Back in December 2002 a million voices cried out in terror, and were suddenly silenced by the Fox network. It probably sounded a bit like the noise you made when you read the title of this feature.

Defending the decision to cancel Joss Whedon's beloved sci-fi show after just 14 episodes might seem like geek treason, but whilst Fox's intentions were borderline criminal, the results were nothing short of revolutionary.

Related: Fox is open to a Firefly reboot - but only if Joss Whedon is on board

First things first: Firefly is one of the greatest sci-fi shows of all time. The closest thing to Star Wars since 1983, and arguably the best thing Joss Whedon has ever made, it's the holy grail of space-western comedy-dramas. In the 12 years since it was canned, the short-lived series has become a cult phenomenon for good reason. In 2007, the box set was even rocketed up to the International Space Station's intergalactic DVD library (which, to be fair, also includes 50 First Dates and G.I. Jane) – a fact which gave the fans little comfort as the years slipped by without any hope of a comeback.

It might still be thought of as the greatest tragedy to rock the sci-fi world since Jar Jar Binks, but somewhere in a dark alternate reality, Firefly never got cancelled and everyone's lives are much more miserable.

For one thing, we wouldn't have Serenity. Designed to wrap up the story in two hours instead of 20, Whedon convinced Universal to buy the rights from Fox and turn whatever was left of his show into a cut-price feature film. Proving that sci-fi didn't always need Bruckheimer-breaking budgets to tell a decent story (or turn a decent profit), Serenity came out in the same summer as Star Wars Episode III: Revenge Of The Sith and ended up winning a lot more fans.

What's more, Whedon – who had spent the past 15 years leading the TV revolution and polishing everyone else's movie scripts – was suddenly thrown behind the camera of his very first film. Given the chance to hone his skills with a cast of friends (and no franchise fanfare), Serenity was the perfect showcase for TV's wunderkind – whose big-screen follow up would go on to become the third highest grossing film of all time. If Firefly had been given the chance to run its full course and Serenity never happened, would Marvel have been so quick to hand over the reins of The Avengers to a debut director?

Of course, if the show had been given the chance to run its full course, there's a pretty good chance it would have shot itself in the foot anyway. As great as Whedon's back catalogue is, he hasn't made a single show that hasn't jumped the shark. Buffy The Vampire Slayer should have stayed dead with its heroine at the end of season five, Angel went downhill as soon as Connor was born, no-one should have had to watch the rubbish ending of Dollhouse and Agents of SHIELD is still trying to find a shark worth jumping over. Cut off in its prime, at least Firefly was spared a slow, painful death – remaining Whedon's most flawless, most fully accomplished work to date.

And it's not just the director's career that benefited from the axe. Gifted the chance to play wonderfully written characters without having to be tied to them for years – Nathan Fillion (Castle), Gina Torres (Suits), Morena Baccarin (Homeland), Summer Glau (Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles) and Christina Hendricks (Mad Men) all survived the typecast trap and went on to leading roles in other successful shows.

Great for Joss, good for Mal, but the biggest winners remain the fans – even if they don't want to admit it. Back in 2002, the only thing TV networks cared about was the ratings. It didn't matter how many DVDs got sold, or how many episodes were downloaded; if there weren't enough bums on living-room seats, the show was a dud. Suffering a violent backlash from Firefly's previously unseen, unheard fans, Fox realised too late that they had a bankable show on their hands.

With the likes of Mad Men and Community setting the new template for US TV (slowly building a dedicated boxset fan base that pays off in sales rather than commercial breaks), it's Firefly's sacrifice that paved the way. Fox made a huge mistake in airing episodes out of order and falsely promoting the show as a zany comedy, but they learned from it – much to the benefit of everyone since.

With the likes of Netflix and Amazon picking up the running costs of anything mildly successful, and Kickstarter encouraging the rest of us to fork out for anything that might be, there's no chance that Firefly would have been cancelled again today. If only for the fact that it made those changes possible, I'm glad that it was.

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