Foray into Science Fiction (3)


Joss Whedon's Firefly is an interesting balance between Star Wars and Star Trek. Like Star Trek, it is set futuristically and is based entirely on science, but like the Millenium Falcon, Serenity is more like your uncle's chevy than a hospital in space. Only the Alliance (the "North") have crisp, white cruisers.

Really, Firefly is a post-Civil War era Western set in space. The captain and central, charismatic figure was a leader for the hypothetical "South," but was betrayed by his own people at the battle of Serenity Valley, where he was forced to surrender. After the war, he and his second in command started smuggling, and taking on passengers to look more legitimate. Once a rebel. . .

In Whedon's imagination, like Roddenberry's, humans have expanded to fill the galaxy, but unlike Roddenberry's United Federation of Planets, they have found they are alone. Humans terraformed worlds to the barest minimums and then dumped settlers on them. The central planets have the amenities and wealth while outlying planets struggled for survival. Serenity does most of her business with the fringe worlds. The crew of Serenity ride horses and covered wagons. They herd cows. There are gunfights, ambushes, kidnappings, whorehouses and saloons. Technology appears in the oddest places. . .

Firefly also features a classic battle between good and evil, but with a major twist. The evil is represented (quite graphically) by Reavers who live at the edge of space and hunt with a malice no animal could immitate. Their relationship with the Alliance is at the core of the final movie Serenity.

I love Serenity's crew, and I love the stories they get themselves into. People who live in Serenity include Mal (the captain), Zoe (second in command), Wash (pilot and Zoe's husband (after he joined the crew)), Kaylee (mechanic), Inara (a "companion" who rents one of the shuttles), Simon (ship's doctor), River (Simon's younger and highly unstable sister (both running from the Alliance)), Shepherd Book (Chaplain with a backstory that is never revealed), and Jayne Cobb (hired muscle).

The show was cancelled before it finished its first season, and several episodes were never aired, but are now available on DVD. Serenity, the movie which completed the series, held none of the Western elements which made the show so endearing (the movie was actually much more violent, graphic, and depressing than the show), but did include some wonderful scenes of River Tam coming into her own. I suspect Joss Whedon to be partial to small, violent girls.

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