Firefly 12/20/02 - The 2 Hour Pilot! (1 Viewer)

[Patrick Sun]

Just a quick reminder that we get the 2 hour pilot of Firefly on tonight from 8-10 p.m. EST. It's a good 2 hours, and while some of it has been hinted to before, I think you'll appreciate Malcom much more after these 2 hours of Firefly.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

I d/led the rough cut of it that was circualating around a while back, but look forward to seeing it clean and polished tonight.

 

[Jeff Kleist]

It's W I D E S C R E E N!!!
Booya!

Praise Joss!!!

(Bet Fox figured they can't possibly lose more audience by doing it how they should have all along)

 

[GaryEA]

We're 40 minutes in, and all I'll say is that I wish I had seen the show from the start. It's great stuff.

Here's hoping it gets a new home...

-g

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Gary: This is the start, as far as that goes
You can tell it's the pilot, but if this is the end of the series, it also makes a great send off.

 

[Patrick Sun]

Boo! They cut out the story of the battle at Serenity. This is Malcom's "origin" story.

This segment is right after Simon tells the story of how he got River smuggled out to Persephone, and Malcom has to put his foot down on how to deal with Simon and River (meaning Malcom wants to be rid of them ASAP). Everyone objects to how Malcom is going to handle Simon and River, but Malcom squells the displeasure of the crew.

This is the segment that was cut:

Book goes to Kaylee in sickbay to pray for her and Simon is tending to her. Book asks Simon why he picked Serenity, and he said it looked disreputable. Simon thought the name of the ship "Serenity" was about peace, but Book tells him to do some history checking. So Simon checks the computer about the battle at Serenity valley. History text say it was a pivotal battle within the valley. Zoe overhears the history lesson walking by Simon's quarters, pops in and asks if the computer knows about the bloodbath at that battle. 500,000 died. Malcom was Zoe's sargeant. 5 days into the battle, with so many commanding officers dead, Malcom took command over 2,000 soldiers, kept them together, fighting, sane and alive with his leadership. By the end, he had 400 soldiers intact, and they were left there to die. For an entire week while negotiation were going on, more were dying. Mercy, forgiveness, trust are things that were left behind. All Malcom had was his crew and the ship. Simon wondered why Malcom named his ship "Serenity". Zoe said "Once you live in Serenity, you never leave, you just learn to live there."

 

[Mark_Wilson]

Where did you see this Patrick?

 

[Jason Quillen]

It was a great episode. Hopefully UPN will realize how good firefly is and grab it.

And we got a Buffy veteran in tonights episode as well (BTVS S3 premier "Anne" badguy). Not too bad at all.

JQ

 

[Patrick Sun]

Also, the original pilot has narration at the start of the episode instead of the battle scene that was shown at the start of tonight's episode:

"The War to Unite the Planets was six years done, adn the victorious Alliance was spreading its control further and further throughout the galaxy."

"Those who had fought for independence and so bloodily lost had no choice but to live by Alliance law."

"Some never would, and those few found themselves drifting...flying to the furthest reaches of teh galaxy, to the worlds less civilized some barely settled where the Alliance might not control their lives."

"These were hard worlds, and word was where you found it. Those who got by lived by a simple creed."

"Any job, anywhere."

Then it fades into Malcom upsidedown in the spacesuit about to apply the stuff to melt the metal to get into the deserted spaceship.

 

[Patrick Sun]

Mark, please don't ask for what I can't provide for you per forum rules (but if you're industrious enough, you'll find it).

 

[Rex Bachmann]

The pilot is more like it. That's the most enjoyable episode of this series that I've seen by far. (The less "Western" the motifs, the better for me.) Now, why is it Fox thought this not suitable as an introduction to the series????? Wasn't at all "cerebral".
I still missed important points that maybe were answered in the story:
(a) I still fail to see the role of the Chinese in all this. Even in the "Chinatown" settings on the planet there were signs in English ("GOOD DOG", or something like that.) Why do the (non-Chinese) characters speak Chinese, then? (Does the Alliance perhaps have a ruling Chinese elite?)
(b) Why are they importing basic food stuffs to these earthlike planets (some of them "terraformed")? That would be dreadfully expensive and inefficient. In fact, "terraforming" itself would require such a huge expenditure of resources, you wouldn't do it just to have sparse settlements somewhere. The colonies would have to be substantial in size and mostly viable without costly imports of basics (i.e., self-sustaining).
(c) The "old West" motifs??? Is there an explanation for this in the story, or, as I have surmised before, is this just a conceit of the producers?
(d) These "reavers"; anthrophagous "savages" with space technology? Why don't they go after the planet's people, if they're so "hungry"? Why only after the Serenity? Why can't the "reaver" ship come about and follow Serenity into space?

 

[Jeff Kleist]

d) These "reavers"; anthrophagous "savages" with space technology? Why don't they go after the planet's people, if they're so "hungry"? Why only after the Serenity? Why can't the "reaver" ship come about and follow Serenity into space?

They could have had Wash not given them the slip. You forget how fast they're going. By the time they could turn around, Serenity has already hit warp.

 

[Rex Bachmann]

Jeff Kleist wrote:

I read it, indeed, and, as usual, this still does not in any way answer the question I asked. That there would be "less civilization" is trivial compared to the exact culture-specific form this "reduced civilization" takes in the universe of Firefly. The "old West" motif is particular to a time and place, 19th-century America (U.S.A.), and for what reason in the world---in the universe---would characters in the far future in a far-flung place be using accents, clothing, and technology (including revolvers) that are already obsolete and moribund NOW, even before mankind has settled the moon? I don't see any explanation of this in the storyline itself---maybe I missed something---and can only conclude this a conceit of the creators and producers of this show, as I've surmised all along. ("Science fiction" is supposed to be based on projections of what we know now.)
Most of your replies are pure speculation, which leads me to believe the pilot did not itself provide answers for (most of) these questions. I missed it only because it wasn't there (apparently).

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Boo! They cut out the story of the battle at Serenity. This is Malcom's "origin" story.

If you're referring to the scene between Simon and Zoe where he researched the Battle of Serenity as per Book's nudging, I believe this was cut out because it was not only summed up in prior episodes but pretty much visualized with the new beginning. Basically, it said that the good guys pansied out and surrendered to the Alliance leaving the troops to starve, and that's what was pretty much shown at the beginning in a rather more exciting form.

Interesting that the main title sequence was formatted for widescreen as well. I thought they'd just get rid of some of the stylized leather-style bars or vertically compress it into the 16x9 frame, but lo and behold, there's new picture information on the sides. Cool.

 

[Jeff Kleist]

Yup, the opening credits are even BETTER in widescreen. For those who weren't around for the "real" pilot, "The Train Job" was also shown widescreen.
Unfortunately only those with HDTV got to see the rest wide :frowning:

 

[Mark_Wilson]

I've got about 7 episodes in anamorphic widescreen from their Digital broadcast. VERY nice.

 

[Patrick Sun]

I thought the new beginning short-shrifted Malcom's impact on his soldiers, Zoe's recounting was much better in gaining the wider scope of what Malcom and Zoe went through (and why Zoe would follow Malcom through hell if he asked her).

The new beginning gives us a bit about Malcom's combat worthiness and some bits of him trying to motivate those soliders who had lost hope, but it doesn't give us the scope of what amazing odds they faced during the battle of Serenity to stay alive while being abandoned on that planet. Nor does it tell you why the ship is named "Serenity".

Malcom is a man who'll do what it takes to get the job done in spite of the odds. He's a man that has shown leadership qualities that compels his subordinates want to follow his lead in battle. He's seen the horrors of war, and has a tremendous reserve within him to never despair, never give up hope. And he's willing to get his hands dirty to move on and survive another day.

 

[Robert Ringwald]

Even better looking than the version I saw before. I noticed the beginning was new, and liked it. It was again a very good episode, and FOX was really not bright with shoving the pilot off...

 

[Andrew Beacom]

I really enjoyed this and it was probably my favourite episode along with last weeks. If Fox had started with this first I think they would certainly have brought in more viewers. But apparently the suits figured they knew more about the target audience than the audience themsleves.

My wife watched the whole thing after expressing her displeasure after the first few episodes that were aired. This show deserves to be on TV. Unfortunately it's not a Paramount protected brand.

 

[Jason Seaver]

d) These "reavers"; anthrophagous "savages" with space technology? Why don't they go after the planet's people, if they're so "hungry"? Why only after the Serenity? Why can't the "reaver" ship come about and follow Serenity into space?

It's useful to write your villains as insane.