Was Mr. Universe supposed to be in Firefly?

POSTED BY: OPPYH
UPDATED: Wednesday, February 1, 2012 14:39
VIEWED: 9630
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VEXEM

Friday, January 27, 2012 12:22 AM

Since Serenity is supposed to be a super-abridged season 2, I'd say yes he would have shown up in a few episodes.

I like the character and the way he was portrayed. I can see how some think he was flat, but I just think of it as subtle and nuanced.

VERASAMUELS

Friday, January 27, 2012 7:36 AM

The novelisation is [IMHO] very good. Keith R A deCandido is a cunning wordsmith :-)

Devout Keeper of Jayne's Lunchbox

PIZMOBEACH

Friday, January 27, 2012 10:13 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by Storymark:
He felt a bit too much like a Deus Ex Machima device introduced to expedite the sotry. Perhaps there would have been an information broker character at some point, but I doubt he would have been quite so omnicient.

I agree with this, at least as to how he was presented in the movie, maybe in the series he would have come off differently. His character also gives the story a more comic book tone - 1 guy running and managing all of that? Really? and his name is Mr. Universe? - and away from the idea of the 'Verse as a real place a bit too much for me.

Scifi movie music + Firefly dialogue clips, 24 hours a day - http://www.scifiradio.com

ZZETTA13

Friday, January 27, 2012 1:21 PM

I see that the opinions of Mr.U here vary around 50/50 (likes vs not so much). Anyway, guess I would call him a “not really concerned” character in my opinion. Meaning, I really wouldn’t have cared if he showed up in a season 2 of Firefly or not. Just the feel I got from him. After all didn’t he try to turn in the crew of Serenity, FOR MONEY!!! What kind of friend would do a thing like that?

I donno, maybe he had a trick up his sleeve and was planning a double-cross of the operative, only the operative got there first. He did redeem himself a bit with the Love-Bot thing, (Lenore informing Mal about the second broadcasting station), which brings up another issue……

The Love-Bot….I’m with Somnambulist on this too. I mean I get the love-bot thing and all, but it seems that Mr. U and the love-bot slant opened up a whole new side to the space-western themed show. I’m supposing that IF Mr. U, a genius, inhabiting a world all alone, could fab a cyborg, why couldn’t a ruling government who sports the greatest minds in the verse (by hook or crook, either way)? War-bots coulda been used against the Independent Army so that no purplebelly lives woulda been lost.

Getting off the subject a bit so I’ll stop there. Anyway I liked the BDM enough to rent FF, and that’s were my real enjoyment of the verse began. I do wish at some point a season 2 will come about. If it’s GREAT then we can call this a win! If not, it will simply be ignored and hoped to go away.

ZBP

RIONAEIRE

Monday, January 30, 2012 6:51 AM

Interesting point about bots, if we can make love bots then we can make war bots and no one has to fight in the trenches, trenches: the worst way to fight a war, why would anyone ever do that again?

"A completely coherant River means writers don't deliver" KatTaya

LEMMING

Tuesday, January 31, 2012 1:07 PM

'Cos having a battalion of ED 209s stomping about with corrupted civilian/military discrimination circuits isn't at all a scary idea?

:-)

Joss of course has visited the robot idea more than once. (And if you think military and lovebots are future fic, just Google them and see that they are already here, at least in early form): the whole Buffy Bot thing (and prior to that Warren's lovebot turned stalker and also an ex boyfriend of Buffy's mother who turned out to be a bot.)

Also, in the Serenity comic Better Days, the story concerned at least in part the theft of a high end military robot.

The problem (using robots for war) has been dealt with in many SF stories over the years and has featured in "mainstream" media like Star Wars, Robocop and Star Trek. (To name just a few)

Trouble is, once you posit self reliant, adaptable, widely available and affordable (even if relatively expensive) robots, they are too damn useful to not become very widespred and probably have a major impact on the society concerned (again dealt with in many SF stories - Asimov's future society being a notable example.)

I suspect that Mr Universe, Badger, YoSaffBridg and even Jubal Early may have made further appearances in Firefly if it had been picked up and I'd certainly have had no problems with that.

Nick

The Signal < www.serenityfirefly.com>

M52NICKERSON

Tuesday, January 31, 2012 5:48 PM

Ignoring the comics....

Lenora did not seem all that advanced. Mr. Universe did need a controler in his hand to make her wave. She did not move at all in the wedding video. She watched Mr. Universe killed without a responce, and then just kept playing Mr. Universe's least message over and over.

I do not fear God, I fear the ignorance of man.

GWEK

Wednesday, February 1, 2012 2:39 PM

Universe was created for the movie. As with many things in the translation of a (for lack of a better term) more expansive medium (such as a TV series, novel, or comic book) into the condensed format of a motion picture, everything in a movie must serve multiple purposes. Here, Universe is a superior information source, as well as a potential safe haven and a venue for the crew to get the message out to the 'Verse.

If Joss had continued the story of the crew as a TV series, he would have had the luxury of not having to "double up" all of those ideas (just as, due to a rights issue, he would have had the luxury of using Badger rather than Mingo & Fanty).

Now, does the fact that Mister Universe was created for the movie mean he WOULDN'T have shown up in the series? That's unknown, and quite possibly unknowable. Could be that Joss himself doesn't know what his detailed needs for the continuing show would have been.

www.stillflying.net: "Here's how it might have been..."

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