I interpreted the dream-lab-recording sequence as simply shifts in perception and perspective from River's to Simon's to the Operative's. I never saw River's dream as being a part of the recording the Operative was viewing.
As to the Alliance being differing flavors of competent, I saw that as about par for the course with a bureaucracy.
I feel the same way about River and my sense of that was so heightened by Serenity that I'm actually secretly (or, really, not-so-secretly) hoping that there won't be another Firefly movie. Now that she's "awoken" she seems that she'll be able to do anything, solve any situation, be the magic bullet at any required time or place. Her display of piloting skill at the end of the film seemed to really drive that home. I was actually quite apprehensive about the movie before I saw it, because she's always been my least favourite character
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Thanks, I enjoyed reading that. I agree about Book. And I think if everyone had died that would upset the optimistic overall tone of the series, but it would have made for a more thought provoking movie.
When I've discussed the "everyone dies" ending option in a couple of other places, people have indicated that one reason that it couldn't be done was that he did a similar ending with Angel, and that it would have been enough to typecast him as a writer of those sorts of endings. Another suggestion was that he couldn't do it because the fans would have revolted. The former explanation makes sense to me, even if it doesn't play into my penchant for the apocalyptic. The latter explanation I have a hard time putting a lot of credence in the way it is worded there. I think that Fandom does overestimate its influence and that most writers don't care *that* much what Fandom is going to think. On the other hand, I think that a very dark ending would render the franchise inaccessible to a lot of the public. I don't know that the wider viewing audience the series targets would have purchased the DVD or been interested in seeing the series had it had an "unhappy ending".
In several spots on the DVD for Serenity, Whedon says "This movie is for the fans" and otherwise gives credit to the fans for making it possible. So whether or not Fandom overstates its influence on writers or on Whedon, Whedon is playing into it.
I think Whedon might at one point have been hoping that the movie would cause the series to be picked up again. I've seen stuff elsewhere on the net since that indicate he doesn't want to work with the series again. But we'll see, I guess.
As for the Chinese, the OH made this comment after seeing one of the DVD interviews where Whedon said that in the backstory of Firefly, the two superpowers China and America had joined forces and as a result everyone spoke both English and Chinese. The OH said "If the two superpowers joined forces, then where are all the Chinese people?"
My take on it is that it works if by "joined forces" one assumes China won (probably economically, a la the implications in China Mountain Zhang, not an all-out war). They're back on beautiful paradise Earth, having kicked all the dirty and dangerous development etc. work offworld. If you live at the top of the heap in the center of the universe, why bother going to backwater dirtballs/space lanes? (not that I feel that way, but that could be the prevailing cultural attitude).
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As to the Alliance being differing flavors of competent, I saw that as about par for the course with a bureaucracy.
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I think Whedon might at one point have been hoping that the movie would cause the series to be picked up again. I've seen stuff elsewhere on the net since that indicate he doesn't want to work with the series again. But we'll see, I guess.
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My take on it is that it works if by "joined forces" one assumes China won (probably economically, a la the implications in China Mountain Zhang, not an all-out war). They're back on beautiful paradise Earth, having kicked all the dirty and dangerous development etc. work offworld. If you live at the top of the heap in the center of the universe, why bother going to backwater dirtballs/space lanes? (not that I feel that way, but that could be the prevailing cultural attitude).
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