Is Firefly better off cancelled?

[UssGlenn]

Considering humanity left Earth for the new solar system in what I'm assuming were generational ships, it likely takes quite a long time to get between solar systems.

I seem to remember that during the series proper it was rather unclear if all the planets were in the same solar system or not. It wasn't until Serenity that no FTL was set in stone. Had the series continued they may have decided to go the other way, leaving open the possibility of a return to Earth.

 

[Jedman67]

To each his own because as far as Stargate SG-1 is concerned it went downhill fast after it had it's 5th season on Showtime, and then did another 5 via the Sci-Fi/Syfy channel. When they had do drop the General Hammond character - and bring in Ben Browder and Claudia Black - Ugh. (YMMV of course)

SG1 seasons 6,7 and 8 had a disproportionate share of duds and wacky plot development; when they were renewed for S9 & 10, brought in Ben Browder (Claudia black would have been better of as recurring, rather than main, IMO) and Beu Bridges, it was seen as a bit of a self-reboot.

 

[Awesome Possum]

I seem to remember that during the series proper it was rather unclear if all the planets were in the same solar system or not. It wasn't until Serenity that no FTL was set in stone. Had the series continued they may have decided to go the other way, leaving open the possibility of a return to Earth.

Why would they go back? No one seemed to have any connection to it. It was just a place they used up and had to leave, it's probably uninhabitable if the whole species left.

 

[USS Firefly]

I think it was a shame that the show didn't get at least 2 full seasons

 

[kirk55555]

To each his own because as far as Stargate SG-1 is concerned it went downhill fast after it had it's 5th season on Showtime, and then did another 5 via the Sci-Fi/Syfy channel. When they had do drop the General Hammond character - and bring in Ben Browder and Claudia Black - Ugh. (YMMV of course)

I really enjoyed Bowder and Black on SG-1, along with the Ori storyline and everything else in those seasons

 

[Hugo Rune]

As much as I love Browder and Black as actors, Seasons 9/10 of SG-1 simply do not exist. 8 complete and completely imperfect seasons of Jack and his crew was just fine. What came after did nothing for me and I have no interest in repeating the experience.

In the case of Firefly I'm actually perfectly happy with what we have. I can spend my time thinking about what could have been (seemingly how Joe Washington spends his entire online-life doing based on his threads), or I can accept a lovely season of TV with an imaginative film that offers sensible story closure to some of the larger themes in the show, with some trademark "fuck you"-fery from Whedon.

As brief as it was it feels complete.

Hugo - I don't care what you believe in, just believe in it.

 

[Kor]

I would have liked another season, and maybe a movie that didn't cram so much into a couple hours and start off with people out of character compared to when we previously saw them in the series.

But oh well.

Kor

 

[Avro Arrow]

Sure, maybe the show would have declined as time went on. But my choice would have been to get the good and bad together in future seasons, rather than the nothing that we did get.

I mean, hey, any show could be terrible. So why bother even making television at all?

 

[RJDiogenes]

I basically agree with the James Dean premise, but I do wish that we had gotten a full season (or two mini seasons, however you want to put it), rather than that awful movie.

As for SG-1, I was perfectly fine with the cast changes. I thought Browder, Black, and Bridges did a fine job and the show continued to be entertaining.

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

Why would they go back? No one seemed to have any connection to it. It was just a place they used up and had to leave, it's probably uninhabitable if the whole species left.

It depends on who wrote the history books -- perhaps they wanted rid of the "undesirable elements" and sent them away to colonise another stellar system, using the blue hands to control them from a distance.

 

[Joe Washington]

In the case of Firefly I'm actually perfectly happy with what we have. I can spend my time thinking about what could have been (seemingly how Joe Washington spends his entire online-life doing based on his threads), or I can accept a lovely season of TV with an imaginative film that offers sensible story closure to some of the larger themes in the show, with some trademark "fuck you"-fery from Whedon.

For the record, in the case of this thread, this is me accepting what is instead of what could have been.

 

[Sci]

Like Star Wars, Firefly revolved around a single, dominant, epic conflict.

Not really. The war between the Browncoats and the Alliance was over. Firefly was not about the war, it was about people who had lost the war and how they built a meaningful life in spite of losing everything. It's a story about the people history stepped on, not a show about a Grand Epic War For Freedom™.

It depends on who wrote the history books -- perhaps they wanted rid of the "undesirable elements" and sent them away to colonise another stellar system, using the blue hands to control them from a distance.

I don't really see how turning the show into an X-Files pastiche--"People from a culture and planet we have almost no connection to are controlling our society secretly"--really has anything to do with the narrative themes Whedon used or intended to use Firefly to explore (center/periphery conflict, corporatism, cultural syncretism, economic inequality, etc.).

ETA:

Do you all remember that single scene in the pilot episode when the crew is threatened by the Reavers and Inara pulls out a case with a syringe in it? Well.. as with most things Whedon he didn't do it just to do it or fill the episode. In a story that was planned this syringe contained a drug that a Companion could take if she expected to be raped and it would kill the rapist after the act. One episode would have the Reavers kidnap Inara and when the crew got her back they would encounter the Reavers ship with all Reavers dead and only Inara alive on board.. think about that for a moment

Yeah, I think that would have been a profound misstep, especially for an avowed feminist like Whedon. Rape is used far too often as a dramatic trope for female characters.

I adore Buffy and Angel but they were mostly pop culture shows.. there was drama but it was comparably light drama. Firefly was much darker than any Whedon show

I really don't know how you can say that, given the existence of episodes like "The Body" (Buffy Season Five) or "A Hole in the World" (Angel season five).

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

So who are the blue hands -- Alliance operatives with cybernetic enhancements perhaps?

 

[Sci]

So who are the blue hands -- Alliance operatives with cybernetic enhancements perhaps?

It is my understanding that Whedon has said that, had the show continued, we would have learned that the Blue Hands were private contractors from the Blue Sun Corporation, working for the Alliance -- think Blackwater or Halliburton and their influence on the Bush Administration. His sci-fi critique of corporate capitalism and its influence on democratic governments, in other words.

 

[The Wormhole]

So who are the blue hands -- Alliance operatives with cybernetic enhancements perhaps?

All we really learn about the Blue Hands in the comics is that the blue hands are in fact attached to a blue bodysuit they wear underneath their suits.

 

[fireproof78]

I think one more season would have allowed a lot more of the fleshing out of many different character arcs and world-building. Having read some of the ideas that the writers wanted to go with in Season 2, I personally would have liked to see that explored, rather than the way Serenity ended up unfolding. The idea of Inara's leaving, her illness, Blue Sun Corporation, are all ideas that I think could have been explored better in an episodic format.

That said, I am happy with what we got, and I certainly see the cracks in the concept, but I think it had another season or two in it.

 

[Awesome Possum]

It depends on who wrote the history books -- perhaps they wanted rid of the "undesirable elements" and sent them away to colonise another stellar system, using the blue hands to control them from a distance.

That makes it a different show though. One of the things I thought was interesting was that it didn't revolve around Earth. It's just where they came from and they left. It's like finding a conspiracy about why your great-grandparents left their home country to immigrate.

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

That makes it a different show though. One of the things I thought was interesting was that it didn't revolve around Earth. It's just where they came from and they left. It's like finding a conspiracy about why your great-grandparents left their home country to immigrate.

I agree with you and @Sci that it's not the likely direction in which Whedon would have taken the show -- he created a blank slate with old human behaviour in a frontier setting, albeit a technologically advanced one.

 

[Jedman67]

A great scene in one of the earlier episodes (Train Job? Can't recall) when the holographic pool table fails, the owner just shrugs and points to a sign. In the frontier settings, technology is just another tool to aid in sustenance level farming; it's like seeing pictures of 3rd world kids who live on a farm in the armpit of nowhere with iphones.

 

[BillJ]

Given how awful Serenity was, I'm perfectly content with the thirteen episodes of the series that we got. I feel the concept and style would have run into a very, very harsh wall of diminishing returns very quickly.

Serenity completely killed it for me.