Why Firefly deserved to die
POSTED BY: xed
UPDATED: Thursday, December 19, 2024 02:34
VIEWED: 28595
PAGE 7 of 9
Quote:
When Europes colonised America we didn't get all the technologies they had until we could create them ourselves and/or afford to buy them...
I hate to jump in on this again but I have to say that this is a faulty analogy. This is because, while it is true that we got new technologies *slower* than Europe did that did not apply to existing technology. In regards to existing technology the colonists received the most advanced technology that their government (or in some specific cases, such as I believe Jamestown, their company) could give them. They were not given backwards technology, which the planets on Firefly seem to possess (well, most of them). You may well be right but you are arguing your case with the wrong analogy.
Nathan, analogy cop
"It looks like a great adventure...That's what it is; that's what it feels like. When I saw the pilot, it was really engaging. It was exciting. It was unusual. It threw me off every now and then. I think people will be grabbed by it." - Ron Glass, on the pilot, during an interview with the Indianapolis Star
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OK, well I'm going to take one more bad stab at the ONE thing that bothers me about the show. And thanks for letting me pound a point to my satisfaction. (EVERYTHING else about the show is fine!!)
Look at "Shindig". Here we have a planet with an ante-bellum flavor: cotillions, slaves (I think), lords and ladies, plus advanced screening and suspension technology. If they have the advanced technology, they at least have to have electricity generation, metallurgy that goes with it, repair people and technicians.
Slave technologies generally didn't generate technological advances, for two reasons:
1) Work was very declasse (done only by slaves!)and...
2) Why invent labor-saving devices when you can just throw more people at a problem?
Unlikely this would be native tech, so the only way this would make sense is if that planet imported not only it's technology, but also it's technicians. Likely this planet has raw resources- food, metals, etc. to trade with the main planet. Lots of trade going back and forth. Comfortbale relationship with the main planet, I can make this scenario hang together, sort of. except that in real life exporters of raw materials usually wind up in disadvantaged relationships with technologically advanced nations, but... OK... historical accidents happen.
Now, one lord on this planet wants to smuggle cattle to some hinterland. Why is that a cause for smuggling? Sounds like honest trade to me! But furthermore, what is this other planet going to pay with?? They're dickering in some universal currency, but how is heaven's name does a god-forsaken planet like that scrape up enough currency when it seems like they're barely one step above "Deliverance"?
I guess my point is that planets are like people: they have to have a way to make a living, they have relationships with the other planets around them (are they a colony? a resort? an outpost? a power?), and in this show--- which centers around a smuggler-- they're defined by relationships of economy, politics, and technology. When those relationships don't seem to fit internally it "clunks" with me.
Ok, off the soapbox.
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Keep in mind that these settled worlds have no oil
deposites. It even takes a few years for biomass to
start producing any respectable amount of coal -
gas, diesel, heck even plastic is going to be
expensive. (Though there is biodeisel... hmm)
For the most part I've only had a couple of glaring
gripes with the series - purple lightning in space
(Of all the... I just find it funny now), and why
they seem to have artificial gravity but can't use
it to maneuver the ship on its own (or maybe they can
and the turbines are just help, not a bad idea).
Why moving cows around is contraband is also another
strange thing, but I think that was an issue with
local (the world they were taking them from),
rather than Alliance laws.
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Something must be done about that 'permission denied' thing.
Sorry.
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about the cows: it was said in Shindig, that it was illegal to sell the cows off world. I assume it was a local law of that planet. and I thought the cows were shipped to that backwater planet because they are needed there more and so make more money there. I think it's about the same here on earth someplace. there are countries with lots of green land and so lots of cows and other foodstuff (we in germany here have more food than we can eat most of the time and germany is a heavily populated country) and there are countries with say oil or some metals or something and they trade. maybe the planet in Safe had something valueable to pay for the cattle and we've just never seen it. or the cows don't sell on the planet from Shindig, because there are just too many cows there, so getting something (even if it's little) from the guys from Safe is better than having to burn the meat on the Shindig planet.
on another matter:
what really really bugs me about technology in Firefly is the weird way it's used.
there was a holographic (or soimething similar) window in the bar in The Train Job. and there were holographic balls on the pool table in Shindig. both bars looked dirty and cheap and backwater to me. why would they have exactly one thing of real fancy technology and this one thing wouldn't be anything useful? one could easily live with glass windows and normal pool balls forever, there's no need for them to be holographic. so why not have anything usefull, like a gun-scanner (like tha one at the ball in Shindig) or anything else that would actually make a difference to the bar owner or the guests.
do you understand what I mean?
Idefix
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>>>there was a holographic (or soimething similar) window in the bar in The Train Job. and there were holographic balls on the pool table in Shindig. both bars looked dirty and cheap and backwater to me. why would they have exactly one thing of real fancy technology and this one thing wouldn't be anything useful?<<<
Because it *is* "useful".
Most "useful" even.
From the barowner's perspective.
"Dirty and cheap backwater" bar?
Right.
Means a lot of brawls.
The bar window always breaks first- as we know from our favorite western movies.
What's cheaper and more "useful"?
To buy a new window each week or spend some bigger bucks on a holographic one that will nevr break again?
And yeah, holographic pool table balls.
Can't be stolen.
Can't be used as weapons.
Can't get lost.
Buy a new set of balls each month or buy a holographic one and stop worrying about drunken customers and missing balls.
Plus it was fun to look at.
Regards:
Silverado.
~Ruttin proud Keeper of Mal's boot kicking a certain sucker into a certain hungry engine ( http://www.geocities.com/keeperqueen76).
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"You had the law on you, criminals and savages... half the people on the ship have been shot or wounded including yourself, and you're harboring known fugitives."
"We're still flying."
"That's not much."
"It's enough."
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Quote:
Originally posted by Xeriar:
Keep in mind that these settled worlds have no oil deposites. It even takes a few years for biomass to start producing any respectable amount of coal - gas, diesel, heck even plastic is going to be
expensive. (Though there is biodeisel... hmm)
If this is true (old plant and animal biomass produces oil) why is Titan (a moon of Saturn) covered in it?
I see no reason why settled worlds wouldn't have any oil. I am afraid your model of where oil comes from is a little outdated and incorrect.
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Quote:
If this is true (old plant and animal biomass
produces oil) why is Titan (a moon of Saturn)
covered in it?
Titan has methane, or natural gas. It's a kind of
oil, sure, if you want to be picky, but it has
nowhere near the fuel efficiency of biomass oils.
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I picture the holographic window and pool table like neon signs and arcade games are today. 500 years ago, a neon sign or arcade game would make people's jaws drop. Sure the holo window and pool table look flashy and high tech to us but they're probably cheap tech and easily available.
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Quote:
Originally posted by Idefix:
on another matter:
what really really bugs me about technology in Firefly is the weird way it's used.
there was a holographic (or soimething similar) window in the bar in The Train Job. and there were holographic balls on the pool table in Shindig. both bars looked dirty and cheap and backwater to me. why would they have exactly one thing of real fancy technology and this one thing wouldn't be anything useful? one could easily live with glass windows and normal pool balls forever, there's no need for them to be holographic. so why not have anything usefull, like a gun-scanner (like tha one at the ball in Shindig) or anything else that would actually make a difference to the bar owner or the guests.
Think of it this way... Sports Bars now... in the little crappy backwoods town I grew up in, Sports Bars had lots of fights and unsavory characters. But they still have the huge projector TV and tons of smaller TVs all around the bar and DVD players and the like. That's relatively decent technology that can be expensive (especially the big projector TV). But the bars pay for it because it brings in the customers the way, oh, say, a metal detector at the door (also technology that is currently available, and probably not too much more expensive than all those TVs) could not.
Not to mention - If you were the type of person who carried weapons, you would be unlikely to go into a bar that made you check your weapons at the door. I used to be friends with a guy who didn't go anywhere without a handgun (he's a freak, don't ask me why he felt he needed the gun, but he did). Washington state law says no firearms in a bar, so whenever we went to out to eat with our group of friends, it was always a debate... sit in the bar where the smokers could smoke or sit in the restaraunt where they can't smoke, but gunboy could keep his weapon. Whenever the smokers won out, gunboy would leave rather than put his gun in his car. In a society where most, or at least many, people carry weapons of one form or another, you'd be chasing away business to have folks checked out when they come in.
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Angel: Do you know how hard it is to think straight with a rebar through your torso?
Cordelia: Actually, I do. Benefits of a Sunnydale education.
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