(Spoilers) Firefly 1: Serenity

[Cervaise]

@El_Kabong

That the I.A.V. Dortmunder, or the Reavers’ vessel, surely moving at hundreds of thousands of miles per hour, would drift slowly past Serenity like sailing ships meeting on the open ocean?

In the commentary for the episode, during the initial Reaver flyby, Joss says, in effect, “Yeah, we screwed that up, didn’t we?”

@Sam Stone

My guess is that the ‘core worlds’ are the inner planets, and the ‘outer rim’ is composed mainly of terraformed moons orbiting various gas giants and other larger planets. The Firefly universe is therefore in a single solar system.

I have not seen the movie yet, but my understanding is that this question is addressed there.

There’s something else about the Fireflyverse that I want to bring up, but it requires a couple more episodes to stay out of extensive spoiler-boxing, so I’ll hold off for a few weeks.

Otherwise, yeah, full agreement with everyone. Hey Fox: This should have been the pilot, and all y’all are brain dead. Dong ma?

[cppguy]

My personal theory on this is that moon appears to always be used in a deprecatory sense. They call the spaceship a boat, even though we wouldn’t. They use “moon” to talk about POS planets.

[Cliffy]

@Cervaise

I have not seen the movie yet, but my understanding is that…

SILENCE!!!

I don’t want to know what’s in the movie. If you want to tell us what’s in the movie, use a spoiler box. If you’re going to tell us something from the movie that doesn’t justify the use of a spoiler box, maybe it’s not that important.

Thank you,
–Cliffy

[Cliffy]

Sorry, there should be a after the SILENCE!!!1 However, I do feel strongly that I don’t want to know anything about what the movie does and does not cover. That cheapens the surprise sure enough, even if it’s not to the same magnitude as knowing the answer. It really isn’t too much to ask, I think, that if you know anything about the movie, to just not post it without warning those of us who wish to be surprised by what’s in there.

–Cliffy

[NE_Texan]

But in the movie, did they get their chance to do a planet with a higher budget dinosaur scene?

Just kidding. (In the commentary, Whedon talks about wanting to do a dinosour planet, but they couldn’t afford it, so all they could get was Alan [Wash] and his plastic dinosaurs, and it just wasn’t the same.) I recommend the commentary for some inside laughs. (Apparently, Summer [River], after shooting her intro, asked something along the lines of “does this cryochamber make me look fat?”)

One thing I really love was how they set up all the characters, with very little in the way of exposition. The scene I thought of as heaviest on talking was Simon talking about River, and even that one, they keep cutting away to him treating River, and the crew’s reactions, which helps.

But little things, like Wash and Zoey’s argument about time off, and Jayne looking through the window at Kayley, and how Kayley’s always cheerful.

Having set up the characters, Whedon then plays against the type to show when it’s serious. When the topic of Reavers comes up, Jayne looks well, not scared, but wants to stay away. Wash stops kidding around and gets serious. Even the Alliance didn’t get that respect from them. Even the props work - you can tell a lot about Kaylee from her rainbow parasol and the teddy bear on her clothes in the infirmary.

Kaylee is pretty well established as the character that can judge characters accurately, I think.

And the ship is practically a character, and in this episode, we see a lot of the inside of the ship. You could practically draw a map of the inside from this ep.

I like the title track, but I had to check the credits to see that it wasn’t the actor playing Jayne that sang it (sounded like his voice, to me). Which I thought was odd, because it seems quite obviously Mal’s sentiment.

[Charlie_Tan]

@NE Texan

I like the title track, but I had to check the credits to see that it wasn’t the actor playing Jayne that sang it (sounded like his voice, to me).

Have you checked the DVD extras?

Seeing Baldwin don his hat and singing is incredibly funny

[Cervaise]

@Cliffy

there should be a after the SILENCE

No worries, I know what you meant. I initially thought it might be safe to mention that it was there even if I didn’t say specifically what “it” was, but you’re right, different people have different levels of “safe.”

(BTW, if you hadn’t heard, we also learn in the movie that River is made of chocolate. Heh heh.)

[Cliffy]

Dammit, Cervaise, what is your frikkin’ problem?

–Cliffy

[merrily]

In regards to Mal, I thought a lot about why he called the ship “Serenity,” yet Joss called the show “Firefly.” What I came up with was that Mal never really admitted defeat at Serenity, so, in essence, he never left that battle–he still hasn’t given up. However, this isn’t true for the other characters, even Zoe, and hence the name Firefly.

And then Joss goes and names the movie what!!!

In the commentary, Joss says that the box Inara pulls out when the Reavers pass wasn’t a suicide kit, but a set-up for something later which never came to pass because the show was cancelled. Anybody got any ideas?

[carnivorousplant]

@merrily

I hence the name Firefly.

Being the class of the vessel.

[Draelin]

@merrily

In the commentary, Joss says that the box Inara pulls out when the Reavers pass wasn’t a suicide kit, but a set-up for something later which never came to pass because the show was cancelled. Anybody got any ideas?

I don’t remember that part of the commentary … but I was probably in the kitchen getting a snack. I can’t, for the life of me, however, think of what else a syringe in a pretty box would be for, or why she would take it out when the Reavers were coming if it weren’t a way to avoid being … um … Reaved.

[Menocchio]

@merrily

In the commentary, Joss says that the box Inara pulls out when the Reavers pass wasn’t a suicide kit, but a set-up for something later which never came to pass because the show was cancelled. Anybody got any ideas?

Perhaps some kind of battle stimulant? I’d be very surprised in Companions aren’t taught and equipped to defend themselves in case a client turns on them.

Of course, she probably would ahve turned on Early, if taht was the case…

[NE_Texan]

In the commentary, Joss says that he came up with the name of the show first - Firefly - for the imagery. Then he decided that was the type of ship, and the ship should look like a firefly, and had it designed that way. My thinking is, that a ship would look like the class of ship it is, so obviously since he wants the ship to look like it, it has to be a Firefly class ship. The specific ship needs a different name, which connects the captain to what he’s lost (Serenity). Makes sense for the movie, too, I guess, thought it might have been good if the movie was named “Firefly: ____” or something. (Yes, I’m optimistic, sue me.)

With respect to Inara’s kit: is the one she looks at in that scene different from the medical supplies she hands Simon?

[NE_Texan]

@The Gaspode

Have you checked the DVD extras?

Seeing Baldwin don his hat and singing is incredibly funny

Okay, after having read your post, I looked for this, and can’t find it. Can you be more specific - where in the extras does this appear?

[Draelin]

@NE Texan

Okay, after having read your post, I looked for this, and can’t find it. Can you be more specific - where in the extras does this appear?

The egg is supposed to be accessed like this:

Go to the last disk where the special features are, and then go to the second page. Highlight Joss sings the “Firefly” Theme and press right. A design to the right of the picture should become highlighted. Press enter to watch Adam singing.

For some reason, I’ve never been able to make it work. Of course, I’ve always tried to find it without the instructions in front of me, so it may just be that I’m dumb and looked in the wrong place.

[Miller]

@merrily

In the commentary, Joss says that the box Inara pulls out when the Reavers pass wasn’t a suicide kit, but a set-up for something later which never came to pass because the show was cancelled. Anybody got any ideas?

My best guess is that she’s a drug addict of some kind, which is why she’s plying backwater moons with the Serenity instead of working a core world, and she intended to either be so drugged out she’d have no idea what the Reavers were doing to her, or she’d deliberately overdose. However, I can’t think of anything else in the series that would point to her being an addict of any sort, so that’s pretty tenuous

[Cervaise]

@merrily

In the commentary, Joss says that the box Inara pulls out when the Reavers pass wasn’t a suicide kit, but a set-up for something later which never came to pass because the show was cancelled. Anybody got any ideas?

There’s been some speculation on this point over at the Browncoats board. The following contains comments about the direction of upcoming episodes, and nothing at all about the movie:[spoiler]The top theory on the Browncoats board is that Inara has some sort of terminal illness. In “Heart of Gold” Nandi says Inara was really going places in terms of guild leadership, and then bailed out. In “Ariel,” after her “routine” medical checkup, somebody asks how it went, and she responds, “Same as always,” which is sort of an evasive answer. And it would explain why she doesn’t want to get close to Mal, or anybody really.

So under this theory, the syringe in the pilot would be, most likely, her regular medication for her condition, whatever it is, which she could conceivably use for a suicidal overdose. So not a “suicide kit,” precisely, but something that could be employed for that purpose.

Again, this is entirely speculative, based on hints in a few episodes, and to me the best explanation given the evidence: but still very, very tenuous, and not confirmed by anything official. But there it is, for what it’s worth.[/spoiler]

[NE_Texan]

@Draelin

The egg is supposed to be accessed like this:

Go to the last disk where the special features are, and then go to the second page. Highlight Joss sings the “Firefly” Theme and press right. A design to the right of the picture should become highlighted. Press enter to watch Adam singing.

For some reason, I’ve never been able to make it work. Of course, I’ve always tried to find it without the instructions in front of me, so it may just be that I’m dumb and looked in the wrong place.

Okay, I played around with this this evening, and found (spoiler for a scene on the DVD extras, and a minor spoiler for the episode “Jaynestown”):

Your directions are almost correct. I got it to work by pressing left from the “Joss singing” feature, and it highlighted the little squiggle to the left of the scene at the top. Select that, and Adam comes on to sing. Silly hat and all. But it’s not the theme song (which I talked about at first) - he sings the “Ode to Jayne” that the townsfolk are singing in “Jaynestown”! He ends it with “… the man, they call - me!” Funny stuff. I still think his voice is similar to the guy doing the opening credits, except the real singer can stay in tune, and Adam… less so.

[Charlie_Tan]

Spoiler for some future ep, I don’t remember which, but it deals with the prop in the DVD easter egg:

“Anyone walking down the street with a hat like that is indeed fearless” - this is the point where I fell in love with the character Jayne and realized what a complex person he is. And of course, that Joss had done it again.

[NE_Texan]

The episode you are referring to in that spoiler is:

“The Message” - the only time we see them get mail, Jayne gets the hat from his mom, and Mal and Zoe get a corpse. (sort of). Jayne from Maine, anyone?