Firefly

SCI FI Channel announced that it will air reruns of Fox’s canceled SF series Firefly, including three episodes that never aired on Fox. SCI FI will air all 14 hours of the show, from creator Joss Whedon (Buffy the Vampire Slayer), starting July 22, in the 7 p.m. ET/PT Friday timeslot. It will be followed by new episodes of Stargate SG-1 at 8, Stargate Atlantis at 9 and Battlestar Galactica at 10.

The channel will air the episodes in their intended order, beginning with Whedon’s pilot. (Fox, by contrast, began with the show’s third produced hour, "The Train Job," and aired the two-hour pilot at the end of the show’s abortive first season.) SCI FI acquired exclusive rights to the show from 20th Century Television, which produced the show for the Fox Broadcasting Co.

Firefly centers on the ragtag crew of the firefly-class transport ship Serenity 500 years in the future, led by renegade Capt. Mal Reynolds (Nathan Fillion), a veteran of the losing side in a galactic civil war.

Universal Pictures will release Serenity, a theatrical film based on Firefly, on Sept. 30. Universal and SCI FI are owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.