Obsession with Firefly...

Friday, May 7, 2004 8:42 PM

The year that Firefly aired was my last year in a dorm, and the only TV stations that came in were FOX and a local Christian station that had hourly Bible readings. Let me tell you, it was a close call sometimes which I was going to watch.

So, for the sake of some mindless entertainment, the whole floor would gather 'round the twelve-inch TV and watch the Sunday night cartoons. And then one day, at the end of the Simpsons, they aired one of those commercials-during-the-credits, shoved into one corner of the screen.

Fastlane. Pretty much looked like it sucked.

But then there was an ad for a Sci-Fi show by the name of Firefly. It didn't look a whole lot better, but in a highly geeky dorm, in a region where we didn't even get the then-mediocre Enterprise, any Sci-Fi is better than no Sci-Fi. Collectively, we made a note to stay in on the Friday night of Firefly's pilot episode, and give this not-too-fantastic-looking show a chance.

This is about the point in the story where I'd love to say I loved it from the very first moment it was on... But, alas, I was confused beyond belief for the first half as the character introductions flew by at a breakneck pace, on top of a (frankly) rather dull caper story.

Only then, the caper went south, the captain started feeling guilty about the whole thing, and in a particularly beautiful moment, Mal shoved Crow through the engine.

...And that's when I realized this wasn't just any old science fiction. After years (and I mean YEARS) of Trek-style "Everybody play nice and we'll settle this peacefully", here, at last, was a captain who said, "My way or the highway."

And it was Good.

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