Fannish 5: Funny dialogue and Firefly ruminations...

[fajrdrako]

From the Aug. 10 fannish5: Name five of the funniest lines of dialogue.

At first this looked impossible. I never remember humour. Some shows like Doctor Who and Veronica Mars are full of bits I think brilliant witty, but can I remember the funny bits? Never. And my favourite books - like Lymond's line about Philippa and the weasels, or Miles Vorkosigan pretending to be someone or something he's not - can I remember this sort of thing? Almost never.

Then last night I watched the Firefly episode "Objects in Space" - which I think is possibly the best-written episode of a show with generally brilliant writing, so that's saying a lot. All of the carefully crafted characterization and world-building came together in that episode, which is suspenseful, scary, and incredibly funny.

So I'm picking all five of my 'favourite funny dialogue' choices out of one episode of one show.

1. [Dr. Simon Tam is talking to Mal Reynolds about the condition of Simon's sister, River.]
   Mal: I want a lot of medical jargon thrown at me, I'll talk to a doctor.
   Simon: You are talking to a doctor.



2. Mal: We're at the corner of no and where.



3. Wash: Psychic, though? That sounds like something out of science fiction.
   Zoe: We live in a spaceship, dear.



4. Jayne: If wishes were horses, we'd all be eating steak.



5. Simon: You're out of your mind.
   Early: That's between me and my mind.

maaboroshi had some interesting observations, which set us speculating in a certain way. Of course, the bright minds of Firefly fandom may have discussed this for years already. Looking at the way the story is structured, we start out with a study of River, how she is unpredictable and dangerous, as when she picks up the gun, seeing it as a twig. I was thinking how this makes so much more sense after you've seen the movie Serenity and have more of a sense of how River was programmed to fight. Then we see Jubal Early, who is eerily like River - she even comments on it: "I don't belong.… dangerous, like you." His speech and thought patterns are unpredictable (though often insightful) and have a certain quality that resonates very like River's. Especially when he fights, he is very like River in attach-mode, and there's one scene in which he pulls a gun and points it at someone behind him without looking, that is almost identical to River's motion in the same situation. He seems to know more than he should - knows that Book isn't a real Shepherd, for example.

So it seemed at first possible and the increasingly likely that Jubal early was also a student/experiment of whoever programmed River. He seems to be operating independently as a bounty hunter, which may be true - he may have left or escaped from his controllers, or he may simply have been programmed to believe that he is an independent bounty hunter while he is, in fact, working for them. That would make some sense of this passage:

Simon: So you're a bounty hunter.
Early: That ain't it at all.
Simon: Then what are you?
Early: I'm a bounty hunter.

I was reasoning, then, that if Early were a government puppet and we didn't know it, then Whedon was probably planning a sequel in future in which we'd learn more about what was going on with Early. And if that were the case, Early would survive. Mal says Early's chances of survival are "'bout one in.… a very large number", but it seems to me that Early's whimsically philosophical statement "Well, I'm here," much well be a programmed signal to his controllers to pick him up - an object in space, but a trackable one.

Interestingly, the episode does have another reference to people who are altered by experiment, when she refers to her exceptionally-endowed fourteen-year-old friend.

Coming back to this show after a year or two without watching, it seems better than ever.

Comments

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

French existentialism doesn't readily spring to mind watching most tv shows!

No, though existentialism does crop up as a theme from time to time. Usually fairly heavily disguised! - As here.

Early also sees its craft as part of its use -

Perhaps a sign of how River's experimental transformation was interrupted - Simon rescued her, so there are still, as it were, unfinished areas of her programming where her self or subconscious fills in the gaps.

If and when I can remember where I put those comics, I'll reread them and let you know what I think now. I was mildly disappointed by them: I thought the stories were much weaker than in the TV show.