When I say I’m a fan of the Joss Whedon TV series Firefly and its follow-up film Serenity, I’m not using the word “fan” lightly. I missed the show in its original on-air run, but bought the DVD set on a whim and ended up watching the entire 13-episode run in two days. The only things that kept me from watching the entire thing through in one sitting were work, sleep, and the occasional need to eat. When Whedon announced pre-screenings of Serenity, six months or more before the film was due to hit theaters, I sat at my desk, pounding the F5 button to reload the ticket webpage until I was finally able to buy tickets. When the theater announced a second screening in Boston, I did it again and brought more friends with me. I have replica T-shirts from the show. A friend knitted me a Jayne hat, and then made an infant-sized one for my daughter a few years later.
I have a gorram set of Serenity-branded chopsticks that I use whenever I get takeout Chinese.
So yeah, I like the show.
When I learned of a recent retweet made by Nathan Fillion, I sat up and took notice.
“@kcco4heart: Garmin updated the 2013 maps, installed the most BA vehicle ever @nathanfillion twitter.com/KCCO4Heart/sta…”Nice. Nice.
— Nathan Fillion (@NathanFillion) May 30, 2013
Immediately, I’m intrigued. Who wouldn’t want an avatar of everybody’s favorite Firefly class ship representing his or her location on a GPS? Some of you may have just responded “Fox network executives,” to which I can only say “hush.”
Of course, traveling the ‘verse with Mal, Wash, Kaylee, and the rest of the crew might not be your cup of tea. While Jayne would probably greet that sentiment with a string of poorly-enunciated Mandarin profanity, I’d like to think I’m a little more understanding. Apparently, there’s a Venn-diagram-esque collision of sci-fi and Garmin fanatics who have taken advantage of Garmin’s customizability to give you several options for your navigational pleasure.
Cyph, over at Garmin Heaven, has put forward several dozen designs for download. Aside from several real-world cars are geeky alternatives like the TARDIS from Doctor Who, A Star Wars TIE fighter, and the TOS-style USS Enterprise starship. If spaceships aren’t your thing, there are also light cycles in Tron and Tron: Legacy varieties, a Batmobile, and Mario’s ride from Super Mario Kart. You can even choose to have non-vehicle avatars in the form of Brain from Pinky and The Brain, an Ant, and Toast with Nutella among other things.
Go ahead, personalize to your heart’s content. Just don’t use the Enterprise on your Garmin while using Yoda’s voice on your TomTom. Talk about crossing the streams. No, wait, that would be the Ecto-1 from Ghostbusters. Garmin Heaven also has that.
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