Believeable Science Fiction: Part 3You all thought I'd given up on this particular series, didn't you? Well, you were wrong...it's just been a long time in the making.
I realised that what I was writing was a bit...crap. A bit sparse and undefined. Hopefully, the following piece will be a bit better.
Firefly is a Science Fiction TV series, it was created by Joss Whedon (Buffy, Angel, Doll House), and originally aired in late 2002. Sadly, the series was cancelled after just 14 episodes.
The fanbase was fairly big though, and there was an outcry. Fox didn't particularly care, but Whedon did, and thus Serenity was born.
Serenity was the follow up movie, a movie that Whedon could use to tie up some of the loose ends from the TV show, and something to appease the fanbase.
But enough of the catch up, why exactly do I place Firely & Serenity in this series?
First off, the History for the Universe just makes sense. It makes more sense than the history of shows like Star Trek, because it's more realistic.
As humanity overdevelops Earth, people start reaching out for space. The pioneers of space exploration are America and China, the super-powers of Earth.
Eventually, Humanity builds ships that can move them out of our system, and towards a new one.
An undisclosed amount of time later, humanity finds a system with literally hundreds of planets and moons. Humanity terraforms many of these planets and moons, and begins the process of building new civilisations.
However, many outer worlds are left to fend for themselves, not getting much help in actually building anything, so the planets are left harsh and desert like, whilst the inner planets gain more funding and support, building rich planets with lush forestry, etc.
Eventually, a new governing body forms, called the Alliance. A combination of American governments, and Asian Governments. The Alliance looks to govern the entire system.
This breeds Civil War, creating The Independants. The crew of Serenity (the Firefly class ship that the show and movie are named after) were members of The Independants, the losing side of the Civil War.
After 'The Battle Of Serenity Valley' Malcolm Reynolds and Zoe Washbourne purchase their Firefly ship to remain permanently out of The Alliance's control.
In this universe, there are Rich and Poor, there is no Faster Than Light technology, there are no aliens (kind of), and the universe
just makes sense.
So about that 'no aliens' thing?
Yeah, major spoilers ahead if you haven't watched Serenity.
The Reavers, the re-occuring enemies throughout the TV series, were thought to be aliens of somekind. By fans and by the crew of the ship. So what gives?
The major let down for Star Trek, for me, is the sheer number of alien species within one galaxy...given how rare life is supposed to be, you'd think there'd only be (at the most) about 10 or so species, so I was still ok with the idea of Reavers being aliens.
But in Serenity we find out something shocking (kind of). The Reavers are very much human...this is why they look human, this is why they use human ships, etc.
But why are they cannibals? Why are they out to kill and eat every last living thing they find?
Well, because of The Alliance of course. During terraforming, The Alliance tried a new drug in the air to see if they could make an entire planets population peaceful.
Half of the planet went so peaceful that they sat there and died in their chairs, happy as can be. The other half? They went batshit crazy and decided to attack, kill, and eat whatever they could get their hands on.
Yet more backstory to the Universe that makes it seem bealieveable.
Not only is humanity still on its own, but we're also faced with a governing body that is trying anything to make their populace peaceful and susceptible to suggestion (very much like what America and China have done in their past, don't you think?).
So after all of that, is there anything else I could add to the list? Why yes, yes there is.
Technology is one major thing about this SciFi Universe that strikes me as believeable.
Many of us have grown up accustomed to the idea that SciFi shows will have fantastic technology that we could only ever dream about...and it always appears to be readily available to anyone (even in Star Wars, the rebellion seem to be able to get their hands on a LOT of serious equipment), no matter where they stand in society.
With the Firefly universe, this isn't the case. Serenity breaks down on several occasions, and is often losing bits...it's a run down ship that only works thanks to the amazing engineer they have onboard.
The crew often encounter people that have nothing to their name...people that only have horses and live in shacks in the middle of nowhere (literally), and we also get introduced to places that have just the right amount of technology to make it acceptable.
There's a scene in "The Train Job" when Mal is thrown through a holographic window of the bar they're in. Seems reasonable, given how many times people must get thrown through that thing.
The Firefly Universe is just that little bit more advanced than ours, with a few lazer based weapons, better medical knowledge, olograms, and Space Travel...but it's not too far fetched.
The technology is only available to those that can afford it, and what technology there is isn't so fantastic as to make the show seem too distant and techy.
So now I'm brought to the characters of the series. The crew of Firefly class starship Serenity.
Do these guys make sense? Could you really meet people like this, in a Universe like this?
I'd say yes...we've got the war veterans, looking to break away from the governing body that screwed them over, trying to make a living.
We've got the Pilot and Engineer that have their own quirks and personality traits, but are also good at their job...and they never pull of a Star Trek style trick like trying to fix a problem in 2 minutes by doing...something that could really only be done in Star Trek (bounce the graviton particle beam, off the main deflector dish, that's the way we do things lad, we're making shit up as we wish).
We've got the gun nut, the guy that is swayed by money but eventually proves to the crew that he does have a conscience...and then quickly forgets about that for more money. Oh, and he loves his mum.
And we've got the passengers...the Holy man that has a bit of a secret past that hints at violence (to protect his people?), the high class prostitute that works more as a Geisha than a sex doll, and the brother and sister that are attempting to flee The Alliance.
They all work within this universe. Sure, they're a bit cliche at times...but it's hard to make a series like this without having characters that fit specific roles and types. What matters is the fact that none of these characters are perfect, but none of them are Dastardly Dan, sitting in the corner laughing manically whilst they stroke their beard.
They swear, they get dirty, they make mistakes, they fight eachother, they sometimes screw eachother over.
So...does it all work together? Does it all make sense? Well, I think you should have gathered by now that it does...it all works together as it is, and makes for a SciFi show that is a damn slight more believeable than the usual Utopian Perfection that heads to our screens, and I think it's because of this that we never got to see more than one season. A massive shame.
Here's an extra little tid-bit for you guys. You see the yellow W at the top of this picture?
That's the logo for Weyland-Yutani, the Evil Corporation from the Alien series.
Joss Whedon wrote Alien: Resurrection, and decided to reference the company in most of his shows.
The reason I like this is because I'm a big fan of Crossovers...so, somewhere out there, Aliens do exist in the Firefly Universe...and they aren't nice, and they don't care.
The Aliens want to kill you and use you to make babies, the Predators want to hunt you down and make you their trophy, and the
Space Jockey race just want to hide from you...
Well...that's all from me today. I'll be back tomorrow with the regular Linkorama. See you all then, and happy reading.
