# Firefly: "Out of Gas" **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 27, 2002, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/firefly-out-of-gas/134076 "2002-10-27T05:18:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![caveman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/caveman/32/7242_2.png) [@caveman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/caveman)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2002, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/firefly-out-of-gas/134076/41 "2002-10-29T18:50:07Z")
First, is there anyone else who thought the _in media res_ story structure compounded with the (multiple) HUGE ADRENALINE SHOTS TO THE HEART were Tarantino/_Pulp Fiction_ homages? Maybe it was just me… Second: > [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by featherlou \* > \*\*My nitpick is with the blood transfusion (and the general level of medicine on the ship). They have interstellar ships, and are still doing something as barbaric as a direct transfusion from one guy’s arm into the other guy? It looks great as a theatrical gesture, but it’s really stupid medicine. The doctor wouldn’t have a couple dozen (or hundreds) of bags of blood frozen in his freezer (pre-cross-matched to the crew) like any hospital in our current time has? They have no better technology to make artificial, sterile blood? As low-tech as they seem to be, the doctor could still be freezing homologous donations from everyone regularly for emergencies just like this. > > Nitpick aside, I love this show. I’m finding it fascinating and entertaining, and, as I’ve said many times in the past, I’ll take my sci-fi any way I can get it. \*\* There’s a reason he dosen’t have a fancy-schmancy blood stockpile, but it might be a spoiler… WARNING: I don’t know how to do the nifty Black Spoiler Box of Doom (which dosen’t work in Opera, anyhow), so beware the impending spoilerish info! No, Really! Okay, so, as ya know, he’s on the run with his sister. We’ll see, whenever FOX has the good sense to play the actual pilot to the series, that he came to be on Serenity in a rather hurried fashion, and is making do with supplies that were already present in the infirmary, and not the super-fancy future-medicine stuff that he’s used to. ---
**Author:** ![Ferrous](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Ferrous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferrous)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2002, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/firefly-out-of-gas/134076/42 "2002-10-29T19:10:51Z")
My only nitpick, and it’s pretty minor, would be that _Serenity_ ought to hold more than three hours worth of air. A ship that size, I’d think it would be quite some time before any one was bothered by life support shutting down. Anyhoo…I had my son with me on Friday, so I was a bit distracted by parenting duties while the show was on, and coudn’t pay proper attention at some points. Would someone be a dear and fill me in on the details of Jayne’s deal for turning on his old boss and hooking up with Mal? Something about a better percentage and a nicer room? ---
**Author:** ![caveman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/caveman/32/7242_2.png) [@caveman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/caveman)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2002, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/firefly-out-of-gas/134076/43 "2002-10-29T19:15:55Z")
I think much of the oxygen was consumed by the fire, and still more of the air was expelled into space when they opened the doors to expel the flame, leaving much less breathable air than might be expected in a ship of that size. ---
**Author:** ![Ferrous](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Ferrous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferrous)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2002, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/firefly-out-of-gas/134076/44 "2002-10-29T19:19:12Z")
Oh. That makes sense. Nitpick withdrawn.🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Kn\_ckers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/96bed5/32.png) [@Kn\_ckers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kn_ckers)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2002, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/firefly-out-of-gas/134076/45 "2002-10-30T13:57:42Z")
The fire effects were pretty interesting; the shot of the flames cork-screwing out the hangar doors was neat. I never thought about what it would look like for fire to get sucked into a vacuum. Any physics buffs have an idea as to whether they got this right? I suspect they may have, because I feel like it should equate somewhat with water going down a drain, which, we all know, spirals. But would the fire go clockwise or counterclockwise? Ow, my brain! While I’m at it: My prediction for This Week: River finally starts speaking sensible english. Simon has nursed her back to mental health, and now that she’s done speaking in metaphors, boy, that girl has no fear! She’ll tell the crew exactly what she thinks of them. Jayne gets the sharp side of her tongue (no “good boy” and belly rubbing for him, sad to say), Inara suffers a string of epithets, and Mal - well, suffice it to say, he ends up sobbing in a corner. How to curb this monster?? Stay tuned to find out. Love, Kn\*ckers ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2002, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/firefly-out-of-gas/134076/46 "2002-10-30T14:25:04Z")
Water goes down a drain because of gravity. Gary Powers, the U2 pilot held captive in the USSR tried to determine which hemisphere he was in by watching the direction of water in a drain. Unless they are using the Jayne School Of Physics, the flames would not spiral like a drain. C “Mr. Science” P ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2002, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/firefly-out-of-gas/134076/47 "2002-10-30T14:52:02Z")
I’m definitely not Mr. Physics, but one of the ways that artificial gravity is generated in SF is through centripedal force, right? Maybe part of the ship spins, and everyone stands against the hull. If this is the case, could that have led to the fire tornado? Anyway, it looked cool. Daniel ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2002, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/firefly-out-of-gas/134076/48 "2002-10-30T15:15:36Z")
Could be, I think there has to be a lot of mass involved though. And if Serenity were rotating and from our perspective not, then the fire wouldn’t rotate either…unless it lost momentum as it left the ship…my head hurts again. BTW, the Captain refers to “My boat”. Is Serenity smaller than 100’? ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2002, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/firefly-out-of-gas/134076/49 "2002-10-30T15:23:19Z")
Conservation of angular momentum. If the air inside the ship has a net rotational vector (and with the fire churnking things up, you probably would), then if you caused it all to be pulled together into a small stream that can fit through some doors it would spin faster, just like a skater spinning and then pulling in his or her arms to spin rapidly. Once it goes out the back, there is no atmosphere or gravity to stop the rotation. So you’d get hot, bright gas spinning in a vortex just like you saw, and then rapidly expanding and cooling after a short distance, just like you saw. My guess is that they got it as close to right as you can get without actually modelling the behaviour scientifically. At the very least, it’s a good supposition of what would happen. ---
**Author:** ![HookerChemical](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/278dde/32.png) [@HookerChemical](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HookerChemical)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2002, 8:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/firefly-out-of-gas/134076/50 "2002-10-31T08:59:14Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Miller \* > **Point of order: the man who was right there with her in that same situation _was_ faulted for getting laid. But I get your point. When they first introduced Kaylee, I thought she was going to be the shy girl who’s good with machines but doesn’t know how incredibly sexy she is. In other words, I thought she was going to be Space Willow. Glad to see them going in a different direction with her.** The man was in a different position: he was behind while she was kneeling. _crickets_ Actually, he was in a different position, from Mal’s point of view. He was supposed to be fixing the engines but was shagging intead. From Mal’s point of view, Kaylee was just another girl and didn’t have anything to be doing on board. It’s not like Mal can bust her (proverbial) balls for being lax in her duties on Serenity, but he can certainly get after his engineer. ---
**Author:** ![HookerChemical](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/278dde/32.png) [@HookerChemical](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HookerChemical)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2002, 9:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/firefly-out-of-gas/134076/51 "2002-10-31T09:11:43Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by caveman \* > **WARNING: I don’t know how to do the nifty Black Spoiler Box of Doom (which dosen’t work in Opera, anyhow), so beware the impending spoilerish info!** By saying the black spoiler box doesn’t work, I presume you mean highlighting the text doesn’t allow you to read the black on black text. There is a way around this problem. To the left side of the screen, immediatley above the webpage being viewed (by default), there are four icons; a lock, a camera, a page, and a printer. The third one from the left (the page looking button) will override background and font types specified by the webpage. Text will become 12 point black Times New Roman and the background will be plain old white, thus the test in the spoiler box is readable at all times, not only when you highlight it. Opera has some nifty little features. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Controvert](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dec6dc/32.png) [@The\_Controvert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Controvert)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2002, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/firefly-out-of-gas/134076/52 "2002-10-31T17:09:00Z")
I like how they mix Chinese and English in the dialogue. And yes, parts break and so forth. It looks like that big spinning thing was an interstellar drive, so no way to cannibalize it from the shuttles (I assume the shuttles do not have interstellar capability). This part is believable. I have trouble believing that the pirates who shot Mal would not have tried harder to get his valuable ship. I can think of several ways for the pirates to safely reboard if all they need to get past is a single bleeding human on a cripped, weaponless ship without life support stranded in lonely part of space. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2002, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/firefly-out-of-gas/134076/53 "2002-10-31T17:25:26Z")
Yeah, how did the crew get back in? ---
**Author:** ![MEBuckner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mebuckner/32/2896_2.png) [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2002, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/firefly-out-of-gas/134076/54 "2002-10-31T17:54:02Z")
Although I don’t think it really contradicts **The Controvert** ’s point, I didn’t really get the impression that the people with the part were professional full-time pirates, so much as they were another hardscrabble crew like the crew of _Serenity_, only less ethical. We’ve seen _Serenity_’s crew be involved in some pretty blatantly illegal things, and not just cutting corners on paying tariffs on cargo, either–outright larceny and robbing a train, for example. But they clearly are trying to hang on to some sort of standard of ethics. If they fell a little further, though, they might be pulling stuff like outright piracy of another ship in distress. Anyway, although it’s still a bit of a stretch, if the other crew weren’t actually professional pirates, they might have been squeamish enough about the whole thing to begin with that running into resistance convinced them to just cut their losses and salve their consciences and let the poor bastard have his damned part. If the other guys had been real pros, I suspect they wouldn’t have let Mal stop them that easily. ---
**Author:** ![Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e19adc/32.png) [@Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2002, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/firefly-out-of-gas/134076/55 "2002-10-31T18:21:41Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by carnivorousplant \* > \*\*Yeah, how did the crew get back in? \*\* Judging from the little I’ve seen of Serenity’s exterior (I’ve only seen 2 eps because of scheduling conflicts) it looks like the shuttles have their own docking bays/entrances. Which means that yes, the crew with the murderous captain _could_ have forced their way inside another route had their really wanted to. ---
**Author:** ![caveman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/caveman/32/7242_2.png) [@caveman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/caveman)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2002, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/firefly-out-of-gas/134076/56 "2002-10-31T18:44:33Z")
**KnightNavro** : so _that’s_ what that button’s for! Thanks! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/firefly-out-of-gas/134076.md?page=2)