Joss Whedon, the prolific writer/producer who created Buffy: The Vampire Slayer, brought the sci-fi space adventure Firefly to Fox Broadcasting in 2002. Network brass made the unfathomable decision to cancel the innovative series after only 9 episodes were aired. When the DVD containing all 14 episodes was released, heavy sales persuaded Universal to secure the motion picture rights from 20th Century Fox. In 2005, a feature film version entitled Serenity was released theatrically with all of the original characters and cast. But, since Whedon chose to kill off some of the main characters in this film, we should all just accept that this is meant to be “the end” of Firefly as far as he is concerned.

Firefly stands proudly and clearly as a Joss Whedon product–sassy, wisecracking and unflinchingly honest. Gene Roddenberry used to tell people in the 1960s to think of the original Star Trek as though it was like a Western series that takes place in outer space in the future. Joss Whedon embraced that Roddenberry metaphor and made it literal with Firefly. His series is set 500 years in our future, featuring appropriately impressive-looking advanced technology, interstellar space travel and all that. But, the look and feel of Firefly is that of the wild west frontier times in the United States during the late 1800s, complete with guns and horses and even pedal steel guitar music playing on the soundtrack. This untamed west thematic choice works very well because the Firefly storytelling is really about the struggles of human beings seeking freedom from political and military oppression on the fringe of galactic civilization. It is in the future with the flavor of the past. Day-to-day frontier frustrations serve as the backdrop against which stories are crafted.

To the credit of the producers and writers, the characters in Firefly are not necessarily easy to categorize as “good” versus “bad.” Situations and character choices readily involve activities outside of the prevailing law. The audience is left to decide for itself whether the ends justifies the means. But, this idea content inevitably elevates the rhetorical force of Firefly. Episodes are never overtly preachy, but yet they push direct, clear messages through about issues such as sexual morality, choices of human behaviors, getting along with our fellow humans, and finding the purpose in this life. By design, no alien lifeforms appear in any of the Firefly episodes. This choice to focus on strictly human adventures in a sci-fi space adventure is one of its innovations.

Another innovation is the characters in Firefly, each of which is well-defined and quirky–a Joss Whedon trademark. Most are also young, sexy, and attractive, similarly to the characters in Buffy. Nathan Fillion is Mal Reynolds, the captain of the salvage ship Serenity. Gina Torres is Zoe, a soldier who fought at Mal’s side and remains fiercely loyal to him like no other crew member can ever be. Her husband, Wash, played by Alan Tudyk, is the ship’’s pilot. Jewel Staite (a great screen name!) is the ship’’s engineer, Kaylee. Morena Baccarin is the beautiful Inara, a high-priced sexual ambassador, one of the passengers. Adam Baldwin is the ironically-named Jayne, a macho mercenary with excess testosterone. Sean Maher is the ship’s medical doctor. Summer Glau plays his mysterious sister, who is a fugitive from the law for reasons that nobody understands. The oldest character is a preacher, played by Ron Glass. For plot reasons (in the time before Firefly takes place, the U.S. and China emerge as Earth’s final two superpowers) both English and Mandarin Chinese are spoken by many people. Firefly characters interchangably move between both languages because that’s normal (for them), creating an alien or otherworldly flavor.

If you get the DVD and spend time watching all 14 episodes plus the Serenity film, you will get to know these characters as well as one can. But, you will long for much more. Sadly, one television season and one movie simply is insufficient time to take Firefly very far.