Top five cancelled sci fi shows part five - Firefly

By Cheryl Mullin on May 29, 09 08:45 AM

So the big day has finally arrived and I'm all set to reveal which show got the number one spot. But have you agreed with my choices? Were there any glaringly obvious shows I missed which deserved to be mentioned more than the five which made the list? And more importantly, what would your top five shows be? Drop me a line at cheryl.mullin@liverpool.com with your views, geeky news and gossip.

1. FIREFLY
What other show could have made the number one slot?
Set in 2517, the space western follows the renegade crew of the firefly-class spaceship Serenity as they eke out a living making cargo runs and smuggling merchandise under the nose of the Alliance.
The show was the brainchild of Josh Whedon, creator of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer tv series and Angel.

The crew are led by Captain Malcolm 'Mal' Reynolds (Nathan Fillion) and his first mate Zoe Washburne (Gina Torres), veteran Browncoats from the Unification War - a civil war which broke out when the outlying worlds fought back against the Alliance's assertion of control.
Three of the crew originally come on board as travellers, paying for passage to the outer planets of the star system.
Amongst them are the mysterious Dr Simon Tam (Sean Maher) who smuggles his sister River (Summer Glau, a victim of FOX's recent axing Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles) on board after rescuing her from an Alliance controlled school.
An immediate hit with fans the show was scandalously cancelled by FOX, citing low ratings, after just eleven episodes, with three episodes not even aired during its original run in 2002.
Fans of the show, Browncoats, rallied round to try and save the series, even raising enough cash to place an advert in Variety Magazine to plead for its renewal - but it was not to be.
When Firefly was released on DVD in 2003, sales were so strong, Universal Studios commissioned a feature film, Serenity.
Released at the cinema in September 2005 Serenity took over $10m in its opening weekend, and was the US's second most popular release that week.
On the day of its DVD release, Serenity was the second biggest DVD seller of the day.
But despite all this, fans remained unsuccessful in convincing a TV network to pick up the show for another run, and the continued adventures of the Firefly crew are now limited to books, an RPG and our imaginations.