Firefly (2002–2003)

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.

Creator:

Joss Whedon

Stars:

Nathan Fillion, Gina Torres, Alan Tudyk

Won 1 Primetime Emmy. Another 3 wins & 7 nominations.

Cast

Complete series cast summary:
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)

Storyline

Captain Malcolm 'Mal' Reynolds is a former galactic war veteran who is the captain of the transport ship "Serenity". Mal and his crew, ensign Zoe Alleyne Washburne; Zoe's husband, pilot Hoban 'Wash' Washburne; muscular mercenary Jayne Cobb; young mechanic Kaylee Frye; former Alliance medical officer Simon Tam; his disturbed teenage sister River (both on the run from the interplanetary government "The Alliance"); the beautiful courtesan Inara Serra; and preacher Shepherd Book do any jobs, legal or illegal, they can find as the Serenity crew travels across the outskirts of outer space.

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Plot Keywords:

alliance | pilot | captain | future | spacecraft | 

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Taglines:

Meet the most spaced-out crew in the galaxy.

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Genres:

Adventure | Drama | Sci-Fi

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Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English Mandarin

Release Date:

20 September 2002 (USA)

Also Known As:

Firefly: The Series

Filming Locations:

20th Century Fox Studios - 10201 Pico Blvd., Century City, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Mutant Enemy, 20th Century Fox Television

Technical Specs

Runtime:

42 min 42 min (15 episodes)

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Joss Whedon intended the show to have run for seven seasons. However due to low ratings, the FOX Network canceled it with only 11 episodes out of 14 airing on the network. Prior to it's cancellation fans formed a Firefly Immediate Assistance campaign which involves sending in postcards to the FOX Network to support the production of the show. After that didn't work, the campaign worked on getting another network such as UPN to pick up the series for a second season. The campaign ended up being unsuccessful in securing the continuation of the show.

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Goofs

The Chinese characters for "Blue Sun" change from throughout the series. 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 different shades of the same color. The character Qing was used to represent both green and blue. In modern China, Lan is the character used for blue.

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Quotes

[opening narration for episodes: Safe, Ariel, War Stories, Heart of Gold]
Mal: Here's how it is: The Earth got used up, so we moved out and terraformed a whole new galaxy of Earths. Some rich and flush with the new technologies, some not so much. The Central Planets, thems formed the Alliance, waged war to bring everyone under their rule; a few idiots tried to fight it, among them myself. I'm Malcolm Reynolds, captain of Serenity. She's a transport ship; Firefly class. Got a good crew: fighters, ...

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Connections

Referenced in American Dad!: The Full Cognitive Redaction of Avery Bullock by the Coward Stan Smith (2013)

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Soundtracks

"The Ballad of Serenity"
Performed by Sonny Rhodes
Written by Joss Whedon

User Reviews

Excellent, unique DVD

Never heard of Firefly? Get your hands on the DVD.

Saw some, weren't that impressed? Get your hands on the DVD.

Loved it? Well, you don't need convincing.

Fox did an incredible disservice to this show by showing the episodes out of order. They still made sense on a very low level, i.e., there weren't a lot of plot points that were part of the continuing arc that ended up being out of order in the order they were aired, but this show is so much better if you see it in the order intended. In the aired episodes, characters would sometimes do things that either seemed out of character or really weird, or sometimes even just boring, that make so much more sense on the DVDs, even though there's a grand total of one scene (and only about 3 lines of that scene) that's different between the DVD and the aired version.

That said, this show is the most innovative thing I've ever seen on TV, even despite its mistreatment. It has nine main characters, all of which are fairly well developed in the pilot episode, who then grow and change but remain true to their characters as originally conceived throughout the rest of the series. I could talk about the incredible attention to detail for the special effects, etc., but special effects are getting really good, so that doesn't really set this apart from a lot of movies out there. The concept seems odd at first, but is amazingly well done, with each world they go to having its own quirks, charms and dangers, but it always comes back to the characters and their relationships with each other.