Is this how Earth-that-was became just that?
POSTED BY: TenthCrewMember
UPDATED: Friday, January 7, 2005 07:48
VIEWED: 7500
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So, I am looking to do screencaps for a wallpaper, and I am jumping around "Heart of Gold" when I find myself watching (as I often do!) the scene where Mal meets Rance Burgess at the theatre for the first time.
If you watch closely, there is a man speaking in chinese (wish I knew what he was saying!) and there is a shadowpuppet show going on, behind Rance as Mal talks with him.
Initially it is a white background with a shadow of Earth, *our* Earth as we know it, and there are shadows of ships flying away from it. Then there are some handkercheif shadows used as what appears to be flames coming off the surface of the Earth and the background turns red.
So, was it a man-made or natural disaster, I wonder? A war? Did the Earth break apart? Did the Sun expand and burn the Earth? Bad science destroy the atmosphere? And WHEN was this? Or is it simply speculation by the current generation of Earth-that-was' decendants for entertainment purposes?
Also, if you watch closely, one of the ships is a shadow of a Firefly...how old are those ships anyhow? LOL
Just one of those subtle things of Joss' I'd like to figure out. :) Please add your 2 cents!!!
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Here's what it says at the end of the shooting script:
END OF SHOW
Addendum (Theater Show)
A CIRCULAR SHADOW representing Earth-That-Was fills the frame.
NARRATOR
(Chinese)
the Earth up. Barren, she had
little left to offer them.>
Silhouetted shapes appear. SPACESHIPS. They radiate out from the shadow sphere, scatter in all directions. Leave it behind.
NARRATOR
(continuing)
< Swollen of her, they left. And
for the first time since the Great
Burn that birthed her, she was
alone. >
The ships are gone now. A wisp of SMOKE wafts off the sphere, creates a snake of shadow.
NARRATOR
(continuing)
< The Earth cried, and terrible
were her tears. Acid and caustic,
the spawn of the tribes' rape.
They flowed a century. >
The smoke INTENSIFIES, becomes shadowy FLAME.
NARRATOR
(continuing)
< The fire that finally came did so
as a blessing. >
The sphere SMOLDERS now, bits of it breaking up and disintegrating under the intense heat.
Jayne, your mouth is talkin. Might want to look into that.
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Below is a hypothetical backstory to the Firefly Universe Hans and myself came up with. It has a possible explanation as to what happened to the Earth-That-Was.
By the year 2060, global warming had caused severe environmental damage across the earth. Scientists, worried about continued environmental degradation, began to look for solutions to the problem.
A prototype Ion drive managed to accelerate a probe to one tenth the speed of light in the year 2069. Then in 2085, the first prototype Orion drive accelerated a probe to one quarter the speed of light. Finally, in 2099, the Galaxy Explorer Program launched eight unmanned deep space probes, equipped with updated Orion drives, towards nearby stars. A permanent colony was established on Mars ten years later. Research on terra-forming led to the first attempt to transform Mars' atmosphere.
In 2140 Galaxy Explorer Seven arrived in the Gliese 876 Solar System, 15 light years away, and began to transmit information back to earth. Fifteen years later, images from Gliese 876 reached Earth, showing a multiple star system with three G-Class stars with four Earth-like planets around each and a total of 58 Mars-like planets along with several gas giants around each star, each with at least two dozen moons that could be terra-formed and given an earth-like gravity field using Orbital Gravity Control satellites. The Destiny Program sent a manned mission towards Gliese in 2181. Destiny arrived at the Gliese system in 2215 then and set up a colony on one of the Earth-like planets.
Terra-forming was completed on Mars in 2216. Images of humans on the planet Sihnon in the Gliese system reached the Sol System in 2230. With the earth continuing to decay, enthusiasm for travel to the new system exploded. Three years later, the United Worlds, the successor to the United Nations, was formed.
Earth's moon was finally terra-formed in 2245. Then from 2250 to 2270 "The First Leap Outward" took place, during which several huge colony ships were launched towards Gliese.
In 2253, Jupiter's moon Europa was terra-formed. Finally, in 2275 scientists determined that without a massive effort, Earth would be uninhabitable in less than 150 years. A huge debate erupted between Expansionists who wanted to focus all of Earth's resources on the new system, and Homesteaders who wanted to focus on making Earth viable in the long run.
The first wave of millions of colonists arrived in the Gliese system from 2280 to 2300. These new colonies were set up on three of the Earth-like worlds (Sihnon, Londinium, and Ariel). More than a billion people left the Sol system for Gliese from 2310 to 2320 during "The Second Leap Outward". They settled the other nine Earth-like planets. From 2340 to 2350 "The Third Leap Outward" took place. By this time Earth's population had dropped to less than two billion, with the rest of the population either now living on Mars or on their way to the Gliese system.
An asteroid struck Mars in 2341, killing several million people. Conspiracy theorists said that the expansionists let the asteroid strike the world, to encourage people to abandon the Sol system for Gliese. Whatever the truth, after the asteroid strike the population of the Sol system for the first time dropped below that of the Gliese system.
By the year 2370, with the population of the Gliese system exploding, the colonists who had been on the planets for decades began to resent the newcomers. The Blue Sun mega-corporation won the contract to begin terra-forming the scores of smaller planets and moons in the system. Blue Sun would employ a special greenhouse gas that traps the heat in a planet or moon's atmosphere making the place warm enough to sustain life even at far distances from the sun. That would be combined with the gravity-control satellites, nanomachines released into the atmosphere, soil, and water, plus some industrial sized atmospheric processors along with gigantic orbital mirrors for extra heat and light. The orbital mirrors would be used to focus light on each moon or planet, th
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Thank you Shiny!
Again you come through for me!
TCM
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BROWNCOATS! Rise again and promote Firefly/Serenity!
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Thanks CrevanReaver (and Hans!) very clever!
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Truly enlightening. Great (his)tory!
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[QUOTE
Anyone else want to come up with some great theories for the status of Earth. Please post them!
Don't expect too many takers to that offer. That would be a tough act to follow! Very shiney piece of work. charki
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No kidding! That's awesomely done, Crevan (and Hans)! I'm just curious what kinds of sources (other than the show) you two used to create such a seemingly rich future history.
-Taylor
Uncharted Outlaw!
Haulin' goods from one end of creation to th' other. Keepin' my nose clean 'round the Alliance. Rockin' the "Riviera" (67-K62) hardcore!
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Quote:
Originally posted by UnchartedOutlaw:
No kidding! That's awesomely done, Crevan (and Hans)! I'm just curious what kinds of sources (other than the show) you two used to create such a seemingly rich future history.
As far as I know Hans made up the backstory for his "100% hypothetical Firefly Timeline".
http://fireflyfans.net/thread.asp?b=2&t=3267
The parts that I added were taken from various posts on Fireflyfans.
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love this backstory.
but did anyone else catch the name used for the alliance general who came up with the winning strategy at serenity valley?
Richard Wilkins.
whom us buffy-holics know as the mayor.
became a big snakey demon and got blowed up.
dunno if it was intentional or not, just found it interesting.
-optimus1998
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