Firefly Review Part 3 - Is it Science Fiction?

You know I don't really care, if it's good I like it. Some of the best TV I've watched this year has not been SF. But, seeing as this *is* as Science Fiction blog I think the question should be discussed.

Initially I would have said no, that it was just a western set in space. Similar accusation are slung against Star Wars frequently, but lets not go there.

There is no obviously SF story arc in Firefly, no set-up pulled from the SF bag (of cliches?). Compare that to BSG, "an apocalypse of the human race is brought about by robots that they built and they are forced to flee across the galaxy in a ragtag fleet". That is the sort of pitch that even media executives would classify as SF. But Firefly is different, the premise is pure cowboy western, frontier worlds, smuggling, theft. But there are two things in Firefly that create great SF potential. Firstly they have a spaceship! That means that anything SF could probably happen if they wanted it to. Some of the episodes are more space based than others but it's there. Secondly, River. A young girl hacked into some new Dark Angel style weapon, who's gone a bit loopy and can read minds and is a genius.
Unfortunately both of these things never got a chance to be explored fully in the series. The movie trailer hints that we shall see some more or River....