SCI-FI
Firefly Vs. Doctor Who
God, I thought that last decision was hard. It's nothing compared to this.
Firefly and
Doctor Who are two of my all-time favourite TV shows, and choosing between them is going to be a more painful experience than watching Bill Murray cry. What makes both of these shows so great is their originality. Both take the sci-fi premise and go off in wildly different directions with them, creating situations and stories so unique and interesting no other show can possibly have anything that is even remotely similar.
Doctor Who centres around the Doctor, of course, who stole a time machine and now knocks about the universe generally getting into mischief, wearing silly clothes and saving people. This is a very flexible premise, which is a major boon for the show.
Doctor Who can go to the past, the future, the present, it can be funny, sad, dramatic, thoughtful, crazy and, when it wants to be, absolutely terrifying. There's no other show I can think of that can do so much and appeal to so many, and the creativity of
Doctor Who is something I feel stands completely unmatched. But,
Firefly. Oh,
Firefly. With this short-lived gem of a show, Joss Whedon created a completely unique universe, complete with cowboy mannerisms and cursing in Mandarin. I'd never seen anything quite like it, and that's one of the reasons I continue to love it today. But it's not the main reason. The main reason is, again, the characters. When I first saw the show, I was not taken by them whatsoever, especially disliking the harshness of Mal. But, oh boy, did they grow on me. Each character is so complicated, so intricate, that, on the surface, characters like Mal and Jayne may seem unlikable. But Whedon rewarded long-term viewers, slowly delving into each of the characters and developing them slowly with great care. By the finale, I thought Mal was fantastic, Jayne hilarious and Kaylee adorable. I loved each of them deeply, and that's not something any old TV show can do. At the end of the day, however, the point has to go to
Doctor Who. For me, it just embodies sci fi, and the potential the genre has to be amazingly imaginative and creative. That's not to say that
Firefly isn't imaginative or creative, it is. But
Doctor Who takes it to a whole new level, to the extent you can never tell where the show is going next. And I love that.