Firefly 12-20-02 [2-hour original pilot, Spoilers]

[Richards]

Well, what did everyone think? Personally, I thought it made a great pilot episode. I don't know why the Fox executives "bumped" it further down the season. (I had heard they didn't think it had enough explosions or something.) Of course, by not showing the episodes in order, it kind of ruined the whole "one of the crew members is a mole for the Alliance" plotline for any viewer who's seen at least one other episode of the show.

One thing that finally "clicked into place" for me was why Serenity is a "firefly" class ship: this episode showed the whole back of the ship lighting up when it first thrust away from the derelict vessel. I either must never have noticed that before in other episodes, or it wasn't really shown before/since.

Opinions?

Johnathan

 

[Celebrim]

Yes, Firefly has been one of the best new shows of the season, if not the best. It is a shame how badly it has been mismanaged. It had a lot of clean, crisp, witty writing, and managed to have fun with a potentially campy setting without becoming a either pompous or scholocky. I'll miss it. It got me looking forward to watching TV again for the first time since B5 was cancelled.

 

[danzig138]

Currently, IMO, best freaking show on T.V. And with it's effective cancellation, last program I'll probably watch on FOX. Of course, if it got bumped for a lack of action, I have to wonder exactly what the FOX people wanted...
P.S.: "Pain is scary."

 

[Dark Psion]

As an episode, pretty good. As a Pilot, Great!

Typically Pilots are not to good since no one really knows their characters yet, but here, it's the same crew we've come to know.


Loved Mal's "Hostage Negotiations" at the end, didn't even break his stride when he fired.

 

[Jamdin]

I loved this pilot & I still can't figure out why they had to make a new pilot. It sets up the characters much better. I think FOX doomed it from the get-go, which is a shame.

 

[Pielorinho]

2/3 of the way or so through the episode, Mal dropped a bombshell on Simon. Guess you won't have time to take care of the Federal Agent, he says. Kaylee's dead.

Cut to Simon's horrified expression. End scene. A moment of silence.

"No she's not!" I shout. Because I've seen the freakin' episodes that follow this one!

Had Fox shown the pilot at the beginning of the series, this would have been an effective line, made me wonder whether Joss was killing off the cutiepie engineer instead of using her as a regular character.

Instead, it just seemed stupid.

Oh, how I hate Fox.

**********

On the other hand, it was a great episode, and explained a lot of what is confusing about the show (terraformed moons mean you can travel from location to location quickly; the first settlers' total lack of supplies explains the Old West feel, and so forth). We also get to see exactly how Mal left the Rebellion, which was cool.

Let's hope UPN does the right thing.

Daniel

 

[AereonBlaze]

When I finished watching the episode last night, I was truly impressed.

Good dialogue, action and interesting characters. As a pilot episode this would've been excellent...still, as an origins episode it worked great as well (aside from the continuity thing). It reminded me why I love this show

I hope UPN picks it up, or Fox reconsiders.

-Aereon

 

[Negative Zero]

it was certainly a great origin story. but the pacing was a bit slow for a pilot. it took over 30 mins to get to see the rest of the crew, and another 30 for anything significant to happen to them. now, don't bget me wrong, i'm not saying it was a bad ep. quite the contrary, i loved the episode. i can jsut see why FOX thought that it wasn't gripping enough for a pilot.

it's easy, now, to say that it was great. you already know the characters. but to sit through that two hours for the first time, i think that the average TV watcher wouldn't have been that impressed.

still, the writing was stellar as usual, the acting for a first episode was amazing. i was really impressed with the level of comfort that the actors had with their characters already. it didn't seem to have many of the wobly first steps that most shows have.

it struck me that "Out of Gas" would have been a great episode to see after this one. such a shame that some of the best TV to actually be on TV in a long while got the shaft so badly. i really hope someone picks it up soon. WB, UPN, Sci-Fi would all make good fits i think. either way, i'm deffinitely picking up the DVD set!

~NegZ

 

[Suldulin]

sci fi would ruin it, upn or wb would better choice imho

 

[Psychotic Dreamer]

Personally I thought the Pilot was great and would have been a wonderful introduction to the show. The writing was excellent, the characters were interesting and the beginings of later things were starting.

As for what network should pick it up? I'd say UPN or WB also. SciFi... I just don't trust them as much as I used to. I found it odd today they were showing, "So I married an axe murder" and "Serial Mom". Neither one of which have any SciFi or Fantasy elements to them. Just odd. Wasn't the president of SciFi (or head of programming) once quotes as saying SciFi is trying to get away from space based SciFi shows. While at it's heart Firefly is a western there are enough Space Based SciFi trappings that SciFi might get confused.