Book's first name? - Firefly&Serenity

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July 15 2005

Book's first name? The Sci-Fi website for Firefly appears to resolve the long-standing question of Shepherd Book's first name.

And it's 'Derrial'. I assume this has to come from Joss or Tim, but as far as I can tell (Google & Browncoats searches) this is the first time we've seen any first name for Book.

UPDATE: Some more observant viewers than myself have seen the name 'Meria' before, so the Sci-Fi Channel could just have the name wrong. Or it could be a patented Joss Whedon two-Buffy-birthdates-in-a-single-episode continuity error. Who knows?

tehipite_tom | Firefly&Serenity | 00:13 CET | 34 comments total | tags: firefly, serenity, book

Meria has been seen for Book before, I think, as have different full names for Wash (Wash Warren vs. Hoban Washburne) and Kaylee (Kaywinnit Lee Frye or something?).

zeitgeist | July 15, 00:24 CET

And here I was hoping for Bob.

two_guns | July 15, 00:26 CET

You might consider this a spoiler for the movie, so delete it if you want to, but I do think I remember the movie showing his name as "Meria" (and Wash's was definitely "Hoban Washburne" in the movie).

chickenbird | July 15, 00:27 CET

chickenbird, I don't think I would consider it a spoiler unless Book's name actually has some kind of implications for the plot. But that's just my take.

tehipite_tom | July 15, 00:37 CET

I'm pretty sure I remember it being 'Derrial' in the movie, but I could be wrong. I'd have to see it again.

Serefina716 | July 15, 01:00 CET

Umm, what happened to Jerry Lee "Wash" Warren? And where, exactly, has anyone seen a name (any name) for Book? I consider myself pretty deeply obsessed with all things 'Firefly' and I haven't seen any first names mentioned for him. *puzzled*

Haunt | July 15, 01:12 CET

Jerry Lee came from a bad transcript and landed at IMDB. Warren came from the ether and landed at IMDB based on nothing whatsoever.

There's no controversy over Kaylee's real name. (Remember Shindig?)

Book's first name is Meria. Don't know where this Derrial comes from. Wash's full name is Hoban Washburne. The only unknown is Zoe's last name. (It's not Warren, damnit.)

[ edited by KernelM on 2005-07-14 23:30 ]

KernelM | July 15, 01:23 CET

Okay, well humor me and let me know where Hoban Washburn and Meria were revealed.

Haunt | July 15, 01:26 CET

Right or wrong IMDB.com has Book listed in the cast as follows:

Shepherd Meria Book

There were no credits at the advance screening I attended.

Shakespeare | July 15, 01:29 CET

Haunt - they are both in the BDM for one :) or not. rowdy bunch of hellions, today, you all are :)

[ edited by zeitgeist on 2005-07-14 23:48 ]

zeitgeist | July 15, 01:29 CET

Its not "Meria" in the BDM, its 'Derrial'

MalContent | July 15, 01:31 CET

For one, I'm pretty sure they're in the new tri-fold Serenity brochure thingy they passed out at the last screening. Don't have it in front of me, but Meria rings a big ol' bell. I've seen it elsewhere too.

injust | July 15, 01:32 CET

It was Meria. Unless they changed it between prints and somehow I didn't notice. It was definitely Meria at the first pre-screening in Chicago.

KernelM | July 15, 01:36 CET

It was 'Derrial' in all 3 Denver screenings...

MalContent | July 15, 01:37 CET

Are either of those names "real"? By that I mean Jerry Lee Warren sounds like an actual human name, whereas Hoban and Meria (or Derrial) sound like more traditional sci-fi names... which is just slightly disappointing. Are either of those names Chinese or something?

Haunt | July 15, 01:39 CET

theres a thread on fff.net about meaning of the names:

see here

specifically Indigo's post

[ edited by zeitgeist on 2005-07-14 23:51 ]

zeitgeist | July 15, 01:50 CET

KernalM, I think 'Warren' came from it being Zoe's last name so someone jumped to the conclusion that it had to be Wash's last name too (not true).
And Haunt, I thought 'Hoban' was an old European name, in fact I wouldn't be surprised if Meria wasn't some old style name too (it has a Welsh sound to it).
I'm afraid I saw the BDM twice but never noticed the names...I was thinking about something else at the time.

embers | July 15, 01:58 CET

Thanks, zeitgeist. That was a great post. I feel much better about both names now... assuming either one of them is correct.

Haunt | July 15, 02:02 CET

No worry, Haunt :)

zeitgeist | July 15, 02:05 CET

To be frank: The movie shows a read-out of most of the crew's names at some point. We see Hoban Washburne and Merria Book.

The Dark Shape | July 15, 02:35 CET

And what about Zoe? Is it Warren or Washburne in the readouts?

Haunt | July 15, 02:52 CET

I don't think you ever see Zoe's name.

The Dark Shape | July 15, 03:07 CET

...Susan?

PMMJ | July 15, 03:08 CET

I appreciate everyone's tact, but let's be extra-careful - some of the discussion is veering a little close to spoiler territory here . . .

SoddingNancyTribe | July 15, 03:27 CET

embers: Warren is not Zoe's last name. Nowhere in either the series or the movie (or even meta-canonical material like interviews, etc) is Zoe's last name given.

KernelM | July 15, 03:32 CET

For my money, the fact that Universal's official promo materials and IMDB agree on the names is a pretty good indicator that those are probably the official names of the characters. Of course one or both might be wrong, but I'm satisfied.

injust | July 15, 03:49 CET

I just looked through the promo trifold thingy I got, and no full names are given at all. And IMDB? Not a reliable source of information at all. I remember being pleasantly surprised that Meria was correct, because they had it on their Serenity page before I went to the first pre-screening, and I specifically looked for it in the movie.

KernelM | July 15, 03:57 CET

I could have sworn Book's name was Meria. Don't know why, because I'm really bad with names, but when I saw the sci-fi site my first thought was, "That's not right".

mnspnr | July 15, 04:26 CET

Well, as Bill S. Preston, Esq. would say: This is totally bogus! In my "Finding Serenity" essay, I fully identify Wash as Jerry Lee "Wash" Warren. It's a tad disheartening to find out that's no longer correct (if it ever was). I probably pulled the name from IMBD, and, interestingly, it never got corrected in the proofing stage by Jane Espenson or anyone else. From everyone's posts, it sounds like only the names "Wash" and "Book" were ever used in the series, and any full name beyond that, at the time, would have been non-canon (at best) and pure conjecture (at worst). Perhaps Jerry Lee came from an early script draft or something? Who knows? That's just a guess. But it seems weird that it would just pop on on IMDB from nowhere. Clearly, though, the names as they appear in the movie must now be considered canon.

rbt | July 15, 04:44 CET

Dunno where in the verse Warren ever came from, but Jerry Lee came from a misheard/misinterpreted line in "Our Mrs. Reynolds". Near the end, Mal is telling Wash and Kaylee thanks for fixing the ship, and at one point he says, "Nice work, Kaylee". Some people thought he said "Nice work, Jerry Lee" and was talking to Wash.

KernelM | July 15, 05:02 CET

I KNEW I remembered reading that name somewhere in that book. I decided not to mention it because, well, a thousand-plus people (other than me) have seen the movie and have a thousand-plus ideas of what the name situation is. I figured I'd just let it go.

By the way, I loved your essay!

Haunt | July 15, 08:24 CET

Jerry Lee was never Wash's name - I have the original SS of Serenity (the pilot) here. I haven't seen Finding Serenity yet so I'm surprised it wasn't picked up in editing. Having said that, it's not the end of the world.

gossi | July 15, 14:48 CET

Thanks, Haunt! I appreciate it.

What's interesting to me is how universally accepted the name Jerry Lee "Wash" Warren became, based on nothing but a misheard line of dialogue. Google it and you'll find it given as Wash's full name in a slew of articles/posts/photo captions, etc. Kind of funny, really -- all from a bad transcript.

As for the book, I'm not kicking myself too hard. When our essays were due, we were a long way from anyone seeing "Serenity," so, at that point, from what I can gather, Wash didn't even have a real first and last name (at least, in the canon sense). He does now.

rbt | July 15, 15:10 CET

Sci-Fi Channel has a new Firefly page set up and it lists Book's name as Derrial and Wash as Hoban Washburne... *shrug*

[ edited by Haunt on 2005-07-16 06:35 ]

Haunt | July 16, 08:34 CET

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