Serenity Now!

The short-lived TV series Firefly may be named for an insect, but it will soon resemble a mythological bird. It is about to rise from the ashes of television obscurity and be reborn in a theater near you as the motion picture Serenity.

Firefly was just beginning to catch the attention of the public before it was cast into TV purgatory by inept programmers at the Fox network. Yet this show was simply too good to die. Sales of the show’s 14 episodes on DVD nurtured a cult following so strong that it sparked the theatrical resurrection scheduled for a September 30th release.

Science fiction may not be your preferred genre, but suspend judgment for the moment. Firefly is actually a western – a western set in space. The timeframe for Firefly is 500 years in the future. Human beings have colonized other worlds thanks to terra-forming, the ability to transform lifeless planets into earthlike habitats. The oldest worlds are united by a federal government called the Alliance, while the newer worlds comprise a mostly open frontier like the American West of yesteryear.

The eponymous Firefly refers to a class of transport ship that resembles the glowing insect. The series follows the adventures of Malcolm Reynolds (Nathan Fillion) and his crew aboard the Firefly class ship, Serenity. Reynolds is a veteran of a separatist movement that was crushed in a war with the Alliance years before. Having lost his land and his religious faith, Reynolds bitterly resolves to live on his own terms by means legal or illegal. His prime directive, so to speak, is to stay clear of the Alliance.

Reynolds has managed to draw around him a crew of misfits, each with secrets and reasons for avoiding the Alliance. Among the crew is first-mate Zoe (Gina Torres), also a veteran of the separatist war, and Wash (Alan Tudyk), Zoe’s wisecracking husband and ship’s pilot. Kaylee (Jewel Staite) is the sweet and wholesome engineer (think Mary Ann from Gilligan’s Island, if she were an ace mechanic). The menacing but hilarious Jayne (Adam Baldwin) is a macho roustabout that inexplicably has a girl’s name. The ship’s medic is Simon (Sean Maher), once a doctor in the most prestigious Alliance hospital. Simon is a fugitive for having rescued his sister, River (Summer Glau), from a malevolent Alliance school. River was formerly a brilliant and gifted student, but has been reduced to an incoherent basket case by medical procedures performed on her brain at the school. (If this isn’t a metaphor for public education, I don’t know what is.)

Also sharing the ride is Inara Serra (stunning Brazilian actress Morena Baccarin). Inara is a Companion, a cross between a high-class “lady of the evening,” and a unionized Geisha. On the frontier of space, Companions enjoy a considerably higher social respectability than might their equivalents today. Inara has a love/hate relationship with Reynolds, who disparages her profession but doesn’t refuse the rent she pays, nor mind the air of respectability she gives to the ship.

Finally there is Shepherd Derrial Book (Ron Glass, best known from the sitcom Barney Miller). Book is a traveling preacher who hopes to bring religion to the frontier in general, and the Serenity crew in particular. While Book serves as the crew’s conscience, he finds his own faith tested by the situations he confronts.

The settings of Firefly bear an obvious resemblance to the post-Lincoln American West. The Alliance is roughly analogous to the Union, the separatists to the Southern secessionists, and Reynolds to a far-flung Outlaw Jose Wales. If the idea of a western set in space sounds absurd, then it bears explaining that the show is fashioned around the adages that history tends to repeat, and that everything old becomes new again. Add to this mix the observation made by Gerritt Blaauw: “Established technology tends to persist despite new technology.” What this means in the universe of Firefly is that on the frontier of space, far from the centers of civilization and industry, the high tech mingles with the primitive. Futuristic vehicles share the same roads with combustion engines and horse-driven wagons. Sophisticated laser weapons exist, but are less seen than a reliable six-shooter. Fashions and dcor take inspiration from hundreds of cultures spanning eight centuries.

Firefly is now set to follow the path of Star Trek, another show that began as a low-rated TV series but found new life on the big screen and in ubiquitous spin-offs. Indeed, creator Joss Whedon (best known for Buffy the Vampire Slayer) hopes the upcoming movie will prompt some network executives to consider reviving the show for television. In most other respects though, Firefly is the anti-Star Trek. For one thing, there are no extraterrestrials in Firefly, no actors in body makeup or rubber prosthetics. The scariest thing the Serenity crew is likely to encounter isn’t alien monsters, but human ones.

As Paul Cantor has noted in his brilliant Gilligan Unbound, the universe of Star Trek embodies the Kennedy idealism of the 60’s. The United Federation of Planets is Fukayama writ galactic. Ideological debates are settled on Earth, so all that’s left to do is spread the liberal democratic gospel through the universe. The Enterprise seeks out new life and civilizations, and if these civilizations are liberal democracies too, they get invited to join the Federation. If not, Kirk and company pay some lip service to the Prime Directive and then go in with the phasers blasting. The Federation actually has much in common with its later archenemy, the Borg. Resistance is futile.

In contrast, the Alliance of the Firefly universe is not New Camelot forging a path to the New Frontier. It is like most real governments: brutal and oppressive at its worst, annoying or indifferent at its best. Rather than a vehicle for uniting diverse cultures, it is a force for vested interests to maintain their status of privilege.

One more important note about Firefly: more than a little dialogue is in Chinese. In the background history of the series, two Earth cultures have come to dominate: Anglo-American and Chinese. This is reflected by the mix of Asian and Western fashions, and in the fact that virtually everyone is fluent in both Mandarin and English. In developing this history for Firefly, creator Joss Whedon has presaged the possibility of a post-communist China that becomes an economic powerhouse to rival the US. As China has one of the fastest growing economies in the world at present, and is beginning to compete for oil and other resources, this is a real possibility. When Chinese communism inevitably folds, Whedon may prove to be more prescient than many politicians or pundits.

Beyond its explicit libertarian theme, Firefly is simply well written and produced. The special effects that depict exteriors in space cleverly imitate the movements and rack focusing of a hand held camera. The dialogue is sparkling, imitating a folksy frontier style that is infectious. (And speaking of infectious, I challenge you to get the haunting theme song out of your head after watching an episode or two.)

Serenity the movie, though based on the TV show, has been crafted to stand on its own so that audiences need not have seen the series to enjoy it. It would be no surprise if, like Star Trek, it inspires sequels or a return to TV. After all, as in the Firefly universe, history tends to repeat.

September 17, 2005