Alex Salter 10B Miss Mangan is a lesbian 13/11/2008
How does Joss Whedon make ‘Firefly’ into more than just a sci-fi show?
Joss Whedon, in directing and producing 'Firefly', has managed to create an action-packed sci-fi television show with a much deeper meaning hidden inside.
In a traditional Sci-fi adventure, you would expect the show to be plot-driven, with an epic storyline and all the focus on what happens on the journey, such as in ‘Star Trek’, where most of the characters are there simply to move the story along; the focus of the show is what adventures the crew have. But 'Firefly' is very character-based, telling the stories of all the crew of Serenity and their personal struggles.
In a sci-fi story set in the far future, you would expect technology and high tech weapons. However, Joss Whedon does not use these traditional conceptions in 'Firefly', he tries to incorporate as much of the present in as possible. There are western bars, horses with saddles, street markets and alcohol. These are not expected in the future, and this makes the audience pay attention to detail where they would usually not be.
Joss Whedon uses a directory method called juxtaposition, in which contrasting objects and moods are put side-by-side for emphasis on a certain aspect. At a ball, there are clothes dated from Elizabethan times and classical music, but high in the ceiling the chandelier is rotating and morphing in an advanced and futuristic way. In a spaceship, there is an old-fashioned telephone on the wall. In the episode ‘The Train Job’ someone is thrown through a window and the window does not shatter because although it looks like dirty glass it is in fact projected glass. Playing pool, the noises when the balls are hit are not the expected ‘clicks’, they are a futuristic whooshing noise. The balls sometimes fizzle as the projections fail. As a weapon is loaded, there is an ultramodern noise of something charging up, but when examined you can see the weapon is a simple pistol. It is things like this that grab the audience’s attention: a mixture of old and new. Whedon uses these methods well in creating a revolutionary mood.
