In a first episode like this, you have to do three things: set up the characters; set up the setting; and have a good plot for the episode. It’s a rare show that manages to do all of these without shortchanging one (or two!) of these. Many pilots seem light on plot for dramas; others leave character for later.
Firefly is, as we know, a rare show. Each of the characters gets something told about them (probably Jayne and Inara the least, but still plenty). The setting is great - starts on a populated world, ends on a frontier world, and shows some space walks, and all around the ship. The plot is strong, and flows from the characters and the setting.
(And I’m using “world” in the general sense - not worrying about whether they’re planets or moons.)
I especially like the way that Mal shows his character. He’s a man of action, mostly; he doesn’t wait. Going in to the ship at the end where they have to take off, he shoots the mole without hesitation. When Patience is hiding behind the horse, he doesn’t wait, but just shoots the horse. He’s also a man of planning. At the beginning, they’ve set the fake beacon out for just the type of emergency they face. At the end, he puts Jayne on the assumed snipers, prepared for trouble. (When people really are out to get you, I guess it’s not paranoia, it’s good planning.)
There are a few things that seem crammed in. The battle at the beginning was good to set up Mal’s character, but doesn’t seem to fit well with the rest of this episode. The reaver ship, also, seems redundant. Space is big, and they just happen to come across a reaver ship? That could have been some type of Alliance vessel - following Serenity on purpose - and the episode would have played out roughly the same way, without the extra complication. But these are nitpicks.
There’s also good foreshadowing, and connections to other episodes. You can find several, but an obvious one to me is a spoiler for the episode “Out of Gas”:
Kaylee points out they need a new compression coil. Mal says it better not break, then. Later, he says if you rely on luck, you end up dead in the water. He’s relying on luck for the part not to break, it does, and (in “Out of Gas”) he is.
I really like the sense of humor - Whedon isn’t afraid of being funny within the show, without making the episode a comedy. I especially like Mal telling the doc that Kaylee was dead. “I’m a bad man…”
I guess since he never lets these passengers off, he never needs to take in new ones. I wonder if they’re paying by the leg, or if he stopped charging them?
Watching the first episode again… I had a good day.
Next week: The Train Job
