The Original Buffy Movie

[Evilyn]

I'm pretty new here, so I'm not sure if this has been discussed before or not.

Anywho, what's the general opinion on the movie?

I actually went to see the movie in theaters when it came out and it was a favorite of my friends for a long time. Then we heard they were doing a TV show and we were like WOW! Awesome. So, we actually had a Buffy viewing party when the show first aired. Noting the differences then, I loved the show, even though some of my friends hated it. Plus I was a SMG fan from watching "All My Children". They didn't like it because it was nothing like the movie. It actually took my husband a long time to adjust to the show when we got together, because he liked Kristy Swanson better as Buffy.

What I'm wondering is, where does the movie stand in the whole Buffyverse? I know in the first season they mention Buffy burning down her previous school and stuff, so some things carry over. And I think somewhere she mentions Merrick as her first watcher, and she said that her oldself made Cordelia look good. So, if stuff does carry over, what the hell happened to Pike?

 

[Tranquillity]

The Buffy Omnibus is coming out next month and it is a collection of stories that deal with Buffy prior to her arival in Sunnydale and includes a comic version of the movie, though more in keeping with Joss Whedon's original vision. There is also a story about Buffy and Pike going to las vegas so that might answer a few of your questions. They are not striclty canon but as we have never been given any definative answers to these queries, they might be well worth checking out.

 

[white avenger]

There is a scene in one of the "Buffy" tv episodes where the initial meeting between Buffy and Merrick is shown, and it is not exactly the same as what happened in the movie, the gist of the story seems to be the same. The biggest difference I can remember is that in the movie Buffy was a senior, and in the series she was a sophomore. Also, there was no burning down of the gym in the movie, more of a mass invasion of classmates who had been turned recently.

Another thing that I seem to recall from the movie, and I may be wrong, so please, someone with a better memory feel free to correct me, both the Slayer and her Watcher were the same characters, reincarnated in each generation, and they both seemed to have dreams of their previous lives.

 

[Lyri]

as far as i can remember, the 'Watcher Line' is passed on like the Slayer Line in the movie. not sure if that was orignially joss' idea, or if it was something added by whoever worked on the movie with him. he changed his mind apparently when the TV show got the green light, turned the Watcher thing into more of a lineage, passed dwon from father to son...or mother to daughter, whatever.

i'm not a huge fan of the movie...i was like, 7 when it came out. i actually didn't see it until sometime during the fifth season...i think it was sometime around the first UK airing of 'The Gift' one of the TV stations over here had a Buffy Night as far as i can remember.
i like the movie, it's good writing, good storyline if the Execs had left it alone. but like i said, i saw the TV show first, and it was so much better, the movie kinda left me a little...i don't know...blah?

lmao

 

[The Chosen]

I actually saw the movie first, only a LONG time after it came out. They were rerunning it on HBO something continously so I watched it. Continously. It was like a little over a year later when I actually got hooked on the show.
- TC

 

[Evilyn]

Another thing that I seem to recall from the movie, and I may be wrong, so please, someone with a better memory feel free to correct me, both the Slayer and her Watcher were the same characters, reincarnated in each generation, and they both seemed to have dreams of their previous lives.

That's the way it appeared in the movie, and I remember Merrick saying he was doomed to live the same life over and over again.

What got me thinkin' about it all again was the fact that I watched "Normal Again" the other day. She tells Willow about being put in an institution after seeing her first vampires, but no mention of Pike anywhere. At the end of the movie she gets on the back of the motorcycle with Pike and rides off into the sunrise, or something to that effect. He was a pretty big part in her whole initial experience with vamps, so I wonder if he was in Joss' original idea for the movie or not? He's never mentioned again, except for in comic form, and I'm not sure if that one was canon or not because I've never read it.

This is just somethings that's bugged me for 10 years now, that question always lingering in the back of my ming, what happened to Pike?

 

[The Arcane]

What got me thinkin' about it all again was the fact that I watched "Normal Again" the other day. She tells Willow about being put in an institution after seeing her first vampires, but no mention of Pike anywhere. At the end of the movie she gets on the back of the motorcycle with Pike and rides off into the sunrise, or something to that effect. He was a pretty big part in her whole initial experience with vamps, so I wonder if he was in Joss' original idea for the movie or not? He's never mentioned again, except for in comic form, and I'm not sure if that one was canon or not because I've never read it.

This is just somethings that's bugged me for 10 years now, that question always lingering in the back of my ming, what happened to Pike?

The Dark Horse comics that tell the "proper" version of Buffy's origin and also cover the time between the end of that story and her arrival in Sunnydale are not official canon but certainly are a lot closer to how I'd imaging events happening than the movie offered. I'd actually be okay with Joss giving them the canon seal of approval as they are really good stories.

All of them are featured in volume one of the Dark Horse Buffy Omnibus series, as Tranquillity mentioned above. Short of Joss ever covering that period officially himself I'd say they work pretty well into canon, even if they never will be.

 

[white avenger]

That's the way it appeared in the movie, and I remember Merrick saying he was doomed to live the same life over and over again.


This is just somethings that's bugged me for 10 years now, that question always lingering in the back of my ming, what happened to Pike?

I think I read somewhere that the character of Pike, the bad boy with a questionable background and a less than savory reputation, who none of her friends approved of, was incorporated into Spike.

 

[The Arcane]

I think I read somewhere that the character of Pike, the bad boy with a questionable background and a less than savory reputation, who none of her friends approved of, was incorporated into Spike.

Not that I'm aware of. Maybe there are similarities that could lead to that conclusion but I tend to think that Joss still considers Pike to be a part of canon (he was part of the original Joss written script, after all). It's just that there has never been a mention of him in the series. A shame because having him arrive in Sunnydale (or better yet in Season 8) would bring a lot of potential storylines into the mix.

 

[Evilyn]

Not that I'm aware of. Maybe there are similarities that could lead to that conclusion but I tend to think that Joss still considers Pike to be a part of canon (he was part of the original Joss written script, after all). It's just that there has never been a mention of him in the series. A shame because having him arrive in Sunnydale (or better yet in Season 8) would bring a lot of potential storylines into the mix.

That would be pretty sweet, if he showed up somewhere in Season 8. It's also good to know that he was part of Joss' original script. To me that means that there is always the possibility he could show up, somewhere. But then, it is also possible that like, WA said, Pike was incorporated into Spike. Because when I think about it, I just don't see there being two love interests in Buffy's life with similar names. It would make for some good Xander jokes though.

 

[Randy Giles]

I saw the movie a long, long time ago. I was probably nine or ten, maybe. I had only seen one episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer - my local FOX affiliate would air reruns on Saturdays, and I hated that episode. I thought it was really stupid.

And then one Saturday I was at my grandmothers - and she only had the broadcast networks, so there wasn't much on except sports, and the Buffy movie on FOX. I watched it and I really enjoyed it, especially the part where the vampire was staked and then never really died, but hey I was a little kid. I don't really remember anything about the movie now...

But it's interesting to note that I tried watching the show once more after the movie - Buffy vs. Dracula, and I only thought it was okay. I never did get into the show until a few years ago, when I watched it because I had gotten hooked on Angel. I probably watched ten Buffy episodes on FX before something clicked and I started to really like it. So thanks, FX and TNT! 😉

 

[Allycat]

Lousy movie. Joss hated it too.

About "The Origin" comic:

joss says:
(Sun Jan 17 10:47:55 1999 205.188.192.23)
The origin comic, though I have issues with it, CAN pretty much be accepted as canonical. They did a cool job of combining the movie script (the SCRIPT) with the series, that was nice, and using the series Merrick and not a certain OTHER thespian who shall remain hated.

source: http://www.cise.ufl.edu/cgi-bin/cgiwrap/hsiao/buffy/get-archive?date=19990117

 

[Evilyn]

Ok, so I just watched the movie again, for the first time in a few years and I think the character of Pike in the movie is a lot more like Xander. If you rewatch the movie, you'll see what I mean. Growing up, I always thought Pike was supposed to be this cool guy, I guess simply off the fact he was played by Luke Perry. Anyhoo, his character is actually kind of dorky and he makes the same kind of jokes that Xander makes. Plus, Xander's best friend Jesse from season 1 is also remniscent (sp?) of Pike's best friend Benny. So basically, what I'm getting at is, I think Pike's character was revamped into Xander, because I think that is prolly how Joss envisioned the character to begin with. The movie execs needed someone hip to draw in a crowd, so they used Luke and alas, you get the Pike character. Did I make any sense at all?

 

[Mortal]

I was a fan of the show first and that's why I watched the movie later on. IMO it sucked. The characters were annoying, and plot, action and acting were nothing special. I'm surprised Joss was able to market a show based on such a flop.

 

[TabulaRasa]

I think the movie is bad, but I still love it anyways. I can't help it. I am all for the cheesieness.