The FireFly Tech Manual [Cont.]

POSTED BY: citizen
UPDATED: Sunday, October 23, 2005 01:07
VIEWED: 6873
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CITIZEN

Saturday, September 10, 2005 7:42 PM

Introduction
Myself and KayleeRulesAll have been working on the FireFly tech manual, thats meant to work like a FireFly owners manual, similar to a Star Trek Tech manual or the Aliens Tech Manual.
It will be about the FireFly class transport technologies. No other aspects of the FireFly 'verse will be discussed.

Where we're at
We've currently got basic explinations for the drive propulsion and powerplant technologies of the FireFly class, a basic explination of the gravitation tech, and some explinations of the computer systems.
Theres also a basic site up to give an indication of how we see it looking when uploaded. Take a look at (requires Macromedia FlashPlayer7) http://www.fireflytech.twisted-imaginings.com/
This site will likely change abit, but is a basic idea.

Want to help?
Some people have shown some interest in helping, and we've been asking for contact times so we can set up an AIM chat room to workout the technical details, and get explinations everyones happy with.
We'll then start working on the graphics and content that will eventually go into the tech manual.

So if you have any ametuer knowledge/interest in physics/space or computers and want to lend a hand with the technical details, post here with some contact details/times.
If you'd like to help in any other way, such as technical drawing and the like, post here with some contact details and how you'd like to be involved.

Anyone who makes a contribution, no matter how big or small, will be included in the credits. (Including the person who created the Serenity badge graphic on the test site).

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Zen Buddhist to the Hotdog Vendor:
"Make me one with everything."

CEDRIC

Saturday, September 10, 2005 8:26 PM

It's worth noting that some of that stuff gets explained in the Serenity RPG book. I don't know how 'official' the game is, but it's probably worth a look.

I'm not much for explaining technical stuff, but I am a professional writer/editor. If you want someone to help out with that kind of thing when you have a draft together, let me know.

"You can't take my show from me,
Because I've got the DVD."
www.BedlamBards.com
Ballad of Joss: http://mp3-postcards.com/listen/?888

KAYLEERULESALL

Saturday, September 10, 2005 8:50 PM

yeah, were making our own explination. so basically, were syaing, to hell with the RPG book. most of the stuff in there likely has not been through such deep thought as the things weve already thought out so far anyway.

------------------------------------------------
When the stars shine bright through the engine's trail and the dust of another world drops behind; When my ship is free of the open sky, its a damn good day to my way of mind; Theres a barren planet you never can leave, theres a rocky valley where we lost a war; Theres a cross worn 'round a soldier's neck, theres a man's faith died on Serenity's floor, but i stood my ground and ill fight once more; Its the last oath that i ever swore

CITIZEN

Friday, October 14, 2005 9:41 PM

Quick bump.

There's a lot of new people on the site now, so thought I'd draw attention to the thread.

All are welcome to contribute.

More insane ramblings by the people who brought you Beeeer Milkshakes!
Even though I might, even though I try,
I can't

UNCHARTEDOUTLAW

Friday, October 14, 2005 9:59 PM

Good, I was wondering what the status on the book was! :D

http://norcalriviera.blogspot.com - blog
http://firefly.firehead.org/norcalriviera - videos
http://www.cafepress.com/norcalriviera - store
http://www.fireflytalk.com - the new damn podcast

River: "So we'll integrate non-progressional evolution theory with God's creation of Eden. Eleven inherent metaphoric parallels already there. Eleven. Important number. Prime number. One goes into the house of eleven eleven times, but always comes out one. Noah's ark is a problem."

DIEGO

Friday, October 14, 2005 11:11 PM

Yeah, I'm interested. I don't have an AIM account, but am willing to go to a little effort and use a chat service if I can be of help. Alternatively, have you considered an e-mall list serve? It has the advantage of not requiring everyone to schedule the same time to communicate and folks can read, think about, and have time to formulate responses to posts. Either way, I've got a strong science background (I'm a professional biologist) and I'm willing to help on the writing and editing.

FLETCH2

Friday, October 14, 2005 11:56 PM

The problem that the RPG has and that any Tech manual will have is that science in the "verse" doesnt really work and that stuff quoted in one episode doesn't get carried through in others.

Example: The verse is supposed to be one big solar system right? Look behind the teacher in the openning of the Serenity movie and you have one big solar system. Fine and dandy!

Problem is that if you look at the graphic map of Miranda that River pulls up from the Cortex it shows 7 stars each with their own solar system..... so right there in one movie we have a contradiction.

If it IS one solar system then it cant support 50 planets because the habitable area for a star is narrow. Look at our own sun, move in towards Venus and it's too hot, move out to Mars and it's too cold. There would be no way to fit the orbits of 50 worlds into that one habitable zone.

So lets say we go with multiple stars. Problem here is speed and distance. In a cut line River gives the speed of Serenity at full burn as being 100,000 miles an hour, sounds pretty fast until you realise it would take you 9 months to get just from Earth to Jupiter (assuming they were at alignment.) Since things can not be closer together without problems ships MUST be able to travel faster. This is backed up by the visual companion that says that the original colony ships from earth took a generation to get to the new system. At Serenity max speed (according to River) you could make Proxima Centauri in 28,000 years!

If there is FTL we havent seen it and how could you explain episodes like "Out of Gas?" If there is no FTL then distances and times to make a cluster of stars supporting 50 worlds work just dont add up.

In short Joss is not a scifi writer. When you write magic like in Buffy and Angel it doesnt have to add up --- it's Magic and it works *somehow.* In Firefly he went on his merry way doing the same thing because he is writing *people* stories not Star Trek. It doesn't have to work IRL.

If you know physics you'll know that when the engine blew in "Out of Gas" Serenity should still have been moving forwards at the same speed that she was before, it's called conservation of momentum. However when the engine blew she came to a dead stop because otherwise there would have been no danger and no story. However in "War Stories" the ship fires the engines powers down and drifts towards Niska's -- so in that story conservation of momentum worked because otherwise there is no story.

Ignore the man behind the curtain!

MAJOST

Saturday, October 15, 2005 4:46 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by Fletch2:
....If you know physics you'll know that when the engine blew in "Out of Gas" Serenity should still have been moving forwards at the same speed that she was before, it's called conservation of momentum. However when the engine blew she came to a dead stop because otherwise there would have been no danger and no story. However in "War Stories" the ship fires the engines powers down and drifts towards Niska's -- so in that story conservation of momentum worked because otherwise there is no story.

Really? I assumed that Serenity kept moving in Out of Gas. It's just that they're so far out in the boon docks that there's nothing in the immediate area to compare it to. Remember how Wash claimed it'd take a week to get to their destination? They were still moving... it's just that the camera was moving, too. The same thing occurs in Objects in space - it looks like the ship is at a dead halt, but they're definitely going somewhere.

If you really wanna get picky, claim that they should have been spinning end over end due to the ejection of the fire out the front bay doors. They certainly aren't centered on the ship, and the force of the fire pushing out of Serenity would cause it to thrust backwards at a haphazard angle. Or, you could claim that there's almost no likelyhood of the debris actually hanging around Serenity for any decent amount of time... they would all have some difference in trajectory or velocity.

FLETCH2

Saturday, October 15, 2005 5:10 AM

What I'm saying is that fans like to rationalise things and force consistancy on series that don't nescessarily have them. The original Battlestar Galactica used the terms "solar system" and "galaxy" interchangably and yet didn't have FTL ships. In 25 years fans "rationalised" this 1000 different ways from wormholes to an FTL drive we were simply not shown. In general folks that like Science Fiction know more about science than the folks that write SciFi on TV. When a writer uses the wrong term, or simply doesn't understand or care to understand the technical problems in a script it drives fans nuts.

If you write a tech manual you will do it for that percentage of fans that can tell you the milli-cochran output of a shuttlecrafts warp core. No one but them would really be interested. Trek tried fairly hard to keep consistancy, even having people vet scripts to try to keep them consistant, Joss didnt do that because he didnt care, he's telling the story of 10 BDHs not inventing psudo science for a bunch of frustrated fanboys. The verse as shown is not consistant enough to be rendered as a tech manual.

As to the "Out of Gas" example, I mention it because *apparently* on screen Serenity stops. The writers of the RPG being the kinds of fan boys that rate warp cores in milicochrans came up with an elaborate reason why a ship would just stop when the main engine shut off, and then another reason why the Niska manouver would work in that universe.

All of this is a rationalisation that Joss simply didnt care about because he isnt writing scifi, he's writing people stories set in a scifi like environment.

MAJOST

Saturday, October 15, 2005 9:11 AM

Ah, heh, I gotcha. I misread the intentions behind your previous post. As far as FTL goes, I'm with you. I'm glad Joss didn't come up with extra abstractions and technobabble for travel; the show isn't about the Science Fiction - that's just the vehicle. I need it in Captain Dummy-Talk. And I'm willing to suspend my disbelief for those travel times.

But, (and this is my pride talking) I'm fairly certain that Serenity never screeches to a halt in Out of Gas. That's pedantic though... that Tech Manual will have many more issues surrounding other things. All the best to those of you trying to sort it out. I'll keep on cheering for my BDHs.

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