Firefly 1 of 10 Most Influential Space Western

POSTED BY: Haken
UPDATED: Monday, November 30, 2009 11:43
VIEWED: 9307
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BYTEMITE

Wednesday, October 28, 2009 4:17 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by ecgordon:
Star Wars and Star Trek are the only ones on the list that really belong. I'm not familiar with Star Craft, so maybe, but Alien was Space Horror, BSG was based on religious allegory, and B5 based on cold war intrigue. Cowboy Bebop definitely should have been considered, along with Outlaw Star.

wo men ren ran zai fei xing.

Star Craft was not a sci-fi western. It was regular sci-fi, with humans colonies cut off from their homeworld at war with each other and two separate alien species.

While a number of Terran (human) units had rustic accents, perhaps even to the extent that some of the units were derogatory charicatures of "rednecks," there were no horses, and it was hardly a story about the frontier, lawlessness, cowboys, bandits, settlers/pioneers, explorers, and hard living in rugged lands beyond infighting between the colonized worlds.

Again, not a western, and any list that includes it as such is questionable. ...As well as any list that includes Aliens, BSG, and Babylon 5 as sci-fi western. They were really stretching with the western elements and comparisons they make.

IMNOTHERE

Wednesday, October 28, 2009 5:35 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by asarian:
And the only other real space Western that leaps to mind, Outland, isn't even mentioned!

Talking of "actual classic Western plots re-made as SF", don't forget "Battle Beyond the Stars"!

Meanwhile, in the "I wouldn't call them Space Westerns but they're more like Space Westerns than fracking BSG" category, we have:

"Pitch Black"/"Chronicles of Riddick"
"Blake's 7"
"Farscape"
"Star Cops"*
"Andromeda"

(*brilliant but short-lived BBC show from the 80s, doubly blighted by with "Worst. Title. Ever." and "whoops - we wasted the entire budget getting the Moody Blues to do the signature tune" - not to be confused with "Space Precinct").

ASARIAN

Wednesday, October 28, 2009 6:50 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by greendaale:
Vote Josh for President of Fox

"It’s JOSS. Not Josh. It’s not a typo, that extra ’s’. No ’h’. K ?" -- Jewel Staite

--
"Mei-mei, everything I have is right here." -- Simon Tam

TESKA

Wednesday, October 28, 2009 6:58 PM

well i'll drink to stupid countdowns that hardly make sense, apparently they were drunker than i am by 5. Aliens? Really?

People who put cutesy political quotes in their signature should be tortured and fed their own family and/or pets.

BYTEMITE

Wednesday, October 28, 2009 7:08 PM

Just five? Y'all must be drinking everclear.

STORYMARK

Wednesday, October 28, 2009 8:17 PM

Some of those are really off base, but I can buy Aliens as a Western.

There really aren't any other genres with Homesteaders getting wiped out by hostile natives, with the cavalry rushing in to clean up.

"I thoroughly disapprove of duels. If a man should challenge me, I would take him kindly and forgivingly by the hand and lead him to a quiet place and kill him."

BYTEMITE

Wednesday, October 28, 2009 8:26 PM

It's more the miners that I thought was a stretch, it's not at all like 19th century prospecting. Maybe the homesteader interpretation works, but I'm still not sold, and I still think it's a bit of a stretch. I think it's more that there are surface-deep similarities, rather than Aliens is a Sci-Fi Horror Western.

STORYMARK

Wednesday, October 28, 2009 8:51 PM

Miners or homesteaders, works either way.

And of course it's not like 19th century prospecting.... it's a metaphor. Not everything chooses to push the juxtaposition quite as obviously as Firefly.

"I thoroughly disapprove of duels. If a man should challenge me, I would take him kindly and forgivingly by the hand and lead him to a quiet place and kill him."

BYTEMITE

Wednesday, October 28, 2009 9:10 PM

If the western elements exist only as a metaphor, is it a western, or is it a metaphor for pioneers/settlers, miners, and 19th century fears of Indian abduction?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_fiction
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science_fiction_Western
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Western

I think to be considered a western, the western elements have to be overt. Just some guy calling himself a "space cowboy" doesn't make a show a sci-fi western. The most recent episode of Castle is not a sci-fi western because Castle dressed up as Mal and called himself a space-cowboy.

In Firefly, Mal IS a space cowboy in the sci-fi western sense, because he was at one point a rancher, and now actually wrangles cattle (sometimes) on a spaceship. Firefly and Serenity are an example of both Space Westerns AND Sci-Fi Westerns.

Star Trek, Star Wars, and Aliens seem to be Space Westerns only, because they do not put futuristic technology anachronistically juxtaposed with primitive wild-west settings and storylines. That is, assuming the western elements in those are strong enough to be considered western, I still think it's a stretch.

TESKA

Thursday, October 29, 2009 12:35 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by Bytemite:
Just five? Y'all must be drinking everclear.

I'm an alcoholic, not a frat boy, I start drinkin' when I wake up.

And I love Everclear, it makes the bad things go away.

People who put cutesy political quotes in their signature should be tortured and fed their own family and/or pets.

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