The Community of Serenity

Buy Firefly from Amazon.co.uk or from Amazon.com
Buy Serenity from Amazon.co.uk or from Amazon.com

Imagine the future universe ruled by a united American and Chinese coalition called, ‘The Alliance’ and you have the setting for the science fiction series Firefly. The main cast of the show form the crew of the small spaceship Serenity, and are not unlike the early pioneering settlers of America, trying to forge their way in a vast and unexplored land, eking out a living by whatever means possible. Perhaps the most magnetic feature of the show is that it’s so remarkably character driven. As you watch, you quickly begin to empathise with the crew, which consists of nine characters from wildly different backgrounds. Two soldiers, a prostitute, an uptight doctor, the girl next door, a pilot, a brigand, a priest, and a mentally unstable teenage girl are all thrown together in the tight confines of the Serenity. It raises some very intriguing personality clashes while at the same time nurturing extremely deep bonds between the characters.

Firefly is science fiction for the uninitiated: a clever blend of intelligent science fiction writing with strong undercurrent themes drawn from both the American Wild West and the orient. Add a few elements from popular Asian culture and some eerily moving Irish style folk music and the resulting product is a very engaging and highly watchable box of DVDs. Even my wife loves it, and she’s not a sci-fi geek like me.

The mixture of themes is cleverly depicted throughout the season in scenes which show everything you need to know about Firefly in just five seconds. For example, in one scene Captain Malcolm Reynolds is seen in the ship’s dining room eating from an oriental bowl with chopsticks, a pioneering-style tin mug steaming by his side and melodious Irish violin in the background. It’s like a recipe whose ingredients look totally uncomplimentary, yet somehow end up being delicious – it shouldn’t work, but it does. If you had to capture the essence of the show in one brief moment, it would be the clip during the opening credits of each episode in which the Serenity swoops low over a herd of wild horses as they run the dry grassy plains. These two images, combined with the irresistible theme song (written by series creator Joss Whedon himself), had me hooked from the first few minutes. An added bonus is that there are no aliens with ridiculous blue makeup.

Although Firefly touches on many themes, for me it’s all about community. More specifically it is about maintaining a positive community. This theme of positive community is personified in the unlikely mish-mash of personalities on board the Serenity. At times they conflict, like a car tyre grinding against a stone curb. However, at other times it is quite striking how complimentary and positive a community can be. The community of Firefly is not unlike the plethora of Reality TV shows that fill the television schedules: a small group of people, selected specifically for their volatility or controversial nature, thrown into a small environment and left to get on with it while we merrily spectate. In situations like these the consequences will be a direct result of the attitudes and choices of the characters involved. The defining difference between Firefly and the likes of Big Brother is that, while in Reality TV we usually seem to see a continual stream of negativity;, in Firefly we see the beginnings of a community of grace. The nine major players strive to produce positive results, to bring the best out of a bad situation. This is a model which we should applaud, especially in a world in which the media so often promote negative relationships. There are few enough examples of the merits of positive relationships available in the current media, and we should embrace them when they arise – Firefly is a good example.

The crew of the Serenity are struggling to maintain a way of life in the face of external oppression from the Alliance. This striving for integrity is all around us in modern culture. Communities arise and break off from the mainstream: Goths and punks, toffs and townies, all claiming to be unique and diverse yet all (ironically) conforming to the unspoken rules of their particular order. Although the crew of the Serenity are a community detached from the mainstream, the significant difference (and the beauty of the show) is that their community functions positively. Whedon manages to achieve a successful model of how an authentic community can function, free from the rules and regulations which govern the wider world. Firefly achieves a bizarre blend of diverse personalities and stressful ambience, which together somehow form a cogent and relaxed community. In Firefly, the crew are desperately trying to retain a sense of their roots while continually being hounded by the Alliance.

We see parallel situations every time we switch on the news or open a newspaper. Communities struggle to retain authenticity in the face of legislation and regulations imposed upon them from without. The limitations we face may be small in comparison to those we see the crew of the Serenity face in Firefly, but the principle remains the same: how can any community remain authentic in the face of external pressure to conform? Firefly has renewed my hope in the value of fighting for something you believe in. It has reminded me of the teaching in the Bible where Paul says, ‘Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds’ (Romans 12:2, NRSV). The message is simple, and it is one which the crew of the Serenity uphold far more effectively than many other communities do. The message is not to be subverted by what the world is offering, but to remain faithful to your core beliefs. Although Firefly and the Christian faith hold this concept in common, there is a difference between them. Whereas the crew of the Serenity uphold a positive and graceful communal way of life, at the end of the day their motives for doing so are survival. They live for nothing more than to live. This is synonymous with the attitude of many living day to day in the world. People live, purely to keep living, surviving from one day to the next. This is where I think the Christian faith takes the model of community a step further than the excellent model provided by Firefly. While the Serenity’s crew are content to exist just as they are, the foundation of a Christian way of life is in a dynamic encounter with something greater, namely God. Christian lives are lived in the hope of entering the kingdom of God, not merely in surviving day to day. Only through this knowing of God will our self-absorbed lifestyles ever be truly challenged. Although Firefly provides an excellent model of how to live like good people, there is scope and motivation to go beyond simply ‘being a good person’ as we live our lives. Firefly encourages us to live more positively, but it doesn’t end there: in fact, that’s just the beginning.

There are a host of other representations of community that flow through Firefly and I commend it to you. One of my personal favourites can be summarised in a quote from the episode ‘The Message’. It epitomises the attitudes of the crew to each other, and that even in the roughshod nature of human life, with good community and friends around you, there is help to be found in the tough times: ‘When you can’t run, you crawl, and when you can't crawl, you find someone to carry you.’

I’ve been involved in many communities – sports teams, church groups, university cliques, forum membership – and without exception each one has, at some point, left me feeling like I didn’t belong. Don’t get me wrong, these times are few and far between, but it’s the nature of a human community that at times someone will fall along the wayside. Assailed by doubt, fear and disbelief I’ve stumbled to a halt as the world presses down upon my shoulders. Yet it is at these times that the ideals of Firefly can really assist our own communities.

But how? How do we achieve this harmony of diversity and belonging which results in communities that function together? The answer perhaps appears in the episode ‘Heart of Gold’. The crew comes to the aid of a brothel. The prostitutes are beset by their local sheriff and his cronies. With no prospect of reward the crew defends the besieged girls in an incredible act of selflessness. That, I think is the key to a community which works: selflessness. It is one of the strongest underlying themes presented in Firefly. The community works because its members are selfless. Conversely it is why Big Brother doesn’t function as an effective community (and, worryingly, why many find it so engaging). If I had to pick something positive for my kids to watch, something which might teach them a valuable lesson about community and how to treat people, I’d switch off the Reality TV and turn on something like Firefly.

See also: study guide on Serenity

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