>>>>>>>>>> Surprised I haven't seen this mentioned here, they have >>>>>>>>>>>> resolved the Galaxy / Solar System conundrum, the Pilot >>>>>>>>>>>> originally said one thing, the Series said another. The >>>>>>>>>>>> movie has picked Solar System. >>>>>>>>>>>> >>>>>>>>>>> >>>>>>>>>>> Solar System just doesn't seem big enough though. >>>>>>>>>>> >>>>>>>>>>> Even if you have a solar system of a reasonable size, it >>>>>>>>>>> just seems too small to support the multiple planets and >>>>>>>>>>> moons they've been to as well as the concept of something >>>>>>>>>>> like the Alliance. >>>>>>>>>>> >>>>>>>>>>> It's also very hard to lose a planet in a Solar System. If >>>>>>>>>>> it were just a Solar System, I'd have pictured the Reavers >>>>>>>>>>> overrunning the place by now. >>>>>>>>>>> >>>>>>>>>>> Personally, I always thought they were in a cluster of Solar >>>>>>>>>>> systems with a few terraformed planets/moons in each. >>>>>>>>>> >>>>>>>>>> Thats what I thought when I heard about the change, why >>>>>>>>>> stick to pulling >>>>>>>>>> bankjobs in California when you can go to Bolivia? >>>>>>>>> >>>>>>>>> Because you need FTL drives to go to Bolivia. Anyway, everyone >>>>>>>>> knows what happens in Bolivia... >>>>>>>>> >>>>>>>> >>>>>>>> And they say Americans know nothing about world geography! >>>>>>>> So we are fine with space travel, terra forming and psychic >>>>>>>> assasins but >>>>>>>> not ok with FTL travel? >>>>>>> >>>>>>> Prexactly! >>>>>>> >>>>>>>> Right, fine, ok, just so long as I know where to >>>>>>>> draw the line of sensibleness in the sand of made up stuff. We >>>>>>>> wouldn't want to cross that line now would we, even if it was >>>>>>>> by using the z axis. >>>>>>> >>>>>>> Damn right. That way lies madness. >>>>>>> >>>>>> >>>>>> Soooo just how did all those people get to a solar system that is >>>>>> third star from the right and keep on till dawn, without FTL >>>>>> travel? A sprinkling of fairy dust? >>>>> >>>>> Well obviously it was magic. Sheesh. Someone people...gotta >>>>> explain every little thing. >>>>> >>>>> (A single one way trip taking maybe a couple of decades or a >>>>> couple of centuries with most of a seed population in cold storage >>>>> is a different thing than zipping back and forth between solar >>>>> systems every five minutes.) >>>>> >>>> >>>> Well to get to alpha centuri at light speed would take what 4.3 >>>> years so lets be generous and say you can travel at a fair old >>>> clip, 6 years say. >>>> OF course although AC is sun like so is it's companion and it has >>>> a red >>>> dwarf companion as well. Maybe not the ideal place to live. So we >>>> could look further afield. Barnards star, Wolf 359, Luyten 726-8 a >>>> and B,Ross 154 and Lalande 21185 are all red dwarfs. Sirius B is a >>>> white dwarf. Sirius A on the other hand is pretty damn hot at >>>> 10,000 degrees C and about twice as large as the sun.` >>>> We are 10+ light years out now and still looking.Unfortunately we >>>> have >>>> reached the limits of my knowledge anybody who's good at astronomy >>>> know where the nearest Earth like single star system is? >>> >>> Doesn't matter. We will posit that in the year 2123 the Chinindian >>> astronomer Mohandas Lu will have discovered the exact location of >>> the ideal replacement solar system. >> >> My first night at Mandarin lessons we were talking about syllables >> and >> practasing the Ai sound. The rather staid lady teaching us was saying >> that it was used in combination to make an impolite word. I of course >> without engaging my brain went "oh! you mean Aima!" Stoopid >> Firefly swearing getting me into trouble. >> > > This alone would have established the rockitude of Firefly, had it > needed establishing. > > (What does it mean?) Er,bugger I meant to type Aiya, it means something like damn. >>>> Of course even in slow than light ships with a stasised crew you >>>> have to >>>> take enough food/water so that you can feed everybody whiile you >>>> are terra forming the planets.Which would take years. Oh and you >>>> would have >>> >>> Autonomous terraforming. People stay in stasis until it's done for >>> at least a few planets. Robots don't get bored. >> >> If only! The Robot Williams model may have self distructed rather >> inflict such harm on the humans that went to see his version of the >> Asimov story. >> > > Asimov's robots were pansies. > >>>> to work out how big a population you would have to bring so that >>>> inbreeding didn't reduce your pioneers to such a state that they >>>> are distracted by shiny things, become enamoured by their swine, >>>> play the banjo and develop funny accents. >>> >>> Super neato-keen genetic engineering = no more problems with limited >>> gene pool. >>> >> >> And yet you still have trouble with FTL travel... > > Yes. sn-kge is an extrapolation of existing science. FTL requires a > refutation of relativity or some funky yet massive paradigm shift. Not > saying it can't happen, but it is not the path of least resistance, > grasshopper. > Depends on how good peoples branes are. Ted -- Stare too long into the abyss and the abyss looks like a nifty place to hide the bodies .