Doctor Simon Tam

[ray gower]

What makes the characters in Firefly tick?

The series finished before it got going, leaving a huge hole in what we know and understand about them. So there must be some good theories about them, so let's have some thoughts?

Let us have a go at Simon here?

[ray gower]

One way or other I think we get a good glimpse at the Doctor.

He is, or would be regarded as, a prodigy in his field. Along with his straight laced attitudes and obviously rich and civilised upbringing, it makes him the biggest misfit of our intrepid team.

His feelings for his fellow man keep showing through. Firstly with his sister, whom he risked everything to rescue, included being ostricised by his own family, let alone becoming a fugitive from the law.

But it is also shown else where, like where he was taken captive and calmly settled to treating the sick.

Not sure if his life is entirely comfortable, Mal appears to be ambiguous, Jayne dislikes him and he obviously has difficulty living a life that is contradiction to everything he knew.

He does appear to be coming to terms with the later, his plans for stealing medicines was inch perfect, right up to and including his partners in crime what to say and do. A budding Master Criminal?

But even here we can find some questions:-

Why is status so important to his parents that they would happily surrender not only their daughter, but their son as well?

Why would Mal be so interested in keeping him aboard the ship?
As a bucaneer Mal is not exactly at peace with authority, to willingly encourage a fugitive to join is pushing things.

[Tabitha]

I did find his parent's obtuseness on the subject of River's incarceration/schooling a little unsettling. At first in 'Safe' they come off like loving and involved parents, but later they seem to be actively avoiding any suggestion that there is anything wrong with River.
This just doesn't fit in my opinion. Do you think there might be something going on with the Feds and the parents? Perhaps River was some kind of experiment that her parents actually knew about? Perhaps Simon is too? Perhaps they were being blackmailed in order to prevent them raising a fuss over River's treatment?

Simon is certainly the most transparent character, well, apart from Kaylee I suppose. His motives and actions come from quite a natural place, and he seems to have been a victim of circumstances, leading to some significant character development (i.e. the break-in in Ariel).

I have taken Mal's relationship with these two at face value. One part cynical and anti-fed, wanting to do anything that will show some defiance to the established order, and one part compassion, looking out for the little guy (go read Heart of Gold, you'll see much more of what I mean). I doubt if there is much more to it than that, but perhaps some illumination on what exactly his problem with the feds actually is. But perhaps that could be discussed further in a Mal thread

[ray gower]

I am not a great expert on socio/political structures and theory, but I am thoroughly interested in political history, so I wonder if Simon's parents may be caught in one?

We know that they are rich, but we also know that the Alliance can be ruthless in their heartlands. The secret police, or what ever the Blue Hand boys are, are quite adept at killing people they think may be party to something not quite permitted.

Whilst people are good 'party' members and make the small sacrifices the state requires, then the state will repay in kind, allowing one to acrue what ever you have a mind to. Start to deviate from the straight and narrow and the descent to outcast is meteoric and permanent.
This allied with a highly divided class structure, where status is everything, I could well see resulting in a certain level of cavalier attitude to the loss of an off-spring. Off-spring can be replaced, status cannot.
This would certainly bare comparison with Stalinist Russia

What threw a spanner into the well laid plans of things for Simon's parents was that Simon decided he cared more for his sister than social standing.

As for Mal- don't wait on me to speculate

[Lonewolf89]

Why would Mal be so interested in keeping him aboard the ship?

I think Mal sees a part of what he could have been in Simon, if he hadn’t been pushed into the Resistance. I think Mal also thinks there will be some benefits of having him on board. Similar to Inara, Simon can give him a certain respectability in the backwater worlds they visit, and as you’ve said, he’s a budding criminal. Plus, as we've seen in past episodes the crew finds ways to get injured during every job. Maybe Mal just got sick of the bad heath care.

My guess about Simon’s parents is they knew just how dangerous it would be for them if they tried to rescue River so they weren’t willing to take the risks that Simon was.

If Firefly is picked up by another network I hope we get to see Simon’s darker side. He obviously has some guts if he managed to deal with shady characters to save his sister. Also I hope we get to see more flashbacks about his Parent's interaction with him and River, maybe they'll even track them down.

[Dave]

Originally posted by Lonewolf89
I hope we get to see Simon’s darker side. He obviously has some guts if he managed to deal with shady characters to save his sister.

I think he just gave them bundles of money and the money talked. 'Jaynestown' shows how he is totally out of his depth in any fight situation, how he cannot lie or put on an act, and has difficulty living below his station in life.

[Rik_the_Riff]

On the family thing; interesting..... I reckon his parents just didn't want to challenge anything they viewed as 'the system' - I'd guess that they're one of these conservative upper-middle-class families too lost in their own world to understand that the system *can* do anything ethically wrong, least of all to *their* daughter.