Whedonesque : Comments on 17793 : Sci-Fi Showdown Poll: Serenity vs the Millenium Falcon.

EW.com definitely knows how to bring traffic to their website, especially with pseudo-interactive content for the readers, which have kept them up to date, instead of being left behind, in the downhill print media market.

Onto the question proposed, they're even very vague onto the terms of showdown. I voted for Serenity, merely for fan reasons, but Millennium Falcon is clearly a better and more powerful vessel.

Numfar PTB | October 07, 10:52 CET

Has to be the Falcon for me. Serenity arguably has more character (largely because the design makes it easier to anthropomorphise - the Falcon doesn't have a "face" - and because we see people living on her) but the Falcon wins in pretty much every other department for me.

Saje | October 07, 11:05 CET

Yes, the Falcon is faster and a much better armed ship. Running circles around a Star Destroyer would attest to that. Still, I had to vote for Serenity just for her character, always the little ship that could.

Madhatter | October 07, 12:58 CET

Although I loved the Star Wars movies I never felt the same connection I do with Serenity and her crew, so this was an easy choice for me. EW's blurbs seemed kind of skewed toward the Falcon though...does that seem right to you?

Volo | October 07, 14:17 CET

Well clearly the Falcon, Serenity couldn't fight its way out of a wet paper bag - but it had a better crew than the Falcon ;)

Pumps | October 07, 14:23 CET

Agreed, for me, the crew definitely gives Serenity the edge, but overall who can top the Falcon?
Is it bad I totally choked up when it said "the skill of her pilot"? Wash!

Linnea1928 | October 07, 14:36 CET

Love me some Serenity, but that piece of junk wins hands down.

RebelAt | October 07, 15:10 CET

Wow. I think this is the first time a Whedony thing isn't going to win a poll because of a link here.

Craig Oxbrow | October 07, 15:14 CET

The Falcon may be the fastest hunk of junk in the galaxy, but that means it also had an easier time outrunning the Imperials. It's not a fair comparison. And in that case, I gotta go with the little guy, which did a lot with a whole lot less.

Besides, when it comes to ship's engineers, who'd you rather spend time around...a seven-foot Wookiee with a lousy temper, or a cute and perky mechanical savant? I think it's an easy choice.

[ETA: And given the way George Lucas has run his own creation into the ground, I could never vote for the Falcon anyway. Why, George? WHY?!?!?!?!]

[ edited by BAFfler on 2008-10-07 15:38 ]

BAFfler | October 07, 15:37 CET

Wait... isn't this like asking who would win out of a VW beetle and a Nascar beast? Um... not that I watched that film, honest.

MobileHQ | October 07, 15:42 CET

I love Star Wars, but have never really got the Millenium Falcon love. So surprisingly my vote goes to Serenity.

Oh... in a battle between the two. Hmm. Wash would definitely out-crazy-Ivan us all.

[ edited by Caroline on 2008-10-07 15:45 ]

Caroline | October 07, 15:43 CET

Serenity survives. She's like a cock roach. Resourceful, cunning, like her Captain.

The Falcon is like an old boxer. She may not be able to last the whole fight, but an old champion can still punch.

Falcon wins.

Andy Dufresne | October 07, 15:56 CET

Yes, the Falcon is faster

Sure, you can tell by the way it went a specific distance in a measure of that distance (or maybe George just doesn't know 'science'). Yes, I've seen the fanwanks of it and I know the novelization changes it to something that ostensibly makes more sense :).

zeitgeist | October 07, 16:08 CET

I believe he would, Caroline. Crazy devil!

Madhatter | October 07, 16:08 CET

Sure, you can tell by the way it went a specific distance in a measure of that distance ...

If I could run 10 kilometres in less than 10 kilometres i'd brag about it too ;).

(curious about the fan-wanks now - some sort of space-time warping ?)

Saje | October 07, 16:12 CET

Sure, you can tell by the way it went a specific distance in a measure of that distance ...

If I could run 10 kilometres in less than 10 kilometres i'd brag about it too ;).

(curious about the fan-wanks now - some sort of space-time warping ?)

Basically, Saje? The fan-wanks (that got applied to the Star Wars Expanded Universe canon) propose the Kessel Run is a journey between the planet of Kessel, where they mine substances with an illicit nature, to another area of the galaxy where the cargo is presumably offloaded and processed for distribution. The official distance is give at 18 parsecs, so Han's boast has been made to sound like he found a way to shave off around 7.5 parsecs, ostensibly by flying mucho close to a cluster of black holes where time and space are dilated...also giving supposed support to Han's use of a measure of distance as a measure of time.

There's also the fan-wank that Han was trying to mindf--k with Luke and Obi-Wan, thinking they were backwater noobs who wouldn't know parsec is a measure of distance, but both Obi-Wan and Luke knew Han was blowing smoke but just decided to keep quiet cuz they needed Han and the Falcon.

BlueEyedBrigadier | October 07, 16:30 CET

:) Right, but we don't know the distance of the run. Maybe its 8? The common explanation is:

The Falcon is often connected to the Kessel Run, a pathway from Kessel past the Maw Black Hole Cluster used by smugglers to transport precious Glitterstim spice. Solo in A New Hope brags that the Falcon made the Kessel Run in "less than twelve parsecs", referring to his ability to move the ship closer to the Maw's black holes and therefore cut the distance traveled.

zeitgeist | October 07, 16:32 CET

You know, as folks in a galaxy far far away, maybe they just used the word parsec differently.

BTW, Serenity for me. Had a better dinning room. ;)

NYPinTA | October 07, 16:41 CET

Had to go with the Falcon, especially when I remembered what a millennium falcon actually is. (Hint: there's only one of it, and it's got a lot to do with fire.)

If it had been "Which ship had the more cuddly mechanic?" I would have been really torn.

ManEnoughToAdmitIt | October 07, 16:45 CET

Saje is talking about the speed of light which we know is possible. Going beyond that isn't possible....yet.

Give us a sliderule and compass, we'll figure it out yet. Just a matter of time.

Madhatter | October 07, 16:51 CET

On the one hand, the Falcon's got a coolness edge since Han won it gambling. But then again it was designed to look like a hamburger. I think the dinosaurs in the cockpit give Serenity a few more points to place it ahead of the Falcon.

I may change my mind after lunch.

Sunfire | October 07, 16:54 CET

So, Mal seeing a rusted hunk of metal in a used shipyard and falling in love with it at first sight...is less cool than winning your ship gambling? Pshaw and pish. It's COOLER.

BAFfler | October 07, 17:09 CET

It's much more meaningful, but I don't think it's as cool, no.

Sunfire | October 07, 17:25 CET

Holographic monster chess set > toy dinosaurs.

Simon | October 07, 17:32 CET

But they are dinosaurs. On a spaceship.

Sunfire | October 07, 17:49 CET

That sounds like science-fiction to me, Sunfire!

zeitgeist | October 07, 17:53 CET

I seem to recall a cartoon in which dinosaurs had some kind of air or space ship travel ability. So glad that wasn't the idea behind Firefly.

Sunfire | October 07, 17:59 CET

I always believed the parsec thing was just Han lying to sound impressive.

Craig Oxbrow | October 07, 18:39 CET

The official distance is give at 18 parsecs, so Han's boast has been made to sound like he found a way to shave off around 7.5 parsecs, ostensibly by flying mucho close to a cluster of black holes where time and space are dilated...also giving supposed support to Han's use of a measure of distance as a measure of time.

...

... referring to his ability to move the ship closer to the Maw's black holes and therefore cut the distance traveled.

Aha, and in this way I became enlightened (about the Kessel run fan-wanks at least, i'm still infinity parsecs away from nirvana etc. Or in AUs that works out to ... carry the one ... all over two ... square the result ... yep, infinity ;).

Saje | October 07, 19:37 CET

I think that comparing objects / vehicles / characters from different universes is the stupidest thing in the world.

Rikardo | October 07, 19:53 CET

Sunfire: I believe you are refering to '80s cartoon dinosaucers, which I was honestly begining to think I was the only person who remembered that show...

chance | October 08, 10:49 CET

My vote goes to the YT-1300 Corellian freighter that goes .5 past lightspeed and made the Kessel run in less than 12 parsecs.

It's possible that I gave the edge to which captain is more my style. That would be Han Solo! Kudos to Princess Leia.

I like Firefly/Serenity, but I love the original unadulterated Star Wars trilogy much more. Sorry Joss.

However, Joss is a much better writer (no contest--George Lucas is actually AWFUL--good at ideas as long as he doesn't have much control--and better ideas before he had kids, but he needs someone else to write the scripts and direct), but Empire Strikes Back is still one of the most perfect movies in film history.

On pure design standards... Hamburger with an olive. Beats. All.

NileQT87 | October 08, 17:53 CET

October 07 2008