Firefly: Dr. Simon Tam
Note: The caption on the icon reads "Bunnies is Scary"--I have a JayneBunny icon captioned Pain Bunnies Is Scary.
FIREFLY
DR. SIMON TAM: The Dork Knight Returns
The wounded surgeon plies the steel
That questions the distempered part;
Beneath the bleeding hands we feel
The sharp compassion of the healer's art
Resolving the enigma of the fever chart.
(T.S. Eliot, "East Coker")
Chivalrous, brave, Very Smart, and born with a silver foot in his mouth, Simon is the heart (or perhaps the quadruple-vessel bypass) of my Firefly love. As a complete outsider, he plays a very important part in the structure of the series: without a fish-out-of-water Bob, there could be no "As you know, Bob…well, no, actually you don't" exposition.
By SciFi out of Western, Firefly reflects both parts of its bloodline. Doctors in Westerns have a tendency to be cowardly, drunken exiles from decent society; spacefaring medics tend to be made of sterner, and more admirable, stuff, and the Space Western Simon finds himself in characterizes him very much more as the latter than the former. (Although we do see him drink enough Mudder's Milk to get completely trashed, when Wash, who isn't exactly Martha Stewart, spits out his.)
Character Evolution
It's very hard to reconcile the accounts of River's release in Serenity the Pilot (StP) and Serenity the Movie (StM). This is often done by assuming that Simon simply lied in StP, and many fans have taken this to his discredit. It's not that I don't think he would lie to protect River-he'd do a lot worse than that if he had to-but I think he knows that he's not much of a liar so he's better off telling as much of the truth as possible.
I prefer to think that Firefly the Series and StM are simply two related canons, like XMComicverse and XMMovieverse-in large part because if they are a single integrated canon, we don't have character arcs so much as characters taking one step forward and two steps back. That may be true to life, but it's not very satisfying in fiction.
In the series, Simon adapts somewhat to the situation he finds himself in, and by "War Stories" he's at least shooting at enemies he's failing to hit. He's undergone wardrobe surgery and is somewhat-although not totally-at ease with his Jossian family of choice and reconciled to the loss of most of his family of origin.
In StM, his main arc is going from "not crew" to "crew" (something that had already happened in the series, of course), and going from simply being the object of Kaylee's desires to admitting that he reciprocates them.
Relationships: A Haven for the Sister
There are far more popular entertainment texts about romantic love than about sibling love-which could explain the popularity of incest pairings, because I think as fans we're likely to perceive any intense relationship as sexual. As far as I can tell, the Simon/River ship is the only Firefly ship that has its own name ("Crazy Space Incest"). As the deleted scene from "Our Mrs. Reynolds" shows, River either does want to marry Simon and have his baby, or says she does because it's fun to watch everybody get upset. Simon touches River a lot, but it looks to me that he goes out of his way to desexualize the contact; there's a special Simon-to-River hug variant where they're forehead-to-forehead and he has his hands on her shoulders so they couldn't kiss or embrace without a lot of shifting around.
Clearly, in whatever way, Simon cares a lot about River-and no matter how he got River out of the Academy (and whatever he planned to do on Boros once he got her there; it seems a little improvisational for someone as OCD about plans as Simon is shown to be in "Ariel").
The one exception is that, in "Out of Gas", I'd expect him to stay very close to River and try to comfort her, and he doesn't. Since any implication of careless scripting is obviously inaccurate, I can only surmise that he's reached a low point. He, too, is running on fumes-between caring for a seriously injured Zoe and facing a near-certainty of dying on his birthday.
We only get a brief glimpse of Simon and River's parents, and it's not clear how much they knew about The Academy and how willingly they collaborated with the parties injuring River. Although "explore the effect of Asian culture on the Core worlds" was yet another of the items on the To-Do List that couldn't be explored in the brief season, I sometimes wonder how Simon felt about being such a bad son in a culture that probably made filial duty a centerpiece of (especially male) identity.
In a lot of ways, "Safe" is The Simon Episode-it gives him more backstory than the other characters have. It shows (and "Objects in Space" reaffirms) how difficult it is even to keep track of River, and he can't cure her. (Even in StM, River's movement toward sanity and wholeness is much more deus ex machina than the result of Simon's efforts.) There are so many meanings in his actions at the end of the episode. I don't think he thinks that he can succeed in negotiating with witch-hunting hillfolks, that they'd be willing to give up burning River just to keep their valuable doctor, but he thinks it's worth a try. And when it doesn't work, he offers his own life instead (like Buffy in "The Gift"). And when that doesn't work, he's willing to die with her-partly because he isn't willing to live without her. However, in the Jossverse, "heroism" and "suicidal ideation" are inextricably intertwined-I also think he thinks that after they kill him, he won't have to put up with any more crap.
Relationships: Other
There's a famous Saul Steinberg cover for The New Yorker, showing an immense Manhattan and a tiny, flat Rest of the World. Substitute "River" and that's Simon's worldview.
Although they got off to a rocky start, I think it's fair, even without benefit of slash goggles, to say that eventually Mal and Simon like each other. (Although Simon twice--in StP and "Safe"-- points out that Mal "doesn't even like him" without getting the reassurance he's angling for. In StP, Mal tells Simon to his face "Y'ain't weak" which, in Mal-speak, is a rave review. Later, behind his back, once again in "Safe," Mal says "Doc could be called a lot of things…coward ain't one of 'em." In "Shindig," not only does Simon assume without discussion that the crew will rescue Mal, he seems confident that Mal is a good enough fighter to arrange his own rescue. In "Bushwhacked," Simon heads off Jayne's attempt at mutiny-although this could be at least as much because he doesn't like Jayne as because he wants to preserve Mal's leadership status.
Simon/Jayne is a very popular pairing, and even one I've written myself, but nevertheless I have to say that I don't think Simon likes Jayne very much. Nearly all of the deliberately unkind things that Simon ever says are about Jayne-I mean, you wouldn't want to be called a "box-dropping-man-ape-thing-gone-wrong," would you? Although I must say that Wash seems to detest Jayne even more than Simon ever does. I think most of the time Jayne simply doesn't notice that Wash is there, and only notices Simon when his pretty mouth is nearby and actively engaged in ruining a scheme. With slash goggles on, the seeming antipathy could mask volcanic passion, although if there was volcanic passion going on, then Jayne looks really bad for trying to sell out his boyfriend and lucrative sister.
In "Out of Gas" Simon and Inara have a lovely friendship vibe (although I bet she's never going to hear the end of that "giving the kid a free thrust" remark in StP), and he looks really impressed by Inara's going-out outfit when Kaylee cheerfully wishes her "Have good sex!" There isn't much screen time for Simon and Wash (although I bet they sympathize for their fellow-non-lovers of meaningless violence) or Simon and Book. A real question mark is how Simon and Zoe feel about each other. I wish they'd left in the deleted scene in StP where Zoe talks about Serenity Valley. My reading is that their relationship gets off on the wrong foot, and she thinks he's a snooty ignoramus. On the other hand, I can't see her being ungrateful for getting patched up in "Out of Gas."
Conscientious Objections
One of the things I love so much about Firefly is precisely that, although it depicts a violent 'Verse, it also has admirable characters who are agnostic about the value of violence as a strategy. (They're also reasonably sensible characters, so they don't insist on a highly dysfunctional stance of absolute pacifism.) Book is a man of violence who has tried to turn away from it; Wash wants (unsuccessfully) to "take a vote on the whole murdering people thing" and I really can't believe that Simon would start a barroom brawl for fun. If Simon lands in the middle of fight, he does his best-which is, frankly, not very good-although he does a little better defending River in "Safe" than himself in "Jaynestown."
But Firefly is definitely not "Captains Courageous" in space. It isn't about a spoiled rich boy who has to learn to be brave and to be Just Folks. Simon is always very brave. In the very first episode, he's already burned all his bridges and spent his considerable fortune (not just family money, but the large amount he earned doing a very difficult job). He jumps off the catwalk (which is pretty much like jumping out a second-story window) to confront Dobson, and he does know how to hold a gun-although you can tell that he was never going to pull the trigger.
In StP, he doesn't back down from confronting Mal (and that, I think, earns him Mal's respect). In "Ariel," he goes out of his way to antagonize the Alliance guy who's just arrested him. Consciously, he's trying to divert attention from River; subconsciously, I think he just can't resist hassling anybody who's got an advantage over him.
Strengths
It's a good thing that Simon is a very good doctor, because it's so central to who he is. It would have been funnier if he'd been the equivalent of a Beverly Hills allergist, who was suddenly faced with a fascinating array of battle wounds. In a sense, the series takes the easy way out by giving Serenity not just a well-equipped infirmary but a trauma surgeon to staff it. I like to think that it's the show's tribute to Simon, by ripping him out of almost everything he's ever known, but placing him in a situation he can handle. Because, as "Ariel" most clearly demonstrates, Simon in a familiar situation is efficient, confident, and completely in control. And although some people think he and River are tag-teaming Jayne in "The Message" I think Simon is absolutely on the level-he will always try his best to help his patients.
Clearly his family had a lot invested in his becoming a brilliant doctor (I wonder, by the way, if that's because everyone in the family already is-or because Gabriel Tam is a self-made man who never had the chance for an education?), I give him a lot of credit for following through. He chose to take on a difficult job instead of living on his trust funds. I think it's kind of sweet that he appreciated getting hugely paid too-and it casts in sharper relief how much he gave up.
And, although he has a few, ummm, negative things to say about Jayne, in most instances Simon shows that he has a kind heart. OK, in "Ariel" he could just be bored, but he takes time in the middle of an escape to help out a total stranger; in "Heart of Gold" he would certainly rather be delivering a baby than getting stuck in the middle of a running gun battle, but he's still gentle toward Petaline and her co-workers. In "Safe," he's furious at his kidnappers, but he's still willing to roll up his sleeves and try to help. (Here again, he could be desperate for something interesting to do.) And in "Objects in Space," he's courteous to Zoe when he could certainly get away with being mean to her when she's digging a bullet out of his leg.
My idea of the ultimate Simon gesture would be a fancy dinner party where Kaylee or Zoe drinks the fingerbowl. So, to spare her embarrassment, he does too-or rather, drinks half of it and spills the other half on the priceless satin gown of the dowager seated on his other side.
Oh, and I must say that I had no idea what was underneath Simon's clothes; the glimpses we see in "Objects in Space" truly did not make me think any the less of Simon.
Weaknesses
Well, as Zoe says, "You mean there is someone you're good at talkin' to?" and I rather suspect that Simon favored surgery over another specialty where there'd be more interaction with patients who were still conscious.
Through most if not all of the TV episodes, Kaylee would tend to rate Simon as the 'verse's Worst Boyfriend. Because the fandom is by and large Kayleephiliac, this will have to be considered a serious weakness.
A good deal of evidence could be adduced that he's trying to avoid getting involved with her. And various explanations for this phenomenon could also be adduced, although I have to keep reminding myself that not everybody has slash goggles. Possibly, as Simon says in "Jaynestown," what she considers aloofness is what he considers respect. (We would certainly think the less of him if he considered her to be available for sex without commitment just because his family has more money than hers does.) Maybe he knows that he's always going to put River first. Maybe he just doesn't think that he has much to offer Kaylee. Although if she insisted on strict respectability, she wouldn't have stayed on Serenity after her initial tour of the engine room-or volunteered for engine room afternoon delight, for that matter.
I guess it's a weakness that in some ways Simon seems younger than his age-people keep calling him a boy, although I accept the fanwank that calculates "Out of Gas" as his 26th birthday. Simon and Kaylee are younger than Mal and Inara (although not that much younger), but I see Firefly as structured a lot like an operetta or a classic Broadway musical. Mal and Inara are the serious lead couple; Simon and Kaylee, the juvenile and the ingenue. The difference isn't age, or even experience, so much as that Simon and Kaylee still retain a degree of innocence. In the TV series, the Mal/Inara ship makes precisely as much progress as the Simon/Kaylee-i.e., none-but it should be noted that that's because Mal and Inara are always deliberately saying horrible things to hurt each other, whereas Simon and Kaylee just keep tripping because they can't get out of the way of each other's feet.
And, although he can't discern a pattern of "civilized rules" in the Calvinball game, I don't think he's stuck-up or snobbish. The only people he thinks he's better than, to quote Mal, are the ones he's better than.
Staying Interested
On the sound principle of physics that stuff rolls downhill, it's always easier for a movie or TV episode to show someone who is dumb or untalented than the opposite, so I always enjoy a believable depiction of someone who's supposed to be intelligent.
"Ariel" is the central episode for this-not only coming up with a plan that's better than the ones Mal has had six years to polish-but immediately jumping in and straightening out the cardiac case. (And, as a reward, he gets to relieve some pent-up frustration by ripping the hapless intern a new one.)
"Ariel" is also a kind of Reduced Shakespeare Company for movies: Simon is being all Professor Henry Higgins (although Mal, Zoe, and God knows Jayne are a very unpromising herd of Liza Doolittles) while Wash and Kaylee are fabricating, a la "The Great Escape," a space!ambulance out of a heap of junk. It's my favorite episode because at least for most of the episode, everybody gets to have some fun.
For those who love Firefly, the brilliant flash faded too fast, and we're left with…not enough of so many things. It's a near-unique opportunity for fanfic to fill in between the lines of our shiny coloring book, and to start from scratch on the many, many blank pages. I'm still eagerly reading, still saying "What if…". But the first bunny I'll follow will always be the one with the cleanest fur, shining against the silk of his buttoned-up vest.
FIREFLY
DR. SIMON TAM: The Dork Knight Returns
The wounded surgeon plies the steel
That questions the distempered part;
Beneath the bleeding hands we feel
The sharp compassion of the healer's art
Resolving the enigma of the fever chart.
(T.S. Eliot, "East Coker")
Chivalrous, brave, Very Smart, and born with a silver foot in his mouth, Simon is the heart (or perhaps the quadruple-vessel bypass) of my Firefly love. As a complete outsider, he plays a very important part in the structure of the series: without a fish-out-of-water Bob, there could be no "As you know, Bob…well, no, actually you don't" exposition.
By SciFi out of Western, Firefly reflects both parts of its bloodline. Doctors in Westerns have a tendency to be cowardly, drunken exiles from decent society; spacefaring medics tend to be made of sterner, and more admirable, stuff, and the Space Western Simon finds himself in characterizes him very much more as the latter than the former. (Although we do see him drink enough Mudder's Milk to get completely trashed, when Wash, who isn't exactly Martha Stewart, spits out his.)
Character Evolution
It's very hard to reconcile the accounts of River's release in Serenity the Pilot (StP) and Serenity the Movie (StM). This is often done by assuming that Simon simply lied in StP, and many fans have taken this to his discredit. It's not that I don't think he would lie to protect River-he'd do a lot worse than that if he had to-but I think he knows that he's not much of a liar so he's better off telling as much of the truth as possible.
I prefer to think that Firefly the Series and StM are simply two related canons, like XMComicverse and XMMovieverse-in large part because if they are a single integrated canon, we don't have character arcs so much as characters taking one step forward and two steps back. That may be true to life, but it's not very satisfying in fiction.
In the series, Simon adapts somewhat to the situation he finds himself in, and by "War Stories" he's at least shooting at enemies he's failing to hit. He's undergone wardrobe surgery and is somewhat-although not totally-at ease with his Jossian family of choice and reconciled to the loss of most of his family of origin.
In StM, his main arc is going from "not crew" to "crew" (something that had already happened in the series, of course), and going from simply being the object of Kaylee's desires to admitting that he reciprocates them.
Relationships: A Haven for the Sister
There are far more popular entertainment texts about romantic love than about sibling love-which could explain the popularity of incest pairings, because I think as fans we're likely to perceive any intense relationship as sexual. As far as I can tell, the Simon/River ship is the only Firefly ship that has its own name ("Crazy Space Incest"). As the deleted scene from "Our Mrs. Reynolds" shows, River either does want to marry Simon and have his baby, or says she does because it's fun to watch everybody get upset. Simon touches River a lot, but it looks to me that he goes out of his way to desexualize the contact; there's a special Simon-to-River hug variant where they're forehead-to-forehead and he has his hands on her shoulders so they couldn't kiss or embrace without a lot of shifting around.
Clearly, in whatever way, Simon cares a lot about River-and no matter how he got River out of the Academy (and whatever he planned to do on Boros once he got her there; it seems a little improvisational for someone as OCD about plans as Simon is shown to be in "Ariel").
The one exception is that, in "Out of Gas", I'd expect him to stay very close to River and try to comfort her, and he doesn't. Since any implication of careless scripting is obviously inaccurate, I can only surmise that he's reached a low point. He, too, is running on fumes-between caring for a seriously injured Zoe and facing a near-certainty of dying on his birthday.
We only get a brief glimpse of Simon and River's parents, and it's not clear how much they knew about The Academy and how willingly they collaborated with the parties injuring River. Although "explore the effect of Asian culture on the Core worlds" was yet another of the items on the To-Do List that couldn't be explored in the brief season, I sometimes wonder how Simon felt about being such a bad son in a culture that probably made filial duty a centerpiece of (especially male) identity.
In a lot of ways, "Safe" is The Simon Episode-it gives him more backstory than the other characters have. It shows (and "Objects in Space" reaffirms) how difficult it is even to keep track of River, and he can't cure her. (Even in StM, River's movement toward sanity and wholeness is much more deus ex machina than the result of Simon's efforts.) There are so many meanings in his actions at the end of the episode. I don't think he thinks that he can succeed in negotiating with witch-hunting hillfolks, that they'd be willing to give up burning River just to keep their valuable doctor, but he thinks it's worth a try. And when it doesn't work, he offers his own life instead (like Buffy in "The Gift"). And when that doesn't work, he's willing to die with her-partly because he isn't willing to live without her. However, in the Jossverse, "heroism" and "suicidal ideation" are inextricably intertwined-I also think he thinks that after they kill him, he won't have to put up with any more crap.
Relationships: Other
There's a famous Saul Steinberg cover for The New Yorker, showing an immense Manhattan and a tiny, flat Rest of the World. Substitute "River" and that's Simon's worldview.
Although they got off to a rocky start, I think it's fair, even without benefit of slash goggles, to say that eventually Mal and Simon like each other. (Although Simon twice--in StP and "Safe"-- points out that Mal "doesn't even like him" without getting the reassurance he's angling for. In StP, Mal tells Simon to his face "Y'ain't weak" which, in Mal-speak, is a rave review. Later, behind his back, once again in "Safe," Mal says "Doc could be called a lot of things…coward ain't one of 'em." In "Shindig," not only does Simon assume without discussion that the crew will rescue Mal, he seems confident that Mal is a good enough fighter to arrange his own rescue. In "Bushwhacked," Simon heads off Jayne's attempt at mutiny-although this could be at least as much because he doesn't like Jayne as because he wants to preserve Mal's leadership status.
Simon/Jayne is a very popular pairing, and even one I've written myself, but nevertheless I have to say that I don't think Simon likes Jayne very much. Nearly all of the deliberately unkind things that Simon ever says are about Jayne-I mean, you wouldn't want to be called a "box-dropping-man-ape-thing-gone-wrong," would you? Although I must say that Wash seems to detest Jayne even more than Simon ever does. I think most of the time Jayne simply doesn't notice that Wash is there, and only notices Simon when his pretty mouth is nearby and actively engaged in ruining a scheme. With slash goggles on, the seeming antipathy could mask volcanic passion, although if there was volcanic passion going on, then Jayne looks really bad for trying to sell out his boyfriend and lucrative sister.
In "Out of Gas" Simon and Inara have a lovely friendship vibe (although I bet she's never going to hear the end of that "giving the kid a free thrust" remark in StP), and he looks really impressed by Inara's going-out outfit when Kaylee cheerfully wishes her "Have good sex!" There isn't much screen time for Simon and Wash (although I bet they sympathize for their fellow-non-lovers of meaningless violence) or Simon and Book. A real question mark is how Simon and Zoe feel about each other. I wish they'd left in the deleted scene in StP where Zoe talks about Serenity Valley. My reading is that their relationship gets off on the wrong foot, and she thinks he's a snooty ignoramus. On the other hand, I can't see her being ungrateful for getting patched up in "Out of Gas."
Conscientious Objections
One of the things I love so much about Firefly is precisely that, although it depicts a violent 'Verse, it also has admirable characters who are agnostic about the value of violence as a strategy. (They're also reasonably sensible characters, so they don't insist on a highly dysfunctional stance of absolute pacifism.) Book is a man of violence who has tried to turn away from it; Wash wants (unsuccessfully) to "take a vote on the whole murdering people thing" and I really can't believe that Simon would start a barroom brawl for fun. If Simon lands in the middle of fight, he does his best-which is, frankly, not very good-although he does a little better defending River in "Safe" than himself in "Jaynestown."
But Firefly is definitely not "Captains Courageous" in space. It isn't about a spoiled rich boy who has to learn to be brave and to be Just Folks. Simon is always very brave. In the very first episode, he's already burned all his bridges and spent his considerable fortune (not just family money, but the large amount he earned doing a very difficult job). He jumps off the catwalk (which is pretty much like jumping out a second-story window) to confront Dobson, and he does know how to hold a gun-although you can tell that he was never going to pull the trigger.
In StP, he doesn't back down from confronting Mal (and that, I think, earns him Mal's respect). In "Ariel," he goes out of his way to antagonize the Alliance guy who's just arrested him. Consciously, he's trying to divert attention from River; subconsciously, I think he just can't resist hassling anybody who's got an advantage over him.
Strengths
It's a good thing that Simon is a very good doctor, because it's so central to who he is. It would have been funnier if he'd been the equivalent of a Beverly Hills allergist, who was suddenly faced with a fascinating array of battle wounds. In a sense, the series takes the easy way out by giving Serenity not just a well-equipped infirmary but a trauma surgeon to staff it. I like to think that it's the show's tribute to Simon, by ripping him out of almost everything he's ever known, but placing him in a situation he can handle. Because, as "Ariel" most clearly demonstrates, Simon in a familiar situation is efficient, confident, and completely in control. And although some people think he and River are tag-teaming Jayne in "The Message" I think Simon is absolutely on the level-he will always try his best to help his patients.
Clearly his family had a lot invested in his becoming a brilliant doctor (I wonder, by the way, if that's because everyone in the family already is-or because Gabriel Tam is a self-made man who never had the chance for an education?), I give him a lot of credit for following through. He chose to take on a difficult job instead of living on his trust funds. I think it's kind of sweet that he appreciated getting hugely paid too-and it casts in sharper relief how much he gave up.
And, although he has a few, ummm, negative things to say about Jayne, in most instances Simon shows that he has a kind heart. OK, in "Ariel" he could just be bored, but he takes time in the middle of an escape to help out a total stranger; in "Heart of Gold" he would certainly rather be delivering a baby than getting stuck in the middle of a running gun battle, but he's still gentle toward Petaline and her co-workers. In "Safe," he's furious at his kidnappers, but he's still willing to roll up his sleeves and try to help. (Here again, he could be desperate for something interesting to do.) And in "Objects in Space," he's courteous to Zoe when he could certainly get away with being mean to her when she's digging a bullet out of his leg.
My idea of the ultimate Simon gesture would be a fancy dinner party where Kaylee or Zoe drinks the fingerbowl. So, to spare her embarrassment, he does too-or rather, drinks half of it and spills the other half on the priceless satin gown of the dowager seated on his other side.
Oh, and I must say that I had no idea what was underneath Simon's clothes; the glimpses we see in "Objects in Space" truly did not make me think any the less of Simon.
Weaknesses
Well, as Zoe says, "You mean there is someone you're good at talkin' to?" and I rather suspect that Simon favored surgery over another specialty where there'd be more interaction with patients who were still conscious.
Through most if not all of the TV episodes, Kaylee would tend to rate Simon as the 'verse's Worst Boyfriend. Because the fandom is by and large Kayleephiliac, this will have to be considered a serious weakness.
A good deal of evidence could be adduced that he's trying to avoid getting involved with her. And various explanations for this phenomenon could also be adduced, although I have to keep reminding myself that not everybody has slash goggles. Possibly, as Simon says in "Jaynestown," what she considers aloofness is what he considers respect. (We would certainly think the less of him if he considered her to be available for sex without commitment just because his family has more money than hers does.) Maybe he knows that he's always going to put River first. Maybe he just doesn't think that he has much to offer Kaylee. Although if she insisted on strict respectability, she wouldn't have stayed on Serenity after her initial tour of the engine room-or volunteered for engine room afternoon delight, for that matter.
I guess it's a weakness that in some ways Simon seems younger than his age-people keep calling him a boy, although I accept the fanwank that calculates "Out of Gas" as his 26th birthday. Simon and Kaylee are younger than Mal and Inara (although not that much younger), but I see Firefly as structured a lot like an operetta or a classic Broadway musical. Mal and Inara are the serious lead couple; Simon and Kaylee, the juvenile and the ingenue. The difference isn't age, or even experience, so much as that Simon and Kaylee still retain a degree of innocence. In the TV series, the Mal/Inara ship makes precisely as much progress as the Simon/Kaylee-i.e., none-but it should be noted that that's because Mal and Inara are always deliberately saying horrible things to hurt each other, whereas Simon and Kaylee just keep tripping because they can't get out of the way of each other's feet.
And, although he can't discern a pattern of "civilized rules" in the Calvinball game, I don't think he's stuck-up or snobbish. The only people he thinks he's better than, to quote Mal, are the ones he's better than.
Staying Interested
On the sound principle of physics that stuff rolls downhill, it's always easier for a movie or TV episode to show someone who is dumb or untalented than the opposite, so I always enjoy a believable depiction of someone who's supposed to be intelligent.
"Ariel" is the central episode for this-not only coming up with a plan that's better than the ones Mal has had six years to polish-but immediately jumping in and straightening out the cardiac case. (And, as a reward, he gets to relieve some pent-up frustration by ripping the hapless intern a new one.)
"Ariel" is also a kind of Reduced Shakespeare Company for movies: Simon is being all Professor Henry Higgins (although Mal, Zoe, and God knows Jayne are a very unpromising herd of Liza Doolittles) while Wash and Kaylee are fabricating, a la "The Great Escape," a space!ambulance out of a heap of junk. It's my favorite episode because at least for most of the episode, everybody gets to have some fun.
For those who love Firefly, the brilliant flash faded too fast, and we're left with…not enough of so many things. It's a near-unique opportunity for fanfic to fill in between the lines of our shiny coloring book, and to start from scratch on the many, many blank pages. I'm still eagerly reading, still saying "What if…". But the first bunny I'll follow will always be the one with the cleanest fur, shining against the silk of his buttoned-up vest.