Newbie Question - Aliens?

POSTED BY: Leee
UPDATED: Tuesday, June 21, 2005 04:21
VIEWED: 8386
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LEEE

Tuesday, June 14, 2005 2:58 PM

Hi all,
I know there was a deliberate decision not to include aliens on the show (which is fine by me) but my question is do aliens actually exist in the story? I can't imagine travelling to all those worlds and not finding any other intelligent life.

Also, in Star Trek there is a defined amount of galaxy that has been explored, is there any mention in Firefly how far out they have gone into the galaxy (or universe)?

Thanks!

RKLENSETH

Tuesday, June 14, 2005 3:36 PM

Nope, no aliens at all. The closest thing to
aliens are the Reavers and they are at least partly human.

It was never actually said in the series how big the Firefy 'verse was but it is common belief that it is about the size of a galaxy. Perhaps these questions will be answered in the movie. I don't know, I haven't seen it yet.

Oh, and play Cantr II at www.cantr.net.

BDJSB7

Tuesday, June 14, 2005 3:41 PM

The movie does get into the logistics of the known 'verse. They do a good job summing up things in the first few minutes of the movie.

That is done through a narrative while showing CGI of things like colony ships leaving earth...

FRAY101

Tuesday, June 14, 2005 3:43 PM

Funnily enough I've just finished reading the essay in Finding Serenity (sorry, can't remember the author) who suggested that one of the reasons Firefly failed was because it was so far removed from the Star Trek concept we were so used to, ie where were the aliens?

Personally I like it just the way it is!

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GROUNDED

Tuesday, June 14, 2005 3:45 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by rklenseth:
It was never actually said in the series how big the Firefy 'verse was but it is common belief that it is about the size of a galaxy.

I'm pretty sure Joss mentioned that he intended it as a single system in an interview. Can't remember where it was from, but if you did around for the 'Solar System vs. Galaxy' threads it'll be in there somewhere.

DAIKATH

Tuesday, June 14, 2005 4:03 PM

SPOILERS!!!
Someone please edit it... even though it is the beginning I DONT want to know.

ZEEK

Tuesday, June 14, 2005 4:06 PM

No aliens. Joss doesn't want them in the show. They don't exist in the Firefly verse. That's just the direction that Joss decided to go.

CHRISTHECYNIC

Tuesday, June 14, 2005 4:13 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by BDJSB7:
The movie does get into the logistics of the known 'verse. They do a good job summing up things in the first few minutes of the movie.

That is done through a narrative while showing CGI of things like colony ships leaving earth...

I have not seen the movie, so I have no idea what it says, but as I recall the debate was never finished.

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Some people, myself included, thought it was a single system.

The evidence to support this is that the central planets are always called the planets, yet they say “border moons” a lot. From what little we know of solar systems actual planets are nearer to the center, where father out, where the border would be, the bodies ripe for teraforming are moons, as the actual planets are gas giants.

Also there were only 70 something planets, which is entirely possible in a system with a large habitability zone and moon rich gas giants. The fact that we know they can change the gravity of a planet is a plus for this idea too.

Then there is the time it takes to get between the planets, just fine for a system if the ships are damn fast, but to be a whole galaxy they’d need to be more than damn fast, they’d need to be a lot faster than light. We are never given any indication they are, and several that they are not. (We can talk about that later, or never, either way is fine with me.)

Finally with the exception of mal people call it a system, always a system. While a galaxy is a type of system so is a city, and they don’t call those systems.

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One of the primary arguments for it being a galaxy is Mal, he says it’s a whole new galaxy. Another is the time period, they say it is 500 years into the future and people just don’t feel like that is enough time to get to another system.

I never thought this made any sense, but then again I support the other side. I mean they can cryogenically suspend people in a small box, with industrial strength machines I’m sure they could do it longer. The logical thing in my mind is that sleeper ships were sent out. If there is no one who was awake to count the time asleep why record it again.

Imagine this:

You go to sleep on July third 2005 and wake up 6 thousand five hundred twenty years and four days later. The same with the rest of the world

Are you honestly going to tell everyone, “Ok, it’s not the fourth of July 2005, it’s the eighth of July 8525, from now on everyone has to remember that this is the date,”? If no one was awake any of the intervening days what is the point of changing the date at all? Isn’t it easier to just call it the fourth of July? Why confuse everyone.

In Firefly they weren’t on earth anymore anyway, the months are really vestigial anyway.

The final argument that I remember is being out of range, in Out of Gas they couldn’t contact anyone, they found a rout from one place to another where they would not be scanned or stopped or anything like that, I don’t understand how they wouldn’t be able to be out of range. I mean look at Jupiter, it’s got this huge red spot on it and you can’t see it with your naked eye. Your eye is a receiver, the image of the spot is a signal, but you can’t see the spot.

Wouldn’t the same be true of any other signal, to catch it either you need to be close or have a better reciver pointed right at it?

-

The last argument is BS, for a while people were saying that you couldn’t have 70 worlds in one system, it simply isn’t true. It is true that it would be hard to find a system like that, but what kind of idiot doesn’t look for a good system, yet is still intelligent enough to go to new planets, teraforms them, and create civilization?

In sci fi the question is always what is possible, it is possible to have it be in one system, though in real life such a system might not exist. Anyone who says it is not possible is trying to trick you, though I can’t imagine why they would care enough to do so.

-

-

Regardless, that is the debate, It was never finished, apparently it is cleared

CHRISTHECYNIC

Tuesday, June 14, 2005 4:15 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Grounded:
Quote:
Originally posted by rklenseth:
It was never actually said in the series how big the Firefy 'verse was but it is common belief that it is about the size of a galaxy.

I'm pretty sure Joss mentioned that he intended it as a single system in an interview. Can't remember where it was from, but if you did around for the 'Solar System vs. Galaxy' threads it'll be in there somewhere.

Oh yeah, Joss did come out and say there was no faster than light travel, so it would have to be a single system.

LEEE

Tuesday, June 14, 2005 5:37 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by fray101:
Funnily enough I've just finished reading the essay in Finding Serenity (sorry, can't remember the author) who suggested that one of the reasons Firefly failed was because it was so far removed from the Star Trek concept we were so used to, ie where were the aliens?

Personally I like it just the way it is!

So far it hasn't bothered me that there are no aliens, you don't really need them in this show. But perhaps if we were in to season 5 or 6, maybe it would begin to get noticible and seem like a gap needing to be filled.

So from what I understand from the conversation in this thread. The Firefly 'verse is probably just ONE system of planets revolving around ONE star? It would seem it would have to be if they don't have faster than light travel?

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