Subj : Re: Serenity: My Thoughtful Review
To   : alt.tv.farscape
From : Mark Nobles
Date : Fri Oct 14 2005 19:14:16

From Newsgroup: alt.tv.farscape

Bill Jillians wrote:
> weirdwolf said
> >Bill Jillianswrote
> >> weirdwolf said
> >>>Jim Larson wrote
> >>>> Tyler Trafford wrote:
> >>>>> John Iwaniszek wrote:
> >>>>>> Tyler Trafford wrote:
> >>>>>>> Bill Jillians wrote:
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>> My other grip about the film is why did they cast as the main
> >>>>>>>> character somebody with a thick Southern accent.  He was very
> >witty
> >>>>>>>> when you could hear and understand what he was saying but for me
> >>>>>>>> that was about 65% of the time.
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>> They say things under their breath in 'Mandarin' so maybe that's
> >>>what
> >>>>>>> you were hearing.
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> And he doesn't have a southern accent.
> >>>>>
> >>>>> That too.
> >>>>
> >>>> Maybe he has a Guangdong[1] accent.
> >>>>
> >>>
> >>>I understood some of what he said, their speech was definitely better
> >>>than my pronounciation.
> >>> Oh and Bill all the planets looked like California? well it did say at
> >>>the beginning they terra formed the planets and moons. Terra form a
> >>>planet to be like California and that would be kinda nice, well without
> >>>all the actual Californians it would be nice.
> >>>Ted
> >>
> >> I couldn't agree more.  I lived in California for 4 years and I had
> >> wanted to go there since I was 8.  The scenery is fantastic but the
> >> people brought out the worst in me - particularly on the roads.  I just
> >> thought they might have filmed in Alaska or somewhere not sunny and
> >> mountainous.
> >
> > Why? quite apart from the real world of budgetry restraints why imagine
> >Alaska? California was just as good a choice as anywhere.
> 
> I just thought some of the planets in the Serenity universe might be 
> further away from the sun and so be colder.  Everywhere they went looked 
> sunny and temperate (like Ca).  I just thought they might be a little 
> more imaginative.  How about a savanna planet for instance?  How often 
> do you see one of those.

Now why is it that people always assume that a terraformed planet would
be "a savanna planet" or a "desert planet"? Why wouldn't a terraformed
planet have places that are savanna, places that are desert, places
that are tropical rainforests, and places that are ice-covered, just
like the model they are based on? It is just silly to think that a
planet would have only one environment.

Mars may show up as a desert planet to the bots exploring it, but that
is because it is currently in a dry period. If the water were there
now, as it was in the past, we would certainly be seeing at least parts
that are not desert - lakeshores at any rate, even if they didn't have
giant redwoods growing on them. 
> 
> 
> >
> >> Did he not speak with a southern accent?
> >
> > I believe that Nathan Fillon is originally from Canadia.
> >
> >> It was a pronounced accent
> >> what ever it was.  The baddie was an English accent though, thanks to
> >> the Hollywood rule that baddies are always foreign to make them appear
> >> more sinister to a xenophobic small-town American audience.  Oh ...
> >> excuse me I have to go and do something sadistic to my next door
> >> neighbour.
> >
> > No no no! that's Americans we're more of the take over large parts of
> >the world and make them civilised. Well ok we failed with the Americans
> >and the Australians but that's the basic idea.
> >  Ted
> 
> Which makes us rotters, snobs, assassins and terrorists in the eyes of 
> small town America.  I've finished off my neighbour now I'm going to 
> torture my cat.  Funnily enough the Americans I met mostly thought Brits 
> were more polite and nicer than they were.  I said that was why I was in 
> the USA which got a laugh.  If you took the guns away from Americans 
> they might learn some social skills but you can't be sure.

.