Firefly was Joss Whedon’s 3rd TV series (after Buffy and Angel) and was the first one set in a different universe. The basic concept was a science fiction western (which was based on Whedon’s reading the book The Killer Angels), but was never appreciated by the TV executives. The episodes were aired out of order when they were not rejected. But, in an unprecedented turn of events, a TV show that was cancelled for low ratings mid-season sold so many DVDs that a feature film was created about it. What was it that made the fans so excited?

Joss Whedon, after writing a few episodes of Roseanne and the original Parenthood series, wrote a screenplay about a teenage girl who happened to fight vampires. Buffy the Vampire Slayer came out in 1992 and had a popular cast including Luke Perry (who was well known for his 90210 role) and Kristy Swanson. But the movie bombed. It had mediocre reviews and only grossed $16 million at the box office. Whedon wasn’t satisfied with the direction that the director had taken, so he re-imagined the story as a TV series. Five years later he was able to get the TV show made. It became a solid success and spun off a well-received show (Angel) as well. Then when the shows finally ended, he turned his focus to the science fiction western idea that he had thought up.

The basic idea of Firefly was a solar system where the inner planets are ruled by a centralized government and the outer planets were no. A civil war happened when the government tried to push for more control of the outer planets. The outer planets lost the war, but there was still a large amount of illegal activity (smuggling, etc.) on the outer planets because the government hadn’t been able to consolidate their control yet.

In this setting we get Mal Reynolds. He was a Sergeant on the losing side of the war. Afterwards he bought a firefly-class spaceship named Serenity and entered the smuggling game. He brought along a wartime friend Zoe to help him. They recruited a pilot Hoban (Wash) Washburne (who married Zoe), a mechanic Kaylee Frye and a hired gun Jayne Cobb. They had a quartet of paying passengers including Book, a religious man, a Companion (basically a prostitute) named Inara and a doctor Simon Tam who is hiding after rescuing his sister River from the government.

Most of the standalone stories focus on Mal and his crew trying to make a living from smuggling jobs. The longer plot lines deal with Simon and River hiding from the government and the various relationships between crew members. The various relationships include Mal and Inara, Simon and Kayle and of course Wash and Zoe. The special effects are mediocre (as befitting a low budget TV series), but are not integral to the show. The series relies on more western mythology than science fiction ideas. So there is more dusty trails and bank robbers than spaceship shootouts.

The show itself is a work in progress. It has a bunch of great ideas, but you can see some of the messy plots and characters that haven’t been fully defined yet. But overall it is a wonderful series that should be viewed (and quickly followed by the movie). Highly recommended.