It’s the ten year anniversary of both the birth and death of Firefly, the short-lived sci-fi / post-apocalyptic Whedon-helmed Western that continues to rabidly lives on in the hearts of its fans. In fact, that’s a major theme addressed in the Science Channel’s one-hour special Firefly: Browncoats Unite, airing November 11th at 10pm after a marathon of the series. In it, the cast (most — Sean Maher, Summer Glau, Nathan Fillion, Adam Baldwin and Alan Tudyk — at a roundtable, a few — Morena Baccarin, Gina Torres and Jewel Staite — with separate interviews) along with executive producer Tim Minear and executive story editor Jose Molina, discuss at length the entire oral history of the series, from their favorite moments to their first impressions of each other, and what exactly made the series so magical to fans but not to, at the time, Fox executives.

Attendees to this past summer’s San Diego Comic-Con got a sneak peek of some of the material that’s covered in the special during the series’ panel, and though the special lacks Joss Whedon, it gains Entertainment Weekly senior writer Jeff Jensen, who helps guide the conversational flow. For more on the special, hit the jump.

Browncoats Unite is presented in such a way that any fans of the specific actors involved or just of actors and crew members waxing poetic could come to the special without a deep and entrenched knowledge of the series — background and context is given up front, and throughout the discussion there are clips that help flesh out (or ignite) the actors’ anecdotes.

But for rabid fans of the series, hearing such in-depth conversations about shooting Firefly as well as the incredibly amiable interactions among the writers and actors is a treat, especially for those who weren’t able to make it to Comic-Con this year (the Comic-Con footage is also featured, mostly for clips of Whedon).

The real delight of the special though is the fly-on-the-wall feeling of seeing a bunch of friends get back together and talk about the good ole days. And even if you just watched the series marathon before the special … you may want to instantly fire it up again.