"Serenity" in fullscreen: ugh by Blinker

FIREFLY EPISODE DISCUSSIONS

"Serenity" in fullscreen: ugh

POSTED BY: BLINKER
UPDATED: Friday, March 12, 2004 10:22
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Sunday, February 15, 2004 11:45 AM

The first time Canada's Space channel played the pilot, it was the widescreen two-hour movie version. However, when they got through the whole series and started over, the pilot was split into two parts on consecutive Mondays. And while "The Train Job" the week after that remained letterboxed, the new split "Serenity" was aired fullscreen.

Remember that shot of Simon and Mal on the catwalk that was supposed to force FOX into airing it 16x9? In this version, Mal delivers all his dialogue in that shot from offscreen. And when Jayne is talking to Dobson? The right side of Jayne's face is cut off.

Now the splitting itself wasn't just a hack job by the station: the guest star etc. credits are repeated at the top of Part 2 in the usual font, and the production codes in the end credits now read 1AGE79 PART 1 and 1AGE79 PART 2.

So my question to the better-informed is, who's responsible? Did the network order ME to make the two-part version 4x3 and never get around to showing it, or did Fox crop it themselves before shipping it to Canada? Have any other stations played a split "Serenity" in either ratio?

P.S. for anyone curious: Part 1 ends at the act break where Mal opens River's box and says "huh." No glowing stencil, no "to be continued," just commercials and the closing credits. Part 2 resumes from the start of the next act (no intro, "previously on" or anything) and cuts to credits when Simon says "this is my sister." Then there's the opening credits, ads, and it resumes from there with Simon's explanation.

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Monday, February 16, 2004 5:16 PM

BLINKER

Here's another airing discrepancy: the DVD has a different take of Tracey's recorded message. Mostly the same words, but it lends the final scene in particular a different tone...

The "casual" DVD version (as recorded by sneaker98)
http://www.nightsoftware.com/sneaker98/FireflyGoodbye.mp3

The "somber" aired version, as heard in those countries that actually saw it
http://slidersweb.net/blinker/nsr/ffmessag.mp3

I prefer the TV version myself.

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Monday, March 8, 2004 5:19 AM

BLINKER

Correction: the aired version of Message on the Versaphile site has the same Tracey recording as the DVD version. Don't know what country it's from, but it may be that only Canadians got the "special" Message.

Oh, and all known TV airings of "Bushwhacked" have a different logo animation in the opening credits. In the regular version, the streams of light get to the right of the screen and dissolve into Serenity's engine, never allowing a clear view of the word "firefly." In this version, the title is seen plainly for a moment, and then new light streams shoot out from the centre downward:

The timing of the next few clips up to Nathan Fillion's credit is also different to account for this.

(I'm just gonna keep on cataloguing these airing anomalies until someone actually replies.

)

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Friday, March 12, 2004 10:22 AM

BIGBALDHEAD

by all means keep posting these anomalies; they're quite interesting...I just don't really know what to say! Maybe moving this thread in the general discussion section would encourage more responses from others who have noticed similar discrepancies...

-bbh

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