Episode 0 (Pilot)

Synopsis

Malcolm “Mal” Reynolds (Nathan Fillion) and his loyal second in command, Zoe (Gina Torres) are under heavy fire. Mal aggressively shoots down a large space craft which crashes, nearly killing him and Zoe. Mal claims reinforcements will soon arrive but they don’t – the battle is lost.

Cut to exterior of a space craft. The crew of the Serenity, Mal, Zoe, and Jayne (Adam Baldwin) are breaking into another spaceship to steal the loot. Wash (Alan Tudyk), the pilot sees some “Alliance” ships approaching and calls engineer Kaylee (Jewel Staite) to turn the lights out. They deploy a decoy distress beacon, causing enough delay for the crew to get the loot aboard so Serenity can escape. The stolen cargo contains bars, and we learn Wash and Zoe are married.

Inara, a “Companion” – well, more specifically, a prostitute – says goodbye to an Alliance soldier. She contacts the Serenity for a rendezvous at the planet Persephone.

At Persephone, Kaylee searches for passengers so they can earn extra money. A man lugging suitcases Shepherd (Ron Glass) walks by. Kaylee invites him aboard. He’s both religious and has a lot of cash.

Mal and Jayne meet with Badger, a gritty businessman who hired them for the heist they just completed. Because the bars are stamped with an Alliance symbol and nearly ran into an Alliance ship, Badger refuses payment.

Desperate for money, they decide to sell the cargo to Patience, an old adversary who once shot Mal. She lives on a moon called Whitefall. Kaylee has also brought aboard Simon, a doctor, and someone named Dobson. Zoe expresses a worry that they now have passengers riding along with their stolen Alliance cargo. Mal sarcastically says if things go wrong they should just shoot them. Inara also comes aboard.

Once in space, Mal gives the passengers a tour of the ship. He explains the detour to Whitefall as delivery of medical supplies. Shepherd is taken aback by Mal’s introduction of Inara as a “whore.”

Everyone has dinner together. After Kaylee flirts with Simon, Jayne makes a crude joke, and Mal orders him to leave the table.

Wash informs Mal of an approaching Alliance cruiser, and one of their passengers may be a mole. Mal catches Simon in the cargo hold and punches him. Shepherd appears, saying it’s not Simon – Dobson has pulled a gun on both of them. It turns out he’s after Simon. A tussle ensues and Dobson shoots Kaylee. Shepherd disables Dobson.

Angry, Mal wants to hand Simon over to the Alliance. Simon says since he’s a doctor he can save Kaylee and asks Mal to run. Worried for Kaylee, he reluctantly agrees.

Simon operates on Kaylee in the sick bay. Suspicious about Simon’s identity, he inspects Simon’s cargo to find a woman in some sort of suspended animation. He immediately expects the worst – that the girl is some kind of traded human. Awakened, the woman comes out of the box, her name is River (Summer Glau) – Simon’s sister.

Simon explains to the crew that River is a genius who was experimented on by the Alliance at an academy. Simon freed her and they have been on the run since. The story resonates with the rest of the crew but Mal doesn’t like it, and wants them off the ship at Whitefall.

Mal and Jayne interrogate Dobson about Simon and River. Dobson says River is worth a lot of money, which piques Jayne’s interest.

A “Reaver” ship approaches, and everyone freaks out. Jayne loads up weapons. Mal, Wash, and Zoe nervously watch the Reaver ship drift by.

Inara gives Simon some additional medical supplies to help Kaylee. He apologizes for his part in what happened. Mal interrupts, saying Kaylee is dead. Simon freaks out and runs down to the sickbay, only to find it was a joke.

Near Whitefall, Patience agrees to take the gold, but at a discount due to the Alliance symbols. Mal is angry that their luck hasn’t been good so far. They land at the rendezvous point, but are certain Patience will double-cross them. Meanwhile, Dobson knocks Shepherd unconscious and escapes.

At the rendezvous point, Patience and an armed gang emerges from the woods on horses. Jayne sneaks behind everyone, and disables a sniper holding watch over Mal and Zoe. Mal hands over the Alliance-stamped bar – it turns out it’s food – to Patience, but she doesn’t want to pay. Zoe is shot in the ensuing shoot out. Luckily, she’s wearing a bulletproof vest. They manage to take out everyone except Patience, hiding behind a horse with a rifle. With payment finally in hand, Jayne says the Reaver ship followed them and is landing on Whitefall.

Dobson grabs River and threatens her with a gun. Kaylee warns everyone. Dobson opens the ship’s door and he and Simon struggle over the gun. Dobson keeps Simon from shooting him with slick talk. Suddenly, Mal shoots Dobson in the head as he, Jayne, and Zoe return. Mal and Jayne toss Dobson’s body off the ship as they take off.

With the Reaver ship in hot pursuit, Wash works with Kaylee in the engine room (featuring very sketchy electronics) to do a 180 and burst into high speed, leaving the Reaver ship lost in hot exhaust.

Jayne tells Mal harboring River and Simon is dangerous, and hints his loyalty to Mal isn’t very strong. Mal tells Simon his services as a medic are valuable, but reaffirms his authority as ship captain.

Thoughts

What I first noticed about the Firefly world, is its intriguing mix of influences. The most obvious is Star Wars. Mal is quite certainly a Han Solo stand in, and the Alliance’s outfits are quite Nazi / Empire like. The Serenity’s escapes are similar to the Millennium Falcon’s desperate avoidance of the Empire, and the money struggles resulting in the need to take on passengers – exactly how Han Solo got mixed up with Luke and Obi Wan on Tatooine.

Another influence is classic western. Gene Roddenberry pitched Star Trek as a “space western” in terms of plot, which Firefly does but takes it a step further to inform the look and feel. This makes sense as the farther space colonists traveled from civilization, there would surely be an increase in lawlessness, and Firefly documents life around the “border planets” – out of the watchful eye of the Alliance. So the western elements trickle down to the costumes and even society itself, lending an odd “steampunk” look at times. Other western elements are the ubiquitous bar girl (prostitute Inara), the theme song, and criminals riding horses.

Lastly there is an undeniable Asian influence, most notably the crew’s dialogue spiced with Chinese phrases, but also Asian decor layered atop the wild west elements. This makes some sense as China is presently on an upswing to become a world power. This Asia-rising theme also informed the look of Blade Runner.

I also noticed all the characters have strong, distinct personalities. In this episode, the most notable is Mal – brusque, hard nosed, and no-nonsense. Yet there are hints the crew won’t always want to stick with him – which is good. The essence of good drama is conflict and the seeds are laid to have plenty of it, as Mal at any moment will act out or be lured by the call of money, or one of the crew (probably Jayne) will disobey. Future episodes focus on different characters and their relationship to the rest of the Serenity crew.

My only gripes are the juvenile sense of humor (pretending Kaylee is dead) and I’m not completely enamored with the “western” look. But these are minor – I’ve definitely seen enough here to inspire me to continue. There’s deft and economical storytelling in this pilot – many new characters and a whole new world are introduced in an entertaining and compelling way.

Next Episode: The Train Job

TV Shows: Firefly

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Categories: Firefly, General, Television :: ::

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