Patman

This episode was written by Drew Greenberg, who wrote some episodes from last season on Buffy ("Smashed", "Older and Far Away" and "Entropy"). I like the guy's style.

Bits of Chinese I think I picked up:

Simone calls the crew of Serenity "chou chou quiy len" which sounds to me to be "beggars and fakers", which is why Kaylee got mad at him in the country store.

Simone calls River "mei mei" which is "sister" in Chinese.

I didn't quite get what his father said to him in Chinese when he bailed out Simon. Maybe it was something like "You ungrateful son of mine". Just kidding, I'll review the tape later.

Patman

Okay, a couple more translations:

Young Simon says (hee hee) "Dah Bien Hwah" to his dad, he's saying "That's great news" even though it's literally "That's big talk". (But "Dah Bien" also means "to defecate" with a bit of intonation changes)

When Simon said "Luh-suh Serenity" he's basically saying "Sorry ass Serenity" (I think).

I couldn't make out Simon's insult of the captain at all.

Summer's Chinese pronounciation is pretty bad, I couldn't really make out (after she knocks away Simon's medical kit) "Liou coe shway duh biou-tze huh hoe-tze duh er-tze", but I'd guess she says "I don't want what's in the box of the son." I'm really guessing.

Mourn

Huh, i assumed it was a fake language...this episode was alright...nice to see some more of the story coming out.

spainlinx0

I like that they made the doctor eat his words about the disparaging comments he made towards that lifestyle. His father pretty much disowned his own son yet the captain goes back for a guy he doesn't even like because he's part of his crew. I liked the episode, and I'm pretty sure the girl's name is River not Summer. I'm interested in learning more about the experiments, but so far it seems pretty obvious that they involved telepathy especially after this episode. Hopefully they explore that more, but I wonder how they would even go about it. Either way I like this show and hope it stays on the air.

lisadoris

I enjoyed this episode too. It will be interesting to find out the details of Preacher's past given the hospitality the alliance showed. It looks like next week we get some insight into Summer's condition.

Wizdar

I, for one, am getting more than a bit tired of the Chinese gos se. It’s becoming a distraction. I’d hazard a guess that 1 in 20 lines have some Chinese, which breaks off the needle of my cute meter. It’s an interesting concept that I think they’re running into the ground.

Patman, try the CCs for some help.

Patman

The CC's are just phonetically spelled bits of Chinese, which is where I went back to try and make sense of what Simon and River were saying.

I did get River mixed up with the actress's name (Summer Glau)who plays River. Summer might have had some ballet training, she moved gracefully when she dances.

Lateralus42

I didnt even realise they had all that Chinese language stuff until I read this thread. LOL

Are Simon and River part Chinese or something? I guess I missed that part of their back history.


Good episode over all. I liked Simon alot better after this show, but I still cant stand River. Also it was cool to see that there is more to Book than meets the eye. This series is really good, I just wish they would move it from Friday so that I wouldnt have to watch it the morning after on tape. =)

Wizdar

Just about all the characters do it.

I get the idea they're implying that a lot of Chinese has slipped into normal usage. Silly premise, IMO.

Mourn

Looked at the population numbers recently?

Having Japanese and Chinese become more prevelant is a fairly standard sci-fi convention.

Neush

This is anything from a silly premise. There's billions of Chinese in the world right now and it's only reasonable to assume that by this point in the future that number would have significantly grown. I know several Americans who have even been sent to Chinese classes by their employer so that they can better communicate with their Chinese distributors and producers overseas. Its very reasonable IMO to think that at some point in the future chinese would have homogenized with english to form some sort of common language. Ridley Scott must have thought the same thing because he did something similar with Japanese in Blade Runner.

Anyway, another great episode. I like how the crew is starting to come together, even Jane seems to have warmed up a bit and returned everything he stole from Simon and River. It'll be interesting to see what they reveal about Preacher's past, although I think it's pretty apparent that he served in the Alliance military at some point before deciding to become a pacifist. I also very much liked how they carried on from the week before by transporting the smuggled cattle to their destination. It did lend a bit of consistency to the episode. My first and only gripe with the show so far was the laser sound that their six shooters made. These are guns that clearly had powder ammunition in them and yet they sounded like something out of Star Wars. I was disappointed by this especially since they have thus far been so realistic with everything else (the silence in space, the fire physics week before last, etc.) It's a small thing, but still.

Overall great episode, keep em coming!

Patman

What's funny about the usage of Chinese on the show is that it's used mainly when the characters are agitated and/or cussing.

Wizdar

Gorram right!

Besides, if you want to throw numbers around, then English should not even be the basic language. It should be Chinese with a little Hindu thrown in for flavor.

MrN

After the previous two episodes, I thought this one was underpar. It did finally give us some backstory of the Dr. and his sister, but the story wasn't as smooth as the out of gas episode.

On the bright side, it looks like they added some mystery to the Shepard character and set up the next episode....

spainlinx0

I found it also weird about the laser sounds because from what I remember of other episodes the guns sounded normal before. Maybe anyone can confirm this?

Breakfast with Girls

I also noticed something weird about that but couldn't place it.

CaptainMarvel

They did sound different this time, but they never sounded like real guns, if I recall. They always kind of sounded like railguns from quake to me, actually.