Base10 doesn't write about science fiction shows too much. After all, nobody is reallly interested in how the Membari defeated the Humans in Babylon-5. But hey, sometimes something comes along to break the mold. One such show is Firefly. Although it only lasted twelve episodes, Firefly was a quality SF show. It was created by Joss Whedon of "Buffy the Vampire" fame. The reason that it's getting a bit of attention in the blogosphere is that a feature film adaptation is coming at the end of September. Base10 watched the trailer and it looks pretty good.

I have to confess that I only watched the show once when it was on the air. It turns out that the particular episode I saw was probably the weakest of the bunch (for reasons I'll get into in a bit). So at the time, I didn't think much about the show, although I was surprised Fox pulled it so quickly.

There are several good things about the show. First, it has a complex back story that is only revealed in tantalizing bits and pieces. The most obvious back story item that is featured in the show is the war between the Alliance and the Independents. The Alliance represents a seemingly totalitarian government while the Independents have a more libertarian bent. Anyway, the last major battle in the war occurs at Serenitry Valley where Independent forces are completely defeated. Our protagonist in the series is a merchant ship's captain named Malcolm (and ironically nicknamed "Mal") who named his ship--an obsolete cargo vessel-- "Serenity." Tantalizing clues. The story is far removed from earth. We hear the Alliance refered to as the "Sino-American" alliance. Indeed, one sees Chinese influence in the language and clothes used by the characters. The inner worlds are rich and technologically advanced. The outer worlds are quickly terraformed and colonists with little more than
the clothes on their backs are left to fend for themselves. One gets the feeling that they are sometimes there through forced deportation.

The second thing I like about the show is the complexity of the characters. They are not Federation do-gooders. They are ostensibly a ship for hire, but seem to do more than their fair share of smuggling and other law breaking. Mal is the captain whose life changed at Serenity Valley. Jayne is a mercenary who's aboard as a hired gun. Shepard is a man of the cloth, but also has something to hide about his past. The doctor and his sister are--well, we'll get to them. Each character has both good and bad qualities. A few are one dimensional--the ship's pilot, for one, and his wife, a tough lady who served with the captain at Serenity Valley--and both deserve to be fleshed out. The interrelationships are fascinating. Inara--a passenger who works as a "companion" has strong feelings for Mal. Mal feels strongly about her but so detests what she does for a living--legal prostitution--that it never gets past the hatred.

There's one incident (caution, spoilers coming) where Jayne attempts to turn in the Doctor and his sisiter to Alliance authorities. He is double-crossed by an Alliance officer but manages to escape with the two in tow. They think he rescued them. The captain figures out what happened and forces Jayne into an airlock at gunpoint when they are taking off. As the air is rushing out, Jayne pleads with the captain not to let the rest of the crew know what he did. "Make something up," he cries as they are about to hit orbit. At that point, Mal has a change of heart and closes the airlock. This is the ecquivalent of Kirk trying to kill McCoy after McCoy tries to betray Spock.

The third thing I really like about the series was the story telling. The show had interesting stories as opposed to the formulaic Kirk/Janeway/Picard/Sisco crawling through a Jeffries tube and punching a series of buttons in rapid succession kind of story. The plots are interesting and often pose a moral dilema for the captain and crew. Humor is mixed in liberally. Another plus is the meta story. The doctor rescued his sister from the Alliance. He is bright and from a rich family but his sister was a genuine prodigy. She is taken by the Alliance to attend a "special" school where they perform all sorts of nasty experiments. The doctor manages to rescue her and is trying to flee to the outer worlds. He becomes a member of the crew while he tries to figure out how to treat his sister, who exhibits some remarkable powers of her own.

But it can't all be good. I have two objections to the series. One concerns their technology and the other concerns one of the plot elements.

First, the technology is not sufficiently explained. Many people object to the idea that a high-tech civilization would use low-tech weapond like guns and low tech transportation like horses. Indeed, Firefly does contain many Old West themes, but it is incorrect to say that this wouldn't be the state of affairs on a colony world. You don't need a factory to produce horses nor do you need a highway system. And where would you get petroleum on a terraformed world? As to the firearms, what's more reliable, a pistol that has few moving parts or some high tech energy weapon?

No, the technological objection I have is something more basic--how exactly do you go from star system toi star system? This question is critically important to figure out the type of interstellar civilization that you get. Jerry Pournelle created a universe of Alderson points--points in space far from the sun's gavity well that allowed transit to another system. This allowed systems to be defended and made space travel possible, but like a long ship voyage--travel between the stars was instantaneous but it still took lots of time to get to your destination. Compare this to other versions of "hyperspace" travel. If you could travel instantaneously from point to point in space, interstellar government would not be possible. Other series have gotten around this in other ways. Babylon 5 used "jump gates" for routine travel from system to system, but military ships could create their own jump points. Also, travel was not instantaneous. Star Trek had warp speed, but this was also
not instantaneous.

(As an aside, Base10 always felt the most interesting science fiction occurs when the assumption against faster-than-light travel is not relaxed. But that is another post).

In any event, my point is that the method of interstellar travel is critical to how the society around it is shaped. It seems that in Firefly, they punted. They never explain. It does take them time to go from system to system, but the mechanism is never really explained. Such a high level of thought was given to every other aspect of the series that I am surprised that this aspect was not fleshed out a little bit.

The second thing I don't like about Firefly is a social construct. The pilot (and the one episode I saw) featured the "reavers." They are never seen, but they are semimythical men who live as savages on the edges of space. When faced with the possibility of being boarded by reavers, one crew member explains, "They'll rape us to death, eat our flesh and sew our skin into their clothes. If we're lucky, they'll do it in that order."

Now I can accept a vicious enemy, but this is a very weak plot element. If these people were so savage, how could they operate a spacecraft? Indeed, how could they obtain a spacecraft to begin with? The fact that they can travel through space indicates a high level of social cooperation. Personally, I think this aspect of the story is pretty lame, but maybe they'll have some answers in the movie--it does seem to indicate that the reavers make an appearance.

In spite of my criticism, the show is great and rightfully has achieved a sort of cult status. I would recommend the DVD to anyone who likes science fiction. I do wonder why it was cancelled. This show could have run for ten years. Well, we can hope that the movie resurrects some interest in the series. I'd love to see it come back.

Click here for the movie trailer.

- posted by Base10 @ 10:37 AM