"Firefly" notes from the Foreign Correspondent

All right, all right... seems admitting yesterday to not having got off my duff and listened to episode one of Firefly: Old Wounds was the kick in the pants I needed...

If you haven't heard it yet, it's really remarkable. They manage to neatly avoid all the pitfalls that make me shy away from "fan" productions... They waste no time explaining Firefly to you (millions already know, and there's the potential audience... what, that's not big enough for ya?).

The script perfectly matches the flow and musicality of some of the most styilized dialouge ever to (briefly) grace network television; and each memeber of the large cast really nails the essence of the character, making them instantly recognizable. In fact there are moments that are genuinely eerie... Like almost every line of River's, or Simon's stammering when confronted by Mal, or... aw, heck... there's too many of them to list.

Because the recognition factor is so high, most of the clunkier conventions of audio drama can go out the window. Firefly fans know exactly what this world looks like already. I saw every moment at clearly as if I'd been watching it on t.v.

Its probably fair to say that someone who'd never seen Firefly wouldn't really get this. Those people have bigger problems. They should be marched off to education centres for mandatory repeat viewings of the season one DVD box set. For the rest of us; here's the season two we never got. Kudos to all!