Outer space names/things in Firefly & the real world

POSTED BY: JaynezTown
UPDATED: Sunday, August 15, 2004 09:11
VIEWED: 6499
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ANNIK

Sunday, August 8, 2004 5:14 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by TenthCrewMember:
Alright, I will give you the that the last 500 years, pretty big in human advancement. But what is to say the next 500 go that way? Look at 1000 to 1500 A.D.

Lesee...guns aside...sailpower to ummm sailpower, flat earth to flat earth (okay 1492 et al but 492 years is closer to 500 than not), death by age 20 to amputation of afflicted limbs (ooh, you might make 35! if the plague didn't get you...), etc etc. They didn't call the Dark ages the Dark ages because of a lengthy solar eclipse. :)

It's only called the "Dark Ages" by people who don't actually study history. There was a great deal going on in the period you mention, too.

A few off the top of my head: we had major cross-continental treks related to property disputes in the then-called Holy Land. Marco Polo headed off to the far East, bringing back smoking, noodles, and paper money to the West. The plague didn't really get going until this period (1300s or so), and it continued until well into the 1800s.

China developed rocketry and even multi-stage rockets, and moveable type during this period. (They had already discovered things like the circulation of blood and the first seismographs *hundreds* of years before this period.

Vikings make it to Nova Scotia (Canada) and Polynesians to New Zealand around year 1000. Around 500 years later Columbus fails to find India but does find part of what later becomes the Americas.

In England, the Magna Carta is signed. In the later part of this period, moveable type is invented in Germany by Gutenberg.

In Mexico, the Aztecs build their great civilisation. In India, Guru Nanak founded the Sikh faith.

I'm of the opinion that rather a lot of very important activities went on during these periods, background work for the boom that went on in the later period of 1500 to 2000. And just because one civilisation is in decline, it doesn't mean that all civilisations are in decline.

Cheers,
Annik
... my sister's a ship. We had a complicated childhood.

JAYNEZTOWN

Sunday, August 8, 2004 5:37 PM

I wonder if the Alliance right now, is a civilisation on the way up or on the brink of falling down ?

For those of you who had a glance at the production Artwork I think there could be a few revelations on firefly

We know what our own planets are called both in English and Chinese, my Chinese ain't perfect but Venus I think is know as the silver star 金星 While Jupiter would be the big-planet 木星

Select to view spoiler:

...If you've had a look at the pic production art work which was on this site a few days back but got pulled because of 'Alliance'
You would have seen a Planet which looked very much like Mars appear not once but twice, and it seems to be part of the Core

I also recall reading the name 'Miranda' which happens to be a moon within our own solar system

I think it is still very much open to debate the puropose of Allaince are, what the Blue-Sun is amd where Firelfy is located, but there are little hints to say it is close to our own solar system

TENTHCREWMEMBER

Sunday, August 8, 2004 7:08 PM

Jayneztown, you reminded me of something...everyone look at the DVD covers (if you have them) especially the nice red planet beneath the DVD disc itself. Some of those objects in space look pretty conspicuous. But perhaps they decided to use already existing images instead of orginal art...

Yeah, I still jones on the idea that, even in the next 500 years, we'll still be stuck orbiting this ball of flaming gas we call the Sun...who knows, maybe science is not totally accurate and it will be blue in 2517.

Also, remember we now live in an age where big governments determine how quickly technology advances, and they only cater to special interest groups(whether that be the Communist party or M.A.D.D.) and lobbyists. Meaning, for example, the reliance of the world on petroleum for fuel, though there is proven science that provides for alternative fuel and power sources. Could we all drive solar powered cars right now? Certainly. But then all the fragile alliances with 3rd world oil producing nations goes kaput, and keeping people dependent on a product/service the gov't can control, keeps people dependent upon the gov't.

I see the Alliance as wanting to control everything it can, even though it doesn't *need* to, and policing ONE solar system w/o FTL travel is difficult enough, let alone two or more. Remember, U-day is a celebration of unification of planets (or worlds if you prefer), not systems or a galaxy, as the drunken local color so loudly professed.

I can't argue the logistics of terraforming as I haven't but the most rudimentary understanding of how one would do that, so I have to suspend my disbelief and say that in Firefly, they found a quick, though not perfect (Train Job) way of doing it, which could possibly include heating a core or creating a synthetic layer of atmosphere that creates a strong enough greenhouse effect to warm the planet and then breaks up leaving home sweet world (which might also explain why the border planets all look like something out of 'Rawhide' or 'Ponderosa'). So why travel 10 light years to "maybe" find planets worth doing it, when you have plenty here, that's all I am saying. It is the "feel" I get from watching the show.

I just think it makes for a better story in the end, but that's my opinion. Joss, by his own words doesn't like to do what everyone else is doing...everyone else does the galaxy far far away. :) Maybe I am right, maybe I am wrong, but it is what the show "says" to me, and I will never claim we are all meant to get the same thing from watching the show, nor should we be, other than it is gorramn fine original entertainment! :)

S-"That's not much."
M-"It's enough."

oh, and what is to say Jupiter (a gas giant) doesn't turn star (a flaming ball of gas) naturally (or aided by science) in a hypotheitical future...and our system suddenly has two suns...maybe one of then blue...

Food for thought and discussion. Dig in! :)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
BROWNCOATS! Rise again and promote Firefly/Serenity!
visit: http://the11thhour.home.att.net

SAMURAIX47

Monday, August 9, 2004 1:41 AM

Using a pic of Mars for artwork is a lot cheaper than paying someone for an original piece of artwork to adorn a DVD box set. The Mars pic is probably provided free of charge from Nasa or JPL. Royalties for art can cut into profits. Also some of the special effects companies will use actual space images like Hubble pics and planet pics for. The guys that did the FX for Babylon 5 and Voyager, Foundation Imaging, would often use images of stellar nebulas in the background for space scenes.

So don't take the fact that Mars is on the DVD set to mean that the setting for Firefly is in our solar system. Most ordinary people wouldn't even recognize that it's Mars.

Arthur C Clarke in 2010 did turn Jupiter into a star...

Jaymes

TENTHCREWMEMBER

Monday, August 9, 2004 5:49 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by SamuraiX47:
Using a pic of Mars for artwork is a lot cheaper than paying someone for an original piece of artwork to adorn a DVD box set.

Very true.

Quote:
So don't take the fact that Mars is on the DVD set to mean that the setting for Firefly is in our solar system. Most ordinary people wouldn't even recognize that it's Mars.

Just saying it raises the question, is all. :) And yeah, some people wouldn't even know the moon if it fell on them. LOL

Quote:
Arthur C Clarke in 2010 did turn Jupiter into a star...

I was wondering if anyone else would remember that...imagine how a star, suddenly on the other side of Earth would really wreak havoc. The gravity well, the heat, the almost constant light...did I mention gravity well? Two suns pulling on one Earth...not so hunkydori as in the movie. End up more like Alderaan most likely. ;)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
BROWNCOATS! Rise again and promote Firefly/Serenity!
visit: http://the11thhour.home.att.net

JAYNEZTOWN

Wednesday, August 11, 2004 2:41 PM

I suppose one of the more clear and obvious things is how the Alliance commanders sometimes seem like Nazi or Imperial fascists

http://www.culturecourt.com/F/Nazi/Train.htm

http://www.japan-page.net/photo/tokyo5.asp

http://www.armymuseum.ru/rusc2_e.html

SAMURAIX47

Thursday, August 12, 2004 2:17 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by TenthCrewMember:
I was wondering if anyone else would remember that...imagine how a star, suddenly on the other side of Earth would really wreak havoc. The gravity well, the heat, the almost constant light...did I mention gravity well? Two suns pulling on one Earth...not so hunkydori as in the movie. End up more like Alderaan most likely. ;)

The Jupiter star wasn't any more massive than Jupiter's original mass... the black monoliths compressed Jupiter till the hydrogen core started fusion burning... since the planet/star was about the same mass the gravity from it was about the same... otherwise the moons would have gone out of their orbits.

Jaymes

TENTHCREWMEMBER

Thursday, August 12, 2004 5:22 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by SamuraiX47:
The Jupiter star wasn't any more massive than Jupiter's original mass... the black monoliths compressed Jupiter till the hydrogen core started fusion burning... since the planet/star was about the same mass the gravity from it was about the same... otherwise the moons would have gone out of their orbits.

Okay, well my Physics years are way behind me, but I think it is more complicated than that, becoming a star I mean. Sure mass has a lot to do with it, but so do magnetic fields created by energy and some other stuff, which is why the planets as far out as Pluto (and maybe farther) stay in orbit...otherwise if it were strictly Jupiter's mass, it wouldn't be all bright like in the movie, it'd be a cold blue star, at best, which...hey, I think I just agreed with you because you made my point, thanks! LOL

Again, not saying Firefly IS set in our Solar System, just saying certain things indicate it COULD BE... :)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
BROWNCOATS! Rise again and promote Firefly/Serenity!
visit: http://the11thhour.home.att.net

LADYDISDAIN

Thursday, August 12, 2004 6:05 AM

The middle east contributed an awful lot to the end of the 'Dark Ages' (including the transport of paper from China toward the west, as already mentioned), such as algebra, geometry, and many of the astronomical concepts in this very discussion. Sorry, just seized with the irony.

But, I have a more trite question in mind. What was the name of Mal's homeworld? I remember he mentioned it in "Our Mrs. Reynolds". Was it "Shadow", or did I hear it incorrectly?

JAYNEZTOWN

Sunday, August 15, 2004 9:11 AM

without doubt the Alliance seem to be some totalitarian system of control, some kind of fascism going on with those Alliance troops in firefly

http://www.rathbonemuseum.com/BULGARIA/BUPhotos/BUPopganchev/BUPopganc
hev.html

http://www.nazi-lauck-nsdapao.com/spajapan.htm

http://www.easterwood.org/hmmn/archives/000091.html

http://members.aol.com/dennisr48/german/nazpics2.htm

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