Many of these were terraformed, a process in which a planet or moon is altered to resemble Earth. The terraforming process was only the first step in making a planet habitable, however, and the outlying settlements often did not receive any further support in the construction of their civilizations. This resulted in many of the border planets and moons having forbidding, dry environments, well suited to the Western genre. SynopsiseditThe show takes its name from the Firefly class spaceship Serenity that the central characters call home. It resembles a firefly in general arrangement, and the tail section, analogous to a bioluminescent insectoid abdomen, lights up during acceleration. The ship was named after the Battle of Serenity Valley, where then Sergeant Malcolm Reynolds and then Corporal Zoe Alleyne were among the few survivors on the losing side. It is revealed in Bushwhacked that the Battle of Serenity Valley is widely considered to have sealed the fate of the Independents. Throughout the series, the Alliance is shown to govern the star system through an organization of core planets, following its success in forcibly unifying all the colonies under a single government. Music, audio, arts and entertainment resources in the greater Seattle area. Musicians, bands, rehearsal, recording and post production studios, audio, film, arts. If you are a regular reader of this blog, you can probably tell that I am a fan of television and it has played a big role in my familys bonding. When I h. A collection of inks to Photoshop CS5 tutorials, including free Photoshop CS5 video tutorial. Latest trending topics being covered on ZDNet including Reviews, Tech Industry, Security, Hardware, Apple, and Windows. DVD commentary suggests that the Alliance is composed of two primary core systems, one predominantly Western in culture, the other pan Asian, justifying the mixed linguistic and visual themes of the series. The central planets are firmly under Alliance control, but the outlying planets and moons resemble the 1. American West, under little governmental authority. Settlers and refugees on the outlying worlds have relative freedom from the central government, but lack the amenities of the high tech civilization that exists on the inner worlds. In addition, the outlying areas of space the black are inhabited by the Reavers, a cannibalistic group of nomadic humans that have become savage and animalistic. The captain of Serenity is Malcolm Mal Reynolds Nathan Fillion and the episode Serenity establishes that the captain and his first mate Zoe Washburne, ne Alleyne Gina Torres are veteran Browncoats of the Unification War, a failed attempt by the outlying worlds to resist the Alliances control. A later episode, Out of Gas, reveals that Mal bought the spaceship Serenity to continue living beyond Alliance control. Much of the crews work consists of cargo runs or smuggling. A main story arc centers on River Tam Summer Glau and her brother Simon Sean Maher. River is a child prodigy, whose brain was subjected to experiments at the hands of Alliance scientists at a secret government institution. As a result, she displays symptoms of schizophrenia and often hears voices. It is later revealed that she is a reader, one who possesses telepathic abilities. Simon gave up a career as a highly successful trauma surgeon in an Alliance hospital to rescue her, and they are both wanted fugitives. In the original pilot, Serenity, Simon joins the crew as a paying passenger with River smuggled on board as cargo. As Whedon states in an episodic DVD commentary, every show he does is about creating family. By the last episode, Objects in Space, the fractured character of River has finally become whole, partly because the others decided to accept her into their family on the ship. Signature show elementseditThe show blends elements from the space opera and Western genres, depicting humanitys future in a manner different from most contemporary science fiction programs in that there are no large space battles. Firefly takes place in a multi cultural future, primarily a fusion of Western and East Asian cultures, where there is a significant division between the rich and poor. As a result of the Sino American Alliance, Mandarin Chinese is a common second language it is used in advertisements, and characters in the show frequently curse in Chinese. According to the DVD commentary on the episode Serenity, this was explained as being the result of China and the United States being the two superpowers that expanded into space. The show also features slang not used in contemporary culture, such as adaptations of modern words, or new words altogether. For example, shiny is frequently used in a similar manner as the real world slang cool, and gorram is used as a mild swear word. Written and spoken Chinese as well as Old West dialect are also employed. As one reviewer noted The dialogue tended to be a bizarre pure of wisecracks, old timey Western paperback patois, and snatches of Chinese. Tim Minear and Joss Whedon pointed out two scenes that, they believed, articulated the mood of the show exceptionally clearly. One scene is in the original pilot Serenity, when Mal is eating with chopsticks and a Western tin cup is by his plate the other is in The Train Job pilot, when Mal is thrown out of a holographic bar window. The DVD sets making of documentary explains the distinctive frontispiece of the series wherein Serenity soars over a herd of horses as Whedons attempt to capture everything you need to understand about the series in five seconds. One of the struggles that Whedon had with Fox was the tone of the show, especially with the main character Malcolm Reynolds.