Out of Gas and Gravity
POSTED BY: Ixian
UPDATED: Tuesday, September 12, 2006 22:39
VIEWED: 10890
PAGE 3 of 4
Quote:
Originally posted by Ixian:
My first post here and I thought I'd open with a question that has bugged me since I first watched this incredible show:
In Out of Gas, an episode that usually makes it in to the "top two" for most fans, we see the effects of Serenity losing most of it's power and life support. However, what about gravity? Obviously, the show's budget wasn't going to allow for any floating about inside the ship for an extended period, but was it ever explained? You'd think with both the engine and life support going out, to the point where there was no more air being produced nor heat that there wouldn't be gravity either, but it's ignored. The ship is even shown a couple times sitting bone-still in space. Was this ever explained or is it just one of those things we have to chalk up to creative license?
As Fletch2 said, don't worry about it. Firefly is character driven, not tech driven like Star Trek nor is it action driven like everything else.
That isn't to say that other things aren't good. Just that when it comes to tech in the Firefly 'Verse, sometimes, you just have to accept it and move on.
For that matter, I didn't even notice this until it was brought up on this site a while back. That ep doesn't exactly lend itself to paying attention to the tech. More along the lines of "Oh crap!" every few seconds/minutes. Quite an emotional roller-coaster ride.
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I am on The List. We are The Forsaken and we aim to burn!
"We don't fear the reaper"
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Welcome Ixian:
I see plenty of people in posts before mine have pondered the gravity issue so I'll bypass that and just welcome you to our verse.
I hope you have more questions, as you see it gets us thinking and that is one of the nice things about this fansite.
Traveler
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In Serenity (the pilot episode) they talk about taking on gravity "supplies", so it's entirely possible that it's some sort of uberdense radioactive substance (or something) that slowly degenerates over time, lessening the effect and meaning they need to take on more radioactive stuff.
It would also explain why it was still there in OOG and Bushwhacked: there's no electrical charge involved, and so no dependence on electrical power.
Although now I think about it, that would make taking off extremely difficult, as the substance would attract planets' surfaces as well, resulting in seriously weird (and probably dangerous, thanks to loose rocks) effects as a ship takes off, if it could even must enough propulsion to counteract the extra gravity produced by the ship. Meh, I tried. But the need to take on gravity supplies as a discrete commodity still stands.
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No, THIS is what going mad feels like.
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Quote:
Originally posted by Meenol:
In Serenity (the pilot episode) they talk about taking on gravity "supplies",
Um, when?
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I am on The List. We are The Forsaken and we aim to burn!
"We don't fear the reaper"
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Gravity supplies is never mentioned in the pilot.
More insane ramblings by the people who brought you beeeer milkshakes!
No one can see their reflection in running water. It is only in still water that we can see.
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Grrr... "grab any supplies" -> "gravity supplies"
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No, THIS is what going mad feels like.
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i like that your sig ties into your comment meenol 
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jailbait.
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Actually, I think the whole gravity issue would make an excellent deus ex machina for future episodes. If you want to strand Serenity at a location while events play out, just have the gravity modulator on the fritz.
The reason is that Serenity travels from planet to planet in a matter of days therefore it must be travelling at relativistic velocities (say 0.1-0.2 c). The only way that a human could survive the acceleration needed to get a Firefly class transport up to that speed is if the gravity modulator was countering the crushing accleration g-forces. No grav, no go.
www.cpfc.org - my life
www.nbhs.school.nz - my work
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Surely it would be a mcguffin?
I think it's stated that Serenity travels at 1% of lightspeed (so 0.01c), she can also take upwards of a month to travel between worlds. In Safe we know the time between Serenity taking on cattle from Persephone in Shindig and off loading them on Jiangyin is three weeks from Mal's line:
"Cattle on the ship three weeks, she don't go near 'em. Suddenly, we're on Jiangyin and she's got a driving need to commune with the beasts?"
Given that the planets of the Verse are going to be quite packed in (most of the evidence points to a single system with one star) journey times may be quite short with nothing faster than a drive like the VASIMR.
More insane ramblings by the people who brought you beeeer milkshakes!
No one can see their reflection in running water. It is only in still water that we can see.
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All ships of Firefly class and larger have 'grav plates' in the lowest decks, they consist of a gravity simulating matter that exerts pull in all directions, and is controlled by the ship's power so as not to attract objects to the ship's hull. While a loss of power is potentially troublesome in this area, it has no effect on the gravity-producing material.
Note in the pilot that when cargo was brought onboard, it was in a seemingly zero-G state. The 'grav neutralizers' had to be switched OFF to regain gravity in the hold, and the crates came down to the floor.
That's my guess, and yes, I'm a Treknobabble fan.
Chrisisall
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