Dàjiā
hǎo! Welcome to Season One Shows' Day One and yes I thought it
only proper to get this ball rolling with one of the most talked
about, beloved and thoroughly aggravating shows that Fox has ever
cancelled. While House went kicked, punched and eye gouged the
shark, this show got one season while the creator's main show and its
spin-off were also being handled. Showing life in a frontiersman's
setting across planets, cattle rustlers and criminals of the like not
see in this here 'verse. This is Firefly.
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| Open the pod bay door, Joss. |
Created
by writer/director/producer Joss
Whedon
(Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Toy Story, Angel,
Alien: Ressurection, Speed, Dollhouse, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D and The
Avengers)
and set 500 years into the future, the Earth's resources, natural
splendor and living conditions are done. Humanity leaves its cradle
of civilization in search of new planets to live and prosper. Core
planets are guarded, protected and shielded by an assortment of laws
and regulations by the Alliance, while the outer rim planets are
handled by cattle ranchers, pioneers and tradesmen that can be
sacked, bushwhacked and paddywhacked at any time. These are the
non-allied worlds. Soon after the push to space, the Alliance wished
to add even more planets under the yoke of their rule and the
non-allied worlds rose up in a intergalactic civil war broke out.
With more tech, manpower and resources the Alliance finally broke the Independents and proceeded to continue to carve up space.
For
former Independant or "Browncoat" Malcolm Reynolds (Nathan
Fillion of Two Guys, a Girl and a Pizza Place, Buffy the Vampire
Slayer, Justice League, Drive, Desperate Housewives, Dr. Horrible's
Sing-Along Blog and Castle)
being a criminal means taking risks so his ship can stay flying,
sticking it to the Alliance and making a life for himself and his
crew. Deft but goofy pilot Wash (Alan Tudyk of
of Patch Adams, A Knight's Tale, Ice Age, I, Robot, Serenity, Young
Justice and Newsreaders),
his second-in-command Zoe (Gina Torres of
Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, Cleopatra 2525, Angel, Justice
League, Standoff and Suits),
his hard headed bad ass desperado Jayne Cobb (Adam
Baldwin of Predator 2, Wyatt Earp, The Cape, The X-Files, Stargate
SG-1, Angel, Evil Eyes, Jackie Chan Adventures, Chuck and The Last
Ship)
and plunky engineer Kaylee (Jewel Staite of Space
Cases, Flash Forward, Just Deal, Firefly, Stargate: Atlantis, The
L.A. Complex and The Killing).
Between ferrying legitmate cargo and taking on passengers, the
thefts are always paying better but the law is always around,
criminals looking to screw them out of their hard earn coin and a
myriad of psychotic cannibalistic men and women known as Reavers take
to the skies as well.
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| Dinner with all the trimmings. |
Hard
to sneak about and be viewed as respectable but licensed companion
Inara Serra (Morena Baccarin of Roger Dodger,
Still Life, Serenity, Justice League, Stargate SG-1, Stolen, V, Back
in the Day, Son of Batman, The Flash and Gotham)
gives them credibilty on the core worlds as well as picking up fares
such as: holy man Shepard Book (Ron Glass of The
Streets of San Francisco, Barney Miller, Crash, The New Odd Couple,
Back in Business, Serenity, All Grown Up and Lakeview Terrace)
and Doctor Simon Tam (Sean Maher of Party of
Five, The $Treet, Firefly, Serenity, Much Ado About Nothing, Arrow
and Son of Batman).
Events unfold and Doctor Tam is revealed to be a wanted fugitive
for rescuing his sister River (Summer Glau of
Angel, Firefly, Serenity, The Unit, Terminator: The Sarah Connor
Chronicles, Superman/Batman: Apocalypse, Knights of Badassdom, Arrow
and Sequestered)
from an Alliance research and development program.
Is
this more than Reynolds bargained for? Can the crew and passengers
co-exist peacefully? Is there a reward for the brother sister duo?
A
quick few bits on the show now. Mutant Enemy Productions released
this show in September 20, 2002 with the set of Serenity, the ship
being as much as a character as the cast given she was split level
and built full-scale across two sound stages for upper deck, lower
deck, shuttle docking bay and holding bay and all sets were
connected. The Alliance officer and solider uniforms were leftover
armor and suits from Starship Troopers. Every scene in space did
not have sound effects as it would be in real life as SPACE IS A
VACUUM... of course the background music was still played but hey
there is only so much realism.
Fox
aired the episodes out of chronological order primarily because the
pilot was deemed too long and less hard hitting as its second
episode, "The Train Job". One of the first TV sci-fi
shows to be exclusive without extra-terrestrial life it made certain
that the two predominate powers and language would be English and Mandarin Chinese (which allowed swearing to get
around the censors).
A
clever story line allowing 8 main characters to be properly
developed, giving them hurdles in life, put in real life scenarios as
much as fictitious ones. Would it held up in another season or even 2?
That has been the subject of many debates. In this humble
reviewer's eyes, I feel we could have explored more of each crew
members' back-story with the bonus of who they were to where will they
go from here. With the completion of Serenity, many questions were
answered and it did put a nice cap on a few issues. Is a sequel in
the works to this day? Only Whedon knows.
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| Feel like a trap? |
