Firefly

500 years in the future, Earth-that-was could no longer support humanity's numbers. They found new planets to terraform and colonize. The remaining two superpowers (US and China) banded together to form the central federal government called the Alliance, who ruled the central planets. The Alliance decided that all the planets should join under their rule. Many disagreed (called "The Independance") and the two sides fought against each other in a civil war know as the Unification War. The Independents lost.

In 2517, many settlers, refugees, and Independents veterans now choose to live on the outer fringes of the star system - away from the comfort and high tech resources of the core planets but having relative freedom from the long arm of their imperial government.

The series follows the crew of "Serenity", a small Firefly class starship run by Captain Malcolm "Mal" Reynolds, a veteran of the war. His crew is made up of Zoe Alleyne Washburne (crew member and wartime friend of Reynolds), her husband Hoban "Wash" Washburne, who is the pilot of Serenity, Kaywinnit Lee "Kaylee" Frye (the ship's mechanic), Jayne Cobb, Simon Tam (physician) and his sister River (originally stowaways), Shepherd Derrial Book, a preacher (Shepherd), and Inara Serra (who technically isn't on of the crew but rents one of Serenity's shuttles from Mal.)

Firefly does away with many conventions of the sci-fi genre. The scenes in space realistically contain no sound (which many sci-fi shows add for dramatic effect). Firefly strips a lot of the protections we have come to expect from our travelers in space. The ship "Serenity" has no guns and no forcefields to protect them. It's not that lasers don't exist... just our heroes can't afford them.

Perhaps the most glaring difference is that Firefly, unlike most science-fiction shows has no aliens. This might seem a little unexpected given the importance of supernatural elements in both "Buffy" and "Angel". But this quote from an interview in "The Guardian" with Whedon about "Serenity" shows some of his reasoning:

"Aliens inevitably distance you from what I really wanted to do," says Whedon. "I wanted to come back down to earth in space, show that no matter how much advanced technology we create, we're still going to be us - flawed, conflicted people with the same problems we've always had. And although that sounds depressing, it's what makes us human. And what happens when you try to do that? Well, there's a clear statement in the film about what happens."

This view gives us something very different the industry standard that was has been established.

Firefly marries many drastically different elements. Two obvious examples are the combination of Western and Chinese cultures and the pioneer culture of the outer rim and high tech society of the core). In the DVD commentary, Tim Minear and Joss Whedon have pointed to several scenes that they believed summed up what they felt was quintessential of the show. The first is when Mal is eating and there is a Western tin cup is by his plate while he eats with chopsticks during the original pilot episode "Serenity". The second is during "The Train Job" episode, which was the aired pilot, when Mal is thrown out of a holographic bar window. This mix has been both praised and slammed by the critics.

From the beginning, there was uncertainty about how Firefly was to be received. Critics judged it harshly for it's mixture of elements and FOX tried to conform it to what they wanted by requesting a second pilot when the original one titled "Serenity" (not to be confused with the movie) didn't have the action they wanted and by airing the episodes out of the order that Whedon intended for them to be shot in. But the fans and cast knew they were doing something special from the beginning.

When Firefly was canceled, the fans responded with passion and action to help save the show they loved. They wrote letters, sent postcards, encouraged DVD purchases and raised money to buy an ad thanking FOX and the advertisers for giving them the show. When FOX didn't continue the series, the fans and creator tried to get another network to pick up the series but to no avail.

Whedon felt that there was more to be told in the story and tried to sell it as a movie. Universal Pictures signed and Serenity was a go, with 50 days to film and a budget of only $40 million.

The passion of fans continues with "Can't Stop The Serenity", charity screenings of "Serenity" to benefit "Equality Now" (Whedon's favourite charity) and "Done the Impossible" a documentary about Firefly, how it touched its fans, and how they helped save it.