9: Serenity is coming out tomorrow

Not to be confused with 1103: Nine.

Serenity is coming out tomorrow

Original title: Firefly

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Title text: Mal, Simon, Wash, Zoe, River, Kaylee, Jayne, Inara, Book. Original caption: Drawn in honor of the upcoming Serenity! If you work very hard you can figure out who is who.

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This was the tenth comic originally posted to LiveJournal. The previous one was 6: Irony, and the next was 10: Pi Equals. It was among the first thirteen comics posted to LiveJournal within 12 minutes on September 30, 2005, on the first day of the xkcd LiveJournal account.

Explanation

This comic is about the release of the movie Serenity, the follow-up to Joss Whedon's TV show, Firefly, which was cancelled by Fox after only one season. High DVD sales and strong fan support allowed the follow-up film Serenity to be created, which tied up many of the loose ends that Firefly left open, such as the cause of River's abilities and the origins of the Reavers. Nathan Fillion, Summer Glau, and Jewel Staite, the actors who play Mal, River, and Kaylee respectively, also show up later in Randall's series The Race. Randall is presumably a member of this group, and is celebrating the movie's upcoming release by drawing the main characters of the show.

The image shows the main characters of Firefly. In the original caption for this comic, Randall initially left figuring out who is who as an exercise to the reader, but the title text on xkcd.com just gives away the solution outright. From left to right:

• Malcolm "Mal" Reynolds - the ship's captain.
• Simon Tam - a doctor trying to rescue his sister.
• Hoban "Wash" Washburne - the ship's pilot.
• Zoe Washburne - the ship's second-in-command.
• River Tam - Simon's sister, who displays superhuman capabilities, but is crippled by alliance research.
• Kaylee Frye - the ship's happy-go-lucky mechanic.
• Jayne Cobb - the hired muscle.
• Inara Serra - a companion, the equivalent of a courtesan, but with a greater deal of respect.
• Derrial Book - a shepherd, which is similar to a priest, with a very unknown backstory.

Transcript

[Several stick figures stand side by side in a lineup. A forlorn male in a coat, a male with combed hair, a male with spiky hair and arms outstretched enthusiastically, a female with long hair and cornrows, a shorter female with stringy hair falling over her face, an enthusiastic female with arms raised in celebration with shorter hair, a male with short hair and a goatee and hands on hips, a female with curly hair wearing a dress, and a stern-looking man with flyaway hair.]

Trivia

This is the first xkcd comic featuring adorned stick figures (including features like hair and coats) representing distinct characters, a motif that would later become a regular feature throughout the webcomic. This is also the first xkcd comic featuring Nathan Fillion, Summer Glau, and Jewel Staite.

Despite the title stating that the film was coming out the following day, the comic was released on September 30, 2005, which is also the date of original theatrical release of Serenity.

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Discussion

Serenity / Firefly / River Tam /Summer Glau have been referenced in many other xkcd comics: ‎82.208.215.147 (talk) 08:51 13 August 2012 (UTC) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)
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