For the Jaynestown stuff, I can totally buy that Simon would need more prep time. I can totally picture him in front of a mirror practicing his River rescue stuff over and over and over and over.

For your second point, Kalshane, I got nothin'.

Things I've said before--one, they only told Simon what they've done to her in vague terms, terms reserved for the Alliance official was pretending to be. They didn't give him medical explanations, because he wasn't supposed to be known to be a doctor. Two, he is a trauma surgeon. He is not a brain surgeon. He has no expertise in this area, just a large amount of general knowledge. You don't want to go into fixing a brain with only general knowledge. That is a good way to do a lot more damage.

As for his Master of Disguise bit--he had time to research to pretend to be an Alliance official. Probably saw more than a few in his life. He knows nothing, however, about being an off-world resource merchant. The former part is something that's much more within his world. The latter is very much a part of the world he's had to flee to, a world he doesn't get.

As for his being Mr. Confrontational, consider it as him having grown a spine in his time on Serenity. I daresay he's figured out that this is the only real way to deal with Mal in his time on the ship. You push a man too far, even a "wuss" like the old Simon, particularly when you're pushing them about something they really care about (River), and you're gonna get the fist. Or a CGI concussion-energy-thingy.

Retcon is unnecessary with enough character examination.

Lack of medical explanations or not, Simon claimed to have no knowledge of what was done to her, at all, only that she had been experimented on. He behaved as though he was in complete denial of River having any extraordinary ability, even in instances when they were both alone and ignoring her put them both in danger.

In Serenity he is told point blank what she can do and is even given a safety word to put her to sleep in case she becomes dangerous.

This is not a lack of character information, this is a retcon.

My comment about Simon and Mal being confrontational wasn't complaining about Simon having a backbone, he was shown to grow one during the course of the series. It was about Mal treating him like dirt, where as in the show, Mal considered Simon and River "part of the crew".

Big-ass Joss interview about all sorts of stuff.

Spoilery for Serenity. Also, possibly a little spoilery to any sequels. Plus a lot of non-Serenity stuff that Joss might do, what he would have done if he directed Revenge of the Jedi (as it was to originally be called) etc. And pretty much all the movies he's written for.

[link]

Also, he explains the "sound in space" in Serenity.

Interesting, non-spoily bits:

********

Leaving aside for the moment “Wonder Woman” and “Batman” and “X-Men,” is there a comic-book franchise you’d be especially keen to bring to screen?
The only time I ever read a comic and said, “Jesus, that should be on the screen,” I found out that somebody else was already developing it, and it was “Global Frequency.” It should be a TV show. I adore it. [“Global Frequency” creator] Warren Ellis is like a God to me. I met him by chance years ago. I walk into [the Hollywood comic-shop] Golden Apple, which is not my usual store because I don’t live there. And he was there doing a signing and they’re like, “Oh, it’s so good you came out for this.” And I was like, “For what?” I had no idea he was even in the country. And he was so sweet because I was just about to start “Fray” [a Whedon-authored comic-book series set centuries after the events of “Buffy”], and I had never written a comic. And he said, “Well, have you seen any scripts?” And I was like, “Uh, they sent me an Alan Moore script.” He’s like, “Oh my God, you poor thing!” I’m like, “He does describe things … a lot.” And he said, “Yeah, yeah, he’ll do three pages on one panel. I’ll send you a script and you can see how little you can get away with.”
I’d love to see a “Global Frequency” series come to be. And I heard good things about the pilot and the script from a bunch of my comic-writer friends and my TV-slash-comic-writer friends. And I don’t know what happened. It just made perfect sense as a show.

Have you added any other season-passes to your TiVo of late?
“House.” I adore “House.” I’ve loved Hugh Laurie forever, but I love that character. I actually choke up at the thought of how powerfully noble and beautiful his total misanthropy is. He touches something very special in me because he’s just so mean.
Anything else?
“Numbers.” “Cold Case.” “Veronica Mars.”
You watch “Veronica Mars”?
I’m a latecomer. We just started.
You know what they call “Veronica Mars”?
“The New Buffy.”
“The New Buffy” is what they call it.
Well, the pilot was pretty damn good. So, yeah, I just demanded the tapes so we could catch up.

Warren Ellis comments on Joss' comments.

Brian K Vaughan's comments on Joss's comments

Much Joss-love in the air today....

That's because Joss spreads the buttery goodness of his love all over the pourous toast of comic book writer's egos.

Anyone else notice what I took to be an anvil of foreshadowing in the latest issue of the Serenity comics?