Who are you, Shepard Book?

POSTED BY: PaganPaul
UPDATED: Saturday, July 1, 2006 01:43
VIEWED: 4239
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ISAACSHEPHERD

Friday, June 30, 2006 5:11 PM

I like all these theories about Book, since he's is my second favorite character. I must say though, I don't think he was a member of the Parliment. Book is good with a gun, and can take down a Fed without a problem, I think he was a high level enforcer or an Operative.

Although knowing Joss, I'm guessing no one will be able to determine his past unless we hear it from Joss himself. There doesn't seem to be anything conclusive enough to say he was definetly anything.

The part in safe is also quite intriguing as well. The fact that they rushed him in makes me wonder if they still owe him something or he is still tied in somehow. We may never know for sure, but will always hope for more FF/BDM.

IS

The Bible's a bit fuzzy on the subject of kneecaps.

CAPTKAR

Friday, June 30, 2006 6:29 PM

Im with you on that one. Book is so complex and deep in numerous ways that its hard to tell. There are many things supporting numerous beliefs. For instance...

A high ranking miliraty personnel;
1) you have to work your way to higher ranks, thus at one time he would have been a grunt and had to fight. This explains his use of firearms and hand-to-hand combat.
2) he knows the inner working of the alliance military. This suggests at one time he had done the same thing, he also seemed to be in pain when thinking of how the military would have come at them, kinda showing a past regret.
3) He has IMMEDIATE treatment from the alliance with no questions asked and Serenity is completely left alone. Which screams power.

A high ranking member of law enforcement;
1) relatively the same as Military except for the knowledge of where the cop got his command stripes, how he never contacted the station, and that he was doing the job on the side. hmm..... past experience? Maybe

and I may be pushing it with this one but here we go, a member of parliament;
1) his knowledge of all things alliance. He knows the inner-most workings of the alliance.
2) He would have had to start somewhere, maybe prior military, to get recognized for a seat in parliament. Thus once again he would have had to work his way up from the bottom and had to fight before.

But still the hardest question for me to answer is how did he get killed so easily? If he was a high ranking law enforcement, and especially a high ranking military, he would have had better defenses on Haven. He would have known the Operative would have been coming to take him out, probably not personally but with some other ships. Getting knocked out by Jubal I can understand because he caught him by surprise... But having such poor defenses on his "home" just doesnt make sense to me.

-Siklis Pakem Parabellum, "If You Want Peace Prepare For War!"-

-Bravery is not the absence of fear, this is a foolish notion. Bravery is the mental capacity to work through fear toward a higher purpose.-

-"Everybody dies alone." Malcolm Reynolds Our Captain!-

MSG

Friday, June 30, 2006 6:43 PM

small religious colony in a very hidden place, plus many years a shepherd probably means his reflexes were dulled and he wasn't really expecting trouble. He did manage to take down the ship and survive til Mal got there..so all in all for an old man not too shabby

I choose to rise instead of fall- U2

DIRTWEED

Friday, June 30, 2006 8:51 PM

I was so sad when they killed Book. Ron Glass has been one of my favorites since Barney Miller. I just wish he would have stayed alive (and from his interview it seems he wanted to) for any future movies....but then again I get the feeling this was it for the crew...

Dirtweed

DONCOAT

Friday, June 30, 2006 9:05 PM

Book tells us in Serenity, "I wasn't always a Shepherd, Mal." He has had more than one career.

So what's to prevent him from having had more than two?

Perhaps he began in the Alliance military forces, rising to an intermediate rank. He could have transferred, or been assigned, to Parliament security, where he could have observed the political side from close up. After retiring from the military, he could have had a second career in law enforcement. Finally he followed his calling into the Abbey, and thence aboard Serenity.

Perhaps that's only part of the story. Book lived a long life. It may also have been a varied one.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I'm pointin' right at it!

IMNOTHERE

Friday, June 30, 2006 9:28 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by PaganPaul:
If he had been, then he would have had no previous name and rank, just like the Operative in Serenity, and the Alliance officers who checked his ID would not have know he was important enough to help out.

[P]The reaction to Book's ID card in Safe strkes me as awfully similar to the reaction to The Operative's ID near the start of the BDM. The title "Operative of the parliament" seems to trump any military rank. And the name "Book" always sounded like a cypher to me.
[P]If this were Star Trek - or maybe even Buffy - I'd suggest that The Operative turned to Christianity as a drop-in replacement for his lost faith in the Alliance, joined a monestary, got thrown back in time by a freak transsubstatiation accident (involving a stale communion wafer, a mutated space weevil, some irradiated wine and a small rubber band) and wandered around backwater spaceports for 20 years until he spotted someone he knew getting on a familiar space ship (probably after having become Jubal Early's father). But fortunately it isn't (but the Operative does seem like a cross between an alternate Bad Book and Early).

[P]I wondered if Book was an agent for a rival government faction - possibly the people who helped break River out - keeping tabs on River in order to find out what the Big Secret was. Witness his speech (can't remember which ep) about governments not being intrinsically evil.

TRAVELER

Saturday, July 1, 2006 1:43 AM

Is Book really a Shepard? In the final episode, Jubal Early states "He's no Shepard." Jubal seems quite emphatic in about this and also shows alot of knowledge about the crew and ship. We here in the episode called "Ariel" that he has gone on some kind of retreat, but we never see or hear anthing else. Was he really on a retreat or did he make it up so he could go somewhere else that he didn't want anyone else to know about? So is Jubal stating a fact or an opinion? If Book had been a high ranking official would he have known about some of these lower criminals, "Their not looking for survivors." He might know about Niska like everybody knew about Capone, but not these petty thieves. When he wakes up on Serenity after his surgery he says "Its good to be back home." And in first episode he has doubts about his presence on Serenity and actually cries in front of Inara who has to comfort him. Maybe coming on board Serenity is his the beginning of his redemption. He may never have been in any brotherhood. As for his knowledge of the Bible, well I've read some of it myself but it doen't make me a Christian. You guys really made me think on this. My conclusion is Book is just starting out on his journey and Serenity is his first step. He bought his Shepard outfit secondhand as a disguise. Remember the look he gave Mal when he was introduced as a Shepard. He was surprized Mal had not recognized him in the outfit he was wearing. As if the costume was not working. Book really is a puzzle isn't he. It makes you wonder after all the hush hush stuff around him that they would not answer any of these questions in the movie. Must be a sadistic streak in Joss to leave us guessing like this.

And what do we do with the chain of command?

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