in the open space: God & culture

Kaylee , Serenity’s engineer, sits in a lawn chair in front of the Firefly-class spaceship, looking for potential passengers to help fund their next trip. She spots a man wearing a religious collar (a Christian preacher or minister referred to as a “shepherd”) toting his luggage and looking around at the ships. Kaylee: You’re gonna come with us. The shepherd: ’Scuse me? Kaylee: You like ships. You don’t seem to be looking at the destinations. What you care about is ships and— She grins— Kaylee: —mine’s the nicest. Shepherd ( looking up at Serenity): She don’t look like much. Kaylee: Oh, she’ll fool ya. The shepherd grins at her. Kaylee: You ever sail in a Firefly? Shepherd: Long before you were crawling. Not an aught-three though. Didn’t have the extenders. Tended to shake. Kaylee gets out of her chair and walks over to him. Kaylee: So, ah, how come you don’t care where you’re goin’? Shepherd: ’Cause how you get there is the worthier part. Kaylee: Are you a missionary? She...

Heads up to all you Firefly browncoats: I just ran across The Search for Serenity , a blog of a graduate student who's writing her dissertation on "the spiritual themes of the sci-fi/western series Firefly and the film Serenity ." I must admit, I'm seriously and downright jealous. My master's thesis was on the influences of Boethius on Chaucer's first fragment of The Canterbury Tales . Yes, it was as boring as it sounds. I'd much rather have done something like this! Anyway, take a look . She's got some very interesting thoughts and posts.

I just about spewed my coffee onto my laptop when I read the juicy tidbit (hat tip Looking Closer ) that the Firefly universe may yet return to the big screen once more. What is Firefly , you may be asking? Oh my goodness, if you are I almost envy you because you have the opportunity to watch for the very first time one of my most favorite sci-fi series of all time . A Joss Whedon creation, the Western-in-space-style series follows the crew of the Firefly-class spaceship Serenity (also the title of a film following the same characters ), a thrown-together group of rengades each fleeing or rebelling against the rather tyranical Alliance. The series had great characters, witty dialogue and entertaining and often thought-provoking episodes (which often included and produced much God-talk). The series was cancelled after only 11 episodes, but has an incredible fan base which gives it a cult status. So, here's one blogger hoping the rumors are true. (Image: Sci-Fi Channel )

via Hulu Attention all Browncoats--and all of you who have no idea what that means: I just saw a commercial on The Science Channel advertising that the science fiction series Firefly will land on their channel on March 6 at 8pm. I'm glad to see the series back on the small screen, and I hope it gains a whole new set of fans. The series is one of my favorite of all time, and it's brought some good God-talk into these open spaces .

This post is a slightly longer version of a column that originally appeared at MWR . When I was a kid in the late 1970s, I loved the 1960s television series   Star Trek . A friend and I transformed junk we found in our garages into tricorders and communicators and spent hours pretending to captain Federation starships. We even attended a small   Star Trek  fan convention. That convention was miniscule compared to the film and TV conventions today. The largest and most well-known is the annual San Diego Comic-Con, which draws more than 130,000 fans and collaborators in pop culture ranging from comic books, film and TV to video games and webcomics. What draws so many to gatherings like this? In part, the stories. People caught up in them enjoy sharing their enthusiasm and passion with others who feel the same. Many long to participate in the stories themselves. Whedon/photo by Gage Skidmore Writer and director Joss Whedon ( Buffy the Vampire...

Hat tip to Jeffrey Overstreet for this USA Today blog piece that excerpts a portion of a book of essays about fav-sci-fi-series-of-this-blog Firefly . In this particular one, Nathan Fillion talks about his experience playing Malcolm Reynolds , the ship's captain: What satisfied, and impressed, me most was the process of discovery. Putting a scene together with actors who could find the real life, the moments that define characters and the relationships that live between the lines. I didn’t just watch; I was living it. Right there. Though for only moments at a time, I could be Mal. I couldn’t help it. You’ve got everyone dressed up, in the cargo bay, looking at, talking to, and treating me like I’m the captain. There were strange moments, weird suspended seconds when I bought it all. If you have ever watched an episode and felt a connection with a character, felt he was speaking to you, or for a moment were somehow transported and felt you were on the ship listening to the conve...

This Labor Day weekend, my kids watched the Star Wars saga all the way through—again. As I watched most of it with them, I started to think of the films that I watch over and over. So, I came up with this list (the idea of which I owe to Joseph McBee , who constructed his own list a couple of years ago.) 1. The Mummy . Like Roger Ebert says, “There is hardly a thing I can say in its favor, except that I was cheered by nearly every minute of it.” Me, too. Memorable line: It's just a book. No harm ever came from reading a book. 2. Hellboy . One of my favorite comic-book films , it’s witty, fun and it’s got God-talk to boot. Memorable line: How big can it be? 3. 50 First Dates . While I could do without some of the typical Adam Sandler crudeness, this film has a lot to say about love and leaves me in warm, happy tears every time I watch it. Memorable line: Can I have one last first kiss? 4. Fellowship of the Ring . We watch the extended versions of these film adaptations of the c...

"And then we artists who are trying to be God's speakers do a worse job than the atheists. Maybe it's because it's hard to be as steely real as one needs to be writing about God and his people when you are at the same time unconsciously wanting to be God's spin meister." --an insightful comment by author Susan Britton in a recent e-mail exchange between us, in which I'd mentioned that Joss Whedon, an atheist, writes some of the best and truest stories around (particulary Firefly and Serenity ), making me think again of Tolkien's words about pagan myths and "God expressing Himself through the minds of poets, using such images as He found there." (Image: from a painting by my daughter)

A huge hat tip to Jeffrey Overstreet for this list by film reviewer Steven D. Greydanus of "twenty Hollywood movies made since the turn of the millennium that present Christianity in a positive light.” Overstreet posted the list (which actually includes 27 films) in the context of ruminating about his frustration with the call of some Christians to boycott anything that comes out of Hollywood in spite of the fact that there are many laudable films that portray God and spiritual truths in a positive light. In other words (heh, mine), they are throwing the baby (a very valuable one at that) out with the bathwater. Overstreet adds that he doesn't think "Greydanus is claiming that these films qualify as profound spiritual explorations. But they do stand in stark contrast to the claim that 'Hollywood' (as if that was just one company, united under Satan) is operating under a mandate to slander and destroy Christianity." Heh. Anyway, here they are: Amazing Grace A...

A new series on my radar is the upcoming BBC sci-fi series Outcasts , set in 2040 on a nearby planet settled by a group of “social misfits and criminals” as “the pioneers of a large new settlement” after some sort of nuclear event on earth. It’s been noted by TV Guide's Matt Roush as a sci-fi/Western hybrid which (as Rob Owen at Pittsburg Post-Gazzette suggests ) brings back memories of beloved-by-this-blog Firefly as well as elements of the shortlived Earth-2 (I loved the premise of this series) and the recent (and also beloved of this blog) Battlestar Galactica . But beside the fact that it’s sci-fi (and I love my sci-fi), what intrigues me about this series is the questions the creators (the makers of favs-of-this-blog Life on Mars and Hustle ) are exploring : … will the new people bring the problems of Earth with them? Will the mistakes that destroyed Earth be repeated? Will the arrival of a new, would-be leader, rock the fragile and precarious equilibrium of the fresh...

My most recent TV Guide and EW magazines arrived several days apart and both of ‘em outline what’s in store for the small screen in the next few months—and here’s some of the items going on my DVR’s record list (in order of their air dates). Law & Order (began January 2, 10/9c NBC): Now in its 18th season (wow), this series gets a couple of new characters—a new detective ( Six Feet Under’s Jeremy Sisto) and a new Assistant DA ( Batman Begin’s Linus Roache)—in addition to a new DA: Sam Waterston’s Jack McCoy is finally filling those shoes. Though I usually catch this series in reruns, I really like it; the writing is smart, the cases interesting, and its plots often stumble on thought provoking issues—all of which has the potential to bring God-talk into open spaces, even if it’s just your living room. Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (premieres 1/13, 8/7c Fox). Starring Lena Headey and Summer Glau (whom this blog loved as River in Firefly and Serenity ). In the Ter...

Pushing Daisies . Life on Mars . Firefly . Jericho . Roswell . Joan of Arcadia . What do these shows have in common? They some of the television series I’ ve really enjoyed watching—and most of which often brought God-talk into open spaces—over the last 10 or so years. But every one of them was cancelled after short runs. And now I can add another one to the list. Rumors have been swirling for quite awhile that Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles was slated to go, but when Ausiello at EW says it, well, then it’s pretty much all but official. Sigh. Why do good television shows like these get cancelled? Granted, some on my list were better than others, but I wasn ’t the only one who thought they were engaging and interesting if not actually good . I’m far from the first to ask that question—or at least, one like it. Kristen Howe chalks it up to 13 factors, from script and cast changes to not enough buzz and schedule changes to the ratings—while Brian Ford Sullivan over at Fut...

I don’t know why all of a sudden I’m so enjoying posting those good little tidbits about television and movie news I run across here and there, but here’s another little batch of ‘em. On the big screen side, check out the new TV spot (above) for The Incredible Hulk due out June 13. If you haven’t seen the full trailer, check it out here . Peter Chattaway has posted a slew of interesting newsbites, including an update on the new Billy Graham biopic and the thickening mystery as whether or not The Happening will be screened for critics (which is usually a bad sign about the quality of a film if it isn’t). Though I’m a huge M. Night Shyamalan fan ( I own original one-sheets of Signs and Lady in the Water ), this is one I probably won’t see in the theater; it’s his first R-rated film and it looks a little too violent/intense for my feeble senses these days. On the review end, Joseph McBee at Peregrin Pages posts his thoughts on fav-of-this-blog Assassination of Jesse James by the ...

I love stories—especially the good ones. I love them in print. I love them on stage. I love them in film. And I love them on television. Now, most of the time, folks don’t have a problem with the idea that good stories can be found in books, plays and films, but lately I’ve been getting the feeling there’s a general skepticism when it comes to TV—and, frankly, I think the small screen is getting a bum rap. Believe me, I get where its critics are coming from. I’m the first to complain about unbridled and insidious commercialism or how too many studios churn out one sitcom, drama or reality show after another like spit wads in hopes that a few will stick to the blackboard of Nielsen ratings and the almighty advertising dollar. Then there’s the boundary pushing, media wars and plain lack of originality. But television is telling some of the best stories of our age—and doing so in a unique and powerful way. Good stories , among other things, explore what it means to be human and live in th...

I’m rather late on this, but here is a list of my favorite television series of 2009. As in years past, these don’t necessarily represent the best shows on television, but they are ones that I looked forward to the most—and ones that generally brought God-talk into these open spaces. Interestingly, half of them were either cancelled or went off the air. I’ll leave up to you as to whether that adds more fodder to my theory of why good television shows get cancelled or simply says something about my taste, heh . In alphabetical order: Battlestar Galactica . This four season science fiction epic concluded its run last spring. Its final season (playing out over the Springs of 2008-2009) represented some of the best as well as the worst of the series. At its best, a few key episodes plunged us into a dark exploration of love , faith , and what it means to be human —something at which this series excelled. At its worst, it revealed weakness in its storytelling and the downside of develo...