Friday 21 November 2008
Firefly - the TV series
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Introduction
When Joss Whedon, creator of cult TV series Buffy and Angel, released his next project: Firefly, in 2002, his fans expected it to be at least as good and at least as successful.
The fans weren’t disappointed, but funders Fox TV were and the series was axed after screening 11 of the 14 episodes filmed. Fans were furious and lobbied for the series to continue, instead a feature film spin off was made – Serenity (2005) – with fans helping to fund the project.
The series Firefly is set five hundred years into the future and follows nine crew and guests travelling aboard the transport ship Firefly. Led by renegade captain Mal Reynolds, they dodge Alliance government troops and crazed cannibals The Reavers, to build a life at the darker edges of space.
Joss Whedon said of the series: “When I pitched the show, I said it was about nine people living in the blackness of space and seeing nine different things. That’s what I’m fascinated by, how they all react…It’s about a group of people who are living hand-to-mouth, and are heroes, day-to-day.” (source: http://www.fireflyfans.net/main.asp)
The Oscar nominated writer/director/producer is currently in production on the film Goners, due for release this year (2007) by Universal and described by Whedon as “a supernatural thriller” about a girl called Mia who “sees in a mystical way the underbelly of the city”. (Source: http://blog.gonersmovie.com/)
The making of Firefly
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Tim Minear and Joss Whedon first worked together on Whedon's series Angel (to check), and the two worked together on Firefly as co-executive producers.
Tim Minear had written for The X-Files before joining his fellow X-Files colleague Howard Gordon on Whedon's Buffy spinoff, Angel. Gordon went on to executive produce 24, while Minnear stayed with Angel before partnering Whedon to bring Firefly to the screen.
After Firefly was axed, Minear executive produced Wonderfalls, another short-lived gem - axed by Fox after four episodes - before launching his current project, Drive, starring Nathan Fillion who plays Mal Reynolds in Firefly.
In the documentary Here's How It Was: The Making of 'Firefly' (2003), cast members and Whedon talk about the devastation of having the series pulled by Fox and how that was countered by the overwhelming supoprt from fans.
The 29 minute documentary, produced by 'behind-the-scenes' specialist Sparkhill Production, accompanys the DVD box set, and is a fascinating, detailed study of how the show was conceived, created and shot - from casting choices, to innovative camera styles, to the process of Chinese translation.
The Episodes
Episodes are listed according to their first release date. However these dates don't reflect the story order intended by Whedon and Minear, as set out on the DVD box set of the series (released September 2003). This is given as the episode number after the air date.
The episodes Heart of Gold, Trash and The Message were unaired in the US until Firefly began a re-run on the Sci-Fi Channel in July 2005
- The Train Job
Original Air Date (US): 20 September 2002. Episode number 2
Written by Joss Whedon, Tim Minear
Directed by Joss Whedon
Mal and his crew pull off a daring train robbery. However, Mal has second thoughts after discovering the boxes of Alliance goods his crew has been hired to steal are badly needed medical supplies, heading for the mining town of Paradiso.
We're introduced to the character of Adelai Niska - the vicious racketeer who returns in the episode War Stories to punish Mal for reneging on their deal.
The Train Job is thought by many fans to be the weakest episode of the series - understandably so as it was never part of the original outline and wasn't Whedon and Minear's planned launch episode.
The episode is action-packed but hurried and crammed with exposition (plot explanation) - probably because it was written over a weekend in response to an ultimatum by Fox. According to Whedon and Minear, the intended two-hour pilot (Serenity - Parts 1 & 2) had already been shot, but Fox decided it wanted "more action" in the first episode, and asked them to write a brand new first-show script in a weekend.
- Bushwacked
Original Air Date (US): 27 September 2002. Episode 3
Written by Tim Minear
Directed by Tim Minear
The crew stumble upon the ruins of a booby-trapped transport ship carrying the lone survivor of a horrific raid on the ship by Reavers. The survivor is recovered but Serenity is boarded by an Alliance Commander looking for the fugitives Simon and River. Despite warnings, he takes the Reaver's victim on board with violent consequences.
For the TV audience, this episode was the first introduction to the Reavers - the closest Whedon comes to creating demons in Firefy. However, even this almost unbearably brutal race is still human - descrbed as men "driven mad by the vastness of space". Their true origin is revealed in the film Serenity.
For DVD viewers of the series, the Reavers make their first appearance in the original two hour pilot, Serenity, in a tense fly-by sequence when the crew are warned by Zoe Washburne: "If they take the ship, they'll rape us to death, eat our flesh, and sew our skins into their clothing. And if we're very, very lucky, they'll do it in that order."
- Our Mrs Reynolds
Original Air Date (US): 4 October 2002. Episode 6
Written by Joss Whedon
Directed by Vondie Curtis Hall
The crew party at a celebration in their honour after ridding a planet of bandits. But returning to the ship, find they have a new passenger - Mal's "wife", Saffron, who claims to have been married to the Captain during the party as a 'thank-you' gift.
Mal wants to take her right back, but the women on Serenity side with Saffron and he agrees to take her on to another planet.
Except sweet Saffron isn't as helpless as she appears and double-crosses the crew, attempting to steal Serenity and sell it off to rogue scrap metal dealers.
- Jaynestown
Original Air Date (US): 18 October 2002. Episode 7
The crew pulls a heist in a town where Jayne has become a folk hero.
- Out Of Gas
Original Air Date (US): 25 October 2002. Episode 8
Serenity's life support system fails and Mal orders the crew off the ship, while he stays behind hoping for rescue.
- Shindig
Original Air Date (US): 1 November 2002. Episode 4
Mal picks a fight with one of Inara's clients and is challenged to a sword duel.
- Safe
Original Air Date (US): 8 November 2002. Episode 5
Simon and River are kidnapped by local villagers on an outer planet in need of a doctor.
- Ariel
Original Air Date (US): 15 November 2002. Episode 9
The crew attempt a daring robbery on the Alliance core world of 'Ariel', but Jayne sees an opportunity to collect on the reward for Simon and River.
- War Stories
Original Air Date (US): 6 December 2002. Episode 10
Wash is threatened by the bond between Mal and Zoe and offers to go wth Mal on a mission instead of Zoe. But the men are captured and tortured.
- Objects in Space
Original Air Date (US): 13 December 2002. Episode 14
A bounty Hunter sneaks on-board the Serenity to capture River and Simon and return them to the Alliance and only River can stop him.
- Serenity
Original Air Date (US): 20 December 2002. Episode 1
In the original pilot episode, the Serenity takes on several passengers - incuding an undercover alliance officer looking for Simon and River.
- Heart of Gold
Original Air Date (UK): 4 August 2003. Episode 13
The crew respond to a distress call from an old friend of Inara's, who is running a brothel on the moon of Deadwood.
- Trash
Original Air Date (UK): 21 July 2003. Episode 11
Mal bumps in to his double-crossing "ex-wife", Saffron, who offers the crew the chance to make a handsome profit from a difficult mission on an Alliance planet.
- The Message
Mal and Zoe receive the dead body of one of their old army buddies, Tracey, asking them to take him to his home planet to be buried. But Tracey isn't really dead and their are Alliance agents on his tail.
(source: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0303461/maindetails)
The Cast
Nathan Fillion Aka Capt’ Malcolm ‘mal’ Reynolds
Canadian-born previously been a regular on "One Life to Live" (1968) and "Two Guys, a Girl and a Pizza Place" (1998). Fillion had also appeared in small roles in the films Blast from the Past (1999) and Saving Private Ryan (1998).
Whedon gave Fillion a chance to display his range when he cast Fillion as the twisted preacher Caleb, a villain, in the seventh and final season of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" (1997).
Most recently he has just taken a part in desperate housewives as a character called Adam. There are also rumours that he is to play a young captain Kirk in the new star trek movie.
Gina Torres Aka Zoë Washburne
Gina was born in New York and has been in "24" as Julia Milliken (7 episodes, 2004) and in "Standoff" as Cheryl Carrera (18 episodes, 2006-2007) she has also just completed filming “south of Pico”
She also played Jasmine in ‘Angel’ for five episodes who was cordelia’s evil goddess daughter.
Alan Tudyk Aka Hoban 'Wash' Washburne
Alan Tudyk grew up in Plano Texas. Before Firefly he was in several films like “Patch Adams” and “A Knights Tale”
Since Firefly he played the lead in "Prelude To A Kiss" on Broadway. And more recently had a part in the new movie “Knocked Up”
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The Crew
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The Music
Original music for the series was composed by Greg Edmonson, who had previously written the music for a number of middling to dire TV series and films including: Frog & Wombat (about two kid detectives) and Gary the Rat (Kelsey Grammer as a lawyer who wakes up as a rat!).
In 1992 he was nominated for an Emmy award for his music on Cop Rock - a Steven Bochco TV series where the cops chase the bad guys for an hour of gritty realism and then break into a Broadway-style song and dance number!
Not quite as mad as it sounds, the series was powerful, ground-breaking stuff and won two Emmys and three nominations, but each episode cost a fortune and ABC axed it after just 11 episodes. Sound familiar?
Edmonson also wrote the music for Firefly's distinctive Theme Tune - but the words were written by Joss Whedon. The Theme Tune was sung by Sonny Rhodes.
(source: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0249557/)
The Theme Tune
Take my love, take my land
Take me where I cannot stand
I don't care, I'm still free
You can't take the sky from me
Take me out to the black
Tell them I ain't comin' back
Burn the land and boil the sea
You can't take the sky from me
There's no place I can be
Since I found Serenity
But you can't take the sky from me...
In this interview, on tracksounds.com, Edmonson talks about Firefly as the job he's enjoyed most - despite the tight recording schedule:
The postproduction team patterned its schedule after Buffy and Angel, which were shows they had experience doing.Firefly required the recording of a number of live instruments in addition to the synth tracks. So there wasn't enough time in the schedule to allow for the recording process, which was usually 2 days an episode. Consequently, I was working 16 hours a day, every single day, 7 days a week.
And never once when I got up at two in the morning, even though I was exhausted, never once did I feel anything but grateful that I was working on Firefly. It was like working on a feature film every week, which just doesn't happen in television.
It wasn't just the cast, or the writing, acting or directing. It was not any one element. It was all the elements together. It was such clever show about deep, interesting things. In my opinion, it was too good for television.