Serenity Station

Lore & Background

Serenity first appeared in the pilot episode of Joss Whedon's Firefly, which is set in the year 2517, in a star system to which humanity migrated after using up Earth's resources. She is the property of Malcolm "Mal" Reynolds (Nathan Fillion), a former sergeant who served on the losing side of a civil war that ended six years before the series began. Mal acquired Serenity from a used-spaceship dealer after the war (as depicted in flashbacks during "Out of Gas"), intending to hire a small crew and take various jobs to support himself and wartime comrade Corporal Zoe Alleyne, while keeping out of the way of the Alliance, the multi-planetary government they were fighting. Other flashbacks in "Out of Gas" show how the rest of the main crew came to join the ship; pilot Hoban "Wash" Washburne (Alan Tudyk), mechanic Kaylee Frye (Jewel Staite), and mercenary Jayne Cobb (Adam Baldwin), as well as Inara Serra (Morena Baccarin), a courtesan who rents one of Serenity's two shuttlecraft. At the start of the series, the episode "Serenity" depicts the arrival of the other three members of the ensemble cast as passengers aboard the ship: the preacher (or shepherd) Derrial Book (Ron Glass), the fugitive doctor Simon Tam (Sean Maher), and his psychic and psychotic sister River (Summer Glau). In the original pilot episode, "Serenity", Serenity is described as a Firefly-class transport ship by an Alliance starship crew, while Shepherd Book identifies her as an "aught three" model, with both parties implying that the class is an old design. In the episode "The Train Job", River identifies the ship as a "Midbulk transport, standard radion-accelerator core, classcode 03-K64, Firefly". The ship's name comes from the Battle of Serenity Valley, the final action of the civil war Mal and Zoe fought in. The revelation was made in a deleted scene from the episode "Serenity", where Zoe tells Simon, "Once you've been in Serenity [Valley], you never leave. You just learn to live there." The Serenity Valley connection is mentioned in the episode "Bushwhacked", although the reason behind the name is not given. The capabilities of the ship are not elaborated on in aired material, beyond the fact that she is small, unarmed, and defenseless except for her speed and "crybabies": decoy buoys used to mimic other ships (in the episode "Serenity") or Serenity herself (in the film Serenity). In 2007, Geoffrey Mandel, the graphic designer from the film, and Tim Earls, the series illustrator and film set designer, produced an official set of Serenity blueprints, which included technical data for the ship. According to the blueprints, Serenity was laid down in August 2459. The ship is 269 feet (82 m) long bow to stern, with a 170 feet (52 m) beam, and stands 79 feet (24 m) high when landed. Serenity has a curb weight of 282,500 pounds (128,100 kg), can carry 164,900 pounds (74,800 kg) of cargo and 18 passengers, can accelerate at 4.2 g, and has a range of 440 astronomical units when carrying minimal cargo. Serenity and ships of her type are constantly talked down; in various episodes, Serenity is referred to as a "flying piece of go se (Mandarin Chinese for dog crap)", "luh-suh (garbage)", or "junk". However, in the episode "Our Mrs. Reynolds", a mechanic from a starship chop shop claims that while the ship is a load of worthless parts and isn't as attractive as other vessels, the value of a Firefly-class ship comes from its durability and ease of repair. Kaylee regularly defends the reputation of the ship, while Whedon regards Serenity as the tenth character of the series, as the relationships between the characters and the ship and how the audience reacts to the ship is as important as the relationships between and the reactions to the other main characters.

In Their Own Story

The interior of the ship has two levels or decks. The upper deck starts at the head of the ship, with the bridge area. This leads to the neck corridor, which contains ladders down the crew quarters, an airlock to Serenity's exterior in a small side corridor, and connects the bridge to the rest of the ship. Next along is the mess and galley, which is followed by another passageway leading to the engine room at the rear of the ship. The lower deck starts with the main airlock, which leads directly into the cargo bay. Behind the cargo bay is a common area and the ship's infirmary. At the back end of the lower deck is a number of passenger quarters, ranging in size from small rooms (used by the characters) to small tubes like those in capsule hotels (not seen in detail on screen). The two decks are linked by stairwells between the neck and the cargo bay, and between the aft passageway and the common area. A network of gantries around the walls of the cargo bay extend from the nearby stairwells, and also provide access to the ship's two short-range shuttlecraft, one of which is hired out to Inara as her place of residence and business. Whedon came up with the idea of building each deck of Serenity as a contiguous set, so that he could establish the size of the spaceship, and film scenes where the actors could be followed as they moved around the ship. The two sets were built on separate sound stages, making second unit filming possible. The opening to the film highlights this: a 4½ minute shot (technically two shots connected together) near the start of the movie follows Mal from the bridge as he walks along the entire upper deck set, down a set of stairs near the engine room (where the cut is hidden by a whip pan from Mal to Simon) and back along the lower deck set to the cargo bay. This shot (and similar shots in the early episodes) were intended to establish the space which made up the ship, and where locations were in relation to each other. Having the sets constructed as contiguous decks had several advantages for the cast and crew: Joss Whedon would physically move around on the sets to help him in writing or blocking difficult scenes, Summer Glau (playing River Tam) would often walk around the set to get into character and prepare for filming, while other cast members would use the set as a green room or a place to relax. The sets were built with all walls and ceilings, but designed so that walls, ceilings, and large objects could be moved to facilitate filming. Director of photography David Boyd chose to use small hand-held cameras for interior filming, which in turn enhanced the 'documentary' feel Whedon wanted for the series. Lighting was provided by lights built into the ship, which were designed to appear practical and realistic. Carey Meyer developed a color scheme for the rooms, general

Reader's Guide

The overall design of Serenity was conceived by Whedon, who handed it off to production designer Carey Meyer for fleshing out. The shape of the ship was conceived when Whedon was searching for a title for the show. While looking for something "that's got motion and strength", Whedon settled on 'firefly', which also conveyed the insignificance of the ship and crew in the grand scheme. Whedon also wanted to quickly establish how much space there was aboard the ship, and how its rooms sat in relation to each other, to avoid the impression that there were "1,400 decks and a holodeck and an all-you-can-eat buffet in the back." He wanted a ship that looked and felt like it was used and lived in, to the extent that he claims "One of the first things I thought was, 'I'm gonna have a ship with a toilet,'" which appeared as a pull-out drawer in Mal Reynolds' cabin in "Serenity". The design that Whedon, Meyer, and Loni Peristere (the visual effects supervisor from Zoic Studios) fleshed out was based on Whedon's decision that the ship would have the qualities of a bird mixed with those of a firefly. The long neck was one of the bird-like features, while the enlarged abdomen reflected the bug. The insect metaphor also reflected the ship's position in relation to the Alliance, the all-powerful government in the series. The main method of propulsion was developed from the idea of using a fusion explosion behind the ship to propel it at greater speeds than normal. This justified causing the ship's tail to glow like a firefly before the explosion caused the ship to rocket away. For secondary propulsion, to allow such a large object to fly gracefully in atmosphere and perform controlled landings, the group added two engines, each on a stubby wing. The engines rotate, giving Serenity VTOL capability, and would fold down and in like a bird's wings when the ship was inactive. Because the director, production designer, and visual effects supervisor collaborated on the design, Serenity shows less inconsistency between the size of the interior and exterior than other science-fiction spaceships.

Did You Know?

• Serenity is 269 feet (82 m) long bow to stern, with a 170 feet (52 m) beam, and stands 79 feet (24 m) high when landed.
• The ship can accelerate at 4.2 g and has a range of 440 astronomical units when carrying minimal cargo.
• The ship's name comes from the Battle of Serenity Valley, the final action of the civil war Mal and Zoe fought in.
• The interior sets were built as two contiguous decks on separate sound stages, allowing a 4½ minute continuous shot in the film.
• The ship's toilet appears as a pull-out drawer in Mal Reynolds' cabin, as seen in the episode "Serenity".