“Here's how it is: The Earth got used up, so we moved out and terraformed a whole new galaxy of Earths. Some rich and flush with the new technologies, some not so much. The Central Planets, thems formed the Alliance, waged war to bring everyone under their rule; a few idiots tried to fight it, among them myself. I'm Malcolm Reynolds, captain of Serenity. She's a transport ship; Firefly class. Got a good crew: fighters, pilot, mechanic. We even picked up a preacher for some reason, and a bona fide companion. There's a doctor, too, took his genius sister outta some Alliance camp, so they're keepin' a low profile. You understand. You got a job, we can do it, don't much care what it is.” – Opening Credits

The television series Firefly is a show that many say was never really given a chance.  I would have to agree. Produced by Joss Whedon for the Fox Network, the show was originally planned to have a seven year story ark.  It was canceled after airing only 11out of 14 filmed episodes.  It suffered from a variety of issues.  Fox aired the episodes out of order and swapped the times that it aired in an ill-advised attempt to raise ratings.  Those who found the show had trouble finding it again.  Even with these issues, Firefly gathered such a strong fan following that with the release of the DVDs its popularity has continued to build over time. 

Its fans, known as “brown coats,” have been as vocal and obsessive as many Star Trek fans.  Some people think Firefly is one of, if not the best science fiction series ever produced for Television.

Gene Rodenberry once described Star Trek TOS as a “Wagon Train to the Stars.”  This description may fit the Firefly series even better. There is a definite western tone to the style and dress of the series.  It tells the story of Malcolm Reynolds, his crew and his passengers aboard a Firefly Class Transport ship named Serenity.  Many of the places they visit will remind you of the old west.  You will see more six guns  and shot guns than ray guns on Firefly and even an occasional horse is not unusual.   

After Firefly was canceled and interest  in the show continued to intensify, it was decided there was enough interest to produce a movie.  The movie was called “Serenity,” and it does succeed in closing out the series.  I think of the movie as Episode 15.  The Library owns the entire series and the great thing is that you can watch it in the order in which they were intended to be watched.   I recommend the series.  I also recommend that you follow watching the series with the feature film “Serenity”.   Firefly is good science fiction. For that matter it’s not too bad of a western either.