SerenityMovie.net

[laoshi]

More Movie homages I would like to see:
The Road to Perdition- Its 5 years after the war Mal never bought Serenity. In some ways he's a much darker man, but also more content. He is married to Inara who was never a Companion and has a 12 year old son Simon and a 10 year old daughter River. This nice family life is supported by being an enforcer for an organised crime boss called John Cobb. Mal and John's son Jayne go to see Badger. Jayne kills Badger to cover up the fact he has been stealing from his father. River curious about what her dad does has snuck along and seen the whole thing. She gives herself away. Jayne knowing that River could testify to him commiting murder decides to kill her and the rest of her family. But he only manages to kill Simon and Inara. Mal and River go on the run. Mal has to keep River safe and get revenge on Jayne but how can he do that without turning River into a killer like him? Opening line of film easy to adapt: Some people say Malcolm Reynolds was a good man. Some say there was no good in him at all. He was my father and I spent 6 months in the black with him in the summer of 2517...
Big Trouble in Little China- This is screaming out for the Firefly treatment. i just want to hear Shepherd book start talking about the Hell of Being Hung Upside Down or the Hell of Being Cut into a Thousand Pieces. Who would make a better Jack Colton Jayne or Mal? Or you could do the gender reversal thing and have River Zoe and Kaylee trying to rescue there respective menfolk from the clutches of the millenia old sorceress.
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Alliance, n. In international politics, the union of two thieves who have their hands so deeply inserted in each other's pockets that they cannot separately plunder a third.

[laoshi]

Twice in Chinese History China has been ruled over by Dynasty's of Foreign i.e. non-Han origin. First the Mongols of the Yuan Dynasty, then the Manchu's ruled as China's last Dynast the Qing. In both periods Han Chinese formed secret societies, with the ultimate goal of starting a revolution that would put a Chinese ruler on the throne. I was reading Tai-pan by James Clavell the other day. I don't know how historically accurate he is but he says the Triad gangs in Hong Kong had their roots in the Hung Mun Tong one of these a secret society dedicated to bringing down the Qing dynasty and restoring the Ming. Many revolutionary groups who are willing to resort to violence to reach their ends have found themselves involved in criminal acts. If you are fighting the government you are not going to have much respect for the law and you need weapons and money for your cause, crime would be the best way of getting them.
I just thought it would make for an interesting dynamic if the BDH's were to run across a secret societ who want to overthrow the Alliance and make the Rim planets Independent. There are a lot of ways it could play out. You could have conflict within the society over means vs. ends some people would be more comfortable resorting to protection rackets etc to raise funds. Could even lead to open conflict. They could try to recruit Serenity after the events of the BDM. What if was them who helped Simon get River out of the Academy. The Key to all this is Mal's reaction what if he agrees to join then finds out the Society is using slavery to get money or killing civilians who won't support them?
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Alliance, n. In international politics, the union of two thieves who have their hands so deeply inserted in each other's pockets that they cannot separately plunder a third.

[laoshi]

I was flicking through The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick, probably the finest sci-fi novels ever written, the premise could easily be adapted into a great Firefly fic. There are two basic scenarios you could use: a relatively happy one and a really dark one.
1) Happy-Post BDM the crew of Serenity are still grieving for Wash and Book and work is increasingly hard to come by. Inspired by the Miranda footage an mysterious author named Joss Whedon has written a book about a verse in which the Browncoats won the Unification War. Officially band by the Alliance the book is an underground bestseller on the Rim planets. River reads the book and becomes obsessed with the vision of a better world it provides. She is desperate to find out Why Joss wrote the book and she convinces the rest of the crew to track him down. What he tells her will change everyone's perception of reality.
2) AU Universe- Its even more dystopian than Firefly. Through the strategic brilliance of their generals and the courage of their troops the Browncoats are able to hold Serenity Valley. it proves a turning point in the war. The Blue Sun Corporation switches sides and supports the independents. The Alliance still has greater numbers and resources so the War dragged on for at least another 5 years. The war goes beyond a simple struggle for independence and the Browncoats are now occupying the Core. To end the War the Browncoats annihilated one of the Core planets with the cool planet killing weapon of your choice. Blue Sun is even more powerful than in the verse, they have whole planets under their rule. Life in the Independent planets is still harsh but is still relatively benign but without anyone to restrain them in their own territories Blue Sun is more ruthless and uncaring than the Alliance ever was. Slavery, torture and even genocide are not uncommon. Against this background Joss Whedon has written an undeground bestseller band by the Independents and Blue Sun. His book is called Serenity and tells the story of the BDH's including the BDM. Joss offers the people of the verse a new vision of reality, giving hope to the disenchanted. Make up OC's who decide to track him down why did Whedon write Serenity. Can a better world really exist?
Note: I'm really trying to not spoil the ending of Mn in the High Castle for anyone who hasn't read it. I will say the I Ching is integral to the plot and you will have to portray a verse where its use is widespread. But hey it is Chinese so that shouldn't be too difficult.
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Alliance, n. In international politics, the union of two thieves who have their hands so deeply inserted in each other's pockets that they cannot separately plunder a third.

[laoshi]

Has anyone ever heard of a standover man?
It's an Australian name for a certain kind of criminal. A Standover man preys on other criminals. He will capture a successful criminal and Standover i.e. torture them until they tell him where there money is then he kills them. Think about someone scary enough to give Adelai Niska nightmares. This kind of character would work well as the basis of a dark fic. I came across it while reading William Gibson's Idoru he based the character of Blackwell on a famous Standover man called Mark "Chopper" Read. Do a fic where a Standover man captures the crew member of your choice, not Wash or Mal its been done, and tortures them to find the location of the Lassiter. Up to you whether he kills his captive before the crew stage a rescue or not.
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Alliance, n. In international politics, the union of two thieves who have their hands so deeply inserted in each other's pockets that they cannot separately plunder a third.

[laoshi]

I was thinking about The whole Space Pirate angle and I thought of Captain Kidd. So the Alliance accepts they need to do more to supress Piracy on the Rim but they want to do it with a minimum expense to themselves so they put the contract out to tender. Blue Sun wins the contract and appoint Captain Kidd the commander of a small but well equiped warship. Kidd quickly goes from Pirate Hunter to pirate. Whereupon he runs into the crew of Serenity. Kidd is a little like the rogue marshall who is chasing Tracey in the message.
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Alliance, n. In international politics, the union of two thieves who have their hands so deeply inserted in each other's pockets that they cannot separately plunder a third.

[Companion Kate]

How about a transformer robot that transforms into a Firefly.

Not much plot there, but you wouldn't need one!
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[gobluegirl]

Oh, a Transformers-Firefly crossover would be hillarous!
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Tales From The 'Verse Podcast - Stories You Won't Hear on the Cortex.

www.talesfromtheverse.com

[BrownCoat_Tabz]

I totally heart Transformers/Firefly crossover


(but then again I'm the queen of crossovers)
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Tabz, Slayer of the Podcasts.

[ningjingde ren]

Given that the verse is dominated by a fusion of two once-dominant cultures, isn't it about time we encountered more of the Chinese speaking side of the verse? There must be characters whose everyday language is Chinese -- apart from the fact they cuss in very bad English! They could be the crew of another boat, a criminal gang or tong, companions, medics, part of the Alliance establishment -- the possibilities are endless.

Now, I reckon River, Simon and Inara would be highly fluent in Chinese, but the rest of the BDHs might not be quite so hot at languages -- although they wouldn't want to admit it in front of their crewmates (in case they'd lose face!). So you (the writer) would need to get River, Simon and Inara out of the scene, so the rest could misunderstand what the Chinese speakers they encounter are saying, yet not be willing to admit it and so allow the situation to build up and go out of control. Such misunderstandings could lead to comedy, they could lead to tragedy, or they could just lead to our heroes getting themselves into yet another scrape -- the choice is yours.
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Hell, I've been to the edge.

[Companion Kate]

But that's not how it is - or at least, not how Joss describes it in the commentaries and interviews and stuff. The Joss reality is that everybody is fluent in both English and Chinese. It is simply a matter of practicality to show us English most of the time, and Chinese only where the context is obvious.

I agree though that it would be fun to reverse that!

CHEN: Yi lu shwen fohn
WU: Duhn ruhn. Sheh sheh.
CHEN: D'un yi shia.
WU: Shuh muh?
CHEN: How w'rin bu lai, whai w'rinbu jwo.
WU: Elephants' testicles!
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[laoshi]

Now I'm pretty sure its out in the US now so I'm begging someone to write a Firefly/Sarah Connor Chronicles Crossover. Pretty Please!
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Alliance, n. In international politics, the union of two thieves who have their hands so deeply inserted in each other's pockets that they cannot separately plunder a third.

[ningjingde ren]

Terraforming is an inexact science, so it is no surprise when one of the worlds in the verse suddenly becomes ecologically unstable and its whole population has to be evacuated p.d.q. Along with every other spaceworthy vessel in the verse (and some not so spaceworthy), Serenity takes part in a chaotic Dunkirk-style mass rescue. This brings the crew into contact with all sorts of folk they normally would avoid:

— Alliance officials and militia trying, in their usual heavy-handed manner, to organise the evacuation;
— criminals needing to move goods — and other criminals — off-planet without the Alliance knowing;
— people separated from their family and friends. For instance, Alliance policy might be to give children, women — and Alliance officials — priority on the first transport ships, while the rest are left to scrabble for places on later or less reliable vessels, or those whose captains can be bribed;
— and so on.

And while they are in the neighbourhood, Serenity's crew may decide it won't do anyone any harm if they loot some of the abandonned goods left behind in the empty towns ("Heck, Mal, if folks wanted this stuff they would have taken it with them") — no harm, that is, providing they can avoid other looters, and the Alliance patrols — and assuming they can get away before the weather suddenly turns nasty .... very very nasty.

**********

The voyage from Earth-that-was took many years and was a hazardous venture, so no surprise that some ships never arrived. It turns out that one developed engine trouble and could only limp along at slower speed — but now, eventually, it arrives, late but intact. What happens to the settlers on board? The Alliance government declares the core worlds are too full to take a whole set of newcomers, and decrees they must live on one of the frontier worlds (as it turns out, one of those that formerly rebelled against the Alliance). The latecomers are unhappy at being dumped out on the harsh rim, like unwanted relatives, treated as second-class citizens. The folks already on that world are also unhappy at having a whole shipload of greenhorns to look after. Their borderline economy just won't sustain the numbers, at least for a generation while the immigrants break new land and become self-sufficient. Until then, the newcomers will be so desperate for work they will accept sub-minimal wages and so take jobs away from the locals. (Of course, that is part of the Alliance's motivation for choosing that particular planet/moon — payback for rebelling during the civil war.) The situation creates plenty of resentment and tension all round.

***********

Serenity is cruising in deep space when it encounters a huge spaceship of unknown design heading in from beyond the rim. Radio contact reveals it to be a fast new ship only recently departed from Earth-that-was. Moreover, the folks on board say they have a score to settle with the people who left for the 'verse all those years ago.

As the plot develops you have to reveal (1) how come there are still folks on Etw capable of sending another starship, (2) what they have against those who left, (3) why they left, (4) why the Alliance has been lying to its citizens about Etw being 'all used up', and of course (5) how the crew of Serenity can use all this to their advantage.
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Hell, I've been to the edge.

[laoshi]

[ningjingde ren]

We all know why Jewel lost weight between the BDS and the BDM, but why -- and how -- did Kaylee lose weight?
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Hell, I've been to the edge.

[ningjingde ren]

So now we know there are 215 terraformed planets and moons, and five stars.
http://fireflydvd.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=4635
But how did each get its name? What do they all mean (apart from the obvious ones, such as White Sun)? Behind every name there must be a story to be told ... ?
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Hell, I've been to the edge.

[Lemming]

[ningjingde ren]

... but the point is not how we named them, but how the folks in the verse came to name them.

(I'm inspired here by the wonderful vignette in The Star King by Jack Vance, in which the 26 planets around Rigel were initially named by the pompous and uptight captain who discovered them, after his boyhood heroes (imagine: planets called Lord Bulwer-Lytton, Archbishop Rollo Gore, and the like). The lowly clerk who received the captain's message however had better taste, and did the planets' future inhabitants a service by registering instead his own list of names, derived from legend, myth, romance, whimsy ... and the alphabet. So the planets became known as Alphanor, Barleycorn, Chrysanthe, Diogenes, Elfland, Fiame, Goshen, Hardacres, Image, Jezebel, Krokinole, Lyonnesse, Madagascar, Nowhere, Olliphane, Pilgham (the clerk's own name), Quinine, Raratonga, Somewhere, Tantamount, Unicorn, Valisande, Walpurgis, Xion, Ys and Zacaranda.
I'd love to copy this whole passage out for you verbatim but it's two pages long! )
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Hell, I've been to the edge.

[ningjingde ren]

Searching the forum I realised there are many plot bunnies hidden among older discussions which pre-date the current thread, and it might be useful to link to them here. One example is a request for
which character's story we would most like to see more of.
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Hell, I've been to the edge.

[MrDave]

On the extras to the Blu-Ray of Firefly Joss was asked "What stories did you want to do that you didn't get a chance to do?"

his answer "Mutant cows." He went on to explain that once a world is terraformed and is deemed fit for animal life that it isn't efficient to transport live animals to the world. They just dump a lot of genetic material with a programmed template for "sheep" or "horses" or "Livestock" and that it was conceivable that that might go wrong. Hence mutant cows.

I am planning to use this as an RPG scenario. The crew gets hired to go to a newly terraformed moon to rustle some of the free-roaming cattle for sale on another world. Unfortunately it is a case of mutant cows. Perhaps huge monstrous bovine creatures with razor-sharp horns and a taste for blood. Or maybe something else. We'll see.
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If you didn't want to know, why did you ask?

http://wildandbad.com:8181/

[ironbandit]

[Satai]

It would be great fun to see a Firefly-Heinleinian crossover. Lazarus Long and Mal are quite like in some aspect and would either hate eachother or get along just fine. Im also convinced that Lazarus was an Independent.
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Lamb. Innocent and delicious!

[Lemming]

[MrDave]

[Satai]

[ningjingde ren]

[Bilingual pun warning!]

Serenity is on an extended stopover planetside, for repairs, R&R, and to drum up business. Kaylee is cutting Mal's hair in his cabin. "Hey, you've got a grey hair!" she teases. "Oh", says, Mal grumpily, "I suppose you think I should start behaving all grown up now, do you?".

Later, River returns to the ship bringing a young man with her -- her first boyfriend! Simon is quite flummoxed, so it is instead Mal who take the role of father, interrogating the boy about his job and future prospects, whether he likes children, and so on -- in other words, asking embarrassingly inappropriate and premature questions. Zoe and Inara especially are surprised at seeing this new paternalism in Mal's character -- Inara indeed has the beginnings of a gleam in her eye ...

Later, on the bridge, Mal, Jayne and Simon are creased with laughter. "You should have seen the look on his face" says Mal.

Yes, he really is le capitaine malgré lui.
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Hell, I've been to the edge.

[ningjingde ren]

This is an idea for a season-long story arc, rather than a plot bunny per se, but this seems the best place to post it, other than starting a new thread dedicated to long arcs. The story is revealed in a number of key scenes, which develop the plot slowly (I hope) in between other, more 'regular', adventures. So, assuming that seasons 1/2 climax in the revelation about Miranda, this would be the arc for season 3. (And BTW, I have an idea for another arc, if people like this one.)

Early scene: the crew meet an old soldier in a bar, who reveals he had been in the high command of the independents' (independence?) army during the war. He claims the independents had been winning the war, and they were winning the Battle of Serenity Valley, thanks to the brave stand the soldiers there had taken. Mal of course demands to know why then they surrendered, but the old guy falls down drunk, or they are interrupted or otherwise distracted so Mal doesn't get an answer, and the rest of the crew dismiss it as an old soldier bragging -- but Mal looks thoughtful ....

Later scene: dark hints emerge that the alliance had a terrible new weapon, and that they had threatened to use it if the independents didn't surrender. But no-one thinks the independents' command would have believed this threat without a demonstration, and there is no record of any novel type of weaponry having been used or even developed -- not even a rumour or a theoretical possibility of one.

Later scene: Serenity breaks down in space (again) and needs to land so the crew can repair her. The only landfall near enough is a black rock -- albeit one with earth-normal gravity. So despite River's sudden objections the crew take the ship down and get to work on her (the ship, that is, not RIver). But looking around, they find the ruins of what was evidently once a large town. Strange, they remark, there was no record of terraforming having failed on any inhabited world ....

Later scene: in a scrapyard on Hera, the crew ask about some massive old machinery rusting away in one corner. The owner of the yard tells them they were parts of old terraforming equipment left over after the war, and abandonned by the military. By the military? Sure, he says, they all have alliance serial codes and part numbers stamped into them.

Later scene: Mal and Zoe are discussing this in the dining area. They recall rumours during the battle that there was Alliance activity up near the old site of the atmosphere processor above Serenity Valley. But Simon chips in with the observation that altering the atmosphere would be way too slow to be of practical use in affecting the outcome of any specific battle, or of any campaign lasting less that a decade or two. So the issue gets dropped for a while.

Later scene: Ya'know, says River one day, those ruins didn't just look abandonned, they were actually flattened: the walls and houses were collapsed into piles of rubble. More like an earthquake? says Mal. Yeah.

Later scene: Jayne is space-lagged, and moaning about it while unloading the cargo bay. "Why do we have to land at midday when it's the middle of the night on the gorram boat?" Kaylee explains: "Normally, Cap says to speed up or slow down on the journay so we arrive wherever we're going at the same time of day as on the ship, but this time it's a rush job so Cap just told River to get us there as fast as we can." "Gorram nutcase speed-freak. She's so gorram brainy why don't she just move this pigou of a planet round a bit so it's nighttime where we are?" "Guess the locals might have something to say about that" says Kaylee cheerfully. "Yes", laughs SImon, "they'd probably all fall over sideways if we shifted the planet round underneath them kinda suddenly." Amid Jayne and YoSaffBridge's merriment and miming of toppling yokels with puzzled looks on their faces, Zoe remarks "But you don't need River for that -- it's what the terraformers did when they changed the rotation velocity on every planet to make 24-hour days ..." She trails off as she and Mal exchange significant and suddenly sober looks, their expressions increasingly pale. "Oh, they wouldn't!" says Zoe.

Climax: Mal takes Serenity back to the black rock to get some evidence. But on approach they are stopped by an Alliance cruiser, which tells them the planet is now being used as a practice firing range and is therefore off limits. Nevertheless, Serenity manages to slip back and past the surprisingly high number of Alliance vessels guarding the place. But when they return to their previous landing spot they find the whole area a smoking pit -- all the evidence of previous habitation has been destroyed.
On leaving the planet, they are almost caught, until the Alliance vessel chasing them suddenly veers off in pursuit of another civilian ship that's nosing around.
Talking over the cortex OR at a later rendevous in space OR later at a nearby spaceport, the crew discover the other civilian vessel belongs to Yoshida-Kendall Captures. The TV company is doing some investigative reporting on why the Alliance would be needing to practice space-to-surface bombardment, given that the war is all over and everyone in now happily unified -- aren't they? Mal and the crew tell the reporters what they saw and suspect (and that it was they who broke the Miranda story?). The reporters say they may or may not be able to run the story. Even if not and they just spread the rumour among the journalistic community, it's another piece in the jigsaw that might bring the Alliance down.
The crew may not have scored such a clear blow this time -- but they appear to have made some influential friends in the core worlds, who repect what the crew are doing.
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Hell, I've been to the edge.

[ningjingde ren]

Companions, despite being of high status and well trained to take care of themselves, can nevertheless sometimes find themselves in vulnerable situations. They must therefore have some force at their disposal to prevent companions from being treated as mere 'whores'. Although abusive clients know they will be blacklisted as a punishment, sometimes a more rapid response is necessary. The Companions Guild must therefore have a small number of secret 'operatives' who can be called upon to carry out emergency rescues of companions in trouble. (Or sometimes they may be needed to punish any sociopath who gets through the screening procedures and for whom blacklisting won't be enough.) They could act singly or as a team, as required. Tell us the story of one of these knights.
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Hell, I've been to the edge.

[ningjingde ren]

The crew are short of cash (again) when Mal is offered a very well-paying job, which merely involves transporting someone quietly from A to B. However Inara checks up on the client and discovers he has been blacklisted by the Companions Guild. If it becomes known (and it will) that she was in any way helping or working for that guy, or even associated with persons so doing, her reputation will be impugned and she risks being thrown out of the Guild. What should Mal do?
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Hell, I've been to the edge.

[ningjingde ren]

Fanfare and opening credits.
Announcer: "A big welcome once again to Government Swap!, broadcast to you exclusively here on the YKC Network. This season we have a real treat, with the government of one of the core worlds moving out to take over one of the pioneering moons way out on the rim, while some of those hands-on pioneers get to apply their pragmatic experience to running one of the richest planets in the verse! So, how will the establishment 'fat cats' from Albion cope with the impoverished resources and make-do way of life on a rugged former rebel colony? And how will the loose confederation of independently minded sheriffs and mayors from Lilac manage to get round the established procedures and entrenched interests of a traditionalist Alliance stronghold? Which of their opposite skills will best enable these two governments to improve the lives of the ordinary people, and which will lead to tears? Find out as our cameras follow their ups and downs throughout this exciting year, and bring it all to you week by week, here on this season of ... Government Swap!"
Adverts:
Sponsored by the Department of Pragmatical Politics at Blue Sun University and a grant from the Machiavelli Foundation.

Authors: take it from there.
Background note: "Government Swap!" is one of the longest running TV shows ever, having started way back on Earth-That-Was in 2011, when the Obama administration moved to Afghanistan to try to install democracy properly, while the Taliban took over the White House and introduced sharia law in the USA. The initial ratings were not good, and Fox were going to cancel, until the government ordered two of their executives publicly stoned to death, amid widespread popular acclaim. The following season everybody was watching, as the recently 're-elected' President Putin of Russia tried to introduce atheism to the Vatican, while the Pope valiantly fought mafia corruption in Russia. People have always been so sure their own government is the pits and another couldn't be any worse, that the show just kept going from then on.
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Hell, I've been to the edge.

[ningjingde ren]

What did the crew do with Jubal Early's ship at the end of 'Objects in Space'? It's surely too valuable for it to have just been abandonned. They could have flown it to a scrap yard, but as a fully functional vessel it would surely have fetched more intact -- though no doubt it would have to be sold through 'discrete' channels, to avoid questions about how they acquired it and where it's registered owner is now.

And what would they have found inside? Perhaps:
* Details of other fugitives Jubal Early was pursuing? Perhaps it turns out there is another escapee from the Academy, and JE had a lead as to his or her whereabouts. Or there is an unpleasant criminal in Serenity's neighbourhood, so Mal decides to do go into the bounty-hunting business for a while. And when caught it turns out the fugitive isn't horrible after all -- it's just the Alliance chasing a political dissident, without admitting why they are after him, so they've framed him for something else. (Oops -- this sounds rather like the opening to Blakes 7.) Or the other way round -- the crew go to the aid of a dissident and discover he's a nasty in his own right -- should they shop him or not?
* Discovery that Jubal had an enormous bank account (he was very good at his job, after all, and not the type to spend his cash unnecessarily). This may create the need to hire a 'professional' but discrete hacker to get access to the accounts (and, of course, Badger knows just the person ...).
* Book however insists that JE's estate, or proceeds from its sale, should be given to Jubal's impoverished family -- or at least that JE's personal effects should be returned, with an explanation of what happened to him. The rest of the crew don't agree.
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Hell, I've been to the edge.