Anyone else notice the bridge of the Betty looks a lot like the bridge of Serenity?
Same writer too.
Not really... They really don't look much alike at all.
Hmmm crew?
pilot(captain's lover), a##++&+ merc, crippled engineer, first officer (good friend of engineer), android, business like captain who has a bit of a fun side... and later 1/2 alien pilot, former marine, and the guy who is there to die with an alien in his chest.
lovable rogue captain, reformed a#$&*&* merc, perky engineer, first officer (captain's best friend), pilot (first officers lover), overly protective doctor, crazy psi/martial artist, former operative who found God, high class prostitute.
The pilots are similar, the first officers are similar, and I suppose there is a slight similarity between the mercs... everyone else no similarities. Not enough I think to call the crews the same.
The android wasn't crazy, it didn't know any martial arts, and it not only couldn't read minds it was a fairly poor judge of character. I see no similarities at all.
Wait... you didn't mean that in a sexist way did you? Two girls with unusual backgrounds who are nothing alike are the same for no other reason than that they are girls?!
Please tell me that isn't why you equated the two of them.
Ok good...
Still being special isn't enough to call two characters similar. Ask yourself: Is Superman the same as River? They both are special, but I doubt anyone would equate the two.
I believe her name was Call.
But that's a pretty general thing to call a similarity. It's like saying every show that has a merc is using the same character.
Both have mercs with girl's names (Jayne and Christie).
Both have unusual mechanics (parapalegic and self-taught genius).
Both have mercs that specialize in "Public Relations " (Jayne and Johner).
Both transport "live cargo" (girl in box/cows and hybernation pods).
Both play a variation of basketball.
I could find as many things or more showing how unalike they are...
But lets look at yours:
-Jayne and Christie are VERY different in personality.
-It is a typical shtick to have gruff unlikable mercs AND unusual engineers in far more shows than those two.
-Even the Enterprise carried live cargo...
-Sports are also common in many shows, because people like sports.
It's not unusual for Whedon to re-use elements of one enterprise in a following one. Take that device Simon used in the beginning of Serenity: Same sort of thing showed up in the second episode of SHIELD.
Chances are if you've noticed a similarity between the films, it's probably not by accident.