I bought the set for myself for Christmas. I was really tempted to go staright to the the unaired episodes, but I controlled myself and am watching them in order. I watched “Trash” last night and liked it.
Brian
I lent my set to friends, and they liked it so much I just got a new set and told them to keep theirs.
Based on all the glowing reviews here, i’m tempted to give Firefly a try, also to see if there’s any validity to the “shows starting with the letter F get killed prematurely” curse, almost all my favorite shows start with an F and got killed prematurely by network morons;
Farscape
Family Guy
Futurama
I’m definitely a sci-fi fan, i like Trek, Wars, HHGTTG, Dwarf, heck, i even like Lexx ;), but the standard i hold all scifi up to is a little Australian show called Farscape
so, here’s the question…
How does Firefly compare to Farscape (aside from both starting with the letter F, that is 
)
To address this, though, these are “terraformed” places. The whole premise is that these uninhabitable planets are terraformed to make them habitable, so they are closer together than planets in, say, Star Trek. Also they return to some more than once.
True, but there aren’t that many planets to be terraformed in the real universe. Our solar system has 2 planets that can conceivably be terraformed, but if you want more you need interstellar travel. Firefly completely ignores the question of how they achieve interstellar travel, and doesn’t even make a distinction between interplanetary and interstellar travel.
Not that I’m complaining. It’s no less realistic than Star Trek or Farscape, when you think about it. In fact it feels far more real than those shows.
By the way, didn’t the show originally have an introductory voiceover? Something about the earth having been used up and new planets being colonized. It doesn’t seem to be on the DVD - I guess Joss didn’t like it.
I was the same way. I also tried to spread them out rather than watch them all in one sitting. Well, I managed to keep to that for a few episodes… 
Yeah, it did. Most were by Mal, but a couple were done by Book (Don’t think any of the other cast did any of them). It was a cool little intro.
Re the intro, I recall that when the show originally aired, the wording was different in the two versions, depending on who was talking. In one of them, the group of planets was referred to as “the solar system.” In the other, it was “the galaxy.” The show didn’t air long enough to make it clear what was intended by this, but it could have been a nod toward the show’s use of point of view, i.e. the characters are flawed and just because it’s omniscient voice-over doesn’t mean the character knows what he’s talking about.
But yeah, Homebrew and scr4 are correct: The emphasis of this show is not on the science. They don’t spend two words on explaining how space engines work in this universe or how far apart the worlds are or any of that. They dispense with the Treknobabble and get right to the storytelling. So instead of giving us nits we can pick, we just watch the people in the story. And like scr4 says, this has the paradoxical effect of making the setting more plausible, not less.
I decided to rent one of the discs to see what it’s like; the video store didn’t have the first one, so I have disc two. I’ll watch it and see how it strikes me.
I’m aware that the people in this thread have given it glowing reviews; that’s the only reason I haven’t returned it for something else yet. But good reviews here aren’t really a good indicator of shows I will like. I have in the past rented season one of Angel and Babylon 5 based on recommendations from fans here, and neither seemed like anything special based upon the half dozen first season shows I watched of each. Which is just to say that I haven’t had good luck finding shows I like based on creator’s pedigree (Angel) or recommendations from fans (Angel and Bablylon 5)
Television series Earth 2, Buck Rogers, Logan’s Run, Wild Wild West and individual episodes of the various Star Trek series, and Battlestar Galactica. In movies, Westworld, Battle Beyond the Stars, and practically every movie set in a post apocalyptic or frontier world.
I have, however, thought of one example of western themes used well in a sci-fi movie: The Road Warrior. That, however, seems to be the exception.
Oh, dude, you rented the first season of Angel and expected it to be good? I’m so sorry. No, the first two seasons of Angel existed solely to give us enough backstory to enjoy the stellar second two. Well, okay, I’m sure it wasn’t actually planned that way, but trust me when I say that the first season of Angel was not indicative of the quality of the entire series.
Babylon 5, though, well, you’re on your own.
Very different feel to the two serii. But: Both have strong ensemble cast and decent female characters (which is important to me, you may not care…). And both have those funny little character interaction moments.
I’m not being particularly clear. Let me put it this way - it took me one and a half seasons to really get into Farscape and I wasn’t hooked until Season 2 finale and I think it’s never been as good as that again; I loved Firefly by the end of the Train Job (first episode after the pilot). (And I also like Dwarf and Wars and etc as you mentioned so it seems we have similar tastes).
My advice: beg, borrow, rent, but just give it a go.
First off, they are NOT in our solar system. That much was made clear. Second, a lot of the “planets” they were visiting were moons of gas giants. Gas giants can have several large moons.
And it was made clear in one of the unaired eps that they are using some sort of gravity drive, which would imply that they have at least near-lightspeed capabilities, and probably FTL capabilities.
While I’m posting, I meant to ask - is this Sarah Michelle or is this Eliza Dushku?
Where did I miss that?
Don’t remember which ep, but I do remember it was one of the unaired ones.
Just finished watching Ariel. I had to check to make sure it was on your list of top four. If it had not been I was going to question your sanity. Wow. That was one of the best episodes of any television show I’ve ever seen.
NumberSix, if you would like to see the pilot, I will mail it to you (have it on DVD). E-mail me if you want. I think it is worth seeing.
It’s in “The Message,” the second of the three unaired episodes on the DVD set (although actually the last episode of the show to be shot).
–Cliffy
Gravity drive or moons in “The Message”?
Okay, everyone. Which was your favorite of the unaired episodes? The unaired ones were Trash, The Message, and Heart of Gold. My favorite was The Message, although I did like the return of Mrs. Reynolds and the nudity in Trash.
My favorite unaired ep was The Message as well - but that’s not why I’m here.
I have to say, I’m loving this thread, but the title? R.I.P. Firefly?
No!
Firefly, may you NOT Rest In Peace, ever!
Come back to us! Come back tight pants, come back space monkeys, come back produce fixation, come back Vera, come back Kaylee, come back Firefly!!!
Gorram it, when is that movie gonna be made?