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You know how it is, you read a book that you really
enjoy, so you go looking for other books by the same
author. The same kind of thinking holds true for
movies and television, as well. A few years back, I
became one of the legion of Joss Whedon fans, based on
his work on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel. I was
actually a Joss Whedon fan from before that, being one
of the few hundred people who saw Buffy the Vampire
Slayer in the theater. I came to the TV series a bit
late, but caught the last few seasons and have bought
some of the DVD sets. I watch them on a fairly regular
basis, television being what it is, there's never
enough good stuff to watch.
So, being a fan of his work, you can imagine what I
thought when I learned that Joss was working on a new
series for Fox, called "Firefly". I was elated, of
course, as I'm always looking forward to decent
science fiction on TV, especially something not tied
to the tired Star Trek franchise. But, I was a bit
worried, too, because I remember how Fox treated
another Sci-Fi series I enjoyed, Space: Above and
Beyond, moving it from one night to another, and then
shifting the time slot around. It was doomed. Add to
that, I'm one of the last people on Earth without
cable or satellite TV, and Fox is the channel I get
the absolute worst reception on, where I am. Still, I
was ready to fight through the static and snow to see
the first episode of Firefly. The tragedy was, some
weeks I couldn't even see the show, the reception was
so bad, so it wasn't until the DVDs came out that I
got to see the episodes clearly.
And, of course, my fears had been made concrete,
when the series was cancelled midway through the first
season. On the plus side, it had already spawned a
fierce and loyal fandom. This is something to be
expected, based on Joss Whedon's previous successes.
It's a mixture of inventive dialog, brilliant casting
and dozens of other factors, including a passion for
storytelling that grabs folks like me. Watching the
DVDs and listening to the commentary tracks sometimes
makes me jealous, because these people seem to be
enjoying the work so much, and I've never had any job
that made me feel that way.
Well, Joss Whedon's passion for the work is taking
Firefly to the big screen, next year in the movie
"Serenity", which is slated to be a trilogy, if the
first movie is successful. I can't wait!
So, what' all this got to do with Artistic License,
you ask?
Well, it's like this...I can't work on the movie, I
can't be an extra, I can't do design work for them or
anything else, so I have to come up with something to
satisfy my own desire to be a part of the Firefly
world. Naturally, that leads me to thinking of it as a
comic book project. But first, a bit of background...
From the voice-over during the credits:
"After the Earth was used up, we found a new solar
system and hundreds of new Earths were terra formed
and colonized. The central planets formed the Alliance
and decided all the planets had to join under their
rule. There was some disagreement on that point. After
the War, many of the Independents who had fought and
lost drifted to the edges of the system, far from
Alliance control. Out here, people struggled to get by
with the most basic technologies; a ship would bring
you work, a gun would help you keep it. A captain's
goal was simple: find a crew, find a job, keep
flying."
The time is about 500 years in the future. The Earth
is out of the picture, it may even be uninhabitable
and the human race has spread to the stars. It's
never made really clear, but it seems they've
terraformed every floating rock and moon in a fairly
densely populated star system, so that each and every
one has earth-like atmosphere, gravity and
temperature. The central planets are those that have
been colonized the longest, developed, "civilized",
and home of the Alliance (originally the Sino-American
Alliance-at some point in the near future, the United
States and China join up and dominate the world. Then,
when everyone leaves Earth, they carry that Alliance
with them). Six years ago (to the day, in the episode
"The Train Job"), the war for unification ended, the
Alliance brought all the scattered colonies under it's
wing, or thumb, depending upon your point of view.
In this climate, Malcolm Reynolds operates the
Firefly class mid-bulk transport "Serenity" as
captain. Mal was a sergeant in the unification war, on
the losing side, known as "browncoats". The following
exchange, from the episode "Bushwhacked".
Commander Harken: The Independents suffered a pretty
crushing defeat there. Some say that after Serenity,
the Brown-coats were through. That the war ended in
that valley. Seems odd that you would name your ship
after a battle you were on the wrong side of.
Captain Reynolds: May have been the losing side. Still
not convinced it was the wrong one.
I'm a fan of science fiction space ship design, so I
was interested to see what they'd come up with for
Firefly. Serenity is everything I could have hoped
for. It's got a lot of practical design features,
though it could stand to be a bit more aerodynamic,
considering it has to land, frequently. it definitely
has the look of a working transport, not one of those
pretty Starfleet luxury liners. Serenity looks
lived-in, she looks comfortable, she looks like home.
My only complaint is, it's too complex to draw very
often, if you want to keep the character of the ship
consistent. In one of the DVD segments, they call
Serenity the tenth character and so she is.
The sets for Serenity were designed so that the
entire upper level is one continuous set, as is the
lower level. It's possible to walk from the bridge
straight back through to the engine room on one set,
which makes for a kind of cohesion that is missing on
most TV or movie spaceships. After only a couple of
episodes, you know where everything is in relation to
everything else. You're never lost, walking down some
nondescript corridor.
So, let's get to the characters. Here, I haven't
tried to capture the idiosynchratic facial features of
the individual actors, more like I have tried to get
the essence of the characters involved. First, there's
Captain Mal Reynolds:
Mal is somewhat disillusioned, following the
Independents' loss. He lost almost everything, except
his honor...and his second in command...
...Zoe and Mal fought together in the war. Zoe is a
"warrior woman" to use pilot Wash's description. She's
tough, smart, and incredibly loyal. She carries a sawn
off lever-action rifle, cut down to the size of a
large handgun and she uses it to devastating effect,
both as a gun, and as a club on more than one
occassion. She's married to Wash...
...Wash is Serenity's pilot. He didn't fight in the
war, he doesn't have that bond with the Captain and
Zoe, but he's developing other bonds. Wash and Zoe are
one of the most believable couples I've ever seen on
TV, especially in a sci-fi show. They argue like real
men and women argue, and they obviously are
passionately in love with each other. Oh, apparently
Wash is the last guy in the 'verse who still wears
Hawaiian shirts. He's a hotshot pilot, but a pilot is
nothing without a ship in good working order....
...which is Kaylee's job. She's a motorhead, she
loves engines...no, really, they get her hot! Kaylee's
sneaky, as a character. She's the youngest member of
Serenity's crew and possibly the most competent. Most
of the time when we see her, she's got dirt and grease
on her face, she's wearing coveralls with
stuffed-animal patches sewn on, and she has this
infectious cheerfulness that draws you in. When
Kaylee's happy, we're happy, but when Kaylee's
frightened, or defeated, it's crushing. And when she's
hurt, everyone comes to her aid, even...
...Jayne Cobb...in one of the DVD extras, action Adam
Baldwin sums up his character in four words, "Muscle,
humor, thuggery...Jayne." Jayne is a mercenary, he's a
thug. He's big and mean and dangerous. And he's
obviously got more than a little crush on little
Kaylee. Jayne is funny, too, but he can't be trusted.
He can, however, be bought.
In the pilot "Serenity", we meet the others who will
become part of Serenity's family, when they take on
passengers to cover their smuggling activities. First
to sign on is the preacher, called a "Shepherd", going
by the name Book. An apt name, as you cannot judge by
his cover...
When the deal that brought Serenity to Persephone
falls through , they take on other passengers, before
leaving. One is an Alliance Federal agent, Lawrence
Dobson, hot on the trail of Simon Tam and his sister,
River.
Simon is a young doctor who has given up his life and
future to rescue his sister, River, a child prodigy
whose intelligence and physical ability brought her to
the attention of a rather sinister Alliance gov't
project that involved tampering with her already
amazing brain, unleashing who knows what level of
psychic ability. She has demonstrated the ability to
learn secrets from some people and to mimic the accent
and speech pattern of Badger, a small-time crime boss
on Persephone. And she is deadly with a handgun.
And last, but most certainly not least, the
Ambassador...
...Inara Sera. No, she's not really an ambassador,
she's a registered companion, a courtesan for wealthy,
influential men and women. Or, a whore, if you're Mal
Reynolds and secretly in love with her. She's
beautiful, graceful and charming. She's incredibly
sexy, as well, and apparently studied fencing, as well
as the more graceful arts. Inara has a business
arrangement with Serenity, she rents one of Serenity's
two shuttles, which she uses as both transport and
quarters, as well as a workplace. She provides
Serenity with a touch of "class" that opens doors that
otherwise would remain closed. Serenity's mobility
allows Inara to expand her client base, as well as a
means to put distance between her and her past, which
remains a mystery.
There are others, recurring characters, such as
Badger. There is the Alliance retrieval team, a pair
of sinister, dark-suited men wearing blue rubber
gloves. There's also Mal's sometime wife, Saffron, who
has also been known as Bridget, and Yolanda, to other
husbands she has married and tried to rob. And,
there's the world, the language, where Chinese is
spoken as readily as English. To avoid the censors,
much of the profanity is rendered in Mandarin, which
can be confusing, at times, but adds one more layer
for fans to savor.
Also, there are the Reavers. We've never seen them,
and that's probably for the best. The Reavers are
humans who have degenerated to the level of
cannibalism and barbarity. They live on the edges of
human space, raiding for food and fuel, they desecrate
their flesh, cutting and scarring themselves. The one
Reaver ship we see in the series is pouring out
dangerous levels of radiation. Their handiwork is
shown in the episode "Bushwhacked", where they
attacked a ship full of settlers, leaving only one
alive. The survivor had been forced to watch while
they raped, tortured and ate the settlers and was
driven mad as a result. The Reavers are scary, even
Jayne quakes in his boots when they're mentioned.
Well, that's all for this month. If I've picqued your
interest in Firefly, go grab the DVD box set. See you
folks next month.
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