posted
Infrastructure? A hatchet, maybe a herd. You're all set! (As for locating suitable colony sites, well, it depends on the telescopes available, but if they can resolve individual planets they can tell if they've got oxygen on them, at least.)
But, of course, some group could have very well considered that, and we never got to hear about it on account of the show was cancelled. And we don't really know what the high tech terraforming equipment looks like, or how large a box it requires.
Anyway, the problem with it being in a single system is: that's an awful lot of Earth-sized bodies (or Earth-densitied), even taking moons into consideration. (And I question whether even one of those superjovians we know exist now could have more than a handful of roughly Earth-sized moons.)
Also, there are, I think, several bits of dialogue that suggest a wider scope. But who knows?
(Also also: No one ever mentions how fast they're going, so I don't think that's a point in either direction.)
I think "Out of Gas" might make more sense in interstellar space too, maybe, on account of a star system being big for people but small for radio waves. On the other hand, if they span across multiple systems then their communications network, the Cortex, must do likewise, since they often pick up information from other planets on it.
So, I don't know.
Registered: Mar 1999
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posted
Their terraforming technique does somehow alter the planet or moon's gravity field. This was mentioned when Mal and Zoe were talking to the sheriff after the heist in "Train Job". So, they don't necessarily have to be the same mass (that's the word you were looking for) as Earth.
As for how they do this, I'm sure Whedon didn't think of it nor planned to go into any detail. He isn't exactly a physics professor.
(Also also: No one ever mentions how fast they're going, so I don't think that's a point in either direction.)"
Except, sort of, when they pass that Reaver ship in the pilot. (Was that in the pilot? I think so.) Except, at that speed, even intra-system travel would take years.
Registered: Mar 1999
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Interested parties may want to check out this preview, available here of the Firefly comic book that apparently bridges the gap between the show and the movie. (You have to scroll down four or five entries.)
Though be warned that I guess there may be, like, spoilers or something, maybe? I haven't looked yet.
Thrill to the always vaguely creepy results when comic book characters are drawn to resemble real people!
Enjoy John Cassaday's cover while possibly recoiling in horror from that Inara one!
I think you need three items to really constitute a "Thrill! Experience! Enjoyify!" type list. Oh well.
There are no spoilers.
Registered: Mar 1999
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Cartman
just made by the Presbyterian Church
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posted
If, like me, you have a bit of an allergy to Quicktime, and at least a passing familiarity with a C++ compiler, the latest snapshot of mplayer plus codec suite also digests the HD trailer, except, you know, without taking your computer hostage for life in the process, which, to me anyway, is a Good Thing, but I am old and grumpy.
[ May 17, 2005, 06:41 AM: Message edited by: Cartman ]
Registered: Nov 1999
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There's an argument I read somewhere explaining why people can knock out a tommy tank to images of Sailor Moon and other saucer eyed, tiny waisted caricatures of the human form while being creeped out by poser images. Or why people were more comfortable with the cartoonish looking The Incredibles than the more realistic "The Polar Express". When an image is obviously a caricature, we can appreciate it as one. However, if it's 95% accurate, then the 5% missing becomes extrememly noticable and grates on our subconcious.
Those comic drawings seem to hover the line, which might be why Simon finds them disturbing, but Aban is more than willing to go and get his issue laminated.
(Thinking about it, someone might have actually bought this up before here. In which case, screw you.)
-------------------- Yes, you're despicable, and... and picable... and... and you're definitely, definitely despicable. How a person can get so despicable in one lifetime is beyond me. It isn't as though I haven't met a lot of people. Goodness knows it isn't that. It isn't just that... it isn't... it's... it's despicable.
Registered: Mar 1999
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posted
It's called the Uncanny Valley, though it wasn't quite what I had in mind. I guess it does apply, though, maybe.
Registered: Mar 1999
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I always figured that a show like "Firefly" absolutely HAD to take place across interstellar distances. For one thing, just because we don't see any ships traveling at FTL (that we can be sure of anyway) doesn't mean that they never did at all.
For example, take the usual visual effect of a Starfleet ship's jump to warp speed -- aside from the bright flash at the very end, is there really that much different when it's compared to Serenity's "rapiding" launch? (I'm not proposing that "rapiding" is necessarily even close to the same as warp drive, but that from a "stationary" person's perspective, how can you really tell the difference?)
After all, consider that space is so inconceivably vast that viewing a ship from a distance away, even at FTL speeds, the stars shouldn't necessarily be noticeably moving.
As for that pesky encounter with the Reaver ship in the pilot, I'd just as soon gloss over that.
One final bug to squash: in the pilot's teaser, when the Alliance cruiser's sensor officer picks up the distress call from several "clicks" ahead, I figure that "clicks" no longer refers simply to kilometers or miles once everyone moved into space.
-------------------- “Those people who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do.” — Isaac Asimov Star Trek Minutiae | Memory Alpha
Registered: Nov 2000
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Well, if "click" just refers (in this case, perhaps metaphorically) to the clicking over of the lowest whole number on an odometer, a click would simply be whatever unit of measure you're using. In space, it could easily mean light-years or AUs or something completely fictional.
Registered: Mar 1999
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posted
I thought the word was spelt with a "k" and that it was just shorthand for kilometres. I didn't realise that it referred to the clicking of odometer numbers. Silly me.
-------------------- Yes, you're despicable, and... and picable... and... and you're definitely, definitely despicable. How a person can get so despicable in one lifetime is beyond me. It isn't as though I haven't met a lot of people. Goodness knows it isn't that. It isn't just that... it isn't... it's... it's despicable.
Registered: Mar 1999
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posted
I'm not certain it does. All I know is that, as slang, it originated during the Vietnam War. (Or so a nonrigorous search told me.)
Registered: Mar 1999
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I've been watching the DVDs and have found a number fo clues about one-system vs. multiple systems. Unfortunately, they contradict each other.
1) Inara says she wanted to "see the universe." Obvious exaggeration, but possibly suggests a large venue.
2) Book says Simon was brave to run and hide "on the edge of the system," suggesting it's the only one, ut could also simply refer to the one they found him in.
3) One of the Alliance goons makes reference to something being in "the Georgia System", I think, which would seem to indicate more than one system.
4) Someone else made reference to "the galaxy" indicating a larger venue as well.
5) After Serenity breaks orbit, the nacelle lights always go out, which would seem to suggest they're runing on inertia. This would necessitate an intra-system venue, though they could be waiting to get a safe distance away from the planet before rapiding.
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