Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Script Book, Season Three, Volume 1

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Script Book Season Three #1

by Joss Whedon

Reeling from her battle with Angel and the emotional repercussions of having to kill her true love, Buffy Summers flees to a big city where she attempts to get by anonymously. But as Buffy herself loves to remind people, trouble seems to follow the Slayer. And there's no escaping her identity as the Chosen One -- particularly when Faith, a Chosen Second arrives in Sunnydale!

Follow along as Buffy returns to her hometown to the lukewarm welcome of the Scooby Gang, rekindling old bonds even as Faith ingratiates herself to the group. The true Buffyphile knows that the genius of the program lies in its savvy scriptwriting, and now fans can follow along to original shooting scripts, complete with inside jokes, production notes, and cut dialogue.

Genres: Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Vampires

368 pages, Paperback

First published January 7, 2003

About the author

Joss Whedon (born Joseph Hill Whedon) is an American screenwriter, executive producer, film and television director, comic book writer, occasional composer, and actor, and the founder of Mutant Enemy Productions and co-creator of Bellwether Pictures.

He is best known as the creator and showrunner of the television series 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997–2003)', 'Angel (1999–2004)', 'Firefly (2002)' and its film follow-up 'Serenity (2005)', and 'Dollhouse (2009–2010)', as well as the web-series' 'Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog (2008)'. Whedon co-wrote and produced the horror film 'The Cabin in the Woods (2012)', and wrote and directed the film adaptation of Marvel's 'The Avengers (2012)', the third highest-grossing film of all time.

Many of Whedon's projects have cult status and his work is notable for portraying strong female characters and a belief in equality.

credit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joss_Whedon

Reviews

[Craig · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book collects the first six scripts from the third season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Reading the scripts allows you to experience the story itself without having your opinion or perception swayed by the appearance of the actors, the sound of the music, the lighting or direction or other production values, or anything other than what was captured by the writer on the page. It's also interesting to spot differences from the original vision from what was finally realized on screen, reading the occasionally amusing stage directions, etc. The scripts range in dating from July to September of 1998, but still read as fresh and vibrant, as I've said of every volume. The first story is Anne, written by Joss Whedon, and shows how Buffy has spent her summer in trying to deal with the season two finale. In the next scripts, we see what her friends and family have been up to, new characters are introduced (Faith and Trick and Wesley, etc.) and we see that life must go on. It's very impressive how one character can be featured in one episode and then turn up again later and be re-introduced in context rather than by summary; Joyce, for example, pops in and out and always seems to fit. It's a very enjoyable read, though of course enhanced by appreciation of the filmed versions. I'm not sure by this far along in the story how well a new reader, unfamiliar with most of the backstory, would be able to parse all of the relationships, but there's always the monster-of-the-week to keep things rolling, and the beginning of a new overall arc.

[Gribdot · Rating 4 out of 5]

Let me explain the discrepancy there--really liked it, but couldn't finish it. Well, I pretty much know the series by heart so the only script really worth reading was the first one, by Joss, b/c his stage directions were pretty darn hilarious.