We're deep in space, corner of No and Where.

Mal ,'Objects In Space'


Firefly Spoilers  

Discussion of all Firefly episodes, including "Trash", "The Message", "Heart of Gold", and any movie news.


Lilty Cash - May 30, 2005 7:09:05 pm PDT #1012 of 1424
"You see? THAT's what they want. Love, and a bit with a dog."

So right.

I'm so glad I went to the Big Damn Preview. No matter how shiny the finished product is, nothing is going to beat those moments when the lights came down, Joss's "You may call yourself browncoat" speech and the huge Braveheart style cheer that followed it. Then the sheer kickassery of the movie itself...so, so worth it.


Mr. Broom - May 30, 2005 8:38:53 pm PDT #1013 of 1424
"When I look at people that I would like to feel have been a mentor or an inspiring kind of archetype of what I'd love to see my career eventually be mentioned as a footnote for in the same paragraph, it would be, like, Bowie." ~Trent Reznor

The Single Solar System theory makes me crazy. Sure, it avoids the FTL drive problem, but the likelihood of finding a system with dozens of planets all in the same range of habitable space is pretty slim. Unless they're not all in the same plane, and that's even rarer. But then Joss and science were never close, anyway. I'd be happier if they took it out and left us thinking it was an interstellar network rather than a single solar system.

Had a buddy point this out right after we saw it. Way I see it, it's no good being bothered by this and not caring that space has sound in just about every other SF 'verse. That said, I like this idea better than an interstellar system because ain't no way anything on Serenity is built to exceed/circumvent/ignore the speed of light. We've all seen that engine room. Not buying it. It's much more... comfortable to pretend that such an unlikely solar system exists than to pretend that ships designed like the ones in "Firefly" have warp drive.


Tamara - May 30, 2005 8:43:25 pm PDT #1014 of 1424
You know, we could experiment and cancel football.

I am still amazed that anyone cares about these type of improbabilities. I know that people do and I don't have a problem with it but, I am still amazed and shocked that anyone even has the time to care.

I am still so wrapped up in the story that the technical details are completely irrelevant.


Consuela - May 30, 2005 8:58:14 pm PDT #1015 of 1424
We are Buffistas. This isn't our first apocalypse. -- Pix

I'm a logic geek, and I make time to care about that stuff. If I wrote a story with a star system populated like that, my betas would slap me silly unless I had a damned good reason for it.


Mr. Broom - May 30, 2005 9:08:37 pm PDT #1016 of 1424
"When I look at people that I would like to feel have been a mentor or an inspiring kind of archetype of what I'd love to see my career eventually be mentioned as a footnote for in the same paragraph, it would be, like, Bowie." ~Trent Reznor

I still don't see how that's different than tacitly assuming there's a medium in space through which sound can travel; the only reason they wouldn't slap you for that is that it's accepted. It's not any less wrong.


Matt the Bruins fan - May 31, 2005 7:06:04 am PDT #1017 of 1424
"I remember when they eventually introduced that drug kingpin who murdered people and smuggled drugs inside snakes and I was like 'Finally. A normal person.'” —RahvinDragand

I think the one saving grace is that there have been in-series references to terraforming. Perhaps the system had a big asteroid belt or Oort cloud in the temperate range around the primary, and extensive terraforming has resulted in so many habitable worlds? Ariel and Persephone are the only planets I remember being densely populated (and therefore probably habitable for hundreds of years).


tommyrot - May 31, 2005 7:09:25 am PDT #1018 of 1424
Sir, it's not an offence to let your cat eat your bacon. Okay? And we don't arrest cats, I'm very sorry.

Weren't a lot of the planets actually moons of bigger planets (like gas giants or such)?

Yo, ita! Was your moon terraformed?


Betsy HP - May 31, 2005 7:10:41 am PDT #1019 of 1424
If I only had a brain...

Way I see it, it's no good being bothered by this and not caring that space has sound in just about every other SF 'verse.

That was one of the things FIREFLY did right, though. It stood out for me, what with the effective way Joss used it in "Objects in Space" and "Out of Gas".


Consuela - May 31, 2005 3:07:05 pm PDT #1020 of 1424
We are Buffistas. This isn't our first apocalypse. -- Pix

Betsy's right: Joss doesn't have sound in space. Which is one of the things that I love, but then it makes me crazy when he gets other, basic, scientific things wrong.

Like forgetting space has 3 dimensions: they couldn't just go around the Reavers?


Mr. Broom - May 31, 2005 3:31:04 pm PDT #1021 of 1424
"When I look at people that I would like to feel have been a mentor or an inspiring kind of archetype of what I'd love to see my career eventually be mentioned as a footnote for in the same paragraph, it would be, like, Bowie." ~Trent Reznor

Because decades of sci-fi have trained people think of space as being something like the Earth's surface in many ways. You cross it like you cross a landmass or an ocean. There are precise paths and your destination won't move. Everything's on more or less a plane with no real Z axis to speak of. It's not remotely true, but that's how we've learned to visualize it. It's part of overall sci-fi canon. Thus, trying to represent maps of outer space in true three-dimensional style can be difficult to grasp to some people, so Joss has gone with a more traditional approach--2D approximations. Everyone understands those.

If they'd chosen to break with tradition and go full-on 3D, they could have just said the Reavers claimed the entire surrounding sector (or whatever) of space.