| Firefly | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Created by | Joss Whedon |
| Starring | Nathan Fillion Gina Torres Alan Tudyk Morena Baccarin Adam Baldwin Jewel Staite Sean Maher Summer Glau Ron Glass |
| Country of origin | United States |
| No. of episodes | 14 |
| Production | |
| Executive producers | Joss Whedon Tim Minear |
| Running time | 45 minutes per episode |
| Original release | |
| Network | FOX |
| Release | September 20, 2002 – December 20, 2002 |
Firefly was an American science fiction television series that premiered in the United States and CanadaonSeptember 20, 2002. It presented an atypical science fiction narrative in a naturalistic future setting modeled after traditional Western movie motifs. It was conceived by writer/director Joss Whedon, creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel, who served as executive producer with Tim Minear.
The series was set in 2517 AD and dealt with the adventures of the renegade crew of a spaceship named Serenity. It featured an ensemble cast of nine regular members who wound up on Serenity for various reasons. The show explores what happens to people who fought on the losing side of a civil war, as well as the pioneer/frontier culture that exists on the fringes of their solar system. To add a twist, it is a future where the two sole-surviving super powers are the United States and China (which formed the Alliance), so it is rife with cultural fusion. As the creator has stated, nothing has changed in the future: we have more people and more technology but the same problems politically, morally and ethically.[1]
Firefly was broadcast on the FOX network but was cancelled after only eleven of the fourteen produced episodes were aired. It won an Emmy in 2003 for "Outstanding Special Visual Effects for a Series" and spawned several spin-offs. Strong sales of the series' DVD collection and an unprecedented fan support campaign led Whedon and Universal Pictures to produce a film based on the series, titled Serenity after the fictional spacecraft featured in the show.[2]
The series is set in the year 2517. In the film Serenity, it was established that long before the events in the series, a large population had emigrated from Earth to a new star system in multi-generational spaceships that traveled much faster than today's ships, but not faster than the speed of light. The emigrants established themselves in this new star system, with "dozens of planets and hundreds of moons." Many of these had been terraformed, a process in which a planet or moon is altered to resemble the Earth. The terraforming process was only the first step in making a planet habitable, however, and the outlying settlements often did not receive any further support in the construction of their civilizations, with the result that many of the border planets and moons consist of forbidding, dry environments, well suited to the Western genre.
Characters in the story occasionally refer to "Earth-that-was", suggesting that the original home planet had been somehow destroyed, or is so far out of reach that for them it is mythical. It is cryptically stated in the opening narration of the movie Serenity that Earth "got used up," and humanity was forced to leave.
The show took its name from the Firefly-class spaceship Serenity that the central characters call home. Somewhat resembling an insect in general arrangement, the ship's name comes from the fact that the ship's tail section (analogous to an insectoid abdomen) lights up during acceleration, causing it to resemble a firefly.
Throughout the series, it is established that the star system is governed by the Alliance, an organization of "core" planets that had succeeded in forcibly unifying all of the colonies under a single government. Although the central planets are well under Alliance control, the outlying planets and moons resemble the 19th century American West, with little governmental authority. Settlers and refugees on the outlying worlds have relative freedom from the central government, but lack the amenities of the high-tech civilization that exist on the inner worlds. The captain of the crew of SerenityisMalcolm "Mal" Reynolds (Nathan Fillion) and the episode "Serenity" establishes that the Captain and his first mate Zoë (Gina Torres) are veteran "Browncoats" of the Unification War, a failed attempt by the outlying worlds to resist the Alliance's assertion of control. A later episode, titled "Out of Gas", reveals that Mal bought the spaceship Serenity in order to continue living beyond Alliance control. Much of his and his crew's work consists of cargo runs or smuggling. One of the main story arcs is that of River Tam (Summer Glau) and her brother Simon (Sean Maher). River was a child prodigy subjected to experiments from the Alliance before her brother rescued her. They join the crew in the original pilot "Serenity", and as a result of this rescue, they are both wanted criminals.
The show, featuring a blend of elements from the space opera and Western genres, depicted mankind's future in a way that is uncharacteristic of many contemporary science fiction programs: there were no alien creatures or space battles. Firefly took place in a multi-cultural future, where the divide between the rich and poor was great. As a result of the Sino-American Alliance, Mandarin Chinese is a common second language for many people; it is used in advertisements, and characters in the show frequently use Chinese words and curses. According to the DVD commentary on the episode "Serenity", this was explained as being the result of China and the United States being the two superpowers that expanded into space.[3] An interesting intrusion of Japanese can be noted in the form of katakana script throughout the television series and the film. In contrast to many shows, Firefly was filmed using a handheld camera style, with deliberately misframed or out-of-focus subjects, in an attempt to give scenes an immersive and immediate feeling; computer-generated scenes mimic the motion of a handheld camera. Exterior shots of action taking place in the vacuum of outer space realistically lack sound effects, an approach that stood in contrast to many contemporary science fiction films and television series.
Both Tim Minear and Joss Whedon have picked out several scenes that they said articulated the mission statement of the show.[4] One scene was during the original pilot "Serenity", when Mal is eating with chopsticks and a Western tin cup is by his plate. The other was during the pilot that aired ("The Train Job") when Mal was thrown out of a bar window and the window was a hologram.[5] In addition, it was about the tactile nature of things, when life was physical and things did not come easy to people like they do today.[4]
One of the struggles that Whedon had with FOX was the tone of the show, especially with the main character Malcolm Reynolds. FOX pressured Whedon to make his character more "jolly", as they feared he was too dark in the original pilot. In addition, the show was about the "underbelly" - these are not about the people who make policy but who "get squished by it".[6] They are "nothing" in the scheme of things. This also did not appeal to FOX.[4]
As Whedon states in one of the DVD commentaries, every show he does is about creating family.[4] By the last episode, "Objects in Space", the character River has finally become whole, partly because the others decided to accept her into their "family" on the ship.[4]
Firefly maintained an ensemble cast. The show's plot pits these characters against various criminals and schemers, Alliance security forces, the utterly psychotic and brutal Reavers, and the mysterious men with "hands of blue" — who are apparently operatives of a secret agency which is part of the megacorporation referred to in the DVD commentary only as The Blue Sun Corporation. The crew is driven by the need to secure enough income to keep their ship operational, set against the need to keep a low profile to avoid their numerous adversaries. Their situation is greatly complicated by the divergent motivations of the individuals on board Serenity. The show's brief run did not allow full elucidation of all the complex interrelationships of the cast and their external contacts.
Three members of the Firefly cast appeared on Joss Whedon's other TV series as villains. Fillion was cast in the final season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, while Torres and Baldwin took on recurring roles on Angel in its fourth and fifth seasons respectively. (Summer Glau had appeared in the third-season Angel episode "Waiting in the Wings" before she was cast in Firefly.) In addition, Jewel Staite appeared in several episodes of the Tim Minear-produced Wonderfalls.
Despite the short run of the series, some recurring characters emerged from the colorful inhabitants of the Firefly universe:
The fourteen episodes of the series are, in the order originally intended:
| # | Title | Airdate |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Serenity" | December 20, 2002 |
| 2. | "The Train Job" | September 20, 2002 |
| 3. | "Bushwhacked" | September 27, 2002 |
| 4. | "Shindig" | November 1, 2002 |
| 5. | "Safe" | November 8, 2002 |
| 6. | "Our Mrs. Reynolds" | October 4, 2002 |
| 7. | "Jaynestown" | October 18, 2002 |
| 8. | "Out of Gas" | October 25, 2002 |
| 9. | "Ariel" | November 15, 2002 |
| 10. | "War Stories" | December 6, 2002 |
| 11. | "Trash" | June 28, 2003 |
| 12. | "The Message" | July 15, 2003 |
| 13. | "Heart of Gold" | August 19, 2003 |
| 14. | "Objects in Space" | December 13, 2002 |
The sequence in which the episodes originally aired varied by locality. In the USA and Canada, starting on September 20, 2002, Fox (and Global in Canada) broadcast the episodes on Fridays at 8:00 p.m. (except for the second hour of the pilot which was shown at 9:00 p.m.). The order was 2, 3, 6–8, 4, 5, 9–10, 14, 1; with 11–13 unaired in the USA during the series original run (these episodes remained unaired in the USA until they were broadcast on the Sci Fi Channel in late 2005 shortly before Serenity premiered in cinemas). In addition, Canada, Space has been regularly airing the series in the originally intended order since September 8, 2003, including a marathon of the entire series on September 5, 2003. In a lead up to the Serenity movie release, starting on July 22, 2005, the Sci Fi Channel (United States) aired the show on Fridays at 7:00 p.m. Eastern/Pacific in their originally intended order. Following a marathon on January 6, 2006, Firefly was removed from the Sci Fi Channel line-up.[9]
InSouth Africa, starting on April 15, 2003, the SABC3 broadcast the episodes on Tuesdays at 7:30 p.m.[10]. The episode order was 2, 3, 6–8, 4, 5, 9, 10, 14, 1a, 1b, 11–13. The series was rebroadcast from October 20, 2003 on Mondays at 1:00 a.m.[11]. On June 7, 2006, actionX started showing the series on Wednesdays at 7:00 p.m., rebroadcasting them on Sundays at 4:00 p.m. and Tuesdays at 6:00 p.m.[12] in their originally intended order[13]. In South America and Mexico, starting on April 19, 2003, MundoFOX broadcast the episodes on Saturdays at 6:00 p.m.. The order was 2, 3, 6–8, 4, 5, 9, 10, 13, 11, 14, 12; the pilot episode was not shown. In the United Kingdom, starting on May 12, 2003, Sci Fi Channel (United Kingdom) broadcast the episodes on Mondays at 9:00 p.m. (except for the first hour of the pilot which was shown at 8:00 p.m.). The altered episodes of the first season were shown in the originally intended order. In addition, The Sci-Fi channel aired the episodes as a marathon run over the first weekend of October 2005. This was timed to celebrate the release of the film Serenity. The channel also aired a marathon of the first eight episodes (in chronological order) on March 10, 2006, from 10:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., EST.
InAustralia, starting on November 10, 2004, the Seven Network broadcast the episodes on Wednesdays at 12:30 a.m. The order was 2, 1a, 1b, 3–14. In New Zealand, starting on December 21, 2004, the show was aired on TV3 in the order 1–3, 6–8, 4, 5, 9, 10, 14, 13, 11, 12 on Tuesdays at 11:00 p.m.
InSweden, TV400 aired the show chronologically starting on January 14, 2005. In Switzerland, TSR1 (Swiss French channel) aired the entire series in a three week time period, beginning on July 25, 2005, with one episode per weekday. Each episode was dubbed in French on one sound channel, and the original English on the other. In Israel, HOT (cable television) aired the show chronologically starting on October 25, 2005.
InPortugal, SIC Radical aired the show starting on January 12, 2006 until April 20, 2006. A new episode was broadcasted on Thursdays at 11:00 p.m., GMT, and then again broadcasted on Sundays at 6:30 p.m., GMT. The episode order of broadcast was 2, 3, 6, 7, 8, 4, 5, 9, 10, 14, 1a, 1b, 13, 11, 12. In Italy, Canal Jimmy (satellite television) aired the show chronologically starting on February 17, 2006 every Friday night at 9:00 p.m., with several repeats during the week. The show was aired in 4:3 format with a very bad adaptation and dubbing in Italian[citation needed].
Although the show had a loyal following during its original broadcast,[14] it was cancelled by FOX in December 2002 after only 11 episodes aired in the USA and Canada due to low ratings.[15] Worried about the low ratings, fans formed the Firefly Immediate Assistance campaign whose goal was to support the production of the show by sending in postcards to FOX. After it was cancelled, the campaign worked on getting another network such as UPN to pick up the cancelled show. The campaign was unsuccessful in promoting the show's continuance.[16]
Fans (self-named Browncoats) attributed the low ratings in part to actions of the FOX Network — most notably the fact that FOX had aired the episodes out of chronological order, making the plot much more difficult to follow. For instance, the two-hour episode "Serenity" was intended to be the series' premiere episode, and therefore contained most of the character introductions and back-story. However, FOX decided that "Serenity" was not suitable to open the series, and so the second episode, "The Train Job", was rushed into production to become the first episode aired. In addition, Firefly was promoted as an action-comedy rather than the more serious character study it was intended to be. Episodes were occasionally preempted for sporting events.[15]
The cultural fusion depicted in the show was carried over into the musical score as well. Cowboy guitar mixed with Asian influence produced the atmospheric background for the show. As one reviewer stated:
Old music from the future—the music of roaring campfires and racous cowboys mixed with the warm, pensive sounds of Asian culture and, occasionally, a cold imperial trumpet, heralding the ominous structural presence of a domineering government. Completely thrilling.[17]
— Steve Townsley, tracksounds.com
The series theme song, "The Ballad of Serenity", was written by Joss Whedon and performed by Sonny Rhodes. Whedon wrote the song before the series was greenlit and a preliminary recording performed by Whedon himself can be found on the DVD release.
The soundtrack to the series was released on CD on November 8, 2005byVarèse Sarabande. The music was composed by Greg Edmonson.
The idea of the show came about when Whedon had finished reading The Killer Angels, which was about the Battle of Gettysburg during the American Civil War, and was struck with wanting to portray people who had fought on the losing side of a war and their experience as pioneers and immigrants on the fringe of civilization.[18] Another influence was a book he had read shortly after The Killer Angels about Jewish partisan fighters in World War II.[18] As far as the name of the show, Joss Whedon wanted something that had both strength and motion and the word "firefly" had both. The fact that it was also something insignificant that had a powerful name added to its allure. From there, it naturally progressed to creating the ship in the image of a firefly.[4]
At the time of shooting the pilot, Whedon was still in a dispute with FOX on whether the show should be in widescreen format and so he purposely did shots with actors on the extreme edge of both sides so that they would have no choice.[4] This pilot, however, was not acceptable to the FOX executives, who thought it did not have enough action and the captain was too "dour".[5] They also did not like a particular scene involving the crew and a crime boss in which the crew backed down, since the scene was about the crew "being nothing".[4] Because of this, FOX told Whedon on a Friday afternoon that he had to have a new pilot script to them first thing Monday morning or the show would not be picked up.[5] Whedon and Tim Minear closeted themselves for the weekend to write what became the new pilot, "The Train Job".[5] In this new pilot, the captain was more "jolly" and at the direction of FOX, they added "larger than life" characters.[5][6] These larger than life characters manifested themselves in the hench-man "Crow", and the "hands of blue" men, which also introduced a creepy X-Files-type ending.[6]
When they were shooting the new pilot, FOX also made it clear that they would not air the episodes widescreen, so they had to serve "two masters" when shooting by still shooting widescreen but keeping things in frame so it could still work when aired.[19] They knew it would eventually be able to be seen on a DVD and wanted it to look great then as well.[19] In addition, the episodes were shot in a documentary style, with hand-held cameras to give the feeling that the audience was with the characters, as if it was "found footage".[4][20] This style was not used, however, when shooting scenes that involved the Alliance. Tracking and steady cameras were used to show the sterility of this aspect of the Firefly universe.[4] Another style employed was lens flares, harkening back to 1970s TV. This style was so desired that they sent back the state-of-the-art lenses, which naturally compensated for light flares, for cheaper ones.[4]
The ship Serenity was built in two parts as a complete set, with ceilings and practical lighting installed as part of the set that the cameras could use.[20] They wanted to not only make it feel like they were really in a ship, but it also allowed the actors to stay in the moment and interact, without having to stop after each shot and reset up for next shot.[20]
In the series it was not made completely clear whether the planets and moons seen were in one star system or many (or whether Serenity's mode of propulsion was sub-light or faster-than-light). The film Serenity makes it clear that all the planets and moons are in one large system, and production documents related to the film indicate that there is no faster-than-light travel in the Firefly/Serenity universe.
Critics appeared to dismiss the show after the first two episodes, "The Train Job" and "Bushwhacked". In its October 3, 2002, review, Salon.com stated:
...Whedon's new relativist characters seem a little lost. Admittedly, this is the point, but the show lacks the kind of psychological tension that makes "Buffy" snap. As much as the space and western genres have in common, "Firefly" could have probably done without the western soundtrack and the vague "Bonanza" look too. It's not just that the "space as Wild West" metaphor is somewhat redundant, but that neither genre binds the series to the present.[21]
— Carina Chocano, Salon.com
The reviewer conceded, however, that with only two episodes, it was worth giving Whedon the benefit of the doubt and that the inability to gel could be the fault of FOX not airing the original pilot.[21] By the time the show was cancelled, however, subsequent episodes had proved the depth of the show and its characters. One reviewer in December stated:
Firefly is an absolutely brilliant show, perhaps the best sci-fi show on television today -- and certainly the one with the most potential for future brilliance. In the weeks since its weak opening episodes, the series has run off a string of seven strong shows that would be the envy of any other TV show on the air today.[22]
— Jason Snell, teevee
When the DVD was released in time for Christmas the following year, The New York Times had this to say:
...the show featured an oddball genre mix that might have doomed it from the beginning: it was a character-rich sci-fi western comedy-drama with existential underpinnings, a hard sell during a season dominated by 'Joe Millionaire.'"[23]
— Emily Nussbaum, New York Times
Another reviewer commented:
Despite its brief run, Whedon-aholics embraced it and fought to keep it on the air. After watching the DVD box set, it's easy to see why. All of Whedon's fingerprints are there: The witty dialogue, the quirky premises and dark exploration of human fallacy that made "Buffy" brilliant found their way to this space drama.[24]
— MSN.com
In 2005, New Scientist magazine's NewScientistSpace.com website held an unscientific poll to find "The World's Best Space Sci-Fi Ever". Firefly came in first place, with its cinematic follow-up Serenity in second.[25]
The show generated a following during its short lifetime. When it was released on DVD, it generated even more fans. A website, Fireflyseason2.com, has been created in order to spur interest in a possible second season of Firefly. The site's goal is that its survey can be used to convince a TV network to pay for the production and distribution of the series.
OnMay 9, 2006, all of the Firefly episodes were added to the iTunes Music Store for download as part of FOX Television Classics along with Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Lost in Space. This is notable as it proves the cancelled show Firefly remains popular and salable. The episodes were originally listed in the order FOX originally aired them, but due to comments from fans in the Store, the episodes were re-ordered into the order in which Whedon originally intended.
June 23, 2006 was considered Serenity Day, on which fans bought — and got others to buy — copies of the Serenity and Firefly DVDs in hopes of convincing Universal that creating a sequel is a good business decision. On this day, Serenity and Firefly were ranked 2nd and 3rd, respectively, on the DVD Best Sellers list. June 23, 2006 was also the date of worldwide charity screenings of Serenity, organized by fans, dubbed Serenity Now/Equality Now.
Brad Wright, co-creator of Stargate SG-1 has said that "200", the 200th episode of SG-1, is " A little kiss to "Serenity" and Firefly, which was possibly one of the best cancelled series in history." In the episode, "Martin Lloyd has come to the S.G.C. because even though "Wormhole X-Treme!" was cancelled after three episodes it did so well on DVD they're making a feature [film]." [26]
A box set with the 14 completed episodes, including those previously unaired in the USA, was released on region 1 DVDonDecember 9, 2003, region 2 DVD on April 19, 2004, and region 4 DVD on August 2, 2004. The box features the episodes in the original order in which the show's producers had intended them to be broadcast, as well as seven episode commentaries, outtakes and other features. The DVDs feature the episodes as they were shot in 16:9 widescreen, with anamorphic transfers and Dolby Surround audio.
By September 2005, its DVD release had sold approximately 500,000[27] copies and was one of the top movers at both Amazon.com and DeepDiscountDVD.com for months.
At Amazon.com the DVDs had average daily rankings of between 1st and 75th in 2003, 22nd and 397th in 2004, 2nd and 232nd in 2005, and 2nd and 31st in 2006 as of June 27, 2006.[28]
Several spin-offs from the television series have been released in the years following its cancellation, spanning various forms of media.
Following the motion picture release and its subsequent novelization, a Firefly-based book series of original stories will be released. It is not yet known if they will be considered canonical, as is the comic book series, although it is unlikely considering Whedon's comments regarding the film novelization: "I don't have much involvement … I just whistle and look the other way."[29]
Keith R. A. DeCandido, author of the Serenity movie novelization, said in an interview in November 2005 that two novels are definitely going to be published.[30] Additional books may follow, depending on the success of the franchise. There is no news on who will write the novels, although DeCandido and Steven Brust hope to publish one, and in fact Steven Brust has both completed and submitted his novel. Details on when in the Firefly timeline they will be set, who will be in the novels, or what the plots will be are also not forthcoming. According to Amazon.com, DeCandido is set to write a 304-page novel known as Mirror Image, which will be set in the Firefly universe, and is to be released on July 1, 2009,[31] but DeCandido has denied this in several interviews.[32][33]
A non-fiction book about the series, entitled Finding Serenity: Anti-Heroes, Lost Shepherds and Space Hookers in Joss Whedon's Firefly, was edited by Jane Espenson with Glenn Yeffeth, and was published in paperback on April 1, 2005. Through numerous essays, the book analyzes the various themes and ideas of Firefly.
As a follow up to his Serenity: The Official Visual Companion, Joss Whedon has written a two-volume book known as Firefly: The Official Visual Companion. The first volume is 176 pages, and is set to be published by Titan Books and released on September 30, 2006.
A three-issue comic book miniseries titled Serenity: Those Left Behind was written by Joss Whedon and Brett Matthews, illustrated by Will Conrad and Laura Martin, and published by Dark Horse Comics. It serves as a link between the final episode of the series ("Objects in Space") and the film Serenity. Each issue of the series featured three different covers, with each cover featuring one of the nine main characters, each by a different illustrator, including Joe Quesada, Bryan Hitch, Tim Bradstreet, John Cassaday and Jo Chen. The first issue was published in July 2005, and the final one appeared in September of the same year. The story focuses on the crew of Serenity taking a salvage job from Badger following a botched theft on a backwater planet, and the pursuit of River by the ominous blue-gloved men seen in two Firefly episodes. The story is considered part of the Firefly canon and bridges the TV show and the movie. The comics quickly sold out on release and both #1 and #2 issues went to second printings. A compilation trade paperback was released in January 2006.
It has been recently confirmed that Joss Whedon and Brett Matthews will write more Serenity comics for Dark Horse.[citation needed] The new comics are expected to be released sometime in mid-to-late 2006 or early 2007.[citation needed]
Joss Whedon said in an April 2003 USA Today interview that he had not given up on the show and hoped to continue it in any format. Serenity, a movie continuing the cancelled television series, was released in Australia on September 29, 2005, the USA and Canada on September 30, 2005, and the UK and Ireland weeks later. At a preview screening for the film, Whedon indicated that he would consider reviving the series if a network purchased the broadcast rights from FOX Television, as he will not work with FOX again.[34] More recently, Whedon has said that he would prefer to continue the stories in films, but if he were offered a television deal and not a film deal, he would probably accept.[citation needed]
Arole-playing game entitled Serenity, published by Margaret Weis Productions, Ltd, was released in 2005. This will be followed by Serenity: Out in the Black, an adventure by Tracy and Laura Hickman, the release date of which has yet to be announced.
The R. Tam sessions, which are set before the TV series, were released unofficially by Whedon via the internet from August 16 to September 5, 2005. They were meant as a form of viral marketing for the film Serenity.
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