Catching Ducks

From previously.tv:

Labels: Firefly, music

From the twitter of Jewel "Kaylee on Firefly" Staite:


"Sorry, what's your name?"
"Jewel."
"Julie?"
"Jewel."
"June?"
"JEWEL."
"Jewan?"
"Yes. Yes, my name is Jewan."

Labels: Firefly

Seen here:


"Petition for Nathan Fillion to be the new Doctor and for Joss Whedon to take over as showrunner and for Jewel Staite and Alan Tudyk to be companions and for the Tardis to be replaced by a spaceship and know what let’s just bring back Firefly."

Labels: Doctor Who, Firefly

From "Shindig":


[The ship is approaching a planet.]

Wash: Closing in.

Zoe: Planet's coming up a mite fast.

Wash: That's just 'cause I'm going down too quick. Likely crash and kill us all.

Mal: Well, [if] that happens, let me know.

Labels: Firefly

From the movie, Serenity:


Mal: [River] is a mite unpredictable. Mood swings, of a sort.

The Operative: It's worse than you know.

Mal: It usually is.

Labels: Firefly

From "Jaynestown" (1.04):


[They're looking at a statue of Jayne.]

Wash: I think they captured him, though. Captured his essence.

Kaylee: He looks sorta angry, don't he?

Wash: That's kind of what I meant.

Labels: Firefly

I've been a fan of Joss Whedon since I discovered Buffy the Vampire Slayer back in the late 90's. With each new project (Angel, Firefly, Dr. Horrible, Dollhouse...) he proved his awesomeness to me. In the land of Hollywood, he was the quirky producer, who made shows with "cult followings".

And then he got hired to direct The Avengers. And it is a HUGE hit. Right after it came out, and the box office was going through the roof, here's (part of) what he posted on Whedonesque.com -- a fan website that he uses to occasionally post stuff for his fans, since he is (self-admittedly) too lazy to get his own website:


"What doesn't change is anything that matters. What doesn't change is that I've had the smartest, most loyal, most passionate, most articulate group of -- I'm not even gonna say fans. I'm going with 'peeps' -- that any cult oddity such as my bad self could have dreamt of. When almost no one was watching, when people probably should have STOPPED watching, I've had three constants: my family and friends, my collaborators (often the same), and y'all. A lot of stories have come out about my 'dark years', and how I'm 'unrecognized'... I love these stories, because they make me seem super-important, but I have never felt the darkness (and I'm ALL about my darkness) that they described. Because I have so much. I have people, in my life, on this site, in places I've yet to discover, that always made me feel the truth of success: an artist and an audience communicating. Communicating to the point of collaborating. I've thought, 'maybe I'm over; maybe I've said my piece'. But never with fear. Never with rancor. Because of y'all. Because you knew me when. If you think topping a box office record compares with someone telling you your work helped them through a rough time, you're probably new here. (For the record, and despite my inhuman distance from the joy-joy of it: topping a box office record is super-dope. I'm an alien, not a robot.) So this is me, saying thank you. All of you. You've taken as much guff for loving my work as I have for over-writing it, and you deserve, in this our time of streaming into the main, to crow. To glow. To crow and go 'I told you so', to those Joe Blows not in the know. (LAST time I hire Dr. Seuss to punch my posts up. Yeesh!)"

Labels: Angel, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Dollhouse, Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, Firefly, random awesomeness

It's always cool when actors on shows you watch like the same sorts of shows you do. Here's a little twitter conversation between Nathan Fillion (Captain Mal on Firefly) and Joel McHale (Jeff on Community):


Nathan Fillion: Dear @joelmchale, Please tell your cast I love your show. I'm watching every episode back to back. Thanks for the hard work.

Joel McHale: Dear @NathanFillion, the cast would like to say thank you & that they love Castle, Serenity, Firefly, your big hands, dreamy face, & body.

Labels: Community, Firefly

From "Safe"


[Shepherd Book, a preacher, has been shot.]

Book: That's... that's quite a lot of blood, isn't it?

Mal: Just means you ain't dead.

Book: 'Fraid I might be needing a preacher.

Mal: That's good. You just lie there and be ironical.

Labels: Firefly

From the (original) pilot episode, "Serenity":



Zoe: I know something ain't right.

Wash: Sweetie, we're crooks. If everything were right, we'd be in jail.

Labels: Firefly

I'm not sure I can pick just one quote from this interview.


How about this one:

question: ["Dr. Horrible"] was totally financed out of your own pocket?

Joss Whedon: Mm-hmm. I’m like, hey, you know what? Some mid-life crises are cars. They cost about this much. Mine has songs in it.


But how could I not pick this?

question: When you look at the success of "Glee" do you feel like that couldn’t have happened without things like the “Buffy” musical episode “Once More, With Feeling”?

Joss Whedon: No, but boy am I going to tell people that now. I’m going to run that theory up a flagpole. There’s other things like “High School Musical” that were more influential. However, let’s just say I invented television and leave it at that.


Or this bit, regarding how non-Whedonite fans get cranky when "Serenity" beats out more established scifi movies (like, say, "The Empire Strikes Back") in polls:

question: It’s like being a parent, and letting your child find its way in the world.

Joss Whedon: I can’t control how beautiful and popular my child is. What can I do?


Or (and I promise this is the last one), this gem about the upcoming "Avengers" movie that he's going to direct:

question: Can you say when you start production on “Avengers”?

Joss Whedon: We’re just a hardscrabble bunch. Guerilla filmmaking. I start production a week from Monday. I’m going to get started on the script now. Apparently that’s a thing. I don’t get it. Improv stunts are always way more exciting-looking.

Labels: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, Firefly, movies

From "Bushwacked" (episode 1.03):


[Commander Harken questions the crew.]

Harken: You fought with Captain Reynolds in the war?

Zoe: Fought with a lot of people in the war.

Harken: And your husband?

Zoe: Fight with him sometimes, too.

Labels: Firefly

From this interview (h/t Dorothy Surrenders):


“I walk into a room, and for this industry, I’m impossibly tall. When they find it hard to pair you up with the opposite sex, then what’s left for a woman? Either you’re the ball-buster or the not-so-attractive girlfriend standing by the lead,” Torres said during a mid-December phone interview from the Los Angeles home she shares with her husband, actor Laurence Fishburne. “I mean, traditionally not so attractive. Because you have your starlets and then you have their best friends who are these character actresses. When you fall within the cracks, you thank God for sci-fi, because they’ll give you a gun, and they’ll say, ‘Go over there and conquer that world. You kick some ass, girl!’”

Labels: Firefly

[The crew has eavesdropped on a conversation between Mal and Inara; Inara invited him to come visit her.]

Wash: Inara. Nice to see her again.

Zoe: So... trap?

Mal: Trap.

Zoe: Are we going in?

Mal: Oh, it ain't but a few hours out.

Wash: Yeah, but, remember the part where it's a trap?

Kaylee: But how can you be sure Inara don't just wanna see you? Sometimes people have feelings. And I'm referring here to people.

Mal: You all were watching, I take it?

Kaylee: Yes.

Mal: Did you see us fight?

Kaylee: No.

Mal: Trap!

Labels: Firefly

From "The Train Job" (episode 1.02 ... or 1.01 ... or 1.03 ... It depends on how you look at it.):


[Mal bursts into Inara's shuttle.]

Inara: What did I say to you about barging into my shuttle?

Mal: That it was manly and impulsive?

Inara: Yes, precisely. Only the exact phrase I used was, "Don't."

Labels: Firefly

From "War Stories" (episode 1.08):


[Wash and Mal are blindfolded in Niska's torture chamber.]

Mal: You okay?

Wash: [panicking] I think I've been kidnapped.

Mal: Yeah.

Wash: [pauses] Can you see where we are?

Mal: No.

Wash: Mal, what the hell is going on?

Mal: Ain't rightly sure.

Wash: But you've got some theories?

Mal: [slightly irritated] Still working it through.

Wash: [loudly] I don't want you to spare me, Mal. If you think you know what's happening, then you tell me. You wouldn't spare Zoe if she were in this situation with you, would you? You would be planning, and plotting, and possibly scheming. So, whatever Zoe would do in this instance is what I wanna do. And you know why? Because no matter how ugly it gets, you two always come back. With the stories. So... I'm Zoe. Now... what do I do?

Mal: Probably not talk quite so much.

Labels: Firefly

From "Serenity" (episode 1.01, not the movie):


Simon: I'm trying to put this as delicately as I can...how do I know you won't kill me in my sleep?

Mal: You don't know me, son, so let me put this to you plainly: If I ever kill you, you'll be awake. You'll be facing me. And you'll be armed.

Simon: Are you always this sentimental?

Mal: I had a good day.

Simon: You had the Alliance on you, criminals and savages... half the people on the ship have been shot or wounded -- including yourself -- and you're harboring known fugitives.

Mal: We're still flying.

Simon: That's not much.

Mal: It's enough.

Labels: Firefly

I finished my Angel re-watch, and started Firefly.

This is from the second pilot episode, "The Train Job". (The first pilot is called "Serenity", and the idiots at Fox decided to air it last.) Anyway, it was the first episode of Firefly I ever saw, and this was one of my favorite scenes:


[Mal and Zoe have just discovered Alliance troops on the train that they're trying to steal something from.]

Zoe: Sir, is there some information we might maybe be lacking as to why there's an entire Fed squad sitting on this train?

Mal: It doesn't concern us.

Zoe: It kinda concerns me.

Mal: I mean, they're not protecting the goods. If they were, they wouldn't be letting people past them.

Zoe: You don't think that changes the situation a bit?

Mal: I surely do. It makes it more fun!

Zoe: Sir, I think you have a problem with your brain being missing.

Mal: Come on. We stick to the plan. We get the goods [and] we're back on Serenity before the train even reaches Paradiso. Only now we do it under the noses of twenty trained Alliance Feds. And that makes them look all manner of stupid! Hell, this job I would pull for free.

Zoe: Then can I have your share?

Mal: No.

Zoe: If you die, can I have your share?

Mal: Yes.

Labels: Firefly

This week's quote is from my favorite (and, I think, the best) episode of Firefly, "Out of Gas". It's from a flashback where Mal is showing Zoe Serenity for the first time:

Malcolm: Well?
Zoe: You paid money for this, sir? On purpose?
Malcolm: What? Come on, seriously Zoe, what do you think?
Zoe: Honestly, sir, I think you got robbed.
Malcolm: Robbed? What? What do you mean?
Zoe: It's a piece of fey-ou.
Malcolm: Fey-ou? Okay, she won't be winning any beauty contests any time soon, but she is solid. A ship like this will be with you 'till the day you die.
Zoe: Because it's a death trap.
Malcolm: That's not [what I meant]. You are very much lacking in imagination.
Zoe: I imagine that's so, sir.
Malcolm: Come on, you haven't even seen most of it. Let me show you the rest. And try to see past what she is, and onto what she can be.
Zoe: What's that, sir?
Malcolm: Freedom, is what.
Zoe: I meant: [gestures towards the floor] What's that?
Malcolm: Oh. Yeah. Step around that. I think something must have been living in here. I tell you Zoe, we get a mechanic, get her up and running again, hire a good pilot, maybe a cook... [we] could live like real people. Small crew: them's that feel the need to be free, take jobs as they come.... Ain't never have to be under the heel of nobody ever again. No matter how long the arm of the Alliance might get, we'll just get ourselves a little further.
Zoe: Get her running again?
Malcolm: Yeah.
Zoe: So, not running now?
Malcolm: Not so much. But she will. I already know what I'm going to call her. [I've] got a name all picked out...

Labels: Firefly

From Firefly:


Zoe: Now we have a boatful of citizens right on top of our stolen cargo. That's a fun mix.
Mal: Ain't no way in the 'verse they could find that compartment, even if they were looking for it.
Zoe: Why not?
Mal: [pause] 'Cause.
Zoe: Oh yeah, this is gonna go great.
Mal: If anyone gets nosy, just shoot 'em.
Zoe: Shoot 'em?
Mal: Politely.

Labels: Firefly