Is it wrong to imagine Mal Reynolds and Jim Raynor enjoying a beer together? If it is, we don't want to be right.
If there's one thing we love, it's Firefly. Thankfully, we're allowed to love more than one thing (unless I missed an important directive), and at the moment, if we had to pin down two things we love, it would be Firefly and Starcraft.
Even more than that, we're loving the idea that the two actually co-exist somehow, as part of the same shared universe.
Think about it for a moment. Sure, there's some issues with names, and with the fact that Firefly's writers were adamantly against writing aliens into their universe, but the deeper themes are all there. So here's our top reasons why we think Firefly and Starcraft could make for the ultimate cross-over.
1. You can't take the sky from meAt the heart of both Starcraft and Firefly is the idea that personal freedom is the most important thing in the ‘verse. Both Jim Raynor's band and Mal Reynold's crew have fought against a powerful government and ultimately lost - but that doesn't mean they've given up the fight.
Sure, it takes Mal a while to realise he's still got something to fight for, but both Wings of Liberty and Serenity tell much the same story - a small band of big damn heroes fighting back against the evils of tyranny. But more than that, it's about people who just want to live free and on their own terms.
2. Down with the Confederation and/or Alliance!This is a corollary to point one, but both fictions share a government that has recently won control of a region of space, and who take extreme measures to cement that control. Mengsk is an ambitious man who would rather see his sector burn than slip from his control, while Firefly's Alliance was willing to drug (and ultimately sacrifice) entire populations in name of keeping its citizenry under control.
It's also worth mentioning that both Mengsk's Dominion and Firefly's Alliance are dab hands at media manipulation. When you compare the dusty squalor of the outer planets in both universes, compared to the glittering main systems, the similarities become even more obvious.
3. Space cowboys are coolBoth Starcraft and Firefly draw a lot from the western genre. You've got ill-equipped Marshalls policing backwater planets, desperate colonists and explorers fighting off the privations of rabid space-monsters, and the idea that the creep of modern government and civilisation ain't all it's cracked up to be.
Even the musical cues are the same!
We admit, the existence of aliens in the Starcraft version of the 'verse throws a wrench into the works, but at least the Zerg and Reavers share a similar plot-space - to scare the bejesus out of our heroes. We've no idea where the Protoss might fit though.
Then again, Shepherd Book could kind of work as one of the wiser-than-thou aliens...
4. Earth that was...This one's a little hinkier. In Starcraft, humanity has indeed flung itself out into the stars - but it's the worst that have gone: criminals and rejects hurled into the black to make whatever life they can for themselves. In Firefly, it's more a matter of overcrowding, and as Serenity hints, possible Nuclear War. It's humanity as a whole that flees the mess for a better home.
Regardless, it's the similarities that are important - Earth is now a memory, and there are new worlds and new histories to be forged. Both settings also feature a certain elegiac longing for our old home. In Starcraft, we see that in dogged holding on to of old tunes from Earth - as typified by Jim's beloved juke box full of covers of old Earth songs. In Firefly, you learn everything you need to know in Serenity's opening voice over: "Earth that was could no longer sustain our numbers, we were so many... "
5. Tychus V Jayne, Raynor V ReynoldsJim Raynor is an ex-Marshall who wears a six-shooter and hangs out in bars. Mal Reynolds is an ex-soldier who fought in the Battle of Serenity Valley (hint: a Gettysburg analogy), wears a six-shooter, and hangs out in bars. The two characters are not just cut from the same cloth - they're almost interchangeable.
The same can be said of their relative off-siders. Jayne's a none-too-bright mercenary who never picked a side in his life and would sell-out his ‘friends' for a profit. Tychus... well, yeah, ‘nuff said. It doesn't stretch the imagination much to picture the characters swapped around, and it doesn't really change either show for doing so.
More interesting, however, is to imagine the characters side-by-side. When Mal Reynolds says, in Serenity, "I aim to misbehave", Jim Raynor would nod his head shake Mal's hand.
Of course, they'd better keep an eye on Jayne and Tychus - together, those two could cause hella mischief. And smoke a LOT of cigars.
Issue: 137 | June, 2012