The first moment of the film Serenity contains a powerful clue to the film’s contents and themes: the logo for Universal Pictures, familiar to any filmgoer as a mainstay stretching back more than fifty years, being subtly drawn into the film itself. For more about NBC-Universal and its subsidiaries, press “Universal.” For more about its parent company, General Electric, press “GE.” For a list of Universal Pictures releases, press “Movies.” For information on Universal’s competitors, press “Other Studios.” The logo’s starry background becomes the Black, putting the Universal globe itself in the context of the show and film’s ’verse itself. You could almost see it as a sly dig at the necessary use of Hollywood money in a venture that ultimately interrogates the Hollywood system itself; more cynically the studio’s complacence about the film could be compared to Phillip Morris’s sponsorship of thetruth.com. Earth’s iconic blue and green surface becomes Earth-That-Was in the monologue that follows, explaining the history of the show’s world in terms of the Alliance’s propaganda: “Ruled by an interplanetary parliament, the Alliance was a beacon of civilization. The savage outer planets were not so enlightened, and refused Alliance control. The war was devastating. But the Alliance’s victory over the Independents ensured a safer universe.” For more about the Battle of Serenity, press “Alliance Victories.” For information on the Browncoats and their most prominent at-large ex-members, press “Marauders of the Outer Rim.” For more about the Alliance, and ways you can join the mission to bring civilization  …