FIREFLY EPISODE DISCUSSIONS

River's letter from the Academy (Safe episode)

POSTED BY: LADYSINGS
UPDATED: Tuesday, January 9, 2007 00:36
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Sunday, January 7, 2007 9:59 AM

LADYSINGS


As we were having our weekly Firefly episode viewing of Safe, we noticed that you could read some of the letter that River had sent to her parents. Here is what I could make out:

Dearest Mother and Father,
I hope you both are well and doing fine. Things are okay here at the school as I am doing well at school. My teachers and professors all say it is so. I have missed the familiar surroundings of home. Quite a lot more than I thought I would.

My thoughts often wander to the grand time we had last summer at the lake. I was warm and sunning and the lake, the deep blue, crystal clear waters just made those summer days melt away.

We all had such a good time swimming and ______ and all......


This was all I could make out but I thought I would share.



"Well ya know, we studied bludgeoning in the academy first year but by the time you graduate, you just forget everything. I'm a bad cop." ----Laurence Dobson

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Sunday, January 7, 2007 11:19 AM

ENGINEANGEL


oh, coolness! thanks for sharing!


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Sunday, January 7, 2007 11:58 AM

DONCOAT


Great catch!

We've discussed this before, quite a while back. The letter really does include the lines Simon mentions as being suspicious.

It's a wonderful example of the attention to detail that went into Firefly, at every level -- since this item would have been created by some relatively lowly prop designer working with short deadlines. It's another demonstration of the love that went into this show.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I'm pointin' right at it!

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Sunday, January 7, 2007 12:16 PM

LADYSINGS


Quote:

Originally posted by DonCoat:
It's a wonderful example of the attention to detail that went into Firefly, at every level -- since this item would have been created by some relatively lowly prop designer working with short deadlines. It's another demonstration of the love that went into this show.



We were discussing the attention to detail as well. For example, during the commentary for the pilot, Joss talks about the Chinese writing on the lamp in Inara's shuttle. How the prop people had paid so much attention to detail that the words stood for "short interval".

"Well ya know, we studied bludgeoning in the academy first year but by the time you graduate, you just forget everything. I'm a bad cop." ----Laurence Dobson

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Sunday, January 7, 2007 12:23 PM

ASARIAN


Quote:

Originally posted by LadySings:

As we were having our weekly Firefly episode viewing of Safe, we noticed that you could read some of the letter that River had sent to her parents. Here is what I could make out:

Dearest Mother and Father,
I hope you both are well and doing fine. Things are okay here at the school as I am doing well at school. My teachers and professors all say it is so. I have missed the familiar surroundings of home. Quite a lot more than I thought I would.

My thoughts often wander to the grand time we had last summer at the lake. I was warm and sunning and the lake, the deep blue, crystal clear waters just made those summer days melt away.

We all had such a good time swimming and ______ and all......


This was all I could make out but I thought I would share.






I already started a thread about this, a while back, called:

Decoding River's letters from "Safe."

At:

http://www.fireflyfans.net/thread.asp?b=4&t=18489&m=261028


--
"Mei-mei, everything I have is right here." -- Simon Tam

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Sunday, January 7, 2007 12:23 PM

ASARIAN


Double post.

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Sunday, January 7, 2007 12:32 PM

LADYSINGS


I did a Google search before I posted but didn't find anything. (I even used "River's letter" as a keyword) Sorry I didn't find your previous thread.

"Well ya know, we studied bludgeoning in the academy first year but by the time you graduate, you just forget everything. I'm a bad cop." ----Laurence Dobson

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Sunday, January 7, 2007 12:34 PM

ASARIAN


Quote:

Originally posted by LadySings:

I did a Google search before I posted but didn't find anything. (I even used "River's letter" as a keyword) Sorry I didn't find your previous thread.




It wasn't meant as a critique. :) Just showing you that a lot of us folks found a lot of good stuff in that letter (more than I found alone).




--
"Mei-mei, everything I have is right here." -- Simon Tam

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Monday, January 8, 2007 5:26 PM

ASORTAFAIRYTALE


Yeah, I actually read a script of it online that had some of the original ideas, and instead of saying something about a ball, Simon says that River talked about going to a lake, even thought they never went to the lake last summer. So I think it's cool how close they payed attention to the details.

I found the script on browncoats.com if you wanted to see it.

---------
Love keeps her in the air when she outta fall down, tells you she's hurting before she keels. Makes her a home.


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Monday, January 8, 2007 11:09 PM

ASARIAN


Quote:

Originally posted by asortafairytale:

Yeah, I actually read a script of it online that had some of the original ideas, and instead of saying something about a ball, Simon says that River talked about going to a lake, even thought they never went to the lake last summer. So I think it's cool how close they payed attention to the details.



Yeah, the level of detail is incredible. The lake, indeed, is mentioned in an early shooting script:

SIMON
She talks about last summer at the
lake.
GABRIEL
So?

SIMON
We weren't at the lake, we were in
the mountains.

REGAN
Oh honey, I'm sure there's a lake up
there.

SIMON
No. These phrases... they don't
sound like her. And look here
some of these words, they're
misspelled.

It is quite amazing that a prop guy went through this much trouble to get the details rights. But what's truly astounding, is that the letter actually has mispelled words, too! Like "proffessors" (with two f's).

I mean, in your average movie, half the time they don't even get the chess-board right (white square in lower right corner). But Joss is, I dunno, not of this world. :)


--
"Mei-mei, everything I have is right here." -- Simon Tam

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Tuesday, January 9, 2007 12:36 AM

DESKTOPHIPPIE


That's pretty incredible, that level of detail. The props and set design people deserve heaps of praise for the effort they put into the show.

I think the first thing to strike me was Kaylee's room. I loved the way even the door was decorated with her name and flowers and other little touches like that.

Her room itself reminded me of Tara's dorm room in Buffy. It's not that the rooms are similar in any way, but Tara's room was full of interesting wall hangings and posters and crystals that you only ever got a glimpse of, but that really added to the feel of the room - and the character. All the more incredible since that Tara wasn't even on the main credits. Anyone know if the same crowd worked on both shows?





Graphics available at www.desktophippie.com
Blog available at http://desktophippie.blogspot.com

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