What is THE ALLIANCE?

POSTED BY: zeke023
UPDATED: Monday, January 26, 2004 14:22
VIEWED: 6051
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FORTUNATUS

Friday, January 23, 2004 4:36 PM

Quote:
So far, all we've seen is Mal's particular perspective of that government and it's been mostly negative. That's pretty natural considering his experience, but there've been plenty of indications that the Alliance has more in common with the modern U.S. than with something like Nazi Germany.

Well, we've seen plenty of Alliance personnel. They sure dress and act like bargain basement Nazis. The corrupt cop from The Message could easily be a member of the Gestapo, and the Alliance soldier Zoe kills in the flashback is flat-out wearing a WWII Nazi helmet. My first thought when seeing an Alliance officer for the first time was that he looked like a Nazi doorman.

_______________
"Yep. That's a cow fetus."

OKKAY

Friday, January 23, 2004 8:23 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Momaw:
It's in the script. Buffyscripts.com or some such. I haven't read this one yet. When you find it, do a search for:

INT. COUNCILOR'S HOUSE - NIGHT

And you'll find the cut scene.

It's buffyscripts.net

I don't remember if this has been said, but on one of the commentaries I believe Joss or Tim mention that the Alliance is basically what would happen if corporations took over the government or something like that. Now I don't know what that means exactly, I don't know anything about business or politics, but that's what I got.

HOTPOINT

Friday, January 23, 2004 8:36 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Okkay:
I don't remember if this has been said, but on one of the commentaries I believe Joss or Tim mention that the Alliance is basically what would happen if corporations took over the government or something like that. Now I don't know what that means exactly, I don't know anything about business or politics, but that's what I got.

This is a bit of a crossover from something I posted on another thread. If we stick by the idea that the Alliance is a state run for and by corporations then you can strike up an interesting political parallel with some sections of British Imperial history

The British in India were initially there in a business orientated fashion as the East India Company. Later the Empire was formalised as the Government and the East India Company became so entwined that British Government Troops were involved in upholding British Corporate interests

How about this idea. Initially the Alliance (or its component companies) were in the terraforming business but eventually they coopted the government and the division between State and Corporations ceased to exist. Why not directly rule your investments by force of arms if necessary?

Informal Business becomes Formal Empire as it did in British India

Any thoughts?

...................................
Hurrah, hurrah, when things are at their worst
With cries of “Death or Glory” comes the mighty Twenty-First

DRAKON

Saturday, January 24, 2004 11:47 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by Saint Jayne:
Quote:
Originally posted by Drakon:
There is a cut scene where Inara visits the Councilor at her home.

You know much, Drakon. Where is this little pearl of knowledge from? Have you seen this clip? Maybe you swept the cutting room floor?

I've been going through the shooting scripts over at buffyscripts.net and have found them fasinating, full of little nuggets of information and humor.

For this one, goto:
http://www.buffyscripts.net
select shows, then Firefly, and pick War Stories.
The scene in question is between Niska putting his pet on Mal, and the scene where Zoe and Wash are getting ready to go back in.

What can I say. We need more episodes. Maybe it ain't kosher for scrounging around the scripts like this, but dammit, I need more Firefly.

[In this case, and I have no inside knowledge, I don't think the scene was ever shot. It required additional set, an extra actor, and only marginally moves the story along. But I still like it.]

"Wash, where is my damn spaceship?"

DRAKON

Saturday, January 24, 2004 11:52 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by Fortunatus:

Well, we've seen plenty of Alliance personnel. They sure dress and act like bargain basement Nazis. The corrupt cop from The Message could easily be a member of the Gestapo, and the Alliance soldier Zoe kills in the flashback is flat-out wearing a WWII Nazi helmet. My first thought when seeing an Alliance officer for the first time was that he looked like a Nazi doorman.

Fashion sense aside, the corrupt cop did not remind me so much of the Gestapo, but some of the stories about the Pinkerton Agency just after the Civil war. Those guys operated pretty much independently, and were pretty nast at times.

"Wash, where is my damn spaceship?"

AMBIDANGEROUS

Saturday, January 24, 2004 12:30 PM

I do not see the Alliance as Nazis. The Nazis were far, far more frightening; the Alliance just seems to be a big, uncaring, bureaucratic machine.

(Watching the DVD, and learning a bit more of the history of the show, my wife and I thought the Joss with Firefly vs. Big TV Network ran sort of parallel to Mal with Serenity vs. the Alliance.)

I partially agree with the above posts implying the Alliance is some out of control megacorporation; actually, my take on it is, there exist out of control megacorporations, and the Alliance is more or less a puppet government designed to keep the riff raff (Simon, for instance) from interfering with their plans (scrambling someone's brains, for instance).

Oh, and greetings, everyone, I'm new here ;-)

SAINT JAYNE

Saturday, January 24, 2004 5:03 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Drakon:
I've been going through the shooting scripts over at buffyscripts.net and have found them fasinating, full of little nuggets of information and humor.

For this one, goto:
http://www.buffyscripts.net

Excellent Drakon, thanks. I'll have something to read on my way to work.

HKCAVALIER

Saturday, January 24, 2004 7:50 PM

It's great to see all this renewed interest in all things Firefly since the DVD came out!

I've always liked to contrast the governmental structure in the Firefly universe with the one in good ol' Star Trek. In Star Trek we have what I would call "endgame socialism." There's no money, everybody does what they want and no one worries about healthcare or tax cuts or much of anything really--very utopian. Whereas, Firefly shows us "endgame capitalism." The Earth is depleted of all its resources ("used up") and the gulf between rich and poor becomes literally astronomical as corporations in need of new markets and new "third worlds" to exploit terraform whole planets to that end. Why else would you go to all the expense of terraforming a whole damn planet only to drop a few people on it and watch them struggle just to survive? Not at all cost effective unless your system depends on desperate people who will allow themselves to be exploited just to feel like they have a future. Look what's happening in the U.S. today with relatively afluent americans moving as quickly as they can away from the lowest paying jobs while desperate people from much poorer countries come here and gladly take whatever menial work we have to offer. And with the WTO and Bush's plans for legalizing illegal aliens our nation's dependancy on cheap foreign labor will only grow, until there's no where left.

I think this is the gravest argument against free market capitalism, actually, because it is a fundamentally short-sighted system dependant upon constant expansion (profit) just to function. It looks wonderful and shiny now but what are we gonna do down the line as our world gets smaller and smaller? What happens when there are no more markets into which to expand? Sadly it looks like the current answer is to declare war and create new markets by destroying existing infrastructures.

HKCavalier

Hey, hey, hey, don't be mean. We don't have to be mean, because, remember, no matter where you go, there you are.

ZEKE023

Monday, January 26, 2004 2:22 PM

It's the "Anglo-Sino Alliance" (or something like that) - American and Chinese governments. There were two gvoernments that merged - we know that much. The alliance was born out of the American and Chinese governments - at its root.

But what did it become?

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