While “Wagon Train” was a western with horses, cowboys, dust and gunplay, “Star Trek” had none of that — just the idea of changing location, changing cast and self-contained stories.

One of things I like about “Firefly” — despite its improbable premise — is that it really is “Wagon Train in space”. It has the horses, cowboys, dust and gunplay. And spaceships. Which cleverly lets us more easily imagine ourselves coping in a dark future. I may not know how to operate a space ship, but I know how use a shootin’ iron. (OK, I don’t know how to do that either, but I’ve seen how it works on TV.)

See, plenty of places have pretty pictures of this shirt, but nobody seems particularly interested in actually selling me one.

I did add “Talk Like a Pirate Day” to the daily agenda outside my office. The only tangible impact seemed to be that the one woman who hasn’t seen the show became something of an outcast all day. Good money says she’ll have about nine DVD sets on her desk in the morning.