# Explain Firefly **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 16, 2004, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-firefly/255421 "2004-07-16T14:58:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Baldwin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baldwin/32/7264_2.png) [@Baldwin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baldwin)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2004, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-firefly/255421/41 "2004-07-17T02:01:43Z")
When you get the box set – the episode commentaries are really worth listening to, and will give you a little more backstory. For instance, the basic idea is that the U.S. and China are the two superpowers that survived the big mix-up on Earth in the coming centuries, and the Alliance contains elements of both cultures. I’ve occasionally used “If wishes were horses, we’d all be eatin’ steak!” ---
**Author:** ![Knowed\_Out](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/knowed_out/32/7380_2.png) [@Knowed\_Out](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knowed_Out)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2004, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-firefly/255421/42 "2004-07-17T02:37:28Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > Kaylee is beyond cute! Totally, completely, unbelieveably, heart-stoppingly cute! And the flashback as to how Mal met her was priceless. 😃 Ain’t it just so! In the pilot, where she’s sitting on the ramp with her multicolored umbrella, telling Book “You’re going to ride on our ship!” I just wanna wrap her up and take her home. Also, where she chases River all over Serenity to get her apple back…sigh… ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2004, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-firefly/255421/43 "2004-07-17T02:38:12Z")
> [@Baldwin](#): > > When you get the box set – the episode commentaries are really worth listening to, and will give you a little more backstory. How do I active those commentaries? I’ve been looking for 'em. ---
**Author:** ![audit1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ed8c4c/32.png) [@audit1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/audit1)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2004, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-firefly/255421/44 "2004-07-17T02:40:15Z")
To activate the commetaries go to lanuage settings. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2004, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-firefly/255421/45 "2004-07-17T02:41:22Z")
“Activate”, even. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2004, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-firefly/255421/46 "2004-07-17T02:42:59Z")
> [@audit1](#): > > To activate the commetaries go to lanuage settings. Snuck in there while I was waiting. Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![PastAllReason](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f07891/32.png) [@PastAllReason](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastAllReason)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2004, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-firefly/255421/47 "2004-07-17T02:51:53Z")
> [@Baldwin](#): > > When you get the box set – the episode commentaries are really worth listening to, and will give you a little more backstory. For instance, the basic idea is that the U.S. and China are the two superpowers that survived the big mix-up on Earth in the coming centuries, and the Alliance contains elements of both cultures. I agree with the recommendation that you listen to the commentaries. Happily half of the episodes have commentaries on them, with various combinations of Whedon, Tim Minear, Nathan Fillion, Alan Tudyk and others. They do give insight into the series, including suggestions about how the power of corporations in the future and how they influence the Alliance. There’s also discussion in various places about how important the theme song is to the series. Joss Whedon wrote the theme song, and I believe he may have said that he wrote it before he actually wrote the pilot. The other thing about the commentaries are that they are \*\*really \*\* funny. Prepare to laugh. By the way, I hope you can find the DVDs easily. I had to look around quite a bit for them. It seems everyone else beat to buying them. And me, I’m quite fond of Mal. And the episode where he ends up naked in the desert is definitely, well, shiny. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2004, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-firefly/255421/48 "2004-07-17T02:58:48Z")
> [@Knowed Out](#): > > Ain’t it just so! In the pilot, where she’s sitting on the ramp with her multicolored umbrella, telling Book “You’re going to ride on our ship!” I just wanna wrap her up and take her home. > > Also, where she chases River all over Serenity to get her apple back…sigh… The scene I’m thinking of is in the episode “Out Of Gas.” When Mal flashes back to how each of the crew members came to be on board _Serenity_…he first saw Kaylee underneath his former mechanic. They were humping in the engine-room. Then Mal discovered that Kaylee knew more about engines than his mechanic did, fired him and hired her. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Snooooopy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@Snooooopy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snooooopy)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2004, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-firefly/255421/49 "2004-07-17T03:01:36Z")
> [@Bryan Ekers](#): > > My favourite cliché-destroying bit (and there are an awful lot of them): > > Mal is in violent fistfight with the man who had earlier tortured him severely. Zoe, Jayne and Wash come running in to rescue Mal. > > Zoe: [seeing Mal locked in struggle, gives instructions to Jayne and Wash] Stay back, this is someting the Captain has to do for himself. > Mal: [desperately] No, it’s not! > Zoe: Oh. [she, Jayne and Wash put about fifty bullets into torturer] > > Brilliant. This was the exact cliche-busting moment that I was going to post! And far from being irritated that you got to it first, I’m rather pleased that I don’t have to busy myself with searching the Internet to refresh my memory regarding the exact details. ---
**Author:** ![Waenara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/50afbb/32.png) [@Waenara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Waenara)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2004, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-firefly/255421/50 "2004-07-17T04:13:16Z")
I don’t really have that much to add. Obviously I adore the show. And Firefly-isms like “shiny”, “gorram” etc… have snuck into my vocabulary. I never saw any episodes when it was aired, and bought the DVDs when I saw them on sale, basically on the strength of the recommendations in previous SDMB threads. It is possibly the _best_ TV show I have ever seen, and I very excited about the upcoming movie, _Serenity_. > [@Knowed Out](#): > > Firefly takes place in a low-tech setting, so there’s little in the way of geeky sci-fi nomenclature to drag things down. In fact, I specifically remember one scene with the potential to be Star-Trek-technobabble-ish: _Kaylee is explaining how a engine part is broken_ Kaylee: “Catalyzer on the port compression coil blew. That’s where the trouble started.” Mal: “I need that in Captain Dummy-Talk, Kaylee.” Mal’s the captain of the ship, but he doesn’t have the schematics memorized, and he doesn’t know how to pilot - he has Kaylee and Wash for that. ---
**Author:** ![DeadlyAccurate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ac91a4/32.png) [@DeadlyAccurate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DeadlyAccurate)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2004, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-firefly/255421/51 "2004-07-17T05:02:28Z")
Uh, **Jeff**. Wash isn’t married to Inara. He’s married to Zoe. ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2004, 5:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-firefly/255421/52 "2004-07-17T05:50:55Z")
“Doesn’t the Bible say something about killing people?” “It’s less specific about kneecaps.” And I’ll take some Kylee to go over a double helping of Inara any day of the week. Rowr. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2004, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-firefly/255421/53 "2004-07-17T14:36:15Z")
> [@DeadlyAccurate](#): > > Uh, **Jeff**. Wash isn’t married to Inara. He’s married to Zoe. Thanks again. One question, how’d you manage to get an echo 7½ hours later? ---
**Author:** ![kitarak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/898d66/32.png) [@kitarak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kitarak)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2004, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-firefly/255421/54 "2004-07-17T16:38:42Z")
> [@Waenara](#): > > Mal’s the captain of the ship, but he doesn’t have the schematics memorized, and he doesn’t know how to pilot - he has Kaylee and Wash for that. Actually, he can pilot the ship. I can’t remember the episode, but there’s a scene where Zoey says something along the lines of “Captain, I need you to take the helm. I need this man to come tear all my clothes off”. I figure Wash is just a lot better at it than him. I also adore this series. It does however have two problems with it that I see: It relies too much on the ‘neat setup’. Usually what is needed to solve the problem has conveniently been introduced earlier in the episode. (The two examples that come to mind are Vera and the Vac suits, in ‘Our Mrs Reynolds’ and umm… the Reavers episode.) The villains are weak. The main ‘bad guys’ are the guys with the blue hands and Nischka (or however you spell his name), both of whom are just generically evil. The alliance highups tend to be like this - stereotypical pompous officials. This isn’t usually a major problem, because the show does not rely on having villains - they’re usually not relevant to the plot. However, in the few episodes where they are there, it is a weakness. That being said, it’s still one of the best series out there. The characters are great, as are the plots, and the sci-fi is extremely well done, but in such a way that it doesn’t actually intrude on the rest of the show. (Little details like the lack of sound in space, etc.) I’m very much looking forward to Serenity, although I’m a little worried that it won’t live up to the show itself. ---
**Author:** ![DeadlyAccurate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ac91a4/32.png) [@DeadlyAccurate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DeadlyAccurate)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2004, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-firefly/255421/55 "2004-07-17T17:02:41Z")
> [@Jeff Olsen](#): > > Thanks again. One question, how’d you manage to get an echo 7½ hours later? No clue, but I thought I was insane there for a minute when I saw the duplicate post. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2004, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-firefly/255421/56 "2004-07-17T18:08:38Z")
> [@PastAllReason](#): > > Joss Whedon wrote the theme song, and I believe he may have said that he wrote it before he actually wrote the pilot. There is a clip of Whedon singing the theme song. Do _ **NOT** _ watch it. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2004, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-firefly/255421/57 "2004-07-17T19:01:04Z")
> [@Smeghead](#): > > “Doesn’t the Bible say something about killing people?” > > “It’s less specific about kneecaps.” The exchange is actually Z) Shepard, isn’t the Bible kind of specific about killing? B) Very specific. It is, however, somewhat fuzzy around the area kneecaps. Book’s prasing there makes the quote, IMO. ---
**Author:** ![Fiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e274bd/32.png) [@Fiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiver)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2004, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-firefly/255421/58 "2004-07-17T19:06:30Z")
**Tengu** , if you’re going to correct somebody you should get it right yourself. Book actually actually says: > [@](#): > > It is, however, somewhat fuzzier on the subject of kneecaps. ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2004, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-firefly/255421/59 "2004-07-17T19:24:33Z")
Hmm. I always hear ‘area’, which is a much better line. Checking a transcript, either your right, or whoever did the transcript misheard it the same way. ---
**Author:** ![Fish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bc8723/32.png) [@Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fish)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2004, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-firefly/255421/60 "2004-07-17T19:44:31Z")
I have only seen the two-hour episode intended as the pilot, and only once, so let me offer my impression of _Firefly_: I was impressed and delighted. It is a future world that is not dissimilar to our own. In fact, it’s probably _more_ recognizeable as our own world than a distant, sterile, perfect _Star Trek_ world is. It is familiar because it is delightfully organic. There are no glassy computer touch-panels showing blinking neon blue diagrams. Instead, we see the ship is controlled by a mechanical flight yoke. There is no voice command: there are buttons and switches. The engine room panels have tangles of _actual wires_ behind them, not even rows of identically geometrically shaped acrylic lit by a hidden orange bulb. At port, the ship has a cargo ramp for entry and egress, and not a fancy transporter effect. I noticed that the set decoration was more like … _Blade Runner_ than _Silent Running_. There are rich, heavy fabrics—almost Indian in their opulence—in the companion’s quarters. The mess hall (dining room?) was akin to a lived-in version of an apartment complex clubhouse. Their clothes have _pockets._ That may seem like an unusual thing to take note of, but there you go: they wear real, functional clothes; I saw no space-agey body-fitting silver jumpsuits. Some of them wear low-slung gunslinger-style belts. On the surface, they even ride _horses._ My brother observed to me that the show uses a lot of Hollywood-Western-style imagery because it is pushing the _metaphor_ of frontier life, with the cowboy themes as visual reinforcement. Even the music is a very organic, almost arrhythmic blend of acoustic instruments (predominantly guitar). This musical choice gives the show much more intimacy than a grand, sweeping orchestral score. I get the feeling that _Firefly_ would never use an arrangement with six French horns and forty violins. In its use of character, it’s much more like _True Grit_ than _True Lies._ These characters are all well-rounded, all very human. Some are deeply troubled. Some are flawed. They do their best, and they don’t always agree. I didn’t see a “ready room” where everyone gathered together to decide on the best course of action within their mutually-accepted rules. There is no Prime Directive. These people, in a nutshell, have important and deep conflicts. How else can I compare this? It’s got the set decoration of _Star Wars_: things are dirty, well-used, cramped, sometimes dimly lit, mechanical instead of magical. It’s got the diverse cast of _Alien_, each character from a different background. It’s got the sense of culture that made _Blade Runner_ great, and yet the sense of wildness and frontier that makes people treasure _Mad Max._ It’s funny, but it’s not a comedy; it’s suspenseful, but it is not a suspense. It’s exciting, but it isn’t an action show. I’ve only seen the pilot, but I’m looking forward to seeing more of the episodes. It’s certainly worth a look, if only because you’ve never before seen anything like it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-firefly/255421.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-firefly/255421.md?page=4)