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.
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?
You mean the Fanty & Mingo reference?
Actually, I was thinking of the last panel. Maybe it's because I know what happens, but it hit me like when I saw a screening for the second time and there were the lines about what makes a hero, with the camera happening to be on Wash.
