It’s been over a year since we’ve seen any significant developments regarding Slingers, the Firefly-meets-Ocean’s Eleven television show from UK writer Mike Sizemore. The last anyone heard, Slingers was in a developmental holding pattern, existing only as a “sizzle reel.” But now it seems that the show might be moving forward sooner than anyone realized. Jose Molina (fan-favorite writer of sci-fi gems Firefly and Dark Angel) revealed in a tweet that he was prepping to start writing Slingers with Sizemore. Follow the jump for all the details.
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Confession #1: I watched Caprica out of loyalty to Battlestar Galactica. BSG brought me back to the scifi genre. Somewhere between leaving college and rebuilding my life after my divorce I stopped watching science fiction. Somewhere between the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Star Trek: Voyager television shows simultaneously airing I decided to focus on my career and my post graduate education. Somewhere between Shooter Jr being born and actually paying for cable television I lost track of shows like Andromeda, Farscape, and Babylon 5. But BSG brought me back and I owed BSG, Ronald D. Moore, and everyone else involved to watch Caprica.
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The sci-fi film/television production community is surprisingly close knit. Everyone seems to know everyone else, and it would be difficult to come up with two movies or shows that couldn’t be connected “six degrees of separation”-style. With that in mind, it should come as no surprise that a lot of sci-fi contains nods to other works in the genre. One of my favorite things to do when rewatching sci-fi is to keep my eyes peeled for robots/ships/props/etc. from other TV shows or movies to make cameo appearances. And believe it or not, it’s actually pretty common. Allow me to be your guide as we take a look at sci-fi past and present to explore some of the coolest — and some of the most well hidden – of these appearances.
Kaywinnit Lee Frye, a.k.a. Kaylee. Beloved mechanic for the ship Serenity. Mal’s girl Friday with an attitude. I think we all love Kaylee in our own way — but is she a good role model? One definition of the term is “a person whose behavior in a particular role is imitated by others.” Do parents want their daughters to behave like Kaylee? Should young adults imitate her? A more in-depth look at Kaylee should answer this question.
If you’re a Firefly fan — or have always wanted to be one — your Sundays just got very shiny! Joss Whedon’s beloved Sci-Fi series is about to land in GWC’s Community Frak Parties forum thread. And those well-versed in the ‘verse know what that means: time to hold on tight!
Starting Sunday, August 9th, at 2pm Eastern/11am Pacific, GWCers can log in, link up, and chat in the Firefly Frak Party thread as we begin a weekly watch of the 2002 hit series Firefly.
Sadly, replicators aren’t standard in Earth kitchens. And we don’t live in the Star Wars universe where the only food we see onscreen is a pear flying through the air. Thankfully we’re not forced to choke down algae mash with our algae coffee every morning. But if you’ve ever had a hankering for the food you see in your favorite sci-fi or fantasy series, chances are someone’s come up with a recipe – many of which aren’t much harder to prepare than saying “Tea. Earl Grey. Hot.”
It appears Jewel Saite was right: Firefly will arrive in a new box set soon — on BluRay. And if the rest of her land-down-under panel comments prove true, we’ll see some new commentary to go with the additional resolution.
Firefly On BluRay Confirmed [Whedonesque]
Jewel Saite seems to have dropped a bit of a bombshell at a convention in Melbourne, Australia the weekend before last, suggesting that we may see a re-release of Firefly “a special edition in a box set.” She mentions being asked to swing by Los Angeles to participate in a new commentary. See for yourself in the video above.
Would I buy it? Hell, yes. I’d jump at the chance. But I’d run — not walk — to the store for a direct-to-DVD Serenity follow up. Wouldn’t you?
New Firefly Box Set: Kaylee Says So [TVShowsOnDVD.com]
We’re busy re-watchin’ away at GWC. If you’d like to jump in, here’s what we’re currently checking out and discussing:
The Son Also Rises carries us further down our headlong path towards new BSG content April 4th. Trash, of course, has opened up numerous questions here on GWC — and still remains one of my favorite Firefly episodes to date. And Don’t Look Back drags us deeper down the Heroes rabbit hole.
We’re busy re-watchin’ away at GWC. If you’d like to jump in, here’s what we’re currently checking out and discussing:
- BSG Season 3: Dirty Hands
- Firefly: Ariel
- Heroes: (Volume One: Genesis) In His Own Image
- Movie: Real Genius
Dirty Hands offers up not only “My Triumphs, My Mistakes,” but also a piece of prime evidence wielded by Roslin-is-the-final-Cylon fans. Ariel gives us our first look at the “core worlds.” And we begin a back-burner re-watch of Heroes, finally giving me the opportunity to discuss the series with the great GWC community — yep, I was late to the show. My bad.
Look for a bonus ‘cast on Real Genius later this week. If you haven’t had a chance to check it out, now’s a great time!
Since our discussion in Podcast #86, the GWC Forum has been alight with discussion of the role of men’s butts in science fiction, specifically revolving around two scenes: Mal’s appearance in the Firefly episode Trash and Jamie Bamber’s candid moment in the Battlestar Galactica episode Final Cut.
As a guy who’s interested in women — much respect, though, to those whose taste runs different, and I’d love to hear your take on this — I don’t get anything from either Mr. Bamber’s towel scene or Mr. Fillion’s bare-ass-and-I-don’t-care-’cause-I-just-got-paid moment, which led to my initial comment. I was certain that most women viewed Mal’s moment in the sun in the same way they do Lee’s slip-’o-the-towel.
I far as I can tell, I was wrong, wrong, wrong. I understand that male nudity is generally treated as humor, while female nudity is treated as erotic. But there’s knowing and there’s getting it.
I saw Mr. Bamber’s scene as humor, because it was great seeing the reactions of everyone involved — even Starbuck whose smirk gives away the fact that she definitely admire her towel-less rear view. What I didn’t realize is that most female fans find this more erotic than funny, while they find Mr. Fillion’s scene nothing but humor.
So while I understand the concept, I still don’t get it. Help out a straight male fellow fan. How do these scenes really differ?
If you’ve yet to join the GWC crew in the official Firefly re-watch, now’s a great time to start. This week’s episode is Bushwhacked, important in that it introduces us to reavers — critical to anyone who’s seen the Firefly movie Serenity — plus it goes a long way toward establishing why the Flrefly ‘verse is the way it is.
We’ll be watching this week as well, and you can join the official discussion over on the GWC Forum.
Firefly Re-Watch: Bushwhacked [GWC Forum]
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