Subj : Re: Serenity: My Thoughtful Review To : alt.tv.farscape From : Jim Larson Date : Tue Oct 04 2005 02:55:12 From Newsgroup: alt.tv.farscape weirdwolf wrote: > 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. Branes are best with marinara sauce. mmmmmmbranesmmmmmmm -- Jim .