Joss Whedon is my Master Now

Living in Japan, I was forced to watch a semi-crappy version of Serenity, copied by somebody using a handheld camera in a theater and posted to the internet. Despite weak sound, blurry visuals and somebody's head in frame half the time - great movie.

Already rumblings of releasing the DVD by Xmas. I'll be first in line on Amazon, thanks.

Whedon, from an interview with the Telegraph:

"The idea behind the show," says Whedon, "was to take nine people and say, 'Nine people look out into the blackness of space, and see nine different things.' But science fiction opens you up to every element of history that you want, because the future is just the past in a blender. So I could take anything from the human experience I've read about or felt or seen. Like, what is it like after a war? It doesn't matter which war or which country - what is it like for the people who lost?"

Though inspired by the past and set in the future, Firefly and Serenity have a very timely real-world relevance, given the state of America's foreign policy involvements.

"It's a little more timely than I'd hoped," he sighs. "The thing is, I do believe that when you try and force happiness on people, you find out that their version of happiness may not be yours.

"People keep calling the Alliance 'the evil empire', and I'm like, 'Actually, it's not an evil empire, it's the most enlightened society in the galaxy - but they're making the mistake any big power makes, which is to assume that their version of enlightenment should be spread everywhere, and that they can justly govern people who are beyond their reach, or living on their own terms, be they somewhat strange or archaic or even barbaric.

"And just dropping yourself into the middle of that and saying, 'OK, we're in charge of you now, be happy!' ain't gonna swing."