Derrial Book

Lore & Background

Book's background is defined by his transition from Henry Evans, an abusive childhood survivor turned petty criminal, to a deep-cover mole for the Independence movement. Long before the Unification War concluded, Browncoat superiors assigned him to infiltrate the Alliance military. To maintain this cover, he killed a random passerby and stole their identity, adopting the name Derrial Book. His service involved surgical modification where one of his eyes was replaced with a camera to keep tabs on him by his handlers. He rose to officer rank but intentionally led a risky operation resulting in a humiliating defeat for the Alliance, forcing his retirement without official punishment due to a cover-up. After becoming homeless, he found faith while contemplating a bowl of soup at a shelter, eventually taking refuge at Southdown Abbey before joining Serenity as a missionary.

In Their Own Story

Book's life on Serenity is marked by the tension between his spiritual duties and his lethal skills. In the episode 'Safe,' when accidentally wounded, Mal seeks help from an Alliance cruiser; a commanding officer initially dismisses them but immediately changes attitude upon seeing Book's identification card, granting urgent medical access and free passage for the ship without inspection. This clue hints at his high priority status within the Alliance. His duality is highlighted in 'Objects in Space' when bounty hunter Jubal Early states, 'That ain't a Shepherd,' an observation Joss Whedon attributes to Early's intuition. Book defends Haven against an Alliance assassin known as 'The Operative,' killing the ship that attacked them before being killed by an Alliance soldier. His final words to Mal were that he didn't care what Mal believed in, just that he believed in something.

Reader's Guide

To understand Book, one must look past his clerical collar and scant possessions to the 'full life' he lived before the monastery. Ron Glass noted that while the character was conceived as a fundamentalist Christian figure to contrast with Inara Serra's Buddhist type, Glass brought a humanistic point of view to the role. He is not passive; in 'War Stories,' he displays working knowledge of high-powered weaponry to identify sharpshooters and coordinate assaults against Adelei Niska's space station. His relationship with Malcolm Reynolds is described as yin and yang: they are opposite regarding religion, yet they complement each other in dynamic harmony. Book also shares a friendly bond with Jayne Cobb, seen joking during chores and lifting weights together. In the comic 'Serenity: Those Left Behind,' he briefly leaves the ship fearing corruption but returns to live on Haven before his death.

Did You Know?

• During the production of Serenity, Book's first name was originally Meria before Joss Whedon changed it to Derrial.
• Ron Glass revealed that 'Derrial' was not his real birth name but belonged to a man he had killed to assume his identity.
• Book has one eye surgically replaced with a camera by Browncoat superiors to monitor his activities as a mole.
• In the episode 'Objects in Space,' bounty hunter Jubal Early correctly identifies that Book is not a true Shepherd based on intuition.
• Ron Glass expressed regret during the 2012 Dallas Sci Fi Expo that Book never got married, wishing he had at some point.