So the Buffy premiere was last night, and naturally I have to post about it.

The episode seems pretty self-explanatory, except for the end, but I'll just take this chance to say again: Spike's human now. He's lost the vampy pallor, and you don't try to claw into your chest to get a soul out.

Last season finale, Spike asked the demon to "make me like I was," meaning, before the chip was implanted in his head. He wants this "to give Buffy what's coming to her."

So the demon gives him back his soul and instantly he's knocked unconscious, end of episode, end of season.

Only Spike was never a vampire with a soul. That's not making him like he was, and it certainly isn't what will give Buffy what's coming to her: Is another tortured love-affair with a look-don't-touch-fragile vampire with a side of soul what anyone thinks Buffy deserves?

Nope. Spike's human, no two ways about it. I mean really, what is a vampire Spike with a soul? Pretty much the same as the vampire Spike we've seen these last two semesters: tortured, not all bad, and in love. Add a soul with only dubious distinctions from the soul-on-chip he already has and you have a rehash of both first and last seasons, this time with extra apathy. No. This is something new. It also sets up the inevitable Spike/Halfrek romance we all know is coming...

All in all a reasonably good ep. I've got to say I must be pretty addicted to this show, because at the end, with the shifting evil, each incarnation sent a new and different shiver down my spine. I do have to say though that Bad Angel should have been one of the incarnations (Hello? Second Season? Finale?)

Still, a good start. I'm not quite sure why, but I was really struck by how perfect Adam's makeup was.

Oh, and a word about Firefly: Loved it, great potential, clearly a middle-of-season non-arc episode thrown in to lead the show off, but entertaining nonetheless. Watching it for the second time last night, I have two bits to add:

First, way to go on the universe layout. I didn't catch it at first, but the Firefly-verse takes place all in a single solar system, but one that happens to have hundreds of planets, some naturally beautiful, others terraformed. This finally does away with the whole warp-drive problem, weird aliens everywhere you turn, and space-time anomalies. An efficient reaction drive and great energy source could create a ship that's reasonably good at interplanetary travel. The only suspension of disbelief here is the luck in finding a solar system that has such a plethora of planets. I can live with that.

Basically, this is a middle-step between 'in-home-system' sets (like Heinlein's belter books, 2001, etc.), and the 'every star is nearby' space-jockey universes (Star Trek, Star Wars, B5, and almost everything else). It's got good potential.

Second, 'Hook', Niska's enforcer, mysteriously lost his heavy German accent and turned white-trash/stick-jock at the end. What's up with that?

Okay. Done now. All you Non-Joss folk can come back now...