Firefly

This article first appeared in the Age on January 22, 2005

It's almost 18 months since Buffy ended, and six since Angel's demise, but fans of Joss Whedon's work can prove their continued devotion by staying up past midnight (12.30 am, Channel 7) on Wednesday's nights to watch his latest, Firefly. The series stars the respective baddies from Buffy and Angels- Nathan Fillion (, Caleb) and Gina Torres (Jasmine), both of who were fabulously disgusting in their evil incarnations. This time around, they're nice (ish) guys.

Firefly was axed mid-season and the last 3 episodes were never aired. Channel 7's start times vary from week to week, they wouldn't send out previews and they screened the second episode first - though to be fair Fox did the same, deeming the character establishment in the pilot episode boring. Here is one of many fans, from the shows many fansites, on the subject: 'FOX must have the greatest talent scouts in the world, but the worst executives. Firefly . . . was simultaneously the best new show, the best western series in decades, and the best sci-fi show on TV (and coming from a die-hard Trekkie, placing them above 'Enterprise' is saying something).'

Firefly is set 400 years in the future when humans have colonised other planets, and those planets are ruled by The Alliance, a government established after a bitter civil war. The crew of the Firefly-class spaceship 'Serenity' struggle to survive by low-level criminal activities such as smuggling and tend to hang around border planets to keep below The Alliance's radar. If only Whedon had thought to do the same. When he was a nobody he produced a weird, cheaply produced show about a valley girl who killed vampires and studio executives said - 'he's just a kid. The budget's nothing. Let him have fun.' No longer.

Firefly's genre bending (the series is a western with space craft: think Star Trek meets Gunsmoke) was clearly unsettling for them. The show is violent and its humour is, predictably, weird. One main character's bisexuality isn't for those who like their homosexuality lite, and, unusually for an American show, a black woman, Torres, is married to 'Serenity's' pilot, Wash (Alan Tudyk), who's white.

'Serenity's' Captain is Malcolm Reynolds (Fillion, who plays it like Indiana Jones), a renegade who fought against the new government. His right-hand woman, Zoâ (Torres), served with him during the civil war. One of the ship's passengers is a Companion (a kind of Geisha) Inara, and another, Book (the fabulous Ron Glass), is a priest. The two passengers who cause the most trouble are the ship's doctor, Simon, and his sister, River, who has been tortured by the alliance, and appears to be psychic.

Jokes are thin on the ground and at times the cast is wooden - but the series gets warmer, and funnier, as it goes on. And, despite the homage to several B Grade TV shows, Firefly clearly cost a bomb to make. The horse wrangling and gun fighting scenes are particularly good, though the associated reliance on Western slang and 'whore' jokes feel as old as they are. Ultimately Firefly is a show is about them importance of building a community and staying loyal to it - as was Buffy and Angel. And as those who watched the episode 'Out of Gas' a couple of weeks ago, will know, Firefly can be very gripping and moving. Rest assured that Firefly has already risen from the dead. Serenity, the movie, will be released this year. And I'm pretty sure it's success will leave those studio executives kicking themselves that they were so nervous around the horses.

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