The Space Between Us

With my head on my husband, Paul’s shoulder, I sometimes laughed, sometimes gasped, and occasionally wiped a tear that had welled up in my eye as we watched our favorite sci-fi show, Stargate SG-1. It was our nightly ritual. We watched all the episodes multiple times. Nerdy, I know, but it was our thing. We also watched the movie Stargate a couple of times. The show is from our favorite genre, with characters we love, and the characters we love to hate.

Paul and I had started watching some of the other Stargate movies and shows such as Stargate Atlantis and Stargate Continuum but didn’t get into them as deeply. We liked them, but the characters didn’t resonate quite as much, so we always found ourselves back on SG-1. Then, one day in June of 2016, my husband went to sleep and never woke up. A heart attack had taken his life at age 59. I didn’t watch Stargate for several years. I had to find another sci-fi show. My oldest daughter recommended Firefly, but I was skeptical at first. They had only produced a total of 14 episodes. How good could a show be with such a short lifespan? After all, SG-1 played from 1997 to 2007. By contrast, Firefly was only aired in 2002 and 2003.

It took me a while to connect with Firefly. They should have started the first episode the way they did the second, by explaining what the “Alliance” was and why these people were in space. Instead, the show started with a war scene with no explanation of who was fighting and why. Then, the writers abruptly fast-forwarded six years to a spaceship. Because my daughter recommended it, I stuck with it, and I’m glad I did. After I got hooked, I grew to enjoy the characters as I had with SG-1. Their personalities are well developed and well portrayed.

I tend to favor shows with some action, humor, and maybe a bit of romance. Overall, Firefly is a bit darker than SG-1. There is plenty of action, yet there are some funny moments, as well as some love interests thrown in for good measure – just to my liking.

If you like the character of Jack O’Neill from SG-1, played by Richard Dean Anderson, you’ll enjoy Malcolm “Mal” Reynolds, portrayed by Nathan Fillion. They are both formidable leaders with lots of machismo, a significant dose of attitude, and good hearts, especially when it came to their teammates. The character of Teal’c in SG-1, played masterfully by Christopher Judge in both the movie and the series, has some similarity to Adam Baldwin’s character, Jayne Cobbe, in that they are both the muscles of the teams but sometimes antagonists. If you enjoyed Amanda Tapping’s performance as Samantha Carter, you will undoubtedly fall for Gina Torres as Zoë Washburne. Both are strong, independent, beautiful woman who aren’t afraid to kick butt.

Another commonality between the two shows is some of the casting. Most notably, the stunningly gorgeous Morena Baccarin played important roles in both series. She was the rather evil Adria in SG-1 and a lady of the night, Inara Sara, in Firefly. Bonnie Bartlett, who played Linea in the SG-1 episode Prisoners, also appears in Firefly as a woman named Patience - who is ironically lacking in patience. Larry Drake played in one episode of each series as well. Jewel Staite played in both Firefly and Stargate Atlantis. Many of these actors and actresses played roles in one or more of the Star Trek shows, arguably the most influential series on the sci-fi genre.

In 2005, Firefly producers made a movie sequel to the TV show called Serenity, which is the name of the spaceship flown by the same crew as in Firefly. I look forward to watching that movie next.

If you enjoy sci-fi with some action, humor, and a bit of romance, you will love both Stargate SG-1 and Firefly. Search for these shows on Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime. Happy space travels!