You're fatigued? There's no fatigue in time travel.

So one of the science-fiction series that I have enjoyed is the Timewars series by Simon Hawke. It started off quite fun, very pulpy type reading. And then, somewhere around the sixth installment it got tediuos and now I'm kind of just slogging through them. It doesn't help that the later books in the series are very hard to find and sell for exorbitant prices - compared to the $1.50 that I'm used to paying for used books. So I'm not too motivated to buy them. But if I happen to find one for a couple of bucks, I pick it up.

I found the eighth book in the series recently for $2 so I snatched it up and it went in the reading queue. Well, I just got around to reading it and I'm really disappointed. Maybe it's been too long since I read the seventh book and I've forgotten how bad it is. Maybe it's just that the author is getting sloppy. But there's all sorts of problems with the story.

Here's an example. There's a team of time travellers who have travelled back to nineteenth century England on a stake-out. It's a pretty big team but there's a lot of ground to cover and they're stretched to the breaking point. The author makes a big point about how tired everyone is getting. And that's just crazy. Why should you get tired if you're a time traveller. Couldn't you just clock out to some other time, get a good eight hours of sleep, do some exercise, take a shower, eat a good breakfast, and then clock back a minute after you left? Or stay away for a week. Take a vacation. You've got the technology. Why be stupid and run yourself ragged? There's absolutely no reason for a time traveller to suffer from time constraints.

Maybe I've forgotten the rules of time travel that Simon Hawke set-up at the start of the series where he covered the prohibition against this sort of behavior. Or maybe I'm just a nitpicker ;-)

Firefly Friday

And now the long awaited day is upon us. It's been a little over two and a half years since the show Firefly was last broadcast on US television. Tonight, at 7pm, the SciFi Channel will air the first part of the original pilot episode Serenity, Part 1.

Those of us who watched the original broadcast of Firefly on Fox remember that the pilot episode was the last episode aired. Fox's decision to demand a new pilot episode, and their airing of the episodes out-of-order from what the writer/director Joss Whedon intended, are cited by fans as two of the main reasons the show did not attract many viewers. SciFi, as part of a joint promotional campaign with Universal for the upcoming movie Serenity, will air all of the episodes in order (including three never before seen on US television).

Watch it.



More Firefly/Serenity related stuff:

Charlie McCollum wrote a great plug that came out in today's Merc. Great closing line, "There is some justice in the world."

A Hollywood Reporter article, by Anne Thompson, has been posted on a number of different web sites today. Has a nice quote from the arts editor of the Cal student paper.

The DVD of the television series has been on sale since December 2003. Sales of the boxed set were one of the main reasons Universal greenlit the movie.

The international trailer was just released.

The original trailer was released back in April and has been playing in front of many of the summer blockbusters. The release of the original trailer, in conjunction with the pre-screenings of the movie and a sale on the dvd set over at amazon resulted in a tremendous upsurge in the number of boxed sets purchased.

Serenity's world premiere will be at the Edinburgh International Film Festival. Due to overwhelming demind, the film festival added additional screenings.

The first issue of the comic mini-series bridging the time between the last episode of Firefly and the start of Serenity has been in stores for more than a week. There will be three issues in all with nine different cover variants showcasing all of the main characters (well, with the exception of the ship Serenity herself).

The Signal, the first Firefly/Serenity themed podcast, just released their third episode.

Attendees at Comic Con were given a CD containing tracks from the finished score of Serenity. The finished version of the film was also screened to a packed house.

AbbyShot Custom Clothiers is producing a browncoat modeled on the one worn by Nathan Fillion's character. Quite pricey. Kind of a shame because, to be truly authentic, you would need to weather the coat quite a bit and, for how much it costs, I'd want to lock this up in a vault.