Firefly: Browncoats Unite!

If you are a fan of the Joss Whedon's Firefly series then the upcoming Science television special, Firefly: Browncoats Unite, is for you. The program will broadcast tomorrow night (November 11) to satisfy the still strong Firefly fans around the world.  

Here is what the Science channel press release stated:

This summer, FIREFLY creator Joss Whedon triumphantly exclaimed to a crowd of thousands at San Diego Comic-Con that "the story is alive." Legions of fans across the world couldn't agree more, proving that a series which is comprised of only 14 episodes had endured the test of time. Guided by Entertainment Weekly senior writer Jeff Jensen, Science Channel re-created the set of the Serenity for this epic gathering capturing the insights and memories of space's most-rebellious flight crew — including the moment they realized they were canceled and where they believe the FIREFLY universe could live next.

Sadly, while the old story is alive, I don't expect we will be seeing any new episodes.  Of course, that did not prevent some from trying.  For example, the helpnathanbuyfirefly campaign was one effort by fans to revive the series, though it was quickly shut down.  And yet, fan pages can be found from Alabama to Wisconsin, and even overseas in places such as Australia and the United Kingdom.  Unlike many shows, Firefly hit a nerve and became more than a one season series in the minds of many, and a follow-up movie only increased its appeal.

If you miss the Science channel program, you can still catch up on the 10th anniversary Firefly discussions from the San Diego Comic Con.  During the conference Joss Whedon noted Firefly came about after he read the American Civil War book Killer Angels.  In a 2002 New York Times article, we learned more about this point:

And it was on a long-overdue London vacation with Kai that Whedon found the inspiration for "Firefly." When the jet-lagged couple read through the night, Whedon dived into "The Killer Angels," Michael Shaara's fictional recreation of the Battle of Gettysburg. "I thought, That's the show I want to make!" he recalls. "It was about the minutiae of the soldiers' lives. And I wanted to play with that classic notion of the frontier: not the people who made history, but the people history stepped on -- the people for whom every act is the creation of civilization. Then again, there's also gunfights and action." 

While I do not plan to join a Firefly fan group, I enjoyed the series when it was on and believe Fox was too dumb to know what it had (going so far as to show the series out of order).  I recommend the DVD.  You will not be disappointed.

Note:  If you are not familiar with the series, Wikipedia had a nice summary:

The series is set in the year 2517, after the arrival of humans in a new star system, and follows the adventures of the renegade crew of Serenity, a "Firefly-class" spaceship. The ensemble cast portrays the nine characters who live on Serenity. Whedon pitched the show as "nine people looking into the blackness of space and seeing nine different things". The show explores the lives of some people who fought on the losing side of a civil war and others who now make a living on the outskirts of society, as part of the pioneer culture that exists on the fringes of their star system. In addition, it is a future where the only two surviving superpowers, the United States and China, fused to form the central federal government, called the Alliance, resulting in the fusion of the two cultures. According to Whedon's vision, "nothing will change in the future: technology will advance, but we will still have the same political, moral, and ethical problems as today".