First off, Fox sucks. That's why I'm using Wikipedia's Firefly article to get the airdates and episode order, because of not showing this in the first place.

That aside, this was a pretty good introduction to the series. Would have been nice to see this first so as to interpret Simon as a possibly sinister character.

I caught the show when it came out on DVD, so happily, I didn't run into airing order problems. However, by then I'd seen all of the movie ads, so I knew Kaylee wasn't dead, either. But this is one of the few pilot episodes that I think are really very well done and fit perfectly with the series. We're introduced to all of the characters in a way that isn't jarring or ham-handed, and the subtle Blue Sun references everywhere are excellent.

Also, I want Badger's fruit peeler.

This episode is periodically my favorite episode (as are most of the other episodes from time to time). I think it's a brilliant pilot. And I also think that FOX fucked up on a monumental level by not airing it first. The Train Job does an okay job of introducing us to this universe, but it's nowhere near as good as Serenity, imo. Remember when FOX was airing all those previews that showed "a girl in a box", and then we see the first aired episode and. . .no girl in a box? And then to air this episode last? Bad move. This episode gives a great intro to all the characters and that's something that The Train Job didn't really have the time to do. There are so many lovely touches in this one-- Wash's brilliant, dino-playing intro, Mal's loss of faith in the opening teaser, the girl in the box moment, etc. Kudos, Joss.

ITA that this episode is so much better than "The Train Job." I also caught this show on DVD and by the end of this episode I was, seriously, on that ship. Like, I thought I was there. I didn't know every character's name yet, but I think this episode does such an amazing job of showcasing absolutely everyone and showing you exactly who they are. That's what a pilot is supposed to do, right? Right, FOX?

Here's the thing that confused me. Book's confession to Inara, it made sense in the context of the episode. But that sense that Book was in the wrong place did not get developed in future episodes. I'm sure this is mostly because of Fox not airing this as the premiere and so Joss and company kind of left it hanging. And I know, that if they had more time than 14 epsisodes and a movie, more things could have been developed. My complaint is that everything else introduced in the Pilot managed to get introduced in future episodes, but this got dropped.

I never thought it was necessary in the first place. I don't think Book really should have ever felt he was in the wrong place- they made it so clear later that he was completely used to this kind of brigadeering lifestyle.

Also, from this episode I never got any sense of why Book stayed on Serenity. He signed on for a simple transport, but when they got to where they were going he still stuck around. Maybe it had something to do with his mysterious past in the Alliance, but we'll never know, will we, FUX?

Book said he was interested in walking in the world again for a spell and what better way than on an intinerant cargo ship? He doesn't have to explain himself since Kaylee had him pegged from the beginning as someone who was more interested in the trip than the destination.

I hadn't actually thought about his "confession" before. We know that he retired from the world and the implication is that he was an operative or similar who found personal salvation through faith. He may have been afraid of failing a trial of faith, so recently out of the shelter of the monastery. One could perhaps view the confession scene as Inara letting him know that he did have the strength to stay true to his new self.

That's how I see it also. He joins an order to get away from whatever it was that he was doing before. Then, when he rejoins the world, he falls into the same kind of life he tried to leave. Think of somebody coming through a 12 step and then finding themselves in a bar somewhere. Later on, Book becomes more sure of his place in the verse. Maybe you could think of Serenity as a "halfway house".

Like so many others, I'd love to know what his backstory is. I have a feeling that it was dark, and likely very cool (unless he was a professional puppy kicker).

Or a guy that talked in the theater. :)

So, I watched the pilot with my seven year old tonight. He talks, constantly, so I'm always yelling at him to shut up and watch....He replies "What? I just wanna know why they have toilet paper in the future and not soap. That's gross."

I think that every time, mecca! Mal barely runs his hands under the water and then puts them right up to this face. I am at the point now that I conveniently am not looking at the screen during that bit.

Maybe in the future they buy special ship water that comes with soap included.

Hehe that's what I wondered...

Maybe their sink water has sanitizer in it to save space that soap would take.

I also thought that was gross, but I chalked it up to the fact that they're 'po. Money has to go towards replacing the compression coil before it can go to luxuries like hand soap.

Every time I watch the pilot I think that I'll enjoy the beginning more, but it never happens. I just have no interest in the war scene beginning. It almost turned me off to the series as a whole when I first netflixed it. I only watched the second episode cause my next disc on the list hadn't arrived yet. Glad I did.

Hi. Newbie to Firefly here, and I have just started my trek through the series. Thought I would drop a few notes/first impressions for you:

Opening scene: Annoying, confusing and a little too much Starship Troopers meets All Quiet on the Western Front. I can't tell you how relieved I was at the "Six Years Later" tag...

Awww.. Wash is the Pirate from Dodgeball. Yay! I should probably take this opportunity to say that the deliberate mis-direct of 'Simon is obviously the bad guy' worked so well on me, but only because I thought that Joss Whedon was pulling the douuble bluff by making it so obvious that Simon is a good guy because he is acting all shifty bad guy that he *must* be a bad guy. My bad!

And what is it with Joss Whedon and nice girls getting shot? At least she didn't die.

Umm... you know, I watched the movie a couple of years ago, and promptly forgot all about it. As I was watching this episode, I did remember two things from the movie - one that bugged me, and one that I really enjoyed. The first was River - please tell me that she eventually becomes more interesting than a houseplant? The second thing was that I really liked the mix of characters (except for River, but, as I say, it's early). I like that Jayne is shifty and unlikeable.

The Reavers (?) - Are they humans, monsters, what? I remember something about them and the gang being trapped in a storeroom from the movie, but I can't remember if we actually ever see them.

The Alliance - are they like the Empire from Star Wars? What area do they have power over?

So many questions, which I guess is a good thing for a pilot - it makes me want to watch more...

Newbie here too. I just watched the Pilot today as well, and found that it wasn't that bad. Erratic, I'm in total agreement with your post. I saw the movie prior to the series about a year ago, and I have the same questions/comments as you..

I was reminded as the Empire from Star Wars also with those Alliance scenes, aren't they wearing the same basically all grey uniforms? lol.

I really like Zoe.. I just don't like how she's always calling Mal "sir" at the end of everything. For some reason I feel that she shouldn't have to call him that, I get the vibe of them being really close friends and she doesn't really have to acknowledge him like that. Guess not, huh?

I really wasn't familiar with anything about the show, even though I own the movie, I've never gotten around to watching it...yet.

I thought it was a little slow at points but for an introduction to the 'verse and characters I thought it did really well.

I liked all of the characters well enough...although, every time I saw Inara (sp) I kept thinking "Cloe, Cloe."

The Reavers definately seem kinda scary...

Erratic!!!!! My first response post - hopefully, I'll have more to work with next time :-)



Yay! Do you like Wash? He is my favorite character on this show, second favorite character ever. (Giles obviously wins.) I loved Wash's first scene, with the dinosaurs and "Curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal." "Mine is an evil laugh - now die!!!" He is so adorable. And his relationship with Zoe is just about the cutest thing ever. "Make sure to call him sir. He likes that." I love the Mal/Zoe non-relationship-relationship dynamic, and it's kind of awesome it later episodes. And Crash World, Mal was like Zoe's sergeant in the war for unification, so the "sir" thing is habit.

The Simon misdirect thing is kind of awesome - I too was convinced something was up. His integration into the crew is one of the many awesome things about the show.



A nice girl gets shot on a Joss show? I wish you didn't spoil this for me - I wasn't aware of that :-P Lol. Anyway, I was so sad when Kaylee was shot, because I totally thought she died. I loved the "Kaylee's dead" scene so much - the Mal/Simon relationship is so much fun with the antagonism. Speaking of, I love the last scene of the episode so much - "That's not much." "It's enough." Yay. Mal's going to get more happy in the next couple of episodes - because FOX hated him that way.

That's all you remember from the movie, right? I find River to be an absolutely fascinating character, especially once you find out what's kind of up with her - in the eighth episode, I believe? Jayne is such a fun character - I love how his twisted relationships with everyone.

The Reavers are kind of going to be appearing again in the third episode, but they don't really get explained totally until the movie.

The Alliance is the total government in the 'verse. The Chinese and American powers combined to form a total power that took over the Earth and eventually the world when the planet-terraforming process started. Six years ago, the war Mal and Zoe were fighting in was the War for the Unification of all the planets under Alliance control. It was lost by our characters, the Independents, otherwise known as the Browncoats.

Yay, you want to watch more!!! What did you think of all the characters, and language, and 'verse and stuff?

To be honest, I think that the western theme was a little over-played. I get it, they are cowboys! The constant Banjo diddlies were a distraction.


Yeah. You suck!


I could tell that it was WhedonVerse. I could totally see elements of Buffyverse language, but surprisingly, it wasn't a distraction. It was comfort. And it fit the characters well.

Oh, the "Kaylee's dead" scene? It threw me. I presumed that she had fallen asleep, and as I didn't remember her from the movie (man, I really don't remember much - I wish I had this level of amnesia for Buffy), I was really upset for a few seconds by this. I *need* my happy characters!


Yeah. I liked this too, and it is all kinds of awesome that I haven't got to worry about this becoming a 'ship! Yay!

It's not often I get pissed at a TWoP recapper, but Shack did it in his recap of the pilot when he acted like it was the show's own fault that it was aired last, and thus everyone knew Simon was the good guy and the person we'd never seen before was the agent. He always seemed to have some vendetta against the show even beyond the without pity stuff.

Hate to dampen enthusiasm but only 75% of men even wash their hands after using a public restroom. Mal's water only is good, it failed to even come to my attention he didn't use soap.

http://www.livescience.com/othernews/050921_dirty_hands.html

This was the best SciFi show ever for me. None better. I wish it could come back OR I wish Josh could take over the Star Trek stuff and reimage all of it.

I saw the show on DVD (I live in the UK, so I didn't really have much choice), and what spoiled the fact that Simon and Book would be good guys, and that Carlos Jacott's character wouldn't be, was that Simon and Book appeared in the credits.

Besides, Jacott's always the bad guy. Lets be glad he didn't try to eat anyone's brain.

So I just watched "Serenity" and was not disappointed, and am really excited to keep watching.

I was rather confused in the beginning with the whole war and then six years later, and I had no idea what was going on...but by the end of the first part I think I had a pretty good grasp.

I LOVE Wash just based on, as Erratic said he's the Pirate from "Dodgeball" and that whole dinosaur scene rocked. I was happy to see Gina Torres in a role where she's not evil for once! Her relationship with Mal cracks me up with all her "sirs" and "I told you this was a bad plan."

Kaylee is an interesting character, and she made me laugh with all her cute innocence and sitting outside the ship in a lawn chair with an umbrella.

I knew Carlos Jacott was going to be evil, because we've yet to see him on a Joss show where he's good, so I wasn't too surprised to find out Simon was good. I like Simon, but I was rather grossed out by him hugging his naked sister. I mean, I know she was going all crazy and all...but at least let Inara put her robe on her before you go and hug her (having an older brother, that scene just made me go "aww" then "eww") I assume River becomes more coherent as the series progresses? Beacuse she's going to really start to bug if she's like this forever.

I'm curious to see if Mal/Inara's relationship develops (and space whore, hee!) Mal has a lot of sides to him, but I really like his sort of stand-offish character in the face of strangers, but his obvious protective/father-figure feel with his crew. Plus I loved the trick he pulled on Simon with "Kaylee's Dead" haha

Jayne is just all kinds of awesome. I love that he's sort of mysterious, but obviously loyal to Mal (or that's how I'm going to interpret him for now). I also loved the scene when he was going to torture Jacott (yeah didn't catch his character's name) "Pain is fun"

I didn't mind the whole cowboy aspect, in fact it amused me. Everytime they played those little banjo riffs I chuckled. The horses didn't bother me, because I figure they were on a planet, so each one would probably be unique a la Star Trek (now if there had been like flying horses, I may have had issue).

I am a little confused by the random Chinese, but I think reading JerseyGirl's post helped that to make more sense. And I assume they will eventually come face to face with the Reavers, and they are sort of like the Borg of the Firefly Universe.

I'm looking forward to watching the next episode! Also they seriously played this episode last in the series run? That's all sorts of fucked up Fox.

Yay, another new viewer! JerseyGirl's going to be so excited. The pilot really takes the same approach as the first Star Wars film: it's not really that fast paced, but seems that way because you're thrown headfirst into this completely new universe and left to figure out what's going on without any real assistance from the writer.

I'm really glad you liked the first episode Softcocoa and thanks for the nice long write up.

I'm so excited! Lol. Softcocoa, so glad you like it so far!

I remember the first few minutes of this episode confusing me so much. But I'm so glad you like it so far. And you like Wash, which is amazing. The dinosaur scene is absolutely wonderful. "I shall rule over this land and call it.... THIS LAND." "I think you should call it your grave!" Oh, god, Wash, how I love him so. I saw Gina Torres not being evil first, and then I watched "Alias," and it was like, oh hey, she's evil. And Russian...

Glad you liked Kaylee, because she's absolutely adorable. And yeah, River and Simon have a closer relationship than most, well, all, brother/sisters on televisions. Yeah. And on River's less lucid days, she's worse than Fred before her parents come, but once you get to know her, it's wonderful. And she's quite awesome when she's totally lucid, too.

The "Kaylee's dead" scene is so much fun, but so mean, and it was the first one Nathan Fillion and Sean Maher ever shot, and that makes me laugh so much. Mal has wonderful relationships with, well, basically everyone and the Mal/Inara one sure is fun. I'm so jealous of you, by the way, for 13 new episodes of FF plus one movie!

Jayne is ambiguous, which is great, and I love the cowboy stuff. Makes the show wonderfully unique.

She was also evil on "24" and another show as well...so her evilness far outweighs her good characters so far hehe, but I still love her.

I'm hoping to get to watch more episodes tomorrow after I got have my foot checked for bone spurs (I sort of dropped a bottle of sparkling cider on it two months ago and it never quite recovered)

This other show that you so vaguely happen to talk about wouldn't be Angel, would it be?

And because I *heart* topic, the reveal of River in the box is so random. Summer Glau must have had a wonderful first day :-)

I love Wash.

She also played Cleopatra on an episode of Xena, showing off chemistry with Bruce Campbell that I'm surprised didn't leave scorch marks on the set.

Heh I totally forgot about that!



Well now I know you don't like to be spoiled, so I just won't answer you;)

When I saw this, I thought, "Summer Glau didn't play Cleopatra, it was ... right, never mind." Gina Torres was also in Cleopatra 2525. Yes, I watched it. No, I don't know why after the first episode.

And yeah, I'm a bit amused thinking of Summer's first day on set (assuming the box scene was the first thing she shot, of course). Last year it was "Put on the tutu and use a Russian accent," now it's "Get naked and get in the box. Oh, and you just have to scream."

I thought it was funny in Joss's episode commentary when he jokes about how Summer was worried she looked fat in that scene.

'Does this cryogenic chamber make me look fat?'

And as an aside, alternate lyrics for that Justin Timberlake / SNL digital short...

1. Get a cryogenic box
2. Put your crazy sister in the box
3. Get captain Mal to open the box

I'll go you one better. I bought the Cleopatra 2525 DVDs.

Topic? I have yet to listen to the commentary for this episode. I drag my feet. I don't want to run out of stuff to see.

You win.

Topic: I was so glad when SciFi ran the series last summer in the right order. I hadn't seen it since it premiered and, of course, as mentioned here before, the re-ordering of the episodes sucked.

Did she? I don't remember that, but I remember her playing Iolas's wife (and subsequent widow) in Hercules, I think she was an Egyptian princess named Nebula, but I could be wrong. It's been a LONG time since I saw that show.

I've just rewatched this episode for the first time in a while today. Unlike other people here, I've always really liked the opening war scene. I'm glad it wasn't a whole episode or anything, but I feel it is necessary if only to show that Mal once had faith. For that alone (okay and the River stuff), I tell people who asks me if they should watch the series before the movie that they should at least try to see this one.

I noticed some of the newbies here talking about being taken aback by the use of Chinese. I have a question about this. This combined American and Chinese culture thing is one of my fave aspects of the 'verse, but I never understood it except for someone (I think in the old FF thread) explaining it to me. My question is: Is there some in-universe explanation of this that I'm overlooking? Or do we just know this from explanations from Joss, et al?

I'm pretty sure that it's just a Joss explanation. It would probably be a little awkward to explain how the US and China, as the two largest superpowers on Earth-That-Was then went out to settle the known universe in the show itself, especially given how it happened more than a few centuries ago. It may have been one of those things made more prominent non-verbally as the show went on, though. *Shakes fist of rage at Fox*

I agree it would have been awkward. Just checking though. Thanks for clearing that up.

I bought the series this week, after a whirlwind fling of watching the whole series through Netflix last year, and rewatched the first episode tonight. I remember before thinking the first episode a bit slow and confusing - I liked it much more this time through. Knowing more about the 'verse and being fond of the characters makes it much more rewarding, I think. I also found the space/cowboy juxtaposition much less jaring.

Is it sad when Mal says that Kaylee died, I actually believed him for a moment? Like... no... that can't happen... wait, I know it doesn't. I'm brilliant.

OK, I just watched the Firefly pilot. Now don't get me wrong, I had heard a lot of good things going in .... but HOLY SHIT THAT WAS AWESOME !!!!!!!!! I totally loved it, exceeded every expectation imaginable.

I'm guessing I will clip through the rest of the series in roughly 48 hours.

How on earth did this thing possibly get cancelled after only 1 season? Financial reasons?

I'm heading over to the wiki to find out.

Short answer: Fox is stupid. They were clearly expecting Buffy In Space, and had no idea how to handle what Joss actually gave them.

It's neat how it follows the structure template of Star Wars: the first half is really pretty leisurely paced when you go back and look at it, but the first time you watch you're thrown into this new world and basically left on your own to figure out what's going on, so it seems much faster.

So are you still going ahead with watching Babylon 5?

Absolutely. I just purchased all 5 seasons + the movies, at a nice low price.

I'll be watching both Babylon 5 and Firefly this summer. Plus probably another show, still TBD...

Very excited. I'll keep you posted, thanks for your advice in previous posts. ;-)

Totally off topic, but Chamalla, where did you find them at a low price and what constitutes a low price for you? I've been wanting them for years but the price is just too high for me. But now that they're releasing new movies I DEFINATELY want to re-watch.

I just got a new friend hooked on Firefly recently and was so excited to show it to her. She said she knew absolutely nothing about the series other than that it was a Joss Whedon series and therefore she wanted to watch it. However, in watching the pilot, as soon as they loaded Simon's box onto Serenity she went "Oh, wait! Was this the show that had the commercials with a girl in a box?" This is how many years now? I really wish I'd have been in the country to see these commercials cause they were apparently really memorable which would be great if they didn't give away such a frakkin HUGE plot point for the episode.

And then they didn't even show the episode, which must have made everyone who saw the ads (not to mention the opening credits) pretty darn confused.

Oops, I hope I didn't embarrass myself here. The B5 complete television series (5-pack) has a market list price of $300.98. I ended up getting it for $139. I thought that was a good deal, but I suppose others might not. In reality, one could get a bootlegged copy for free (or close to free), or one could borrow it from a friend or rent from Netflix. But for me, when it comes to DVDs, I really like to own the original product for some reason. If you hunt around on eBay or Amazon, you can find good deals, but sometimes you have to get lucky and run into someone looking to offload.

I never realized how much of a badass Nathon Fillion is. The dude just brings it.



I hear you. I think it's ingenious. A space western. I guess some might find it clumsy, but I think it's cool.

I wonder if Joss was counting on something that I recently discovered while introducing my son to this show - He's sixteen and he's never seen a Western in his life. So to him, all of the Western theme stuff was completely new, and fascinating. Since I grew up surrounded by old reruns of things like Bonanza (and with absolutely no attachment to the genre, it bored me as a kid) for me, I had to overcome the Western aspect. However, it did occur to me that Joss was resurrecting a nearly dead genre in this show. So, I guess that people under the age of thirty would have had far less exposure to Westerns. It was really neat to watch my son reacting to what was a fresh genre for him (scifi isn't, but Westerns are).

By the way, I discovered that even though I am not what I would consider an angry sort of person, I still have anger issues with Fox over the treatment of Firefly. I was one of the people that tuned in and saw The Train Job as the pilot and this episode is so much better as an introduction to the series.