Question: In some scenes, why do the Serenity crew members speak Chinese?
Question: On the back of the complete series DVD I just purchased, it says there are 14 episodes plus 3 unaired ones. The episode guide only lists 15 episodes (counting both parts of Serenity). Is this a typo or is there something I'm missing?
Question: Regarding this question and answer: "In some scenes, why do the Serenity crew members speak Chinese? [One of the premises of the show is that the two major Earth societies that survived, and ultimately merged, were the Chinese and Americans. As a result the common language includes much Chinese. Clothing, signage, and building designs also have a heavy Chinese influence.] Answered by MovieGuy." Survived what?
Chosen answer: It's never made entirely clear. What we know is that at some point, the Earth became unable to sustain those who lived there, resulting in a mass exodus to a new star system. At that point in the Firefly timeline, the two existing superpowers were the Americans and the Chinese. Whether other present-day nations might still have existed is never mentioned.
Question: I've noticed that on the show, people use "gorram" a lot. Is that phrase used as a euphemism for "God damn"?
Chosen answer: Yes, this was done to allow them to swear without causing a problem with the censors. They also swear quite a bit in Chinese.
Question: How do you pronounce Jewel Staite's (Kaylee) last name?
Answer: State.
Question: I've never seen the show myself, but I was wondering what kind of a name "Inara Serra" is. I'm assuming Inara is of Portuguese origin, but mostly because the actress was born in Brazil. Can someone please help me with this?
Answer: Inara is actually Arabic in origin; it means "ray of light" or alternatively "heaven sent". Serra, on the other hand, is Portuguese and means "mountain range" - derived from the same word in Latin, where it means 'saw' (as in the cutting implement, which a mountain range might resemble, rather than the act of seeing).
Question: Why does River walk around barefoot so much? There are even a couple times, such as in the episode "Bushwacked", where she goes off the ship barefoot.
Answer: Story-wise, I believe it's sort of a tactile thing for her. She has a very childlike mind and is often seen wandering around touching and examining things. Being barefoot would be an addition to that, as she could be feeling the ground beneath her constantly. Behind-the-scenes wise, the actress apparently just prefers being barefoot, so she had no problems doing this. (Also, and this is more rumor than anything, but a lot of people believe series creator Joss Whedon has a foot fetish and often finds ways to have cast members be barefoot, similar to Quentin Tarantino. And this doesn't seem surprising since in only 14 episodes, "Firefly" has a LOT of scenes displaying barefoot women.)
Chosen answer: One of the premises of the show is that the two major Earth societies that survived, and ultimately merged, were the Chinese and Americans. As a result the common language includes much Chinese. Clothing, signage, and building designs also have a heavy Chinese influence.