Refining the canon timeline
POSTED BY: jewelstaitefan
UPDATED: Monday, April 13, 2015 02:54
VIEWED: 13564
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I would like to propose a refinement of the timeline which has been used or referred to as the timeline of our verse.
I do not intend to imply that this will be canon, but that we can try to look at the canon references in a way that does not make them conflict in terms of time passage or linearity.
I like puzzles and generally dislike disharmony. I notice many people refer to the timeline of canon as conflicting, and sometimes it seems like an albatross around our necks. I think perhaps many have succembed quickly to the idea that, like the original Star Trek Stardate screwups, that our verse was irrevocably also inconsistent. I think we have a relatively small amount of conflicts to work out, and we may be able to eliminate or moderate all or most of the percieved conflicts.
I know that a timeline has been posted at http://www.mts.net/~arphaxad/firefly.html and many refer to it. From what I can tell, a possible problem which came about in this timeline creation was that most or all of the percieved conflicts arose in the episodes, and then some time elapsed before BDM, so any possible errors became somewhat cemented, and then later when BDM came out, further times were added, but any initial errors were already kind of set in place, resulting in time references in the episodes being given more weight. But what if the BDM really isn't conflicting with the timeline, and all of the time references in the series and BDM are fairly compliant if we consider all references to be of equal value instead of episodic references having more weight.
Then we may learn some things from conclusions that come about.
It may take me a while to complete this first post or few, so please be patient and then read the entire concept - some of the ideas might be complex or intially confusing.
I do not need to initially get into standardized calendar or time, which would be required in this verse.
When done, I ask that any glaring errors or remaining conflicts be pointed out, in case I missed them.
First, here are the key references to passage of time in our verse. Let us at first assume that all of these are accurate as individual items, and fairly accurate and precise, and then I'll progress from there.
1. River is 16 in the escape scene (BDM script).
2. River-in-the-Box is 17. (Pilot script)
3. Ep1 Broadcast intro states the the year is 2517. I have not seen this, but many people have referred to it, so I assume this is the case. Please correct me if wrong.
4. Ep1 Inara says she has been aboard 8 months. This is in casual conversation with Book, she does not say "let me think, it's been... 8 months" as if calculating so, but a seemingly casual time reference. (The Train Job script)
5. Ep2 Commander states Inara has been aboard Serenity for a year, Inara replies in a few weeks. Assuming few equals 2-4 weeks, this would indicate more than 11 months. (Bushwhacked)
6. Ep3 Episode lasts 4 days, they get the herd. (Shindig)
7. Ep4 Herd has apparently been aboard 3 weeks, possible a month. (Safe)
8. Ep4 Simon says to Mal he and River have been aboard "more than 2 months". (Safe)
9. Ep5 The only specific date in this verse actually given, Inara scheduling arrival on Beaumonde on 24 October, and this episode starts on Triumph Settlement on about 17 or 18 Oct, and they will be in Beaumonde until at least 7 Nov - or so Mal states to Inara. (Our Mrs. Reynolds script)
10. Ep6 Will deliver the goods by the end of the week. (Jaynestown)
11. Ep7 Will take another week to get to Greenleaf. (Out of Gas)
12. Ep8 Inara's annual Companion Exam. (Ariel)
13. Ep9 Inara is with the Councilor. (War Stories)
14. Ep10 Inara says she hasn't had a client in 3 weeks. (Trash)
15. Ep10 Mal says to Monty "half year back" he got married to Saffron. This is said while looking down Saffron's pistol barrel and holding his pistol on her. (Trash)
16. Those Left Behind, Inara is not dropped off yet, nor Book. Mal says he's on the way to dropping off Inara.
17. Sere
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Here are the primary conflicts I've detected.
One reference I have not included is River's translated Date of Birth, from the warrant's chinese translation posted elsewhere. It says River was born 19 Dec 2500, was enrolled at academy 25 Aug 2515, and escaped in Jun 2518. This does not mesh with the broadcast intro date of 2517, being after River's escape. Even if it was the date of the Warrant's issuance, the show and BDM does not span into Jun 2518. Also, River's age of 17 would not occur before October 2517. Therefore this data does not conform with any other canon data, perhaps the prop guy didn't consult with Joss, although there is a way the prop guy could have gotten these numbers.
Many of the references are fairly set, being specified in script. Others are quotes from characters.
Non-character quotes, fairly clear and precise:
1, 2, 3, 9, 12, 13, 16, 18.
Not much to argue about with these, it seems.
Character quotes:
4, 5, 6/7, 8, 10, 11, 14, 15, 17, 19, 20, 21.
Let's assume that the references 6 & 7 amount to a month of time. This seems generally agreed upon.
Number 8 is a fairly clear indication that Simon and River have been aboard at least 2 months, which is since the Pilot. If it were 2 months and 1 day, Simon might say it like this, but not if less than 2 months - doesn't seem like Simon's way of talking. But it could be 2 months and 3 weeks. Simon seems to have thought this out, counting days or months, not a highly vague time reference.
Kaylee is mentioned because some consider the time from Pilot to BDM to span more than a year. If Kaylee had gotten some (assuming she's not referring to fruit, vegetables, or lubricated engine rods) in the time since meeting Simon in the Pilot, I have a hard time figuring that the script wouldn't have dealt with this or mentioned that she had a fling while pining for Simon.
Items 4&5 indicate Inara saying that there is a 3-4 month span between these 2 consecutive episodes.
The Train Job has Book seeming very new to Serenity, and Simon first introduces River to Mal (script only, not in final cut), so this is only a day or so after the Pilot, surely less than a week.
The Message, Objects in Space, and Heart of Gold could take place in a span of a week or a month.
We know from the BDM that Haven and Training House are a few hours apart, so we have no reason to think Book and Inara did not debark about the same time.
If we assume the quotes are exact and accurate in #4, 5, 15, then from Pilot + Inara's 3-4 months + 1 month + Mal's 6 months + 3 months (for last 3 episodes and TLB) = 13-14 months from Pilot to BDM. This conflicts with #1, 2, 18, 19, 20.
The conflicts:
1. Inara TTJ-BW 3-4 months plus a month in 6&7 =4-5 months versus Simon saying 2 months from Pilot to Safe.
2. Inara TTJ-BW 3-4 months plus a month in 6&7 OR Mal 6 months #15 versus River is 17 in both Pilot (#2) and BDM (#18).
3. Inara TTJ-BW 3-4 months plus a month in 6&7 OR Mal 6 months #15 versus #20 Mal says River & Simon aboard 8 months (spanning from Pilot to BDM).
These last 2 mean that adding about 3 months during the last 3 episodes and Those Left Behind add up to more than a year between Pilot and BDM.
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Here are some potential resolutions of the above conflicts.
Let's consider that #4, 5, 15, and 20 are not really precise and exacting time spans.
In # 20, Mal is angry and if he could have easily meant 8 months and 3 weeks, or even close to 9 months, but for the flow of words would have just a=said "8 months", effectively meaning to us "more than 8 months" but likely less than 9 months.
In #15, Mal is in a tense draw-down and says "half year back" which probably did not mean 182.5 days exactly. Since he was referring to marriage to Saffron, this could sort of drag on the time, so that if it was only 4 or 5 months back, it might likely seem like a half year. Also, "half year" could reasonably mean 5, 6, or 7 months anyhow. I would not be surprised that 8 or 9 months of marriage to Saffron would seem like "a year" to Mal.
Our biggest conflict with time is the 2 Inara quotes. In #4, she mentions in casual conversation to Book that she's been aboard 8 months and still doesn't know Mal. Not only could this easily mean 8 months and 3 weeks, but since she's having fun with Kaylee and Mal, this could be a case of time-flies-when-you're-having-fun and the last time she thought about the months it was at least 8 months, but maybe it's actually 9 or 10 months since she's been aboard. This sort of discrepancy alone could cut our 3-4 month span from TTJ to Bushwhacked down to a week or so.
However, #5 is particularly interesting, perhaps. The Commander says Inara has been aboard a year. Inara conters with "in a few weeks" while looking somewhat demure. This is generally assumed to mean about 11.5 months. However, perhaps Inara is just demurring to the Commander's error. Maybe he was trying to trip her up by intentionally saying a year when the records show 10 months, and then she is "being polite" by not rudely exposing his error in math or calendar calculation. This could easily mean that in Bushwhacked she was only aboard 10 or 11 months, which also narrows the time span from TTJ to Bushwahcked to perhaps a week. Another possibility is that the Commander is looking at official records, and perhaps those records really show that she's been aboard for moe months than she actually has been, so she mostly agrees. We do not know the reasons, situation, conditions, or circumstances regarding her departure fro Madrassa House. Perhaps just such a forging of records is the reason she was seeking out a disreputable ship like Serenity, where captain and crew wouldn't snub their noses at falsifying Offical Records which some Alliance beaurocrat could salivate over. This also could crunch this tiem span.
These are several reasons, but they all could account for only a week gap from The Train Job to Bushwhacked.
Possible resolutions:
A. River ages 9 months Pilot-BDM.
1. TLB = 2 months, Series = 7 months.
2. River on 2 months at beginning of Safe.
3. Mal means 4 months when he says "half year back", spanning OMR to Trash. (Trash is 6 months after Pilot).
4. Episodes 11, 12, 13 in the final weeks remaining in the timeline.
Conflict: Inara's statements.
B. River ages less than 1 year from Pilot to BDM.
1. River aboard 2 months at beginning of Safe.
2. Mal means 6 months when he says "half year back". (Trash is 8 months after Pilot).
3. Episodes 11, 12, 13 span a month, making the series span 9 months.)
4. TLB is 2-3 months, making 11-12 months from Pilot to BDM.
Conflict: Inara's statements, Mal's "8 months" in BDM.
C. Inara is exactly correct and the span from TTJ to BW is 3-4 months.
1. TTJ "8 months could be 8-9 months, BW "few weeks less than a year" could be 11 to almost 12 months.
2. With a month of Shindig and hauling the herd, Safe occurs 4-5 months after Pilot.
3. Mal means 6 months from OMR to Trash. (Trash occurs 10-11 months after Pilot).
4. Episodes 11-13 span a month. (series spans 11-12 months).
5. TLB span 2-3 months, making a 13-16 month span from Pilot to BDM.
Conflicts: River's ages stated in scripts, Simon's "2 months" in Safe, Kaylee's "going on a year..."
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Here is a revised timeline using a suggested resolution.
Pilot - Mid August 2517.
The Train Job - Mid August 2517.
Bushwhacked - Late August/Early Sept 2517.
Shindig - Mid September 2517.
Safe - Mid October 2517.
Our Mrs. Reynolds - Oct 18, leave Beaumonde 7 Nov 2517.
Jaynestown - deliver goods 14 Nov 2517 or later.
Out of Gas - arrive Greenleaf 21 Nov 2517 or later.
Ariel - Mid Dec 2517 or early Jan 2518.
War Stories - Mid/late Jan 2518.
Trash - Mid Feb 2518.
Message, Heart of Gold, Objects in Space - mid Feb into early March 2518.
Those Left Behind - Late Feb or Early March 2518.
Serenity, BDM - Early May 2518.
If this is the case, we find that River's 17th birthday was between the escape and River-in-the-Box aboard Serenity, and she's a few months short of her 18th birthday in BDM.
This would make Mal's "8 months aboard" in BDM a tad less than 9 months; his "half year back" in Trash would be about 4 months of suffering under Safron's marriage; and Inara came aboard sometime between Late August 2516 and Mid Jan 2517.
If Inara disembarks Mid March 2818 then she was aboard about 14-19 months, so Sheydra saying she was aboard "a year" would be a reasonable abbreviation of phrase.
Unification Day is Mid-August.
OK, I think I got this completed, hope it makes sense.
If this basic central timeline is accepted, all of the remainder of time references can be re-aligned to this.
If you all accept any of this, or like it, then you may consider this to be my Christmas gift to Fireflyfans.
Another revised timeline is in post #17 on 2 Jan.
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I think this is great work and a delightful Christmas present, so thanks!
I would tend to consider Inara a more precise person than Mal, so I might give more credence to her figures. A possible get-out fo rtiming irregularities is that Inara may consider "time aboard" precisely that--i.e., if she takes a three-week assignment with a client, she deducts that from the time on Serenity.
And as for movie timing, there's the (no doubt apocryphal) Einstein definition of the theory of relativity as an hour seeming like a minute when you sit and talk to a pretty girl--and a minute seems like an hour when you sit on a hot stove! No doubt for Kaylee, time seems longer when you're battery-dependent.
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I'm pretty much in agreement with your conclusion. I base my timeline theory pretty much on what you did: OMR date, Inara telling Book how long she was on Serenity, Mal's statement to Simon in the BDM, Inara's statement to Jubal Early.
Unlike other timelines I've seen, I don't dismiss Mal's contention of 8 months and, like you, I think it closer to 8.5 to almost 9 months. The Operative also states that 8 months ago Simon rescued his sister which reinforces Mal's time estimate. As for the "half a year back" in OMR, this seems to be a casual reference and not as concrete as the 8 months statement so I regard it as Mal just jabbering.
Also, regarding Inara's statement in BW, the Commander says something like she shipped out on Serenity a year ago. I think she left Sihnon a year ago but has been on Serenity for 8ish months. Thus, we have a 3-4 month gap for Inara which could play in with her mysterious past.
A few differences, I came up with July 14 as U-Day. No particular reason except it's Bastille Day. As a consequence, I have the BDM occurring the week spanning the end of March/early April 2518. Inara leaves 2 months prior and Book leaves shortly after her.
Thank you for your timeline. I love reading stuff like this.
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Thanks for reading it and making sense of it.
I didn't get everything from my head into it, but tried.
I figured that Inara is very precise with her scheduling, but with the hanging around Kaylle and such, more lenient in casual conversation. I still felt she meant more than 8 months but less than 9 months when she said 8 months to Book, but I included the option as a point to consider.
When off with a client, she is still renting the shuttle, so I don't see that time being discounted. She might be recalling she made her 8th rent payment.
I think the strongest likelihood of subtrefuge is her exchange with Commander Harkin. This could be the source of much speculation, whether she chose Serenity so they would forge her records, or she delayed between Madrassa House and Serenity. Perhaps her record show that she left the House before she actually did, so that she officailly was not there when something occurred just before she boarded Serenity. Her high society niceties would preclude her from outright disagreeing or arguing against an Alliance Commander.
In one end of Inara's range of boarding possibilities, she could have come aboard in late Dec or early Jan, and it could have been shortly after her last Companion Exam, which would put Ariel one year later - and perhaps the Exam itself was the reason for her leaving Madrassa House, and for records showing she left months before the Exam took place.
If she boarded Serenity earlier, then she would have been aboard up to several months before she had her Exam. Some people have argued that this would be an inconsistency due to the conversations among the crew and Inara in Ariel, however it would be less likely that she would have shared much of this with a newly aquainted crew, and they also would have been less likely to butt in and get nosey with such a high society Registered Companion when only knowing her a few months at most. Ariel takes place right after Out of Gas, and that sort of bonding experience plus the Pilot and other episodic shared experiences where she kinda told Mal what to do helped them all become closer, so inquiring about her Exam peculiars would seem less nosey - and this is why I discount that argument. It could go either way, without much evidence for or against.
Anyhow, I thought that another summary would be that Inara was the most recent addition, with Jayne likely just before her (but still possibly after), and KayLee was before that. Bester was before Wash, but they were both very early on after Mal bought Serenity and showed Zoe.
I had hoped this might serve as a reference tool for those who found it believable.
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I was also reading the Companion books, and Joss mentioned that OiS was originally before Trash and Message, but he put it at the end of the DVD sequence because they thought OiS summarized the show better than the rest (I disagree, thought The Message did better).
There would be room for OiS there as well.
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I get the feeling (purely feeling here - no facts) that Jayne came on board after Inara. The first indication is that in OoG, his flashback is after Inara and it seems that the flashbacks were in chronological order. Another is that the way he spoke to M&Z in Serenity after they left Badger's. He said something about signin' on the crew which led me to believe that he was fairly new.
I looked over my timeline notes (yes, I've actually applied my timeline ideas to an Excel spreadsheet!!). I had originally come up with an August date for U-Day which coincides nicely with yours. I have Inara signing on with Serenity in late December 2516, early January 2517 and Jayne coming on several months after.
I don't really agree with the other timelines I've seen, you linked to one but there is another out there, as they seem to stretch out the timeframe Serenity to BDM to at least one year which clearly ignores Mal's 8 months statement.
I'm glad you posted your timeline because now I don't feel so off base.
Just out of curiousity, when do you see Mal buying Serenity?
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Quote:
Originally posted by jewelstaitefan:
Here are the primary conflicts I've detected.
One reference I have not included is River's translated Date of Birth, from the warrant's chinese translation posted elsewhere. It says River was born 19 Dec 2500, was enrolled at academy 25 Aug 2515, and escaped in Jun 2518. This does not mesh with the broadcast intro date of 2517, being after River's escape.
We went over this a long time ago already. But that's the natural turn of the worlds, I guess: all of this has happened before, and all of this will happen again. :)
River was born on December 19, 2500. Correct.
August 25, 2515, still being fourteen, is the date River entered the Acadamy. Correct.
But River did NOT escape June 2518. The discovered data pad clearly reads:
"Subject was removed without authorization from Area 54 in 2516."
So, Simon rescued her in 2516. We can reasonably assume late 2516, as it's doubtful he would be lugging around that huge box for all too long (he boards Serenity in 2517). June 4, 2518 -- the only date on the datapad that has no immediate attribution -- is likely the date at the time the Operative is holding the data pad (= when the BDM plays). But it's clearly NOT the date River escaped.
The latter gives more clues as to another important question: how long time elapsed between Firefly and Serenity? At least the BDM cannot take place much before June 4, 2518. Which is a very plausible date, because if the BDM indeed takes place around June 4, 2518, then River is also STILL "a traumatized seventeen-year-old girl" at the time! It fits perfectly.
June 4, 2518 clashes somewhat with Captain's "Eight months. Eight months, you had her on my boat." Unless Simon boarded Serenity only late 2517. But that would mean Simon had been hauling his box around/been in transit for a good ten months!
Anyway, for those interested in reading more about it, here's the original thread:
http://www.fireflyfans.net/thread.asp?b=2&t=25894
In that thread, LVS2READ pointed out that the pilot begins in late May 2517. Which makes Kaylee's "We're going on a year now" most accurate, if the BDM indeed takes place around June 4, 2518!
--
"Mei-mei, everything I have is right here." -- Simon Tam
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