The setup was "A new solar system with dozens of worlds and hundreds of moons."

They also showed a diagram of the entire system early on.

I suppose a yellow giant star would have a much wider habitable temperature belt (albiet much further than 1 A.U from the star), and it's possible that terraforming could generate greenhouse effect conditions on the further worlds and moons.

Color and temperature have to do with size of the star. All yellow stars are pretty much the same size and temp. A blue giant (like Rigel in Orion) is very hot, and would have a very large habitable zone, except it also puts out way more of the nastier forms of EM radiation than humans could really deal with.

The problem with greenhouse effect is that as you get farther away from the star, the amount of solar energy reaching the planet drops off as a function of the square of the distance, so the effect doesn't work nearly well. Titan, which has a slightly thicker atmosphere than Earth, and is only about midway to the edge of our solar system, has a surface temperature of -178°C. That's colder than Minneapolis in the dead of winter. And you can't add a lot more in the way of greenhouse gases without killing the people.

You guys are clearly forgetting that they are using science.

My tendency with sci fi is to go, "Anything can be explained if we assume super-advanced technology exists."

My tendency with sci fi is to go, "Anything can be explained if we assume super-advanced technology exists."

Which means they should have a faster-than-light drive, and therefore don't have to be stuck in a single solar system. Or they could have a single solar system, just with fewer planets.

Does anyone need the solar-system thing to be correct badly enough that they'd require ships like Serenity to have warp drive? To me, that would be much more ridiculous.

I'm not requiring Serenity to have an FTL drive of any kind. I'd just prefer that the universe Serenity exists in make a little sense. Doesn't mean you can't tell good stories in that universe, but it's annoying to me that he would get that so wrong while sweating the detail of having Jayne wrap Vera in a spacesuit so that it would be able to fire in a vacuum (in total silence).

But the silent gun firing thing is COOL. Geology, not cool.

Whatever you're hatching (and I won't ask), that's gotta be the coolest work ever.

Hah! If only. Just part of an ongoing conversation in the office about the new social networking tools, and what they're good for other than photos of astonished babies and brides with receipts.

Color and temperature have to do with size of the star. All yellow stars are pretty much the same size and temp. A blue giant (like Rigel in Orion) is very hot, and would have a very large habitable zone, except it also puts out way more of the nastier forms of EM radiation than humans could really deal with.

All yellow stars have similar surface temps, but there is a fair amount of variation in total luminosity and mass, as these graphics from Minnesota State and Penn State show. You wouldn't get a x600 solar diameter star like Betelguese in the yellow range, but couldn't there could be enough variation to make a larger life belt more plausible than that around Sol?

I loved the movie, but I'm just not sure it gives enough information to someone who hasn't seen the show. I agree that there's not enough information about who Inara is and I'm not sure that the horrific nature of the Reavers is established sufficiently. I just don't know. It's probably impossible for me to see it with nonfan eyes. As a fan, there were a few things that bothered me, aside from the obvious Book! Wash! OMG! I understand that they needed to establish relationships quickly, but the Simon business still felt retconned. It's not only that our earlier impression was that he had paid other people to get River out; it's also that he seems much better at being a bad guy than he was early in the series. I wanted more of Kaylee's love for the ship. I wanted the old Serenity, which was my One True Spaceship. I wanted the lights around Kaylee's door. I wanted a scene with them all laughing together at the kitchen table. I can hardly blame Joss and company for not giving me the movie of my dreams, but I there you are.

I understand that they needed to establish relationships quickly, but the Simon business still felt retconned. It's not only that our earlier impression was that he had paid other people to get River out; it's also that he seems much better at being a bad guy than he was early in the series.

This was one of my complaints, after the rage over Wash and Book's deaths subsided. I can maybe see late series Simon pulling that off. Not the Simon that first board Serenity, though. Plus, it invalidates the whole slow realization by the crew, and Simon in particular, of River's abilities if he was told flat-out she'd been made psychic by the Alliance and given a safe word to shut her down if she goes Weapon on people. Plus, why would he have put her in the box and why would River have been so suprised to see him when she was let out. (Not to mention the fact that River is amazingly lucid during their escape, not practically crippled by her psychoses as she was throughout most of the series.)

I wanted the lights around Kaylee's door.

I'm pretty sure there were.