MSN Review: How Firefly Changed the Sci-Fi Fandom

How ‘Firefly’ Changed Science Fiction Fandom Forever

When Joss Whedon’s sco-fo/western mashup Firefly premiered on Fox in 2002, it almost immediately sank to the bottom of the Nielson ratings. Only 11 of the 14 produced episodes were aired before Fox pulled the plug on the series. But somehow, someway, Firefly has become one of the most beloved television series of the 21st century, spawning comic books, action figures, fan conventions, and a major motion pictures adaptation. Rumors of a revival or reunion never seem to go away because fans are just as passionate, if not more so, about the show today as they were back in the early 2000s. We may not get that revival anytime soon, but there are still plenty of other shows like Firefly that you can check out instead. For comparison, Gene Roddenberry’s Andromeda, which aired around the same time as Firefly, lasted five seasons and 110 episodes. Fringe lasted five seasons and 100 episodes. SyFy’s Warehouse 13 survived for five seasons and 64 episodes. Firefly is a certified cult classic, while it’s longer-running counterparts are lost to pop culture history. Firefly’s legacy is undeniable, and its fingerprints are all over modern science fiction and genre fandom.

© Photo: Fox

It Brought Documentary-Style Filmmaking To Science Fiction

Before Firefly, the way science fiction TV shows and movies were filmed was fairly uniform. Sweeping, clean camera moves and an emphasis on composition were hallmarks of sci-fi on screen. Think of the majestic flyovers of the Star Trek films or the expansive desert of Star Wars. Firefly changed all that, partly out of necessity.

Without the massive special effects budget of a feature film, a unique visual style would help the show stand out. Firefly borrowed many of its cinematic techniques from documentaries. Firefly cinematographer David Boyd told Vulture that the aesthetic was meant to feel “‘accidental,’ and therefore truthful,’ though it was entirely intentional.

Ben Edlund, creator of The Tick comic book and TV franchise, was a writer on two episodes of Firefly, and pointed to how special the show was, saying how “the sci-fi universe has a real amount of depth.” That depth and realism came partly from the camera work.

Lens flares, shaky cameras, and snap zooms were frequently used for exteriors and ship-based action. It gave the show an immediacy and a believability that set it apart from more fantastical sci-fi. The snap zoom – in which the camera catches a far-off detail, pans over, and then quickly zooms to catch the object in close-up – became one of the most popular filmmaking techniques for big-budget genre directors. Snap zooms came back to sci-fi TV with the release of Battlestar Galactica in 2004. Galactica took many of its cues from Firefly, but perhaps the biggest influence was in the handheld documetary-style cinematography. BSG even hired the same special effects company from Firefly, Zoic Studios, to create its visuals

Robert C. Cooper, creator of the Stargate SG-1 spinoff, Stargate Universe, told the fan site Gateworld that Firefly also influenced his show’s more grounded approach. “Maybe we could get audiences to embrace the science fiction elements and the characters in a realistic way if we shot the show using the ‘language’ of documentary and reality,” he said in 2009. The technique also made it into the movies, as snap zooms can be seen in J.J. Abrams’s Star Trek reboot films, Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel, and, of course, The Avengers.

© Photo: The Avengers / Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

It Gave Us ‘The Avengers’

The Firefly movie spinoff, Serenity, was the film that proved Joss Whedon could handle the rigors of studio directing. While Serenity’s box office gross wasn’t enough to generate interest in a sequel, its engaging tone and quip-laden script encouraged Marvel Studios to take a chance on Whedon.

Whedon subsequently became the person who wrangled the most ambitious crossover in cinematic history. The MCU would not be what it is today if Whedon hadn’t brought his trademarked bickering family vibe to the superhero game.

© Photo: Fox

It Made Nathan Fillion A Star

Before Firefly, Nathan Fillion was a working actor who’d popped up in a few TV shows and films, most notably the ABC sitcom Two Guys,a Girl, and a Pizza Place, as well as a brief cameo in Saving Private Ryan. After Firefly, he was a genuine leading man who could anchor popular dramas like Castle and The Rookie.

He also became a household name for sci-fi fans around the globe, making him a popular attraction on the convention circuit and the sentimental favorite for movie roles like a rebooted Indiana Jones or Nathan Drake from the video game Uncharted. Fillion even played Drake in a 2018 Uncharted fan film that has over 6 million views on YouTube. In June of 2019, Firefly fans started a petition to get a building named after him in Fillion’s hometown of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.

In a social media post on the occasion of Firefly’s 15th anniversary in 2017, Fillion said, “Firefly is close to my heart, but I think more accurately, my heart still lives there.”

Besides Whedon (Or Christina Hendricks, who went from playing a con artist antagonist for Mal to being cast as Joan on Mad Men), it’s hard to point to someone whose life changed more thanks to the “little sci-fi show that couldn’t, but did.”

© Photo: Fox

It’s a Space Show Without Aliens

Part of the thrill of imagining space travel is getting to meet all manner of exotic alien species. What would Star Wars be without Hutts, Jawas, Wookies, and driods? Star Trek has Vulcans, Klingons, Romulans, the Borg, and so many more alien characters that define the franchise. The trippy SyFy series Farscape, which premiered three years before Firefly, was filled out with characters who were either human actor in alien makeup or a Jim Henson Company puppet.

Firefly consciously avoided all of that, making its space-bound universe alien-free. The closest we get to exotic creatures was the Reavers; grotesque human beings driven mad by the infinite darkness of space (and maybe something else, but that would be a spoiler). Whedon told journalists at a summer press tour to promote Firefly that he believed humans “are the only sentient beings in the universe, and… that 500 years from now, we will still be the only sentient beings around.” He further elaborated on his decision to keep aliens out of Firefly, saying, “I’m really interested in ‘you are there.’ in ‘you are a part of this.’ And I think aliens take you out of that.”

The idea that humanity would venture out into the stars to find nothing was picked up by future space shows like Battlestar Galactica and the current Amazon series The Expanse. Fans routinely compare Firefly to The Expanse, pointing out the similarities in tone and style. Both are more pessimistic about human nature than something like Star Trek, and try more than most shows to depict space in a realistic fashion. The creators of The Expanse even went out of their way to include an Easter egg shoutout to Firefly in their show.

© Photo: Fox

It Was A Sign Of The Decline Of Broadcast Television

Firefly was one of the least watched shows on all of broadcast TV (at the time, consisting of ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox, UPN, and the WB) in 2002. It averaged 4.7 million viewers, which would have probably guaranteed it seven seasons in today’s fractured TV landscape, but in 2002, that was bad enough for 98th place in the Nielson rankings.

It aired on Fridays, which is considered one of the worst time slots in TV because so many potential viewers are going out that night to socialize. The show was advertised poorly, with commercials that made it appear the Fox marketing team hadn’t seen an episode. Alan Tudyk, the actor who portrayed the pilot Wash, even told the Hollywood Reporter that Fox made the actors pay for their own lunches.

It wasn’t until Firefly became available as a DVD boxed set that sci-fi fans discovered the show and made it a cult hit. Streaming was still years away, but the idea of home video making appointment viewing obsolete was already starting to take over.

In a piece for the show’s 15th anniversary, GQ’s Tom Philip points out that six months before the show’s cancellation in December 2003, DVD sales finally outpaced VHS sales. DVDs and on-demand viewing allowed for the kinds of serialized, deeply plotted storytelling that Firefly helped popularize. Now, if a show isn’t serialized or easily bingable, it seems odd or “retro.”

Firefly proved a TV show could survive and even thrive without traditional broadcast. Now, streaming originals are everywhere, and cult favorites like Twin Peaks and the Expanse (canceled by SyFy but saved by Amazon) are revived all the time.

© Photo: Christopher Stadker (Digital_Rampage )/ Flickr / CC BY 2.0

Like Star Trek before it, Firefly was brought back thanks to an organic campaign run by fans, for fans. The fan group, nickamed “Browncoats,” after the rebels Captain Mal Reynolds fought for prior to the events of the series, was one of the first new fandoms to emerge in the early social media era. Services like MySpace, AOL Instant Messenger, and Facebook allowed fans to quickly coordinate actions like buying up DVD copies of Firefly and Serenity; organizing meetups and screenings; or planning letter-writing campaigns.

Technology and social media has gone into hyerpdrive since the release of Serenity officially saved Firefly. The Expanse was brought back in part thanks to the efforts of the fan group called the Screaming Warhawks, who used stunts and online action to support their show, much like the Browncoats. But there’s even more that can be done today, efforts that the original Browncoats never could have dreamed of.

You can run a Kickstarter to produce a season of your favorite long-lost show, such as Mystery Science Theater 3000; create high-quality fan productions like Star Trek: New Voyages; or do what some Browncoats did in 2011: try to raise millions of dollars to help Fillion purchase the rights to Firefly from 20th Century Fox. As you can imagine, that got shut down pretty fast because Whedon didn’t exactly want a sale to happen to the franchise he created. Still, it shows how dedicated Browcoats are, and how willing they are to go the extra mile for their favorite series.

© Photo: Gage Skidmore / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY_SA 2.0

It’s Rise Coincided With The Expansion Of Comic-Con

Comic-Con as we know it now came to be in the early 2000s, as the Spider-Man and X-Men films, the Star Wars prequels trilogy, and TV shows like Lost captured the zeitgeist. Of course, all of those movies and shows were massively popular, and Firefly, well… wasn’t. But Comic-Con gave Firefly’s fiercely loyal fan base a chance to come together, cosplay, and interact with the stars of the show.

It kept interest in the show alive, while also encouraging the word of mouth to spread among like-minded nerds. Fans still flock to see the stars of the show when they reunite for special events like the 10th anniversary in 2012.


Original article at MSN

This article has been reproduced for archive purpose, all rights remain with the originating website.

Author: Cider

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