You can't take the sky from me

So one of the things I've been doing this summer is catching up on my Jurassic television. Specifically, I've been watching Fox's late, great sci fi series "Firefly."

It's more than a little strange that I've never bothered to watch the DVD's before this, since I'm a huge "Buffy" fan ("Firefly" was "Buffy" creator Joss Whedon's follow-up project) and I'm generally a pretty big sci fi fan -- and, obviously, a huge dork.

But back when "Firefly" premiered in 2002, I saw the pilot and was distinctly unimpressed. Now, the pilot that Fox sent out back then was actually supposed to be the show's third episode, so it naturally made a lot less sense without the two-hour pilot to set the scene. And, as it happened, the third episode pretty much sucked. Which is probably why the Fox suits picked it to promote the series.

So now I've seen the real pilot, which was great, and most of the other 14 episodes (still have two or three more to go). I think Fox only aired nine episodes before canceling the thing.

And, you know, it's good. But not outstanding. Not, in fact, nearly as good as "Buffy." Not, in my opinion, good enough to merit the teeth-gnashing and shirt ripping that sci fi nuts have devoted to it over the last five years. Basically, it's like the movie spin-off, "Serenity," which was a solid sci-fi movie with some good one-liners (the movie, like the series, tanked at the box office).

The faux Western stuff is grating -- every "ain't" just clangs off my ears -- the stories tend to be a mixture of the trite and the totally implausible (the witch burning scene in "Safe" comes to mind) and the acting and special effects are spotty.

Basically, the best "Battlestar Galactica" episodes are clearly superior, even if they're not as much fun. If "Firefly" had somehow lived -- and I think it could have made a go of it on another network -- I would have watched it, but not religiously.

I do love the theme song, even if office music snob Christopher assures me it's hokey pablum.

Anyway, there's my review, five years after the fact.