The series takes place in the year 2517, on several planets and moons. The TV series does not reveal whether these celestial bodies are in one star system, and does not explain whether Serenity's mode of propulsion is faster-than-light, only that it is a "gravity-drive". The film Serenity makes clear that all the planets and moons are in one large system, and production documents related to the film indicate that there is no faster-than-light travel in this universe. The characters occasionally refer to "Earth-that-was" and in the film, it is established that long before the events in the series a large population had emigrated from Earth to a new star system in multi-generational spaceships : "Earth-that-was could no longer sustain our numbers, we were so many." The emigrants established themselves in this new star system, with "dozens of planets and hundreds of moons." Many of these were terraformed, a process in which a planet or moon is altered to resemble the Earth. The terraforming process was only the first step in making a planet habitable, however, and the outlying settlements often did not receive any further support in the construction of their civilizations. This resulted in many of the border planets and moons having forbidding, dry environments, well suited to the Western genre.
(read less)The series takes place in the year 2517, on several planets and moons. The TV series does not reveal whether these celestial bodies are in one star system, and does not explain whether Serenity's mode of propulsion is faster-than-light, only that it is a "gravity-drive". The film Serenity makes clear that all the planets and moons are in one large system, and production documents related to the film indicate that there is no faster-than-light travel in this universe. The characters occasionally...
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