Inara

Name: Inara Serra
Role: Companion

The Character

Played by Morena Baccarin, Inara, as a "Companion" which is essentially a licensed prostitute, is the ideal candidate for and accepted as the ambassador of the ship.

Inara and Mal have a kind of romantic tension towards each other and the rest of the crew are fairly wise to the matter. Inara, however, doesn't include the crew in her list of possible clientele and so would not allow the tension to go anywhere.

Alot of the time, Inaras status can't get access for the ship to places that it would normally have difficulty in going to.