So, the Middle East is experiencing an ongoing, possibly worsening disaster. The great state of Connecticut is looking to be a far less lethal disaster for kneejerk status-quo hugging inside-the-beltway types. But me, I’m still caught up in the happenings of just more than two weeks ago.

So, we’re up to late Saturday afternoon of the Comicon — that moment when, whatever events you may have planned for the evening, you can still kind of smell the end of the festivities.

For me, my evening was “planned” by the world premiere of Done the Impossible, a fan-made but very profesional documentary love-letter about “the Browncoat phenomenon.” And what is a “Browncoat”? Well, if you have to ask, you’re definitely not ready to see the film.

Speaking of doing the impossible, trying the describe this phenomenon to non-fans is a fool’s errand, but I’ll try to do this as quickly as, er, possible. (If you’re already in on all this, you have my permission to skip the next five paragraphs.)

To make a long story still kind of long, Browncoats are fans of Firefly, a show created by geek media whiz-adult Joss Whedon. It affectionaly combined space-opera and horse-opera in a way that is a whole lot less silly than it might sound. However, Fox apparently thought it was just as silly as it sounded, and failed to give the show much of a chance.

Depending on how you count, only eight or nine episodes aired — and those were shown out of order, with the pilot episode airing last, which is a tale for another time but is easy to dig up via Ted Stevens’ internet tubes.

But then the DVDs sold like hotcakes and an increasingly large and ever devoted following for the show quickly appeared. Owing to that and perhaps to third-generation scenarist Joss Whedon’s unquestioned showbiz savvy, Universal greenlit a film based on the show, featuring the same highly talented but star-name free cast, called Serenity. As far as I can tell, nothing remotely like this has happened since The Naked Gun reopened the Police Squad files.

Even so, Serenity is unique for its refusal to replace even one TV cast member with better known film actors and its dual committment to tell a story that new viewers could enjoy cold, while also continuing the arc of the television show, though with a far faster pace.

Fans overwhelmingly loved the movie (though, naturally, there was some controversy). Just as important, the large majority of new viewers seemed to dig it. Unfortunately, there weren’t enough of them. Which is also a tale for another time — and one I really do plan to get to eventually because I think it has a lot to say about our present entertainment quagmire.

Getting back to the documentary — it’s definitely well worth checking out for anyone who’s remotely a fan of this immensely entertaining yet hard to encapsulate show and movie, and a distant back-burner item for everyone else. For one thing, it contains the majorest of spoilers.

It’s a sweet and sincere tribute by and for fans. It succeeds in being moving, even as it doesn’t really set out to do much more than show fans (including the show’s creators) to each other. It draws no particular psychological conclusion about just what it means to be spend an inordinate amount of your free time on a fictional creation. Except, of course, that it’s nice to love things.

But perhaps love is all we really need. Even the filk singers here seem to shine — the songs may be less than genius, but they are played with giddy passion and are a highlight. It probably helps that you can’t really be a Browncoat without a sense of humor — certain episodes of the show can be as antic as a 1930s screwball comedy. It simply wouldn’t be a Browncoat movie if it wasn’t also chock full of silly humor.

Much of that humor is supplied by the show’s stars, particularly the show’s much beloved lead, Nathan Fillion who has “superstar” written all over him — except it’s apparently written on his internal organs. White Noise II sure doesn’t seem like superstar-making material, but the indie Waitress has more going for it, I suspect, and it puts him alongside a great cast, including Keri Russell, Cheryl Hines and Andy Griffith (!). So, maybe.

It says a lot about the whole enterpise that most of the show’s other stars participate in the film with what sure looks like genuine enthusiasm, including narrator Adam Baldwin who gets to say in his narration that some fanfic is actually pretty scary.

And I have to say that, sitting there with the audience, I started to wonder about the depths of my Browncoatitude. I’ve done some fairly absurd fannish things in support of the show and movie; I’ve risked looking foolish and possibly annoyed my friends.

Still, I’m only a fringe Browncoat and I had no “shindigs” to attend after the film. I hadn’t been logging nearly enough message board time to have forged the right connections for that. Of course, some of that is because I’m busy here — and I have been invited to what I’m sure is one of a huge number of Browncoat weddings.

But even before I went blogger, my coat was perhaps more tan than brown. I can’t use the “I have a life” defense. Most of the Browncoats I’ve met have more of “a life” than a lot of people I know, myself definitely included. No, I’m just too much of a walking collection of divergent passions to focus too much on any one obsession for very long.

Is it good thing that I have extremely broad interests, or am I simply a fannish commitment phobe? That’s between me and my imaginary shrink. However, regardless of your level of committment, you can actually download the documentary as a torrent file — legally. The makers are betting that you’ll still want to buy the DVD for the extras. I think they’re right…you committed folk out there will want it all.

Me, I’m waiting for my never-to-arrive free copy. Sad, I know.

Next: My last Comicon post…I’m pretty sure.