Firefly, Farscape, and Fellowship: Or, We All Live in a Yellow Submarine

I've recently found myself spending a lot of time thinking about and defending television as a medium of literature; or in my chosen vocabulary, as "story." I put this out there because I get the impression that a lot of people think TV is just mindless entertainment. They are correct in saying television programming has a lot of mindless entertainment on it (Game shows, sit-coms, celebrity gossip channels...), and you can even say people mis-use it for mindless entertainment, but that would be far from the entire truth of the situation.

The fact is, there are a lot of shows out there which are incredibly powerful mediums of exploring all the realms that good art and storytelling can touch. I think the most notoriously misunderstood genre out there is the Sci-Fi/Fantasy series. Because people are often either affronted or embarrassed by the "childlike" and "otherness" of the settings these shows take place in, they miss some seriously good writing. (C.f. for more on defending fantasy from the "mature adults" read JRR Tolkien's "On Fairie Stories")

That all said as introduction, I'd like to talk about my favorite kind of Sci-Fi show and what they're actually doing.

The basic ingredients are easy, you simply take
-one small group of misfits, outcasts, and colorful characters
-one vehicle
-a serious wanderlust
-a common goal, or badguy.

Mix well and you get the trope commonly referred to as "Walking the Earth." The variant possibilities of this set up are almost endless, you have the Drifter, the Flying Dutchman, the Knight Errant, etc.

Put it in space and you get "Tripping the Universe." Some of the best Sci-Fi shows have followed this pattern. The two best examples I can think of and enjoy are Firefly (probably the second most popular sci-fi show of the decade, second to Battlestar Galactica) and Farscape (possibly the weirdest of the previous decade, unless you count Babylon 5...)

Now, how does all this apply to us? Well, it's all in the story-telling. See, the biggest merit of this trope is that it cuts everything down to character development. When you stick a bunch of characters in a small ship together within a common journey, and you get the best possible vehicle for exploring themes of identity, belonging, and community. And these questions apply to us all the time. When you travel, it's all about who you're travel with.

Think about how often we use the "Journey" metaphor for our own lives. Christian eschatological discourse is full of it. St. Paul in the Bible as well as 1st/2nd century Christian writers constantly use language about being sojourners in search of our homeland.

Take it even one step further into our practical world. Ever been on a road-trip? Think about how formative they are. I've had the privilege and blessing to travel to Europe with friends on a few occasions now, and I can tell you from personal experience nothing makes you think more about the quality of your friendships, about personal loyalty, and questions of belonging than wandering in a strange land. Even on the most "superficial" level, when I'm giving rides back and forth to church, I'm think a lot about those I'm taking with me.

So maybe take a step back into the Sci-Fi again. What's the point of watching it? Partly, it's resonance. As in all stories, we want to see ourselves. And we're all on a journey of one kind or another. But in a larger context, it's the same as any story, we look to the hero. When all the details are simplified to a crisis on a space ship with a crew, what choices does he make?

I'm reminded once again of the dramatic philosophy of Aristotle, who said we as a society need heroes. We watch them, as they are just a little higher-up than we are, a little more Romanticized... and by seeing them do great things, we are encouraged to at least accomplish the merely good.

We're left to ask, are you just a selfish loner, or are you part of a crew? Would you do the heroic thing and not leave your crew-member behind in the face of danger, or will you just fly away? What's the next adventure on the horizon?