Blogging for Serenity

[42]

I just spent all afternoon watching episodes of Firefly. SciFi was having a marathon. Now I have to see Serenity.

FYI Jeffe, Summer Glau is a professional Ballerina, hence she does a lot of her own stunts.

[Oldie Black Witch]

What Skar said. Except the part about going to a Court of Honor and getting a bobcat.

[Mr_Pleasington]

Shhh, don't tell, but I'm sewing my husband a brown coat for this weekend.  It's almost finished!

Shiny!  

There's a girl here in St. Louis who makes Jayne hats from "The Message."  They're really, really good reproductions.

[Mad Dr Jeffe]

I knew she was a ballerina. Still ballet to martial arts mayhem was a big transition for me.

[Eric James Stone]

My review of Serenity is here: http://www.ericjamesstone.com/blog/index.php/2005/09/28/serenity

[Skar]

I just read your review.  Whoa.  Forgive me for an impertinent question.  Surely the Firefly universe isn't supposed to be composed of a single solar system?

I did not get that impression from the episodes but ...If so... much of my enthusiasm for the series takes flight.

[Eric James Stone]

The movie makes it quite clear that it's only one solar system.  Which explains why there was never any reference to FTL travel in the series.

I also have a problem with the science on this, as I don't see how that many planets could be within the habitable zone around the star -- particularly one planet that for plot purposes is very far out.

I really have no idea what Joss Whedon was thinking.

[Eric James Stone]

Well, let's see... This probably doesn't mesh with the map in the movie, but if I wanted to have a dozen planets and a hundred moons in the habitable zone, and I had terraforming capability that included gravity adjustment...

OK, let's assume the habitable zone, with terraforming, extends from about the orbit of Venus to about the orbit of Jupiter.  (Using some greenhouse effect to maintain heat, and maybe orbiting solar mirrors to increase the amount of sunlight hitting the planet.)

I just used an orbital simulator to simulate nine planets varying from Mars to Earth mass at orbits 20 million kilometers apart, starting at 100 million kilometers from the sun.  It looks like the orbits are pretty stable, at least over a thousand years.  The simulator only allows for ten objects, but 20 million km separation of orbits would allow for twelve habitable planets between 100 million and 320 million km from the sun, which works.

The moons are more difficult to account for, but if we assume some of them are just asteroids put into orbit around some of the habitable planets, then I think it could work.

[Mad Dr Jeffe]

And thats why the terraforming didn't really take on all the worlds..

[Spriggan]

should you guys be starting a Spoiler thread for discussions like this?

[Mad Dr Jeffe]

why? None of this is a spolier. The Solar system thing is literally the first line in the movie...

[Skar]

I am so disappointed. What an idiot.  If he's going to do sci-fi then he should at least TRY to be intelligent about it.

None of the people they're dealing with had anything like the technology needed to MOVE PLANETS for heaven's sake.  I'd much rather have a single suspension of disbelief for FTL than have to swallow a single solar system having a dozen habitable worlds in it.

Gah.  I'm officially pissed off.  I may not go see the movie opening weekend now.

I mean really, if he wanted the feeling of a "neighborhood"  there are a dozen ftl constructs that would provide that without a multi-planet solar system.

That reminds me of the romance novelist who petitioned for entyry into SFWA on the strength of having written a cookie cutter romance with Earth Venus and Mars instead of three different cities.  She was finally told no because she had reversed the order of the planets from the sun.

[Eric James Stone]

They certainly had the technology to move asteroids, though.

And while twelve rocky planets in the habitable zone is unlikely, it is not, as far as I know, impossible.  We know very little about what planetary configurations exist outside our solar system, except for large gas giants with eccentric orbits close to the primary.

[Mad Dr Jeffe]

I don't know... I was talking with a NASA guy and he was actually happier with it all being 1 solar system because FTL is just too unbelievable. It more feasible to have a couple of hundred worlds in a solar system get terraformed because the NASA definition of world includes asteroids the size of Texas, moon, and core planets. Assuming a solar system with more dense matter than ours 6 core worlds aren't a stretch neither are 14 or 18 other barely inhabitable worlds... Heck Saturn and Jupiter have dozens of moons themselves and the trojan asteroids have hundreds of worlds.  Plus it explains why no one ever goes back to "earth that was" and why the Americans and Chinese seem to be in control, (a sticking point that a few Brazilians and Kenyans had).

Anyhow the real question is can you like the story without getting all bent out of shape about some of the science you dont like when the rest of the story is really good. Im reminded of some of the physics geeks who said they weren't going to watch the show anymore when Jayne needed air to fire VERA (Cause gunpowder has its own oxidizer in it)  They missed a great show after that. Being movie makers and not hard core scientists I doubt they always get it right.
ANyhow the movies very good.

[Skar]

I've calmed down.  The stories were always the best part of the show anyway, the reason I liked it.  I can live with a different suspension of disbelief than I'm used to.

Now that I think about it you could fit more planets into the habitable zone of a bigger star yes?  Further out, more circumference of the zone, etc...

I see it opening weekend again.  Skar happy.