Of course the bits involving reaver chases, proximity, and communication (the ‘cortex’) are obviously wrong.

As for terraforming, I think we are meant to use our imaginations. There was enough population or not enough equipment, so the centre worlds were colonised/terraformed first. Then they did the outer moons. There may be social reasons why the worlds couldn’t be properly developed.
Hell, Australia wasn’t exactly exploited for its resources. Why move to a hellhole when you can just deport undesirables there?

That gave me a chuckle. Cheers.

>There are several instances in Firefly when the word “galaxy” is used instead of “system”. As in: “The Earth got used up, so we moved out and terraformed a whole new galaxy of Earths.”

I always assumed that they didn’t mean galaxy as “a lot”, not the literal meaning of the word. Guess that is why they didn’t pick up on it.

As for the rest of the physics in Firefly(going places too fast), i really do not know how long it would take to fly from earth to Jupiter with a relativistic drive. And they never did explain how they were propelled(ie, in the series, i don’t think i ever heard them say that they were going X% of lightspeed or anything like that).

BUUT, i don’t want to start a whole physics in the firefly conversation, i fully agree with you, it was just the galaxy thing.

And what they did in Farscape was brilliant.. “Einstein was wrong”.. nothing more.. nothing less.. me like

The #1 reason why I hate japan. (I have a lot of #1 reasons to hate japan though.)

Despite your reservations, I still think you should use it.

Of far more concern are negative strangelets, as outlined in this paper:

http://arxiv.org/PS_cache/hep-ph/pdf/9910/9910333v3.pdf
– oh, just somebody TELL the folks at TU24 that the asteroid is made of negative strangelets…

Of course, getting the tech stuff right doesn’t mean it’s good writing…

Phil didn’t scrounge kids toys looking for the blurb — I sent the pic to him after I noticed this watching my kids pore over gaudy plastic toys. Yes, I was bored. And yes I need a new day job but for different reasons.

There are several instances in Firefly when the word “galaxy” is used instead of “system”. As in: “The Earth got used up, so we moved out and terraformed a whole new galaxy of Earths.”

And seriously guys, I dug it as much as the next rabid Sci-Fi fan, but there’s lots of bits of the physics (and economics) that don’t actually make any sense. Sorry. Joss just chose not to draw attention to those shortcomings with reams of treknobabble.

(Since I know someone’s going to ask… For example: in the first episode they can communicate with no discernible time-lag over a distance that will take some time to cover [I forget exactly how long]. So they must be travelling at pretty low speeds relative to c. But they can travel between all these “planets” or “moons” in sufficiently short times that they must either be travelling at relativistic velocities, or the worlds in question must be very close together. Yet the worlds must have relatively stable orbits [and so can't be that close together], or there’s no way in hell you could terraform them. Assuming you accept that terraforming is even feasible, never mind in the absurd timescales described [even if they did all miraculously have about the right mass]. And if you were investing sufficient resources to terraform a planet in a few years or decades, does it seem reasonable to leave the exploitation of that vast new resource you’ve just created to a bunch of dirt farmers? Who can somehow afford to have livestock transported across space, but can’t afford a diesel generator or a half-decent machine shop? And don’t get me started on the artificial gravity, which continues to work even when all power, including basic life-support, is gone. Oh, and chance close encounters in deep space? Close enough to risk collision? Orders of magnitude less likely than winning the lottery.)

Me, I think Farscape took the right approach: “We know the science doesn’t make sense, and we don’t care. It’s fiction, guys.”

then perhaps in the future you can include some proof reading?

“the utter layers of the star explode outward”

Hate those “utter” layers….and do things often explode inward?

Large blue suns may have large “habitable zones,” but since they last so briefly, they don’t have time for any of their planets to produce oxygen atmospheres.

And as for negatrons…

According to Darkwing Duck, positrons and negatrons are the basic particles of good and evil. (“I learned that in school,” says Gosalyn.)

Rimmer: …But a black hole is a huge impacted star. It’s millions of miles wide, it’s massive! Why didn’t you see anything on the radar screen?

Holly: Well, the thing about a black hole, its main distinguishing feature… is it’s black. And the thing about space, the colorof space… your basic space color… is it’s black. So how’re ya supposed to see ‘em?

> Is there a planet hero for Pluto is it that one a minor planet hero?

Sailor Pluto, and here she is:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sailor_Pluto

Enjoy.

(Nate: Not sure what’s she’s doing now since Pluto was demoted.)

>So there you go.

Agreed, but that isn’t exactly what TBA said above.. He said Joss confused the solar system with the galaxy. What you are saying, and what i’ve gathered, is that the entire show takes place in just one solar system. Though i don’t think it has multiple stars(well, never stated one way or the other in the show).

But that is an artistic choice by Joss, that is not him confusing the solar system with the galaxy… hence my confusion

Also, I may be corrupt, but I ain’t little.