On the Bookshelf

Five hundred years in the future there's a whole new frontier, and the crew of the Firefly-class spaceship Serenity is eager to stake a claim on the action. They'll take any job, legal or illegal, to keep fuel in the tanks and food on the table. But things get a bit more complicated after they take on a passenger wanted by the new totalitarian Alliance regime. Now they find themselves on the run, desperate to steer clear of Alliance ships and flesh-eating Reavers who live on the fringe of space.

Joss Whedon's Firefly is quite possibly the single greatest show ever made. There. I said it and I am going to stand by it. It is also possibly the greatest tragedy in television history that it only lasted for fourteen episodes. If you can watch this show and not fall in love, I am telling you that you have no heart - FOX, I am looking straight at you.

FOX, it would seem, had a vendetta against Firefly from the very beginning, even choosing to skip airing until later the pilot episode which sets up the entire story. However, during it's brief run Firefly earned itself a passionate and dedicated fanbase. So outspoken were the fans over the shows cancellation that they achieved having the show resurrected in the form of the sequel movie, Serenity.

Firefly is a space opera with a western twist, a concept that fans of the anime Cowboy Bebop will be familiar with. Five hundred years from now Earth is all "used up" and humanity has spread out into the 'verse to find a new habitable home. Planets were terraformed for habitation. On the central planets live the wealthy privileged in a society that is, at least on the surface, a utopia. On the outer rim live the poorer folk, farmers and miners and the like. Not all of the outer planets terraformed quite right. Some of them have quirks and some of these quirks can make people sick. Out on the edge of the black the Reavers hunt.

The most endearing quality of Firefly is the characters. Ship captain Malcolm "Mal" Reynolds (Nathan Fillion) is an ex-soldier who fought on the losing side of the war but still is not convinced that it was the wrong side. As a result he has no problems with doing things that might rub the Alliance the wrong way which is lucky for one of his newest passengers, Simon Tam (Sean Maher), who has just rescued his younger sister River (Summer Glau) from an Alliance experiment and is now on the run with her. Zoe (Gina Torres) is Mal's loyal second in command who fought alongside him in the war and is married to the ship pilot, Wash (Alan Tudyk), who likes to play with the toy dinosaurs that sit on the ship's dash. Jewel Staite is perfect in the role of Kaylee the ship mechanic, who, despite getting around in overalls and engine grease, is a girly-girl at heart. Jayne (Adam Baldwin) is the muscle of the crew despite having a girls name. Morena Baccarin is just unfairly beautiful in the role of the companion (read legal and high class prostitute), Inara. Book is a shepherd but there are hidden mysteries in his past. Finally there is the ship itself, Serenity, with whom you will surely fall in love. With each episode we learn more about these characters and the growing and changing relationships between them.

Even the opening theme is so addictive that is likely to crawl into your brain and stay there


There is the usual quirky language that people who have seen Buffy the Vampire Slayer might expect to see in a Joss Whedon creation. "Shiny" is the new way of saying that all is good and, well, shiny. "Gorramit", as you might guess, means "God damn it." In a unique twist, when everything fell apart on Earth That Was the last two super powers left standing were the United States of America and China, as a result even the most uneducated of people out in the 'verse can speak both English and Chinese. Whedon and his writers take full advantage of this fact to give out some of the most ridiculous swears and insults in Chinese, hence I was disappointed when I switched on the subtitles on my DVD and was given the line "speaks inter-galactic language." Nothing important and that you cannot guess at the meaning and intent of is ever said in Chinese so don't worry if you don't want to spend the time looking up the translations online.

Regardless of whether of not you have liked Joss Whedon's other projects, you must give Firefly a try. I promise that it is time well spent.

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