Troperville
Help us survive. All donations are anonymous on the wiki and unacknowledged, as we don't wish to create a hierarchy among Tropers.
Editing
Tools
Toys
|
alt title(s): Firefly The Series; Serenity 
"Big Damn Heroes, sir."
Firefly ran for four months on the Fox Network in 2002. It was canceled after 14 episodes were produced; only 11 were aired. Its quick cancellation helped give rise to The Firefly Effect. A DVD box set was released in December 2003 and has sold briskly ever since. A major motion picture, Serenity, was announced in February of 2004 and released in October 2005, to critical success. The financial performance was mediocre at best (~$70M domestic first week, not quite a production/promotion-cost recoup), which probably dooms the idea of further movies.
The show was created by Joss Whedon and Tim Minear ( Mutant Enemy Productions), and combined science fictional concepts (interstellar travel, space ships, terraforming) with a western setting (poor agricultural colonies where people ride horses, cattle ranching, western slang). The show told the story of a run-down tramp freighter and its crew and passengers, trying to get along in the more isolated reaches of human space in the aftermath of a civil war. Virtually unique among space-going science fiction series in that the universe has no non-human sentient beings (although the insane Reavers come close...), or, for that matter, any non-Earth-based life at all.
Firefly's life story is an interesting one: it went from (canceled) television show, to runaway cult hit DVD series, to comic-book sequel, to major motion picture. Firefly is noted for being one of the few canceled television series to be spun off into a major motion-picture. The Universal film was titled Serenity because Fox still owned the rights to the name Firefly. There are also a few [[Interquel comics]], with plans for more.
Notable for extremely well-written scripts, a well-conceived backstory, memorable villains (including the perpetual anti-hero, Jayne Cobb), and a talent for switching between 'sweet and touching', 'dark and sinister', and 'downright hilarious' without missing a beat.
The cast included:
- Nathan Fillion as Malcolm Reynolds, disillusioned owner and captain of the Firefly-class transport Serenity.
- Gina Torres as Zoë Alleyne Washburne, his second-in-command. She is Happily Married to
- Alan Tudyk as Hoban "Wash" Washburne, the pilot. Somewhat of a geek.
- Adam Baldwin as Jayne Cobb, the mercenary. A man with less subtlety than a sledgehammer, and even fewer brains.
- Jewel Staite as Kaywinnet Lee "Kaylee" Frye, the mechanic. Her default mode is very happy. Famous enough to be referenced in World Of Warcraft.
- Sean Maher as Simon Tam, a doctor turned fugitive, and
- Summer Glau as River Tam, the sister he rescued from government experimentation, who's a little whimsical in the brainpan and a tiny bit dangerous.
- Ron Glass as Shepherd Derrial Book, a preacher with a Mysterious Past.
- Morena Baccarin as Inara Serra, a Companion, or high-class courtesan.
For further details, there is a character sheet here.
This show provides examples of:
- Absent Aliens
- Accidental Hero: "Jaynestown"
- Accidental Marriage: "Our Mrs. Reynolds", but turned out not to be so accidental
- Affably Evil: the Operative
- Afraid Of Needles: Jayne
- Air Vent Escape (played straight with Mal in The Movie, played for laughs later with River)
- Aliens And Monsters: arguably, the Reavers—but, on the whole, this is actually avoided, as there are no non-earthers in this universe.
- All Planets Are Earthlike: Justified, as all available planets and moons have been Terraformed.
- Always Save The Girl
- Anti Hero: Jayne Cobb, naturally. Most of the crew qualifies for this as well.
- Apocalyptic Log: given by the scientist on Miranda in the movie
- Arc Words: "Two by two, hands of blue..." Also, the Blue Sun corporation crops up a lot.
- A Storm Is Coming
- Automatically Violent: the Reavers
- Ax Crazy: River, though it usually turns out she has a reason for it.
- Backstory
- Badass:
half the crew everyone except Kaylee; and arguably Inara, who gets a few moments.
- Badass Boast
- Bad Boss: Adelai Niska
- Band Of Brothels: The Guild of Companions
- Bar Brawl: A constant among Serenity's crew
- Batman Gambit: River in "Objects in Space")
- Berserk Button: Don't insult Serenity in front of Kaylee. Just don't.
- Also, don't shoot Simon. That makes River angry.
- And while we're at it should you do anything to put River in danger, you might expect to have Simon kick your ass. Hard.
- Beware The Nice Ones: especially when errant commercials for Fruity Oaty Bars come on.
- Big Damn Heroes: the Trope Namer!
- Bounty Hunter: Jubal Early from "Objects in Space"
- Break The Cutie: In this case, comes conveniently pre-broken.
- Bullet Proof Vest: The Operative is not a moron. Zoe also uses one in the pilot.
- Burn The Witch: River almost has this done to her in "Safe".
- Bury Me Not On The Lone Prairie: "The Message"
- Cannibal Clan: the Reavers are based on the legendary Sawney Bean clan
- The Captain: Mal
- Car Fu: the Mule
- Catch Phrase
- Mal: "You're on my crew."
- Jubal Early: "Does that seem right to you?"
- Jayne Cobb: "I'll be in my bunk."
- The Operative: "Do you know what your sin is?"
- The Chains Of Commanding: "Just....tell me when we get there."
- The Combat Pragmatist: A number of characters—particularly Mal—are willing to fight dirty.
- Companion Cube: "I call it Vera."
- Cool Ship: Serenity
- Corrupt Corporate Executive: Blue Sun is hinted at being behind the Academy.
- Covert Pervert: both Kaylee and River
- Crowning Moment Of Awesome: easily at least one per episode; the Big Damn Movie is riddled with them.
- Crowning Moment Of Heartwarming: see above
- The Cutie: Kaylee and River
- Death Glare: Zoe to Jayne: "You want to leave this room."
- Derelict Graveyard (The Reaver ships around Miranda, as well as the ruined ships in the first comic series)
- Determinator (Mal, who doesn't let little things like swords in his stomach or being tortured to death get in the way)
- Distressed Damsel (River, constantly)
- Dual Wielding (River)
- Dynamic Entry ("Anyone so much as moves-")
- Ensemble Darkhorse (ALL OF THEM.)
- Epic Fail (done deliberately, for laughs. And it works.)
- Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas (Jayne's "cunning" hat, Jubal Early)
- Fan Service (surprisingly large amounts of it, too....)
- Fan Disservice -
NAKED MAL. You're crazy.
- Though that might be considered Fan Service by some.
- Faux Death (River and Simon in "Ariel", Tracy in "The Message")
- First Blood ("Out of Gas")
- Foe Yay (Mal and Saffron have heaps of this, as do the Tam siblings with Jayne.)
- Former Teen Rebel (Book, maybe)
- Friday Night Death Slot (Friday at 8 PM was not a good idea for a show that features the hero shooting first, kicking people into engines, and flirt-bickering with a well-educated, beautiful, classy... prostitute.)
- Game Breaking Injury (Subverted in Serenity — Mal Reynolds was able to withstand a pressure point strike made by The Operative as he lacked the necessary patch of nerves in the vital area to feel the pain.)
- More to the point (ahem), in the same fight he takes a sword to the gut and keeps going.
- Geeky Turn On (Kaylee in "Shindig", managing to woo several gentlemen with her tech savvy)
- Ghost Ship ("Bushwhacked")
- Girl In A Box (River, in what is considered by some a Shout Out to Outlaw Star)
- Gone Horribly Wrong (what happened on Miranda in the Big Damn Movie)
- Good Old Fisticuffs (subverted in that every time Mal goes up against a competent enemy, he loses)
- The Government (Alliance)
- Government Conspiracy (Blue Hands — actually a private sector conspiracy by Blue Sun)
- Gratuitous Foreign Language (The "Mandarin" phrases scattered through the dialogue, often as family-friendly swearwords, which leave an actual Mandarin-speaker wishing they'd done the research, and let's not get started on the actors' pronunciation...
- Guns Akimbo (Zoe and Jayne during "War Stories")
- Hacker Cave - Mister Universe's home
- Heart Of Darkness (Miranda from the Big Damn Movie)
- Heroic Sociopath (Jayne Cobb)
- Honor Before Reason (the show practically runs on this)
- How We Got Here ("Out of Gas")
- I Call It Vera (Trope Namer)
- I Just Shot Marvin In The Face (Kaylee getting shot by Dobson in the pilot)
- I Just Want To Be Normal (River)
- I Know That Gun (The Alliance wield, among other things, the British L85A2 assault rifle, better known as the SA80-2; Jayne uses the distinctive Le Mat revolver)
- Im A Humanitarian (one of the things the Reavers do to their victims)
- Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy (Both played straight and subverted; mooks are both horrible shots and at the same time get really, really good hits in)
- Improbable Aiming Skills (Did Zoe just shoot a man's gun out of his hand... from a hundred meters off... from the hip? Not to mention River's deadly accuracy with her eyes closed.)
- In Medias Res (The pilot was shown last)
- Jittercam (Actually CGI effects)
- The Kirk (Mal, who often ended up having to choose between nearly irreconcilably different options)
- The Plot Reaper (in "Heart of Gold" Mal makes Inara jealous by having sex with Nandi, but it's ok because the very next day Nandi gets shot in the chest and dies)
- Kiss Of Death (Saffron's "goodnight kiss," which knocks out those on whom it is used— or those who kiss those on whom it was used)
- Knight Templar (The Operative)
- Lady For A Day ("Shindig". Kaylee was doing this from the beginning, and Mal went along once he saw Inara was there.)
- Lampshade Hanging (Double subverted in "Objects in Space".)
- The Last Thing You Ever See (very, very subverted)
- Layman's Terms ("I need that in Captain Dummy talk, Kaylee.")
- Lets Get Dangerous (the Alliance had no idea what they set loose when they triggered River's implanted Waif Fu)
- Madness Mantra ("Two by two, hands of blue...")
- Magical Negro (subverted, the other characters rarely if ever listen to Book's advice)
- Mama Bear (Do not mess with Mal's crew.)
- Manchurian Agent (River)
- Manipulative Bastard (Jubal Early, and, according to some fan theories, Jayne)
- Martin Guerre (Shepherd Book)
- Master Of Delusion ("Our Mrs. Reynolds" — "I knew you let her kiss you.")
- Mercy Kill (for anyone taken by the Reavers)
- Mind Rape (whatever the Academy did to River, she didn't turn out very well)
- Morale Event Horizon: Mal crosses this at the battle of Serenity Valley. The Operative crosses when he learns the alliance made the reavers.
- Mook Face Turn (How Jayne was recruited)
- Morality Pet (Kaylee to Mal and Jayne)
- Nice Hat (Jayne gets one for one episode, complete with the comment by Simon)
- The Movie (Serenity)
- Mutant Enemy (Grr. Arg.)
- Mysterious Waif (River)
- Mysterious Past (Book, and to a lesser extent River)
- Nakama (Serenity's crew)
- Neck Snap (Jayne does this to a Fed in "Ariel")
- Neutral Female (Subverted in The Movie)
- Nightmare Fuel Station Attendant (River in "Out of Gas")
- Offhand Backhand (River, in the comic)
- Oh Crap ("Target the Reavers! Target the Reavers! Target everyone! SOMEBODY FIRE!")
- One Man Army (technically, a One Woman Army....)
- The Ophelia (River, of course. "Two by two, hands of blue...")
- The Other Marty (Rebecca Gayhart as Inara)
- Pass The Popcorn (in The Movie, when Mal calls Inara)
- Peek A Boo (the ending to "Trash" with Mal strutting about naked in the cargo hold)
- Perpetual Poverty
- Pet The Dog (Jayne has these moments, and while Mal starts off as a mean bastard in the pilot, by the end he's shown to be somewhat softer than he lets on.)
- Pimped Out Dress ("Shindig")
- Pistol Whipping (Zoe seems to favor rifle-whipping)
- Playing With A Trope (Two words: Joss Whedon.)
- Playing With Syringes (River at the academy)
- The Poseidon Adventure ("Out of Gas")
- Pressure Points (Used by the Operative in Serenity.)
- Pretty Woman (Inara, to name one)
- Psychic Powers (River)
- Put Down Your Gun And Step Away (awesomely subverted)
- Quick Nip (Jayne in The Movie)
- The Red Sonja (Saffron briefly pretends to be one of these in "Our Mrs Reynolds" — it doesn't work)
- Rock Beats Laser (though laser weapons exist, simple projectile weapons are generally preferred for practical reasons)
- Sacrificial Lamb (subverted)
- Too Good For This Sinful Earth (The show itself, honestly. This cannot be stressed enough: The good die young.)
- The Sadistic Choice (awesomely subverted)
- Sarcastic Devotee (Jayne)
- Salvage Pirates (In the episode "Out of Gas", the Serenity suffers a Phlebotinum Breakdown and is left drifting in space with no power or life support. The crew of the salvage ship that seems to arrive in the nick of time decides there's more profit in shooting Mal and stealing his ship than in trading for the one part needed to fix the ship.
- In a couple of other episodes, notably "Bushwhacked", the crew of Serenity is accused of trying to pull this on other ships. Occasionally, even with some justice.
- Raped To Death, Had Its Flesh Eaten And Its Skin Sewn Into Clothing by the Network (And not in that order either.)
- Schizo Tech (Justified, the just-settled Outer Planets have no infrastructures or industries built yet, and the Alliance apparently likes to keep it that way)
- School For Scheming (The Academy)
- Science Fiction
- Sex As Rite-Of-Passage (Explored in "Jaynestown")
- She Cleans Up Nicely: Kaylee in "Shindig"
- She Knows Too Much (the reason the Operative is sent after River in the Big Damn Movie)
- Shell Shocked Senior (Mal)
- Shirtless Scene (Simon in "Objects in Space". And as said above, Mal has a shirt-pants-shoes-and-sockless scene in "Trash".)
- Sliding Scale Of Shiny Versus Gritty
- Shout Out
- The Siege ("Heart of Gold")
- A Simple Plan (Mal has these a lot. And they go wrong with alarming regularity)
- Soundtrack Dissonance (the shootout/dancing scene in "Safe")
- Space Is Cold
- Space Western
- Spaceship Girl (subverted by River in "Objects in Space")
- Stealth Hi Bye (River)
- Storming The Castle (the assault on Niska's skyplex in "War Stories")
- Subspace Ansible (not made explicit, but there are repeated examples of instantaneous communication across long distances)
- Sure Lets Go With That ("I knew you let her kiss you!")
- Survival Mantra ("I am a leaf in the wind. Watch how I soar")
- Tasty Gold
- Talkative Loons (River)
- Talk To The Fist (in the pilot)
- Technical Pacifist (Book)
- This Is Something Hes Got To Do Himself (subverted hilariously)
- This Is SPARTA ("WHERE! IS MY! SPACESHIP!")
- Those Two Bad Guys (the Hands of Blue)
- Thrown Out The Airlock (Jayne almost suffers this fate in "Ariel")
- The Toblerone (Jayne Cobb)
- Token Evil Teammate (Jaybe Cobb)
- Way Too Fucking Good To Last, Especially on Fox.
- Tranquil Fury (River's battle against the Reavers in the Big Damn Movie)
- Trojan Prisoner ("The Train Job")
- Trying To Catch Me Fighting Dirty
- The Undefeated (the Dust Devils in the comic book)
- Unrequited Love Switcheroo (Mal and Inara)
- Used Future (Justified)
- Utopia Justifies The Means (The Operative and the Alliance's goal)
- The Vamp (Saffron)
- Villainous Breakdown ("I haven't made you angry, have I?")
- Waif Prophet (River)
- Waif Fu (River)
- Wall Of Weapons (Jayne's bunk)
- Warrior Poet (unconfirmed speculation about Shepherd Book; the comics spinoff supports this idea)
- We Will Meet Again (so very subverted)
- The Woobie (both River and Simon, semi-subverted in that River is frequently a danger to the other characters)
- World Of Cardboard Speech (both Mal and River get one of these)
- Wrap It Up
- Wrench Wench (Kaylee)
- You Cant Go Home Again (Mal, Simon, and River)
- You Shall Not Pass ("My turn.")
- Yuri Fanboy (Five words: "I'll be in my bunk.")
And notably avoided:
|
|
