Firefly (TV series) Totally Explained

Everything about Firefly Tv Series totally explained

Firefly is an American science fiction television series created by writer/director Joss Whedon, creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel, under his Mutant Enemy Productions. Its naturalistic future setting, modeled after traditional Western movie motifs, presents an atypical backdrop for the science fiction narrative. Whedon served as executive producer, along with Tim Minear. Firefly premiered in the United States and Canada on the FOX network on September 20, 2002. It was canceled after only eleven of the fourteen produced episodes were aired. This may be because FOX aired the episodes out of order. Despite the series' relatively short life span, it received strong sales when it was released on DVD, and has impressive fan support campaigns. It won an Emmy in 2003 for "Outstanding Special Visual Effects for a Series". The post-airing success of the show led Whedon and Universal Pictures to produce a film based on the series, titled Serenity after the fictional Firefly-class spaceship featured in the show.
The series is set in the year 2517, after humans have arrived at a new star system, and follows the adventures of the renegade crew of Serenity, a Firefly-class spaceship. The ensemble cast portrays the nine characters who live on Serenity. Whedon pitched the show as "nine people looking into the blackness of space and seeing nine different things".
The show explores the lives of people who fought on the losing side of a civil war and now make a living on the outskirts of the society, as well as the pioneer culture that exists on the fringes of their star system. In addition, it's a future where the only two surviving superpowers, the United States and China, fused to form the central federal government, called the Alliance, resulting in the fusion of the two cultures as well. According to Whedon's vision, "nothing will change in the future: technology will advance, but we'll still have the same political, moral, and ethical problems as today."

Production

Genesis

Whedon developed the concept for the show after reading The Killer Angels, a novel chronicling the Battle of Gettysburg during the American Civil War. He wished to follow people who had fought on the losing side of a war and their experiences afterwards as pioneers and immigrants on the outskirts of civilization, much like the post-American Civil War era of Reconstruction and the American Old West culture. He intended the show to be "a Stagecoach kind of drama with a lot of people trying to figure out their lives in a bleak and pioneer environment." Whedon wanted to develop a show about the tactile nature of life, a show where existence was more physical and more difficult.
Whedon wished to give the show a name that indicated movement and power, and felt that "Firefly" had both. This powerful word's relatively insignificant meaning, Whedon felt, added to its allure. He eventually wound up creating the ship in the image of a firefly.

Format

During filming of the pilot episode, Whedon was still arguing with FOX that the show should be displayed in widescreen format. Consequently, he purposely filmed scenes with actors on the extreme edge of both sides so that they'd have no choice. However, the pilot was rejected by the FOX executives, who felt that it lacked action and that the captain was too "dour". They also disliked a scene in which the crew backed down to a crime boss, since the scene implied the crew was "being nothing". These characters manifested themselves in the henchman "Crow", and the "hands of blue" men, which also introduced an X-Files-type ending. To give the audience an immersive and immediate feeling, the episodes were filmed in a documentary style with hand-held cameras, giving them the look of "found footage", with deliberately misframed or out-of-focus subjects. As Whedon related: "...don't be arch, don't be sweeping—be found, be rough and tumble and docu[mentary] and you-are-there." Computer-generated scenes mimicked the motion of a hand-held camera. This style wasn't used, however, when shooting scenes that involved the central government, the Alliance. Tracking and steady cameras were used to show the sterility of this aspect of the Firefly universe. The two-part set also allowed the second unit to shoot in one section while the actors and first unit worked undisturbed in the other. As Whedon recalled: "...you could pull it away or move something huge, so that you could get in and around everything. That meant the environment worked for us and there weren't a lot of adjustments that needed to be made." He wanted to convey that it was utilitarian and that it was "beat-up but lived-in and ultimately, it was home." In addition, each room represented a feeling or character, usually conveyed by the paint color. Dixon has also remarked on how the set design contributed to the storytelling through the use of color, depth and composition, lighting, as well as its use of diagonals and patterned shadows.

Music

Greg Edmonson composed the musical score for the series. He stated that he wrote for the emotion of the moment. However, one reviewer averred that he also wrote for the characters, stating: "... Edmonson has developed a specialized collection of musical symbolism for the series ..." To help illustrate the collection, the reviewer gave key "signatures" various names, noting that "Serenity" recalls the theme of the show and is used when they return to the ship, or when they were meeting clandestinely; it was "the sound of their home." The slide guitar and fiddle used in this piece are portable instruments which fit the lifestyle of the crew: "... the music they make calls up tunes played out in the open, by people who were hundreds of miles away yesterday. 'Serenity' conjures the nomadic lifestyle the crew leads and underlines the western aspect of the show." }}
The theme song, "The Ballad of Serenity", was written by Joss Whedon and performed by Sonny Rhodes. Whedon wrote the song before the series was greenlit and a preliminary recording performed by Whedon can be found on the DVD release. The soundtrack to the series was released on CD on November 8, 2005 by Varèse Sarabande, although a 40 minute soundtrack was released by Fox Music in September 2005 as a digital EP.
| title1 = Firefly - Main Title | length1 = 0:52
   | title2 = Big Bar Fight | note2 = from "The Train Job" | length2 = 1:56
   | title3 = Heart of Gold Montage | note3 = from "Heart of Gold" | length3 = 2:10
   | title4 = Whitefall/Book | note4 = from "Serenity", "The Message" | length4 = 2:20
   | title5 = Early Takes Serenity | note5 = from "Objects in Space" | length5 = 2:36
   | title6 = The Funeral | note6 = from "The Message" | length6 = 2:36
   | title7 = River's Perception/Saffron | note7 = from "Objects in Space", "Our Mrs. Reynolds" | length7 = 2:14
   | title8 = Mal Fights Niska/Back Home | note8 = from "War Stories", "Shindig" | length8 = 1:54
   | title9 = River Tricks Early | note9 = from "Objects in Space" | length9 = 3:30
   | title10 = River Understands Simon | note10 = from "Safe" | length10 = 2:04
   | title11 = Leaving/Caper/Spaceball | note11 = from "Trash", "Objects in Space", "Bushwhacked" | length11 = 2:39
   | title12 = River's Afraid/Niska/Torture | note12 = from "Ariel", "The Train Job", "War Stories" | length12 = 3:21
   | title13 = In My Bunk/Jayne's Statue/Boom | note13 = from "War Stories", "Jaynestown", "Bushwhacked" | length13 = 2:28
   | title14 = Inara's Suite | note14 = from "The Train Job", "Serenity", "War Stories" | length14 = 3:29
   | title15 = Out of Gas/Empty Derelict | note15 = from "Out of Gas", "Bushwhacked" | length15 = 1:50
   | title16 = Book's Hair/Ready for Battle | note16 = from "Jaynestown", "Heart of Gold" | length16 = 1:59
   | title17 = Tears/River's Eyes | note17 = from "Serenity", "Objects in Space" | length17 = 1:59
   | title18 = Cows/New Dress/My Crew | note18 = from "Safe", "Shindig", "Safe" | length18 = 2:11
   | title19 = Boarding the Serenity/Derelict | note19 = from "War Stories", "Bushwhacked" | length19 = 2:02
   | title20 = Burgess Kills/Captain & Ship | note20 = from "Heart of Gold", "Out of Gas" | length20 = 3:26
   | title21 = Saved/Isn't Home?/Reavers | note21 = from "Out of Gas", "Train Job", "Serenity" | length21 = 2:55
   | title22 = Reavers Chase Serenity | note22 = from "Serenity" | length22 = 3:22
   | title23 = River's Dance | note23 = from "Safe" | length23 = 1:50
   | title24 = Inside the Tam House | note24 = from "Safe" | length24 = 2:22
   | title25 = Dying Ship/Naked Mal | note25 = from "Out of Gas", "Trash" | length25 = 2:10 }}

Casting

In casting his nine-member crew, Whedon looked first at the actor and their chemistry with others. Cast member Sean Maher recalls, "So then he just sort of put us all together, and I think it was very quick, like right out of the gate, we all instantly bonded." All nine cast members were chosen before filming began. However, while filming the original pilot "Serenity", Whedon realized that Rebecca Gayheart was unsuitable for the role of Inara Serra, and shot her scenes in singles so that it would be easier to replace her. Morena Baccarin auditioned for the role and two days later was on the set in her first television show. "Joss brought me down from the testing room like a proud dad, holding my hand and introducing me," Baccarin recalled.
   Whedon approached Nathan Fillion to play the lead role of Malcolm Reynolds; after explaining the premise and showing Fillion the treatment for the pilot, Fillion was eager for the role. Fillion was called back several times to read for the part before he was cast. He noted that "it was really thrilling. It was my first lead and I was pretty nervous, but I really wanted that part and I wanted to tell those stories." Fillion later said he was "heartbroken" when he learned the series had been cancelled. Alan Tudyk auditioned through a casting office and several months later was called in for a test audition, where he met with Whedon. He was then told to come back in to test with the possible Zoes (his character's wife) and that it was down to him and one other candidate. The Zoes didn't work out and Tudyk was sent home, but received a call informing him he'd the part anyway. His audition tape is included in the special features of the series' DVD release. Gina Torres, a veteran of several science fiction/fantasy works (Cleopatra 2525, The Matrix Reloaded, Alias, ), was at first uninterested in doing another science fiction show, but "was won over by the quality of the source material." As she recalled, "So you'd these challenged characters inhabiting a challenging world and that makes for great storytelling. And no aliens!"
   Canadian actress Jewel Staite videotaped her audition from Vancouver and was asked to come to Los Angeles to meet Whedon, at which point she was cast for the role of Kaylee Frye, the ship's engineer. Sean Maher recalls reading for the part and liking the character of Simon Tam, but that it was Whedon's personality and vision that "sealed the deal" for him.
   Veteran television actor Ron Glass (Barney Miller, All in the Family), has said that until Firefly, he hadn't experienced or sought a science-fiction western role but he fell in love with the pilot script and the character of Shepherd Book.

Staff and crew

Tim Minear was selected by Whedon to be the show runner, who serves as the head writer and production leader. According to Whedon "[Minear] understood the show as well as any human being, and just brought so much to it that I think of it as though he were always a part of it." Many of the other production staff were selected from people Whedon had worked with in the past, with the exception of the director of photography David Boyd, who was the "big find" and who was "full of joy and energy."
The writers were selected after interviews and script samplings. Among the writers were José Molina, Ben Edlund, Cheryl Cain, Brett Matthews, Drew Greenberg and Jane Espenson. For instance, in "Shindig", the break for commercial occurs when Malcolm Reynolds is gravely injured and losing the duel. As Espenson elaborates: "It doesn't end when Mal turns the fight around, when he stands victorious over his opponent. They're both big moments, but one of them leaves you curious and the other doesn't." Since the characters were often getting shot, Trpcic would make up to six versions of the same costume for multiple takes.
For the character of River, Trpcic used mostly jewel tones to set her apart from the rest of the Serenity crew. She also had River wear boots, to contrast with the soft fabrics of her clothes, "because that's who she's — she's this soft, beautiful, sensitive girl, but with this hardcore inner character," recalled Trpcic. Trpcic also wanted to contrast the character of Simon, River's brother, with the rest of the crew. Whereas they were dressed in cotton, Simon wore wool, stiff fabrics, satins and silk. He was the "dandy", but as the show progressed, he loosened up slightly. For Kaylee, Trpcic studied up on Japanese and Chinese youth, as originally the character was Asian. Other inspirations for Kaylee's costumes were Rosie the Riveter and Chinese Communist posters. Inara's costumes reflect stature and higher class and are very feminine and attractive. This is representative of her role as a 'companion', which is considered a higher class, honest career. Trpcic designed and created the clothes for the minor character of Badger, with Joss Whedon in mind, since he was slated to play that part. When Mark Sheppard played the role instead, he was able to fit into the clothes made for Whedon. For the Alliance, besides the grays and cool blues, Trpcic had in mind Nazi Germany, but mixed it with different wars, as the first sketches were "too Nazi".

Plot

Back story

The series takes place in the year 2517, on several planets and moons. The TV series doesn't reveal whether these celestial bodies are within one star system, and doesn't explain whether Serenity's mode of propulsion is faster-than-light, only that it's a "gravity-drive". The film Serenity makes clear that all the planets and moons are in one large system, and production documents related to the film indicate that there's no faster-than-light travel in this universe. The characters occasionally refer to "Earth-that-was" and in the film, it's established that long before the events in the series a large population had emigrated from Earth to a new star system in multi-generational spaceships : "Earth-that-was could no longer sustain our numbers, we were so many." The emigrants established themselves in this new star system, with "dozens of planets and hundreds of moons." Many of these were terraformed, a process in which a planet or moon is altered to resemble Earth. The terraforming process was only the first step in making a planet habitable, however, and the outlying settlements often didn't receive any further support in the construction of their civilizations. This resulted in many of the border planets and moons having forbidding, dry environments, well suited to the Western genre.

Synopsis

The show takes its name from the Firefly-class spaceship Serenity that the central characters call home. It resembles a firefly in general arrangement, and the tail section, analogous to a bioluminescent insectoid abdomen, lights up during acceleration.
   Throughout the series the Alliance are shown to govern the star system through an organization of "core" planets, following its success in forcibly unifying all of the colonies under a single government. DVD commentary suggests that two primary "core" planets comprise the Alliance, one predominantly Western in culture, the other pan-Asian, justifying the series' mixed linguistic and visual themes. The central planets are firmly under Alliance control, but the outlying planets and moons resemble the 19th century American West, with little governmental authority. Settlers and refugees on the outlying worlds ("out in the black" or "heading for the black") have relative freedom from the central government, but lack the amenities of the high-tech civilization that exist on the inner worlds. In addition, the outlying areas of space are inhabited by the Reavers, a cannibalistic group of nomadic humans that have become savage and animalistic.
   Into this mix are thrown the protagonists of the show. The captain of the crew of Serenity is Malcolm "Mal" Reynolds (Nathan Fillion) and the episode "Serenity" establishes that the captain and his first mate Zoe Washburne (Gina Torres) are veteran "Browncoats" of the Unification War, a failed attempt by the outlying worlds to resist the Alliance's assertion of control. A later episode, titled "Out of Gas", reveals that Mal bought the spaceship Serenity in order to continue living beyond Alliance control. Much of the crew's work consists of cargo runs or smuggling. One of the main story arcs is that of River Tam (Summer Glau) and her brother Simon (Sean Maher). River was a child prodigy, whose brain was subjected to experiments. As a result, she displays schizophrenia and often hears voices. It is later revealed that she's a "reader", one who possesses psychic abilities. Simon gave up a highly successful career as a trauma surgeon to rescue her from the Alliance and as a result of this rescue they're both wanted fugitives. In the original pilot "Serenity", Simon joins the crew as a paying passenger with River smuggled on board as cargo. As Whedon states in an episodic DVD commentary, every show he does is about creating family.
   The show also features slang not used in contemporary culture, such as adaptations of modern words, or new words altogether (for example "shiny" as a synonym of "cool"). Written and spoken Chinese as well as Old West dialect are also employed. As one reviewer noted: "The dialogue tended to be a bizarre purée of wisecracks, old-timey Western-paperback patois, and snatches of Chinese."

Cast

Main characters

Firefly maintained an ensemble cast that portrayed the nine crew members of the ship, Serenity. These characters fight 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 mega-corporation 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 their need to keep a low profile to avoid their adversaries. Their situation is greatly complicated by the divergent motivations of the individuals on board Serenity, but complex characterization was hampered by the show's brief run.

Malcolm "Mal" Reynolds, played by Nathan Fillion, is Serenity's captain and former Independent sergeant in the pivotal Battle of Serenity Valley. Very little is known about the enigmatic Captain; the little he reveals about his past life betrays nothing of his character (a mystery of its own). Malcolm reveals that he grew up on a ranch, and was raised by his mother and the ranchhands. The only other scenes of his past life we see or discover are about the Unification war, in which he and Zoe fought for the independents, or "browncoats". He is an efficient leader and is skilled with guns, and in hand to hand combat. Mal's character is full of contradictions. He is constantly fighting his demons, and his true self remains something of a mystery.

Zoe Alleyne Washburne, played by Gina Torres, is second-in-command onboard Serenity, loyal wartime friend of Captain Reynolds, and wife of Wash. Described by her husband as a "warrior woman", she's great knowledge of combat. Her past is a mystery; the only thing we know is that she served under Mal during the war. She demonstrates an almost unconditional loyalty to Mal, the only exception noted being her marriage to Wash, which the captain claims to have tried to prevent.

Hoban "Wash" Washburne, played by Alan Tudyk, is Serenity's pilot and Zoe's husband. Wash expresses jealousy over his wife's "war buddy" relationship and unconditional support of their captain, most particularly in the episode "War Stories", in which he confronts Mal regarding their relationship. While more of Wash's past is disclosed than most other characters, his background is still sparse: He joined pilot training just to see the stars, which were invisible from the surface of his polluted homeworld, and he joined Serenity despite being highly sought after by other ships. He is very light-hearted and tends to make amusing comments, despite the severity of any situation.

Inara Serra, played by Morena Baccarin, is a Companion, which is the 26th century equivalent of a courtesan or oiran. Like her Renaissance counterparts, Inara enjoys high social standing. Her presence confers a degree of legitimacy and social acceptance the crew of Serenity wouldn't enjoy without her on board. She and Mal have a strained relationship, with unspoken romantic tension playing a significant part in several episodes, as well as in the movie. Inara arguably represents Mal's heart, and Mal is a noticeably darker character when Inara is absent (as during the first half of "Serenity"). She rents one of the ship's small shuttles.

Jayne Cobb, played by Adam Baldwin, is hired muscle. He and Mal met on opposite sides of a rivalry; Mal, while held at gunpoint, offered Jayne his own bunk and a higher cut than his current employer, so he turned coat and shot his then-partners. In one episode, he admits freely to Mal that he'd have sold Mal out to an Alliance agent if the money was good enough. He is someone who can be depended on in a fight. He tends to act like a "lummox" who thinks he's the smartest guy in space, but occasional hints of intelligence peek through this façade, giving the impression that he acts dumber than he is. Even though he's a macho character, he's shown a particularly intense fear of Reavers, more so than the rest of the crew. Despite his amoral mercenary persona, he sends a significant portion of his income to his mother.

Kaywinnit Lee "Kaylee" Frye, played by Jewel Staite, is the ship's mechanic. In the episode "Out of Gas", it's established that she's no formal training, but keeps Serenity running with an intuitive gift for the workings of mechanical equipment. Jewel Staite explains Kaylee's character as being wholesome, sweet, and "completely genuine in that sweetness", adding "She loves being on that ship. She loves all of those people. And she's the only one who loves all of them incredibly genuinely." She has a crush on Dr. Simon Tam. Kaylee's character is the soul of the ship: according to creator Joss Whedon, if Kaylee believes something, it's true. However, Tim Goodman with the San Francisco Chronicle panned it. He felt that the melding of the western and science fiction genres was a "forced hodgepodge of two alarmingly opposite genres just for the sake of being different." He summed up his scathing review with this statement: "To call "Firefly" a vast disappointment is an understatement. Whedon has proven he's capable of brilliance, but this is mere folly."}}
The reviewer conceded, however, that with only two episodes, it was worth giving Whedon the benefit of the doubt and that the inability to resonate with its viewers could be the fault of FOX for not airing the original pilot.}}
When the DVD was released in time for Christmas the following year, The New York Times had this to say:
Cult status In 2005, New Scientist magazine's website held an internet poll to find "The World's Best Space Sci-Fi Ever". Firefly came in first place, with its cinematic follow-up Serenity in second. Also, as of May 2007, it's the highest rated science fiction show of all time according to an online poll conducted by tv.com.
On May 9, 2006, the Firefly episodes were added to the iTunes Music Store for download as part of FOX Television Classics along with Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Lost in Space. The episodes were initially listed in the order FOX originally aired them, but due to comments from fans in the Store, the episodes were listed in the order in which Whedon originally intended. As of March 12, 2008, all fourteen episodes are available on-demand through the Hulu.com service launched by FOX's parent News Corp. and NBC Universal. Brad Wright, co-creator of Stargate SG-1 has said that "200", the 200th episode of SG-1, is "A little kiss to Serenity and Firefly, which was possibly one of the best cancelled series in history." In the episode, "Martin Lloyd has come to the S.G.C. because even though "Wormhole X-Treme!" was cancelled after three episodes, it did so well on DVD they're making a feature [film]."
The follow-up film, Serenity, was voted the best science fiction movie of all time in an SFX magazine poll of 3,000 fans. Firefly was later named as number 25 on TV Guide's list of "The 30 Top Cult Shows Ever".

Fandom

The show generated a following during its short lifetime. The original fans, self-styled Browncoats, first organized to try to save the series from being cancelled by FOX. Their efforts included raising money for an ad in Variety magazine and a postcard writing campaign to UPN. While unsuccessful in finding a host network, support for the show led to a release of the series on DVD in December of 2003. The event raised over $65,000 for Whedon's favorite charity, Equality Now. In 2007, $106,000 was raised, with a goal of $150,000 in 2008. Another campaign on June 23, 2006 referred to the date as Serenity Day, on which fans bought—and got others to buy—copies of the Serenity and Firefly DVDs in hopes of convincing Universal that creating a sequel was a good business decision. On this day, Serenity and Firefly were ranked second and third, respectively, on the DVD Best Sellers list. The date for both campaigns were chosen because it's series creator Joss Whedon’s birthday.
In July 2006, a fan-made documentary was released, titled, Done the Impossible, and is commercially available. The documentary relates the story of the fans and how the show has affected them, and also features interviews with Whedon and various cast members. A percentage of the DVD proceeds are donated to Equality Now. NASA Browncoat Astronaut Steven Swanson took the Firefly and Serenity DVDs with him on Space Shuttle Atlantis' STS-117 mission, which lifted off on Friday June 8, 2007. The DVDs will permanently reside on the International Space Station as a form of entertainment for the station's crews.
The song "A Man Named Jayne", by Luke Ski, is a parody of Johnny Cash's "A Boy Named Sue" written from Wash's perspective. It describes Serenity's crew being captured by what they believe to be the Alliance. Their captors are revealed to be FOX Network executives, canceling the show. The crew escapes, only to join forces with the characters from Futurama, another FOX series which suffered the same fate.

Awards

Firefly won the following awards:

Emmy Award: Outstanding Special Visual Effects for a Series, 2003

Visual Effects Society: Best visual effects in a television series, 2003 (episode "Serenity")

Saturn Award: Cinescape Genre Face of the Future Award, Male, 2003 (Nathan Fillion)

Saturn Award: Saturn Award for Best DVD Release (television), 2004

SyFy Genre Awards: Best Actor/Television Nathan Fillion, 2006

SyFy Genre Awards: Best Supporting Actor/Television Adam Baldwin, 2006

SyFy Genre Awards: Best Special Guest/Television Christina Hendricks for "Trash", 2006

SyFy Genre Awards: Best Episode/Television "Trash", 2006

SyFy Genre Awards: Best Series/Television, 2006 The series was also nominated for the following awards:

Visual Effects Society: Best compositing in a televised program, music video, or commercial, 2003

Motion Picture Sound Editors, USA, "Golden Reel Award": Best sound editing in television long form: sound effects/foley, 2003

Hugo Award: Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form, 2003 (episode "Serenity")

Hugo Award: Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form, 2004 (episodes "Heart of Gold" and "The Message", which at that time hadn't been shown on television in the USA)

Golden Satellite Award: Best DVD Extras, 2004

Broadcast history

Firefly consists of one two-hour pilot and thirteen one-hour episodes. The show originally aired in the United States in 2002 on FOX, although FOX aired the episodes out of the intended order and didn't air three of the fourteen episodes.
Although Whedon had designed the show to run for seven years, and the show had a loyal following during its original broadcast, low ratings resulted in cancellation by FOX in December 2002 after only eleven episodes had aired in the United States and Canada. Prior to cancellation, some fans, worried about low ratings, formed the Firefly Immediate Assistance campaign whose goal was to support the production of the show by sending in postcards to FOX. After it was cancelled, the campaign worked on getting another network such as UPN to pick up the series. The campaign was unsuccessful in securing the show's continuation.
The Onion A.V. Club cited several actions by the FOX network that contributed to the show's failure, most notably airing the episodes out of sequence, making the plot more difficult to follow. For instance, the double episode "Serenity" was intended as the premiere, and therefore contained most of the character introductions and back-story. However, FOX decided that "Serenity" was unsuitable to open the series, and "The Train Job" was specifically created to act as a new pilot. copies and was one of the top movers at Amazon.com for months. At Amazon.com the DVDs had average daily rankings of between 1st and 75th in 2003, 22nd and 397th in 2004, 2nd and 232nd in 2005, and 2nd and 31st in 2006 as of June 27, 2006. FOX has recently remastered the complete series in 1080i Hi-Definition for broadcast on Universal HD. The series returns to Universal HD in April 2008. In April 2008, Jewel Staite stated at a convention that she'd provided commentary for a new release of Firefly; when queried, Fox Home Entertainment announced that the series would be re-released on Blu-ray Disc.

Episode #	Title	Original Air Date	Broadcast #	Production #
1	Serenity	December 20, 2002	11	1AGE79
2	The Train Job	September 20, 2002	1	1AGE01
3	Bushwhacked	September 27, 2002	2	1AGE02
4	Shindig	November 1, 2002	6	1AGE03
5	Safe	November 8, 2002	7	1AGE04
6	Our Mrs. Reynolds	October 4, 2002	3	1AGE05
7	Jaynestown	October 18, 2002	4	1AGE06
8	Out of Gas	October 25, 2002	5	1AGE07
9	Ariel	November 15, 2002	8	1AGE08
10	War Stories	December 6, 2002	9	1AGE09
11	Trash	June 28, 2003	12	1AGE12
12	The Message	July 15, 2003	13	1AGE13
13	Heart of Gold	August 19, 2003	14	1AGE10
14	Objects in Space	December 13, 2002	10	1AGE11

Spin-offs

Several spin-offs from the television series have been released in the years following its cancellation, spanning various forms of media.

Feature films

Serenity

Mary Parent with Universal Pictures, who immediately signed on after watching the episodes on DVD. By June of 2003, actors Nathan Fillion and Adam Baldwin confirmed this on the official Firefly forum, as did Whedon in several interviews. Serenity was released in Australia on September 29 2005, the United States and Canada on September 30 2005, and the United Kingdom and Ireland weeks later. It received generally positive reviews and opened at number two, taking in $10.1 million its first weekend, spending two weeks in the top ten, and totaling a US box office gross of $25.5 million and a box office gross of $13.3 million elsewhere. Serenity won film of the year awards from Film 2005 and FilmFocus. It also won IGN Film's Best Sci-Fi, Best Story and Best Trailer awards and was runner up for the Overall Best Movie. It also won the Nebula Award for Best Script for 2005, the 7th annual 'User Tomato Awards' for best Sci-Fi movie of 2005 at Rotten Tomatoes, the 2006 viewers choice Spacey Award for favorite movie, the 2006 Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form and the 2006 Prometheus Special Award.
   As a form of viral marketing for the film, Whedon released the R. Tam sessions, which are set before the television series. They were released unofficially by Whedon via the internet from August 16, 2005 to September 5, 2005.
   At a preview screening for the film, Whedon indicated that he'd consider reviving the series if a network purchased the broadcast rights from FOX Television as he won't work with FOX again.
   The film takes place around two months after the events of the final episode and focuses on the character arcs of River and her involvement with the Alliance, and Mal. As Whedon stated, the film is "Mal's story as told by River."

Serenity sequel

On October 4 2007, Alan Tudyk said that sales of the newly-released Serenity: Special Edition DVD had led to "talk [of] doing another movie". Joss Whedon has since discounted that statement as being "wishful thinking."

Comics

Serenity: Those Left Behind

A three-issue comic book miniseries titled was written by Joss Whedon and Brett Matthews, illustrated by Will Conrad and Laura Martin, and published by Dark Horse Comics. It serves as a link between the final episode of the series ("Objects in Space") and the film Serenity and is considered part of the Firefly canon. Each issue featured three different covers, depicting one of the nine main characters. In turn, each version had a different illustrator, including Joe Quesada, Bryan Hitch, Tim Bradstreet, John Cassaday and Jo Chen. The first issue was published in July 2005, and the final one appeared in September of the same year. The story focuses on the crew of Serenity taking a salvage job from Badger following a botched theft on a backwater planet, and the pursuit of River by the ominous blue-gloved men. The comics quickly sold out on release and both #1 and #2 issues went to second printings. A compilation trade paperback was released in January 2006.

Serenity: Better Days

A second three-issue series, titled, was released in early 2008. It was written by Whedon and Matthews, illustrated by Will Conrad and Michelle Marsden, and released by Dark Horse Comics in March, April, and May of 2008. The series sees what happens when a heist goes right and the crew finds themselves on easy street. "This new story will take place in the 'Firefly' years for example, everyone's alive," says Whedon. "Basically, they pull off a heist and everything doesn't go completely wrong. This, needless to say, has never happened, and it's about how they deal with success."

A Shepherd's Tale

During the 2007 Browncoat Cruise, a Firefly convention held aboard a cruise ship, Ron Glass announced (with Whedon's permission) several pieces of Shepherd Derrial Book's backstory, as well as that Book was to be the focus of the third mini-series: A Shepherd's Tale. The comic was later confirmed by Scott Allie, senior editor at Dark Horse Comics, who stated in the letters section of #1 that a comic based on Book's past was slated for a late 2008 release.

Roleplaying game

A role-playing game entitled Serenity, published by Margaret Weis Productions, Ltd, was released in 2005. The first adventure, Out in the Black by Laura and Tracy Hickman, was released on March 15, 2006.

Books

Two non-fiction books about the series, Finding Serenity: Anti-Heroes, Lost Shepherds and Space Hookers in Joss Whedon's Firefly and Serenity Found: More Unauthorized Essays on Joss Whedon's Firefly Universe were edited by Jane Espenson, with Glenn Yeffeth and Leah Wilson respectively. The collections of essays analyze the various themes and ideas of Firefly. Joss Whedon, along with most of the cast and many of the crew, were interviewed for Titan Books' two-volume Firefly: The Official Companion. The books contain previously unpublished photographs, along with the shooting scripts for all the episodes. Other non-fiction works dealing in part or in full with the series include The Firefly Episode Guide: An Unofficial Independent Guide with Critiques by Mimi Noyes (Seattle: Lightning Rod Publishers, 2005); The Existential Joss Whedon: Evil and Human Freedom in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Firefly and Serenity, by J. Michael Richardson and J. Douglas Rabb (Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 2007); and The Psychology of Joss Whedon: An Unauthorized Exploration of Buffy, Angel, and Firefly'', by Joy Davidson and Leah Wilson (Dallas: BenBella Books, 2007).
In 2005, it was proposed that a series of novels tying into Firefly be published. Fantasy and science fiction author Steven Brust was asked to write the first book planned for the series, titled My Own Kind of Freedom, but the project was cancelled because of "various economic realities" before he could complete the novel. Brust released the finished novel on his website in February 2008.

Computer game

On December 7, 2006, The Multiverse Network announced that it had obtained the rights from Twentieth Century Fox to develop a massively multiplayer online game based on the series.

Further Information

Get more info on 'Firefly Tv Series'.

External Link Exchanges

Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:

<a href="http://firefly__tv_series.totallyexplained.com">Firefly (TV series) Totally Explained</a>

Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned.