Firefly

Everyone has Moments of Serenity. Here are four of mine:

August 2002: I’m walking though an elaborately decorated back lot street at Universal Studios. Mal is there, and Kaylee and Wash and Zoe and Jayne, and even Badger and his fine hat. There are girls behind glass windows, one of them sweating in a pink layer-cake dress. The place is teeming with extras and strange-looking set dressing. Huge electric fans are blowing, and crew members release bits of brightly colored paper in front of them, decorating even the air. There might be chickens. It is the most exotic, most alien, most thoroughly imagined set I think I’ve ever been on. It is absolutely magical.

September 2004: I spend the day on the set of the movie Serenity. I get to walk through the ship once more, recreated here, bigger and better, on a different soundstage across town from its original home. It’s easy to imagine it might have flown here. This is, I believe, the last day of principal photography. I know it is the day that River kicks Reaver ass. I get to watch multiple takes of the fight. Over and over she kicks and ducks and whirls. It is a blur of balletic violence.

September 2005: There is a red-carpet premiere for Serenity here in Los Angeles. The fans are here too, some inside the theater, others crowded just outside. Any of us fortunate enough to have been connected to the movie or to the series in some...