River's Age??

POSTED BY: Shadesiren
UPDATED: Sunday, June 13, 2004 15:10
VIEWED: 8587
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SHADESIREN

Monday, June 7, 2004 12:03 AM

Just how old is River supposed to be? She's not on the timeline here, but my husband and I tried to do the math - we were thinking about 18? Not sure. I don't know how old Summer is.

Shadesiren

www.shadesiren.tk

SOUTHERNMERC

Monday, June 7, 2004 1:33 AM

From Simon's story in the pilot, I got the impression she was 17 when Mal opened up the box. She went into the academy when she was 14, then Simon and family didn't hear from her for months. Then two years later he was approached by some ppl offering a way to get River out. So I figure two years and some change makes her about 17.

Jayne: "See, Vera? You get dressed up, you get taken someplace fun!"

SHINYSEVEN

Monday, June 7, 2004 1:59 AM

Actors are not always the same age as the characters they play--generally the actors are a lot older! and there's another problem: getting the ages in flashbacks to work out.

If River is 17, Simon might plausibly be 25 (he's a surgeon, not a surgical resident) but not really any younger. At the other end, he might plausibly be about 30 (which I suspect is closer to Sean Maher's actual age)--13 years between siblings, which is perfectly possible. However, in the flashback scene, they don't seem even seven years apart, much less 13.

JEBBYPAL

Monday, June 7, 2004 2:34 AM

Hmm, depends. Could be the medical education in the Core/Alliance mirrors that of China more than the US. Not sure on their internship/residency system, but I know that an M.D. degree only takes one (or possibly 2) more years of "college" in China. So maybe he is younger depending on how their school system/higher education system is set up.

Or he was a VERY SMALL teenager. possible too. My brother was a little over 4ft tall until after the 10th grade. Then one summer, 6 ft. Sigh, somehow those genes passed me by.

The Strawberry Monkey
http://p221.ezboard.com/bfireflyfanficawards

FILMGODDESS

Monday, June 7, 2004 2:54 AM

She's 17. Read the scripts. They mention that she's 17.

"You can't take the sky from me."

SHADESIREN

Monday, June 7, 2004 3:09 AM

Thanks - I don't even know where the scripts are.

That's not much off from what we suspected, thanks everyone.

FILMGODDESS

Monday, June 7, 2004 3:16 AM

PURPLEBELLY

Monday, June 7, 2004 6:52 AM

Thanks for this link, filmgoddess. A wiki, goodee - now I've somewhere else to publish you've saved this board from my meanderings

LIZ

Monday, June 7, 2004 2:37 PM

In Serenity (just verified it in the Serenity script), Simon says "finished my internship in eight months." does that help figure out the difference in age?

SHINYSEVEN

Monday, June 7, 2004 2:43 PM

Thanks for the info, Liz. I think it means we're supposed to assume that an internship usually takes a year or more, so Simon would have become a fully qualified surgeon (using even more fancy tech stuff than we have now) at a younger age than usual, which is why I'd believe that he could be 25 rather than the 30+ that it takes to finish surgical training in the RL US.

If we're supposed to believe that he's 23, as far as I'm concerned that wouldn't be quite in the same league as the geriatric teenagers in "Beverly Hills 90210" but gettin' up there.

Sadistic crap legitimized by florid prose

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