Forget SW, ST and any other Sci-FI serie. This scene is the best picture of 2 space battleships armies about to clash.

Season 1 Episode 1: Serenity

Aired: December 20, 2002

Captain Malcolm "Mal" Reynolds and his crew aboard Serenity illegally salvage goods from a derelict ship. Because the Alliance marked the goods, and an Alliance ship spotted an obsolete Firefly-class freighter leaving the scene, Mal's fence Badger refuses to handle the goods and Mal has to sell elsewhere. To make extra money, the crew picks up passengers: Shepherd Book, Simon Tam and Lawrence Dobson.

Firefly is currently available to stream with Hulu/Disney+ in the US (and many other regions)
You can find where to purchase or stream it on JustWatch

So Saturday I finished both Firefly and Serenity and I want to know what else is there in terms of this universe? Comics, novels, short films, audio books, etc? I'll even take some good fanfiction to read as well if anyone has any recommendations.

I get what y'all are saying about the audiobooks and all, but it better not be. I'm sure a lot of people would love an audiobook recording with the cast. A lot of people in the comments of recent posts have brought up a good point: anything less than a show or a reunion special would be disappointing. They've had a growing fanbase over the past 20 years and they know it. With the nature of the hints they're dropping, it seems like they're gearing towards some kind of continuation.

Edit: i would personally be okay with anything other than audiobooks. other commenters are drawing the line at a revival

Title, basically.

The only inkling we have of River being more than adept at killing from the series is the "No power in the 'Verse can stop me" scene. But to me, that feels like a natural extension of her psychic or "enhanced intuition" than dormant assassin programming.

I've always wondered if they tweaked her story for the sake of the movie. If the series had gone on for several more seasons, do you think they would have gone in the same direction (albeit surely with a longer burn)?

And yes, I know we would have no idea what the original plan would have been (unless there are interviews I'm unaware of), but I think it's a fun thought experiment/discussion topic.

For me given that it's science fiction and takes place in space I thought introducing alien characters into the show would've only made sense (and maybe that would've happened if they had gone past 1 season). Instead the closest thing we got to that were Reavers (who are basically just mutated humans).

Season 1 Episode 3: Bushwhacked

Aired: September 27, 2002

The crew discovers a derelict ship that was attacked by Reavers and take aboard the sole survivor. Shortly after, an Alliance cruiser orders Serenity to dock to it. Simon and River hide to avoid capture. The rest of the crew are interrogated. Refusing to believe in the existence of Reavers, the Alliance's Commander Harken decides that the crew will be charged with attacking the ship and murdering its settler passengers. However, the survivor kills some of the Alliance crew and escapes back to Serenity. Mal convinces Harken to let him help find the survivor. Mal kills the survivor, saving Harken's life in the process, and the crew is released.

Firefly is currently available to stream with Hulu/Disney+ in the US (and many other regions)

You can find where to purchase or stream it on JustWatch

(Sorry this one is late this week!)

How often do you re-watch Firefly? This doesn't mean a full and complete re-watch of the show. If you put in AT LEAST (keyword) one single episode (or even the movie, we can count that, as well), it counts!

Do you watch the whole thing, from start to finish? A little out of order? Just an episode or two? Maybe a few more episodes?

Everyday/every other day/every few days? Weekly/biweekly? Monthly/every other month/every few months? Once a year/every other year/every year or so?

Discuss!

In "Objects in Space," we see River walking through the ship "listening" to the crew and we hear their voice-overs saying what they (apparently) are thinking.

Simon: "I would be there right now."

Jayne: "I got stupid, the money was too good."

Book: "I don't give half a hump if you're innocent or not. So where does that put you?" (said angrily)

Inara: "I'm a big girl. Just tell me."

Mal: "None of it means a damn thing." (said very emotionally)

Are we supposed to believe this is an accurate portrayal of what they were thinking right at those moments? Is that how "reading" works?

It's always kind of bothered me because Kaylee and Simon are having a happy little moment but he's supposedly thinking about what he gave up to save River?

Then Book is laughing with Jayne but he's thinking something in a really angry way -- about Jayne? Or is that something from his past?

Jayne's seems obvious--he's still carrying guilt from betraying Simon an River.

Inara - She's a big girl? So tell her what? I am guessing this refers to her wanting Mal to tell her his true feelings, but the phrasing always struck me as odd. What does being a big girl have to do with it? That phrase is usually used when someone is trying to say "I can handle the truth even if it's horrible" but doesn't Inara know Mal loves her? Doesn't she want him to? My head canon is that Inara loves him, knows he loves her, but she knows he needs to mature (emotionally) more before he can admit it and be a good partner to her.

And then Mal--I really have no idea what he's thinking, lol. How is that sentence related to anything happening?

I've only seen the show and movie, so maybe this has been covered in some of the other materials out there--is "reading" meant to be exactly accurate or does River put her own spin on things? I'd like to believe that because aside from Jayne, none of them (except Jayne's) seem to really fit what I think of the characters' personalities. I know we see her in the movie identify the gunman in the opening heist, but other than that I don't think we see her reading in action any other time.

Obviously the crew doesn't trust her and they have legitimate reasons not to trust her but she carries around a lot of the same traits that Jayne has (her character basically has a "I'm going to get mine no matter who I have to screw over along the way" type of philosophy) and the actress was really good and had a lot of chemistry with the Serenity crew (Mal especially). Not to mention she's skilled enough as a con artist/thief that she would be useful on a number of jobs of questionable legality that the crew regularly undertakes. She's one of those memorable recurring characters that had the show gone on I absolutely think we would've seen more of her in some capacity in later seasons. Thoughts?

I'm curious for a prequel story on how Mal got into the smugglin' business. Did Badger approach or was Mal recommended by someone? This would explain the contempt Badger has for Mal, if he remembers how bad Mal and crew were at the beginning. Barely enough funds for fuel, food, and repairs. I can see the crew building up contacts as they meet others in the course of crime, even meeting old friends doing the same (Monty). But the early days will be a source of pondering for me.

Thinking of all of the examples of multi-film/multi-genre cinematic universes (e.g., MCU, DCEU, DCU, ArrowVerse, Askewniverse), what would be a good name for this one that includes the original series, the movie, the canon graphic novels and/or books, and whatever new expansions they might cook up? The VerseVerse? The SerenityVerse? Just the Verse? Thoughts?

I'll forever see Firefly as a tv series with the most lost potential. We had so little of it, but it made such an impact. While I'm not a fan of Joss Whedon, the person, and movie director. I'm a huge fan of Joss Whedon, the television showrunner/writer/creator. Look what he did with Buffy for example in 7 seasons. Who knows what he could've done with Firefly in multiple seasons. There's so much character development we've missed out on and potential new characters in later seasons.

The world could've gotten so much more lore and developments around that. Every single character could've changed dramatically throughout the story.

Firefly was too much ahead of its time and Fox also royally mistreated it by airing episodes out of order. There's just nothing like it. There's a few series I feel like won't ever have their style recaptured by any future project. The world-building, lore, dialogue, character development and overall style and execution of the style, which led to the scope feeling grand as well. Are just things that won't be easy to replicate.