• Welcome! The TrekBBS is the number one place to chat about Star Trek with like-minded fans.
    If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

Firefly ep by ep; rewatch and reviews

I see we've got to "how we feel about Firefly in general time". I've still not seen the last three episodes or Serenity, so my opinion is still partial, but I don't want to miss out:

So far, this is a series that I like a lot. The characters are generally likeable (in their own way) and interesting - Zoe, Jayne and Book are probably my favourites. I like the richness and diversity of the setting and I think the music complements it nicely.

There are some really good episodes as well, especially Out of Gas and Ariel. A few are so-so for me, but still likeable and I can easily forgive this in a first season.

To be honest, I was kind of wary of this show, even as I was looking forward to watching it, due to how vocal some of its more harcore fans can be (I like Mal, but it was a little offputting to see internet polls flooded with fans declaring him the greatest sci-fi hero of all time). However, it's appealing enough to overcome the hype.

Based on what I've seen, I think that if it had lasted longer it could have rivalled the likes of Trek, B5 and BSG. There's a huge amount of potential there and it would have really enhanced the sci-fi landscape of the last decade.
 
I think you have to compare Firefly season one to BTVS and Angel's first seasons, if you want to make a fair comparison. If Buffy and Angel only had one season each, I think we can agree that neither of their first years are the very best representation of their respective shows. Firefly had amazing potential, and its such a shame we didnt get to see more. No doubt Joss had lots of plans of where the series could have gone.
 
saturn5 said:
The Mr Universe married to Saffron idea is inspired :lol:although it would have negated the Buffybot spilling the secret concept.
Click to expand...

you know saffron would have sold them out to the operative in a heart beat. same result!


Trekker4747 said:
The "idea" behind the Reavers seems to have changed some, in the series they seem more mysterious and analogous to how some settlers precieved the Native Americans. Simply as "savages." But "savages" who're also able to operate ships and organize battles, etc. In the movie they're more like Hollywood zombies/monsters.
Click to expand...
If they take the ship, they'll rape us to death, eatflesh, and sew our skins into their clothing.
​
doesn't exactly sound like native americans.

i actually thought that the explanation from the movie kind of made sense as far as what we'd seen in the show. but it was just too sudden to discover it like that in the movie. i would have preferred a gradual discovery over the course of several seasons. but then, i would have preferred several seasons.

oh, how i miss firefly...


Trekker4747 said:
I agree with the overall belief there was at the time that killing [Wash] made the final battle that much more tense. Because if Wash can be killed out-of-the-blue like that then no one is safe
Click to expand...

i had ignored all spoilers before the movie, and i was totally shocked - like WTF just happened :eek::eek::eek: - but there was no fucking time to let it soak in, cause the movie just keeps on flying.
Trekker4747 said:
And I wasn't a big fan of Mr. Universe either. I think it would've made a bit more sense to use Badger as an "inside man" or even Patience
Click to expand...

Badger is a great idea. Or even if they struck some deal with Niska. Enemy of my enemy...



Pemmer Harge said:
I like Mal, but it was a little offputting to see internet polls flooded with fans declaring him the greatest sci-fi hero of all time
Click to expand...

b-b-but he is!

:D
 
Mal said:
again, they got money for Chewie to play the Operative and so we didn't get Jubal. now don't get me wrong, I <3 Chewie, especially in Children of Men, but man, just cause you gots the money don't mean you gots to spend it in places that don't matter. Jubal would have rocked!
Click to expand...
Perhaps he would have, but he was the wrong character for this story. Serenity the movie needed the Operative, not Jubal.

Jubal was insane. He took the job as an assassin and bounty hunter because he was distinctly unstable and it gave him an excuse to hurt people, not because he had any feeling or loyalty to any particular cause.

The Operative was completely stone cold sane. He knew that he had to do horrible things, that he wasn't a nice person because of those things he had to do. But he had such belief in the rightness of his cause - the Alliance - that he considered any unpleasant means to be worth the end. He did the things he did because he wanted the final result for the entire known 'Verse, even if he himself was not allowed to be a part of that 'Verse because of the things he'd done to achieve his end. In short, he was a true believer, not a paid mercenary.

And that's important for the story, because at the end of the story the Operative loses his religion. He discovers that the Alliance is not the faultless perfect state that he believed it to be, and he must basically reconstruct his personality from the ground up because of this realization. Which is the same thing Mal had gone through when he lost his belief in the Independant army - and "God," however he defined it - after the Battle of Serenity Valley.

We see Mal, through the course of the show, rebuilding his life and finding a new reason to live - his new family on the Serenity. In the aftermath of the film, the Operative must now do the same.

Jubal Early couldn't have offered us anything like that. He would have just been "kewl."
 
Trekker4747 said:
I think the movie muddies things a bit from what the series did but, overall, caps off the universe as a whole nicely, though more movies would've been nice. :(

I can say that seeing Serenity twice in pre-release screenings was some of the best theater-experiences I've ever had.

Funny thing to note, in the "blooper real" for the movie there's a scene of Nathan Fillion ad-libing as Mal as they prepare to leave Book's planet. He instructs the crew to but Book "right up front, he's our friend we should honor him!" Funny scene to watch as you can see some members of the cast giggling, most notably Jewel.

I think the movie muddied a couple aspects of the series. For example at no point in the series does Simon demonstrate that he has the suave and ability to pull off the "Academy" heist we see him pull-off in the opening scene of the movie. The "idea" behind the Reavers seems to have changed some, in the series they seem more mysterious and analogous to how some settlers precieved the Native Americans. Simply as "savages." But "savages" who're also able to operate ships and organize battles, etc. In the movie they're more like Hollywood zombies/monsters.

Really a lot of the stuff dealing with River and how much Simon "knew" seems pulled out of nowhere but there's likely a season's worth of development missing there.

Your "injury" report for the movie didn't include how every member of the crew suffers injury during the course of the movie. Mal gets beaten up pretty badly by The Operative, Zoe gets her back slashed open by the Reavers, I believe Jayne gets shot by the Reavers, Wash gets impaled by debris/projectile weaponry from the Reaver ship, Kaylee gets shot by the Reavers, Simon get stabbed/shot by the Reavers. Infact, I think the only ones to come out of the Reaver battle untouced are Inara and River.

And as much as it sucked to have Book die, Wash dying was even worse. But as much as I hated it I agree with the overall belief there was at the time that killing him made the final battle that much more tense. Because if Wash can be killed out-of-the-blue like that then no one is safe as, again, everyone takes some pretty hefty injury during the final scenes.

And I wasn't a big fan of Mr. Universe either. I think it would've made a bit more sense to use Badger as an "inside man" or even Patience to help the crew get their goals. It seemed out of place to introduce this guy out of nowhere.

The movie is good, mostly does what it set out to do, but I in the end it makes me long more for what could've been.
Click to expand...

You're right I missed Zoe but I did include Mal getting hammered all the time, Jayne in the shot column and Wash in the Crew column etc
 
In tghe new table discussion on the blurays, Joss says that he so loved writing the stylized dialog that he still thinks in those speech patterns sometimes, wishes he could still be writing that way, and curses the day it was taken away from him.

DAMN you, Fox!
 
lvsxy808 said:
The Operative was completely stone cold sane. He knew that he had to do horrible things, that he wasn't a nice person because of those things he had to do. But he had such belief in the rightness of his cause - the Alliance - that he considered any unpleasant means to be worth the end. He did the things he did because he wanted the final result for the entire known 'Verse, even if he himself was not allowed to be a part of that 'Verse because of the things he'd done to achieve his end. In short, he was a true believer, not a paid mercenary.
Click to expand...

That's a very interesting perspective. It makes the Operative a lot like Sloan on DS9. But Sloan had Bashir as the the perfect foil, whereas Mal is no idealist. Which leads me to the problem:

lvsxy808 said:
And that's important for the story, because at the end of the story the Operative loses his religion.
Click to expand...

Sloan never has an illusions that the Federation is doing bad things, because he's doing bad things. All the time. In order to save the Federation, which he believes - however flawed - is fundamentally good.

That's why I don't believe that someone like the Operative could lose his religion at the end. The man has done some horrendous shit in his life - just in the opening minutes he slaughters the lab staff that let River escape. It seems unreasonable that a man who has seen as much as he has - who has done as much as he has - would be shocked by the Reaver reveal at the end.

Sloan wouldn't even bat an eye.
 
Trekker4747 said:
Funny thing to note, in the "blooper real" for the movie there's a scene of Nathan Fillion ad-libing as Mal as they prepare to leave Book's planet. He instructs the crew to but Book "right up front, he's our friend we should honor him!" Funny scene to watch as you can see some members of the cast giggling, most notably Jewel.
Click to expand...

"Jayne! Try not to steal too much of their shit!"
 
I really hated that Niska didn't die horribly. He was such a good villain, I wish there had been more of him.



About Mr. Universe, I don't want to say I'm all onboard and thought it was the greatest idea ever or anything... BUT I did find it a unique and interesting sci-fi concept. And it looked cool when they were flying in to talk to him the first time, showing all the "signals" and whatever. As a character he was too goofy, but the concept I give props to.
 
argh. if the show wasn't so short, there would still be new reviews to read...
 
Wonder where the series would have gone if it hadn't been cancelled? No doubt we'd have seen Jubal Early again. Probably Niska and his thugs, too. I think River would have returned to normalcy eventually as the series went on (much like Joss' plan for the sadly-not-to-be Angel season 6 with vestiges of Fred coming out of Ilyria's personality).

God I miss this show.
 
I am not Spock said:
Wonder where the series would have gone if it hadn't been cancelled? No doubt we'd have seen Jubal Early again. Probably Niska and his thugs, too. I think River would have returned to normalcy eventually as the series went on (much like Joss' plan for the sadly-not-to-be Angel season 6 with vestiges of Fred coming out of Ilyria's personality).

God I miss this show.
Click to expand...

I think we'd probably run into YoSafBridg at least once a season.
 
Somewhat unrelated note, but after going through Firefly/Serenity last month, I decided to start watching ABC's Castle to at least get a semi-Mal fix. It's a decent methadone, but the first act in Season 2, Episode 6 was a dose of the real deal.
 
STR said:
Somewhat unrelated note, but after going through Firefly/Serenity last month, I decided to start watching ABC's Castle to at least get a semi-Mal fix. It's a decent methadone, but the first act in Season 2, Episode 6 was a dose of the real deal.
Click to expand...

is that the halloween episode? someone showed me the clip when the episode came out and i was like :wtf::eek::D:D:beer::hugegrin::hugegrin::D
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

Sign up / Register


Back
Top