37 replies to this topic

[BitchySmurf]

Ron Glass totally rules in this role. I love what he says to River when she tries to "fix" his Bible. If more preachers were like him, I'd go to church more.

[petpluto22]

I love how juvenile the scene becomes as he and River fight over the Bible until it rips. It is just a classic scene. I actually expected Book, as a sheperd, to either remain serene while River destroyed the book of his faith, or go apocolyptic, but diving for the book was funny as well as completely in character.

Edited because spelling correctly is the cool thing to do.

Edited by petpluto22, Mar 11, 2006 @ 12:06 AM.

[KernelM]

It's shepherd.

[BitchySmurf]

It's shepherd.

Well that's embarrassing.

but diving for the book was funny as well as completely in character.

Yeah. And then later when she tries to give the pages back to them and his hair is all crazy. I love them in that episode. Hee.

[OpheliasCat]

So...I worked on a TV show today with a man who happened to have been on Joss Whedon's production team for over two years. Not only did he have Mal's gun of choice (why he carried it around with him I'm sure I don't know, but I was too gleeful to ask ;) ) , he also related Book's back story. I'm not entirely sure if I'm allowed to relate it or if it's been generally found out yet, but I didn't see anything in this thread. Are people already aware of it or would you like to know?

I'm working with him again next week so I'll see what other tidbits I can beg off of him.

[Shukriyya]

I would like to know! I haven't heard anything from people who were working on the show.

[scarletine]

I'd like to know too! If you post it, maybe put it in spoiler tags for those who don't?

[wlfdncer]

Oh gods yes tell us!!!!

Tell us!

*sits all wide eyed and uber attentive*

[SoniaPL]

Oh wow. That's awesome. Please tell us.

[petpluto22]

That would be amazing! My boyfriend will be uber excited. For some strange reason, Book was his favorite character. I accidentally spoiled him for Book's death in the movie, and I still haven't heard the end of it.

[OpheliasCat]

Ok, so here's the deal (in spoiler tags for political correctness......)
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Book was the Alliance General at the Battle of Serenity Hill.

Yeah, THAT Battle of Serenity Hill. The one that almost annihilated Mal and Zoe's troops.

In the pilot episode where Book is "searching" for a ship he can buy passage on, he knew exactly where he was headed. He knew who Mal was, he knew who Zoe was, he knew what the ship Serenity symbolized. And this is just speculation, but it's interesting that he had the one thing in his possession that Kaylee simply drools over (besides wannabe mechanics ;) ). I wouldn't put it past a former Alliance General to be that detailed about Mal's crew.

Book was searching for absolution, and figured he'd find it aboard Mal's ship.

Blew my mind, but TOTALLY made sense to me. DAMMIT, why was this show canceled?

[Shukriyya]

Thanks! I wouldn't have guessed that.

[SoniaPL]

Than you for posting that. It is really cool and totally different then what I thought it was going to be.

Edited by SoniaPL, May 31, 2007 @ 8:28 AM.

[petpluto22]

Whoa. That is...awesome! And also explains why (aside from foreshadowing his death) Book wasn't going to tell Mal any of it in the movie. He had already learned that he wasn't going to find absolution on Serenity, having gone through the events in the comic and finding a new home. I'm incredibly impressed.

[wlfdncer]

Wow, that totally blows my mind! Thank you so much for putting that up! I can't wait to tell my g/f, it's going to blow her mind too!

[SVNBob]

I call bull go-se.

First off, as far as I know, Mal's pistol is in the hands of the men at QMx, who are working on replicas still.

Second, Joss and the crew are really good about keeping secrets like this. For example, Morena knows Inara's backstory, but she's not telling. Ron would likely be in the same boat.

Third, it was Serenity Valley, not Serenity Hill. If your "friend" said Serenity Hill, he didn't know what the hell he was talking about.

Finally, that's a really common speculation backstory. Variations on that theme can be found all over Firefly sites/boards, likely including the old thread here. It'd easy enough to find somewhere on the web and claim it as truth. Or he could have thought it up himself and thinks he's original.

So I'm leaning heavily toward this guy being a gorram liar.

[Eegah]

Seeing as that was pretty much what I was expecting, I'll be sticking with the explanation given by the good people at stillflying.net. Now there's something that really took me by surprise yet made perfect sense.

[OpheliasCat]

Wow, SVNBob, that was a little harsh.

It was my bad to call it Serenity Hill instead of Serenity Valley. I'd worked a sixteen hour day that day (ah the glamour of television filming) and probably just remembered it wrong. I wouldn't discount the guy's entire story based on that detail. It's been quite a few years since the show was canceled; I think we're entitled to get a few bits mixed up.

As far as Mal's gun is concerned, again, it could be my mistake. He had a gun that looked an awful lot like Mal's gun, but he never claimed it as such. I will ask him about it when I work with him next.

With Joss being secretive about characters' backstorys...let's be honest. There isn't going to be another television show, there isn't going to be another feature film (although I've heard word that there will be more comic books? Which would be fabulous, IMO). It would make sense that he might talk about the backstories of the characters he loves so much with the people he works with since he knows that there isn't much chance the stories are going to be told any other way.

In any case, neither the guy I worked with nor I said that this was the end-all, be-all of Book's story. As it is, it's a third-hand theory at this point. Joss might not even have had a completely worked out backstory for Book's character to begin with. Nothing was given a chance to be solidified. I personally like the backstory that my friend put forth and I have no real reason to discount it. I did do a cursory google search for this theory before I posted anything, and while I did find some pretty cool Alliance-ties spec, I didn't see anything as close to what my friend said.

In any case, let's all get along shall we? Without calling fellow fans gorram liars.

[SVNBob]

As it is, it's a third-hand theory at this point.

But you were claiming it was a first-hand fact.

I'll retract the statements about Valley vs Hill and the gun. Those could be honest mistakes. But the rest of what I said stands.

[OpheliasCat]

No, first hand fact would be if I was saying I had heard from The Man Himself what Book's story was. By my relating it to you what I heard from a friend what he had heard from someone else, it became third hand.

As I said before, there can be no "fact" when the story never got to come to fruition, so no, I'm not claiming it as such. Incidentally, when I asked, my friend said he had gotten it from Joss's personal assistant. Again, if you want to take that with a grain of salt, be my guest. I'm just enjoying the ideas and watching my DVDs on repeat.

[SVNBob]

Could it be Book's story? Possibly. I'll admit that. Doesn't change the fact that it's a variant of a common fan theory. And it could turn out to be the true story.

We'll all just have to wait for the official word from Joss himself. Or Ron. But then, the last I heard, Ron was telling the story that Book used to be a ballet dancer before entering the abbey.

[beastie]

So can I return this to speculation-land, since I have no inside knowledge? What are the theories about Book's "I don't give half a hump if you are innocent or not, so where does that leave you?" thought in OiS? He doesn't give half a hump if River is innocent? Or someone else?

[Eegah]

That's also covered in stillflying.net's virtual seasons. He was once Alan Kreed, the head of a major pharmecutecal company who had a double life as an Alliance "troubleshooter." During the war he infected Shadow with a virus that was meant to just cut off the Browncoats' supplies for a while, but instead raged out of control and decimated the entire planet. He quickly set up a quarantine which one of his men tried to break, and even though a test showed he wasn't carrying the virus, Book had to execute him to make an example for the others. That's where his "half a hump" line comes from. Then it turned out that the destruction of Shadow was the true purpose of the virus, which he's been trying to atone for his unwitting role in ever since.

[beastie]

Oooh. Isn't Shadow where Mal comes from? Because I'd kind of wondered what happened to Mal's mother and all the farm-hands.

[stillshimpy]

OpheliasCat, well I'd like to thank you for sharing the story. Whether it is speculation, or actual fact, it is interesting. I don't think it quite fits with Book's arrival on Serenity, but I think it is probably somewhere close to where Joss was going. It was obvious that Book had a backstory, and tying it into Mal makes writing sense. Like I said, thank you for sharing the story.

I was one of the few fans that actively liked Book all along, but I admit that it has more to do with Ron Glass and his pretty damned impressive acting chops. He had a lot of presence and grace within the role. Plus, particularly in the series, I was always sort of wowed that he was so incredibly fit for a man of his age. It made the times that Book had to go all Action!Preacher completely believable for me.

His eventual fate in Serenity didn't sadden me, it seemed like the natural progression. Still, I wish that Ron Glass had been more famous than he ever has been. It's a rare actor that has both the gravitas and the comedic timing to pull just about anything off.

[scarletine]

I agree with everything you said, stillshimpy. I remember Ron Glass from Barney Miller (yes, I'm aging myself terribly here), and loved him on that show as well. He plays funny/dour so well. I remember when I first watched The Train Job, how excited I was to see him in another show.

[John Potts]

I'd always had Book pegged as an Operative. Remember his conversation with Mal in the BDM about how he'll "Come at you sideways"? Mal asks how he can know about him and Book declines to answer. Of course, unless & until Joss says "Book was a General/Scientist/Operative/Psycho Accountant" it's all just speculation.

[JaneF]

OK, am I the only one who can't see the info on Shepherd Book on this site? It's all blacked out. I'm really curious to know what it said. OpheliasCat, could you email me with the info if, for some reason, it's not allowed on this site?

[beastie]

You have entered the exciting world of spoiler tags! If you run your cursor over the black bits, you will be able to see the writing underneath. It's written that way to protect people from information that they may not want to know. Usually, people use spoiler tags because they've received information about what's going to happen in an episode of a show that hasnt' been aired yet, and they know that some people don't want to know anything in advance.

ETA: Ooops. Yes, there must also be clicking.

Edited by beastie, Jul 9, 2007 @ 1:24 PM.

[stillshimpy]

You'll need to left click in order to highlight the text, but other than that, what beastie said!