Simon Tam: The Odd One Out in Firefly’s Crew
Although Firefly was a short-lived show, it managed to create a plethora of memorable characters. It’s difficult to label any of them as the worst, but Simon Tam stands out as the most out of place and least sensible among them. His presence on the crew was more a matter of convenience than anything else, as he initially had a phobia of empty space and struggled to fit in with the rest of the crew despite his useful medical skills.
In many shows, a medic serves as a crucial character who can patch people up and handle the trauma that crews like Firefly’s would inevitably face. However, Simon’s sister River proved to be far more valuable than him, as even his mannerisms prevented him from truly connecting with anyone unless he was intoxicated.
Why Simon Tam is the Weakest Link
The rationale behind calling Simon the worst character on the show is simple: in most other shows, medics either stay away from the fighting or are right in the thick of it, but they know how to fight. There are medics who wouldn’t know how to handle a gun if given a month to train, but Simon is the kind of guy you wouldn’t want around anything other than the tools he knows how to use. Some medics can fight, some choose not to, but Simon appeared to have no knowledge of how to fight whatsoever. In contrast, his sister was a significant asset to the crew when it was discovered that she could fight better than most of them.
Labeling him the worst character in this context is reasonable, as a person who can’t fight but can work magic when handling massive trauma is useful only to the extent that they can be given the time and space needed to keep someone from dying. In the heat of battle, a medic is valuable, but only if they have someone nearby to protect them or are capable of defending themselves. This would undoubtedly spark debate, as many medics in TV shows and movies don’t necessarily walk in with the expectation of knowing how to fight. Their discipline leans more toward helping people stay alive rather than taking life, but there are characters who understand the need for self-preservation as well. It’s challenging to imagine a medic who would take a life while saving another, but the idea is sound enough since there are those who could do both and rationalize the act. However, it doesn’t seem like Simon could ever do this, as his capability as a medic is nearly impossible to dispute, but seeing him as anything else is difficult.
Simon Tam’s Struggles with Belonging
One of the main reasons Simon is considered the worst character on the show is his inability to fit in with the crew. However, it’s essential to note that being the worst isn’t necessarily a bad thing, as Firefly didn’t have any characters who were so terrible that they detracted from the show. The idea of Simon being a part of the crew was awkward and never stopped feeling that way. Among a group of roughnecks and veterans, he was the prim and proper type who had stories of getting drunk and doing things that a college kid would do, which wasn’t too impressive to those who had been coasting through space for so long. Additionally, his inability to contribute much during a battle was hard to overlook, as the Firefly crew had to defend themselves on numerous occasions. His initial difficulty in getting along with most of the crew didn’t help either.
Simon never truly felt like he belonged with the crew, no matter how hard he tried. He was a wealthy kid who had gone through medical school and essentially done nothing dangerous until it was time to rescue his sister from the facility that was torturing her. While there’s no doubt that he had good intentions as a moral human being, his character arc and ability to help in more than a medical sense made him a less-than-ideal character for Firefly.
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More seriously:
Designating someone a “bad character” is about whether they make for a good narrative construct.
Not being a fighter or not fitting in socially/culturally with other characters are narratively neutral traits. They can be written well, they can be written badly. One could argue that in an action-heavy show, it’s harder to write non-fighter characters as contributing meaningfully to the plot, but to a skilled writer this shouldn’t be an obstacle, and Firefly seems to manage it well enough.
As a counterexample:
I love all of the Firefly crew but I’d have to say River comes closest to what I consider a bad character… for the simple reason that due to the way her ‘insanity’ is written, she is more of a prop than a character. In any given scene, she generally can be written as showing any kind of behaviour that the scene needs (being crazy and unstable, being mostly lucid and sweet, being curled up in a ball or being a kickass fighter) with very little justification other than “it’s another of River’s moods”. Because River has no real established sense of self, there is no story tension along the lines of “ohh, this character is in a situation that pushes the to do X but we know they actually want to do Y, how will they resolve this?”.
In some sense, this lack of knowing what to expect adds to the tragedy of what happened to her, but River’s pre-Academy self never gets enough focus for us to truly appreciate her as a person who has been destroyed.
Personally, the fault lies with the writer and the actor, since it’s up to both of them to bring the character to life with great dialogue and sense of belonging to the story, if not necessarily to the group they’re with, and in the opinion of many, this character didn’t do either. But this is about a character, not those pulling the strings. Thanks for your feedback though, it was interesting, in a good way.