Comment about BDM and the TV show by mphillips

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Comment about BDM and the TV show

POSTED BY: MPHILLIPS
UPDATED: Saturday, January 28, 2006 21:49
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Saturday, January 28, 2006 6:19 AM

Watched both again this week and something struck me as odd..everybody acts like it's been real time (i.e about 2 years) different looks different hair. Mal saying he always looks to Preacher for Advice...When according to the script Simon and river and Book have known Mal for all of eight months..So that would mean Inara has been gone, what, maybe a week since the last show..This just stuck a chord that didn't sound quite right...IMO..Thoughts?

mphillips

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Saturday, January 28, 2006 7:21 AM

STDOUBT

How much time passed in the series? I don't recall
anything that would go against the idea of the
series lasting only a few weeks, maybe a month
(But I have been up all night -so a bit bibbledy).
7 months of babysitting w/o Inara around could
explain Mal's grumpiness.
6 or 7 months between OIS and the events of the BDM?
Is that possible?
As for "always" looking to Book for advice, we
don't know when Book left the ship do we? Could be
He and Mal got close in the interim. Obviously he
kept tabs on Books location -knew where to find him,
knew it would be safe to go to him.
But hey -like I said, I been up all night so caveat
reader ;]

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Saturday, January 28, 2006 7:40 AM

JAYRO

Quote:
Originally posted by STDOUBT:
How much time passed in the series? I don't recall
anything that would go against the idea of the
series lasting only a few weeks, maybe a month
(But I have been up all night -so a bit bibbledy).

There was always a line in 'Trash' that seemed to throw things out a bit for me. Memory's a little hazy here (I, too, have been up all night!) but I think Mal tells Monty that he ran into YoSaffBridge "about eight months back". That would indicate that the series arc is at least that length of time and more.

(MILD SPOILER)
I always take it as read that a good few months have passed between end of OiS and the start of the BDM. Book is well settled on Haven when we meet him again (cornrows, preacher?!), indicating that he must have been there for some time. Likewise, Inara is firmly established at her Training House.

----------------------

"Traaaaap!" - Fillion

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Saturday, January 28, 2006 7:49 AM

MPHILLIPS

Still just the line when Mal throws Simon against the wall, "eight months you had her on my boat" throws me a bit. In Bushwacked Inara's been with mal almost a year.....in Safe the cows were on board for several weeks.. Just eight months seems to short for what Mal and his crew went through..

mphillips

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Saturday, January 28, 2006 8:19 AM

JAYRO

Quote:
Originally posted by mphillips:
Still just the line when Mal throws Simon against the wall, "eight months you had her on my boat" throws me a bit. In Bushwacked Inara's been with mal almost a year.....

There's also a big jump between 'Serenity Pilot', when Inara tells Book that she's been on the ship eight months and she's not sure she'll ever really know the Captain, and Bushwhacked, where she tells the Alliance officer that in a few weeks' time, she'll have been on board Serenity for a year. That's nearly a month and a half to account for, 'The Train Job' notwithstanding.

Maybe the series timeline is nonlinear? 'Our Mrs Reynolds', for example, could have taken place much earlier than it appears, maybe during this missing month and a half. We barely see River and Simon in this episode, either.

Couldn't say for sure. What do you think?

----------------------

"You are not the man I married a year ago."

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Saturday, January 28, 2006 9:17 AM

STAKETHELURK

Quote:
Originally posted by Jayro:
What do you think?

I think--or rather I know--that Joss is bad at math. Over on “Buffy,” for example, it took them five seasons to get the vampires’ ages right--in a few cases they were off by nearly a hundred years! So, I just put it down to bad math on the part of Joss; nobody’s perfect.

For a canonical explanation, maybe Mal misspeaks when he throws about the “eight months” figure. He might’ve been too angry to count properly at the moment.

As for the series timeline, a while ago I ran across this extensive timeline someone had put together based on anecdotal evidence and the one definite date that appears in the series (I believe it’s in “Shindig,” when Inara is looking at the computer screen of potential clients you can briefly see the date, October 25(?), 2517). I’ll try and look for the site, but his conclusion, if I remember correctly, believes the series runs from late August 2517 into January 2518.

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Saturday, January 28, 2006 9:26 AM

THEONETRUEBIX

Don't try to make the 8 months comment in the movie fit with anything else. It simply doesn't.

And the timeline is here:

http://www.mts.net/~arphaxad/firefly.html

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Saturday, January 28, 2006 10:13 AM

MPHILLIPS

Well, that sorta sums it up, now, don't it. thanks for the link.

mphillips

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Saturday, January 28, 2006 10:31 AM

STAKETHELURK

Thanks, Bix, for finding the link!

I still believe that the discrepancy was due to bad math on Joss’ part (not that I blame him for it, we all make mistakes), but even if he did notice the discrepancy, he might have left it in anyway. The BDM had to appeal to both browncoats and the uninitiated. The urgency of the situation would be undermined for the latter if they’re told that River had been missing for well over a year before the Alliance finally got around to sending someone after her (since the new viewers don’t know about Dobson, Early, or the Blue Hands). So Joss compromised with eight months; it seems plausible enough (until you really look at it) for the series to take place in that amount of time, while the rest of the audience can accept that Mal was avoiding the Alliance for that long.

But it was probably bad math. Notice that in some other movie-related stuff, Whedon seems to place the date not at 2517 or 2518, but 2507 (ex: his “Brief History of the Universe, circa 2507” mee-moe, and I think also the notoriously inaccurate Alliance file on Mal that the Op looks at).

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Saturday, January 28, 2006 12:25 PM

MSCKAREN

I think your theory about Mal mispeaking is a good one based on his interaction with Kaylee shortly before. Paraphrasing:

"You told me that part would last another 2 weeks."

"That was 6 months ago."

Perhaps, Joss passed on his time issue to Mal...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Appears they've cancelled the show and we're still here. What does that make us?"
"Big damn junkies, Sir!"
"Ain't we just."
http://karenallover.blogspot.com/

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Saturday, January 28, 2006 9:49 PM

JOSSIZBOSS

I think the quote from "Trash" went something like, "About a half a year back on the Triumph Settlement..."

Not sure as to the exact wording, but I watched this episode earlier this evening, so I'm pretty sure about the time.

I think I've heard that the comics give the impression that a couple of months have elapsed between the series and the movie (not sure though 'cause I haven't read them yet).

So if Trash is six months in, and the remaining eps take place over a few weeks, then the 8 months figure that Mal gives in the movie sounds fairly plausible to me.

Hope this helps.

JIB

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