List of minor characters in the Firefly universe

This article is about minor characters in the television series Firefly (defined as any characters appearing in the show, or the follow-up movie Serenity, who aren't core cast members - the crew of the spaceship Serenity).

Badger
One of the crew's contacts on the moon-planet Persephone, Badger, portrayed by Mark Sheppard appeared in the pilot episode of the series, "Serenity". Badger, an "honest businessman" refused to pay for cargo that he had commissioned the crew to retrieve after they were spotted by Alliance forces. At the time, Badger threatened to provide information to the Alliance about Malcolm Reynolds and his salvage operation. Although Badger can't be trusted, he apparently is consistent enough that Reynolds is willing to do business with him.

Badger reappeared in the episode "Shindig", and hired the crew again to collect some cargo (in truth a herd of cattle) from a "fancy reception" where he was unwelcome. In this episode he is shown eating an apple in the exact way that Mal and Zoë do in War Stories — with a knife, rather than by biting into the fruit directly. Mal and Zoë do this out of habit, having seen fellow soldiers killed by pressure sensitive grenades disguised as apples during the Unification War; some have speculated that Badger's parallel habit is a subtle reference to his service in the war.

In the Serenity comic book, Badger sets events in motion by providing Reynolds with his initial contract.

Badger speaks with a cockney accent, identified and imitated by River Tam.

Joss Whedon originally wrote the character with the intention of playing the role himself.

Bester
Bester was Serenity ' s original engine mechanic, portrayed by Dax Griffin. At some point before the events of Firefly (as shown in a flashback in "Out of Gas"), Malcolm Reynolds caught him having sex with a local girl, soon identified as Kaylee Frye, in the engine room. Mal demands to know what's wrong with the engine, and a increasingly flustered Bester is repeatedly superseded by Kaylee's knowledge of ship engine workings, then fired by Mal in favor of Kaylee.

Sheriff Bourne
Sheriff Bourne is the sheriff of Paradiso, a mining town. When Mal, Zoë, and Jayne rob the train between Hancock and Paradiso, Sheriff Bourne questions Mal and Zoë, who are pretending to be newlyweds, coming to Paradiso to find work in the mines. Bourne realized there was something questionable about their story, but when Inara arrived claiming Mal was her indentured servant, he thought that was the problem. Later, as Mal was preparing to return the stolen medicine to Paradiso, Bourne and a posse tracked him down. Sheriff Bourne was played by Gregg Henry.

Ranse Burgess
Ranse Burgess, played by Fredric Lehne is a rancher who ran afoul of the crew of Serenity when he decided to wage war against a brothel run by Nandi, a former Companion and friend of Inara Serra. Malcolm Reynolds and his crew helped lay out the defense of the brothel when Burgess attacked to try to take the son he begat on one of the whores, Petaline.

Lawrence Dobson
Lawrence Dobson, played by Carlos Jacott, is an undercover Alliance agent in pursuit of Simon and River Tam. When he suspects to have found Simon on the planet Persephone, he joins him together with the Shepherd Derrial Book as passenger on board Serenity.

Soon after having left the planet he attempts to contact the Alliance to report his discovery. When the crew discovers the transmission, they find Dobson in the cargo bay with his gun aimed at Simon. After a moment of panic, he shoots Kaylee and is knocked out by Book. He is locked up for a while, and when interrogated by Jayne, he attempts to bribe him for his freedom.

By the time the ship arrives at the moon Whitefall, Dobson escapes his quarters, beats up Shepherd Book and attempts again, unsuccessfully, to contact the Alliance. He then finds River and tries to leave the ship while holding her at gunpoint.

Malcolm Reynolds, returning from his mission, immediately notices the situation and shoots Dobson in the head. Mal and Jayne then toss him from the ship, leaving him for dead.

Lawrence Dobson returns in the three issue Serenity comic book series, which takes place after the TV show. He appears alive, but with an ocular implant where Mal had shot him in the eye. Obsessed with seeking revenge on Reynolds, Dobson joins the Hands of Blue in finding Serenity, its captain and the Tam siblings.

When the two finally meet again, Mal shoots the former agent (first in his good eye), and kills him for good.

In the "Serenity" episode, Lawrence Dobson's initial clumsiness and common appearance contrasts him to the viewer (and the other characters) with the more suspicious looking Simon Tam, to conceal Dobson's role as villain on the ship. This is an effect shared by other Joss Whedon characters portrayed by actor Carlos Jacott, where he also switches from seeming innocent, clumsy and unimportant to being someone with more malicious intentions.

Jubal Early
Jubal Early is a bounty hunter that appeared in the finale episode "Objects in Space". Jubal boards Serenity with the intention to kidnap River Tam in return for a bounty. Jubal was played by Richard Brooks. Joss Whedon's DVD commentary for this episode reveals that Early was partly inspired by the Star Wars character Boba Fett.

Early is extremely athletic and is clearly adept at unarmed combat. He is also intelligent and somewhat eccentric, given to rambling on philosophic matters in the middle of tense situations. He may be hard of hearing or easily distractable, as he repeatedly mishears what others are saying to him.

Various websites claim that the producers picked the name because American Civil War Confederate General Jubal Anderson Early is an ancestor of Firefly star Nathan Fillion, but there is no known reliable source for this claim. Nevertheless, the bounty hunter's name is derived from the historical figure's and keeps in tone the show's repeated references to the American Civil War.

Hands of Blue
The "Hands of Blue" are a pair of mysterious men portrayed by Dennis Cockrum and Jeff Ricketts who wear suits and blue gloves. They most likely have some connection with the Alliance and the Blue Sun Corporation, and are in pursuit of River and Simon Tam. They will not hesitate to kill off anyone who has had contact with River, using a handheld device that induces fatal bleeding to anyone near it (except themselves).

The pair are never officially named in either Firefly or Serenity. In The Train Job DVD commentary, Joss Whedon refers to them as "the men with blue hands" and "the blue-hands men". IMDB's cast listings name each of them as a "Blue Glove", perhaps the most accurate moniker. However, "Hands of Blue" seems to have become a fanon name for the otherwise unnamed pair, from River's "two by two... hands of blue..." litany (in reference to there being four blue-gloved hands between the two men.)

In the Serenity comics, the blue "gloves" are shown to extend to and cover the upper body as well. They are also killed in the comics to make way for the Operative.

Sir Warwick Harrow
Sir Warwick Harrow, played by Larry Drake, was a nobleman on Persephone who had a cargo he needed to move off planet. He refused to deal with Badger, but Badger managed to hook him up with Mal Reynolds. When Reynolds was challenged to a duel by Atherton Wing, Sir Warwick served as his second. The manner in which Reynolds handled himself leading up to the duel and during the duel made Sir Warwick decide to trust him with his cargo.

Stitch Hessian
Stitch Hessian was a one-time comrade of Jayne Cobb. The two of them carried off a raid on Higgins' Moon, but when their craft was tagged by anti-aircraft fire, Jayne pushed Stitch off. Stitch was captured by Boss Higgins's men and put into solitary confinement until released when the crew of Serenity returned to Higgins' Moon. He was portrayed by Kevin Gage.

Mingo and Fanty
Mingo and Fanty are twin brothers who appeared in the Serenity comic as well as the film. They are seen as fences for goods acquired by Mal Reynolds and the crew of the Serenity. Although identical twins, Reynolds is able to tell the two of them apart. They were portrayed in the film by twin brothers Yan and Raphael Feldman.

Mr. Universe
Mr. Universe, a reclusive techno-geek, appeared only in the movie Serenity, portrayed by David Krumholtz. He lives (apparently) alone on a planet with his love-bot "wife," Lenore (portrayed by Nectar Rose). He has a great affinity for data, and is capable of intercepting nearly any transmission or recording in the system.

In the novelization for the movie Serenity, he is revealed to have been a student at the same flight school as Wash, achieving the highest possible grades by manipulating the school's software.

He was killed by the Operative, but had set plans in motion for Malcolm Reynolds to broadcast a report from an Alliance officer that revealed the origins of the Reavers.

Nandi
Nandi, played by Melinda Clarke, was a Companion who knew Inara on Sihnon before they both left the planet. Nandi gave up her life as a companion to become a brothel madame, overseeing common whores. When Petaline, one of her girls, got pregnant with a local landowner's son, she called Inara to see if the crew of Serenity could help against Ranse Burgess. In the resulting shoot out, Nandi and Mal had a brief affair before Nandi was killed and Petaline took over the brothel. Nandi's death led to Inara's decision to return to Sihnon.

Adelei Niska
Adelei Niska is a major crime lord of the Firefly universe, played by Michael Fairman. Thoroughly ruthless in his business practices, he is dedicated to maintaining his reputation for exacting terrible reprisals on those that fail him - a reputation well-deserved, as Malcolm Reynolds and Wash discover in War Stories. He frequently spouts rather brutal philosophy while torturing his victims, notably that of the fictional dictator Shan Yu

The Operative
Appearing in the series' follow-up comic and the movie, Serenity, the nameless and rank-less Operative is the most obvious antagonist in the film. The role was played by Chiwetel Ejiofor.

Working directly for the Parliament of the Alliance, he single-mindedly hunts down River Tam because he believes that his actions "make the world a better place". He is shown to have little problem with killing as part of his job, ruthlessly murdering several people using his sword, and also ordering the attacks that were responsible for the death of, among others, Derrial Book.

By the end of the movie, Mal manages to give the Operative doubts about his mission by forcing him to watch a report by another Alliance officer, revealing that it was the Alliance itself that had been responsible for creating the Reavers in an attempt to subdue the population of the planet Miranda.

Patience
Patience, an elderly woman, is the maternal leader of the backwater moon, Whitefall, and notorious in the backstory of the crew of Serenity for having previously shot Mal. Despite this, Mal takes the crew to her in order to shift some troubling cargo in the pilot episode, "Serenity", and despite her treachery successfully sells the cargo. She is portrayed by Bonnie Bartlett.

Saffron
See Saffron (Firefly)

Tracey Smith
Tracey Smith was a war buddy of Malcolm Reynolds and Zoë Alleyne from the war against the Alliance. Mal helped get Tracey through the war, but after the war Tracey became something of a drifter, eventually falling in with organ smugglers. When he ran afoul of them, he arraned to have his apparently dead body shipped to Reynolds for transportation back home. In reality, Tracey was in cryosleep, trying to doublecross the organ smugglers. He informed Mal that he sought out Mal and Zoe because they were chumps. he was portrayed by Jonathan M. Woodward.

Gabriel and Regan Tam
Gabriel and Regan Tam are River and Simon's parents. Well to do, they take great pride in their social position and Simon's achievement. They support the Alliance and don't believe it could or would do anything to harm their daughter, River, who was in their care in a special school. As Simon began to jeopardize both his position and their standing, they warned him not to rock the boat. Gabriel Tam was played by William Converse-Roberts and Regan Tam was played by Isabella Hofmann.

Atherton Wing
Atherton Wing is a young nobleman on Persephone who has hired Inara Serra on multiple occasions, on some of which he has proposed marriage to her. At a fancy ball, he challenged Mal Reynolds to a duel after Mal struck him. Wing was known on Persephone as a master with a sword, a weapon which Mal was unfamiliar with. The character was played by Edward Atterton.