Malcolm Reynolds
Encyclopedia : M : MA : MAL : Malcolm Reynolds
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| Mal | ||
| Name | Malcolm “Mal” Reynolds | |
| Occupation | Captain of Serenity | |
| Gender | Male | |
| Born | 20 September, 2486 | |
| Home world | Shadow | |
| Portrayed by | Nathan Fillion | |
Malcolm "Mal" Reynolds is a character in the science fiction television series Firefly, played by actor Nathan Fillion. In the series, Reynolds is the captain of the Firefly-class spaceship Serenity. The character was named #18 in TV Guide
Fillion won the "Cinescape Genre Face of the Future Award - Male" award by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films, USA for his role as Malcolm Reynolds.
Character concept and creation
Conceived by Joss Whedon, the character Malcolm Reynolds was the only definite character he had in mind when formulating the ensemble cast. He wanted a hero, but not a hero in the classic sense; someone that is "everything that a hero is not."Whedon, Serenity: The Official Visual Companion, 11In the proposed pilot, Mal was "dour" and FOX Network did not like this and so when the wrote a new pilot ("Train Job"), Whedon created a more "jolly" captain.Whedon, Train Job: Director's Commentary, Track 1
Character sketch
Motivations
Malcolm's main mission is to keep his crew alive and to keep his ship flying. As Firefly writer Tim Minear stated in an interview: "It's just about getting by. That's always been the mission statement of what the show is -- getting by."Conflicts
- Badger - Mal comes into conflict with this character in "Serenity", but when he meets him again in "Shindig" he keeps everything strictly business.
- Niska - When Mal doesn't finish the job for him during "The Train Job" he is later held to account for it in "War Stories"
- The Operative - the antagonist of the movie Serenity.
Relationships
- Zoë - very close. They fought and survived a war together. It's the one person he can count on the most.
- Inara - unresolved sexual tension between them is one of the character arcs of the series.
Biographical summary
Prior story
Mal was born on September 20, 2486 and was brought up on a ranch on the planet Shadow. Raised by his mother and "about 40 hands", Mal apparently received a fairly decent education whilst growing up. Though Mal usually seems more practical than intellectual, he occasionally surprises his friends by displaying familiarity in a wide range of literature varying from the works of Shan Yu (a fictional psychotic dictator) to poems by Samuel Taylor Coleridge (he does, however, have no idea "who" Mona Lisa is).Mal volunteered for the Independents army during the Unification War against the Alliance, gaining the rank of sergeant during that time. His loyal second-in-command Zoë was by his side for most of the war, surviving many dangerous conflicts with him. The show mentions three such battles, including the Battle of Du-Khang in 2510 (featured in "The Message") and a long winter campaign in New Kashmir (as told by Zoë in "War Stories") where he commanded a platoon. Mal was also involved in the ground campaign during the Battle of Sturges ( comics), which according to Badger was the "bloodiest and shortest battle in all the war", although Mal considers it a distant second. Mal fought in many more battles, but the turning point for him and the Independents came with their physical and emotional defeat at the Battle of Serenity Valley on the planet Hera. On-screen information from the film Serenity suggests that Mal was given a brevet promotion to Captain during the Battle of Serenity Valley to take command of the ever-increasing number of Independent troops who were losing their officers at the hands of the Alliance. This might explain why, in one of the deleted scenes from the Firefly pilot, Mal is described as having commanded at least 2000 men. On-screen information in Serenity shows him to have been attached to the 57th Overlanders Brigade; in the series pilot, Badger calls it the "Balls and Bayonets Brigade", though it is unclear whether that was a disparaging nickname coined by Badger himself or the actual unit sobriquet (According to Alliance records shown in a deleted scene in the film Serenity it is the unit's sobriquet). [[Citing sources citation needed]]
After the war, Mal acquired his own ship, an old (broken) 03-K64 Firefly-class transport whose previous owner was a man named Captain Harbatkin (Mal never got around to changing the registration papers). The ship was christened Serenity after one of the most decisive battles of the Unification War. On board Serenity and during his various travels, Mal continues to wear his brown coat and wields a standard issue officer's pistol as his weapon of choice, a gun which he has had since the war and which he has modified extensively. [link]
In \"Serenity\" the pilot
In the opening of the series pilot, he speaks of God when rallying his troops, and kisses a cross hanging from his neck before going into battle during the Battle of Serenity Valley. Later, however, he is uncomfortable having Shepherd Book on his ship, and the two characters' difference of opinion on the matter of religion throughout the series is a constant source of (usually friendly) conflict. In this episode, Mal tells Book shortly after he arrives on board Serenity, "You're welcome on my boat. God ain't."
Mal's crisis of faith is elaborated further in a deleted scene from the pilot episode, which gives more detail on the losses in the battle. After the Battle of Serenity Valley, both sides leave the survivors without medical attention for a week while negotiating the truce. Over half of them die of their wounds or disease (similar to the immediate aftermath of the American Civil War battle of Cold Harbor). When medical ships finally arrive, his response to Zoë's utterance of "Thank God," is "God? Whose color's he flyin'?."
In \"The Train Job\"
In this episode, it is revealed that Mal is a man of compassion. He refuses to follow through with the job for which he was hired when he learns it is a vital medicine for a needy colony.
In \"Ariel\"
He is very protective of his crew and fiercely loyal. He retains the idea that you never leave someone behind and, once you are a part of his crew, you are assured his protection. He treats an attack on a member of his crew as being tantamount to a direct assault on him and will not stand for it. In this episode, Mal utters this line after discovering that Jayne Cobb attempted to betray Simon and River: "... you turn on any of my crew, you turn on me...".
In the movie Serenity
By the time of the events of Serenity, Mal seems to have hardened slightly and become a little more coarse. (He also seems to be in the process of slowly losing some of the ideals and honor he had been clinging to). Besides the above mentioned shootings, this is perhaps best illustrated by a conversation with Zoë, where when she says "It's just... in a time of war, we would have never left a man behind", Mal responds "Maybe that's why we lost". Also, (although she is upset at the time and perhaps not being entirely fair), Kaylee makes comments that indicate that she believes that Mal is drawing inward and slowly pushing everyone around him away. By the end of the movie, however, he seems to have regained some of his old self. In the commentary for the Serenity DVD Joss says that by the end of the film Mal has opened up and become more at peace. When River says to him, before his ending comments about love, "I like to hear you say it" Joss states that she says this because at the beginning of the film Mal wouldn't have been able to say those things about love, showing how his character has grown. A line from Zoë, commenting both on the condition of Serenity and Zoe herself "She's tore up plenty, but she'll fly true" could probably be applied to Mal as well.
Themes
Though Mal loses faith in God and religion, he retains a strong faith in humanity. Though wary in his personal dealings, he puts great stock in the fundamental goodness of people in general. This faith in an individuals' abilities to do the right thing manifests strongly in his very negative view of governmental institutions. "Governments," he says in the pilot, are for "getting in a man's way." The Alliance, whose government seems particularly fond of interference and regulation, is thus his logical nemesis. His contempt for the Alliance never completely disappears (although he once said that he "wouldn't mind makin' a buck off 'em", implying that if the Alliance wanted to hire him for a job, he might consider it), and, although he was on the losing side of the Unification War, years later he still isn't convinced it was the wrong one. Though he loathes the Alliance, he acknowledges he lost the fight against them and is now looking purely to keep out of their reach; this is best summed in his comment in Serenity, "I just wanna go my way." However, throughout the course of the film Serenity, Mal comes to learn more of the Alliance's dark secrets, which rekindles his fighting spirit and causes him to once again take up the fight against the oppressive regime. Mal expresses his newfound resolve during his speech - "They [the Alliance] will swing back to the belief that they can make people... better. And I do not hold to that. So no more runnin'. I aim to misbehave." His anti-government attitude is reflected in his choice to live on a spaceship, drifting from world to world, as far away from Alliance interference as possible.Trivia
- Malcolm means "serenity" in Vulcanhttp://homepage.eircom.net/~odyssey/Quotes/Popular/SciFi/Enterprise.html
- He is commonly called Mal in the show but he was also called "Captain Tightpants" by Kaylee in the episode "Shindig" and this name has become popular with the Browncoats (Firefly fans).
Notes
References
External links
| The Firefly series | ||
| Episodes | Serenity | The Train Job | Bushwhacked | Shindig | Safe | Our Mrs. Reynolds | Jaynestown | Out of Gas | Ariel | War Stories | Trash | The Message | Heart of Gold | Objects in Space | |
| Articles | Minor characters | Moons and planets | The Alliance | Blue Sun | Unification War | Serenity | |
| Terminology | Reaver | Browncoat | Curse words in Firefly | Companion | |
| Spin-offs | R. Tam sessions | | Serenity film | Serenity RPG | |
| Music | Firefly soundtrack | Serenity soundtrack | |
| Main characters | Derrial Book | Jayne Cobb | Kaylee Frye | Malcolm Reynolds | Inara Serra | River Tam | Simon Tam | Hoban Washburne | Zoë Washburne | |
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