posted
I don't believe you can derive anything about what "short range" and "this far" mean from that, though, beyond the relative. Just that the freighter is out farther than it normally ought to be.
The only thing about Firefly that gets weird when it is limited to one system is the number of habitable planets, even given that many that we see are in fact moons of gas giants. I mean, that's really weird, but I don't think it breaks the show. Nothing ever happens that would have to take place across interstellar instances, or, for that matter, that has to take place within a system. (Except for, maybe, "Out of Gas." In the real world, the kind of radio you could buy and put on a spacecraft in the 1970s is sufficient for communicating across at least 88 AU. And Serenity is, at a conservative estimate, at least as advanced as the Voyager probes. ((Come to think of it, how close were they to Whitefall, in the pilot, while enjoying real-time communication with Patience? Perhaps we can say that they must have FTL radio, at least?)) They wouldn't be out of communications range if they were inside a planetary system, though of course being in the range of any practical help is another matter. On the other hand scientific accuracy was not a particular goal of the show, beyond the incidental. And look how much goodwill no sound in space can generate with the hardcore.)
And, really, every planetary system found these days turns out to be weirder than the last. So who knows?
Registered: Mar 1999
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quote: I don't believe you can derive anything about what "short range" and "this far" mean from that, though, beyond the relative. Just that the freighter is out farther than it normally ought to be.
I realised exactly this whilst typing my post, which is why I will have to check the dialogue when I get home. Book may have said "Not capable of interstellar travel" or similar. Damn I wish my memory was better.
Registered: May 2005
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posted
Didn't Mal say at one point that there were around 70 inhabited planets? Which isn't beyond the realms of possibility for one system, especially if most of those are gas giant moons. The real problem is having them all close enough to the star to support life.
Maybe it's a binary system?
-------------------- "I am an almost extinct breed, an old-fashioned gentleman, which means I can be a cast-iron son-of-a-bitch when it suits me." --Jubal Harshaw
Registered: Feb 2002
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posted
As mentioned, maybe earlier in this thread, the specific line is from the scene cut from "Our Mrs. Reynolds," and goes something like "There's more than 70 earths spinning about the galaxy and the meek have inherited not a one."
Though I dread it, one could perhaps bring up issues of canon in relation to this.
Registered: Mar 1999
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posted
I've just watched the scene in 'Bushwacked'. The dialogue only mentions "short range", "this far into space" and "outer planets". Which doesn't really confirm either way, although I can see how they could be argued to imply one large system.
I still don't like the idea of one large system though. Raises all sorts of ugly questions about how they got there from Earth in my mind.
Registered: May 2005
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posted
I don't recall the voiceover saying anythign about finding a new solar system. I believe it said the earth got used up and they colonized new earths. The statement in the comics seems a bit more specific, confining the action unquestionably to one solar system. I'm not saying it makes sense.... it just says it in the comic book.
posted
There are at least two versions. Book's goes: "After the Earth got used up, mankind found a new solar system, with hundreds of new planets," but I did not watch it today, and so that isn't an exact quote.
That Firefly wiki has a different version on its front page there. I don't know if it is an exact transcription or not.
Registered: Mar 1999
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posted
Er...a new solar system with "hundreds of planets" would be incredibly lame.
Possibly one for the history books of Cheese.
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
Registered: Aug 2002
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posted
Actually....only a couple of episodes here and there- not enough to get the big picture yet. It's not lie Stargate where all the facts and premise are retorted ad naseum each episode.
I hear nothing but amazing stuff about it and have a DVD set on order via Ebay so I'll doubtlesly be hooked soon, but the notion of "hundreds of anything" in a system bodes ill for long term wellfare of a show/idea/whatever.
I'm just critical of the wording here.
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
Registered: Aug 2002
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posted
There are not "hundreds" of worlds out there...
Thousands (millions, probably) of rocks, ice, dust composite clumps and a few comets, but not enough to make an extended genre universe out of.
Certainly not hundreds of planets in a system.
Paticularly not places with enough mass for gravity or heat for an atmosphere.
This is where you tell me all about "suspension of disbelief" I'd imagine.
Even the incredible series Cowboy Bebop only ran for two seasons and a movie, and that was about a bunch of misfits living on one spaceship trying hard just to survive, eat and put gas in the tank... Heeeey! What a concept! They could make a live action series like that...
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
Registered: Aug 2002
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But the reason I asked my earlier question is that this is so minor an aspect of the show that, as one can see, even its fans can't determine exactly what the correct answer is. So, I mean, you know, you should totally check it out. I guess.
Registered: Mar 1999
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posted
Yeah I know- it's just the ambiguity that gets me a bit is all. Either the writers are deliberately leaving room for some knockout suprise....
Or it's a horrible Voyager-esque thing where they dont think "science" has anything to do with writing sci-fi (like Berman/Braga not knowing what a "Binary Star" was when Dan Simmons pitched a story to them).
Hopefully the former: I'm on a roll with this in part because I was watching some Noova special on the possibility of extreaterristrial life and they got into how silly many sci-fi depictions of alens and space travel tend to be.
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
Registered: Aug 2002
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posted
I don't it's anything along the lines of Voyager in it's lack of forethought. Whedon's not like that. And the quality of the other aspects of the show really don't leave room for us to say, "Whedon just didn't think about it and so it sucks because it was un-thought out." I think, as was touched on above, it simply doesn't matter. The utter coolness of the show is not in any way dependant on whether the show takes place between star systems or within a single one.
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