Firefly Talk

Firefly and Serenity: A Background

(Some visitors will be able to hear a random clip of music or dialogue from Firefly or Serenity).

Firefly is a science-fiction/western TV series set in the year 2517. Long before the events in the story, a large population emigrated from Earth to a new solar system. This "planet village" had dozens of planets and hundreds of moons, many of which needed to be terraformed to become habitable, a process taking decades. The terraforming process is imperfect, and the outlying settlements are typically set in 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 has been somehow destroyed, or is so far out of reach that for them, it is mythical (it is cryptically stated in the opening narration that Earth "got used up", and the humans left).

The show takes its name from the Firefly-class spaceship Serenity that the central characters call home. Somewhat resembling an insect in general arrangement, the ship's tail section (analogous to an insectoid abdomen) lights up during acceleration, causing it to resemble a firefly (and hence the ship class' name).

The star system is governed by the Alliance, an organization of "core" planets that has 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 government authority. Settlers and refugees on the outlying worlds enjoy relative freedom from the central government, but lack the amenities of the high-tech civilization on the inner worlds. Captain Malcolm "Mal" Reynolds and his first mate Zoë are veteran "Browncoats" of the Unification War, a failed attempt by the outlying worlds to resist the Alliance's assertion of control. After the war, Mal bought the spaceship Serenity in order to scrape together a way of life for himself and his crew by making cargo runs and performing other tasks, legal or otherwise.

Featuring a blend of elements from the space opera and Western genres with a bit of Robin Hood and his Merry Men, the show depicts mankind's future in a way that is uncharacteristic of many contemporary science fiction programs. Unlike most traditional space operas, there are no alien creatures or space battles. Firefly takes place in a multi-cultural future, where the divide between the rich and poor is great. 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 (pronounced with a varying degree of accuracy).

According to the DVD commentary on the episode Serenity, this is explained as being the result of China and the United States becoming the two superpowers that expand into space. This Sino-American (named the Anglo-Sino Alliance) allegiance is supported by close examination of labels on the crates from the episode "The Train Job", where crates of Alliance goods are marked with a Chinese flag superimposed over a United States flag. An interesting intrusion of Japanese is noted in the form of katakana script throughout the television series and the film.

For fans, the dialogue and interplay between characters is central to the charm of the show, resulting in stories that are alternately serious and humorous. The show's visual style also differs from contemporary shows in that camera shots are often handheld, 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 stands in contrast to many science fiction films and television series.

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.

The Firefly Cancellation
Though the show had a loyal following during its original broadcast, it was cancelled by FOX in December 2002 after only 11 episodes aired in the USA and Canada due to low ratings. In the hopes of getting another network such as UPN to pick up the cancelled show, fans formed the Firefly Immediate Assistance campaign. They were unsuccessful in promoting the show's continuance.

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.

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.

A box set with the 14 completed episodes, including those previously unaired in the USA, was released on region 1 DVD on 2003-12-09, region 2 DVD on 2004-04-19, and region 4 DVD on 2004-08-02. The box features the episodes in the original order in which the show's producers had intended them to be broadcast, as well as several 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 copies and was one of the top movers at both Amazon.com and DeepDiscountDVD.com for months. As of March 2006, Firefly is still in Amazon.com's top 25 for DVD sales. This is notable, considering that the other 24 top sellers are no older than 2 months, while the Firefly box set has been out since 2003.

The Firefly Movie: Serenity
Jane Espenson, one of the writers of Buffy and Firefly, announced in June 2003 at a Buffy convention in the UK that Whedon was writing a script for a Firefly movie. Actors Nathan Fillion and Adam Baldwin confirmed this on the official Firefly forum, as did Whedon in several interviews. Universal Studios acquired the movie rights to Firefly.

On March 2, 2004, according to an article in Variety, the movie was officially greenlighted to enter production with a $40 million budget. Principal photography started on June 3, 2004. Joss Whedon said that the film would be released as Serenity, in order to differentiate it from the TV series. All nine principal cast members from the television series (Adam Baldwin, Alan Tudyk, Gina Torres, Jewel Staite, Morena Baccarin, Nathan Fillion, Ron Glass, Sean Maher, and Summer Glau) returned for the movie. On September 17, 2004 Joss Whedon announced on the movie's official site that shooting had been completed.

In addition to traditional advertising methods, Universal sought a few unique approaches to promoting the film. Hoping to generate buzz through early word-of-mouth, Universal launched an unprecedented 3-stage campaign to sneak-preview the movie in 35 US cities where the television series had earned high Nielsen Ratings. The first stage of screenings was held in 10 cities on May 5, 2005. The second stage, held on May 26, 2005, added an additional 20 cities and was also the source of controversy when individual theatres began selling tickets before the official announcement was released, leading some shows to be sold out before being announced. The third round of screenings, with an additional 5 cities, was held on June 23, 2005. The screenings proved a success, with all three stages selling out in less than 24 hours, the second-stage screening in DC sold out in a mere 22 minutes and the second screening in Phoenix sold out in 8.

Australian audiences were the first outside North America to get preview screenings. After an exclusive Sydney test screening, Melbourne held a public screening on July 21, 2005. This was followed by a film festival screening on the Gold Coast on July 22. Public preview screenings were held in Adelaide and Sydney on August 1, and Perth on August 4. Further screenings were held in Victoria, Tasmania, and Queensland in late August. A showing of the finished film billed as the "Gala Premiere" was held at the Edinburgh International Film Festival on August 22, followed by an interview with Whedon the next day, and preview screenings across the United Kingdom and Ireland on August 24, in London, Birmingham, Manchester and Dublin. Several of the screenings in all the countries featured the attendance of Joss Whedon and the film's cast, followed by a Q&A session with the audience. Whedon also attended two Q&A sessions after sold-out screenings of the finished film in Melbourne and Sydney on September 12 and 13.

Serenity received mostly positive reviews from film critics, with a "fresh" rating of 80% from the movie review website Rotten Tomatoes, which compiles reviews from a wide range of film critics. Ebert & Roeper gave the film "Two Thumbs Up," and The San Francisco Chronicle called it a triumph, while The New York Times described it as a modest but superior science fiction film.

Despite critical acclaim and Internet buzz, Serenity performed modestly at best at the box office. Although several pundits predicted a #1 opening, the film opened at #2 in the United States, taking in $10.1 million its first weekend, spending two weeks in the top ten, and totalling a box office gross of $25.5 million. Movie industry analyst Brandon Gray described Serenity's box office performance as "like a below average genre picture". Serenity received mostly positive reviews from film critics, with a "fresh" rating of 80% from the movie review website Rotten Tomatoes, which compiles reviews from a wide range of film critics. Ebert & Roeper gave the film "Two Thumbs Up," and The San Francisco Chronicle called it a triumph, while The New York Times described it as a modest but superior science fiction film.

Serenity's international box office results were mixed, with strong openings in the UK, Portugal and Russia, but poor results in Spain, Australia, France and Italy. Universal International Pictures cancelled the film's theatrical release in at least seven countries, planning to release it directly to DVD instead. The box office income outside the United States was $13.3 million, with a worldwide total of $38.8 million, slightly less than the film's $39 million budget, which doesn't include the promotion and advertising costs. The film's creators and supporters are hoping that strong DVD sales, similar to those of the Firefly television series, may lead to a sequel production.

Most of the above references are from wikipedia.

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