Firefly: The Official Companion: Volume One
by Joss Whedon
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Book Summary Information
Author: Joss WhedonEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2006-09-01
ISBN: 1845763149
Number of pages: 176
Publisher: Titan Books
Book Reviews of Firefly: The Official Companion: Volume One
Book Review: Superb supplement to a reviewing of the DVDs
Summary: 5 Stars
Probably like a lot of people, I buy a lot of books that I don't read right away. I got both volumes of FIREFLY: THE OFFICIAL COMPANION, when they came out, but never read them. Recently, however, the series came out on Blu-ray. I decided to do my fourth or fifth viewing of the series (I forget how many times) by also reading the FIREFLY/SERENITY books that I've bought but not read.
The great news is that this is a really good book. It really has three components. First, it contains the shooting scripts for the individual episodes. These are distinct from the transcripts of what finally appeared onscreen. There are two different poles in the writing of scripts and then their shooting. The difference can be illustrated by two different writer/producers. Joss Whedon has been extremely vocal that his all time favorite TV series is BATTLESTAR GALACTICA, a show that resembles FIREFLY in many, many ways (not least in that the FIREFLY special effects team was the initial special effects team for BSG -- to the extent that they put Serenity in a brief sequence in the initial miniseries). Ronald D. Moore (the genius behind BSG) is a big believer in serendipity and in spur-of-the-moment contributions on the part of the actors. He encourages spontaneous adlibbing by the actors. For instance, the very famous sequence from the miniseries where Adama repeatedly yells, "So say we all!" was something added by Edward James Olmos (my understanding is that the script had "So say we all" once, with no repetitions). Moore not only tolerates creativity on the part of actors, but encourages it. Not so with Joss Whedon. Though he has a reputation for being easy to work with, he wants actors to stick with the words that have been written. Neither approach is wrong and clearly two amazingly great series have emerged from very different philosophies.
My point is that when watching a Joss Whedon series, the words in the script carry more weight than it would in a BSG script, if we were lucky enough to see a shooting script. (I've argued at several places the identity of the final Cylon -- and if I could see an original shooting script for "The Eye of Jupiter" from Season Three, I could state definitively if I'm right in saying that it is Billy -- if Edward James Olmos interrupted lines spoken by Mary McDonnell precisely as laid out in the script, I'm pretty sure I'm right.) So, on a Whedon show, the shooting script carries a lot of weight in understanding what each episode is about.
The scripts are not exact equivalences. Sometimes Whedon or a director or the studio will make last second changes. If you follow an episode as broadcast while reading the script, you'll note lots of differences. But there is no question that the scripts add a lot to an understanding of the show. For instance, in the episode "Shindig," where River rips the labels off the food cans, I was at a loss as to why she did that. In the shooting script, it is noted that she sees in a nonemphasized way the Blue Sun logo on one of the cans. It helps a lot in explicating why she did what she did.
The second component to the book is many asides or commentaries on the scripts. These can take the form of comments on one part of a particular episode or an explication of the philosophy of the series as a whole. A third component is brief introductions to the major characters. All of this is nicely supplemented with excellent screen shots from the finished episodes.
If you are a fan of FIREFLY (and if you are not, why not?), you will definitely enjoy the two volumes making up the OFFICIAL COMPANION series. You'll get a heightened understanding of the goal of the series. Plus you'll get a key as to what all those Chinese phrases mean.
Summary of Firefly: The Official Companion: Volume One
Before the smash hit movie "Serenity" came "Firefly", the cult TV series which started it all and became a DVD phenomenon, selling almost half a million copies. Set 500 years in the future, "Firefly" centres around Mal Reynolds, captain of the ship-for-hire Serenity and its eclectic crew of galactic misfits. When he takes on two passengers, a young doctor and his mysterious, telepathic sister, he gets much more than he bargained for...This official companion is just what the show's fervent fans, the 'Browncoats', have been waiting for, with unseen photos, scripts, behind the scenes secrets, and exclusive input from the cast and crew, including of course creator Joss Whedon.Performing Arts Books
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