Firefly: Riding The 'Verse For Ten Years
Firefly's cast
The TV junkyard is littered with dozens if not hundreds of gems that are shows that were killed off too early by dim-witted TV executives. Everyone's got a favorite show that they loved but apparently no one else did, hence the quick cancellation. Yet somehow that show's merits comes to light among many and becomes more popular after cancellation. Firefly is a perfect example.
Created by Joss Whedon, the man behind the Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel and Dollhouse shows, Firefly made its debut in the 2002 fall schedule on Fox and was quickly canceled after only fourteen episodes were filmed (fifteen if you count the original pilot episode "Serenity" as a two-part show). In fact, not even all the episodes were aired. But the show found a new life after cancellation in the world of DVDs and reruns. Word of mouth quickly spread and a cult following not seen since Star Trek blossomed.
Space Rogues
For the uninitiated the show is basically a science fiction Western taking place in 2517, showcasing a group of renegades and smugglers who eke out a bare existence onboard the Serenity, a Firefly-class space freighter. Here is the back story; humanity has used up Earth's resources sometime in the future. Eventually, they abandoned Earth, traveled to another solar system and terraformed dozens of planets and moons to make them habitable. The original terraformed planets are the Core Planets and have the latest in technology and resources, and are considered the center of the universe or 'verse as said in the show. The outer planets in the system are known as the Border Planets and don't have access to the latest technologies. The people living there are left to fend for themselves with basic tools. In these backwater worlds, the highest level of technology is often on the level of the nineteenth century America with horses being the common mode of transportation, which is why the show has that dusty Western look. Basically, it's an interplanetary society of haves and have nots.
In the pilot's opening scenes, viewers witnessed a brutal battle in the civil war between the Alliance (the main governing body of the Core Planets) and the Independents, which was comprised of the Border Planets. The Alliance won the aforementioned Battle of Serenity Valley and the war. During that battle, the show introduced one of the soldiers who fought for the Independents, Malcolm "Mal" Reynolds (Nathan Fillion). One of the most powerful moments in the opening was when Mal's shocked face illustrated his realization that his side lost the war despite his futile belief that they would prevail.
Several years later and now a jaded cynic, Mal owns a beat-up freighter ship that he uses for smuggling operations. His crew is comprised of loyal first mate Zoë Alleyne (Gina Torres), a fellow war veteran; carefree pilot Hoban "Wash" Washburne (Alan Tudyk), who is married to Zoë and loves Hawaiian shirts, dinosaur figures and his wife; Kaylee Frye (Jewel Staite), the ship's whimsical mechanic and Jayne Cobb (Adam Baldwin), a greedy and not-too-bright muscle man. The rest of the cast are the passengers onboard the Serenity for various reasons. Inara Serra (Morena Baccarin) is a beautiful and cultured prostitute who rents onboard space for her small shuttle, and is attracted to Mal and vice versa. Their unrequited romantic tension was a major sub-plot on the show. It should be noted that in this future society being a prostitute doesn't have a social stigma, except with Mal, but that could be due to his attraction to Inara. Reverend Book (Ron Glass) is a spiritual wanderer with a mysterious past with hinted ties to the Alliance. The final two passengers provided much of Firefly's conflict; Simon (Sean Maher) and River Tam (Summer Glau), who are two fugitives on the run. River was a gifted student who was forced to undergo deadly experiments by the Alliance. The result was that she became a deadly psychic killing machine masked under the guise of a gentle and mildly mentally challenged teenage girl. Her brother Simon, a successful doctor, risked everything, including his wealth, to free her from the Alliance. In the pilot, Mal decided to allow them to remain onboard provided Simon take a job as the ship's medic and keep an eye on her. According to interviews, Whedon stated that this setup was an allegory to the American Civil War and the aftermath with the main characters standing in for former Confederate soldiers seeking a new beginning out west.
Life In The Space Lanes
Throughout the series, they faced dangers in the form of cannibalistic savages called Reavers, other smugglers, criminals, the unscrupulous upper class and the Alliance itself. The stories were usually about capers and the mishaps they would get into. They were well written with witty dialogue that had an interesting touch; often the characters would speak Mandarin. Whedon surmised that in the future both western and American culture will blend with Asian cultures and great pains are taken to show this in the series. Signs and view screens show Asian and English script, while many crowd scenes had a multicultural ambiance with people wearing outfits influenced by various cultures.
Needless to say, the production values were superb, as were the special effects. The pilot episode won an Emmy for best special effects. Many other aspects made Firefly stand out from standard science fiction shows. For instance, during space scenes there wasn't any sound. One cliché that has worn out its welcome is the roaring noise of spaceships in empty space. Anyone who knows a bit of science knows this is impossible since sound cannot travel in the vacuum of space. Instead music, via fiddles and guitars, suggesting a Western motif, was used for dramatic effect in space scenes. Genuine risks involved with living in space were shown. In the episode "Out Of Gas" the crew is endangered when a minor component breaks in the ship's engine causing the air to leak out and life support to break down. In shows like Star Trek and Stargate this dilemma was only spoken about and easily remedied. Here viewers actually saw what happened, the ship grew cold and people had to conserve air. It really was living on the edge. There weren't any aliens to be seen; this was a futuristic show set in space that didn't feature humans in prosthetic makeup. Humanity in the form of crime lords, amoral town bosses, callous government agents and corporate mercenaries were effective villains. No androids either by the way.
But perhaps the most important reason that Firefly is so endearing is because of the characters themselves. They had many nuanced layers and ambiguities, which were best presented in the episode "Objects In Space" as River psychically picked up on her crewmates' inner and dark thoughts. Unpredictably, some were just as likely to turn on the others for greed or jealousy. One minute they would say something funny, the next they would show a wicked, menacing level. Viewers found themselves rooting for the rogues when they faced the snooty socialites in "Shindig" or "Trash". It was class warfare in the future and anyone can relate to this.
Post-Mortem & Resurgence
Why did Fox kill this brilliant show? The usual culprit was poor ratings, but the network shares the blame. Apparently executives weren't happy with the show because they didn't understand it, according to some reports. They didn't like the pilot and forced Whedon to abruptly film a new one (a standard robbery yarn called "The Train Job", which isn't well considered and probably chased away potential viewers). This broke up the narrative flow in the series. Although not arc-driven, there was a sequential order that careful viewers would pick up on. For some casual viewers, seeing the series out of sequence can seem confusing. Strangely enough, the original pilot, which explained the show's background and characters, turned out to be the last episode aired by Fox before they yanked it in December of that year.
In spite of these obstacles, Firefly managed to find its audience after it was cancelled. Fans, known as browncoats (based on the nickname given to Independent soldiers who wore brown coats as part of their uniform), consider it to be one of the finest science fiction shows ever made. Anyone who gives the show a try will see the foundation of what could've been an even more multi-layered series with fully realized characters. At least audiences got a tempting sampling of this rich 'verse.
The browncoats, however, did get a bone thrown at them. In 2005, Universal Pictures released the film Serenity, a follow-up to Firefly that reunited all the actors from the series. Written and directed by Whedon, it tied up many loose ends and still left many wanting more. Unfortunately, the film was a dismal failure, scurrying any hopes for a sequel. Yet, with strong sales from the Firefly DVD and Blu-ray, interest in the show still percolates long after the creators and actors went their separate ways. Nathan Fillion, who is currently starring in the ABC show Castle, admitted his fondness for Firefly as do the other cast members. Actually, in one Halloween episode of Castle, Fillion jokingly reprised his role of Mal. Fillion's character dressed up as Mal for Halloween, but referred to himself as a "space cowboy". There was even an online effort by fans to buy the rights to the show in order to get it revived, but Whedon and others asked for this to cease. Admittedly, trying to cobble together the cast and crew ten years later would be a challenge. Fillion is busy with Castle, Baccarin is also occupied with the acclaimed Showtime series Homeland, Torres appears on USA Network's Suits and other cast members have their own commitments. This year's Comic-Con featured a popular reunion of the cast and the response showed that ten years later the love of Firefly endures. The Science Channel, which broadcasts reruns of the show, has a special called Browncoats Unite that features a look at the Comic-Con reunion and has interviews with the cast. Now that Whedon's directorial effort The Avengers is a certified box office hit, he has the clout needed to relaunch Firefly. Browncoats should heed the tone expressed in the show's opening song lyrics: "I still hear and I still see that you can't take the sky from me" and keep going strong with the adulation. No matter what, the Serenity will keep flying.
José Soto