Joss interview by LizWhiz

GENERAL DISCUSSIONS

Joss interview

POSTED BY: LIZWHIZ
UPDATED: Sunday, February 6, 2005 20:48
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Thursday, February 3, 2005 8:53 AM

I'm not sure if anyone's posted this here before, but I'd never seen it.

http://chud.com/interviews/980

Edit: Just read a bit of it, and there are a few spoilers. Mild so far, though.

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Thursday, February 3, 2005 3:37 PM

ZOID

LizWhiz:

Thanks a bunch for the link. I'd seen pieces and parts of that conversation, but not the whole thing. It has some very interesting bits of (non-spoilery) info, for those who'd care to read it.

To wit:

One planetary system, not a galaxy.

Serenity is not faster than light.

Joss is a Fight Club and Unforgiven fan, just like me. I thought so. I mean, how could the "terrifying space monkeys" line have been anything but an homage to Fight Club?

Heh, heh, heh... Thanks again for stirring the pot, Lizzie.

Gleefully,

zoid

P.S.
Reavers are the natural outcome of Project Mayhem.
_________________________________________________

"Burn the land and boil the sea, you can't take the sky from me." The Ballad of Serenity

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Thursday, February 3, 2005 4:39 PM

WILDBILL

Thanks for the link,

Last I heard, there are multi-star systems with as many as six stars. So, maybe a planet or two for each star, some large moons...

Any Browncoat-Astronmers out there? Although the science isn't really the point.

SERENITY NOW!!

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Friday, February 4, 2005 1:01 AM

ZOID

wildbill wrote:

Quote:
...Last I heard, there are multi-star systems with as many as six stars. So, maybe a planet or two for each star, some large moons...

And then Joss spake, ending all argument:

Quote:
...Q: Does Serenity go faster than light?

Joss: I don't think so.

Q: Are the planets really close together?

Joss: They’re really close together. You’ve never seen a planet cluster like this one. It’s a little planet village. If you start asking my (sic) science questions I’m going to cry...

Game over. Unless the argument is that Joss himself doesn't know the universe in which his story is set. Or that he's being intentionally misleading for some abstract reason. I don't think he is.

This debate has raged on this website for at least a year, based strictly on supposition by both sides. Now, The Man has spoken...

v/r,
-zed

P.S.
Do we really emotionally need the Star Trek methodology so much that we can't accept the 'single system' truth? We've accepted 'no lasers' and 'no aliens': What does one more break with traditional TV sci-fi mean to Browncoats?

P.P.S.
The only question that should remain is: "In which 'single system' is the story set?" I think it's set in Sol system; terraformed moons and possibly planets. I don't think we've gotten out of our own solar system in the intervening 500 years. We've just gotten better at utilizing our local resources, especially since we didn't have a choice (Earth-That-Was).

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Friday, February 4, 2005 1:15 AM

GROUNDED

This has been posted before, including in the infamous 'Solar System vs. Galaxy' thread. It didn't stop any arguments ;)

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Friday, February 4, 2005 1:21 AM

ZOID

Grounded wrote:

Quote:
This has been posted before, including in the infamous 'Solar System vs. Galaxy' thread. It didn't stop any arguments ;)

You must be kidding.

...Or maybe not. After all, I've never been truly convinced that the world isn't flat. Evidence-schmevidence.

v/r,
-zed

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Friday, February 4, 2005 3:09 AM

RABIT

Quote:
Originally posted by zoid:
I've never been truly convinced that the world isn't flat. Evidence-schmevidence.

It isn't?!?

As to what system it is... Uh, I doubt that it's Sol. They would use the same names we currently have for the moons and planets, if it was. We've had these names for millenia; why would we change them all in a couple hundred years?

But that's just my opinion...

Rabit

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Friday, February 4, 2005 4:01 AM

XENOCIDE

Well, folks do like to pick there own names for the places they live. Sure, I don't care if you name that obscure rock in the sky after some obscure roman god, but I want the name of the rock I call home to be named something that has meaning to me. Know what I mean?

-Eli

If voting mattered, they'd make it illegal.
http://www.bcpl.net/~wilsonr/farpoint.html

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Friday, February 4, 2005 6:04 AM

CYBERSNARK

Yeah, but how could anyone not want to live on moons named Phobos (Fear) and Deimos (Dread)?

I'm not joking. I want a big, gothic-looking fortress on Deimos, with gargoyles, and stained-glass windows, and indirect lighting, preferably surrounded by a moat of lava. . .

-----
We applied the cortical electrodes but were unable to get a neural reaction from either patient.

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Friday, February 4, 2005 8:28 AM

GROUNDED

Quote:
Originally posted by zoid:
Grounded wrote:
Quote:
This has been posted before, including in the infamous 'Solar System vs. Galaxy' thread. It didn't stop any arguments ;)

You must be kidding.

...Or maybe not. After all, I've never been truly convinced that the world isn't flat. Evidence-schmevidence.

v/r,
-zed

Just to be clear, I was advocating a single system/no FTL 'verse in said thread.

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Friday, February 4, 2005 9:11 AM

ZEEK

It sounded a lot like Joss was blowing off the questions to me. "I don't think so"? That doesn't sound like he cared. Then the comment about crying if there were science questions. When I read it, I thought he just wanted a new line of questioning.

I fully believe that there is no right answer. No one thought it through. That's why Book's intro said "new solar system" and Mal's said "whole new galaxy". No one really paid much attention to it. They just thought "outerspace". No specifics of where.

Just my gut feeling.

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Friday, February 4, 2005 11:42 AM

COTTONWOOLFAIRY

I agree. I got the impression that he was kidding rather than giving the definitive answers.
I can understand it not being that important to him - he's not a scientist, he's a writer. He worries about being true to the characters, not about astronomical calculations.

If Firefly is set in a galaxy then Serenity would have to be much faster than light. The closest star to us is over 4 light years away, and we know that it takes much less than 4 years for the crew to travel between planets.

Say it IS set in one star system (and for lots of reasons I seriously doubt that), it can't be our Solar System, despite terraforming there just aren't enough suitable lumps of rock in our patch of space! So if it's not the Solar System, it must be a different star system, which must be at least 4 light-years away, so they must have at least close to light speed just to reach that other star system since present time. If so, why are they sticking in that one star system if they are able to travel further?

So my money is on a galaxy, and Serenity must have faster-than-light speed, which is a pity, since it does seem a bit too 'Star Trek' for them.

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Friday, February 4, 2005 11:45 AM

GREENFAERIE

Yeah, I think Joss thinks outer space is outer space. To heck with the scientific details. Just hope it doesn't come around and bite him in the arse.

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Friday, February 4, 2005 12:20 PM

ZEEK

Ah a very good point. I haven't read too much into the solar system or galaxy arguments, but the fact that this is supposed to be 400 years in the future. Humans couldn't have gotten very far in 400 years without faster than lightspeed or really close to lightspeed travel. Especially sine it had to have taken a while for Earth to get "used up".

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Friday, February 4, 2005 12:29 PM

OLDFAN45

Yep, I have to agree with the voices, sounded to me like Joss was wriggling off the hook there. "Outer space" was the answer when someone asked, "Where's it set?" Well, the fans have made this their own an most of us seem to be on the "FTL/galaxy" train.

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Saturday, February 5, 2005 8:12 AM

WEASY

*raises hand*
scientist here. Serenity can't go faster than light, because if it did it would travel backwards in time.
Therefore Einstein reckoned travelling faster than the speed of light was impossible.
Although he didn't rule out the possibility of going forwards in time - which you can strictly speaking do by travelling at not-quite the speed of light.
I'm surprised there's even a ST argument here - anything past their most basic science is complete rubbish.

But that doesn't really solve whether it's a Galaxy or our Solar system - Earth could have been destroyed or wrecked or whatever in 500 years (believe it or not it's a possibility that we'll run out of usable water in that time) and then travelling to the nearest galaxy would only a little bit more than four years at almost the speed of light, so it could be a different galaxy.

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Saturday, February 5, 2005 8:49 AM

KURUKAMI

Unless you adhere to the hyperspace/tesseract/"folding space" theory, wherein your actually velocity isn't faster than light, but your progress is.

Regardless, quite a shiny interview. Thanks!

"Sir, I would like to gingerly point out that it is difficult for someone to be gently reassuring when they're holding three and a half feet of sharpened steel."

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Saturday, February 5, 2005 9:16 AM

OLDFAN45

Scientific correction noted and accepted.

I offer as evidence for the (whichever, wherever) galaxy theorists the fact that Mal says there are "more than 70 Earths" in the deleted scene from "Our Mrs. Reynolds" and Zoe references "this quadrant" in "War Stories." That's what I can recall off the top of my head, but I'll go back and slog through the whoooole series again for evidence.

Poor, poor me.

Solar systems don't often get referred to by "quadrants" in my findings.

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Sunday, February 6, 2005 1:51 AM

WEASY

Re: folding space - yes that could work.
But normally those theories are injunction with black holes etc because time and space are interconnected you can't ever use only one, but you can try and bend one to change the reults of the other...
Blackholes are the only real possible way people can see of doing that, because it's gravity is strong enough to bend time and I'm pretty sure they don't use them.
I'm not that up to-date with my theories here though... so I might be wrong.

Actually - did you guys now that although most of space is moving away from us - the closest galaxies to us are moving together, and we are all due to collide - such a collision won't necessarily destroy earth, but might, and might also spin it off into space on it's own, but we don't think a lot of the planets and things will be destroyed or lost - because there's quite big gaps between planets really and what's left would get caught in each others orbits creating one huge meta-galaxy, lots of planets much closer together and with multiple suns.

That's set to take place much later than 500 years in the future - but not before our sun burns out - so humanity could well in the future exist on earth in a giant galaxy unlike ours now.
Could be the answer to the question.

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Sunday, February 6, 2005 7:09 AM

PULASKI

The explanation is quite simple.

The story takes place in a "star cluster" or a gathering of stars within a small area of space. Astronomers have identified two types of star clusters: "Open" where the stars are spaced out at large distances and "Globular" clusters which are bound tightly together and there stars can number into the millions.

Given the mysterious "Blue Sun" Corporation, I am inclined to think that the "Firefly" story takes place in the Pleiades star cluster.

Known as the Seven Sisters or M45, the Pleiades is one of the brightest and closest open clusters to Earth. The Pleiades contain over 3000 stars, it is about 400 light years away from Earth, and only 13 light years across, thereby permitting some manner of interplanetary travel without necessarily resorting to FTL drives. The only issue that remains to be addressed now is how did the humans get there? Four hundered light years is bit far for the 500 year story arc.

Then again, it could be a totally new, made up star cluster, which is closer to Earth, with smaller distances between the stars. Or perhaps "Serenity" is too small of a vessel to contain an FTL drive. Larger ships, such as the Alliance "Manhattan Express" :D might be equipped with some manner of FTL drive, be it a wormhole generator or some other exotic dohickey.

It will sure be fun to find out. And if Mr. Whedon requires it, I would be more than happy to help flash out the idea. :D

/s Pulaski

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Sunday, February 6, 2005 8:48 PM

the movie is not the Series. Only the facts have been changed, to irritate the innocent; the names of the actors and characters remain the same

Quote:
Originally posted by Cybersnark:
I want a big, gothic-looking fortress on Deimos, with gargoyles, and stained-glass windows, and indirect lighting, preferably surrounded by a moat of lava. . .

. . . whence you can throw baseballs, or bowl cricket balls, into orbit, if you're careful?

Keep the Shiny Side Up

Wutzon: Jagger, Dave Stewart & Sheryl Crow, "Old Habits Die Hard", from "Alfie (2004)"

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