Actually the 'verse is pretty well structured and well defined.
It's a single star system with multiple helioformed and terraformed worlds.
There is no FTL flight but FTL coms appear to be a real thing, mind you who
wants to watch a movie where Capt. Tightpants yells at a screen then walks
away saying to Wash, "Lemme know what they say when the reply comes back in
3 hours okay?"
I had the impression from the TV show that the worlds were in different
systems light years apart like most sci-fi fare. When you watch Serenity it
becomes very apparent that this is not the case and all the worlds are
confined to a single mega star system.
I'm uncertain how the Terraforming works, there's evidence in some of the
expanded universe stuff that they tried on Venus and Mars but were
marginally successful but the efforts failed in the end. By the time they
reached the 'verse a few hundred years later they'd largely figured it out
on paper and despite a number of failed attempts they managed to get things
working. Somehow they're compressing the gas giants and igniting them and
compressing the planets to give them a surface gravity of 1 regardless of
their diameter. This is never really explained and lets face it do you care
how a jump drive works or are you happy it does and willing to leave the
wibblie wobblie timie whimie stuff alone?
While there is a strong possibility that Traveller and Firefly have some
kind of relationship it's like saying Star Wars and Traveller are related.
From: []
Sent: Sunday, July 20, 2014 8:10 PM
To:
Subject: Re: [Traveller_TNE] Re: Anyone
The 'Verse isn't anything like Traveller universe, in that it appears to be
some sort of multiple star system with multiple habitable planets. FTL is
fuzzy on details--if in fact it actually happens and isn't just intersystem
travel (again, Firefly is vague on the details...), as it is implied. FTL
communications however appears to be a real thing, unlike Traveller, and
terraforming seems to be something that the Alliance can do with relative
ease, whereas in Traveller it takes many years and can go horribly wrong,
even when the Ancients do it.
Objectively speaking however, there are too many parallels between Traveller
and Firefly for Traveller not to have been an influence (heck I can
essentially lift the plot of a Firefly episode and use it in Traveller with
minimal effort). This is not to say that Joss owes Marc money, not even
close. There are clearly enough unique elements in Firefly that is a clearly
something new.
It's a single star system with multiple helioformed and terraformed worlds.
There is no FTL flight but FTL coms appear to be a real thing, mind you who
wants to watch a movie where Capt. Tightpants yells at a screen then walks
away saying to Wash, "Lemme know what they say when the reply comes back in
3 hours okay?"
I had the impression from the TV show that the worlds were in different
systems light years apart like most sci-fi fare. When you watch Serenity it
becomes very apparent that this is not the case and all the worlds are
confined to a single mega star system.
I'm uncertain how the Terraforming works, there's evidence in some of the
expanded universe stuff that they tried on Venus and Mars but were
marginally successful but the efforts failed in the end. By the time they
reached the 'verse a few hundred years later they'd largely figured it out
on paper and despite a number of failed attempts they managed to get things
working. Somehow they're compressing the gas giants and igniting them and
compressing the planets to give them a surface gravity of 1 regardless of
their diameter. This is never really explained and lets face it do you care
how a jump drive works or are you happy it does and willing to leave the
wibblie wobblie timie whimie stuff alone?
While there is a strong possibility that Traveller and Firefly have some
kind of relationship it's like saying Star Wars and Traveller are related.
From: []
Sent: Sunday, July 20, 2014 8:10 PM
To:
Subject: Re: [Traveller_TNE] Re: Anyone
The 'Verse isn't anything like Traveller universe, in that it appears to be
some sort of multiple star system with multiple habitable planets. FTL is
fuzzy on details--if in fact it actually happens and isn't just intersystem
travel (again, Firefly is vague on the details...), as it is implied. FTL
communications however appears to be a real thing, unlike Traveller, and
terraforming seems to be something that the Alliance can do with relative
ease, whereas in Traveller it takes many years and can go horribly wrong,
even when the Ancients do it.
Objectively speaking however, there are too many parallels between Traveller
and Firefly for Traveller not to have been an influence (heck I can
essentially lift the plot of a Firefly episode and use it in Traveller with
minimal effort). This is not to say that Joss owes Marc money, not even
close. There are clearly enough unique elements in Firefly that is a clearly
something new.