Where does Firefly take place?
POSTED BY: Hans
UPDATED: Sunday, July 2, 2006 05:23
VIEWED: 62435
PAGE 17 of 18
i think they're might be a third possibility. While not really sceintific in anyway, and more of a cop out than anything else, it could be possible the the 'verse is some kind of unique astrological phenomenon. Just a big group of planetoids kind of like a big ass ort cloud. (I'm terrible at astrology, so this really has no sceintific basis, I got no clue if it's even possible, but it's just an idea).
I aim to misbehave
-Mal-
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sorry, double post.... whoops.
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Quote:I think you mean Astronomy, not astrology.
Originally posted by spacesamurai:
i think they're might be a third possibility. While not really sceintific in anyway, and more of a cop out than anything else, it could be possible the the 'verse is some kind of unique astrological phenomenon. Just a big group of planetoids kind of like a big ass ort cloud. (I'm terrible at astrology, so this really has no sceintific basis, I got no clue if it's even possible, but it's just an idea).
That said, I agree that we don't know enough about other planetary systems to completely rule out the idea of a single-system 'verse, especially if we allow the possibility of some exotic new technologies for terraforming. If we assume the new sun is a large, hot star (which gives a wide "habitation zone") and that there are a lot of planets and moons available as raw material, I'm reasonably comfortable with the single-system scenario as laid out in the Visual Companion.
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Ain't about you, Jayne. It's about what they need.
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God! Reading over all this stuff since my last post has been fun.
Well this is my current ides...
IT IS ONE SYSTEM.... THERE IS NO FTL.
Joss has stated this and in the intro to the film the teacher states they found "a new solar system with dozens of planets and hundreds of moons."
There! It's one system... the Verse and Galaxy are slang referring to populated space.
Exactly how big the Verse is is rather difficult to pin down.
In Serenity (the film) the map behind the teacher in River's nightmare shows us a 20 orbit system (however the 6th orbit seems to be unoccupied). In this map there does not seem to be any indication that the system is a multistar system. It is possible that this map only covers the core.
Problems with this map are that the instructor mentions "dozens of planets and hundreds of moons"... 20 is a bit low for "dozens." When she speaks of "the savage outer planets" the 11th planet in this system is detailed, seeming to suggest that this map includes the outer planets. the shooting script also indicates that the planet we are meant to see is on "the edge of the galaxy."
The map featuring Miranda, later in the film, seems to show a completely different and complicated system. It appears to be at minimum a 5 star system (quintary?) with four star systems around the central core system. Miranda is indicated as being in the Burnham quadrant - seeming to indicate a division of the verse into 4 parts - perhaps these satellite systems.
This map seems to show a core system of 6 orbits around a yellow-white star. Clockwise from the 2 o'clock position we have: 9 orbits and one ring around a small blue-white star; 5 orbits around a medium-size red star; 15 orbits and one ring around a slightly smaller yellow star; and 8 orbits and 3 rings around a midsize orange star.
This map seems to feature worlds that match the "Worlds of the Alliance" graphic, and the blue-white star could have some significance to the Blue Sun corporation. The problem is the severe improbability of a quintary system. A rather laboured explanation could be that some or all of the satellite stars are engineered, (perhaps from grey dwarf gas giants a la 2010).
The fact that these two maps seem to contradict each other seems to indicate that the creative staff has no idea how the Verse is laid out. Making any attempt by us fans to figure it out nigh impossible - but mighty fun to ponder.
Myself... for my own little selfish purposes (read: RPG) have decided that this is a 5 focus system as shown in the map in the visual companion. Each of the 4 remote stars is a grey dwarf... and provides the name of the quadrant... thus Miranda orbits Burnham.
The system is not beholden to Bode's Law and habitable planets are not strictly required to be in the biozone of the star. The core system consists of 20 planets as shown on the teachers screen but only the orbits shown on the Miranda graphic are terraformed.
Now how to explain "dozens" of planets.....
cheers
matt
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The one thing I've learned about science fiction is you have to learn to bend. Travel to another star you invent hyper drive or if your a Star Trek fan warp drive. What are they? There had to have been some way to travel to other stars for this story to end up in another or as some people beleave several other solar systems. It most be a very early type of travel or they would be hopping to other systems. But nobody seems to be doing that. I get the feeling they are at one solar system that mUst have a large star with alot more planets around it than our own system. The planets nearer the star would be like Earth and they call them the central planets. The other worlds are moons of gas giants like Jupitor, which are farther from the star like our own. These moons would have to be fairly equal in size to Earth to have the right gravity. A planet the size of Jupitor could have more than one moon like this and the heat produced by this gas giant would help to support life on these moons. Now there must be several of these planets in order to have all these habital moons. So again I think the star must be much larger than our old Sol to have produced all these satelites. But I beleave Joss didn't worry about any of this. He had a ship and he sent it where ever he wanted it to go. If it stayed in one solar system or traveled beyond didn't matter to him. They never explain the engine. It revolves. Why? It looks good if you have moving parts. If their engine had the capacity to travel to other solar systems then firing it up, to do the Crazy Ivan in the atmosphere of Whitefall, in the first episode would have destroyed that planet. And how come when they are in space and another ship comes by they are going so slow. If they are traveling countless thousands of miles the ships would be a just a flash on their screen if they were lucky. Not this holding their breath hoping the reavers don't spot them. In order to create a story you most bend. And science fiction has done that since Flash Gordon and will continue to do it, whether it be Star Trek, Farscape, or any other show you can name. Write the story and don't worry how far they traveled or how fast. So it doesn't matter if it is one solar system or several the cows will forget they are cows until they are outside again. And Jayne will always lie and whore. You can bend science fiction but you can't bend Jayne.
Traveler
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Well no one's weighed in with the obvious assessment (OK, except for the guy right above me who sneaked in while I was editing this thing)vis a vis looking at the show from Joss and the writers P.O.V. Joss has said he doesn't know beans about science and doesn't really care. The focus was always on storytelling. So it's clear to me (as a writer) that no one was paying that much attention to the details about what the size framework was for the show, just that it "appears" to be based on a single system with major terraformed planets that have lots of terraformed moons around them. As this scenario is highly improbable scientifically, it seems clear to me that Joss and the writers weren't trying to play "Mr. Science" in their stories. Just trying to tell human-based stories set in a "small" framework of Alliance = core worlds, Independents / the rest of humanity = rim worlds and outer moons. This was done to provide a dramtic background for lots of things to work with story-wise, and not for scientific consistency. There are all sorts of scientific improbables you can chalk up if you start looking -- the ol' "how many angels can dance on the head of a pin" debate. Meaning, it's irrelevant. The show and the movie were never about the science but about the people. So let's not get all bogged down in a geek-fest debate on intangibles that none of the creators / writers even cared about (said by a true geek from the original Star Trek days). OK, that's my 2-cents.
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Guess I'm a faster editor MAGhaffer. But your angels on the head of a pin is a perfect example of what is happening here. The wonderful thing is, nobody is wrong. You can make the story anywhere you want it. Jayne won't stop bedding every whore he meets if you change their location or the size of space they travel in.
What do we do with the chain of command?
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Quote:
Originally posted by traveler:
Jayne won't stop bedding every whore he meets if you change their location or the size of space they travel in.
What do we do with the chain of command?
What else? Give it to River -- she'll
whup EVERYBODY'S ass!
...Or we could talk more.
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dble post. oops. [ducks River's mean-ass
swing with that ol' Chain of Command]
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Well said, MAGhaffar! People tend to forget that Firefly is Science-Fiction. The planets could be anywhere at anytime and it does not really matter.
Now, say I wanted to be geeky enough and bring Science into the picture. Well, chances are the setting of Firefly is in one or two galaxies. The crew of Serenity is not flying from one part of the Universe to the other or else most of the show would be spent seeing the crew's life onboard during spaceflight. Either way, it is still fiction. Best to take the Science aspect of Firefly with a pinch of salt.
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