Firefly (television series)

Firefly is an American space Western drama television series, created by writer and director Joss Whedon, under his Mutant Enemy Productions label. Whedon served as an executive producer, along with Tim Minear. The series is set in the year 2517, after the arrival of humans in a new star system and follows the adventures of the renegade crew of Serenity, a "Firefly-class" spaceship. The ensemble cast portrays the nine characters who live on Serenity. Whedon pitched the show as "nine people looking into the blackness of space and seeing nine different things."

The show explores the lives of a group of people, some of whom fought on the losing side of a civil war, who make a living on the fringes of society as part of the pioneer culture of their star system. In this future, the only two surviving superpowers, the United States and China, fused to form the central federal government, called the Alliance, resulting in the fusion of the two cultures. According to Whedon's vision, "nothing will change in the future: technology will advance, but we will still have the same political, moral, and ethical problems as today."

Firefly premiered in the U.S. on the Fox network on September 20, 2002. By mid-December, Firefly had averaged 4.7 million viewers per episode and was 98th in Nielsen ratings. It was canceled after 11 of the 14 produced episodes were aired. Thanks to a fan letter campaign, the series was subsequently picked up by UPN and continued for three more seasons and 63 more episodes. The series was one of the highest rated and watched on UPN while it was airing.

Synopsis
The first season deals with the addition of Shepherd Book and the Tam Twins to the Firefly-class ship Serenity. This season does not have an overarching plot and is instead composed entirely of character focused episodes. Plots typically involve some kind of "job of the week" where the Serenity crew attempts to make money.

The second season's first three episodes are simply the unreleased episodes from season. Episode Four "Captain Saunders" marks a turn for the series as a secondary Firefly ship is established. This other ship is captained by a rival of Mal's and becomes a staple of the series. The Effulgent is filled out by several members as Saffron (an antagonist from season one) and Jayne. The season alternates between "job of the week" episodes as well as an overarching plot involving the Blue Sun corporation's attempts to hunt down the Tam Twins using The Operative.

The third season moves into even more plot heavy territory, as the Serenity & Effulgent crews are forced to work together after escaping the Blue Sun corporation by traveling deep into Reaver space. Here they uncover a planet destroyed by Alliance tampering and must race back to civilized space to share the news. Meanwhile, the core worlds of the Alliance are fleshed out as River & Book are both captured by the Alliance. Throughout the season, Book slowly convinces The Operative to change sides.

The fourth and final season details the Civil War resulting across the Alliance following the release of the "Miranda" tapes by Mal & Bill. Characters from the entire series are recruited episode to episode (punctuated with a large battle episode every few episodes). This culminates in a two part episode involving the invasion of the Alliance homeworld by the rebel army that has been established throughout the season. The series ends with the Alliance defeated and the future looking brighter for the universe as a whole.

Cast

 * Nathan Fillion as Malcolm "Mal" Reynolds – the owner and captain of Serenity and former Independent sergeant in the pivotal Battle of Serenity Valley.
 * Gina Torres as Zoe Alleyne Washburne – second-in-command onboard Serenity, a loyal wartime friend of Captain Reynolds, and Wash's wife.
 * Alan Tudyk as Hoban "Wash" Washburne – Serenity 's pilot and Zoe's husband.
 * Morena Baccarin as Inara Serra – a Companion, which is the 26th century cross between a geisha and an escort or mistress, who rents one of Serenity 's two small shuttles.
 * Adam Baldwin as Jayne Cobb – a mercenary.
 * Jewel Staite as Kaywinnet Lee "Kaylee" Frye – the ship's mechanic.
 * Sean Maher as Simon Tam – a trauma surgeon of the first caliber (top 3% in his class at a top core-planet institution), who is on the run after breaking his sister River out of a government research facility.
 * Summer Glau as River Tam – smuggled onto the ship by her brother.
 * Ron Glass as Derrial Book – a Shepherd (equivalent to a pastor).
 * James Marsters as William "Bill" Saunders - the owner and captain of Effulgent and former Alliance captain in the Unification War.
 * Christina Hendricks as Saffron - a con artist whose real name is unknown.
 * Chiwetel Ejiofor as Karl (The Operative) - a Blue Sun hitman who turns to the side of the Rebellion following a change of heart.