The 'Verse.... can you map it?

[wydraz]

There is some controversy with the structure of the 'Verse. That is, what is is? How is it organized? Is is a single solar system with one star at it's center, or a solar system with several stars in it?

One of the reasons for this controversy is an image presented in the movie, 'Serenity'. Sometimes referred to as the 'Teacher's map'



This shows a single star with about nineteen planets in orbit. But later in the movie, we see this...

Wash's map



If we look closer, and compare this to the map presented in the 'Serenity Official Visual Companion', we can see Wash's map is similar to that...



The map from the Serenity Official Visual Companion is this:



So we are seemingly presented with a dilemma. Is the 'Verse a single-star solar system, or a multiple-star solar system?

Joss Whedon himself even suggests that there are multiple stars in this solar system, while at other times seems to ignore this. His multi-stellar system is supported by the shooting script presented in 'Serenity: The Official Visual Companion' (page 113) which describes the map in a scene from one of River's flashbacks, as follows: "Slowly she looks down at her desk. On it is the solar system, glowing lines connecting all the stars and planets."

I tend to assimilate all of the available data and deduce a simple conclusion. The teacher's map is a map of the core planets, and does not include the rim worlds. This take resolves any 'conflicts' of information, and includes all possible views.
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[sergeant_x]

The maps are for different purposes. Wash's likely shows the relationships between the planets, moon, etc... indicating current proximity and travel times. What looks like stars on his map might be gas giants with moons orbiting. The teachers map could be equally symbolic showing idealized orbits for the purpose of teaching the names and relative orbits of the planets.

Or the images could be fictional devices intended to create a certain mood for the story rather than present a universe consistent with the known science.

[bmc0607]

For one, Joss never hangs tightly onto technicalities like this--it's not about the science. So using the phrase "lines connecting stars and planets" seems more like a quick note than a commentary on astronomy.

On the teacher's map: This is a 2D representation of quite a large system. The actual orbits could run along many different planes, but here they're flattened out. There is, further, no guarantee that each of those orbiting bodies is a planet--they could very well be smaller stars orbiting a larger, each with planets orbiting them as well.

The teacher's view is simply the most simplified model, much like our own basic solar system maps don't show moon orbits, and portray all orbits as being parallel and circular.

[Owain]

I wouldn't put too much stock in the teacher's map being even close to an accurate representation of the 'verse. Even in our own solar system, the diagrams we all saw in school come nowhere near portraying things accurately, particlularly when it comes to scale, because it's impossible given the distances involved. You just can't do it.

I read an article once illustrating this. If a representation of the Sun the size of a basket ball was placed in San Francisco, you need to put a sand grain representing Pluto somewhere near Boston in order to model the scale accurately. (And I still consider Pluto to be a planet, in spite of what what decided at some conference somewhere...)

Wash's maps was probably designed to portray major traffic lanes and Alliance patrol routes to be avoided, and probably shouldn't be viewed as an accurate map either.

It would be nice if we could get something definitive regarding whether the 'verse was single star or a multiple star system, but I thing Josh Weddon prefers to retain a bit of mystery about his creation. The firefly online dev's will just have make that part up as they go.
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To the everlasting glory of the infantry...

[wydraz]

I doubt Joss will ever give us a definitive answer, but those that worked on the series and the movie will, and that's good enough for me to be 'official'. The folks at The SIgnal have answered an email I sent about this topic, and they said that there would be an answer and a new map coming soon from Qmx.
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[gogo]

I would say its a single star system cause we never saw more than one sun in the series. And they say that they found a system with dozens of planets and hundreds of moons.

Further i think the teachers map would be more 'revisionist' than washs map. The alliance would want to suppress references to reavers and the outer planets not under alliance control.
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[wydraz]

[llamabread]

There's no way to know what the "Official" map is, multi stars or just one, there just going to have to run with it. But, from a game perspective, it depends on the amount of content on each planet or moon. If you have alot, with only three or four planets and accompanying moons, then one star makes the most sense. If you upwards of ten planets and over twenty moons, a multiple star system starts to sound attractive.
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[Red River]

I am convinced it's Centauri system with at least 3 stars and planets 'round each!
farther more, we might have seen one of the other stars in the night sky in the episode where hillfolks try to burn River.. look closely and ya notice a very bright moon-like object shine above. but it's a tad too small to be like our Moon or it as well could be either a tiny moon or another sun!

[TR0LL]

Just a possibilitie without much thought behind it, but what if the teachers map is the galaxy and each of thoes "planets" are actually individual solar systems? again, just a thought.

[Owain]

[MightyAl]

I tend to agree with the different purpose/different map school of thought. The charts used by someone navigating a ship at sea bear no resemblance to your local A-Z, or even to an OS land map. What shows up on Wash's screen is the equivalent of the sea navigators charts, showing frequently travelled lanes, and whatever celestial equivalent of sandbars etc exist. The one from the classroom would just be the one used to give kids a basic idea of what's out there.
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This calls for a blend of psychology and extreme viloence!

[cabridges]

Also possible the Teacher Map was of one star system only, where the larger map displayed the entire 'verse with several stars in it.

[Tyshalle]

I've always looked at it as a single star system. That one map Wash uses seems to be the only real evidence to it being possible that there's more than one star in the system, and everyone takes this as gospel while conveniently ignoring the Teacher's map, which is far more comprehensive and much less confusing.

The whole concept of the 'verse being a single solar system makes much more sense. If there were multiple systems the idea of core and outer planets gets much more confusing and it takes a pretty big stretch of the imagination to figure out how something like that would work out. Typically the reasons given for multi-systems is the sort of awkward excuses like you hear from all the Star Trek/Star Wars fanatics who apologize and create all sorts of crazy ideas for why both shows are perfect and never wrong.

A lot of people bring up the idea that if there's only a single star there'd be no way to heat the planets, but this is pretty stupid logic, and a basic knowledge of atmospheric pressure would show you why that's not really an issue for people who have the technology to terraform so many different kinds of planets/moons. Besides that, gas giants could potentially create quite a bit of heat, and it's very, very possible that Wash's panel was actually showing gas giants instead of stars.

Plus Joss has said that it was one solar system. Maybe he's said both, but I've only ever heard him say multi-system from people who claim that he's said it, I've never heard it in an interview, like I have for the single solar system.

[Red River]