You can read about it at on SyFyPortal and TimMinear.Net. Joss Whedon and company are trying to get UPN to buy the show. UPN currently shows Buffy The Vampire Slayer and so Joss does have a relationship with them. There is a web site dedicated to efforts to resurrect Firefly. On Friday December 13, 2002 Firefly's ratings were only 2.7/5 and was followed by John Doe which did 3.7/7.
Last Friday night Firefly managed 2.4/4 with its episode "War Stories". In November it managed 2.8/5 with “Shindig”, 2.9/5 with "Safe" and 2.9/5 with "Ariel". So it has dropped even lower. This might in part be done to its having been on a hiatus. But some science fiction viewers were likely watching the 5th episode of Steven Spielberg's Taken.
This is certainly bad news for the efforts to prevent Firefly from being cancelled.
Firefly continues to be in fourth place in its time slot for the last few weeks. While the ax is definitely hanging above it the show has not yet been officially cancelled. Sounds like Fox is going to see how well it does in December before deciding on its fate. Here are the last few weeks of ratings:
Friday Nov 1, 2002: 2.8/5 and versus its third place competitor Firefly had less than half the ratings.
Friday, Nov. 8, 2002: 2.9/5.
Friday, Nov. 15, 2002: 2.9/5. John Doe comes after Firefly on Fox and John Doe is now in third place at 4.1/7 for its time slot.
Fox has ordered two more episodes of Firefly to bring the total to 15. So there may be 7 more episodes to come if they all end up getting shown. Joss Whedon is writing and directing some future episodes. Firefly will not air again until December 6, 2002.
Also see this interview with Mutant Enemy President Christopher Buchanan about the future of Firefly.
Jaynestown is the fourth episode of Joss Whedon's new TV series Firefly. Jayne is the name of the most mercenary and amoral (at least as he seems so far) member of the Firefly crew. On previous episodes he's been ready to abandon and betray others including Captain Mal Reynolds. He's not a likeable character.
You can find other reviews of Jaynestown on FireflyFans.net, TVTome, and SadGeezer.
This show is in 2517 AD. The only problem with it is that Firefly does not feel like its set far in humanity's future. As I've said previously (here and here) a lot will change in the next 500 years. Technology changes culture. In a good Firefly episode (and by that I mean good in comparison to the rest of the Firefly episodes) one can forgive the technological implausibilities. But Jaynestown is not a good episode.
What was good about this episode? We are supposed to be impressed that the mud workers made Jayne a hero because of something he inadvertently did the last time he was on the planet.
Its not the future. Its stated that it is placed 500 years into the future. Why bother making that assertion when it does not look even remotely like what human civilization will be like even 100 years into the future? As far as I can tell the assertion is made because Joss Whedon wants to argue that humans will not change that much and so, presto, we'll say this is what humans will be like 500 years into the future. But even if one wants to argue that human nature will not change much (eg lets assume unrealistically that average personality type or intelligence level will not change) it boggles the mind to imagine that people will live like 19th century hicks and yet also trade with people who land in their midst in spaceships.
The only thing futuristic about it is that they can travel between planets. That's it. Even the medical care is unimpressive. We are supposed to ignore the implausible assumptions of each story so that some fairly dull points about human nature can be made.
It is not great human drama. What is especially interesting about these people? They are made to seem smaller than life in a bid to show them as creatures possessed of all the normal range of human character flaws and limitations. But neorealism of this sort is not particularly entertaining. The writers ought to be humble enough to admit that they aren't producing something interesting by exploring the lives of these people. Then they should either improve it as drama or at least take enough care with the stories that we don't see cheap implausibilities every which way we look. If they don't care enough to craft a good story and make all of a story's elements work then why should we take the time to watch it?
We have the initial departure of Inara in a separate scout ship and then the rest land in the Firefly and walk out of the main hold. That's the extent of the science fiction element until they try to leave at the end. Everything else about the episode could have taken place in a lousy 1950s Western TV show set in 19th century America.
The core of the story: some sorry ass poor working class indentured servants decide to treat some departed criminal as a proverbial Robin Hood. Wow, what an unoriginal idea. So could the unwinding of the story at least be interesting? Nah, apparently its enough to just show flawed human characters 500 years in the future flailing around incompetently. The character development apparently is supposed to be so intriguing that it obviates the need for a great plot. Well, the characters are developing and some of that is being handled moderately well. But that doesn't make up for the assorted weaknesses of the show.
Implausibility Alert: Why are the mud workers indentured servants btw? To pay their fares to get to this moon? But why? indentured servitude was used to pay ship fares for settlers way back when because people were too poor to afford passage to the thoroughly more promising New World. So why even throw in the idea that any of these people are indentured? Its a fast swipe of the plot brush but it wasn't really necessary to establish the sorry state of these mud workers and it was implausible at the same time.
We open with Simon and Kaylee discussing how Simon is just too prim and proper in his language. Of course, Simon's lack of informal speaking skills haven't prevented Kaylee from pining for his body. So is she already complaining about him before they have hooked up?
Simon: I use swear words like everyone else.
Kaylee: Simon, the whole point of swearing is that it ain't appropriate.
Inara comes by ready to leave to go down to Higgin's Moon to see a client. Mal is there and acting unhappy about it.
Kaylee: Bye Now... have good sex.
Kaylee is unencumbered by feelings of guilt or unease about sex. Its a quick swish of the character brush that makes a point. The show is good that way.
Crashing noise in the infirmary.
Jayne tore apart the place to find some tape to tape a gun on his chest. This shows that Jayne is not too civilized. So we have this bit of character development for Jayne. Seems a bit over the top to me.
Jayne said he made some enemies and doesn't want to go in empty handed. They are headed for a planet where Jayne expects to encounter people who do not like him. So Jayne wants a pistol taped to his chest. Mal doesn't want him taping a gun to his chest. Jayne pretty much says there are people down there who may not like seeing him again and who might hold unfriendly intentions toward him.
Implausibility Alert: Wouldn't it be smarter to just not have Jayne go off the ship? If one's intention is to do undercover work to smuggle something off the planet then wouldn't it make sense not to bring along someone who will draw attention to himself? Of course, they have to bring him along because the whole point is to have Jayne be recognized and to be treated like a hero. But the initial disguise and gun and reluctance to go down makes having Mal not telling him to stay on the ship to be implausible. This could have been worked out in some other way.
Alternative Suggestion: They could have had Doc Simon make up Jayne in a really effective disguise. The disguise could have been good enough to fool anyone. That would have it more reasonable to bring Jayne along. Jayne even could have had some special role to play (at least according to the plan) for getting the stuff off they'd come to to the ship. Jayne could have volunteered some knowledge of the planet (re, okay, moon) that would have meant that Jayne would be the only one to recognize something or somebody who would be the place or guy needed for the meeting. The disguise could have come off at some later point (eg in a bar fight that Mal was dumb enough to start - therefore it would have been Mal's fault that things started going wrong) and that would have been what allowed the discovery of Jayne's identity.
Inara's ship separates from Firefly in the atmosphere on way down. Okay, that is the most science fiction part of this whole episode. You've just seen it. Try to savor that moment while the rest of the episode drags along in the mud. Except, on the bright side, us males get to oogle Inara in some scenes. That's an important consideration when everything else is muddy and dull.
Crewmember smelling planet: It stinks.
Is she presaging the episode? Oh wait, no, she's talking about the planet. Why would mud stink? Its not sewage after all. This is unimaginative. Is it sulfurous mud? Is sulfurous mud good for making pottery? Why aren't people making pottery by using nanotech assemblers 500 years in the future?
Kaylee goes with the guys onto the planet. The other 3 women stay with the ship. Kaylee wants Simon to go with them to the town for the clay trade. Mal agrees.
Implausibility Alert: They make clay on the planet. We are to believe that people come to a planet and buy clay and haul it to another planet. Clay moved between planets? Huh? Wet heavy cheap stuff won't get moved between planets in small general purpose spacecraft. Mud won't get moved between planets at all. This is just plain dumb.
Alternative Suggestion: The planet could have had a mine for some valuable gems that look good in jewelry. Instead of the mud flat there could have been an opening to a mine in the side of a hill. Mal could have told Simon to pose as a jewelry stone trader. Given Simon's more refined bearing this would have been more plausible. The work in the mine would still have been dangerous and dirty and the mine workers would still have been lower class manual laborers.
They have to invent a cover story on the spot. Management doesn't take kind to sight-seeers. So they are going in looking like traders? But do they already have something they know they are going to get? Yes, looks like they want to grab something from a contact and then smuggle it off planet.
Implausibility Alert: Simon as potential buyer. Okay, why not work this out in advance before they step onto the planet? What did they think they were going to say as they walked thru the area? Why wouldn't this have occurred to them? Are the Firefly crew not supposed to be that bright?
Simon: Yes, yes I'm looking to buy some mud.
Scottish accented foreman: Over 2000 workers, mostly indentured.
They move on to go looking for Kessler in town. They come across a statue of Jayne. Turns out his last name is Cobb.
Jayne Cobb. Yes, they do remember him. They have a statue of him.
Wash: Think they captured him though, captured his essence.
Kaylee: Looks pretty angry.
Wash: That's what I mean.
Jayne: I crossed the magistrate of this company town. You know what I mean?
Implausibility Alert: Yes, we do know what Jayne means. Which is exactly why this should have been explained on the ship and why Jayne never should have stepped off the ship. Either that or he shouldn't have been wearing such a retarded bozo disguise. Are Mal and Jayne stupid enough let Jayne walk out there with the stupid head gear? If they are that dumb then why make a TV show about them? Its not like the stupidity is justified by a good "Dumb and Dumber" comedy element. Its just dumb and unfunny.
Alternative Suggestion: Just because they are not superheroes on a mission from God does not mean they have to be incompetent oafs who are just stumbling along thru scenes. Have them show some intelligence and aforethought from time to time. Have at least some of them show that they are skilled at deceit. Have them demonstrate greater resourcefulness and planning skills.
Mr Higgins: I'm thinking it will take all of your arts to deal with this problem.
So we have this second thread of Inara's running thru the show.
River is integrating some mathematical theory into the Bible. She's doing some damage to Book's Bible in the process.
River: Noah's ark is a problem.
River: Its broken, it doesn't make sense.
River appears to have some sort of hyperanalytical bent in how she examines what she reads. Book tries to explain to River that the Bible is not supposed to make normal rational sense.
Book: Its about faith, River, it fixes you.
The third thread of the show involves River being weird in ways that are not particularly interesting but which hopefully are developing her character in ways that will be useful in future episodes. Plus, we have the soul man of faith in the still very agnostic secular future. Is Book supposed to be a relic to remind us of an earlier age? I doubt that even the writers know for sure.
Back in mudland in a bar.Simon is saying something.
Kaylee: Wow Simon, that was so historical.
Kaylee likes Simon. We are clear on that.
Some guy: I knew Kessler, They hacked off his hands and feet with a machete.
Okay, their contact is dead.
Problem with moving the merchandise across town.
Song about Jayne being sung in the bar. "A hero, a Kansan, a man they called Jayne."
Janye doesn't have an explanation for the song.
Jayne: No, this must be what going mad feels like.
Got hit by antiaircraft and had to dump 60,000 untraceable over the mud town in order to stay airborne.. He's a hero.
River is scared of Book's white hair sticking up. She runs off.
The kid in the bar recognized Jayne and went outside and told lots of people. They come out of the bar and all the guys recognize Jayne. Big crowd cheering him. He goes back in the bar. They recognize him. The bar tender knocks his liquor bottle out of his hand. Jayne is wondering why the hostilility. Then the bartender pulls out the best liquor in the house to hand to him.
Mal tells their new contact this is all part of their new plan. When Kaylee asks Mal tells Kaylee that he's not sure how its part of a plan.
River is acting weird about religion back on the ship. So there's some character development here that hopefully is useful for later episodes.
Inara is doing something like Japanese tea ceremony. I like it. This reinforces the idea of a Companion having understanding of cultural traditions and of having training that is similar to that of a Japanese Geisha.
Fess Higgins is the son of Mr Higgins and Mr Higgins apparently runs (owns?) the mud operation.
Mr Higgins: What's this? I brought you here to bed my son, not ??? him.
Inara says something about "Consecrate a union". Inara takes the high class call girl status very seriously and thinks sex is a sacred thing when practiced with a tea ceremony.
Inara gets Mr Higgins out of the room. She returns her attention to Fess.
Drunk Simon: I reattached a girl's leg, a whole leg, she named her hamster after me.
Kaylee: You're pretty funny.
Drunk Simon: You're pretty ... pretty.
(my reaction: aw shucks)
Kaylee: What'd you say?
Drunk Simon: You're pretty.
Drunk Simon: Even when you're covered well with...
Mal comes over. Kaylee pulls Mal away to shoo him off.
Kaylee to Mal: Things are going well well
Kaylee is trying to get Mal to just leave her alone so she can go one-on-one with Simon.
Kaylee to Mal: I said things are going well!
Mal gets the point. Kaylee is trying to seduce Simon in spite of how weird it is getting with Jayne being a hero.
River is in the wall of the ship. She's hiding.
Zoe: River, why don't you come out?
River: No, can't, too much hair.
River is way freaked about Book..
Zoe: River honey he's putting the hair away.
River: Doesn't matter, it will still be there waiting to come out.
Fess: This whole thing, it is embarassing.
Inara: Your father isn't right Fess.
Inara: Really Fess, you're different from thim. The more you accept that, the stronger you'll will become.
The details start to come clear about Jayne and why the people revere him. The locals got to keep the money he tossed out of his spaceship. They also had a riot in order to be able to keep his statue.
Foreman to Mr Higgins: There's a problem in the worker's town sir, Jayne Cobb's come back.
Higgins and his assistant open this box to let the guy out. Must be Jayne's old partner set free to kill him (turns out his name is Stitch)
Stitch to Higgins: You keep me in that box 4 years. You give me a loaded gun.
Stitch is wondering why he shouldn't just shoot Higgins. However, Stitch looks to be in too good a shape to have spent 4 years in such a small box.
Higgins: How high was that shuttle when he pushed you out? 30 feet?
Higgins is making it clear that Jayne is back and that Jayne is the guy that Stitch ought to be seeking revenge from.
Implausibility Alert: If Fess has told Inara that there is going to be a hearing about Jayne then why is Higgins sending Stitch to kill Jayne? The term "hearing" implies that Jayne would already be in custody at that point. The purpose of having Fess tell Inara was so that we could see her emotional reaction when she misunderstood and thought it was Mal who was going to be brought up on criminal charges.
Alternative Suggestion: Fess could have told Inara a different story that didn't involve a hearing. "My father wants me to attend a meeting to decide what to do about a criminal who has returned to the planet". Though the idea of the father wanting to have a meeting is questionable given that Higgins decides to send Stitch to kill Jayne. Its not the sort of thing one one would expect Higgins would want his son to know about.
Mal comes into the bar. It is next morning, Kaylee sleeping on Simon fully clothed on a bar bench.
Down come Jaynes from where he was sleeping with a woman.
Simon tries to explain to Mal that nothing happened with Kaylee and goes too far and says he'd never do anything with Kayle. Kaylee is mad that Simon said that he's never do it with Kaylee.
Fess: Shouldn't I be a man now?
Inara: A man is just a boy who's old enough to ask that question.
Inara: But it doesn't make you a man, you do that yourself.
Jayne: I don't know. You think we should be using my fame to hoodwink.
Is that Jayne, is that really him? Wash, pinch me. I must be dreaming.
You really think we can get his stuff across town without being noticed?
Inara: A criminal hearing.
Fess: Yes, my father asked me to attend.
Fess tells Inara about this criminal man. Inara thinks its Mal. Inara starrts trying to speak in favor of this criminal who she thinks is Mal. Her affection for Mal just wells up. This is well done.
Inara: He just has this idiotic sensibility. .....
Fess: You mean you know Jayne?
Inara is surprised. She'd assumed wrongly. Oops.
Inara: Jayne Cobb?
Stitch starts beating on Simon.
Can I just get the check please?
Stitch: Heard tell you run with Jayne Cobb?
Simon: Excuse me?
Stitch: Just take me to that.
Simon: Sure look at me you pantywaist idiot.
Crowd shouting Jayne Jayne Jane Jayne
Jayne shows up in the nick of time to save Simon from losing an eye.
Speech....
Jayne: I'm no good with words. Don't use them much myself. But I want to thank you for all being there and thought so much for me.
Mal (or Wash?): Wow, That didn't sound half bad.
Jayne: I'm shocked my own self.
Jayne: Stitch Hessioan!
Stitch:Thought I'd make you watch while I butcher one of your boys.
Jayne: He ain't one of mine. Where you been hiding.
Kaylee to the banged up Simon: Oh Honey.
Then attention shifts toward Jayne and Stitch. Stitch is furious that Jayne abandoned him, Jayne became a hero, and Stitch suffered in the box for 4 years.
Jayne: I ain't a hero Stitch.
Stitch: Now why don't you let old Stitch speak his piece.
Stitch tells the crowd what really happened that day when Jayne and Stitch were trying to carry out a robbery and their ship got hit while trying to escape. The most salient line:
Stitch: He toseed me out first.
Then Stitch is ready to kill Jayne.
Stitch shoots at Jayne and this kid (late adolescent) who idolized Jayne guy jumps out and takes the bullet from the shotgun.
Implausibility Alert: So was it a single slug out the shot gun rather than a spread of pellets? Someone trying to stop a shotgun blast at such short range would suffer more damage than that and some of the pellets would probably make it thru.
Jayne throws a knife at the guy and hits him. Then he attacks and beats him. THen he moves over to the guy who took the gun blast for him. Jayne is none too happy that this kid died for him.
Jayne: Get up, Get you you stupid piece of ..
The kid's dead.
Jayne tries to pull himself down off the the altar that they've placed him on in their minds.
Jayne: All fo you? you think someone's just gonna drop money on you? Money you can use? Well there aint people like that. There's just people like me.
Jayne knocks over his own statue.
They make it back to the ship. But what about the delivery? Did they load the illicit shipment? It didn't seem like the distraction with Jayne lasted long enough. Also, we never got a clear view of the stuff. And when they went into the mud bog area to where they expected to find it why did they do that? Wouldn't it have been a little more plausible to have the stuff hid under some bushes with some trees around for camouflage?
Wash we're onl
The ship won't take off. Higgins has somehow locked the Firefly in place.
Implausibility Alert: How could the Firefly been held down with such a crude dirt landing spot? Port Control? How was that supposed to work?
Inara calls up to ask what is wrong. But since Inara came down separately in her scout ship has she flown in back to Serenity and flown it into Serenity already?
Inara: Hello Wash, is there a problem with take-off?
Suddenly the ship lifts off and he reports there isn't a problem. Did Inara contact Fess to ask him to let them go? Had she previously asked for his help? Its not clear from the dialogue and timing of the scenes whether that might have happened.
Higgins: You did what?
Fess: I sent an override to port control ...
Higgins: You did what?
Fess: You wanted to make a man out of me. I guess it worked.
River: Just keep watching preacher man.
Its hard to make sense of these River scenes.
Simon: I mean my way of being polite or whatever well its the only way I have a of showing you I like you.
Jayne seems to be showing some remorse that the kid who idolized him died to save him.
Jayne: don't make no sense. Why the hell'd that mother have to...
...
Mal: It aint about you Jayne, Its about what they need.
Merchandise? What Merchandise? We never found out what the merchandise was. Its not clear whether the Firefly left with the merchandise either.
Jayne As A Distraction Wasn't Well Used. It would have been a bit more suspenseful if the speech and fight sequence had been interleaved with scenes of Crew members starting and stopping to move contraband while people were distracted. There could have been successive steps in the celebration and in the conflict with Stitch that could have provided distractions for a few successive moves of the contraband. It would have been neater if there were a few problems that needed to be solved to move the contraband. Maybe get at a key. Then open some door. Or maybe dig up contraband from more than one place.
What Was So Hard About Moving The Contraband? Couldn't they have just done it at night while everyone was asleep or partying? The show needed a better explanation about why it had to be done as it was done. It all seemed too contrived.
Alternative Suggestion: The contraband could have been a fairly large object hidden in the bar disguised as, say, a table. They'd need everyone out of the bar to get it moved.
Alternative Suggestion: The contraband could have been under a foreman's shack at the mud flats. In that case the Crew would have needed to get all the workers to go down to the Jaynes Day celebration. The workers and supervisors could have been shown leaving the mud flats to go attend. Then some of theCrew could have moved the shack to get at the contraband. They would have started moving it while the celebration was going on. There could have been a switch back and forth between the celebration and their attempts to extract the contraband and move it to the ship.
Some added layering of suspense could have been gotten out of the celebration/showdown sequence if it was somehow interleaved with the getting of the contraband.
Firefly is not doing well in the ratings but Fox has ordered 3 more scripts to be written after the first 13. So it might continue to be made and the later scripts are going to have more adventure in them:
"Looks like," says Whedon. "We're hoping that we'll get some slow growth, which is what Sandy Grushow said before this season ever started. He said, 'Look, you're going to be hit with baseball. It's not an out-of-the-box thing, we don't expect it to be.' So there's something good on that side. They're letting us keep going, and it really feels like we're ready to hit our stride."
"The shows that we're working on now have the adventure and the excitement that FOX is looking for, along with all the character stuff, which is why I show up."
"I think we've found it," says Minear. "I do, I do."
If Fox cancels Firefly I will not be surprised. The most recent "Jaynestown" episode was not exactly science fiction. The cast flies to some planet and then they play out some lousy Western story about Jayne Cobb as bad choice to be treated as folk hero. There's a lot of mud and what looks like bamboo sticks. Whedon made a huge mistake on this show. He could have drawn in a large number of science fiction fans if it had been made to be science fiction. Surely that's what the original trailers made it out to be. If he had done convincing science fiction then he still could have explored the whole Western frontier life angle.
As for the higher "John Doe" ratings: "John Doe" really is the more interesting story:
"Firefly": This Friday Fox series was eagerly anticipated, as it came from "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" creator Joss Whedon. More mystifying and unintentionally comic than cosmic, it has turned into a sci-fi dud. It ranks in the Nielsen 90s and, worse, often trails the show that follows it, "John Doe," by a couple million viewers. That means Fox viewers are skipping the 8 p. m. hour and then watching at 9 p.m. -- the biggest vote of no confidence there is.
Firefly was moderately well cast. I don't think the casting was the real problem. Morena Baccarin as Inara is beautiful. Mal is probably a sufficiently good-looking man (or so a woman tells me). Jewel Staite could probably have been made into an interesting female engineer whose technical exploits could have pulled them out of classical tight science fiction binds. Many things could still be done with these characters if Whedon and company could just decide to write stories that are real science fiction stories (I'm ready to help!). Why place characters 500 hundred years in the future except to present science fiction? Does Whedon really believe that the future can be that mundane and primitive if humans are travelling routinely between dozens or hundreds of planets? What new thing did he think he was offering us? If he was offering a Western then what was supposed to be interesting about Firefly as compared to past Westerns? This show did not have enough of a purpose behind it to justify it being made. But if it isn't cancelled first it could still be fixed.
To read my own reactions to Firefly click here for a review of the first episode, here for how to fix Firefly as Science Fiction, (which it really ought to be) here for a review of the second "Bushwhacked" episode, and here for the "Our Mrs Reynolds" episode.
Here's my rather critical review of the third episode of Firefly. Note that I actually enjoyed the episode in spite of what I see as weaknesses in the story line.
Okay, this time I can excuse the implausibility of 19th century cowboy low tech planets which trade with interplanetary space travellers of the same species. What makes me suddenly more willing to accept the show's glaring shortcomings? How about a good story with a premise based on cunning, deception, and hidden motives. It isn't just "Mrs Reynolds" who turns out to have hidden motives - so does Inara with her designs on the Captain. But Mrs Reynolds' hidden motives were the real drivers of this story. Her motives were effectively hidden from us long enough that when she finally moved to implement her dastardly plan it was a surprise that made for a good shift in the direction of the story line.
The show starts out with the Firefly crew on some planet on a crude river raft boat (like something from the 19th century West) apparently getting held up by a band of robbers. In the shoot-out the robbers all eat lead and the good guys (and gals) come out unharmed. Turns out Mal and company were hired by the local settlers to deal with this robbing gang. Mal and a few of his crew are war veterans and skilled with guns. Still, it seems an odd job for interplanetary traders.
With the robbers all dispatched from this mortal life there is a celebration that night with people dancing around at a country hoe down. An attractive young woman in a country dress comes up and gives Mal something to drink and then drags him out on the dance floor. It all seems innocent, fun, and wholesome.
Cut to the next day and the crew is accepting supplies from the locals in return for services rendered. They have to get underway quick because the Alliance might come looking for them (or at least for some Firefly).
They take off from the planet. Mal is looking at the cargo and out pops the woman he had danced with the night before. She proclaims her wifely devotion to Mal. Zoe comes over and hears the explanation for why this woman Saffron is a stowaway and Zoe summons everyone from the crew to introduce Mal's bride (hence the title "Our Mrs Reynolds").
Mal's reaction to finding out he has a bride is excessively rude and his callous insensitivity is displayed to the whole crew. Okay, I get that Mal really doesn't want a bride. I get that he's a rough cut kind of guy. But at some point in the dialog after he'd already been sufficiently insensitive he received a rather stern admonishment from Inara and that should have been sufficient to get him to shift gears a bit. It wouldn't have hurt him to handle the poor young farm girl more gently. I would even say more pointedly that it would have been in character for him to do so.
Was Whedon trying to emphasise that Mal is not a paragon of moral virtue? Did he see that he could do this by showing Mal being callous? Well, a character can be morally flawed without being unnecessarily insensitive. Mal's reaction seemed out of character to me. Was the point that he's not fully mature? But he's mature so much of the time. Is the point supposed to be that he's romantically immature but mature in other ways? It didn't see that way if that is what was the point they were trying to get across.
One can't portray characters as morally flawed by just having them be rude, insensitive and selfish every now and then. If one wants to demonstrate that characters are unsure of their own moral beliefs then the characters should be shown shifting back and forth on some issue as they change their minds back and forth about whether they think they should use ethical beliefs to make some decision.
Book (the reverend played by Ron Glass) cites the law of the planet they came from and how what Mal did the night before in accepting a drink and dancing with Saffron really did wed them.
Saffron claims she was given to Mal to help pay for what the Firefly crew did for her people. I find this implausible. It would have worked better if something that happened on the planet would have set them up to believe the country folk of that planet really would have done such a thing. Though when she describes the paucity of decent male alternatives mates on the planet her argument does come to seem more plausible.
Inara's hidden motive: When Inara learned of this betrothal the look on Inara's face was priceless. There were hints in the first two episodes that she might have feelings for Mal. It became clear at that moment that she did. So did she choose to come on the ship because of these feelings? Or did the feelings for him develop after she came on board?
Mal tries to be more gentle and understanding toward Saffron. Events lead Mal and Saffron to the ship's galley. Saffron is a great cook. Zoe and Wash show up and Zoe is not about to cook for Wash. Zoe is not domestic. This is made clear. She's a warrior. The relationship between Wash and Zoe is based on something else and as the episode progresses we get hints about that but nothing clear beyond some mutually recognized compatibility and attraction.
Meanwhile, Jayne the tough and truly insensitive mercenary wants to buy Saffron from Mal and offers his gun Vera in exchange. This reinforces the view of Jayne as a fairly amoral, selfish, ruthless mercenary.
Mal enters his cabin in order to go to bed. But there is Saffron ready to strip naked to get Mal to bring his lips to hers. Of course this scene is the sort of thing that will bring the viewers back for the next week. But her lips contained a knock-out drug and so his weakening of will and eventual succumbing to her charms nearly gets the whole crew killed (as well as disappointing Inara about Mal's character).
Zoe's husband the pilot demonstrates his love and devotion to Zoe when he turns down Mrs Reynolds' advances. She then proceeds to knock him out, wire up the control panel to set the Firefly on some course, and then to take off toward one of the scout craft. But she runs into Inara. She tries to come on to Inara and Inara, a trained courtesan who can read people, figures she is being played. Mrs Reynolds has to knock her out and then takes off in the scout.
Inara runs to Mal's cabin and kisses his unconscious body when she discovers he's alive. This demonstrates for all of us huddled around campfires watching at home that, yes indeed, she has a special place in her heart for Mal. So in future episodes lets watch for those camera shots of her face at key moments and perhaps little slip-ups she has to cover for. The mystery then becomes whether the writers decide to keep Mal in the dark about this devotion indefinitely. I figure they may let Book figure it out and say something to her about how her secret is safe with him. That'd be a touching moment and would set us up for all sorts of meaningful exchanges of secret glances in later situations and Book could even cover for her as well.
From the standpoint of character development this episode is a success. Inara's feelings for Mal are brought out for the viewers to see and her astute ability to read others is emphasised. Jayne's mercenary incompassionate nature is reinforced. Wash demonstrates a romantic loyalty to his wife Zoe. The ability of Mal, Zoe, and Jayne to rally and use their warrior skills are demonstrated in the opening sequence and in the approach to the pirate spaceship-catcher machine. I'm less certain about what less we are supposed to learn about Mal in this episode.
First Problem: The false reason for Saffron being a stowaway (ie that she was married to Mal as part of a payment for services rendered) should have been built up to be more convincing. There were ways to do this. One way would have been to have given the country folk of the planet where the episode started some sort of custom that the Firefly crew would have learned about while on the planet that pertained to how they pay their debts (or honored agreements or treated honored guests or dealt with traders). Maybe there'd be some mention of how it was customary for them to always deliver more on their side of a deal than they promised (which might have been what attracted Firefly to the planet in the first place - the planet's people had an excellent reputation in trade deals of delivering beyond customer expectations). Or the planet's customs could have involved some sort of ritual gift exchange with symbolic gifts that get exchanged that have more than one meaning. The idea here is that Saffron could have learned about the customs of this planet and could have seen that the customs would have served her well by providing her with a more convincing story every time she was found stowed away on a spaceship that came to trade on the planet. In fact, the reuse of the planet by Saffron for this purpose could even have been used at the end as a motive for the Firefly crew to know to go right back to that planet to find her again (yes the Alliance ship was out looking for a Firefly but it might have passed thru already by the time they went back for her).
Second Problem: Why did Mrs Reynolds need to drug Mal? If her intent was to take over the ship and change its course all she really needed to do was to knock out Wash. If Mal was coming to his cabin to go to sleep anyway then once he was asleep she could have gone up to the main control room to deal with Wash (the pilot). It was really only the pilot she needed to knock out. She left other people on the ship in a conscious state. So obviously there was no need to knock out everyone in order to accomplish her goal.
Of course her trying to seduce the captain makes for sexy television and a test of Mal's character. It also set up the part where Inara, after seeing thru Saffron, then goes and finds Mal knocked out and so Inara could demonstrate her feelings for Mal, her jealousy, and her need to suppress her expression of both those feelings. There was inner turmoil that only the viewing audience was privy to. Therefore I can certainly understand Whedon's motives for structuring it the way he did. The emotional dynamics were well developed. But I think the mechanics of how the motives and the feelings were made to come out needed more work. The story line should have developed in a way that would have made Saffron's attempt at seduction more necessary.
Third Problem: Why did Saffron leave alive the two people she knocked out? If "Mrs Reynolds" knew the whole crew was going to die as a result of the hijacking then why leave alive the ones that she knocked out? They could wake up and try to regain control of the ship. This of course is exactly what they did. It made more sense for Saffron to just take over the main control room and knock out/kill Wash. Alternatively, it made sense to effectively go for a bigger grand slam of trying to incapacitate more of the crew in order to reduce the odds that the crew would be able to regain control of the ship.
Fourth Problem: Why was getting control of the Firefly (or at least sending it off course) so hard? The idea that a single control panel could be jury-rigged in some hard-to-reverse way seems implausible. Plus, they could have gotten manual control of side thrusters or disabled the engines. Okay, maybe it already had enough momentum - but it was aiming very small destination and in order to get it to hit dead on it would have needed to do minor course adjustments in the final phase of approach. It also would likely have needed to decelerate.
Fifth Problem: Then there is a lesser but (at least in my mind) real problem. How is it that Saffron is doing all these spaceship hijackings? If she's doing this multiple times then is she always doing it from the same planet? If so, then were those locals aware that she was doing it? If not, then did the locals see her as a stranger? This is something that can be left to the viewers' imaginations. So I see it as a lesser problem.
Note that 4 out of the 5 problems I see here involve the plausibility of Saffron's cover story and actions. Had these been handled better this episode would have come across much more forcefully.
At the very end I'm wondering what happened to Mrs Reynolds. The Firefly crew tracked her down to a cabin on a planet since the scout ship she'd left on didn't have the range to go to too many planets (to make this plausible we can imagine that the scout ship had a transponder that allowed them to find her by visiting each of the nearby planets).
Mal came into the cabin and after a verbal exchange and a bit of fighting Mal knocked her out. So then what? Surely she's responsible for a lot of deaths. Did he leave her alive? Take her somewhere to be locked up? He made it sound like he wasn't going to kill her. So what happened to her?
Episode 2 is called "Bushwhacked". They find an abandoned ship. When they hook their ship onto it we see some sort of tubing reach out from the abandoned ship to entwine with the Firefly. They board and at first think the crew must have bailed. But then they find the crew all dead. They are sorting out this mystery when a mad crewman is found and subdued. Then the Alliance shows up as they are trying to leave. They have to deal with the Alliance's search for River and Simon along with an accusation that they had something to do with what happened on the abandoned ship. You can find an episode synopsis here.
I'm going to limit my comments to a few facets of the episode and of the larger context of the show's universe.
Of course we haven't even seen a Reaver band yet. But we see the consequences of a Reaver attack on the ship that the Serenity crew board. We haven't even been given a clear clue about what why the Reavers go around boarding ships. After all, Mal's group was able to find useful stuff to take from the abandoned ship. Do the Reavers hunt down ships just for the pleasure of killing their crews?
Reavers are some sort of scary barbarian hunter-killer humans. But they have to be capable of spaceflight in order to go raiding ships in space well away from any planet. That means they'd need some rational faculties. They apparently travel around killing in groups. So they have to at least able to cooperate with each other.
But what can be so powerful about them that makes them such dangerous killers? They are, at least as far as we've learned, just humans. Regular humans who aren't mad kilers ought to be able to fight just as well - perhaps even better since I don't see why insanity would be an asset for fighting in spaceships.
But how could a group of humans turn into what they supposedly are? Deep space wouldn't do that. If totally brutal cut-throat gangs were roaming around in space killing people that would be believeable by itself. But the message of the show is that the Reavers were driven mad by the vastness of space by some effect of being so far away from civilization. The exact reason seems vague. But being mad isn't the same as being a psychopath.
But it gets worse. Why would a guy was presumably normal who witnessed a Reaver attack then become one? Most people who witness their families and villages become butchered do not become stark raving mad killers. If Reavers are just those rare one in a million nut jobs I can begin to understand what they are supposed to be. But a normal person (which I assume the surviving settler was) who witnesses a brutal attack doesn't become the one in a million madman.
This show attempts to portray real humans. For many characters it does. But Reavers do not fit any real human category. The concept needs work. Are they psychopaths in bands? Were they once normal people who were driven mad? By what?
Mal's sending Simon and River out in spacesuits to hang onto the outer hull of the Firefly while it was being searched was quite the clever idea. It was the neatest ploy in the episode.
Before that we see River hearing dialog by other crewmembers suggesting that Mal might turn in River and Simon to the Alliance. What did River think of these conversations? Did she think it was possible? Or could she read Mal's mind and sense what he was really about? Will River ever behave in a paranoid way that is unwarranted? Or will the writers subtly show her making wise decisions using her psychic powers while not really drawing attention to herself from the rest of the crew? How rapidly will River develop?
Is the Alliance miltary supposed to be part of a malevolent dicatatorship? Are the officers free to be arbirtrary and cruel in their treatment of people on outer planets? Does the Alliance government see itself as a benevolent keeper of order?
What I wonder is just how well the writers have worked this out. Should we think of this militarty as imperial in character ruling over subject colonies? If so, is it imperial in the sense that the British were or more like the Oriental despotism of the Ottoman Empire? What empire is the Alliance supposed to be modelled after?
Thinking more about the first episode entitled "Train Job".
Some people are comparing Firefly to Farscape. I can see some parallels but there is an important difference: Farscape was stranger and edgier.
Go back to the beginning of Farscape: Crichton got shot thru a worm hole and immediately had an accidental collision which killed Kreiss's brother and as a result of that Kreiss went on a hunt with the Peacekeepers under his control to capture and kill Crichton. Crichton immediately got up by an assortment of escaped convict aliens. After that all sorts of weirdness followed.
Farscape is (or, sadly, shall I say was) way stranger than Firefly promises to be. Whedon seems determined to place a Frontier Western in space. So far the tech in this future civilization is not at all promising. Perhaps that will change in future episodes. But there are other important differences with Farscape: In Firefly only human cultures are involved. The humans have a central administrative empire that the lead characters in the series don't exactly like. But the Alliance of Firefly is nothing like the pure brutal ruthlessness of the Farscape Peacekeepers or the menace of the even more powerful Scarens.
Yes, there are some parallels. After all, the crew on Farscape were all wanted escapees who took over a prison transport and there are people on the Firefly who are wanted by the Alliance. However even here Farscape went further. Crichton ended up being wanted by a couple of different races for the wormhole technology stored in his brain while the doctor's sister River on Firefly is wanted for her mild psychic abilities:
A borderline psychic, River can read most minds and tends to speak not only what is on her own mind, but others' as well. The Alliance is eager to “recover” their genius.
The sense I get from Firefly is that it will have less weird tech, less bizarre plots, and less strange characters than was Farscape standard fare. Firefly really is a Western placed 500 years into a not-so-advanced future. The characters are intentionally more mundane. There won't be a priestess with the ability to do something equivalent to a Vulcan mind meld (recall when Crichton helped Zhaan, the Delvian priestess regain her sanity by mind merging) or a character like Stark with his seemingly supernatural abilities.
Crichton was way more dramatic than Mal. Crichton went thru rapid fire spewing of pop culture references combined with pleas, demands and threats as appropriate. Of course, Crichton could do that because he was really from our time. He just happened to end up among a bunch of aliens.
Another sort of parallel: Kaylee "The Mechanic" in Firefly is a nice mild sort of engineering officer. Contrast her with the cutting, acerbic and rather more dramatic Seamus Zelazny (ref: late great science fiction writer Roger Zelazny) Harper on Andromeda Ascendant. Or compare her to anyone on the Farscape crew when they were repairing something. The Farscape people had lots of attitude yelling at each other while they fixed Moya. Kaylee is a milder character. The pilot on Firefly is an equally mild and unobtrusive character.
Farscape was on the Sci Fi Channel in America. Firefly is on more mainstream Fox channel.
Farscape was weird. Firefly is Western.
Farscape was harder core sci fi. Firefly has some tech but not as much and, again, not as strange.
Why?
Here's my thinking: most mainstream TV watchers don't want weird science fiction. Star Wars was far more successful than Blade Runner. Firefly represents the product of a Producer (Joss Whedon) who is proven to be well attuned to the wider public's tastes. He's giving them the kind of science fiction show they are more likely to accept.
Does this mean that really hard core science fiction can never appeal to a larger audience? Not necessarily. The key is to make a show that on the surface is a human drama while simutaneously offering something for those more discerning hard core science fiction fans. It is possible to satisfy these seemingly incompatible sets of tastes and expectations. But it requires very careful construction so that the show works on many levels in ways that do not require all the levels to be understood by every viewer in order for each fewer to achieve a sense of understanding of the show. If its done properly it allows some viewers to ignore some of the nuances of human relationships while other viewers ignore many of the rules of the scientific and technological setting in which the events unfold.
Making a science fiction show that simultaneously appeals to such different audiences is much harder to do and such shows have been rare. Most of the time hard core science fiction fans will have to content themselves with great shows that have limited runs and low budgets or mainstream shows that do not appeal as much to their tastes.
Hard core science fiction lovers are too few in number. So the best they can hope for are shows that can simultaneously appeal to them and to a mass audience. Can this be done? Yes. Here are some incomplete and preliminary thoughts on how to do it:
There has to be the full range of human personalities and conflicts. A high tech future does not have to be barren of the full range of human emotions and human intrigue. Relationships can be realistic and some types of relationships can be similar to relationships in our own era.
Do not let the tech crowd out the human interactions. You can put lots of tech into stories and into the structure of societies and still focus on the people. The tech should not be obtrusive. Every conflict should not be solved by a simple high tech equivalent of deus ex machina. Characters should have to puzzle out each other's motivations rather than just decide to kill each other with force lances.
Tech should be unobtrusively embedded into life. Embedded wall displays or holographic imagines make more sense than display panels that look like mission control command centers. Tech should be tucked away in cabinets or capable of popping up on a table when needed.
Tech should be fashionable. The tech should look like ergonomic and stylish products designed for consumers than products designed for the military or for engineers. For example, rather than wearing militaristic looking night time techie looking head gear people should wear sun glasses that just happen to have micro-miniature computers embedded and the ability to show them some fact they need to know. The camera view of the protagonist wearing such a super pair of sunglasses shouldn't show all sorts of live flowing charts and tables all around the edges. Stuff should just pop up briefly to tell the guy what he needs to know. An ordinary person should watch such a scene and think "hey, I'll buy and wear such a pair of super sunglasses when they are available some day".
Writers should ask scientists and engineers how to be more realistic. I'll watch some science fiction show and see some implausible device that is used to accomplish some objective. Often while watching I can imagine some other device or technical method that would be just as exciting to the scientifically illiterate audience but which would also be within the realm of what will some day be physically possible. The problem is that most writers just don't have the educational background that would allow them to think of these more plausible ideas. People who study physics or engineering in college tend not to try to become Hollywood writers and of those who do too many lack a feel for the human dimension of writing. What is needed are technical consultants who can provide more plausible tech ideas.
Consumer Tech Creates Cultural Niches. Skateboards, rollerskates, frisbees and assorted other seemingly simple products have created new hobbies, group identities and pastimes. A realistic future should contain new ways to pass the time and entertain oneself. There should be group identities evident among people who pursue activities built around these common products.
Inventions are often applied in ways unforeseen by their developers. Or as William Gibson famously put it "The streets find their own uses for technology". This means that future tech should be seen being used more by common people in their daily lives. Those common people should act in ways that make it clear that they don't even think that much about the tech they are using. Its what they grew up with and they take it for granted while they mostly dwell on themselves and each other. Too many TV shows are full of warriors, government agents, and a few heroes and villains using gadgets to pursue their conflicting goals. This does not resonate as well with everyday experience.
Viewers should not need to understand scientific principles to understand the plots. Someone with scientific or technological savvy should feel satisfied by the underlying science. But events should unfold in a way that doesn't rely on that understanding in order for the human drama to be comprehensible.
This is the Premiere Episode of Firefly but technically not the Pilot since the Pilot hasn't aired yet. You can find a character guide for the show here.
Lets examine some Firefly premises stated in the first few minutes:
Earth was all used up: No, that doesn't seem plausible. Earth won't run out of natural resources. Energy is the key resource. In the long term technological advances will make energy from nuclear fission, nuclear fusion, wind, photovoltaics and other sources. With energy fertilizer, building materials, and other resources can be made. So the Earth isn't going to become unlivable due to a depletion of natural resources.
Getting by with only the most basic technologies on the outer systems: Okay, first of all, there are spaceships flying around the galaxy. Trade is possible. Trade is happening. A civilization with enough technology to terraform and settle many planets ought to find it easy to build high tech societies. Information storage technologies are so cheap and small and destined to become much more so that a remote settlement will be able to have technological reference data banks that would have explanations for how to build all sorts of different technologies.
Hundreds of planets were terraformed: Incredible. In one star system? That would seem implausible. Where would the mass and the needed distribution of types of matter (gas giants wouldn't have enough heavier elements in their outer layers) come from? Plus, no planet would be all that remote from the core of the Alliance. So then in hundreds of star systems? Also, such a level of technological ability is unlikely to be achieved without the ability to, say, easily build large cities.
Gradually hint some other fate for Earth. Earth used up? Maybe in a war that wrecked the place and left it contaminated with deadly bioweapons.
Come up with some plausible reasons why the outer systems are so backward. Maybe the Alliance prevents them from getting tech and capital because they are full of disloyal people. That way there is the added benefit that the Firefly crew can smuggle tech into these planets.
A somewhat backward world still manages to have floating maglev trains. Also, the floating maglev trains look primitive inside. These seem like implausible combinations. Of course, the advantage of the levitating high speed train is that it makes for a more exciting interception for the Firefly.
Mining makes people get sick on the backward world. What, no automated robots to do the mining? Also, why couldn't the terraformers make a world that doesn't create human health problems? And why would drugs be so rare that they'd be worth stealing?
People grow old. We are 500 years in the future and there are old people. Why? Genetic engineering will make aging fully reversible in 50 years max. So why in the 26th century will there be old people walking around?
Also, where are the genetically engineered people? Or how about some genetically engineered pets?
Genetically engineered people. Have all sorts of weird people who have special genetically engineered talents and abilities. Such people could have quirky personalities. They could also enjoy things that normal humans don't enjoy. Their preferences for color schemes in their cabins or homes could be bizarre because they were genetically engineered to enjoy, say, purple worlds that have pink skies and yellow seas. Their clothes and wall art could reflect that.
Illegal hand held devices with big databases of useful tech knowledge. These devices could be smuggled as contraband to the remote planets.
Have the Serenity crew pay visits to illicit tech manufacturing facilities on worlds that are opposed to Alliance rule and that were part of the rebellion against the Alliance. The manufactured goods could be goods that the Alliance does not want the disloyal worlds to have.
Use tech, especially genetic tech, to make some of the crew members more interesting. For instance, make Zoe have much greater physical strength because she's been genetically engineered (perhaps illegally).
Inara should continue to be extremely self confident and self actualized. No matter what her past has been she should not doubt herself. She can question her choices. But she should know and accept who she is and find herself and her choices to be morally acceptable. Also, she should demonstrate extensive knowledge of history, literature, art, and even science. A useful parallel here is with the Japanese Geishas that are highly educated. Her education should be shown to be useful for advising on strategy and in human relations.
When Mal and Zoe were being held for questioning Inara's ability to waltz in and label Mal her manservant and waltz back out with them demonstrated what I hope becomes a pattern with her: Superior skills in dealing with other people. Its enjoyable to watch someone display such skills, especially to accomplish an outcome that the audience wants to see happen. To make such scenes even more fun its great if its done in a way that shows up others who failed while using less consideration of the feelings of others.
Mal is a likeable guy. He comes across as a friendly slightly rogueish leader whose choices are strictly constrained by his sense of honor and a personal moral code. I think the writers should continue to show him making sacrifices for that moral code and should show him recognzing and responding to those who also live by admireable moral codes. In an interview Joss Whedon claimed that the characters are just crooks:
Whedon: Yes, they're crooks. They definitely are criminals. But they're not the Mafia. They're not killers. There're people out there doing much worse things than they are, but when you're out on the frontier, the law is not the first thing on your mind. Your next meal and fuel to get to the next planet is the first thing on your mind.
Does he really mean that? In the first aired epiode (there's another one coming in December that takes place before the premiere episode - go figure) Mal decided to return the stolen drugs once he found out what he was stealing. But up to that point he was willing to steal if it what was being stolen was from the Alliance government and if no regular people would be hurt by it. I think this creates a problem for the show's development. How can criminals be likeable? Or, even more to the point, why should they be portrayed as likeable? How or why should we admire them or enjoy their escapades?
In Whedon's interview he talks about wanting to give a texture to the show that makes you feel like you are there and that it is real and gritty and mundane. There were scenes in the first episode that worked in that regard. I liked the way the Serenity came up behind 3 of the characters just before they were going to either be shot or forced off a cliff. There was dirt. It felt fairly real.
One shot on the ship that does not seem real: the doctor and his sister were in a room in the Firefly and the ceiling looked like it had metal strips in a grid with a false ceiling of that foamy stuff in rectangles. Sorry, spaceships are not going to have a ceiling that looks like its used for office building cubicle space. Seeing that scene I was thinking they were down on a planet in a regular building. It took a while to clue in to the idea that they were on the Firefly.
Also, the lowering of Jayne into the travelling train seemed too unnatural. I would expect a drop of a human directly into the opening in the ceiling. Putting him on the roof of high speed train with nothing to hold onto seems like it wouldn't work in real life. The train seemed to be going over 100 mph. So why do it that way?
Here's my biggest concern with this show: I think it is fine to be inspired by Western movies and TV shows and real accounts of what life was like in the Wild West. But while frontiers in outer space will have some parallels with the American frontier development there are bound to be differences because people will go out to the space frontiers with more knowledge and more tech.
This show takes place 500 years in the future. I don't mind if Whedon wants to pretend (or maybe he doesn't know?) that humans 500 years from now will be like humans today. Lets pretend by then that they won't have all become genetically engineered 500 IQ geniuses who are in interfaces with massive computers. Really, I can pretend if the show is fun. But Western culture has changed quite a bit in the last 500 years. It will change a lot more in the next 500 years as well (assuming robots haven't wiped us out). A show set in the future ought to try to find ways to make it seem like the future. There ought to be norms and cultural practices that will spring up that will be quite different than society today or society in the Wild Wild West. I think the show could do a lot with subcultures on different planets that have arisen in response to the way tech changes how we think and live.
In the US the new Joss Whedon (creator of Buffy The Vampire Slayer) science fiction show debuts Friday Sept 20. Its on 8 PM in Santa Barbara. My guess is that is the time for most US time zones except maybe Central.
This might be a good show. Suggest anyone who has an interest in science fiction should check it out.