Resurrection by UnregisteredCompanion

GENERAL DISCUSSIONS

Resurrection

POSTED BY: UNREGISTEREDCOMPANION
UPDATED: Tuesday, October 25, 2005 12:53
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VIEWED: 6411
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Saturday, October 22, 2005 2:59 PM

MAJOR SPOILER!!!!!

Don't read if you haven't seen the movie :)

Completely silly, but it is Friday, my oldest at at the movies, my husband is working, and my youngest is watching cartoons. ...AND...I am bored out of my skull.

So, lets pretend you have a couple of extra million laying around and are able to fund Serenity 2. Everyone is on board, but you have a condition before you whip out the check book. Wash has to come back. Joss tells you "OK Mr. Smarty Pants. You tell me how!"

Use your imagination and resurrect Wash. Can be funny, smart, stupid, whatever. Keep in mind that anyone lame enough to suggest a long lost twin will be tied to a chair and forced to listen to Vogon poetry for 5 days.

GO!

~~~~~
"Funny and sexy. You have no idea. And you never will."

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Saturday, October 22, 2005 3:12 PM

UNREGISTEREDCOMPANION

Since it was my idea, I think it only fair I start.

Wash was not in the cheesy holographic tomb at the end. He had been placed in cold storage while Serenity was being rebuilt. His body, in popsicle form, is sent off to the alliance, who is working on a way to download memories directly from the human brain, even if you are dead. They accidentally bring him back to life during their evil experiements.

He is reprogrammed to find the Serenity crew and kill them, though he is unaware of his new purpose. He eventually hooks up with the crew with no memory of what happened after his "death". They are happy to see he is alive, but Mal & Zoe remain suspicious. A signal is sent to Serenity, which is in fact a trigger code for Wash to off everyone while they are in space. He goes after Zoe first, but is distracted when Zoe dangles a plastic dinosaur in front of him. Staring at the dinosaur helps him remember what happened and fight his Alliance programing. Then they all live happily, but financially challenged, ever after.

~~~~~
"Funny and sexy. You have no idea. And you never will."

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Saturday, October 22, 2005 5:30 PM

GIANTEVILHEAD

Wash passed his katra onto River before he died and River must pass it onto a clone of Wash.

"I swallowed a bug." -River Tam

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Saturday, October 22, 2005 5:50 PM

THESIGNAL

I hate to say this, but I think Wash is gone for good (although that's a mighty fine idea you had there, and almost practical even). The problem with a resurrection of Wash is that it diminishes the significance of his death. I'll admit, at first I was pretty upset about it; I thought it was purely for shock and it just about ruined the rest of the movie for me. Thankfully, the thrilling heroics of the conclusion kept me in keel, and afterwards I realized that Wash's death is a symbol of the innocent being ravaged by blind hatred. Pardon my philosophicality, but Wash was meant to be a martyr, in a way. Now, I would rather he never died at all (for the sociality aboard the ship alone; it just won't be the same, EVER), but he did die... and that's just too bad, I guess. Now...

If you can't have Wash back, how about just bringing Alan back? Picture this: Zoe, after many failed talks about starting a family, finally gets what she wants (though she doesn't know it at the time of the movie). Later on, of course, she realizes there's a bun in her oven, which would be prime opportunity for a series of flashbacks including our dear old Wash. On second thought...

Why did Wash have to die?!?! Gorram it, Joss! Now you got me all upset again.

I aim to misbehave.

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Saturday, October 22, 2005 5:51 PM

BJAY

They Freeze washes body take off too find some million Dallar meat. They find someone but blast him instead and grab the oragans and get the doc to put them back into wash. All he really needed was a new heart and lungs.

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Saturday, October 22, 2005 6:01 PM

RODASH

I kind of liked this one posed by the OPERATIVE in another thread; I just cut and pasted it here.

Posted by the OPERATIVE:

Hello Browncoat Sympatizers,

Of course I cannot use a name because I do not exist. I am another operative of the Parliament, yet one who is not unsympathetic to your cause. I have been working my contacts to find out what happened in the recent skirmish prior to the now infamous broadcast of the Alliance's secret about Miranda. The following account covers what was happening around the ship Serenity while its crew battled the reavers inside.
After the crew hastily fled the reavers into the building to complete their mission, the reavers followed them inside without even entering Serenity or leaving any guards. The Alliance ship followed them in hot on their heels, but decided to wait outside as per orders from the operative.
Once they established control outside the building, they went into Serenity to see if anyone was there and found the pilot staked through the seat with a big wooden bolt. He had regained consciousness again but was in very serious condition. The large bolt had crashed through a lung and destroyed it and the hydrostatic shock that had knocked him unconscious had nearly killed him.
The captain of the Alliance destroyer had him cryo'ed to take back to a core world hospital for repairs so he could be used for questioning. When the operative's behavior started becoming dubious, the captain decided to not bother mentioning his prisoner.
As it turns out, the captain was not exactly the career Alliance servant he appeared. He was in the secret employ of Blue Sun, who want to get their hands on River Tam even more than Parliament does. He was there to watch the operative and get River from him if he could. As the operative commanded all the Alliance forces on the scene, the captain found himself unable to gather River in, but he was able to keep his prisoner a secret.
After the crew emerged from the building, they and the operative assumed that reavers had taken the pilot's body. The captain had by that time withdrawn his crewmen as the admiral's marines secured the scene. As of this writing no one outside of Blue Sun is aware of their possession of Hoban Washburn. The Alliance captain and his ship and crew were mysteriously reported missing and are presumed also to be reaver victims.
I was able to find out that Washburn recovered fully from his injuries and is now healthy enough to be questioned by Blue Sun. From what I've heard of their information gathering techniques, I would suggest that someone mount a rescue operation soon. It is said that no one keeps secrets from Blue Sun.
My motives for revealing this are not any great sympathy for the Browncoat cause. I am loyal to the Alliance. My charge is to investigate the extent to which Blue Sun has infiltrated our ranks and what their agenda might be. River Tam is of little use to us now, but one of those members of Parliament whose minds she was exposed to was a top Blue Sun plant. She may hold within her damaged mind more than Parliament's secrets. I need to know why Blue Sun wants her even worse than we do, and who else in the Alliance's highest ranks is in their pockets.

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Saturday, October 22, 2005 6:38 PM

PYROFALKON

The human brain is basically a hard drive. It can be modified, copied, and erased. It does not need to be in a living host to be read.It is simple manner for a for Wash's psyche to have been downloaded into what would almost have to be a clone of him.

I just realized this is exactly what happened to Duncan Idaho in the Dune .

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Saturday, October 22, 2005 7:31 PM

LIMINALOSITY

oh crap, now you're scaring me with your evil Wash naughtiness.

Ha ha HA! Mine is an evil laugh...now die!

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Sunday, October 23, 2005 4:18 PM

UNREGISTEREDCOMPANION

Wash wasn't really alive in the first place. He is a more advanced male version of Mr. Universe's sexbot. Nobody had the heart to tell Zoe she was married to a machine, so they made it look like he "died".

His parts are now in Kaylee's cabin, where she is rebuilding him to see if he would really "taker her in a manly fashion" because "she is pretty."

~~~~~
"Funny and sexy. You have no idea. And you never will."

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Sunday, October 23, 2005 4:30 PM

WOMBATGRRL

Zoe is pregnant by Wash. She has the child, but is kidnapped and taken to another dimension. It later returns, only to be fully grown and look just like Wash!

Mmm maybe I got my 'verses mixed up.

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Sunday, October 23, 2005 5:16 PM

DREAMTROVE

Okay, naysayers, of course wash is gone, but that doesn't stop the fun.

Here's mine:

1. Wash had programmed himself into the ships computer.

2. Reavers got him and his top half is king reaver and his bottom half is giant croc.

3. The alliance got him and he's the comic relief assassin with cyberware sent to kill Mal.

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Sunday, October 23, 2005 5:24 PM

UNREGISTEREDCOMPANION

"1. Wash had programmed himself into the ships computer."

Ooooooo...good one!

~~~~~
"Funny and sexy. You have no idea. And you never will."

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Sunday, October 23, 2005 5:41 PM

OBIWAN

Wash is dead. He's a ghost.

River's a psychic.

Do the math.

"Butcher's Knife..."

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Monday, October 24, 2005 3:04 AM

DEEPTHINKER

I've only seen the movie once, so please forgive me if I get my facts wrong, but I'm going to try and resurrect Wash and Book without resorting to deus-ex-machina, without inventing technology with no precedent, and without having characters act outside their natures - and without saying "it was all a dream".

Let me start with Book. The death of Book ought to have gone like this: Mal finds Book badly injured and shouts for Simon. Simon comes running whilst Book tries to talk to Mal. Simon arrives, and being a brilliant doctor, throws Mal out of the way, grabs medical gizmos from his bag and fights for Book's life. Sadly, despite the brilliant docotor's effort, Book dies.

However, it didn't go like that. What we see in the film is that when Simon gets close enough to see whom he has been called for, he stops running and starts acting like he has all the time in the world. Why?

There are three explanations I can think of: 1) the brilliant doctor can tell a fatal injury from 20 feet away, even though the patient is still conscious and has clearly survived an hour or so with his injuries already; 2) for some reason, there is no way Simon is going to help Book; 3) Simon knows Book is in no danger, despite his injuries.

The first explanation doesn't ring true. He's alive, and he's conscious, and Simon hasn't checked his injuries in any way.

The second explanation doesn't ring true either. Simon was happy to treat Jayne in "Ariel". It would be against his nature to refuse treatment.

That leaves us with option 3 - so why is Book in no danger, despite his injuries? Could Simon have a way of preserving Book's life despite any injury? If so, that explains why he stops running, doesn't push Mal out of the way, and doesn't fight to save Book's life.

Now clearly Book's life was in danger in "Safe", so something has changed. Where in the 'verse would the crew of Serenity get something that would protect their lives even if all their internal organs were removed or destroyed - something that the fancy Alliance hospitals don't have?

Happily, in "The Message" we have an off-screen group of medical researchers who are working on taking the internal organs out of people and replacing them. That can't be an easy procedure, unless they've also researched a way of keeping the brain intact whilst the procedure is carried out.

Let's assume that between the end of the episodes and the start of the movie, this group of medical researchers and the crew of Serenity bump into each other again. Possibly the researchers still want Tracey. Possibly Tracey's family find out what happened and hire Serenity for a revenge mission.

Once the dust has settled from this encounter, the crew of Serenity have several doses of the medical magic which stops people's brains dying when you take out their internal organs. This might be a drug which causes brain cells to enter a protective state when resources run thin - perhaps like bacteria can turn into spores or form protective cysts. Yes, this is new technology for the 'verse, but we have an established group who could invent it, would want to invent it, and would keep it out of Alliance hands, and it has a semi-plausible rationale to keep the science buffs happy - so I hope you will all let me get away with it. :-)

Obviously, Simon insists that River gets one, and the others get assigned by lottery. Only Simon knows who is protected and who isn't, but lets say these doses go to Book and Wash.

So when Book "dies", Simon stops running and doesn't try to save Book's life because he knows Book is in no danger and therefore it is more important to learn what he has to say. Simon's actions now make sense, when before they were actually a bit dubious.

Moving on to Wash, when he gets speared, Simon knows he is protected but doesn't have time to tell Zoe, which is why Zoe acts like Wash is dead. Alternatively, he does tell Zoe, but Zoe points out that once the Reavers finish eating him, he'll still be dead no matter what fancy chemicals he's been injected with.

Fortunately, the Reavers are more interested in a fight than a snack, and leave Wash's body alone - otherwise reviving him would indeed become difficult.

In the fight with the reavers, Zoe is atypically reckless. Possibly because she wants revenge, possibly because she doesn't want to be taken alive. Zoe is a weak link in my proposal as I have to explain her atypical behaviour assuming she knows Wash may still be alive. I can't remember is she refers to Wash as having been killed specifically, but it is possible that Simon hasn't had a chance to tell her Wash got the drug.

Next in the film, the Alliance arrives. The soldiers are disciplined professionals and would have checked out Serenity before coming into the building. Therefore they have found Wash. However they don't know of the medical researchers secret drug so have no reason to suspect his brain might still be viable.

Finally in the film, we see Wash's tombstone - but how do we know Wash is below it? If he isn't why do they put up a tombstone?

Lets ask another question, what else might the Operative have told the crew of Serenity after his conversion away from the Alliance's cause?

Let's assume he reveals another Achilles Heel of the Alliance, something the crew agree should be looked into, something that is best investigated by people whom the Alliance won't be watching, and preferably a skilled pilot and someone who knows the inner workings of the Alliance.

People very much like Wash and Book then. They have the skills and the Alliance thinks they are dead. They've seen Wash's "corpse" and had reports that everyone at Book's settlement was killed, so there is no reason to watch for them.

The crew of Serenity therefore fake a burial for Wash and Book, to convince any Alliance watchers that Wash and Book really are dead, whilst they sneak away on their secret mission to whatever the Operative told them about.

This, I think (based on only seeing the movie once), leaves Wash alive, Book alive, all the scenes in the movie intact, and a great beginning for a sequel.

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Monday, October 24, 2005 3:38 AM

PIZMOBEACH

... fully loaded, safety off...

Yo! Deep T! Nice 'un - I'd buy a bunch of tickets to that movie.

Scifi movie music + Firefly dialogue clips, 24 hours a day - http://www.scifiradio.net

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Monday, October 24, 2005 5:03 AM

ZEEK

We already know that the Pax is what created Reavers. What we didn't know is that once the body is affected by the drug, it begins to reproduce the drug itself. While the reavers are raping Wash's dead body, the Pax is transmitted into his body. Wash is part of the 10th of a percent who become Reavers when affected by Pax.

The reason he is revived is because Reavers organs function differently than regular people. They survive mainly off of high doses of radiation. Which is why they fly their ships without core containment. Wash is quickly shuffled off to a reaver ship so that the radiation can help revive him.

In Serenity II the ship will be attacked by wash's reaver ship. He'll kill Kaylee and be killed by Zoe while he's raping her. She will become pregnant with Wash's baby who will be a half Reaver hybrid. Which makes him ages extrodinarily quickly at first and then slower once he reaches adulthood.

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Monday, October 24, 2005 5:28 AM

REAVERINA1985RIVIERA

Quote:
Originally posted by UnregisteredCompanion:
MAJOR SPOILER!!!!!

Use your imagination and resurrect Wash. Can be funny, smart, stupid, whatever. Keep in mind that anyone lame enough to suggest a long lost twin will be tied to a chair and forced to listen to Vogon poetry for 5 days.

hmm.. Vogon poetry... I don't think it's that bad.
Here comes the twin story!

The man Zoe married isn't Hoban Washburne, it's his brother Hogarth. She met the real Hoban in "Out of Gas"= the one with the moustash, and didn't like him because something bothered her (and it wan't the lip ferret). After he left to get his personal supplies, a very jelous Hogarth drugged him and took his place onboard Serenity as the Wash we know and love. The real Hoban was forced to take a job on another ship. After the BDM, Real Hoban reads his own obituary in the [whatever they use as nawspapers], and tracks down Serenity to find out why "he" is dead. Hoban shows up (with moustash intact) and causes some major surprises.

It's slightly plausible, Wash said the polution from his planet was so thick you can't see the stars. That much polluiton would cause major reproductive problems for the people that live there, they'd resort to in vitro fertilization, and that process more than occasionally produces twins.

Man, I'd love to see the look on Zoe's face when her dead husband strolls into the cago bay, saying "Excuse me, why am I dead?"

---------------------------------------------
The real-life box droppin', man-ape gone wrong thing, now without the pesky falling boxes

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Monday, October 24, 2005 9:48 AM

HEB

Wash: "I am my thoughts. If they exist in her, River contains everything that is me and she becomes me. I cease to exist.

No one else exists either. River is all of us. We think. Therefore, she is."

River = Wash QED

...................
Well, my sister's a ship... we had a
complicated childhood
.................
I wear the cheese. It does not wear me.

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Monday, October 24, 2005 10:29 AM

UNREGISTEREDCOMPANION

Those plastic dinosaurs Wash plays with aren't just dinos...they are highly sophisticated storage drives. In a brief moment of consciousness, Wash downloads his brain into the T-rex right before he dies.

His hope is then to get a new body from a donor, a clone, or a full sized robot. His plan runs afoul when he discovers the voice module was never installed (he was too busy playing to finish the job) so he has no way of telling anyone he is trapped in a plastic dinosaur figurine.

River figures out what he has done, being psychic and all, but decides she likes him better as a toy. She never informs the rest of the crew.

~~~~~
"Funny and sexy. You have no idea. And you never will."

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Monday, October 24, 2005 10:40 AM

YORG

How about . . .

. . . when Wash died River collected his mind inside hers.

And then River starts acting very odd (because she starts piloting the Firefly) Simon discovers a way to peek safely inside River's mind. He see's that she has a second mind stored inside her.

The search around for ideas and find a way to take out Wash's mind from River's, and store it onto a computer/digital drive. What do they do then????

. . . They plug it into the Firefly.

Wash can now communicate through the Firefly and speak over the commnunications system. Also, because he's now part of the ship, he becomes an even better pilot.

That's my idea for turning the Firefly into a sentient being (who happens to be Wash).

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Monday, October 24, 2005 4:20 PM

LUTENHANS

Woah! No wonder you got a name like DeepThinker! You could also add to the new organs and drug that simulates death deal a bit that explains Book's past. Perhaps he is some covert op and needed Wash for just the very purpose you mentioned and that the bio-spare-super-guts part of the Alliance are fighting some internal war with the brain-fraggers that were working on River and (seeing as they seem to share some kind of mind-fragged link) the Reavers.

Maybe your idea would explain why things went down the way they did, but there are a couple of other questions: 1) How do you convince the morbid viewers who like to see main characters killed off that resurrection is a good idea, and 2) how do you explain why Wash didn't tell Zoe what was going on? The second question could be a case of Wash not knowing he'd been injected with the drug and when he comes to suffers some kind of memory damage for a while so is in no rush to get back to Zoe (who he doesn't remember for a bit). Book may be a little more adapted to this kind of thing though ...

Mind you, the conflict between the crew and Book when they find out he and Wash are alive and nobody told them ... but you mentioned the Doc did. Hypocratic oath and all, what does he stand to get out of it? Maybe River gains some kind of protection if the covert op goes okay. Still, Kayle and Zoe are going to be seriously ticked when they find out he kind of lied to them. Next question, how do you stop River inadvertantly blabbing it and unsettling the others, seeing as she can get in other people's heads ("also, I can kill you with my brain") with her special abilities?

Please! Tell us more so that we can entertain ourselves with idle speculation until Season Two starts. Who knows, maybe the powers that be are reading this stuff right now, noting the interest, and coming up with ideas as a result! Think positive people!

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Tuesday, October 25, 2005 2:35 AM

DEEPTHINKER

I'll answer the second question first because its a lot easier.

Quote:
2) how do you explain why Wash didn't tell Zoe what was going on?

What I was proposing was that everyone knew some people on board had taken the brain-protecting drug from the medical researchers. As they hadn't enough for everyone, some people got placebos and some people got the real treatment. Only Simon knew. Perhaps he rigged the lottery for River's sake - he'd need Wash to fly the ship, and Book was more trustworthy in a fight than Jayne - so he was preserving a minimum team to protect River. If he'd had a fourth dose I suggest it would go to Kaylee to keep the ship running (and because of how he feels about her). He doesn't need Mal, Zoe and Jayne to protect River, so they don't get doses.

So Zoe knows Wash might have been treated. Whether he was or not is irrelevant with a huge horde of Reavers about to kill them all, so during the time inside Mr Universe's enclave it just doesn't come up.

After the fighting stops, there is no reason to be pally with the Alliance and tell them they are going to resurrect Wash. Indeed explaining how they are able to do it might have complications.

However, once the fighting stops the on-screen narrative skips forward a week or so. Serenity is repaired and that must have taken a while. During this time Simon can tell Zoe and the others that Wash got the treatment and resurrect him.

They then all discuss the Operative's information and decide that Wash and Book need to pretend to stay dead and go off on their secret mission.

To convince any watchers, the rest of the crew perform a fake burial service all the while knowing full well that Wash and Book are alive and well.

So I don't need to explain why Wash doesn't tell Zoe. Zoe knows all along. The only duplicity is by Simon because he doesn't run a fair lottery with the drugs, but bends it for River's sake (which he would do, wouldn't he?)

At the end of the film, for all the evidence we have, Wash could be on life-support in the medical room, waiting to have his heart and lungs patched up. There is no proof he is in the grave. All we know is that the crew of Serenity wanted the world to see them performing a funeral for Wash. If they are doing that because it is a lot simpler than explaining to the authorities how come Wash is still alive after getting a big spear through him, then that's all the explanation we need. Secret missions and such like are fun but unnecessary.

And now for the harder first question:

Quote:
1) How do you convince the morbid viewers
who like to see main characters killed off that resurrection is a good idea?

Many successful films and tv shows exist where there is some clever twist. If we can make the twist entertaining and clever enough, it will win through on its own merits.

The "western" genre allows resurrection and the old serials used it as a common plot device - the gold mine collapses but the hero escapes down a side tunnel, the villain shoots the hero but a pack of cards in his pocket stops the bullet. We see the death but the death is side-stepped.

Of course, the fact that this plot device was used so often is one of the reasons that audiences now want to the characters to die. They are tired of being cheated by cheap tricks - why was the side tunnel or pack of cards never mentioned before, and for that matter since when can a pack of cards stop a bullet?

I've tried to avoid the trap of the cheap trick by sticking to things we've already seen and can reasonably infer.

A second reason why audiences want a character to die is they want to see something heroic. Living in a universe where the laws of physics, biology and geography conspire to keep you alive is just not heroic.

So we could say, that even the miracles of sci-fi medicine can only postpone death, and that Wash has now got 6 months to a year to live.

Or we could create an existence for Wash that might not be considered worth living. How about this as a nightmare scenario? The medical wizardry that preserved Wash's life was based around artificial stem cells. Like all cells, stem cells can become cancerous, and these artificial stem cells are unusually prone to it. Cancer of stem cells form teratomas. Teratoma is greek for "monster tumour". Teratomas are not monstrous because of size, but because stem cells can turn into any form of tissue, the tumours turn into literal monsters - complete with hair, teeth, lungs, and nervous system. Normally these tissues are not organized very well, though there are records of teratomas being able to react independently to stimulus. These artificial stem cells used to cure Wash however have been imbued with a greater organisational principle and when cancerous form organised tissue and independently viable monsters. Its a bit like having alien eggs implanted, but without the need for an alien.

So the radiation from the drive triggers cancer in the artificial stem cells and hideous mutant monsters start to grow as tumours within Wash's body, and then eat him from within. As these creatures are formed from cells designed to be resurrected they are very hard to kill and, being formed from Wash's own brain and body, know all about flying Serenity. Once these creatures have burrowed their way out of Wash's body and started sneaking around on board, who knows what horrible things might happen.

I hope that is gruesome enough to keep the morbid viewers happy, and still based in real science. Personally, I think that's not a suitable story line. Its just too gruesome for the genre, and not the kind of story Firefly is about. I'm just including it to show that resurrection could be very messy.

My preferred suggestion is that Wash's brain was protected by the treatment, but his brain cells are now prone to going back into hibernation. They can keep him conscious and sane with regular doses of which they have a very limited supply. Once the doses run out, or if Wash doesn't take one in time, his sanity, reason, senses or control of his own body begin to decline. He could go mad, become stupid, go blind in mid-landing, or become paralysed half way through a gun fight.

Of course we still have to save Wash, but now we have months to do it in, instead of seconds.

Perhaps the secret Alliance plot he's gone off to investigate is that the Alliance leaders are trying to become immortal through transferring their minds into new cloned bodies - and we can put a stop to this evil plan but clone Wash a nice new body before setting off the explosions.

Alternatively, I feel like pointing out that killing off major characters is viewed as proof of the writer's courage. However, now writers know they should do it, they prepare themselves for it and it becomes just another convention with no proof of courage, and the audience expects it with only minimal respect returned.

Eventually, it will become courageous for the writer to defy the audience's expectation, not to kill off the character, and rescue them through genuinely skilled writing.

So come on writers - prove your skill and courage. Show us you can defy expectations, go beyond your story conventions, and keep Wash alive with a believable and entertaining story.

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Tuesday, October 25, 2005 3:13 AM

DEEPTHINKER

Just realised I might have failed to clarify a point. My proposal is that the medical wizardry resurrection drug was given to Wash and Book well before the start of the film. So much before that it is old news and no longer a current topic of conversation.

The wizardry doesn't resurrect a dead brain, it stops the brain dying in the first place by getting the brain cells to enter a protective hibernation state when deprived of blood or oxygen (like real-world bacteria can do by forming spores or cysts). Even with the treatment, damage to the brain would still kill you.

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Tuesday, October 25, 2005 12:53 PM

LUTENHANS

Very thorough indeed, and I have to agree with the whole killing off of characters to prove courage as a writer, but sometimes it gets to being a cliché or outright pointless. Having read many WH40K novels, it seems that some writers no longer have the brass to actually keep them alive and maintain the suspension of disbeleif. What happened to Wash (btw, sorry about forgetting to put the *spoiler* tag on this topic, my bad) was not heroic but did demonstrate the mindless and unpredictability of Reaver madness; now we lack the on-board cynicism and random humour that really completed the balance of serenity's many personalities.

I like your whole resurection theory, but have found that many stories have predictable twists and Firefly is one of the few that really explores new ground and has a chance to make such twists worthwhile. I think the use of Wash and Book for some secret mission is great but needs to expand on what we already know, raising more questions than it answers. Maybe the effects are only temp and they need to raid some secret medical lab to get medical treatment (the black kind that comes in hinky syringes might be too easy and remove too much of Inara's mystery).

But what else do they uncover while they are there? Is this the only reason that they have to go or does Book have something else to do? Why do the others have to know about the resurection drug? Maybe it was something Nisca gave Mal and Wash to keep them alive if he killed them through torture? Maybe Book was given it as some kind of proceedure during his past so he could complete certain 'tasks' for his previous career?

Maybe it didn't have to be some lottery deal but Simon has seen it before during his work as a doctor but kept it to himself (patient-doctor confidentiality and all)? Maybe it only lasts a few months? Maybe it does have side-effects like a boosted ego that allows certain people to wander about butt-naked in the middle of a hot desert without feeling embarrassed? Simon did infiltrate the place that held River, afterall, so who knows what he saw and what he knows?

Then there's the Zoe going burko business after Wash gets 'hurt' to explain. Perhaps her not knowing seems more feasible, and the Captain did get the business end of that Alliance freak's sword, so how he lived is a mystery ... That had to do some damage to important organs, and despite Simon's initial surprise in Heart of Gold at finding 'super-organs' (perhaps just being so far out in the border worlds), he may have even worked on projects involving their development, explaining his ability to heal serious gunshot and stabbing wounds.

I just think some serious twists to explain some things would be more appropriate, and mysteries, secrets, double dealing, covert-ops, agencies within government working against one another, and stooges or sympathisers (willing or unwilling) within the ranks are all really good things to create conflict and suspense (even if they do turn out to be false later on). It also adds depth and flavour to characters and storylines and Firefly has this in spades! In fact, I'll say it again; this is what sets Firefly apart from the standard 'good vs evil' and politically correct dogma spouted by most of the previous series that follow this kind of genre, especially when they are so predictable and fail to challenge the audience with issues that need to be seriously considered.

"I threw up on your bed" - River

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