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"Firefly"
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"Firefly" (2002) More at IMDbPro »TV series 2002-2003

Photos (see all 32 | slideshow) Videos (see all 29)
Firefly: Season 1: Episode 14 -- What starts out as a nice day at a space station goes very wrong when Mal and Zoe receives the corpse of their old war buddy in the mail.
Firefly: Season 1: Episode 13 -- Mal has to make a tough choice in whether he should trust his ex-wife again as she offers the Serenity crew an opportunity to make a lot of money.
Firefly: Season 1: Episode 12 -- The Serenity goes to the moon of Deadwood to answer a distress call from Inara's old friend who runs a brothel.
Firefly: Season 1: Episode 11 -- In this original pilot episode, the crew transports passengers to another planet to sell salvaged goods only to discover that an undercover Alliance agent is on board the Serenity.
Firefly: Season 1: Episode 10 -- A bounty hunter named Jubal Early sets his sites on capturing River Tam and manages to sneak aboard the Serenity to do so.

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Overview

User Rating:
9.5/10   36,700 votes »
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Creator:
Contact:
View company contact information for Firefly on IMDbPro.
Seasons:
Release Date:
20 September 2002 (USA) See more »
Genre:
Plot:
Five hundred years in the future, a renegade crew aboard a small, spacecraft tries to survive as they travel the unknown parts of the galaxy and evade warring factions as well as authority agents out to get them. Full summary »
Plot Keywords:
Awards:
Won Primetime Emmy. Another 3 wins & 6 nominations See more »
NewsDesk:
(751 articles)
User Reviews:
You will either love it, or hate it - read why... See more (543 total) »

Cast

 (Series Cast Summary - 9 of 14)

Nathan Fillion ... Captain Malcolm 'Mal' Reynolds (14 episodes, 2002-2003)

Gina Torres ... Zoë Washburne (14 episodes, 2002-2003)

Alan Tudyk ... Hoban 'Wash' Washburne (14 episodes, 2002-2003)

Morena Baccarin ... Inara Serra (14 episodes, 2002-2003)

Adam Baldwin ... Jayne Cobb (14 episodes, 2002-2003)

Jewel Staite ... Kaylee Frye (14 episodes, 2002-2003)

Sean Maher ... Dr. Simon Tam (14 episodes, 2002-2003)

Summer Glau ... River Tam (14 episodes, 2002-2003)
Ron Glass ... Shepherd Book (14 episodes, 2002-2003)
See more »

Additional Details

Also Known As:
"Firefly: The Series" - USA (long title)
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Runtime:
42 min (15 episodes)
Country:
Language:
Color:
Aspect Ratio:
1.78 : 1 See more »
Sound Mix:
Certification:
UK:12 (12 episodes) | UK:PG (2 episodes) | Singapore:M18 | Australia:M

Fun Stuff

Trivia:
According to an oral history of _"Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog"_ published in July 2008 in Entertainment Weekly, Neil Patrick Harris auditioned to play the doctor role on "Firefly" (2002) that was eventually filled by Sean Maher.See more »
Goofs:
Continuity: The Chinese characters for "Blue Sun" change from episode to episode. On Jayne's T-shirt, "Blue Sun" is Qing Ri, but in logo signs, it's Lan Ri. In ancient China, as well as Japan, green and blue were seen as the same color but different shades. The character Qing was used to represent both what we think of in English as the colors green and blue. Lan is the character that is currently used for blue in modern China.See more »
Quotes:
opening song:Take my love, take my land / Take me where I cannot stand / I don't care, I'm still free / You can't take the sky from me / Take me out to the black / Tell 'em I ain't comin' back / Burn the land and boil the sea / You can't take the sky from me / There's no place I can be / Since I found serenity / But you can't take the sky from meSee more »
Movie Connections:
Soundtrack:
The Ballad of SerenitySee more »

FAQ

How does "Firefly" relate to the film "Serenity?"
What is The Verse?
What is a Browncoat?
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299 out of 327 people found the following review useful.
You will either love it, or hate it - read why..., 22 January 2004
Author: Darknessinthesky from Duisburg, Germany

There is one big premise that you have to swallow in order to like this show. If you can't cope with it, you won't like it, because it will smack you in the face in every episode.

It is like the James Bond movies, if you don't accept, as a premise, that Bond, James Bond, can do everything, fly, drive, shoot, use *every* piece of machinery on the planet, that he can shoot better than all his adversaries (who all miss, all the time) and gets *all* the babes, if you don't accept this, you have to hate James Bond movies, because they are ridiculous. We talk about suspense of disbelief.

The one thing you have to swallow, without thinking about it, is, that in this particular science fiction universe, the future looks like this:

You have core planets, which are like one would imagine future worlds: Big, beautiful buildings, hight tech gadgets, spaceships and shuttles, modern weapons (some that don't kill by using some kind of sonic boom), flat displays, a modern, digital credit system instead of localised currency, a totally diverse people influenced by every imaginable culture, heavily influenced by the chinese society, the only remaining superpower besides the USA and so forth.

But, and this is a capitalized BUT: There are also the outer rim planets. They don't have a developed infrastructure and such. Settlers are dumped on planets with next to nothing, exploited to recover raw materials, used as cheap labor, trying to survive. Still sounds reasonable, no? The catch is: all these outer rim worlds look like you have been thrown into a cheap spaghetti WESTERN movie.

They trade cows, they use old revolvers, drive horses and dress in western-style garments. You have little, old, dirty small villages with a saloon and stuff. These outer rim planets, out of reach of the civilised Alliance, are a no-mans-land, with superstitious, uneducated fools, where the strong fist rules - if you have the most men and guns behind you, you are the law. The poor grunt is like the cowboy in a typical western movie.

Hard to accept? Partially yes, of course. But there is logic in almost everything: there are future references everywhere! Real food (as opposed to synthesized proteins) is a rare commodity, the RICH guys have laser guns or state of the art display devices.

And - they stay true to this premise throughout the show, which is a rare thing in today's entertainment.

But apart from this (for some) hard to accept premise, this show is the most entertaining, clever, realistic(!), funny, imaginative, creative, thrilling piece of entertainment I had the pleasure of viewing (by downloading it from the internet) in years (don't get me wrong: I downloaded it because I live in Germany and the show was never aired here, and I asked my brother, who lives in the USA, to get me the DVD as a christmas present - and he did)

As for realism: Why do they still use guns to kill people, why not lasers like in Star Trek (which i am avid fan of)? I say: guns kill people, bullets are cheap. Guns get the killing done. (And there are modern (bullet) guns and lasers in the show, they exist, they are simply not widespread and only available to the rich.

No sound in space - a little thing with big impact. Not only is it realistic, but it adds to the atmosphere. Instead of ridiculous sound effects the scenes in space are underlaid with vivid music, only emphasising the vastness and nothingness of space.

The basics of the universe comply with our world. In the outer rim, where modern civilization hasn't gotten a foothold yet, things - which are to us - common, are valuable merchandise! Just imagine the third world... How much worth are medicine, guns, food there? There are (to us) barbaric customs in uncivilised areas of the world and all this is being portrayed in the show.

The Plots are great, not like in Enterprise where you seem to have seen everything somewhere before, these plots are unique, thrilling and exciting. I have seen episodes where I thought "ok, I get it" and then *wham* the story turns into a totally different direction. Surprises at every corner.

The show is so refreshingly politically incorrect, I don't want to give away plot details, but there are situations you know from your movie/series experience and think OMG there we go again (Hostage situations someone?) and then*boom* - the protagonist does EXACTLY what WE would wish to do but which every movie/series is afraid of doing because it is not PC.

The characters are three dimensional and so well laid out. This "family" on board a little spaceship, a confined space(!), with all their motivations, quirks and problems, trying to get along and achieve their goals, are so believable and make for a hell of a ride.

The creators of this show have, in the first 14 episodes, established plots, characters and atmosphere that other science fiction series have only managed to achieve - if ever - in the last seasons of their time on air.

Such a pity that most American viewers couldn't see behind a bold, unique, hilarious - if difficult to accept at first glance - premise... and see the beautiful gem of a show behind it.

Was the above review useful to you?
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Message Boards

Discuss this movie with other users on IMDb message board for "Firefly" (2002)
Recent Posts (updated daily)User
Would you name your daughter Inara? DirrtyVinylpusher
New/Old Game...What has Firefly taught you? Hepcat10
Just watched for the first time ibjbyron
If the series is revived, Steve Zahn should replace Alan Tudyk trademark956
Do any of you Firefly fans like Farscape? DirrtyVinylpusher
Why was this show cancelled? drowelf4
See more »

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