The Signal: Season 10, Episode 6: Signal: The Movie

you're listening to news from the verse brought to you by the people who made the signal i'm

bendia dale

adam baldwin summer glow and alan tudyk will be attending megacon at the orange county convention

center in orlando florida usa adam allen and summer will be signing autographs as well as

providing photo ops with prices listed on the convention website megacon runs from april 10th

to april 12th 2015 though summer will be appearing saturday and sunday only

morena baccarin and gina torres will be appearing at emerald city comic-con both morena and gina

will be available for all three days of the convention and will be signing autographs and

doing photo ops emerald city

comic-con will be held at the washington state convention center in seattle washington usa

from march 27th to march 29th 2015 tickets are available on the convention website

the comic book serenity leaves on the wind has become the new york times number one bestseller

for hardcover graphic novels for the week of december 7th 2014 meanwhile serenity leaves

on the wind has also won the goodreads best graphic novel and comic for 2014

rather than

rallying sales the goodreads awards are based on review by readers

a new book has been announced for march 15th 2015 the book is called firefly revisited essays on

joss whedon's classic series edited by michael d goodrum and philip smith the book compiles essays

that cover the themes of the show the historical relevancy as well as the music and language that

went into its making the book will be available in both print and digital formats

for seventy five dollars or forty four ninety five in pounds sterling and pre-orders are

currently available

qmx has announced they will be releasing a film scale replica of serenity the replica

will be one to one twenty fourth scale and will have a steel skeletal structure as well

as an internal brass structure for the main engine rotation it will contain over a hundred

leds powered by a twelve volt power system and can be controlled by using a wireless

remote for various functions

the replica will retail for just under seven and a half thousand dollars u.s

and more details can be found on the qmx website

and finally the signal podcast has ended

we don't need bullets mr chris

what's that a warranting

what's with the blue gloves

oh my god

romana romana

brown goats will rise again

one of the recurring themes in firefly is the conflict between civilization and savagery

here are a few tips on good communication green from captain reynolds

we suggest two copies of the movie and series one at home and one to let

of course things don't always go smooth and random scenes cropping up unexpectedly can

keep players on their toes

dear river which came first the chicken or the egg curious scientist

the egg

it as a change of plans. And now Carrie's

going to be taking the spot as my co-host.

Yay me!

Congratulations! Yay!

They're pictures of brown coat astronauts

Steve Swanson and Sunita Williams.

And they are just floating around in weightlessness

along with the Serenity and Firefly DVDs.

My computer? No, I need

that for the holiday special. We will find a way

to do the holiday special. You can't stop

the city.

Carrie Haley.

Producer. Six shows.

Editor. Five segments.

Writer. Eight segments including three

big damn test kitchens.

Reader. Twenty-six segments including

three big damn test kitchens.

Five how to host a shindig

and five broadwaves.

Actor. Sixty-three segments including

eight Badger's World, sixteen

The Shipworks, and twenty-six The Terraformers.

Interviewer. Over a hundred

interviews. Host.

Over a hundred shows.

Hello.

Hello. Hey Carrie.

How are things in Portland? Oh, hey

Miranda. They're fine, I guess.

Oh? What are you up to?

Lamenting. Lamenting?

The end of The Signal. I lost

all of my equipment during the last show.

Oh. Well,

did you know I started a blog? I mean,

that is to say, The Signal started a blog.

Or, I started

a blog for The Signal. I did know that.

It's at serenityfirefly.com

slash blog, right?

Yeah, it may not be a podcast,

but at least we can still talk to people

and tell them about stuff, you know?

Firefly, what we're doing.

We can post articles and emails

and people can comment. Well, that

all sounds great, but I'm still gonna miss the podcast.

Hey, have you seen The Verse?

What do you mean, have I seen

The Verse? Oh, you mean

the fan film. That's exactly what I mean.

It is awesome.

Yeah, I saw it. It is pretty awesome.

Hey, weren't you gonna interview that guy?

The guy that made it? Well,

Les and I had plans to interview Julian Higgins,

but we never did because, like I said,

I lost all my equipment.

Ouch.

Well, anyway, I gotta go. Talk to you

soon. Yeah, thanks for calling.

It would have been a great interview.

Well, today on The Signal, we are

very excited to have an interview

with Julian Higgins, who brought

us the fan film, The Verse.

The Signal, Julian. Hey, thanks for having

me, Les. Yeah, welcome.

Hey. So, my first

question is, Higgins, Moon,

any relation?

Yeah, yeah.

You know, I've

had that question a couple times, and

I'd like to think that maybe

he's just a very corrupt ancestor

of mine that just fell off the

path of being a nice, good,

decent person.

I just felt like it had

to be asked, you know.

Of course. I've never been one for mud,

so if that answers any questions...

Nope, nope, nope. You gotta throw in those

little references where you can.

Yeah, I'm such a big Firefly fan

that I actually did change my last name

just for the fan film, just for the fans

to pick up the last name.

Well, let me

start off there. How did you become

a brown coat? How did you become

so obsessed with Firefly that it inspired

you to such greatness?

Well, that's actually an

interesting story. The...

interesting thing is that I'm kind of a late

convert to Firefly. I'm a

humongous, humongous

geek and gamer and just sort of

movie fan. I'm a huge

Star Wars, Star Trek, you know, sci-fi

fan, and for some reason

that was the one corner of my

fandom that I'd just sort of...

I'd never gotten into it for whatever

reason, just because I hadn't seen it. It was one of those things

that you say you'll see, and then people say

you should see it, and then you just, you know, eventually

get to it. But boy, let me tell

you, when I got to it, it was...

2008, I was living with

my associate producer and a long-time

collaborator and the co-writer and

one of the actors in the film, Zach Finfrock,

and he's, you know, told me

a number of times that Firefly is the reason

he came to L.A.

And finally I sat down and I watched

Serenity, the pilot, on our... we had a little

projector screen at the house.

And I'm a huge World War II fan, you know,

buff, history buff as well, and that opening

battle in Serenity

Valley was just... oh man, I was

captivated. I... and then

obviously from that moment on, the

dialogue and the sort of...

the visuals and the... you're there,

almost documentary feel, and just

the way these characters, you know,

interacted, I was hooked, man. It was...

it was everything that my

geeky heart could ever desire.

That's how I got into Firefly.

And then from that moment on, you know,

I eventually watched

the entire series in probably the span of,

you know, 48 hours.

It was, like, super quick. And then I

was like, oh my god, there's a movie too? So I

sat down and watched the movie. It was... it was funny.

You know, I was pretty up on

pop culture, but that one, it evaded me. But when I got

it, I got it. That's awesome.

That's cool. Yeah.

I could kind of tell with

this... with this fan film,

um, not... I don't want to

go too much into, like, my reactions

to it quite yet, but... Sure.

I was super impressed

with the dialogue.

Thank you. That's very sweet.

I thought that you kind of

nailed the whole Firefly

feel with the snappy

banter and the kind of

sneaky witticisms and...

Well, I have to... And some were not so

sneaky. Some were, like, right out in the open.

I can't

take all the credit for the writing. I have to really

throw a lot of credit to my co-writers, Peter

Weidman, who we worked together

on the script with Zach Finfrock as well. The three of us

sort of sat down and

man, I gotta tell you the...

First off, thanks for the compliment, but

secondly, it's just such fun dialogue

to write. You just kind of stand up,

and you throw on, like, a cowboy posture,

and you sort of play around with this

beautiful sort of tapestry that

Joss made, and these... And this, like...

Everybody has the most amazing

comebacks. The stuff that you're thinking about

after, you know... You'd wish

that you had said in that argument, but he... You know, everybody's

got it right on the nose. So, you know,

we kind of sat in a room, and

I came to them with the

initial outline of the characters and sort of a

rough idea of the story, and we sat down

and sort of hammered out, you know,

what are these characters about on the

Overland, which is our ship in the

verse? You know, how do they

fit into this world? Because Joss

so masterfully put these, you know,

the crew of the Serenity together,

and it's just, like, huge

shoes to fill. So we kind of tried to

play with similar character

types, but different enough, but something

that when you see it, it gives you that

same kind of feeling. And so to sit down

and kind of write

the dialogue between these guys, it just

sort of... I don't know, man. You sit

with your best buds in a room, and you sort

of try to make each other laugh, you know?

Right, right. No, that came through

really well. So before we go into the

meat of, you know, how you made the movie

and everything, what gave you guys the

idea that this was something you wanted

to do?

Totally, yeah. So we have to also throw a

lot of credit to this amazing company

that we all have been working for called

Loot Crate. Loot Crate is a sort of geek

and gamer subscription box that once a

month you get a

box of random stuff. It's a blind box. You

pay, you know, 13 bucks a month, and you

get a box based off of a theme. So

they've done heroes and villains, they've

done zombies, and then this specific

month that they were doing a crate was

Galactic. And Galactic was their sort of

sci-fi, Star Trek, Star Wars, Firefly alien

crate. So, you know, we'd sat down and

I've been working with them as their

in-house director doing their monthly

theme videos. They put out these great

productions every month, the sort of

talk about what's going on with the

company and the sort of theme that

month, and just sort of like to just

build their community, which is a great

group of our kind of people. Just geek

gamers, brown coats, you know, Trekkies,

Star Wars fans, whatever the name for

Star Wars fans are. There should be a

name for that. I don't know what that is.

And they said, you know, I sat with Zack

and he goes, hey we're going to have an

exclusive, a couple of exclusive items

from this company called Quantum

Mechanics. And I'd known of Quantum

Mechanics from

you know Comic-Con and just their

amazing reproductions and their

stuff. He says, yeah there's going to be a

couple Firefly items in the crate. And

there's this moment where Zack kind of

looked at me and sort of nodded and I was

like, yeah he already knows what we have

to do a Firefly fan film. We absolutely

have to. We both wanted to do one forever.

We had done a film together, another fan

film a few years prior in 2008 called

Fallout Nuka Break, which was a fan film

for the Fallout game. And if you watch

that, you know, and this was like right

around the time I just got into Firefly

post that actually, I got into Firefly, but

all these comments were like, wow this is

so Firefly-esque, this dialogue, these

characters. And I was like, I gotta get

into this show. And then we, you know,

finally had the reason and the excuse

and the inspiration to be like, wow

somebody's going to let us go out there

and make the Firefly Phantom that we've

been wanting to make forever. And that

was the start of it. Did like a copy of

this end up in the boxes or? Oh no, no, no.

So that just gave you the inspiration to

do it. Right, well the inspiration had

been there for a while, but the

company had said, hey, you know, we need

to do a theme video this month, but we

don't want to do as a theme video. We

kind of, I said we shouldn't do it as a

theme video, we should do this as sort of

like a standalone short film. And so Loot

Crate had been sort of, has been building

this amazing community of geeks and

gamers around all sorts of different

movies and fandoms. And I said,

why don't we do this as your first sort

of foray, you know,

into doing sort of longer form short

films or like a fan film. And I said, what

an amazing opportunity, you know,

to collaborate with QMX and with the,

you know, the Serenity and Firefly

browncoat fandom, you know, that I found

myself to be a part of and Zach has been

a part of forever and Peter as well, said

why don't we make this our first step

into it and really, you know, swing for

the fences on it. And we, and it was

just, it was off to the races from there.

The idea started flowing and next thing

you know, we're making a

really, really fun fan film.

Well, I know this has been picked up

really well in Firefly circles. How is it

just in, in your general Loot Crate

audience? Has it been as wildly

successful there as it has elsewhere?

I would say that the Loot Crate fans,

they've been incredibly supportive. They,

all the comments and all the, the, the

very sweet retweets and comments and

Instagram posts and all sorts of stuff

have been just over the moon and

everybody just keeps asking the same

question, which is, when's the next one?

How do I see more of this? You know, when

are you guys going to do another one? I

want to see that stuff. And then beyond

Loot Crate, as you said, the Browncoat

community has been just incredible. It

like really warmed my heart and I know

the whole cast and crew felt the same

way just to see everybody sort of

respond to something that, you know, we

really had a blast making. We loved

making this, this short and to have, you

know, somebody, for example, somebody

tweeted it to Nathan Fillion and Nathan

Fillion retweeted it and said,

so well done. And that just like shut

down, shut down everybody's day for the

day. We're just like, that's it. We've

done our day. This is incredible. Captain

Tightpants just said we did a great job.

And then Tim Minear, Tim Minear, gosh, he

hit me up on Facebook with a, with a tag

and said, you know, all Firefly fans

check this out. This is pretty damn

wonderful. Hat tip to Julian Higgins. And

that for me personally was just like, I

melted, I just melted in my chair. And

you know, the whole cast and crew was

just over the moon about, you know, the

fact that, you know, we've had, we had a

write up from the Nerdist and from the AV

Club and Tube Filter and Weed and Ask, you

know, did a little write up. It was, it

was pretty incredible to have that sort

of response to something that we loved

making so much.

That's awesome. I love that. Getting all

that recognition is, that's fantastic.

Yeah. And more, but more than just the

recognition, it was just like, wow, you

know, we made something for fans like us.

We, we try to make a short that was

something that we would want to see and

that we would want to talk about and, and,

you know, our friends and just like

something a little sliver if we've done

our job right, just a little sliver of

that taste of going back into the verse,

you know, going back into the black and

playing in such an awesome world with,

with, with, you know, that's already been

established by people much more talented

than us with much more money, but we try

to do our best to just sort of play in

that little sandbox for a while.

And I think you did a great job. It's, it's

a very difficult place trying to sort of

honor the material, but not copy it and

play, play close, you know, like so many

things that I saw, you know, uh, Carrie was

talking about the dialogue earlier, but the

music and the sets and the CGI that you did,

you know, so much of it was doing such a

wonderful job in my opinion of striking that

balance of honoring the material, following on

it, but not just, you know, not just totally

being original.

Yeah.

Totally.

Yeah.

And, and you're right.

It was a very sort of complicated line to

walk.

You know, if there's others, incredible, um, influences everywhere in our short, it's

a 15 minute short film, which, you know, when we were writing it, you know, we were sort

of trying to figure out how to tell a story that has characters that you care about in

a story that is engaging and, and is, is, um, as exciting as anything from, you know,

the, the original series of Firefly in 15 minutes.

You know, Peter Wideman, our co-writer said it's, you know, this is kind of like writing

Firefly on fast forward.

So you have to kind of hit the beats as quick as you can and try to try to put those visuals

and that music in there that is, you know, really strikes the, um, strikes the feel because

that's so much of what I think, I mean, me personally, and I'm, I don't want to speak

for you, but maybe you guys as well, the, the feel of the series, the, the feel of the

movies, the sort of feel of that world and the music that sort of brings you down home.

And the, and the characters who you want to sit there in the, in the cargo bay and play

whatever wacky ball game they're playing, you know, that you want to be there.

Um, so we, you know, we, we took a lot of great inspiration from, uh, Greg Edmondson,

our composer, Dan Martinez listened to a lot of his cues and I, I temp scored the short

film when I was editing it with a lot of Greg's original Firefly score.

You know, our, our cinematographer went back, Pierce Cook and watched the show and how it

was lit and how the camera was moving and how they were fine.

You know, the happy accidents of lens flares and, and, you know, just sort of being there

and, and, and, uh, and being in that mode and, you know, production designer, Paul Bianchi,

all these people came together working to sort of emulate and find the bits from the

show that just sort of helped influence that feeling.

And I'm incredibly proud what everybody did.

I think even the actors, you know, sat down and I, you know, I said to every actor I brought

in, I said, you have homework.

You need to, if you've watched Firefly, you're going back and you're rewatching it, you're

going to go back and rewatch it all and just remind yourself about that, that sort of very

particular like way of speaking that, that, that patter, that, that draw, that sort of

flowing rhythm and, and breakneck speed of that dialogue.

And everybody was like, that's the best homework assignment I've ever got.

So were the actors who were in it, had most of them seen the show?

Oh yeah.

Yeah.

I would say the actors and most of the crew.

Everybody, that, that was one of my main sort of, cause I, I, a lot of these people

are, are, are great friends of mine that I've known for years and I've worked with and collaborated

with as actors and as artists.

I would say everybody on the show is a humongous brown coat, everybody.

It was like the buzz on set was incredible because we shot, um, we shot the, the, the

ship scenes were shot at Laurel Canyon stages over in Arletta, California, which are a set

of amazing sound stages that have been around for over 20 years are the exact same sets that,

um, they shot the episode Bushwhacked on that Tim Minear directed.

And so we're walking around these sets that were walked by the crew and were walked by

the cast and, and that, you know, Joss was there and Tim was there and all these people

were, so there was like a special magic and everybody, like everybody's a huge geek on

that set.

And we were all just like losing our minds, getting a chance to sort of walk around in

those, in those, uh, hallowed halls.

Yeah.

Of course, we would have split it into two

parts and then saved part two for later in the show.

SOUND OF DO evolution

Hello.

Hi Carrie.

What are you up to.

Oh, just thinking about the holiday special we're not doing.

Nevermind that.

I have a plan.

What plan?

We're going to have a party.

We are?

A farewell party for the signal, a shindig to end all shindigs.

Okay.

Where and when?

In Tanzania, and as soon as we can get there.

Tanzania? You're kidding, right?

Nope. This is what I want. I want you to drive over to my place, pick up some of the crew on the way, and then we'll all drive down to Tanzania, pick up the rest of the crew, and then when we get there, it's party time.

Um, so there's one small flaw in your plan. Isn't the Atlantic Ocean in the way? How do we plan to cross it?

I'll explain later.

Les, are you feeling okay? That sounds kind of crazy.

I'm not crazy. I'm giving you a mission.

You're giving me a mission.

I'm giving you a mission.

Okay, on my way. I'll take the RV.

Let's see what's on the radio.

You're listening to Portland Radio on 96.2 FM, and this is the very, very early morning show.

Welcome back.

Next up, here's a new version of...

of an old favorite, produced and performed by The Vocal Company.

This is The Ballad of Serenity, a theme tune to the greatest TV show of all time, Firefly.

Take my love, take my land

Take me where I cannot stand

I don't care, I'm still free

You can't take the sky from me

Take me out to the black

Tell them I ain't coming back

Burn the land, boil the sea

You can't take the sky from me

I'm no place I can be

Since I found serenity

You can't take the sky from me

Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh

Take my love, take my land

Take me where I cannot stand

I don't care, I'm still free

You can take the sky from me

Take me out to the black

Tell them I am coming back

Burn the land, boil the sea

You can take the sky from me

Burn the land and boil the sea

But you can't take the sky

Take me out to the black

Tell them I am coming back

Take me where I cannot stand

Take my love, take my land

Take me where I cannot stand

I don't care, I'm still free

You can take the sky from me

Take my love, take my land

Take me where I cannot stand

I don't care, I'm still free

You can take the sky

Take the sky

Take my love, take my land

Take me where I cannot stand

I don't care, I'm still free

You can take the sky from me

Take me out to the black

Tell them I ain't coming back

Burn the land and boil the sea

You can't take the sky from me

Anna! Carrie!

Anna Snyder, producer, 20 shows

Interviewer, 4 interviews

Host, 7 shows

Writer, 63 segments

Including 3 broadwaves

And 30 diary of a companion

Reader, 45 segments

Including 3 they've all got stories

5 broadwaves

And 7 silence in space

Actor

60 segments

Including 4 of the shipworks

And 28 diary of a companion

I'm off to meet up with Les and go to a party

Wanna come with?

Where?

Tanzania

Hell yes! How are we getting there?

RV, I'm driving

Isn't there an ocean in the way?

I'll explain that part later

Come on

Ooh, I love this

I like the interior

Looks like serenity

I was inspired

Thanks for being at the live show, by the way

I really enjoyed that

It brought back a lot of good memories

Plus, it was kinda nice to talk about what happened to all the diary of a companion characters after the series ended

It was nice to revisit the relationship between Foster and Carly

And talk about Lydia, who really is one of my favorite characters

But it's...

Really good

To just kind of close it out

To give people an ending

Do you suppose that Carly would have kept up the diary?

After the end of the series, I mean

I think she might

If anything important happened

Alright, let's get moving

Diary of a companion

I have been a fully trained companion for many years

Recently, I came across the diaries I kept as I entered the training house as a young girl

My diaries show how I grew from an uneducated farm girl who had never been off-planet

To a well-educated and well-traveled companion

Catering to the wealthiest of clients

Allow me to share them with you

Thanks for watching!

Dear Diary

It has been such a long time

I flipped back through the pages and noticed

The last time I wrote anything was approximately a year ago

How in the verse could I have let so much time pass?

I suppose when things get quiet, there isn't much to share

Looking over my other entries, it seems I only shared when something big was happening

Which makes sense, I suppose

And of course, that's why I'm writing now

It's been two years since the end of the unification war

Sarah, Lina, and I continue to do well on Beaumont

Although other companions took notice of our success here and we do have some competition

However, all of our houses get along and we share information

Information should have its own currency standard complete with exchange rates

That's not to say we ever use information against our clients

It's unprofessional and unkind

And would get you banned from the guild real fast

But it benefits everyone to know when members of parliament are visiting

Which is how I came to find out Foster would be here before he told me himself

Foster and I have stayed in touch

We talk via the cortex regularly, exchange waves

When I'm feeling particularly romantic, I'll spend some money on paper and write a letter

That can get expensive though, so I don't do it often

But we hadn't actually spent any time together in the same physical space since we both left the training house

So when he said he was accompanying his contractor to an economic summit

He made sure to free up some time in his schedule to see me

Sarah and Lina were insufferable leading up to his visit

They would whisper to each other and stop talking when I came in the room

There's nothing more annoying when someone who is bad at lying, like Lina, tries to hide behind an inn

Innocent smile

Whenever I asked what they had been so intent on talking about

They would say, oh nothing

And then immediately ask what Foster and I were going to do

Would we visit any of the gardens built since the end of the war?

Maybe tour a factory?

A factory?

I'm afraid I got a bit short with them and told them both

That what we did would be none of their concern

And I was certain it wouldn't disturb their plans any

Sarah actually guffawed when I said that

So much for those lessons in comportment

I tried not to let it get too much in my head

But I did order three new dresses

I had no idea if he would be able to invite me to any of the official events

Or if his contractor would want him to attend on the job

Sometimes the long term contracts have a lot of ifs and thens

I talked to Lydia too

She reminded me that Foster and I had been in touch

So it's not like we have to start from scratch

And it's not like we hadn't been together before

So there shouldn't be too many surprises

I rolled my eyes at that

I knew there would be surprises

You can't be out in the world working without developing a few new things

Sometimes I think being a priestess puts Lydia's head up in the clouds a little too much

Our time together was wonderful

We visited different sites

I accompanied him to one official event

Well, technically I accompanied his contractor who brought both of us as guests

Toward the end of the week, Foster told me his contract was ending

And he wasn't renewing it

That he was ready to try working out of a house

I must sign off now

I can hear Foster stirring

And I'm trying to get him acclimated to living on Beaumont

It was actually Sarah's idea for him to stay

She said it would widen our client base

And make us a stronger competitor now that more companions were moving in

I feel like this is what Foster and I agreed on

I knew what would happen eventually

But we didn't want to hope too much

So we're trying this out

Seeing how it goes

Should anything change, Diary

I'm sure you'll be one of the first to know

Love, Carly

We've arrived

In Tanzania? That was quick

No, in Arcata

What's in Arcata?

Craig Kuromata

Four shows

32 segments including four The Shipworks and eight Earthburn

37 segments including 24 How to Speak Chinese

53 segments including three Broadway's

Seven Serenity Speculation

And 29 How to Speak Chinese

Editor

61 segments including three News from the Verse

Three Banter

Four Firefly in Five Lines

And 54 How to Speak Chinese

Craig, we're going to a shindig

Is there room in there for me?

There sure is, you want to sit in the middle?

Hi guys

Hi

Yeah, just go straight ahead here

Actually, take a right

You want to avoid downtown

The organic bakers are on one side

And the anti-gluten people are on the other

It's a big mess

Yeah, go right down here

You can get back on the freeway

Yeah, turn right here

Okay, good

Craig, we have to be there

We have to be insane to be doing this

Perhaps we are

Where to next?

Kansas to pick up India

Then after that, Michigan to pick up James

I phoned ahead, they're expecting us

Well, let's move

派对开始了

What's that mean?

It's party time

Excellent

It's party time

I like Chinese

I like the tiny little keys

How to speak Chinese

The zen, the ping-pong, the yin and yang-bees

Welcome once again to another episode of How to Speak Chinese, the language course which teaches you Mandarin using only the phrases found in Firefly and Serenity.

Because of the, shall we say, scarcity of phrases found in the comic book story,

comic book stories, we've chosen to combine the phrases from two stories into this one lesson.

In Serenity, Better Days, Part 2 and 3, we find our two most popular phrases again.

They are xiao mei mei and bi zui, which you long-time listeners must certainly have learned

by now by its repeated presence. Well, as a former language teacher of mine used to say,

or repetition is the mother of study, he said that, uh, all the time. Oh, all right,

one more translation. Xiao mei mei is little sister. Xiao mei mei. Xiao mei mei.

And the phrase for shut up is, of course, bi zui. Bi zui. Perhaps if you're tired of learning this

particular phrase, you can use it to say, xiao mei mei. Xiao mei mei. Xiao mei mei. Xiao mei mei.

You're using it right now, saying, Craig, bi zui. Congratulations, you're now using your

Mandarin in real context. The last Mandarin phrase from Better Days is from Wash, calling Zoe's plan

shen jing bing. Literally, this is mental illness, but I think we're safe translating this as

crazy. Try it with me now. Bing. Bing. Shen jing.

Shen jing. Shen jing bing. Shen jing bing. Well, from the Serenity one-shot, to use the

comic book parlance, entitled The Other Half, there is only one phrase, but it's a great phrase.

Translated, it means, this body of mine will not be used as food for reavers. I suppose in your

hazardous travels, you could employ this phrase. Just imagine what a wonderful reaction,

you'll get from your Mandarin-speaking brown coat friends. Here it is.

Wo zhe ge shen zi bu shi yong lai wei reavers de.

Don't panic. Let's break it down slowly, as we always have.

Reavers de. Reavers de.

Yong lai wei. Yong lai wei.

Yong lai wei reavers de. Yong lai wei reavers de.

Bu shi.

Bu shi yong lai wei reavers de.

Shen zi.

Shen zi bu shi yong lai wei reavers de.

Wo zhe ge.

Wo zhe ge shen zi.

Wo zhe ge shen zi bu shi.

Wo zhe ge shen zi.

Well, I think all this study has paid off.

When you can reel off this phrase in an anxious moment,

you can consider yourself at the top of the How to Speak Chinese class.

So, Signal listeners, you've done it.

You've completed all the spoken and in some cases written Chinese in the Firefly Serenity verse.

It has been an honor and a privilege to guide you through this course.

To keep up on your Chinese linguistic toes,

I highly recommend you visit Kevin Sullivan's Firefly Pinionary,

the link for which will appear in our show notes.

From all of us at The Signal,

谢谢你们 for the many dedicated hours of listening you have devoted to us.

And for the last time, 再见!

Hey guys, welcome to Kansas City.

Hey, Bindya, good to see you.

Bindya Dale, host, six shows.

Actor, 11 segments including permanent waves.

Writer, four segments.

Editor, 31 segments including three editorial and 20 news from the verse.

Newshound, 38 news segments researched.

Reader, 48 segments including 38 news from the verse.

So, what's happening?

We're going to Tanzania.

We're on a mission from Les.

Cool, I got the message.

I'll join you.

You want to hop in the back?

Nah, it's okay.

I have my own transportation.

Ooh, a beetle!

A yellow 1972 Super Beetle, no less.

You lead, I'll follow.

Sounds like a plan.

How are you guys going to cross the ocean?

I'm okay, beetles can float.

We're browncoats, we do the impossible.

A fair point.

We do seem to keep on doing that.

Like, just when you think that everything that could possibly be written about Firefly has been written,

along comes something new and unexpected.

I did like the way our writers kept approaching things from different angles.

Do you remember that series, They've All Got Stories?

Yeah, but that was before my time.

It was all over with by the time I joined.

Inevitable, I suppose.

They ran out of big damn heroes to tell stories about.

Shame, really.

I would have liked to...

I could voice one of those.

Oh, Shiny!

I like to meet new people, they've all got stories.

They've All Got Stories, Genius Mechanic, by Jill Arroway.

Genius?

No one's ever called me that before.

Shiny!

They've All Got Their Own Stories, all of Serenity's crew.

We may not always know what those stories are,

but they're there just the same,

and sometimes, we can only speculate about what those stories might be.

In this series, we've told some of those stories,

and we've touched on every member of Serenity's crew,

except one.

Now it's time to redress that balance and tell the tale

of the one member of Serenity's crew

who played the most critical role in Serenity's story.

He was the genius mechanic before Cayley.

His name was Bester.

Genius?

No one's ever called me that before. Shiny.

I hold Bester in high regard. A lot of people don't, and I understand why.

He was clearly overshadowed by Kaylee, and his inability to fix Serenity's engine in Out of Gas was a definite minus point, one which cost him his job.

But let's take a look at his achievements before that. When Mal first purchased Serenity, she was not space-worthy.

Get her running again.

Yeah. So not running now.

Not so much.

Someone got Serenity running. I've read articles on the web which claim that that someone was Kaylee, that Bester was the one who failed to get Serenity space-worthy, and that Kaylee succeeded where Bester failed.

In this revisionist fiction, it was Kaylee who fixed up Serenity for her maiden voyage, not Bester.

But that's just wish fulfillment, and it's just plain wrong. We know that Serenity had been flying before Kaylee got anywhere near it.

Mal tells us so.

When we landed, you said you needed a few days to get a space-worthy again, and is there something wrong with your bunk?

When we landed here. Space-worthy again. Yes, Serenity flew before Kaylee, and it was Bester who kept her flying.

Moreover, whatever was wrong with Serenity at the time Mal bought it, chances are that considerably more work would have been needed than the simple removal of a bad rad couple.

It probably took weeks of work to get Serenity out of the junkyard and into space.

Bester earned his keep.

When Mal bought the cargo ship Betty and renamed her Serenity, the first thing he did was hire Bester.

Zoe was always by his side, of course, but Zoe aside, Bester was the ship's first hire.

He was there before Wash, and he was there before the newly renamed ship had ever lifted off the dirt.

Look, we finally got ourselves a genius mechanic. It's about time we hired someone to fly this damn thing.

Bester is described in the shooting script as a buffed, surferish dude.

And his portrayal by actor Dax Griffin certainly meets that description.

Wash may wear the Hawaiian shirts, but my money's on Bester when it comes to blending in with a surfboard.

To my mind, Bester would have made a fine permanent addition to Serenity's crew.

I would certainly like to read some pre-Kaylee fanfic with Bester as the mechanic.

He may not have understood the purpose of a rad couple, but he knew enough to get a broken ship into the sky.

He was a big damn hero, just like the rest of the crew, but his heroism went unsung.

That said, a ship doesn't need two mechanics.

In the end, Bester became redundant because someone came along who could do the job better than he.

I still wonder what became of him.

I hope he found a new ship, a new crew, and to this day is still out there.

Still flying.

Hang on, travelers.

You're gonna come with us.

Mercy is the mark of a great man.

Guess I'm just a good man.

Take me, sir. Take me hard.

I'll be in my bunk.

So, where are we now?

We're not in Kansas anymore.

We're in Lansing, Michigan. This is where James lives.

I phoned ahead, remember?

He's expecting us.

James Parkinson.

Producer, 12 shows.

Writer, 2 segments.

Host, 3 shows.

Actor, 38 segments, including 6 Moonbrain Mike and 11 Earthburn.

Reader, 64 segments, including 5 Serenity Speculation and 5 Broadwaves.

You coming?

Sure, but I'm not going without my wife and kid.

If I go, they come too.

Okay. So how have you been?

Fine.

That's great.

Oh, hey, did we get any emails?

We got a few.

Uh, here's one. It's from Tilk, or MJ. One person, two names. It's confusing.

No, no, Tilk. That's the guy who made the Bellflower fan film, right?

Yep.

Well, let me read.

Since 2005, the signal has been my warm blanket that kept the feeling of love and warmth for all things Firefly.

The inspiration and joy to keep Firefly alive and expanding.

I have a sadness and a fear that the imagination and life of the verse will indeed fade to black.

Even in a busy life with many overly important things to do,

people to care for,

there was always the signal.

The chance to escape for the briefest of times back to the verse,

back to Firefly,

back to the feeling that you get when you visit our special place in science fiction.

Even in your twilight, never underestimate your significance and importance to the browncoats, even today.

I'm going to miss you more than breathing.

There is a hole that is forever in my heart.

It will stay there until you once again breathe life into a wave to the people that love you.

I just know that I'll be hearing from you guys once again.

Stay beautiful, MJ.

That was beautiful.

It's so nice to hear somebody who can put to words kind of the general feeling I think we all feel.

We all feel a sense of sadness, but, you know, we feel great for having done this whole podcast-y thing.

Doing this for this long, I just...

Things like this just astound me still, that we have this kind of an effect on people.

Were you there in 2005?

No, I think I joined the Signal in Season 2.

You know what I remember from the old days?

What?

Moonbrain Mike.

Hello there, a big welcome to all my new customers.

I've gone up up in the world since the last time we spoke.

I used to run my own business, but I was so good at selling that I went out of business, so now I work for Blue Sun.

That's right, the big ol' Blue Sun Corporation had the good wisdom to employ me, Moonbrain Mike, in their sales division.

This makes me very happy, and it's gonna make you very happy too.

Why?

Because I can offer you great, great bargains of the one brand name you know you can trust.

And that's not all.

Let's start with Blue Sun Cola. That's right, your favorite cold fizzy drink at a knock down price.

But only if you buy it in bulk. Get ten crates of Blue Sun Cola for only two credits.

That works out at only one hundredth of a credit a can. You won't find bargains like that anywhere else.

And that's not all.

It gets better. Blue Sun jeans and t-shirts, half a credit each. In fact, you buy the jeans, we'll throw in the t-shirts for free.

And... I don't think we can do that.

Yes we can. In fact, we can do better.

You want accessories? We got accessories.

Watches, wallets, handbags, purses, and even hats for the fashion conscious.

We've got the lot at knock down prices. Buy one, get the rest free.

Mike, I'm really sure we can't do that.

If there's one thing I know, Shannon, it's retail. Trust me, this is gonna sell like hotcakes.

And speaking of hotcakes, we've got those too. We've got everything.

This is Blue Sun, after all. What don't we sell?

We could even sell you indentured servants.

Uh, no we can't.

Yes we can. We can sell everything at prices you wouldn't believe.

Mike, we don't sell people.

That would be highly unethical.

That's how we're able to sell at such low, low prices. Servants, slaves, we've got the lot.

You want workers for your terraforming gang? Blue Sun is the place to go.

I've heard enough. Shut this down.

We'll break the rules to get you the best service.

And fire that guy.

Live life with Blue Sun.

Yep.

Yeah, let's not air this one.

May I introduce my wife, Carolyn.

Carolyn Parkinson.

Host, one show.

Actor, 23 segments including 13 borderline.

Reader, 44 segments including 4 Serenity Speculation, 9 Broadway's, and 13 Big Damn Test Kitchen.

Writer, 59 segments including 3 Tricks from the Training House, 5 How to Host a Shindig, 5 Moonbrain Mike, 5 Broadway's, 7 Serenity Speculation, and 13 Big Damn Test Kitchen.

Hey, Carolyn. It's been a long time.

It sure has. What's cooking?

We're putting the band back together.

Forget it. No way.

We're on a mission from Les.

Oh, well, if you put it like that, I'm in.

So what's been happening?

Oh my gosh, life. I have a two-year-old now. Wait, no, he's two and a half.

And I haven't done a ton of podcasting, as you might imagine.

He's just starting to get interesting where he's walking and talking and a little bit able to take care of himself just a touch.

Oh, and work's going awesome. I found a place that's really sweet.

Guys, we are ready to rock.

How are you traveling?

Well, we've got two cars, a Honda minivan and a 97 Saturn.

The minivan would have been ideal for a journey like this on account of it's got lots of room.

But unfortunately, both cars are out of action right now.

But don't worry. We came prepared. This is what we got.

Ta-da.

You're kidding me. That's...

A toddler.

And a motorcycle.

With a sidecar for Jim.

Hello.

You're going to ride to Tanzania on that.

We sure are.

And I got some recipes ideas, too.

Big damn test kitchen.

Making and eating recipes on the road.

Since this is a road trip, I thought I'd cook up some road food recipes.

Like, literally, cooking food while on the road.

On the engine block of a car.

Or a Firefly, if you're a space traveler.

I first heard about engine block cooking before I could drive, but I'd never tried it until now.

Then the Mythbusters did an episode with Alton Brown where they cooked an entire roast turkey dinner with stuffing, side dishes, and dessert on a car.

So, when the opportunity to do one last big damn test kitchen came up, I knew this would be perfect.

I also think it's something the crew of Serenity might have done.

I mean, it's efficient to put excess heat to good use, and we know that Serenity doesn't have a traditional stove to speak of.

I can just imagine Kaylee making a fancy hot cheese bread bowl, and Jane maybe warming up a few cans of peaches, or a ground beef stew pack.

After all, Kaylee's got that inter-engine fermentation system, so why not a RadionCore range?

Now, I'm no Alton Brown, so I started small.

I did some research online to get some ideas of what other people were doing, then picked a few recipes to try.

I looked for things that only needed to be heated up, or things that would cook quickly.

I also looked for recipes that were easy to cook.

Things that would be cooked on coals, or over an open fire, you know, like campfire cooking.

Or, I just went very basic and improvised.

As you get started, if you choose to try this, the first thing you'll need to do is a test run to find out which spots of your car's engine are the hottest, the easiest to get to, and the best for cooking.

You'll also need to figure out how big your cooking surface is, and make sure your foil packet will fit snugly, but not be too big or too small.

One more thing to think about is when you're going to cook.

If you're at home and have plenty of time, you can get everything ready, stick it on your engine, and just start driving.

But if you're going to be camping, or on the move, or in a hurry, it may be easier for you to make your foil packets in advance than refrigerate them.

Or bring them in a cooler with ice until you're ready to cook.

James and I have two cars, and it turns out only one of them is good for engine block cooking.

Our newest car, a Honda minivan, must have been built by the Alliance or something because it's got a space-age case around the entire engine.

So there's no need to worry about it.

So there's no good way to get to the hot parts to cook our food.

Our 97 Saturn, which I sometimes call Serenity if she aims to misbehave, was more than up to the task.

It has a large exhaust manifold with lots of hot air, and places to wedge foil packets in.

As far as tools go, you'll need lots and lots of aluminum kitchen foil, an oven mitt, a kitchen towel, and a fork or two.

If you're cooking after you left home, you'll also want a cooler with ice to keep your food fresh until you're ready to cook it.

I tested out three recipes, and they were pretty tasty, if I do say so myself.

Recipe one was a banh mi.

This is a Vietnamese sub sandwich that is made on a French baguette.

My version uses canned sardines.

Mashup of cultures and flavors, check.

Uses canned food, check.

Yep, this sounds like a pretty perfect Serenity-style recipe to me.

But if sardines freak you out, you could make any kind of submarine sandwich you'd like and heat it up using this same method.

The basic recipe was this.

I shredded some carrots, radish, and then added some salt, lime juice, and a splash of fish sauce and sesame oil.

I was basically making some quick pickles in a vinaigrette-type sauce.

I then got a can of sardines, in tomato sauce, and some very thin sliced onions.

I split open half a loaf of French bread, and put some mayonnaise, some pickles, and some sardines on.

I closed up the bread, wrapped it up real tight with foil, then wrapped it again twice more, just to be sure.

I carefully wedged it on top of the engine and whipped it.

It was tasty.

Even James tried some, though sardines aren't his forte.

But it wasn't very hot.

Turns out, I don't know my way around an engine.

I'm no Kayleigh.

I did not put the sandwich on the hottest part of the oven, um, stove.

James helped me troubleshoot, with the help of the internet, and we came up with two fixes.

One, put it closer to the exhaust where all the heat is.

And two, crumple up a ball of foil right next to the exhaust and next to your food.

This helps conduct the heat over time.

This helps conduct the heat over to where what you want to cook is.

Round one under my belt, I felt confident that round two would go better.

I went for broke, and tested recipes two and three together.

Recipe two was baked apples, and recipe three was garlic shrimp scampi.

For the apples, I used just one apple, peeling it and slicing it very thin.

I added a touch of apple juice, a little bit of sugar, a pinch of salt, and some butter.

In a serenity situation, oil would probably be more authentic.

I added a touch of apple juice, a little bit of sugar, a pinch of salt, and some butter.

In a serenity situation, oil would probably be more authentic.

For the shrimp, I used about a quarter of a pound of fairly small shrimp.

There were between 60 and 70 of them to a pound, or about 120 to 150 shrimp to a kilogram.

I added butter, lemon juice, salt, pepper and garlic powder.

I didn't want to use fresh garlic for fear of it burning.

To make each packet, I laid out two long strips of aluminum foil and put the ingredients right in the middle.

I folded all four sides over, then put the two packets together, the shrimp and the apples,

and wrapped them together with one more layer of foil.

This roundish bundle fit pretty well over my engine.

I added one last ball of foil to keep it stable and to conduct more heat from the engine over to the food.

As I said, that was James' idea, and it was a good one.

Now, because these recipes had liquid in them, this is technically braising.

That was my idea.

I went with braising for a few reasons.

One, liquid adds flavor.

Two, adding liquid helps distribute heat more evenly and makes the food cook faster.

Three, it also gives you some insurance from burning.

For these two tests, I figured the raw stuff would need more time to cook, so I drove for an hour before checking.

After an hour, James and I turned off the car and carefully pulled out the packet.

It was so hot it almost burned me, which I considered a good sign.

As I unwrapped it, I felt a bit like a kid at Christmas.

I could see some burned areas in the inner layers, and I was a bit worried.

But I kept going.

One or two of the shrimp on the side that was closest to the engine had gotten burned, but the rest were good to eat.

And they were great!

I do not lie when I say they were some of the best cooked shrimp I've ever made.

Sometimes shrimp can be rubbery or chewy when they're overcooked or cooked too fast, but these were cooked through evenly, and they were very tender.

The apples were okay, but not as good.

They were hot and had good flavor, but they were not super soft.

I like my baked apples pretty tender, so it may be personal preference.

But for a cold fall day, they were a pretty great snack.

All in all, my car cooking experiment was pretty successful.

I hope I have inspired you to try something similar.

It's something I will surely do again.

I've already found some recipes that I want to try.

There's a garlic bread that looks pretty great, and whiskey peaches, and some really tasty things with hot cheese over there, and strawberries.

I think I would like to do a foil packet where it's got a little bit of garlic and more meat, and I want some ground beef, or maybe some patchy.

It would be so much fun.

But, hey, all of that to come!

Fruit-y O.T. bars make a man out of a mouse.

Fruit-y O.T. bars make you bust out of your glass.

It'll run the time.

Who's next?

You're monsters.

Miranda.

This is Miranda.

We're on a mission from Les.

Miranda Thomas.

Producer, 16 shows.

Host, 8 shows.

Writer, 27 segments including 3 Tricks from the Training House, 5 Broadwaves, and 7 Operation Sequel.

Editor, over 100 show mixdowns plus 1 segment, Broadwaves.

Actor, over 100 segments including 6 Moonshine, 9 Earthburn, 25 The Terraformers, 27 Diary of a Companion, and 30 Badger's World.

Reader, hundreds of segments and hundreds of emails.

Nice car.

Thanks.

It's a red 1960 Corvette convertible.

Pretty ain't it?

I like the number plate.

S-P-Y-G-R-L?

What does it mean?

Well, when I first got a car...

My own car.

I wanted something fun as the license plate.

And I am absolutely in love with spy shows, as you may have been able to tell from some of the Broadwaves I did in the past.

Anyhow, I decided I wanted to get a Spy Girl plate, and there it is.

So, tell us about this blog thingy.

Oh, it's just a blog.

You know, a signal blog.

And we can all write to it.

All the signal crew.

It's how we're going to keep in touch with the world now that the podcast's gone.

Good idea.

But it can wait.

Right now, we've got a party to get to.

Hey, I'm on board for a party.

How are we getting across the ocean, though?

I'll explain later.

Okay.

You know, this sounds like one of those weird and wacky adventures that Sarah Bunnell and

Tara Rae Parsec used to get up to in the Terraformers.

Let's just hope our adventures aren't quite as disastrous.

Come on, let's get driving.

We've got a long way to go.

The Terraformers.

Building better worlds.

Starring Carrie Haley as Sarah Brunell.

Why do I have a bad feeling about this?

If we're supposed to screw this one up, theoretically there's nothing to go wrong.

But somehow, I think we'll find a way.

And Miranda Thomas as Tara Rae Parsec.

Oh, don't be so pessimistic, Sarah.

This is our big chance.

We do this job well, and Mr. Spall will finally let us off Black Rock.

I know it!

And featuring Nick Edwards as Mr. Spall.

This assignment is a perfect match for you two masters of disaster.

You're so good at actual catastrophes that simulating one should be a breeze.

Episode number 29, This Mortal Coil.

And so, if the squirrels could only start organising themselves better, I think it just might work.

Oh, thank Buddha.

Alright, you two.

Looks like we're ready to go.

Are you clear on the plan?

Yes, sir.

We send the newbies out, strand them in the black, and sit back and see how it goes.

See how well they find their way back to Black Rock.

That's the number of it, yes.

Terraformers need to think on their feet.

Improvise.

Beach trainees need some practice at that.

And, uh, I don't know what I thought you two would be the best choice for creating disaster on cue.

Thank you, Mr. Spall.

I sure appreciate the compliment.

We won't let you down.

Uh-huh.

You seem rather quiver now.

Don't you share Parsec's confidence?

I feel my role here is to add a dose of healthy pessimism to the mix, Mr. Spall.

Good teamwork is about balance, right?

Indeed.

Well, off you go.

Your victims await you.

Okay, listen up.

Ms. Parsec is handing out your assignments.

You'll be working in teams of two.

The objective for each team is to reach the coordinates given, get the data specified, and then hightail it back here as soon as you can.

Each team has the same type of ship and the same distance to go, so this will be a fair race.

Any questions?

Um, I don't have a question.

But I do have this for you from Mr. Spall.

Oh, okay.

Bring in here, then.

The rest of you get to your ships.

Departure time, 0800.

Anyone taking off before then will be disqualified.

Here it is.

It's a recorder.

I can see that.

Thank you.

Go join the others.

Yes, miss.

How's Mr. Spall using a trainee to send us a message?

I don't know, but it sure makes me nervous.

Well, here goes.

Surprise!

Guess who else is going on this assignment?

I thought it was about time I gave you the chance to redeem yourselves.

If you complete your assignment and get back to Blackrock before all the other teams, you'll have secured your ticket out of here and back to Terraforming proper.

No more holding Yubi's hands for you two, if you can win the race.

Your assignment details are in your ship.

Good luck.

You'll need it.

Alright!

Let's win this thing!

Yes, we have a chance.

Actually, we have a good chance.

We know something the others don't.

What do you mean?

We know that this assignment is not about navigation or data collection or speed, either.

It's about being able to deal with the unexpected.

The real test is what the trainees do when they find out their ships have been sabotaged.

They don't know that yet, but we do.

Oh, yeah!

Mr. Spall must have tampered with our ship like we tampered with all the ships for the trainees.

But we know that and they don't.

Well, then let me say it again, all right?

Let's win this thing!

Okay.

We've got half an hour.

I'll go check out the ship and see if I can work out what he did.

You go scrounge up any supplies you think might come in handy for whatever mechanical failure Mr. Spall might have dreamed up for us.

Let's do this.

That was heavy.

I got everything I could think of.

Could you work out what's wrong with the ship?

Not yet, but we can keep checking once we're off and have a look.

Strap in.

It's almost 0800.

I can't wait to see the look on Mr. Spall's face when we get back first.

Oh, don't jinx it.

We've still got to find the problem and fix it.

Have faith, Sarah.

I think this is our lucky day.

I've got all the data, Sarah.

It was pretty easy stuff.

Have you found the problem yet?

I most certainly have, thank you very much.

And not only that, I've fixed it.

Dear Mr. Spall had rigged the catalyzer on the starboard compression coil to blow.

But guess what I found in that box of tricks you brought on board?

Was it a spare compression coil by any chance?

It most assuredly was.

Good job, Sarah.

Good job yourself.

Now, let's get back to Blackrock and claim our prize.

A ticket back to civilization.

I can only make out one ship down there, and it's Mr. Spall.

Wave one!

Oh, we so very much have.

Let's get this bird on the ground and go do our dance of victory.

Aw, he's coming over to meet us.

How sweet.

A victorious homecoming.

Boy, this feels good.

Mr. Spall, thanks for being the welcoming committee.

I'm not the welcoming committee, you fools.

I've come to cheer you out for what you've done to my ship.

Your ship?

What do you mean?

There's no use denying it, Brunel.

You were seen, Parsec, looting my ship for spare parts to take with you.

You stranded me here, and I missed an important meeting.

Oh?

Did I take too many things?

Could your ship not take off?

Could it not take off?

With half its inners missing?

Oh, let me think.

We're sorry, Mr. Spall, but, um, we did complete the assignment, and we're the first team back, so, um...

Do you really want to finish that sentence, Brunel?

You think I'm going to let you leave here now?

You'd better start praying for a miracle, because that's the only way you're ever getting off Blackrock.

Ah...

See?

All I want is a little...

Aren't you cold?

Ah...

Ah, I almost forgot about the

I'm sorry, Brunel, I didn't mean to go on the internet with someone else.

What?

Well, you see, I'm in a real bad mood now.

Ah...

Guys! Guys! You made it!

We made it!

Carrie, Anna, Craig, Binyad, James, Carolyn, and a small child, and Miranda.

Great to see you, Les.

Hey, Les.

Good to be here.

Yay! Les!

We made it.

Yep. We took turns driving. Not Jim, though.

Awesome. But seven people? Is that all you got?

So far.

I want more. I want them all. We're reuniting the signal crew for one final blowout.

We'll pick up the rest on the way.

You're serious about going to Tanzania?

All the way. Can I hitch a ride in your RV? It looks awesome.

No problem. What have you been doing, apart from plotting devious shindig plans?

Apart from that, I've been watching The Verse.

I haven't seen that. What have I been missing?

It's a Firefly fan film. It's like Firefly, but with a different ship and different crew.

The ship is called The Overland. The captain is Captain Hunter, and he's played by Ryan Caldwell.

Is he good?

Oh, he's good. He's got big shoes to fill, obviously, following in the footsteps of Mel, but he does a good job.

I wouldn't say Captain Hunter is an incredibly capable captain, but it's like everyone on The Overland is new,

and he's kind of like the glue that keeps the crew together.

Because they haven't gelled yet. They're not really a family yet.

But they will be.

Oh, for sure.

Oh, the music is awesome, too.

The composer. I think his name is Dan Martina. He's written the score, and the score is just brilliant.

He's got a live violinist, and I think Dan plays some mandolin.

And he's got a little guitar action going there, too.

Yeah, it's like he's really understood the core of what makes Firefly what it is.

It is beautiful.

Sounds great.

Yeah, Carrie and I were going to do an interview with the creator.

Hey-ho. Well, shall we get rolling?

Why not?

No point in standing still.

Let's go.

Three What's in a Signal, four Broadway's, and 16 The Firefly Technical Manual.

Actor, 70 segments, including three The Shipworks, three Around the Verse in 80 Days,

nine Earthburn, and 33 Badger's World.

Interviewer, over 100 interviews.

Host, over 100 shows.

Bindiya, how many vehicles have we got?

We've got you, Carrie, Anna, and Craig in the RV.

Me in the Super Beetle.

Carolyn, James, and Jim.

In the bike and sidecar.

And Miranda in the Corvette.

10-4, good buddy.

Bruce is six alive.

Looks like we got us a convoy.

There have been a lot of Firefly fan films, or at least attempts at one.

You know, there have been...

Some have made it out.

Most have started and fizzled somewhere in the middle.

Sure.

The Verse, y'all snuck up on me.

You know, I didn't hear anything, and then bang, here's a finished product.

Yeah.

Understanding how you did this in collaboration with Loot Crate, you know, it was an idea

you had for a while.

You got the synergies and just made it happen.

You know, from the point at which you knew you were doing it until you were done, how

long did the process take?

Yeah, it was extremely short.

And when you say it snuck up on you, I can tell you it definitely snuck up on us as well.

You know, when it comes to fan films, there's...

I, for the longest time, because I'm, you know, as I said, I'm a huge geek, and I came

from the Force.net forums and, you know, the Ryan and Dorkman sort of Star Wars fan films

of the day.

And, you know, there's a stigma about fan films for the longest time that they're sort

of a bunch of, you know, socially awkward people shooting something in a garage and

releasing a photo, and then it never gets out.

And from somebody who's been on the other side of that, it's extremely hard to put together

a film.

It's extremely ambitious, and anybody who's brave enough and motivated enough to get together

a group of like-minded people, most of the time who are working for free, to just put

something together for something that you love, I send my hat out to you.

So, as far as where we came from, we...

Our time frame was extremely short.

We were going to try to shoot it before Comic-Con.

The movie...

Or the short...

It had to be out on September 10th.

Our goal was September 10th.

Our first real finished script was probably around August 10th.

Wow.

Yeah.

It was incredible because everybody, you know, it is an incredibly short time to put out

something like that.

The post-production was less than 20 days.

Our visual effects artists had, you know, such a short time frame, and I think absolutely

knocked it out of the park, the guys at Distoli Digital.

And the amazing...

Sean Kennedy, who came in via QMX, and Andy Gore, and helped create our 3D model in less

than, you know, three weeks.

It was an amazing effort.

So, yeah, we kind of snuck up on ourselves.

We knew that we had to get it out by this date because we were sort of doing it coinciding

with, you know, Loot Crate's theme that month, which was Galactic, and sort of trying to

help bring some eyes to them and bring eyes to their community as well.

We just said, hey, you know, if we're going to get the green light and the keys to go

play on a ship in space...

And you only have a month to do it, you dang well better make sure you get it done and

make it right because everybody was in love with it.

So, yeah, less than a month.

If you've ever done a film or if, you know, anybody listening has ever been involved in

film production, you know, it's incredibly hard work, and I'm just endlessly proud of

what everybody did, especially in the time that we had to do it.

So the casting was so well done for the characterizations that they portrayed.

Like, by the end of it, I really did want...

There to be another one because I want to know what happens.

I have to tell you, everybody, including myself, feels the exact same way.

We're just like, when do we get to do the next one?

Yeah, everybody just really responded to it.

And, you know, most everybody on the cast are people that I've had the pleasure to work

with on other projects that I've worked on.

I've done a couple independent features and a ton of web content, short films, stuff like

that.

And everybody...

With the exception of a couple new people who I...

Oh, my God.

I made a couple amazing new friends in Alex Marshall-Brown, who played Annie, and then

Ewan Chung, who I'd only met once before in passing on a set, just brought them in on

this.

Everybody else are close friends, and we just...

Everybody just buzzed about it.

You know, that was the amazing thing that I felt on set, too.

And I can only speak for myself, but it was like a little one-thirty-second-ish percentage

slice.

Of what it must have felt like to work with a team of people on the original show, on

the original Firefly, and you hear the cast and crew talk about how they're friends, and

they've fell in love with the project, and when it was over, it was just devastating.

And I'm like, wow.

Like, in this very short time span, and getting to play in this world, it's so much absolute

fun.

Like, at the end of the day, it's just so much fun to put on boots and a jacket and

jump into a spaceship, or go play in the desert and, you know, play Space Cowboys.

It was so much fun.

It was so much fun that I just think that comes through in everybody's performance.

I think everybody just really responded, and we're such a huge fan of the material.

They were just geeking out to be a part of it, you know?

Yeah, yeah.

You can tell.

You can tell that there's a lot of camaraderie, and everybody was comfortable.

Absolutely.

I mean, you have a pedigree of geek in the cast.

You have Jennifer Wanger, who plays Stack, our bounty hunter who co-owns the ship with

Captain Hunter, the sort of uneasy partnership that they have.

She's big in the costuming, Comic-Con, cosplay community.

She's a big, like, Wonder Woman cosplayer.

You know, obviously, Zach Finfrock, Tybee Diskin, myself, and Peter have all been involved

in, you know, geek and gamer stuff online.

Fallout Nuka Break.

We worked on a web series called Backyard Effects, and Tybee Diskin's been in a bunch

of different video game materials.

You got our villain in this one, Vic Mignogna, who's an incredibly awesome guy I've been

working with for a few years now.

Yeah.

He's just a very close friend who's the voice of Edward Elric, and also the executive producer

and creator of Star Trek Continues, which is the original series web series, and he

plays Captain Kirk in that.

So, you got Brian Danner and his company, Sword Fights Inc., who is our stunt people

and our extras in the ambush scene, who are huge gamers and geeks themselves and do a

lot of costume stuff.

So, you got a huge pedigree of people here who just love this stuff.

We're just like, this is what we do for fun.

And to go out and get to make this and get the permission to do it was, oh my god, it

was incredible.

I want to ask you about the set for the ship, especially with you putting it together so

quickly.

I mean, were you able to build that quickly out of what was available at the soundstage?

Because it really looks great.

That set, actually, is a standing set that has looked pretty much the same.

It's a standing set, meaning that you walk in and there's a space.

Oh, yeah.

There's a spaceship hall.

There's a couple halls.

There's a couple different bridges.

You have what is typically like a medical bay.

And then they have pieces and bits that you can sort of put into it.

But what you're seeing at Laurel Canyon Stages is pretty much what they saw when they walked

in there back in 2002 and were shooting Bushwhacked.

They walked into a set that was pre-built.

Now, I initially thought that they'd built it for Firefly.

But come to find out, that set actually had existed as a spaceship set, just as a standing

set.

But for a few years prior to Firefly, probably the first more prominent use of that set, I

would say, would be Firefly.

But yeah, no, we walked in and it's sort of a shell of a spaceship.

And you have to fill it out with your art direction, your production design.

You want to build a common area.

We had to build up our own sort of cockpit look.

Our captain's quarters, we had to completely build from scratch.

So our engine room, we had to absolutely build from scratch.

All of this was the amazing work of our production designer, Paul Bianchi, who, while he's technically

not in the short, you can see him hand cranking our engine in the engine room.

If you use your x-ray vision and imagine there's a man crouched by the engine and turning it

by hand.

But no, it's an amazing location.

And we were very lucky to have a chance to shoot there.

And the people over there are...

Incredibly supportive and have just been like, when are you guys coming back?

We want to see you.

And I'm like, we want to come back, too.

So we want to come see you.

Yeah, that's just a standing set that's been there.

And you could probably go look at it today.

That's really cool.

I never knew about standing sets before.

That's cool.

Yeah.

So if you go out to the desert, for example, and you want an old gas station, they have

standing sets of that.

They have a lot of interesting standing sets out here in Los Angeles.

And that's probably the coolest one that I've ever seen.

Yeah.

I just...

I really, really enjoyed it.

Just so much more than just about any fan film of any type I've seen.

So I just...

I really appreciate that.

That's very sweet.

Yeah.

I feel like I'm geeking out a little bit.

Considering I'd never heard of you before this, it's kind of cool.

But yeah, I just really enjoyed it.

I hope you guys get a chance to make more.

Totally.

Yeah.

I think the response has been so much bigger than we had sort of hoped.

It was...

Fans especially have responded in such an amazingly flattering and just like humbling

way that you look at most of the...

Any of the articles or stuff on our Reddit threads, people are just like, when's the

next one?

When's the next one?

And I can tell you with complete certainty and with all my heart that I want to go back

and make another one.

And there have been conversations amongst the...

With Zach and Peter, my co-writers and producers, and we want to go back and do another one.

And we're not quite sure.

We're not quite sure what the plan is for that yet.

I think we're all just jonesing to get back there.

But we're going to try to figure out what the next step for that is.

We have amazing, amazing partners in Loot Crate who have been incredibly supportive

of our filmmaking efforts with them and just working with them.

As well as Quantum Mechanics was an incredible dark horse that we didn't know what to expect.

And Andy.

Andy Gore and his entire team over there basically rolled out the red carpet and said,

hey, we're big fans of the fans and we're big fans of what you're doing.

And if there's anything we can do to help, let us know.

To the point that they have been talking, and as far as I've been told, there's talks

with QMX and their new game, Firefly Online, which I'm way looking forward to.

There's going to be an exclusive.

There's going to be an exclusive digital Loot Crate that you can get once you get on the

Cortex that is sort of basically like a gift box that will give you our ship, the Overland,

which is our sort of custom-made ship and will give you certain things from our fandom

or from our fan film, including, I believe, our first, our plot to the film as one of

the missions that you can play in the game, which is like incredible.

Everybody is over the moon about that.

We get to be an official.

We get to be an official Firefly video game, which is amazing.

And I know the guys who did Bellflower must feel the same way, having their ship in the

game.

And it's just, they've been such great people.

They gave us t-shirts to use.

They gave us props.

They gave us that amazing Jane Boo pistol to use on screen.

They, you know, a bunch of MAL pistols that we customized and made into our own sort of

weapons in the game and just tons and tons of support.

And they, you know, they've...

I could not have asked for two better companies to be sort of come together and say, hey, you

guys, you know, here's the keys to the spaceship.

Go off and play.

It was like, it was a dream come true.

I couldn't, I couldn't even ask for anything better.

So we're hoping to, we're going to sit down and talk and figure out what the next step

is because we want to go back and the fans want us to go back.

And by golly, why, why would you not do what the fans want you to do, Fox?

Yeah, I mean, we have, we have, we've known QMX since they were founded.

And we've talked with them a number of times and they have just been phenomenally supportive

and wonderful people.

Yeah, absolutely.

That's been my experience as well.

Well, Julian, I know that, you know, if stars align and we all hope they do, you can do

a sequel to the verse.

In the meantime, do you have any other projects you're working on currently that you'd like

to talk about?

Yeah, absolutely.

I'm still working very regularly with Loot Crate.

I'm their sort of in-house director for their monthly theme videos, which is fun.

Yeah.

And some other amazing projects over there.

I'm not sure if I can talk about, but there's a couple of great things coming.

They're always putting together good stuff.

The last one I just released of theirs was for their monthly crate, which is a collaboration

with Capcom, the video game company, for their crate.

The theme is fear.

So we did a little four minute off the wall, zombie, crazy, Dead Rising 3 inspired short

film with them, which was a lot of fun.

And kind of a completely...

It's a completely different swing in another direction from what we had done with the verse,

but it's another fun video you can see on Loot Crate's YouTube channel.

And then personally, I'm working and have been working most of this year on a really

great passion project about...

It's a documentary about the birth of rock and roll in the 50s and the first rock and

roll band, Bill Haley and the Comets.

I've been working on that in collaboration with my father and we're making a feature

documentary out of the birth of rock and roll as a sound.

So that's been fun.

Interesting.

Do you have a name lined up and a hopeful release date for that?

It's still untitled 50s rock documentary, which is not as catchy as I would like it

to be, but we'll eventually put a name to that.

But I appreciate you asking and giving me a platform.

We're still filming for that.

So maybe when I come back to the podcast, maybe for the sequel, I can tell you a little

bit more about that.

Your projects sound really fun.

Your job sounds fun.

I can't, I honestly, I could not, I can't complain.

As I said, I've been a filmmaker out here in Los Angeles.

I moved here about 11 years ago when I was 19.

I've had the incredible luck to work with some of the most sweet and endearing and talented

people that I could ever wish to work with.

I will forever gush about the people that I work with because I feel like without them,

I'm nothing and I could not do what I do.

The actors and my co-writers and my producers.

Matt Arevalo and Chris Davis over at Loot Crate and all these people.

It's fun to be able to do what Zach always says is we get to pretend for a living.

We get to play pretend for a living and we get to do some fun.

And man, if you can't get out of bed for that every day, then I don't know what you can

get out of bed for.

Yeah.

We would love to, I mean, try to contact some of the original cast and crew.

I know that Brown Coats Redemption had a lot of amazing luck with their film for charity

and getting some cameos.

And some of the original talent and people involved.

And moving forward now, I think I would like to, I know everybody would love to try to

get somebody to jump in there and maybe do a quick cameo.

We had had some plans to have a cameo on this one.

I won't go into too much detail.

We actually shot a scene where we would have put a very familiar face into one of the scenes.

But for a couple of different reasons, very close to getting it, but it didn't quite work

out.

So maybe next time.

Yeah.

Just schedules have to coincide.

Coincide, right?

Yeah.

It's definitely, you know, it's a busy town.

It's a busy bunch of people for sure.

Well, Julian, I've got to thank you so much.

This was a wonderful interview.

And I really do hope we all get to see more of the verse.

I want to thank you guys, Les and Carrie, for having me on.

I think this is probably my first podcast ever.

So I want to appreciate, give you guys a bunch of thanks for letting me come on here and

talk about a project we all love doing very much.

And we hope to bring you some more.

That'd be awesome.

Yep.

And we all love what you did.

So fingers crossed.

Thank you guys very much.

And I love what you guys do.

Keep it up with the signal.

You know, you can't stop it.

You got to keep that message out there.

That's for sure.

Thanks.

And I'm going to keep my eye out for the unnamed 1950s music documentary.

I will let you know as soon as we get a name for it.

Thanks, Julian.

Thank you guys so much.

Have a good one.

You too.

Thanks.

Thank you.

Boston, home of Ally McBeal, one of the Broadway segments we did in season six, and also home

of Kevin Batchelder, producer, two shows, writer, two segments, host, eight shows, reader,

27 segments, including seven broadwaves, plus over a hundred emails, actor, 57 segments,

including 10 around the verse in 80 days.

and 33 Badgers World.

Newtown, over 100 new segments researched.

I'm all set for the road trip.

Take a look.

I built in a stove so I can cook food

and I've got a pull-out bed for sleeping.

I even put in a broadband internet satellite dish

so I can access the internet from anywhere in the world.

Wait a minute.

Are you telling me you built broadband internet

into a DeLorean?

The way I see it is,

if you're going to build broadband internet into a car,

why not do it with some style?

Okay, works for me.

So what's happening to the signal nowadays?

We've got a blog now.

We've put that at serenityfirefly.com slash blog

so it's easy to remember

and we're still getting emails from listeners.

Oh, can I see?

Sure.

Here's one from Frank Haar.

Let's have a look.

Dear folks,

I don't want the signal to go now that I've found it,

but I suppose all good things and all that.

And it's not like you're being paid

or anything.

I'll always remember Badger's World

and 80 Days with great fondness.

Keep flying.

Ah, that's very cool.

I know I always had a lot of fun doing both those.

You know, the 80 Days,

I've got a lot more lines in than Badger's World,

but voice acting, not my strong suit.

You want an announcer?

I'm your guy.

So it's been a lot of fun

trying to kind of stretch a little bit to do those.

So appreciate the opportunities

and it's been great seeing those

kind of come together over the years.

What's really interesting about Around the Verse and 80 Days

is that the series, it was never completed.

It was never completed.

If you pay real close attention,

at the end of the second to last episode,

Martin Hammond says something like,

next stop, the blue sun system.

But then in the next episode,

that didn't happen

because the next episode was the last episode

when the journey ended.

I remember that.

That happened because

that was when you left the signal

and we couldn't make the episodes without you.

Yep.

You never know what's going to happen with Martin

and it's been cool personally too

over all these years

getting involved in some podcasting

about genre TV and movies.

You know, I certainly expanded on that

once I left the signal crew

but this was always a great place.

This is what started it all.

You know, I've met so many people over the years

because of the podcast

and because of going to Dragon Con

with all the other Firefly fans.

Really, been life-changing stuff.

Anyway, that's why there's a gap in Around the Verse

and why we never found out

what Martin Hammond got up to

in the blue sun system.

I don't think anyone noticed

but you never can tell.

We do have some really observant listeners.

I wonder what might have happened

out there on the rim.

Of course, we'll never know now.

We'll never know.

I'm very pleased to meet you too, Martin.

So, tell me about the Beanstalk.

This here is the only functioning

space elevator in the verse.

Space elevator?

Here's how it works.

Highgate is a planet

and Stonewall is a moon.

Highgate spins once a day

and Stonewall goes around Highgate once a day.

It's in geostationary orbit

like some communication satellites.

Exactly.

And it's also tidally locked.

That means that Stonewall

is always in the air.

It's always in the exact same place

in Highgate's sky

and Highgate is always in the same place

in Stonewall's sky.

So, they join the two together

with a cable

and then they built an elevator

that goes all the way

from the planet to the moon.

Which is where we are now.

It's truly incredible.

We are actually taking a train

from one world to another

traveling on actual physical tracks

in space.

Yes, we are.

So, how long is it?

How long is the train ride?

The distance between the two stations

is 15,000 miles

and this train goes at 5,000 miles an hour.

So, that's a journey time

of about three hours.

Amazing.

I've never seen anything like it.

There is nothing like it.

Anywhere in the verse.

It's our primary tourist attraction.

Of course, it's not a rigid structure.

It has to be a little bit flexible

because the moon's orbit

is not a perfect circle.

Should we call this a train

or an elevator?

It's both.

If you're standing

on the ground

on either side

the beanstalk rises upward

into the sky

so it's an elevator.

But if you're taking the train

when you twist the gravity

at right angle

so it seems horizontal

then it's a train.

I see.

Truth is though

it's neither.

It's really a spaceship.

A spaceship on rails.

It has to be

because outside that window

it's still the black.

The view out the window

is certainly different

from any train

I've ever been on.

That's for sure.

Well, I've arrived safely

on Highgate

and I have to say

that train ride

was like nothing

I've ever experienced.

But now that I've arrived here

I should probably look around.

With me is Janice Green.

Janice, what are we eating?

Welcome to Highgate, Martin.

What you're eating is rice bread.

Rice bread?

Is that a Highgate specialty?

It's becoming more popular

on some of the other trains.

It's not like the other Outer Worlds

but it was invented here.

And this is bread

made from rice, right?

It's more like pizza bread

I would say.

But yes, it's made of rice.

And then we add various toppings.

Most tourists come here

for the beanstalk

but the stories they take home

are all about the rice bread.

Mmm.

It is certainly delicious.

In fact, I think we're going to

have to stop filming

so I can eat some more.

Excuse me, viewers.

My stay on Highgate

was not as long as I would have liked

but that's what happens

when you have to stick to a timetable.

Had I had more time

I would certainly have liked

to have stayed here longer.

Who knows?

Maybe I'll be back one day.

In the meantime,

the journey continues.

Music

We're on our way.

Where to next?

Not far.

Just across the river.

Our next destination

is Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Who are we picking up next?

An old friend.

Music

I want to ride in the DeLorean.

Not a problem.

You are more than welcome.

Claire Musso.

Producer, 12 shows.

Writer, 3 segments.

Actor, 17 segments

including 5 tale of the verse.

Reader, 34 segments

including 4 serenity speculation

and 7 broadweaves.

Editor, hundreds of segments.

Hey Claire, good to see you.

Hey, thanks Les.

By the way, I got you a present.

A present?

For me?

Here.

Open it.

It's a microphone.

I heard you're a microphone.

I heard your last show.

I know your last one got taken away.

Oh, thank you, Claire.

And it's a Samson.

The same as my last mic.

How did you know?

I think you may have mentioned it on the podcast once.

Ah, that's great.

So what have you been up to?

Tell us your story.

My story?

Hmm.

Oh, you know, I've just been doing this and that

over the past nine years.

Here, you know what?

I will tell you a different story.

Actually, I'll tell you.

A tale.

I'll tell you the tale of the verse.

That's weird.

I was sort of expecting something to happen there.

Like what?

I don't know.

I thought maybe one of you might play an old segment or something.

No, we don't do that.

Let's play a game.

Ooh, I love games.

What game?

The game is this.

You have to try to sum up Firefly

using only five lines

of dialogue from Firefly.

And you're not allowed to use any line

that anyone's used before.

I know that game.

Okay, let me think.

Firefly in five lines.

When I was asked to add an entry of my own

to the Firefly,

Firefly in five lines series,

I was excited,

but also a little nervous.

Since this will be the 19th entry in the series,

approximately 90 lines

have already been chosen thus far.

While I was told that it was okay to use lines

that others have already selected,

my competitive instincts immediately kicked in

and I told myself that I was going to try my damnedest

not to reuse any lines

just to see if I could do it.

For further fun,

I embarked upon a rewatch of Firefly in Serenity,

selected my lines,

and only then,

did I go back and compare

with what the others had chosen.

As it turned out,

only one of them had been used by someone else.

And luckily, I had some backups.

I think that this speaks not only

to the ridiculous wealth of amazing dialogue

in this series,

but also to the fact that each of us

gets something just a little different from Firefly.

Something personal to us.

So, which lines did I choose?

Let's get started.

First up, we've got this moment from Bushwhacked

when Mal is being interrogated by the commander.

Who says that Mal was on the wrong side in the war.

It may have been the losing side.

Still not convinced it was the wrong one.

This sums up Mal's attitude about the war so succinctly.

He still carries it with him every day.

And I love that even in the midst of a seemingly impossible situation,

captured by an Alliance ship and about to be bound by law,

he won't just let a comment like that slide by him.

The distinction is that much a part of who he is.

He's not afraid to say,

to admit that he lost,

but don't try to tell him that he was wrong.

Next, we've got a bit of a different side of Mal

in this gem from the end of his duel with Atherton Wing in Shindig.

Mercy is the mark of a great man.

Guess I'm just a good man.

Well, I'm all right.

This moment is glorious for so many reasons.

I mean,

who didn't want to see Ath get his due?

But to me,

this is Mal in a nutshell.

He has noble instincts and is ultimately going to show mercy,

but a classic hero figure would have walked away after saying that first bit.

The scene would have been over.

Mal is not a perfect hero by any means,

and we love him all the more for it.

This bit of dialogue and the way that he can't resist sticking Atherton with his sword,

not once,

but twice,

is hilarious and quintessential Mal.

Next up,

I've chosen a moment from SAFE,

when Kaylee is talking to Inara about a hand-carved swan they see in a shop

in the small town on Jiangyin.

What is this?

A duck?

It's a swan.

I like it.

You do?

Looks like it was made with,

you know,

a longing.

Made by a person really longed to see a swan.

I chose this because it says so much to me about Kaylee's character.

Inara looked at the swan and saw a relatively crude wood carving,

but Kaylee saw what the person who carved it might have felt.

Her empathy and kindness are refreshing,

and managed to never grate on me.

Quite the opposite,

I love her,

and I'm not someone who goes for an overabundance of sweetness, generally.

Kaylee just makes it work.

We can see in this small moment that she knows exactly what it's like to long for things you've

never seen.

It's lines like this that make Firefly so special to me.

That they put the thought into writing a character with this world view,

and then made the time to include moments like this in the show.

My next choice is from Ariel.

When Mal and Jane are arguing through the airlock door at the end of the episode,

Mal's final words to Jane are,

The next time you decide to stab me in the back,

have the guts to do it to my face.

This, of course, makes no sense.

But in the world of Firefly, it does.

We know exactly what Mal means.

This is Mal giving Jane another chance, because he's also part of his crew.

And I believe that his point sinks in for Jane,

because this kind of backwards logic is the way he himself thinks.

To me, this line epitomizes the way moments in Firefly

can slide from serious to sublime to silly and back again in the blink of an eye.

My last choice is from a conversation between Zoe and Wash.

I love their relationship, and we got a chance to explore it a bit,

in Heart of Gold, when they're preparing for the battle

and discussing the possibility of having a child.

Wash is reluctant, and Zoe says,

I don't give a good go-around about relevant, Wash, or objective.

And I ain't so afraid of losing something that I ain't gonna try to have it.

I know that she also says that they'd make one beautiful baby,

and she wants to meet that child someday.

Period.

Which is another line that I love, but the one I chose is important to me.

It's important both in my appreciation of her, and in my low-key,

important both in my appreciation for and understanding of this character, but personally

as well. I've found in my life that the thing that stops me from taking chances most often is fear,

and this line of Zoe's really hits home to me in a big way. It inspired me, made me want to be more

like her. What more could I want from a piece of entertainment, I ask you? This show has made me

laugh, made me teary, made me think, and made me just plain happy. I enjoyed my rewatch so much,

and I especially loved watching with a particular eye toward the dialogue that means Firefly to me.

Thanks for listening.

May have been the losing side. Still not convinced as a woman.

Looks like it was made with, you know, longing. Made by a person willing long to see this war.

The next time you decide to stab me in the back, I'm the guts to do it to my face.

I don't give a good girl a round about better than one. I'm objective, and I ain't so afraid of losing

something, and I ain't gonna try to have it. Mercy is the mark of a great man.

I guess I'm just a good man.

Well, I'm all right.

Nick Edwards, producer, 21 shows, host, three shows, editor,

32 segments, including three Broadway's and 18 Badger's World. Reader, 58 segments, including three

What's in a Signal, four What's Your Serenity, five Serenity Speculation, seven Editorial,

and 14 Broadway's. Writer, 75 segments, including three What's in a Signal, four Serenity Speculation,

six Editorial, nine Broadway's, and 33 Badger's World. Actor, over a hundred segments, including

16 The Shipworks, 26 The Terraformers, and 33 Badger's World.

What the bloody hell are you lot doing in Banbury?

We've come to tell you about a-

Look, whatever it is, the answer's no. I worked my fingers to the bone for you lot. I took time off

work and everything.

We're not asking for anything.

I've got that bonus show out, but does anyone appreciate that?

I think you've misunderstood.

And now you want more work out of me? First you cancelled the holiday special, and now this?

You promised me some time off.

Nick, we're inviting you to a party.

Well, why didn't you say so? I love a good party, me.

Claire? Claire Mousseau? Is that you?

It's me.

And Kevin? You've got Kevin Batchelder and all?

He's here.

Good grief. You've even got Karen. What is this, a reunion of some sort?

It's a party. We thought you might like to join in.

You got that right. Where is this party?

Africa.

Africa. And we're driving there?

All the way.

Why have the blink-connected you lot managed to drive across the pond?

I'll explain later.

I'll hold you to that, then. Right.

OK. Time to break out the new wheels.

Mink the New Bear. Vincent Black Shadow. Absolute classic.

Goes like shit off a shovel, and it'll get me to Africa.

That's what we like to hear.

And, um, well, sorry about that misunderstanding earlier.

For a minute I thought you were trying to get me to make a new episode of Fashions World.

Oh. That explains it.

Because I'm not doing that.

Whatever.

This is my goreem day.

I don't like the way you look down on me.

I'm above you. Better than...

businessmen, see?

Roots in the community.

That is well. Episode 34, Out to the Black.

A great philosopher on earth that was once observed that time is an illusion.

Lunch time, doubly so.

But illusion or not, it still seems to pass as inevitably as the turn of the worlds.

On some of those worlds, life continues much as it has and probably much as it will in the future.

On others, such as Persephone, great social change is in the air,

and a new alignment of the planets seems to be preordained in the wake of the world-shattering events

under discussion by two familiar social commentators as they meet at a popular trading post half a system away.

What do you mean Mr. Badger's gone legit?

Exactly what I said, Bert.

Badger somehow managed to become flavour of the month for some group of aristos

and he's legally registered as a trading agent uptown.

Badger? Mr. Badger? As in our old boss who we used to crack heads for on a regular basis is now a legitimate businessman?

Yep.

Pays taxes and all.

Well now I know you're pulling me leg, Harry. Mr. Badger pay taxes? You're having a laugh.

No, straight up. He's out of the docks. Got a right nice set up by all accounts and it's turning a fair profit so I hear.

Well, I'll be buggered.

Never a backward glance. Cut all his less-than-savoury ties with the docks, settled up with Chen and moved out.

He's officially part of Polite So-ci-ty.

Yes, that's what he always wanted.

Well, so you're out of a job I take it?

You could say that.

I'm kind of fed up with the whole thing with Badger anyway.

That's the spirit, Harry. Hmm, funny you saying that Badger's gone legit.

Why is that?

Well, he's not the only one.

You're shitting me.

Sometime later, when Harry has gathered up his jaw from the floor,

So, let me get this straight. You managed to make that false leg scam thing actually work?

With your assistance, I might add.

And then, not only did you claim the reward for finding the missing nanotech,

but because the rogue terraforming crew who'd originally hired you to smuggle it got themselves raided by the Alliance and then blowed up in a freak accident involving mysteriously reprogrammed nanotech,

flammable ball grounds, and a monkey with a blowtorch, you're not even on the run from them?

That was a very eloquent bit of exposition there, Harry.

Well, I had to listen to you do it often enough.

Fair enough. So, yeah, I managed to come up smelling of, if not actually roses, then at least not of the ghosts that I'd normally expect to find myself in after pulling a stunt like that.

Made enough money to do something I've always wanted to do.

Buy a pub?

Close, but my little lotus blossom had some...

Well, the perm views on that.

Wouldn't let you, huh?

Very astute. So I bought a ship. Master and commander of my very own boat.

Why do you think I wanted to meet up at this place? Perfect for scaring up a nice little earner of a job for me and my crew.

I've still got the sound of that.

Oh, Tom, I do.

And so, a new chapter begins for our esteemed protagonists as they transition from a life of crime to an adventure on the high seas of space,

trading around the verse for honest coin.

Never sure where their fine ship may take them, but living for the moment, out in the black, as so many have before them.

Who is that guy?

I don't know. Seems kind of familiar.

Anyway, it seems to me that you're in need of gainful employment, and I'm in need of a stout yeoman with which to entrust certain duties as might be required from time to time by the proud owner and principal stockholder of the Kepler light-bolt transport, wasn't it? Namely, my good sir.

Huh.

You need a job? I'm hiring.

Oh, well, oh, never mind. What kind of job?

Public relations, officer. What sort of job do you think, you dozy prat?

Oh, that sort of job.

Of course, I do miss the occasional chance to come to someone, especially if they're getting right and right tips, but I have to employ people now to do that, otherwise it don't do the respectable image any good. Mr Badger at least got that bit right.

But this is where you come in, Tom.

This is where you come in, Harry.

Uh-huh. This would be for a decent cut, then.

Your own bunk and everything.

Everything being what, exactly?

Ah, I see our frequent past discussions on remuneration have at least taught you to get things straight before you say yes. Very wise. What would you say to ten percent?

I'd say keep talking. I might be listening.

Very good. Maybe I did teach you something.

Fifteen percent of every job, plus a retainer during downtime at least equal to what Mr Badger used to pay us.

I'd say I think we have an understanding.

Well, I'll drink to that. Chen!

Hippie.

Uh, Bert.

Sorry, Harry. Old habits, you know. I do miss Chen's, though. Say what you like about the decor, the disturbing experimental cocktails, the occasional explosion. She knew how to keep a decent pint, even back in the old days.

Do you remember the first pint of throat wobbler you ever tasted?

How could I forget?

Meanwhile, in Chen's Throat Emporium, a grizzled veteran henchman prepares to...

Oy, less of the grizzled, thank you very much.

Ah, prepares to meet the new kid in town. What the heck? So unprofessional, honestly.

Evening, Chen. Pint of the usual.

Oh, it's you again. Look, no more breaking chairs over customers' heads, don't ma?

What? The idiot pulled a gun on you because you wouldn't serve him?

He'd had more than enough. Besides, the safety was on. I've had worse things pointed at me.

Of no doubt. So, no thanks for performing a public service, then?

Shishi.

You're welcome. Would that thanks extend as far as a pint on the house?

Don't push it, Buster.

But...

Whatever. You drink, you pay. What do you want?

The amber nectar? Liquid bread? No? A pint of your finest ale, then? Or the nearest non-toxic equivalent?

I have to change the barrel. Find a table.

Fair enough. I'm meeting the new fella, so better make it two pints. I'll claim it as training expenses.

Hey, is there some guy called Bart in here? Works for Badger.

What? Oh, him. Over there.

You're the guy Badger said to meet in here.

Mr. Badger to you, sunshine. Henry, I presume?

Harry. So you'd be Bart?

Oh, I can see this is gonna go well. But...

So let's get this straight. We drink, then we talk business.

As long as it's beer.

Ah. I can see this might not be as bad as I thought. Yes. Beer. Or what passes for it in these parts. And right on cue...

Well?

Harry, is it? I believe in these circumstances it is incumbent on the new inductee to provide for refreshment.

Huh.

Pay the lady. Then we'll talk.

Oh, right. Sure. Here.

No tip?

Never serve oysters unless there's an hour in the month.

Fine.

I'll just have a little bit of that.

Meanwhile, back in what passes for the real world...

Is he going to do that every time we try to remember the old days?

We'll bug it if I know.

Look, good beer aside, and I will be laying in a good stock of brew from my local on Albion, just so you know.

Do we have a deal? And are there any awkward questions or loose ends you need to tie up?

But you know I'm on board with this. It'd be fun to make some new good old times, but...

Oh, here it comes.

But why a Kepler?

What?

I mean, why not a Komodo, say? You can get a hell of a lot more cargo in one of them. Or even a Firefly if you're looking to go mid-boat class.

Well look who's the expert now he's got a berth on the ship.

Look, I'm going for low volume high value. I learnt that lesson with the nano episode. Komodo's too big for what I need and you may have noticed that anybody with a Mark 3 Firefly still gets an awful lot of extra attention from the feds.

Reynolds has got a lot to answer for on that front.

Oh, so you're not going for an Orion cruiser like the old Brutus?

What should I think not? Utterly fugly death traps.

Why not a Scarab or a Sandfly then?

Good choices, but the Kepler's got a slightly better operational record. It's more manoeuvrable than a Scarab and it's bigger than a Sandfly.

I'm not going for a packet post operation like the Bellflower. Plus the previous owner owed me a favour. I was able to knock him down to a bargain price.

What, with Mr. Landpipe and his associates?

No, that's what I need you for. Fucker me if I haven't gone and got myself all respectable. No, there's none of that old malarkey for me.

Unless it's an emergency.

Well they really, really deserve it.

Boy, you two never change, do you?

I don't bloody believe this.

Chen? I mean how the... aren't you... it's not... what the hell is going on?

Heh, your face.

Miss Bird.

Have you played bodyguard on the trip? Out to my newest acquisition? It's going to need a lot of work, I can tell. Hello, Mr. Bird.

Um, the how, Chen? Um, I'm speechless.

Makes a change.

Look, it's simple. I own this bar now. I own several on different planets, in fact. Once Badger settled with me and I held full title, I didn't have to put up with his somewhat limited vision of commercial success.

Though I actually won this place in an unusually lucrative session of towel card.

Bird?

Hm? Oh, no, no, I still got nothing.

Sorry to steal your thunder, Mr. Bird. I guess we've both made out pretty well. We've come quite a long way since the old days.

Meanwhile, in Chen's Throat Emporium, during somewhat leaner times, a noble tradition is initiated.

Evening, Chen. Um, I can't believe I'm going to do this. A glass of water, please.

You feeling alright, Mr. Bird?

Oh, a bit lighter than usual in the wallet department. Temporary, of course. But don't suppose you could start a tab up for us?

Oh, no. Not after what happened the last time.

Well, it wasn't my fault a flaming sambuca got a bit out of hand. It only singed things a bit.

It burnt all my records, of course.

Burnt all my records of what you owed?

Unforeseen side effect. Anyway, you know I pay up eventually.

The word is occasionally, Mr. Bird. You occasionally pay up.

Yeah, well. Well, don't suppose Harry got around in already, did he?

No.

Bollocks.

Harry?

Hi, Bird.

What's up with you?

Oh, nothing.

Look, Bird. I got a bit of a problem. Badger's not being exactly forthcoming with our wages at the moment.

Oh, you've noticed, have you? I thought your various sidelines kept you in drinking money, at least.

What? Oh, yeah. No, what I mean is, I don't suppose it's worth asking Badger for an advance, is it? Might hurry him up with what we're already owed.

You suppose right, Harry. Mr. Badger is, well, I believe the technical term is tight arsed.

But he is our employer, also, technically. But it's not always wise to bite the hand that might feed you, at some unspecified point in the future.

You could just have said no.

Well, you see, I've got a bit of a problem, too.

Oh? What's yours?

Oh, tar very much. Mine's a pint.

What? Oh, I get it. Pretty sneaky of you there, Bird. Well, okay. I guess you could use a drink, too.

But don't be trying that sort of thing again, okay?

As if.

Meanwhile, back to the future in Chen's newest throat emporium.

Right, that's it. I'm introducing him to Winona this time.

Much as on Earth it was, our...

Oh, shit.

Ah!

What a strange man.

It was a strange old verse, Chen. At least Harry's having fun.

A lot of change is coming.

Well, you said it. I mean, who'd have thought Badger would end up an actual respectable businessman?

I mean, it's like someone was making this all up for their own perverted amusement.

Persephone really is Badger's world now, and he's bloody welcome to it.

There's no room for the likes of me and Harry there these days, and legit or not, I think I'll steer clear.

Think he's forgiven and forgotten yet?

Not a chance, Bert. He might not be obvious about it, but you're still definitely person non... whatchamacallit.

Figures.

Never mind, Mr. Bert. Here, I have something for you.

Well, how did you know I'd be here?

Hello? Travelling with Harry? He let it slip less than an hour at a port that you two had a meeting. Here.

Is that what I think it is?

Yeah, it comes in bottles now.

On the house?

On the house.

Well, I'll be badgered.

Tell her very much for a lovely night.

What is this place?

It's called Melton Peak.

But there's nothing here but roundabouts.

And concrete cows. I saw some concrete cows earlier on.

Well, this is where Jill lives, so this is where we need to be.

Jill Arroway. Producer. 99 shows.

Writer. Hundreds of segments, including 13 The Shipworks, 16 Borderline, and 29 Broadway's.

Editor. Hundreds of segments, including 13 Badger's World, 27 Broadway's.

This is the place, but there's no one here.

Hang on a sec. She's left a note.

It says, going to start a new podcast.

Well, that's charming.

Ah, no, there's more.

Look, it says, you're welcome to join me if you want.

The podcast will be called Broadwaves, based on the Signal segment of the same name.

The first episode will be in 2016 because I want a year off.

There'll be articles, live chat, listening emails, and more.

Well, I'm in.

Count me in, too. I've got lots of shows I want to talk about.

Yeah, I'm in for that. This could be a good one.

Give me that note.

It ends, also see you at the shindig. I'll make my own way there.

All right, then. Let's get moving. Where to next?

We head south to Farnham.

I have to say, I do like...

I like this new podcast idea.

It means that something of the Signal will survive, after all.

But how will we tell the listeners about it?

The blog.

Remember, I keep telling you about the blog I made.

Serenityfirefly.com slash blog.

She's right, you know.

Anyone subscribed to the blog will know straight away when our new podcast is ready to go.

Hmm. Broadwaves. Broadwaves. Broadwaves.

I like the sound of that.

Broadwaves.

That sounds like science fiction.

Ooh, shiny.

This segment may contain minor spoilers or clips from episodes you haven't seen.

Like werewolves, dear, but it won't bite you.

If you wish to skip this segment, please fast forward 17 minutes.

Today, I want to talk about Wolfblood.

It's a show about werewolves.

Well, except not.

It's a werewolf show, with a difference.

First off, let me get the basics out of the way.

Wolfblood is a TV show co-produced by CBBC in England and ZDF in Germany.

It's made for children, or at least for young adults.

That means our heroes are all teenagers.

It also means you won't encounter any sex or violence, or nudity, or swearing.

But it is not tame.

Our hero is Maddie Smith, a teenage girl who lives in a village called Stonybridge,

and who, along with all of her friends,

goes to Bradlington High School.

Her best friends are Tom and Shannon, and her teacher is Mr. Jeffreys.

Maddie and her family are wolfbloods.

Pay attention to that word.

It's wolfblood, not werewolf.

Tom's there!

What could you do? This is dangerous.

I'm certain you're a werewolf.

I'm not a werewolf. I'm a wolfblood.

In classic werewolf mythology, werewolves are born human

and become monsters as a result of having been bitten by a progenitor werewolf.

That's not how it works here.

In this series,

wolfbloods are an entirely separate species.

They are not, and never have been, human.

If you were born human, you stay human.

If you were born wolfblood, you stay wolfblood.

Wolfbloods have co-existed with humans for centuries.

But back in the distant past, humans hunted wolfbloods nearly to extinction.

And so now, they keep their existence secret.

Wolfbloods don't kill humans, they run.

It's not safe for us out there.

What if we got shot up by a farmer or we'd walk into a point,

Or we'd walk into a point,

poacher's trap. All it takes is one person to spot us and then they'll hunt us down. It's what

they do. Tell me that you understand that, Maddy. Maddy Smith was born Wolfblood, to Wolfblood

parents. As our story begins, she has never transformed, but her first transformation will

happen soon, and she knows it. She's going to have to deal with that, along with the responsibility

of keeping the existence of Wolfbloods a secret. Amidst all of this, a new boy joins the school,

Rydian Morris, and there is something a little different about Rydian. You smell like my parents.

Indeed, Rydian is a Wolfblood too, but unlike Maddy, he doesn't have parents to prepare him

for the change. He grew up with foster parents who thought he was human and knew nothing of

Wolfblood history. Then, one full moon, he transformed and ended up getting evicted from

his foster home. That's how he ended up in Stony Bridge. I knew there was something about you.

It's true, isn't it? You're like me. You're like me. Not like you. I don't show off and pick fights

and invade other packs' territory. You're a danger to us all, and the sooner you leave, the better.

Well, they soon figure it out. There was something important I had to... What? More important than

the photography club, yeah? Yeah, actually. Rydian is more important than the club. The thing is,

Rydian and I...

are related. Distant cousins. He's the black sheep of the family, and I didn't want him here.

So I treat him badly, which is why he lashed out and trashed the darkroom. You don't have to be

best friends, but Rydian's part of my life now. And that's that. Wolfblood is, at least in part,

an allegory of growing up. It's not easy being a teenager and being different.

Maddy's mum and dad are loving, caring, and protective,

and part of being a teenager is the journey into adulthood. Striking out on your own,

developing new skills. It's hard, doing all of that, and having to deal with being a wolfblood, too.

Right, that's it. You're not going to school tomorrow. What? I'll email Mr. Jeffries. I'll

just say you're ill. I'm okay. You're on the brink of transforming.

Have you got a quote with a week of exams? No way. I worked far too hard for this.

I'll be fine. The series is allegorical in another way, too. It deals very strongly with prejudice.

Maddy and Rydian must keep their wolfblood heritage secret because of fear.

Because they are afraid of what would happen to them and to their community, should anyone find out.

It's just really good having someone my age to, like, share this stuff with.

Yeah, that goes for me as well. Because I've always hated keeping it a secret from my friends.

But keep it secret they must. It gets better. Maddy's best friend Shannon has a different story.

She's human, but once, when she was a girl,

she encountered a wolfblood in wolf form while out camping on the moors. She tried to tell people,

but no one believed her. At first, she was accused of making up the whole story.

After that, she was accused of being crazy. Shannon is the smart one, a scientist, an investigator,

and she has a strong need to prove to the world that she's not mad, that there really is a beast

of Stony Bridge. From a handful of clues, she reaches the conclusion that Maddy is the beast

she's been looking for, a werewolf.

Two competing theories. One, they're dating, and two, she's...

What we need is evidence.

Yes, I said werewolf, not wolfblood.

In the canon of this series, humans erased wolfbloods from history centuries ago,

and now all that survived are legends. Wolfbloods, in other words, are the source of today's

werewolf myths. The word wolfblood is known only to the wolfbloods themselves. But of course,

the one thing that wolfbloods have in common with the werewolves of legend is that, on the full moon,

they transform.

And now, full moon is approaching. Maddy plans to do, as her parents and ancestors have done

for centuries, to transform in the safety of her own home.

This is my first transformation. I want to be with my family, and you promised you'd

spend full moon with her. So there's nothing else to talk about, is there?

As it turns out, Maddy doesn't get her wish. Trapped on an island during a school trip,

she and Rydian have no choice but to head out into the open.

And now, this is where wolfblood shines. This is the scene that won me over, that turned me into

a full-blown wolfblood fan. Because, you see, the transformation of Rydian and Maddy into wolf form

is beautiful.

I'm really устрой.

The way Rydian looks at me and my father depressed me who already had UOK.

In the end, she thinks it's just a shell.

The sacrifice of the ihm thanks you, the base in the UOK sank to itself

Of course, it's a small Super Under' at which Rydian joined the Personal choice and never took part in.

For many werewolves, Rydian expecting to also الージ yestomo so much as ne'er see to love to live.

To be continued...

We'll get it now.

Being a wolf, though, is going to be so great.

Back to Shannon.

Here's the big conflict of the series.

Maddie has a need to keep her wolf blood existence a secret,

but Shannon has a need to expose it.

If Maddie and Shannon were enemies, this would be a very simple story.

But they're not.

They're the closest of friends.

This is all deliciously complicated.

Stop pacing, Shan.

I can't. This is going to rock the world, Tom.

Who cares? Our best friend's unconscious and it might be something serious.

Yeah.

I don't like the fact she's a werewolf.

Look, these test results are going to prove it and you'll see.

And then what?

What do you mean, and then what?

Well, let's just say, for the sake of this argument, you are right,

which I don't believe, but then what?

Maddie's supposed to be our best friend.

What do you think will happen to her?

I don't know.

I do.

They'll cart her off somewhere, lock her up,

and get loads of tests run on her, and we'll never see her again.

Is that what you want?

Of course not.

Exactly.

As the story progresses, Maddie and Rydian do manage to keep their secret,

but this has consequences for Shannon.

This matters.

Hey, don't ask.

You only hate me with good reason.

I could never hate you, Shannon.

You're my best friend in the whole world.

You wouldn't say that if you knew what I've been saying about you.

What?

That I'm your beast on the moors?

You knew?

Of course I did.

Having been accused of insanity once before,

Shannon now finds herself in the frame for being delusional once again.

Maddie can offer her help,

she can offer comfort and friendship, of course,

but even so, she still can't reveal her secret.

It leads to some...

tense moments.

Look, I know how important this is to you.

You have no idea.

Everyone thinks I'm a town weirdo.

No, they don't.

Yes, they do.

Look.

My parents took me to see a doctor,

and they've talked about medication.

I've got to see a psychiatrist.

What?

Why?

Because of what I said.

I said about you.

Look, I need to know if there's something out there.

I need to know that I'm not going completely crazy.

Oh, Shannon, you're not.

You're really not.

Look, don't patronize me.

I told my mum you were a werewolf.

I'll give you one good reason why that makes me sane.

All of which leads Maddie to question the whole notion

of keeping who she is a secret,

at least from her friends.

Perhaps wolfbloods have been in the closet for too long.

Perhaps it's time to come out.

Perhaps it's time to stand up and say,

I am a wolfblood,

and be proud of that.

But, oh boy,

the consequences of that could be terrifying.

I can't keep lying to them, Rydian.

Look what it's done to Shannon.

You'll feel ten times worse

when they're broadcasting the news to the rest of the world.

They wouldn't do that.

How do you know that?

What if they can't handle it?

What if you fall out with them?

I'll take that risk.

This isn't about you.

It's about all of us.

Me, your mum and dad.

All wolfbloods.

My friends will understand that.

Don't you think friendship is an excuse?

Is this about you feeling guilty?

It's about me living truthfully for once.

You can't for a reason.

Why is it that wolfbloods have kept themselves hidden for so many years,

even in the wild ones?

It's because human beings wipe most of us out.

Wolfblood turns the whole werewolf legend on its head.

This is a story in which wolfbloods are scared of humans,

rather than the other way around.

In which, rather than being an abomination of nature,

wolfbloods are a part of the natural order,

and not all of them live in human society.

Some choose to live in the woods,

in the forests,

in the moors,

and it's you, human civilization.

These are the wild wolfbloods,

Rydian's true origin.

Feel the earth under you.

Feel the wind over you.

Feel the grass,

and the clouds,

and the sky.

You are part of everything.

You are nature.

Even when in human form,

wolfbloods have enhanced abilities,

superpowers if you like.

They have enhanced hearing,

superior sense of smell,

better coordination.

They can run fast and far,

and they have the ability to tune into nature

to track what's around them.

I can see everything.

Can you hear everything?

This is amazing.

Everything I have told you so far

is from season 1,

but this BAFTA nominated series has 3 seasons,

and the stories in seasons 2 and 3

vastly expand the wolfblood universe.

We meet many new wolfbloods,

and many new humans wanting to know about them.

The series is available on DVD.

For some reason,

wolfblood has not been released on DVD in the UK,

but seasons 1 and 2 are available as region 2 imports from Germany,

and you can watch it either

original English soundtrack or a German dub. It's a wonderful DVD set, and unlike the original

CBBC presentation, it's not spoiled by previouslys and next-time-ons. I assume that Season 3

will be along shortly. In the U.S., Seasons 1 and 2 are already available on Region 1

DVD, with Season 3 due out in January of 2015. Also, the first two seasons are available

on Netflix streaming in the U.S. as well. Again, I imagine the third season may follow

soon. There are plenty of other good things about this show that I haven't had time to

mention. The other characters in this show, Maddy's school friends, their teacher, and

the other Wolfbloods are all well-rounded and enjoyable. But I've run out of time for

this review, so I'll close with one final clip, because it reminded me of a scene from

Firefly. I'm sure this is accidental, but even so, it made me smile.

So next time you lose control of your wolf self, what happens then?

Well, uh, that'll be an interesting day, won't it?

I promise that I keep, I'll never share, I'll never speak to my graver secret ghost.

The beating heart, the beating heart of an instant creature wandered far through these

veins of wolf blood flows. A change will come, I know. Behold my future.

That sure as day returns tonight. The passion of my clan, to be at one with them, and hidden

from the world outside. I promise that I keep, I'll never share, I'll never speak to my graver

secret ghost. The beating heart, the beating heart of an instant creature wandered far

through these veins of wolf blood flows.

I promise that I keep, I'll never share, I'll never speak to my graver secret ghost.

The beating heart, the beating heart of an instant creature wandered far through these veins of

wolf blood flows. I promise that I keep, I'll never share, I'll never speak to my graver secret ghost.

The beating heart, the beating heart of an instant creature wandered far through these veins of

wolf blood flows. I promise that I keep, I'll never share, I'll never speak to my graver secret ghost.

The beating heart, the beating heart of an instant creature wandered far through these veins of

wolf blood flows. I promise that I keep, I'll never share, I'll never speak to my graver secret ghost.

The beating heart, the beating heart of an instant creature wandered far through these veins of

wolf blood flows. I promise that I keep, I'll never share, I'll never speak to my graver secret ghost.

A change will come, I know

Behold my future

As sure as day returns tonight

The passion of my clan

To be at one with them

And hidden from the world outside

A promise that I keep

I'll never share, I'll never speak

To migrate the secret ghosts

The beating heart, the beating heart

Of mystic creatures wandered far

Through these veins of wolf blood flow

A promise that I keep

I'll never share, I'll never speak

Through these veins of wolf blood flow

Guys, you showed up!

Thanks for letting me join your convoy.

Matthew Tyler Jones

Interviewer, one interview

After, six segments

Reader, thirteen segments

Including three serenity speculations

Writer, twenty-three segments

Including seven broadwaves

We wouldn't dream of going without you, Matthew.

This is Carolyn. Carolyn, meet Matthew.

Hi, Matthew, nice to meet you.

And you!

I'd offer you a lift, but we've just got the bike and sidecar

And probably not enough room for you in there as well as the toddler.

Ha ha, that little man.

Oh, what a cutie.

There's plenty of other vehicles.

I'm sure there'll be no problem getting a ride.

It's okay.

I have my own car, a Lotus Elise, and I'll be fine.

Oh, and in case anyone needs a tow,

I brought some...

Cable.

See?

I'm not sure that will work.

That's electrical cable, not towing cable.

It'll do.

We're browncoats.

We make things work.

And that's important, because now that there's no more signal,

it'll be down to the browncoats.

Oh, speaking of browncoats,

we've got some emails.

I'm not surprised.

Here, give me one of those.

Okay, here's one.

This is from Oliver Esmond.

Hmm, let me see.

Carrie, Les, and all the Signal crew, past and present.

As a long-time listener,

I was sad to hear that the Signal is finally going dark.

I've been kept entertained and informed

on all things verse-related by your show

for the past nine seasons.

I've particularly enjoyed the comedic series

such as The Terraformers and Badger's World,

and I'll never forget the unexpectedly

Joss-like ending of Borderline.

I just wanted to let you know

how much I've appreciated your efforts over the years,

and I wish you the best of luck for the future.

So long, and thanks for all the Firefly.

Oliver.

Well, that's great.

Well, that's great to read,

and I have some sympathy with him,

because, of course, for many seasons, I was a listener.

It's only in the last couple that I've been contributing.

Oh, man, Borderline, that takes me back.

I loved playing Romana Ling.

I generally don't think that I'm very good with the voice acting,

but I can do professional

in sounding like I'm reading something very well.

And so it was just a fun part for me,

and Jill, of course, got to write in some singing for me,

which I thought was fantastic.

I love to sing, and I don't have a horrible voice.

And I was surprised to find out

that she was going to die.

You know, I was totally up for the shocking ending.

Jill let me know, and I said,

oh, that's fine.

You know, I'm just the actor.

You know, you can kill me off.

But that's cool.

It was a fun part, and I won't lie,

I was definitely bummed a little bit

that I didn't get to play her anymore.

But it was fun while it lasted,

and I'm glad to be back.

Even without the signal, browncoats will go on.

Absolutely they will.

We did our bit,

but we're not the only browncoats out there.

There's a life in the Firefly community,

and I don't see that changing any time soon.

In fact, if we still had the signal,

I'd probably write an article about it.

The Raggedy Edge

Written and read by Matthew Tyler-Jones

So, here's us.

Let's go.

Standing on the Raggedy Edge

Staring into that place of nothing

People say just the thought of all that nothingness

is enough to turn a sane man into a reaver.

This show has been with me for most of my time as a browncoat.

Unlike some crewmates, I started out as a listener.

I can't recall quite how I discovered the signal,

but it was pretty early on, only a few episodes in.

Back then, of course, shows like this were easier to discover,

because there were a lot of people

and there weren't so many podcasts around.

Nowadays, people will make a podcast about any old piece of tat.

I'm not distracted, though.

I still listen to, and anticipate each episode of,

just two podcasts.

And now, one of them is ending.

The signal has been my true companion

since not long after I watched the DVDs.

This podcast, ably assisted by the old UK Browncoats Forum,

helped me contain my anxiety,

anticipation, and control my mounting excitement

as the big damn movie got more and more real.

And then, it helped me expand the verse in my imagination.

However, more than what it did for me,

before I ever got the chance to write for it,

is what I believed it did for us all.

It was the glue that helped turn fans the world over

into an international community.

But all good things must come to an end.

Thank you.

And to the end of that international community of browncoats,

of course not.

We hold.

And many of us do more than hold.

We create.

We expand.

Look at all the shiny new stuff we have.

As I write, QMX, a company built out of Firefly love,

have been showing off some of the graphics

of their new Firefly MMO in New York.

These guys have come a long way

since we interviewed them in season two.

Meanwhile, MWP,

just released another supplement for the Firefly tabletop RPG. Entitled Things Don't Go Smooth,

it details the seamier side of the verse and offers game masters a whole new range of antagonists

for their crews, each one pushing the story of the verse out in a new direction. And that's

not all. They've promised us a smuggler's guide to the verse out after the holidays

and a whole campaign written by the Joss Whedon of RPGs, Robin D. Laws.

The Firefly board game has a new expansion too. Blue Sun pushes their Firefly licence

into Universal's Serenity territory, featuring Miranda and Mr Universe alongside Atherton

Wing, who, since his humiliation at the tip of Mal's inexpertly wielded blade, has decided

to become a starship captain. These are all the board game, the role-playing game, the

MMO, offering us new Firefly stories.

In Inquisition.

Infinite variety. As though we needed any. Fans have been producing their own fiction

ever since the series hit our TV screens, and more and more is being produced every

year. I just checked fanfiction.net, and yup, new Firefly story got published there just

an hour ago.

Collectors subscription service Lootcrate recently teamed with QMX to put out a 15-minute

fan film called The Verse, featuring an all-new crew that I could stand to hear a little more

from.

Meanwhile, the series is now in production.

Another fan film from a couple of professional 3D modellers is in production.

In academic circles, there have in the last year been two calls for papers in Firefly

and Serenity, one for another book on Firefly, and one for a second Firefly-themed issue

of Slayage, the academic journal of Whedon Studies. So, look out for both those publications

in the coming months.

Can't Stop the Serenity seems to bring in more money for charity every year.

I remember sitting in Regent's Park for the picnic we put together to follow the very

first CSTS in London, with a woman called Wendy, who had in fact organised that London

showing. She said in passing,

The signal's great, but we need a Firefly podcast with a British voice. To be honest,

I wasn't sure we did, really, but she went ahead and made it, and sending a wave is still

going strong, so not even iTunes is going to be bereft of Firefly discussion after the

signal's passing.

So, we ain't really staring into a place of nothing. It's up to you now to make the

signal go further.

Whether you choose to make up stories round a table with your friends or online in next

year's MMO, whether you choose to keep those stories to you and your circle, or publish

them for us all to enjoy, you may even want to start your own podcast. Whatever you do,

the crew of the signal will, each of us, be watching.

What will you?

Show us.

I want to finish with a quote from Joss.

It came right at the end of the 10th Firefly reunion panel at San Diego Comic-Con. The

chair asked Joss what the fans meant to him. He was stuck for words for a moment, and teared

up a little, which resulted in a standing ovation that almost drowned out what he wanted

to say.

So, rather than share a clip, let me read from the transcript.

When I see you guys, I don't think the show's off the air.

I think there's a show.

I think that's what the world is like.

I think there's spaceships.

I think there's horses.

The story is alive.

Andy King, producer, seven shows, interviewer, two interviews, writer, four segments, host,

six shows, reader, 14.

After, 36 segments, including seven Earthburn and 19 The Shipworks.

Editor, 67 segments, including four Firefly in Five Lines, five News from the Verse, five

editorial, eight Earthburn, and 14 The Terraformers.

So, let me get this straight.

You're on a road trip.

You've driven across America and across England, and you're heading for Africa.

To Tanzania, yes.

It was Les' idea.

Are you in?

I'm in.

What are we going to do when we get there?

Reminisce about the old times?

And look forward to the new.

Some of us are starting a new podcast.

Who?

Me, Craig, Nick, and Jill.

Remember the Broadway segment?

We're setting it loose from the signal, turning it into a podcast in its own right.

Count me in.

But that doesn't really have anything to do with Tanzania.

Tanzania, well, it's just a party.

Is it bring your own beer?

I'm pretty sure Les has something in mind, but you can if you want.

Didn't The Shipworks have a trilogy based around beer?

We did.

And told him for first order.

Just like the song titles.

What song titles?

Ah, well, you see, The Shipworks was full of these little nuggets, but you had to look hard for them.

It rewards the attentive listener, as Jill would say.

I like that.

Another thing I liked about The Shipworks was that it had a circular ending.

I'm not sure I follow.

I mean, they went full circle.

They all ended up back where they started.

At the start of the series, there was just Austin and Leroy and Chance.

And then Lenore came along, and she became the focus of the story.

Then she left.

And it was just Austin and Leroy and Chance.

Full circle.

Except that now, Lenore is off exploring the verse on her own.

Right.

Do you ever wonder how Austin and Leroy and Chance are doing now?

Wouldn't it be great if no one ever got offended?

And wouldn't it be great to say what's really on your mind?

I've always said all the rules are made forbidden.

And if I let my head run...

Would that be such a crime?

The Shipworks.

Gang Afterglay.

By Jill Arroway.

Swish.

Leroy.

Swish, swish, swish.

Leroy.

Chance.

What's up?

If Austin comes in, distract him.

What do you mean?

Just keep him occupied.

Don't let him out into the yard.

Why not?

It's best if you don't know.

Right-o.

If you must know, I've got a little side venture going on.

I'm expanding into the fashion business.

It's nothing Austin could object to, but just in case.

Gotta go.

Swish.

Uh, swish, swish.

What are you doing, Leroy?

Practicing.

Dare I ask?

Practicing what exactly?

Martial arts.

I've been taking lessons.

Really?

Any martial art in particular, or just martial arts generally?

Sorry, Austin.

I don't know what you're talking about.

Well, this course you're doing.

What is it?

Karate?

Judo?

Jiu-Jitsu?

I wouldn't know that, Austin.

It's just martial arts.

Look, I can do this.

Ow!

What are you doing?

Paralysing you.

No, you're not.

You're just stabbing me in the side of your fingers and then twisting your hand.

Sorry to disappoint you, Leroy, but you can't paralyse people by doing that.

Yes, you can.

No.

You can't.

Malcolm Reynolds says you can, except it doesn't work on him because he had that nerve cluster

moved when he got hit by Shrapnel in the war.

It doesn't work on anyone, Leroy, because nobody has a nerve cluster in their side.

Some people might.

No, they don't.

And even if they did, which they don't, but if they did, jabbing at them with your fingers

still wouldn't cause paralysis.

It would just hurt a bit.

Gravy, you'll be telling me next that pinching someone on the shoulder can make them fall unconscious.

Um.

What?

That was going to be the next lesson.

I think you've been wasting your money there, Leroy.

You're right, Austin.

Excuse me.

I want to buy some mud.

This is Jiang Ying, not Higgins Moon.

Yes, yes.

Very funny.

I'd like one of your mud packs, please.

Excuse me.

I think you might be a little confused.

This is Austin's Shipworks.

We're a shipworks.

You know, we buy, sell and repair spaceships.

Yes.

But you also sell mud packs.

You're taking the piss.

No.

Look.

See?

I read this advertisement in Jiang Ying Fashion Weekly.

Moisturizing mud packs.

See?

Guaranteed to remove wrinkles and other signs of aging.

Do you know anything about this?

No, Austin.

And neither does Chance.

Chance.

Chance!

Get in here!

Yes, boss?

Sorry, boss.

I was expecting mail orders.

I didn't expect to get a mail order.

I'm sorry.

I didn't expect anyone to actually show up asking for...

Chance's Miracle Moisturizing Mud.

All right, then.

Let's see the product.

This isn't special mud.

It's just mud.

As advertised.

Waterlogged mud at that.

Have you been digging up my yard?

Just a ditch round back.

You told me to clear it.

I'm sorry, madam.

There seems to have been some misunderstanding.

My employee seems to have confused a worthless tub of clay

with a miracle rejuvenation formula.

Now, if you'd like to buy any spaceship parts...

Chance, explain.

Do you have any idea how much that woman was willing to pay?

Madam!

Madam, I misspoke!

Come back!

I wanna be consequence free

I wanna be where nothing needs to matter

I wanna be consequence free

Hello?

Miss Propertin?

Yes.

I'd like to cancel my martial arts lessons.

Probably a dozen of us working around the clock.

Sending away the UK Firefly Serenity Podcast.

Find us via iTunes, like us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter.

Welcome to the verse Londinium style.

Excellent.

Hello, everyone.

Welcome to Delft, here in the Netherlands.

Did you come through the Channel Tunnel?

Actually, no.

I'll explain later.

Okay.

Fair enough.

Paul Korsvagen.

10 shows.

2 shows.

6 segments.

9 segments, including 5 of the shipworks.

After?

6 segments.

After?

6 segments.

After?

13 segments, including 3 the shipworks and 4 Earthburn.

Editor?

Over 100 segments, including 5 Diary of a Companion, 6 interviews, 12 feedback, 13 the

shipworks, and 22 banter.

So, Paul.

You've heard about our little adventure?

Absolutely.

I have been looking forward to it ever since Les found me.

I have my own transport and everything.

Marvellous.

What have you got?

We've got all sorts of wacky vehicles on this road trip.

Kevin's even got a DeLorean, just like him.

Yeah.

He's got a DeLorean.

Just like him back to the future.

I don't get it.

This is my transport.

But that's a bicycle.

Why not?

I love my little bicycle.

Look, it's got a bell, it has high speed gears, some hand brakes.

It has even a little dynamo for the lights.

But you'll never keep up with us.

Did Les not tell you we're going to East Africa?

No he...

East Africa?

We're going to Tanzania.

To Helen's place.

Ah.

Well, I'll take you there.

I'll take you there.

Look, I'll tell you what we'll do.

Take the bike with you, stick it in the back of Kerry's RV and you can grab a lift with

me.

Okay, works for me.

Can I bring some DVDs for entertainment?

Sure.

We can't watch them when I'm driving, obviously.

What have you got?

Among other things, I have Shakespeare.

Ah, I know where you're going with this.

You're talking about that Joss Whedon movie, aren't you?

The one he made with Nathan Fillion and a bunch of other Whedon alumni.

I am.

Actually, Kerryn lent this to me.

She told me it was very good, and she wasn't wrong.

Much Ado About Much Ado About Nothing, written by Caroline Orkinson, read by Paul Kurzweil.

Rich socialites and men of power, wine that flows like water, drunken trysts and mistaken

identities, slut-shaming, death and resurrection.

Or hang my bugle from an invisible Baldrick.

And some sex jokes.

It's not the latest nighttime soap show.

It's Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing.

For a play written in 1599, this thing feels very modern.

It's prose, not poetry.

And the themes and topics are common and used all the time in romantic comedies and soap

operas.

Joss Whedon's version takes things a step further by setting it in modern day.

Notes become text messages.

Music is played on an iPad.

Swords are guns.

And so on.

Come.

Shall we hear this music?

Yea, my good lord.

Hmm.

It's a good song.

It makes the play very easy to understand, even for someone who is not a Shakespeare

buff.

Joss was reportedly inspired to make this movie for two reasons.

One, he used to do Shakespeare readings at his house with the Buffyverse actors, and

there was definitely some awesome chemistry at some of those sessions.

Especially between Fred and Westley, Amy Acker and Alexis Denisoff.

If Señor Leonato be her father she would not have his head on her shoulders for all

Sina, as like him as she is.

I wonder that you would still be talking,

Signor Benedict.

Nobody marks you.

What, my dear lady, disdain?

Are you yet living?

Is it possible disdain should die

while she hath such meat food defeated

as Signor Benedict?

Courtesy itself must convert to disdain

if you come in her presence.

Then is courtesy a turncoat?

But it is certain I am loved of all ladies,

only you excepted.

And I would I could find it in my heart

that I had not a hard heart.

For truly, I love none.

Dear happiness to women.

Else would they have been troubled

with a pernicious suitor.

I thank God in my cold blood

I am of your humor for that.

I'd rather hear my dog bark at a crow

than a man swear he loves me.

And two, he was burned out

after writing and directing The Avengers.

And this was the way he decided

to recharge his creative batteries.

The film was shot in black and white

on a small budget at Joss's house.

Let me just say I wouldn't mind

getting invited.

to a party there.

What a fabulous set.

And Joss knows how to make best use of it.

Somehow, even with the shades of gray,

everything looks sparkling and sumptuous.

He also knows how to make the best use of his actors.

The cast reads like a

Whedonverse greatest hits parade.

And you can feel the love in the movie.

There are some powerful and unexpected performances here,

due to the level of trust between director and actor.

The basic plot revolves around two romances

that bloom while a bunch of soldiers

and socialites are on vacation in Messina.

Leonardo, their host, a nobleman of power,

a politician.

Clark Gregg does a great job as Leonardo.

The first romance is between Leonardo's daughter,

Hero, played by Gillian Morghese,

and up-and-coming soldier, Claudio,

played by Fran Krantz.

They meet cute and fall in love at first sight.

For the other couple, it's hate at first sight.

Beatrice and Benedict, Amy Acker and Alexis,

Denisov, respectively, are always at each other's throats.

And their interactions between and about each other

are another great part of the play.

I would to God some scholar would conjure her,

for certainly while she is here,

all disquiet horror and perturbation follows her.

Oh, look, here she comes.

Will your grace command me any service to the world's end?

I will go on the slightest errand now to the Antipodes,

that you can devise to send me on.

I will fetch you a toothpicker from the furthest inch of Asia,

bring you a hair off the great sham's beard,

do you any ambassage to the Pygmies,

rather than hold three-words conference with his harpy.

You have no employment for me?

None, but the desire of your good company.

Oh, God, sir, here is a dish I love not.

I cannot endure my lady tongue.

It's hinted at in the text that they may have had a fling before.

But Joss makes this explicit by adding a wordless first scene.

I think it's a good choice.

It gives a bit more context for Beatrice and Benedict to be so hateful,

and to see that maybe they really do love each other and all that bile.

It's also worth noting the word nothing in the title,

because, back in the day, nothing meant noting,

as in passing notes, like high school gossip.

And gossip moves the plot of this play.

The love between Hero and Claudio blooms naturally.

But gossip, by Don John,

almost brings it to an end.

Conversely, the love between Beatrice and Benedict is rekindled by gossip,

but their relationship actually gets stronger through the chaos,

and you see the true colours of many of the characters come through under the stress.

God, that I were a man!

I would eat his heart in the marketplace!

Hear me, Beatrice.

Talk with a man at a window!

Oh, a proper saying!

Nick!

Beatrice!

Sweet Hero!

She is wronged!

She is slandered!

She is undone!

Beatrice.

For a funny play, it deals with some serious stuff.

When things start to get dark, themes of gender inequality are highlighted,

something that is sadly as relevant today as it was more than 400 years ago.

As it is a comedy, things can't stay too dark for too long.

The mood is lightened up again by the delightful performances

of Nathan Fillion and his bubbling police officers.

They are starring in their own show, CSI Messina,

and it's laugh-out-loud funny.

We charge you in the Prince's name!

Stand!

Call up the right Master Constable!

We have here recovered the most dangerous piece of lechery that ever was known in the Commonwealth.

Masters.

Never speak!

We charge you, let us obey you to go with us.

By the end, much like the role,

and much like the rom-coms of today,

things are wrapped up neatly.

It is proved my lady hero hath been falsely accused.

The Prince and Claudio mightily abused,

and Don John is the author of all who's fled and gone.

The villain gets his just desserts.

My lord, your brother John has taken flight

and brought with armed men back to Messina.

And they all live happily ever after.

For man is a giddy thing,

and this is my conclusion.

I've had enough driving.

We're just about to stop for a break.

And what better place to stop than here in India?

Sure has been a long trip,

and now let's find the next member of our crew.

Now let's see,

where does Yuta live?

I've got the address somewhere.

Yuta Yorgans.

Producer.

11 shows.

Host.

1 show.

Actor.

14 segments including 10 Earthburn.

Reader.

23 segments including 3 Queen of the Black,

3 Broadwaves,

and 7 Getting Dicey.

Writer.

24 segments including 3 Editorial,

3 Broadwaves,

4 Queen of the Black,

and 7 Getting Dicey.

Editor.

53 segments including 4 Queen of the Black,

4 Broadwaves,

5 Banter,

6 Serenity Speculation,

and 7 Getting Dicey.

The truth is I live in the middle of nowhere.

Germany is a pretty densely populated country,

but I managed to settle in a region where the night sky is still black

and which is probably home to more deer and wild boar than people.

And I will be driving a common GRT-14 convertible.

It was built by Volkswagen and has the same engine as the Beetle,

but it has a chassis that looks a bit like a sports car,

even though it's not a very fast car.

Really?

I thought you were a car-free person like me.

I am.

I borrowed this one for the adventure.

It is said that there will be no Signal podcast,

but I'm looking forward to the blog.

Anyway, it's important to celebrate.

We need this party.

Do you know if the Signal website will be maintained after the podcast ends?

Absolutely it will.

We'll keep the archive of all our old episodes,

plus all the information pages about the crew and the various segments,

and plus don't forget there are RSS feeds for individual series as well.

And we'll keep those going too.

In some cases we'll even add them to have them all complete.

How does the RSS thing work?

It works however you want it to work.

The most simple way is just go to the website,

find the series you want to listen to,

and you will get a list of all the various episodes,

and you can click and download an mp3 for each episode.

Or you can go to the series page and click on some icons

and subscribe to an RSS feed.

Then you can use your favorite podcatcher client to subscribe

and it will download all episodes,

or you can even select if you want to get one episode every day

or one episode every week,

and you can subscribe to different series at the same time,

just go to each series page.

So you really use them however you like.

But like I said, the most simple way is to just go to the website

and download the mp3 and just listen away.

So it's really easy.

But not all of our series have their own feed, right?

Not yet.

But we'll keep updating them.

Earthburn, for example, is one of those series

that we don't yet have available on its own RSS feed.

Do we plan to make that happen?

We do. Probably sometime next year.

And when it does happen, we'll have the blog to tell people about it.

I'll totally miss being saved alive soon.

I enjoyed that role so much.

What do you think of the ending of Earthburn, anyway?

It was a very sad ending.

Vega waving goodbye to her child.

But well done.

I always thought there should be an epilogue.

You know, what happened to our heroes after the state behind on Earth.

Plus, we never found out what was all that weird stuff about cryotubes.

These things should be explained.

An epilogue would be nice.

I doubt we'll ever see one now, though.

My name is Sarah Lifeson.

And I watched the world end.

This is my story.

I'm reading the script.

I've done it so many times.

I don't know what's up, but you'll never know.

We have a lot of fun in Earthburn.

We have a lot of fun.

And the best part is, we're gonna work on it.

Yeah.

And we're gonna make it.

Poor thing.

Yeah.

Did you hear that?

Yeah.

We're gonna make it.

I say, we're gonna make it.

We've got more to do.

Yeah.

And I really do.

I think we're in the right place.

Yeah.

I think we're in the right place.

I don't get that.

Yeah.

We're going to make it.

Like you said, we're gonna make it.

And we need the help of some resources.

A desperate need to find our place

In the emptiness of space

Earthburn, Fire in the Darkness

By Jill Arroway

2101, The Arkship Artemis on its launch pad in Anchorage, Alaska

Well, this is it.

This is it?

It is something, isn't it?

We're the last ship to leave.

After this, there's no more Earth.

There's still an Earth.

Just no more civilization.

Right, that's what I meant.

The last of civilization goes with us, up, up and away out to the stars.

It's a powerful thought, but I think I've savored the moment for long enough.

What say we?

There should be a countdown.

No countdown. There's no mission control left behind.

There's no one to coordinate with. We just go.

Just like that.

We push the lever and lift off, taking the last of humanity with us.

Do you want a countdown?

No. Let's leave.

It's not like there's anything to stay for.

We're not going to let the Earth leave us.

It's not like there's anything to stay for.

Goodbye, planet Earth. You've been good to us.

2106 Barrow Farmhouse, near Lamont, Canada

Catherine, I need you on my side, not fighting me.

We have to do something.

Yes, of course we have to do something.

The question is...

what? Well, I say trade. It's the only answer. Trade what? The flood destroyed all of our wheat,

all our barley. What do we have left? We need for ourselves. We have one remaining spaceship.

Should we salvage that? Unwise. We've got fuel remaining for two, maybe three more flights.

No, I'd prefer to save that for a real emergency. Bill, if this isn't a real emergency, what is?

Remember, you're the one who said we had to do something. Salt. We can trade salt. It might work.

We have an ample supply of that, and it has become somewhat valuable these last few years.

Good idea. Now, could you take a wagonload of salt round to the neighboring communities?

I'm too old to go gallivanting around the countryside. I can take it. We can't spare you.

We need every worker. We need winter supplies. If we don't get them, we all starve and we all

die.

She's right.

All right, Vega. Take two horses, do what you can, but go alone.

This community needs every hand, now more than ever.

I won't let you down.

21-10. Barrow Farmhouse.

Happy birthday, my love.

Thank you. Now we're both in our seventies. Where did all the time go?

Do you think we'll ever get to retire?

There's no such thing as retiring anymore.

I hate this weather. It's been raining for over a week now. It reminds me of those floods we had

four years ago. Do you remember?

How could I forget? Vega was gone for weeks. But she came back with enough supplies to see us

through the winter.

I think this one is going to be worse. The sky is so blackened.

I think that's snow…

Is that a horse?

Cure horse!

You two, get inside! There's a twister on the way.

A what?

A tornado. If we're lucky, it might miss us!

We don't get tornadoes here!

You do now. Get inside!

MS. RAUTKEA S.O.S.

MOTORCYCLE

BEAT IT!

MOTORCYCLE

We have a problem. Something's gone wrong with the climate.

Again?

We need information. More than anything, we need information.

This community is on subsistence living as it is.

We can't afford another climate disaster.

Are you saying we need to leave? Pack our bags and go?

It is starting to look that way.

But go where? We have one spaceship. Precious little fuel. We can't afford to guess.

I know I'm going to regret saying this, but there is one place we could find out everything we need to know.

Where's that?

It's called Grand Vista Orbital Platform, a space station left behind from the exodus.

But will it still be functional?

Yes, it should be. It's solar powered.

That's ridiculous. We couldn't even get there. How would we navigate? How would we dock? How'd we even get in?

I could...

I could do it. I'm a qualified astronaut.

Judas? You said you'd never go into space again.

Well, maybe it's time to be a hero.

There are security codes.

I have a pass. My last job before the exodus. I still have my electronic key.

Hmm. I guess it is worth a try.

Me and my big mouth. I'm getting too old for this.

Have you seen outside?

Now it's raining ash.

Ash. Ash. We do need to do this.

Access granted. Please wait while life support is restored.

Oh, good. I was sure we were going to have to wear spacesuits.

Just wait.

Life support is now restored.

Air pressure normal. Air lock opening.

The Earth. I can see the Earth, but there's something wrong with it.

I don't understand what I'm seeing. The equator is the wrong color. It should be white and blue.

All I can see of the Amazon is a black cloud. Where are all the greens and browns?

It's smoke. The rainforest is burning.

The... not all of it, surely?

We thought it could never happen. Too much moisture. But the rising temperatures dried it out. Then one spark and boom. Unstoppable fire.

Oh my god.

More than half of the world's life is in that forest. Or was.

Isn't the rainforest where the Earth gets most of its oxygen?

I have no idea. A lot of it, certainly. That fire. It's consuming oxygen.

Is there anywhere on Earth where we can survive?

Let's find out. All this fancy equipment here has got to be for some purpose.

What is all this stuff for? All these computers. All this equipment. Why does it still need to be running?

It's sending information about Earth to the Ark fleet.

Feels like they're spying on us.

It's our Earth now. They left.

I think I've read enough of these readouts to know what's going on.

What's the diagnosis?

The human race is now an endangered species. It's hard to say where on Earth is likely to be safe, but where we are is probably as good as it gets. I don't think we'll be better off by moving.

Okay. So we stay where we are.

We'll just have to ride out the weather. It's going to be tough, but we can make things easier for ourselves by salvaging this space station.

There's fuel here. We can use that. There's communications equipment. We can use that, too.

What about the solar panels?

I doubt we'll see a clear sky for decades, but we should take them even so, for future generations. We have to take the long-term view now.

We were the transitional generation, weren't we? Not really a part of the old world. Not really a part of the new.

In years to come, a new Earth will arise from the ashes of the Earth.

In years to come, a new Earth will arise from the ashes of the old.

But we won't live to see it.

But Vega will.

As I stand here looking out of this window watching the Earth burn, I wonder.

Will future humanity make the same mistakes that past humanity made?

Will future humanity use up the Earth? Again?

Will the people of the Verse use up their worlds?

Let's hope we will all learn from our mistakes.

Will future humanity make the same mistakes that past humanity made?

2220, the ark ship Pandora, on approach to Londinium.

It's awful pretty.

It surely is.

Londinium. I'm afeard like a goram rugrat.

Wishamachuma.

This is how it is. For more than 100 years now we've been rolling through the Black.

And now, every day, that blue ball there gets closer.

Soon enough, we'll be looking at a controlled collision they call a Landon.

What if Pandora don't survive the impact?

She's designed to kiss the ground gentle.

By people long dead.

By people who knew they'd never have to put their forecast to the test.

Not so.

There's still one person around from that era.

I didn't design it myself, you understand, but I knew the people who did.

This ship will get you down.

Um...

Aren't you...

Mark Pins, at your service, Doctors.

You're the body we woke from cryo.

Yes, I am, Doctor. Thank you for having me revived.

You can call me Samantha.

And I'm Al.

It's gonna be okay.

This ship will land, and we'll have a whole new world to explore.

And you guys are going to love being on a planet.

And you?

I wanted to be here. Nothing meant more to me.

I broke the Earth so I could be here.

I don't conjure.

This is humanity's shining achievement.

Imagine all of the nations of the Earth pulling together, working together, for the common good.

What are nations?

A thing of the past, my friend.

This is humanity's golden age.

Imagine what would have happened if we hadn't had the Verse to go to.

If the Earth had been our only home.

I wonder.

Maybe we would have treasured the Earth a bit more.

Maybe.

Maybe we would have tried harder to save it.

If there had been no Verse, no star travel, would we have still used up the Earth?

Would we have still pumped carbon into the air?

Would we have still turned the seas into acid?

Would we have even tried to fix the problem?

Or would we have shrugged our shoulders and pretended the problem didn't exist because it was too big, too hard, and anyway, who cares about our grandchildren?

Truth is, my friend, if the human race had had nowhere to go,

and if we'd had the option to save the Earth, yet chosen not to,

that would have been the greatest crime that anyone could imagine.

We would have deserved our extinction.

Heavy Gosa.

Has there been any contact with the Earth?

We lost the signal back in 2110.

Maybe there's someone there still alive.

Who knows?

It's time to look forward, not back.

It's not Earth anymore.

It's Earth that was.

That there world right there?

That's the now.

That's the future.

We lie.

Et t'es d'eau, Jean Gagnon.

And t'es d'eau, Jean Gagnon.

I've just finished listening to the last show, and I find myself a bit bereft knowing that our beloved podcast will soon be no more.

The Signal was the very first podcast I ever listened to.

It was easy to become hooked, given the wide variety of articles and talented writers that made their mark on the show,

with top-notch music, audio dramas, analysis, speculation, and of course, our host's lesson carry.

The Signal was one of the best ways to keep abreast of everything in the verse.

It even gave me an outlet to express my love of comedy.

In the What's Your Serenity segment back in Season 4,

the ending of The Signal will leave a hole in the Firefly Serenity fan community that won't be easily filled.

Is there even a temporary replacement to fill that void?

And what will our inimitable host be doing next?

The Signal may be headed into the black, but the mark you've left on the podcasting community is one that will not soon be forgotten.

To everyone that has ever been a member of the crew,

I extend my deepest gratitude for helping to keep the verse alive for this fan,

and all those like me.

Keep flying.

Where?

There's someone waving at us.

Look, he's running towards us, waving some sort of canister.

Do you recognize him?

No, do you?

No.

What should we do? Call the police? Drive away?

I think it's okay.

I think he's wearing an Aim to Misbehave t-shirt.

A brown coat.

Let's see what he wants.

Hi, you must be Kevin and Claire.

I recognize the Lerorian.

That's not public knowledge.

No, but Lass told me when he phoned.

I'm Corny. Pleased to meet you.

Cornelius Vilkeny.

One segment, Firefly in Five Lines.

Two shows.

Four segments.

Six segments, including three Earthburn.

Fifty-seven segments, including three Interview, seven Feedback, seven Recollection, nine Banter, and nine Broadwaves.

My car is out of gas.

What's your vessel?

It's a blue 1970s Chevrolet El Camino.

Can you get me to a gas station?

Well, it'll be a squeeze, but sure. Hop in.

Cornelius, so you're an editor, right?

Oof, snap.

That's right.

So what do you edit?

Everything. But I only joined the Signal in Season 7, so I never edited any of the early stuff.

I left in Season 5. We never overlapped.

Would you have wanted to edit any of the early stuff?

I wouldn't have minded doing one of those Blue Sun public service announcements, like the Signal had in the very early days.

Yeah, they were fun.

Wait now for a public service announcement brought to you by Blue Sun.

We see here a typical U-Day celebration.

Here's to another U-Day.

Yes, let's raise a toast to the wonderful Alliance.

Yes, let's.

To the wonderful Alliance.

But wait, what's this? Who's this chappy in the long brown coat? He doesn't look too happy.

I don't think the Alliance are wonderful. In fact, I don't think unification was a good idea at all.

Oh dear. This poor chappy seems delusional. Well, he's certainly not the life and soul of the party, is he?

But please, we must be charitable to these people. After all, brown coats, as we know, originate from the savage outer worlds, bereft of the benefits of civilization.

These people are simply not equipped to handle complicated thought processes such as politics or economics.

Indeed, the popular impression that most of us have of brown coats as barbarian thugs is largely correct.

Leading psychologists have suggested that this may be because brown coats had little or no support during the war, and so they feel inadequate and find themselves constantly regurgitating nonsensical phrases like,

We will rise again, despite the considerable evidence to the contrary.

Attempts have been made to educate these poor people, but to date, the effort seems to have been largely wasted.

Brown coats, it seems, are simply too feeble-minded for education to have any hope of succeeding.

Fortunately, our top scientists have been working on a new drug called Pax, and the hope is that this might help some disenfranchised people.

And the hope is that this might help some disenfranchised people.

Yet, we can't rely on these randomized brown coats to become useful members of our society.

And yet, we can't rely on these randomized brown coats to become useful members of our society.

Let's see how that might work.

Here's to another U-Day.

Yes.

Let's raise a toast to the wonderful alliance.

Yes, let's.

To the wonderful alliance.

Yes, isn't unification great?

I'm so glad that the alliance won the war.

Also, I like dinosaurs.

They are such fun.

So there you have it.

Fun for everyone, thanks to the wonder of Pax.

Browncoats, you lost. Get over it.

This has been a public service announcement from the Blue Sun Group.

Live life with Blue Sun!

We're here, in Tanzania. It's beautiful.

Helen Eaton.

16 Heart of Firefly and 25 Terraformers.

You all made it, then.

We all made it.

Well, here you all are.

Les and Kerry, Anna, Craig, Bindia, James and Carolyn, and Jim.

Hi, Jim.

Hey.

Kevin, Miranda, Claire, Nick, Matthew, Andy, Paul, Jutta, and Corny, and Jill on the way.

Wow, quite a line-up.

We got the call, so we came.

Across three continents, across land and sea.

I'll explain later.

So, Helen.

We're here for the party.

We have everything we need for a good time, but we need you to find us a suitable location.

Well, I thought it would be fun to get out of town, and Bay is a great place,

but if you want a good party location, how about the beach?

There's a place I know on the Tanzanian side of Lake Malawi.

It's called Matema, and it's perfect for a barbecue on the beach.

It'll take about three hours to get there, depending on how many times we get stuck in the mud.

We'll be on tarmac first, and then off-road.

Could be bumpy.

Well.

Always is.

This is going to be so great.

Is this where you did all your writing and recording?

Yep.

This is the place.

Okay, we'd better get moving.

I'll get my Land Rover and lead the way.

Five.

Four.

Three.

Two.

One.

What's in a signal?

For those of you who are new to this, it's easy.

Okay, that's a blooper.

That's hard.

And you're bored.

Because you've not had to access so much.

And you're bored.

Because you've not had to access so much.

And you're bored.

Because you've not had to so much access.

Making the Signal Go Further, written and read by Helen Eaton.

If Firefly is about nine people looking into the blackness of space and seeing nine different

things, then The Signal has been about a similarly disparate group of individuals looking at Firefly

and likewise each seeing something different. It's one reason the podcast could keep going for this

long. Each iteration of the crew brought some fresh insight to the verse and each crew member

approached the task of contributing to the podcast from a unique perspective. For my part, one of the

factors that has contributed to my particular perspective is the place where I live. I'm British

but have lived in Tanzania, East Africa for the last 12 years. My home for the last eight or so

of those has been the town of Mbeya in the Southern Highlands. Both Tanzania as a country and Mbeya as

a town could be described as being out on the rim and that has brought a certain flavour to my

podcasting experience. For one thing, there are the power cuts. Going dark here doesn't involve

powering down a spaceship to hide from the Alliance but having the electricity cut out

unexpectedly, sometimes for a day or more.

I found myself on occasion writing an article for the podcast by candlelight, even once relying on

pen and paper when my trusty laptop ran out of juice. And then there's the fun that comes from

Tanzania's less than reliable internet options. Uploading recordings was sometimes particularly

challenging. I did always ultimately triumph over the glacial connection speeds we have here

but some of the battles were epic. The recordings themselves brought their own challenges too.

Where do I start?

I was once in Wagalu.

For work and turned the fan in my room off to do a recording. The temperature was over 40 degrees

centigrade so there was some suffering for my art involved. Then back in Tanzania there were the

cockerels deciding that under my window was the best place to have a little crow. All the enormous

pied crows landing on the tin roof with an unearthly clatter. The same roof creaking in the

sun or being drummed on by the rain. For six months of the year during rainy season, making

recordings without

an intended background noise is rather tricky. If it's not actually raining at the time you want to record, the thunder is rumbling because it's about to or the frogs have started up their chorus because it's just stopped.

But as Mal once told Wash, you can't make the signal go further if all you're gonna do is sit here and whinge about it. My living circumstances might not be exactly suited to podcasting but over the years they did a great job of providing me with inspiration. I once took three days rather than the planned two to travel to the north of India. I'm happy to be here with you all. I hope you enjoy this video. Thank you so much for watching. Please subscribe to the channel and click the bell icon for notifications. I'll see you in the next video. Bye for now. Bye bye.

of the country because a plane took off early and I missed it. As I waited at a bus station

near Lake Victoria on the third day of that trip, I scribbled some notes for a Terraformers episode

involving Sarah and Taya Ray getting confused by time zones and missing a spaceship flight.

There are many other Terraformers stories which were inspired by my life here.

The Purple Lagoon episode, in which frogs feature prominently, was written, unsurprisingly,

during the height of rainy season. The time I got my pickup truck stuck in the mud

inspired another story, as did a big church celebration I went to, which somehow morphed

into a groundbreaking ceremony for a newly Terraformed moon. More seriously, the day-long

bus journeys to the big city, which I've endured many times over the years, inspired me to try a

Firefly audio marathon, which opened my eyes in new ways to both Firefly itself and to the world

I live in and how I relate to it. Similarly, writing a piece comparing my life as an expat

with that of Serenity's crew led to the series Firefly and Me,

which inspired some fascinating contributions from other writers.

As I write this now, the last paragraph of my last article for The Signal,

the electricity, with superb comic timing, has just cut out. In the words of Mr Universe,

I got a short span here, but it seems appropriate to end not on a whinge but on a positive note.

If you want to contribute to the expanded verse in a creative way,

don't let your circumstances put you off, let them inspire you instead.

Because we're fixed and dilapidated, dilated, dilated, dilated, two more, it's out of the

unbucket, sorry.

Let's try that again.

Wow, it is so beautiful here. The stars in the sky, the little campfires around the beach,

the moon reflected in the lake.

Yes.

There are thousands of people here.

They're here for the same reason we are, to say goodbye to the podcast.

I remember coming here first in 2004, in the middle of a really long workshop.

And it was, so I was at work and then came away for a weekend.

And it was pretty special because it's just, it's out of town.

And it's so peaceful and though I don't think there was anyone else here,

so it was just the people I came with.

And it's really cool at night because you can see the boats on the water and the lights and the

boats. So David Livingston called it the lake of stars, which is quite impressive because of the

lights on the boats that were twinkling. But actually the actual stars are also amazing

because you're so far from the city that, you know, there's no light pollution.

Wow.

It's a pretty special place.

Awesome. I grew up part of my childhood on Cape Cod. It wasn't a lake, it was, you know, the Cape Cod

Bay connected to the ocean pretty well, but very similar sort of seeing all the boats out on there.

I remember going out there on our 4th of July and you could look and see around the perimeter of the

beaches of everyone setting off fireworks. So there's like a free display all the way along

the beach.

Yeah. Well, I grew up at the,

fairly near to the coast in the UK, but I mean, it's a different kind of feel to here. So it's still,

yeah, it's still special because it's, it's just something different. And the fact that it's a lake,

but it just feels so much like the sea or an ocean because it's so big and the waves are pretty

impressive.

Oh, that's neat.

I love anything that's near water. So I'm a happy person anytime I can

see, hear or touch water. So yeah, I'm excited.

Yeah. Well, this is serious water. I mean, there's another country out there

in the black, that's the other side. So that's pretty serious water.

It's a great shindig, but it's a real shame we couldn't make the holiday special.

It is, except you know what? We have everything we need to make a holiday special podcast right here.

We do?

We do. Kevin has a satellite broadband uplink. That's all we need to upload files to our feed.

But...

Equipment?

We all have smartphones and I have a microphone with me. Remember,

Claire gave it to me as a present. And we have leads, the electrical cable that Matthew brought.

We can do this.

So what do you need besides a miracle?

Batteries. Lots of batteries.

What is that?

Unless I'm very much mistaken, that's a Tesla Model X. I guess Jill's arrived.

That's our battery problem solved. We can keep podcasting until the car runs out of charge.

You know what? It just might work. But don't we need a script?

Who needs a script? We're all here, and we've got something better than a script.

We've got imagination.

All right, let's do it.

Ladies and gentlemen, this is no longer just a shindig. It's a podcast.

Do we have to do any work?

No, just be yourselves.

I think I can manage that.

The Signal.

Oh, for me?

What was the first one?

I was just thinking of that question.

Well, actually, it's really funny. There's sort of an art house movie theater

in my area here in Boston. And for a while, every year, they started doing full night screening of

every episode. Like, basically, it's like a full night screening of every episode. Like, basically,

just screening the DVD set of Firefly all in a row. That is how I first saw Firefly.

So it's kind of an amazing, like, they served Chinese food. It was a whole theme.

They kind of went nuts because I think the programmer of the theater was a huge fan.

So yeah, so that's actually how I first saw Firefly, which is amazing.

It was an amazing experience. You know, the theater was full of Boston browncoats,

and it was so cool. So, I mean, that experience kind of cemented it for me,

just sort of the whole thing. But honestly, I was hooked pretty early on into Serenity,

into the episode of the pilot.

I actually have a moment.

Oh, awesome.

And I know people have a... When there's no sound in space, that got me. But the one thing

that really, the one thing that really got me is Mal using the toilet. And I thought, you never see

a guy in space using a toilet.

He's dipping up his trousers, and he's putting the toilet away. And it's like,

it made it real. I don't know. It made it...

Yeah, yeah. It's the reality, yeah.

And it was... That was the other thing was like,

you never see that in a science fiction movie, you know? I mean, but I also was a Joss fan,

so I had been watching Buffy and Angel, and so I was prepared for interesting things.

But that one moment made me think,

of how real it was, and how this is really different. This is a different sort of show.

Paul, what about you?

I wouldn't know. I think I've answered this question before,

and if I think about something right now, I probably come up with something different.

It's okay.

But that's the thing, right?

It's okay to have multiple moments.

So many moments.

Exactly.

I would have to say then, the episode of Out of Gas.

Yeah.

That was arranged.

Yes. I love non-linear storytelling.

That episode is so brilliant. I think it's my favorite still, after...

I think it's a lot of people's favorite, for a lot of reasons.

Yeah, yeah. It always gets chosen.

It's just a great bit of TV.

Yeah. That mustache.

Oh, it's so true.

Yes.

And Zoe's reaction to him. There's just something about him.

About him that bugs me.

About him that bothers me.

Oh, good.

My moment where I knew I was going to be watching this show to the point of distraction

was the Kayleigh fake-out in the first episode, where it was just beautifully set up,

and I thought it was a scene that I'd seen a million times before, you know,

the tragedy and the loss, and it was a complete fake-out.

Yeah.

And I remember just...

Yeah.

...staring at the screen and my jaw dropping open,

and the guy that had sat me down to watch it, like, grinning at me.

It's like, this show is...

Okay, you gotta put in the next one.

And this is what happens now.

But clearly, I can't trust these people, but I wanna know.

I wanna know.

And it broke up some of the seriousness of it.

Because up until I watched Firefly, I wasn't a fan of Westerns.

I didn't like Westerns.

And I wasn't necessarily a fan of science fiction.

Yeah.

Neither.

Like, I liked some, but usually it had a little too much...

I don't know, too much stuffiness, too much gravitas for me.

So that moment, just that gotcha, is like, oh, you took us seriously.

It made me feel a little more comfortable, a little less like,

this is gonna be some very serious, drawn-out, you know, the tragedy of life and wars.

No, it's the captain being a jerk, because he can, and it's funny.

And, uh, like the using the toilet in space, it's not something you really see that often.

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

I think it was Washington, the dinosaurs, for me, honestly, which is very early on.

I mean, yeah, that happens, and you're like, you don't usually see pilots

in sci-fi shows playing with toy dinosaurs at their station.

It's pretty good.

I really like the fact that the board game comes with it.

with a dinosaur a little to pass around so you know whose turn it is whoever's

holding the dinosaur it's their turn I thought that was a nice touch

so I got the fucking dinos from the thing you did does anybody have oh no

dinosaurs you can play with so they're the right size you push a button on one

and it does the whole you have the and the right it has all things are the

state of the state grave yeah

God in heaven anyway

but you sort of push the bellies of the dinosaurs and they do the lines if you've

never if you don't have it you have to get them you have to get them

you have to press the buttons in order to get the correct lines because if you

press like two times one dinosaur will like the lines make yes they'll mix up

but would they know browncoats will not mix up the line

you're never going to push the button just once you're gonna do the entire sequence because you'll like that

yeah

you went through the trouble of buying the dinosaurs that actually say the

lines you're gonna perform the entire thing yeah probably in public yes well

yes I did that at the CSTS it was well-received

I'll tell you what this is kind of slightly random so it's like the rule with Monty Python fans

when two or more Python fans are gathered together they shall perform the parrot

sketch when two or more browncoats are gathered they shall perform the parrot sketch

or perform the

yeah yeah that's it that's okay right totally random story. This is how I got involved in the signal I met Jill Adeshinde in London Cari was there Wendy from Plending Your Wave was there and I got Sweden from plenty a wave was there and hollowed above a

survey as well I got talking to Jill she's hugh Geke once treatment Python fact

and we just started bouncing off each other with price and quotes and it's

Yeah I can work with this person

I can work with this person

okay some man with a pickled faut that's able to speak the b apply no more

It's like, yeah, that's it

So Monty Python got me into the thing

That's a really bizarre thing, isn't it?

Monty Python got me into the thing

You know, I don't know

That that sounds so strange

It's not

It's kind of appropriate in a weird way

It is, because there is that almost

Kind of slightly anarchic

Slightly subversive element there

In Firefly

To a degree, I think

People like, it's got that whole grounding in reality

And the characters and all the rest of it

But in Firefly, people still love Monty Python

You know, all these years later

They still recite the sketch

They still laugh at the show

We still sit around and re-watch the show

Oh yeah

It's a show from 2002 when it came out

It's 14 years old

There are just certain things in the culture

I think that just have a universal appeal

Well yeah, there always will be, right?

And I think what you said about the actors

Is really a good point

It's, anytime you hear any of them talk about it

It's always, you know

The best experience they've had

You know, in their careers

Of, you know, just everyone on the set

Was a family

And it was, everybody knew it was so special

And I just, that always makes me so happy to hear

Just, you know, you never want to hear

You know, something that you love

And the actor was miserable during the whole thing

Something like that, you know

It's like they felt it too

They felt the thing that we feel

As fans

As fans watching it

They felt it while they were making it

That's so cool

Yeah, absolutely

But man, this is why they do

This is why they still do conventions

You know, it still comes up in it

I mean, Nathan did an interview just recently

Where he talks about it

You know, Firefly fans just don't go away

They're like, oh

We're like zombies

We can't, yeah, that's right

I'll pass on the brains, but you know

Think for yourself, dude

I don't think it's a far stretch to say that Firefly

Has had a tremendous influence on the scope of science fiction as we know it

As much as Star Wars or Star Trek even

I think that's a very fair statement

When I started watching Battlestar Galactica

I noted in a lot of camera techniques

That I had only seen in Firefly before

And it was that, yes

That kind of thing that makes it look like a quick cam

Like it's a live action shot

And the ship's out of focus

Then focuses in

Yeah, I mean, of course

I mean, obviously it was the same

It was the same CGI studio

Yeah

Doing that

But obviously

Yeah, yeah

I think that has had an influence

And obviously, of course

They're still working

And involved in the industry

And so, yes, I think it has

In the same way that Star Wars had

Had that

Impact on how spaceships looks

You know, grubby, dirty

And, you know, used

Which, frankly, has lost a little bit of

Actually going all CGI

And I think perhaps Firefly

And, you know, other shows

Have since kind of taken that back a little bit

And it's like, yeah, you know what

These would be used

They would be a bit mucky

And, you know, covered in rain

And pigeon poo

And all sorts of other stuff

You know

Because they're working shits

You know

Mm-hmm

I would say

Maybe, you know

You look at any harbour

With fishing boats and everything

They're beaten up

And they're used

And everything

But they're functional

And, you know, they do their job

And the primary referral panel

Comes right off