“Miranda,” whispers River Tam, who then proceeds to kick literally everyone's ass. Thus begins Act 2 of 2005's Serenity, the theatrical conclusion to the short-lived but much-beloved TV series Firefly.
Here we learn that River, played by Summer Glau, is more than just a broken young girl. She is an engineered weapon of mass destruction, which comes in handy later.
There are many ways to view Serenity. It is the story of:
- a rogue captain (Malcolm Reynolds, played by Nathan Fillion)
and his renegade crew's quest for survival
- one man's (Hoban “Wash” Washburne, played by Alan Tudyk)
sacrifice for the greater good
- belief and its power over us (Sheppard Derrial Book, played
by Ron Glass; The Operative, played by Chiwetel Ejiofor)
- a brother's (Simon Tam, played by Sean Maher) unyielding
love for his damaged sister, River
- much, much more
The “enemy” is ambiguous. The dreaded Reavers, who rape and kill everything in their path, are an obvious choice. The story goes that when confronted by the edge of space they went mad from seeing the void and turned into something else.
However, as we come to learn, River's whispered “Miranda” points to a much darker reality. If the truth doesn't entirely absolve the Reavers of responsibility, it at least pins much of the blame on the Alliance, an all-encompassing government that Reynolds fought against (and lost to) in a bitter war long ago.
When the Operative is forced to see what his blind belief in a better world and those that would create it in their image has wrought, he ceases to exist. Everything he believed in is gone. There is no meaning left for him.
And in the end, it is not the void of physical space that turns humans into Reavers, it is the human desire for unattainable perfection. The limitations are not physical (i.e., they didn't go mad from looking into an actual void) as told in stories but rather are moral (i.e., they were turned into killing machines by other people mucking about where they shouldn't have been).
Just as Doctor Frankenstein had his monster, so the Alliance have their Reavers. Who is the real villain: the created, or the creators? Should those who have been programmed (perhaps inadvertently) to behave a certain way be held accountable for the actions of those who programmed them?
In a world of ever-evolving technology (and this goes back to the discovery of fire, if not earlier), such questions are of paramount importance in defining ourselves as human. How far can we go? How far should we go?
The answers can have far-reaching and perhaps even unintended consequences. Consider carefully, choose wisely.
This post is part of Chris Sturhann's Blogathon from Another World.
Hey Geoff, Thanks for jumping in on this. I knew you would bring an interesting perspective. I always looked at Serenity as a good character-oriented space opera/action movie. I never would have thought about the Frankenstein analogy with regard to the Reavers.
ReplyDeleteIt's good to see you thriving in a world free of TPS Reports and the struggle to make crappy software documents less crappy. We need to grab a beer some time. Thanks again for stepping up to the plate.
Hey Chris, thanks for letting me join in the fun. This was a blast, and hopefully we can do it again sometime.
DeleteGlad you're also doing well. I definitely see a beer or two in our not-too-distant future.