Why is Firefly so different?
POSTED BY: Randy
UPDATED: Sunday, February 16, 2003 04:30
VIEWED: 12352
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I've watched other Sci-Fi shows and none have captured my attention like Firefly. In fact, I'm fairly obsessed with it. I think it is because this show concentrates on the characters and their relationships rather than their "adventures". In fact, to me, their best episodes are the ones with little action and a lot of talking because it let's the dialogue shine.
The characters in other SciFi shows are defined by their jobs which they always perform perfectly. In Firefly, the characters are real people who just happen to be thrown into their jobs and though they try their best, sometimes they mess up. They are fallible, they are human, they are you and me. And you can see these people genuinely care about each other, first, because they have to, then later, because they want to. They all have their strengths but the show seems to focus more on their weaknesses, what makes them real. Now how many shows do that?
Mal - Strong and virtuous. Yet willing to back down if the odds are stacked against him. Willing to kill people without much thought if they aren't "right" (in a grander moral sense). Soft and squishy with people he cares about.
Zoe - Tough and loyal. Willing to speak her mind to the captain despite what Wash says about her kowtowing (remember when Mal made fun of Kaylee's poofy dress?).
Wash - Funny and feisty but certainly not the clearest thinker. Insecure about his position in the marriage.
Jayne - A walking gland. They love to highlight how thick he is. I love it. "Suspicious? What day is it?" "She's in congress?" Someone should start a thread of Jayne-isms.
Kaylee - Brilliant mechanic but still a young girl with a young girl's emotions.
Simon - Brave and loyal. But very young and impulsive. Reacts almost purely with his emotions.
Book - Wise but often follows his emotions rather than being the stoic.
River - A messed up little girl.
Inara - Cool, calm and elegant. Except when she let's her emotions get the better of her. She was a highlight in Our Mrs. Reynolds (one of my favorite episodes because of all the hilarious banter).
Thoughts?
"...morbid and creepifying, I got no problem with" - Mal
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I agree with your thoughts.
I have another aspect:
This future is more real than any other shown in SciFi-Series. In most series exist Aliens. And its not that alien exists that makes them unreal, but that there are thousends of variegated (I hope I got the right word 
) species. I affirm that "we" will not make contact to other "lifeforms" in the next thousend years if we ever make contact.
If I compare the FF-Universe to the ST-Universe I have to say that ST is a big crap. The system of StarTrek just doesn't work. That theres no money and everyone works for the "whole thing". If you ask an economist he'll say that this wouldn't work. In Firefly we see the galaxy as our world is today: Splitted up in few people who have everithing, and many who have nothing. The ones who have everthing put upon the others.
That's why firefly for me is different and better.
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Yes there are Fireflyfans all over the world. Even in little switzerland.
Sorry for all the mistakes in writing.
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I think you meant "varying". "Variegated" means different colors. 
I agree that this future seems much more realistic. It is chaotic and dark, like our own lovely world of today.
You made a good point. Having no aliens certainly sets the Firefly world apart from others. And again, shows that the focus of this series is elsewhere than laser battles and gruesome creepies.
The thing that always sorta bugged me about aliens on other shows is that it seems 90% of the aliens are humanoid. Given all the weird life forms on our own planet, multiply it by the ga-gillions of other planets, seems there'd be a bit more variety than two legs, two arms, walking upright etc etc etc.
"...morbid and creepifying, I got no problem with" - Mal
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I still think there are gruesome creepies, but they've got "hands of blue" and come "two by two". ;)
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"Let's move this conversation in a not-Jayne's-fault direction." - Jayne
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I seem to recall the original Star Trek had a signifigant number of non-humanoid aliens, certainly they had a greater percentage over the run of their three seasons than any of the other Star Treks had in theirs.
In the FireFly universe, it is entirely plausible that humans fill the niche of "inhuman" characters (ie, the Reavers) and far more chillingly than the "latex of the week" aliens that seem to have become the norm for television science fiction.
It is far more disturbing to see human beings acting savagely towards each other than to see aliens preying on them.
Joss and his team certainly captured that dynamic, and the essentially cut-throat capitilism that thrives in the absence of a strong central government on the frontier.
This show resonates with an implicit recognition of how human beings behave towards one another, which makes the growing bond among the crew of Serenity all that much more engaging and interesting to watch.
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You forgot - the aliens always speak proper american english too.
And I take issue with the first poster who said that Zoe stand up to Mal. On the contrary, INARA is the one who stands up to Mal. And I think he likes it.
"Mal just DO IT."
"It doesn't matter what you want, he's dying!"
"If you get rid of them, I'm leaving too."
She says whatever she has to to move his hand, or his emotions. She is his counterbalance.
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Quote:
Originally posted by Randy:
The thing that always sorta bugged me about aliens on other shows is that it seems 90% of the aliens are humanoid. Given all the weird life forms on our own planet, multiply it by the ga-gillions of other planets, seems there'd be a bit more variety than two legs, two arms, walking upright etc etc etc.
Actually there are some very good reasons why you would have to be somewhat humanoid in order to be an intelligent species. You are right that there are a wide variety of life forms on this one planet, but not all of them are sentient, (or at least display signs of sentience) nor technological.
You would need at least 4 limbs, two for walking and two for other stuff, (picking berries, etc.) Each additional limb or organ above what is needed to survive requires energy, or food to make, maintain and use. Either the limb or organ pays for itself, by helping the species survive, or the entire speices dies out. Evolution.
Look at all bipedal critters on this planet. Only humans and apes have the upper arm strength to do anything with that extra set of limbs. What they do, and we used to is called "brachiated", climb trees. Kangaroos, and t-rexes have wimpy arms compared to primates.
There are also good reasons for life being carbon based. First off it has four valence electrons, which means it can form long chains and have attachments. Also it is more common than silicon, and many carbon compounds are easily soluble in water, which is a bi-polar compound. Water has some cool properties especially related to lipids that form cell membranes.
Carbon dioxide is a gas that is soluble in water. Silicon dioxide is sand or glass. It is too inert for what we would even recognize as life.
Metabolic rates have to be considered, as it appears to require a lot of food to run a brain. And if all your food is being used to power extra limbs, well you have a problem. Many species simply are not active enough to have anything like our brains. Reptiles are pretty slow, metabolically, and birds spend too much energy flapping their wings. And also crawling on your belly or flapping your wings mean you have no extra pair of hands to do anything with, even if they could adapt to new activities.
Technology itself requires fire, for the making of metals and ceramics. Which rules out underwater species. Dolphines could not build a digital watch, even if they had the hands to do so.
So you find that what you end up with is a carbon based, bipedal, land based, brachiating organism. In other words a humanoid of some type to develope a technically advanced civilization. It is the result of evolution, and unless you posit some other strange environment, that is what you are going to be stuck with.
I should note that I am dealing solely with natural evolution. It is possible that some future genetic engineer may be able to grow dragons and centaurs as smart if not smarter than us. But it is unlikely that such body forms or creature could evolve naturally.NOTIFY: N | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Randy wrote:
Quote:
I agree that this future seems much more realistic. It is chaotic and dark, like our own lovely world of today.
You made a good point. Having no aliens certainly sets the Firefly world apart from others. And again, shows that the focus of this series is elsewhere than laser battles and gruesome creepies.
The thing that always sorta bugged me about aliens on other shows is that it seems 90% of the aliens are humanoid. Given all the weird life forms on our own planet, multiply it by the ga-gillions of other planets, seems there'd be a bit more variety than two legs, two arms, walking upright etc etc etc.
I agree about the atmosphere of the show. I think that the general atmosphere genuinely reflects a post civil war setting. There is a feeling of distrust, resentment, and unresolved conflict between the side that won, and those that lost.
I also feel the lack of sophisticated technology correctly reflects what we could actually expect in such an enviroment. Core worlds will have easy access to modern tech and creature comforts. Colonies on the fringe of space will not have advanced tech as they are so far out, and the cost of shipping and then buying such items would be prohibitive. Life would therefore take on a pioneer or old West feel.
I too love a Sci Fi w/ no aliens. If I want aliens, I will watch Star Trek or Farscape. I also agree that it is a bit silly to think that all aliens would be bipedal and human in appearance. Sure it is done for ease of make up and to keep the special effects budget down, but it is still not very realistic.
"May have been the losing side. Still not convinced it was the wrong one."
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Quote:
Originally posted by BrownCoat1:
Randy wrote:Quote:
I also agree that it is a bit silly to think that all aliens would be bipedal and human in appearance. Sure it is done for ease of make up and to keep the special effects budget down, but it is still not very realistic.
Star Trek uses a variant on the Panspermia hypothesis of why most intelligent life is bipedal humanoid in the Trek Universe. An ancient race seeded their genetic information throughout the galaxy and it acted as a dominant shaper for the form that intelligent life would take on those planets.
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Most definitely. The only other SciFi show I can think of that was good, was Babylon 5. It had aliens, but it did not have humans as the obviously dominant species.
Firefly doesn't have aliens, but it does have a focus on the actually characters, as originally stated. The idea that the main characters are not heroes also helps. They are just a bunch of people on one ship, trying to eek out a living. As far as we know, Simon and River are the only ones with a good reason to be running from the Aliance (ie the Alliance abused River).
The fact that Mal doesn't try to be heroes, and he and his crew get injured just as much as anyone else, and makes mistakes, gives the show a realness that even Reality TV can't top.
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