rfduncan

Serenity (Pilot)
120 min.
Mal's efforts to sell a stash of ill-gotten Alliance materials is derailed by the raiding Reavers and a possible on-board mole in an episode that explains the origins of the Serenity's rag-tag crew. Written and directed by series creator Joss Whedon. Zoe: Gina Torres. Mal: Nathan Fillion. River: Summer Glau.

The first shall be last...

Goldberg74

... since I gave up after the first 4 eps, I guess I can still catch this ep and not miss a beat.

Patman

It's a good 2 hours, and while some of it has been hinted to before, I think you'll appreciate Malcom much more after these 2 hours of Firefly.

Robert

FOX obviously didn't have much faith in the show since they didn't even bother airing the pilot when it should've aired; at the beginning of the season.

Patman

Boo! They cut out the story of the battle at Serenity. This is Malcom's "origin" story.

This segment is right after Simon tells the story of how he got River smuggled out to Persephone, and Malcom has to put his foot down on how to deal with Simon and River (meaning Malcom wants to be rid of them ASAP). Everyone objects to how Malcom is going to handle Simon and River, but Malcom squells the displeasure of the crew.

This is the segment that was cut:

Book goes to Kaylee in sickbay to pray for her and Simon is tending to her. Book asks Simon why he picked Serenity, and he said it looked disreputable. Simon thought the name of the ship "Serenity" was about peace, but Book tells him to do some history checking. So Simon checks the computer about the battle at Serenity valley. History text say it was a pivotal battle within the valley. Zoe overhears the history lesson walking by Simon's quarters, pops in and asks if the computer knows about the bloodbath at that battle. 500,000 died. Malcom was Zoe's sargeant. 5 days into the battle, with so many commanding officers dead, Malcom took command over 2,000 soldiers, kept them together, fighting, sane and alive with his leadership. By the end, he had 400 soldiers intact, and they were left there to die. For an entire week while negotiation were going on, more were dying. Mercy, forgiveness, trust are things that were left behind. All Malcom had was his crew and the ship. Simon wondered why Malcom named his ship "Serenity". Zoe said "Once you live in Serenity, you never leave, you just learn to live there."

Patman

Also, the original pilot has narration at the start of the episode instead of the battle scene that was shown at the start of tonight's episode:

"The War to Unite the Planets was six years done, adn the victorious Alliance was spreading its control further and further throughout the galaxy."

"Those who had fought for independence and so bloodily lost had no choice but to live by Alliance law."

"Some never would, and those few found themselves drifting...flying to the furthest reaches of teh galaxy, to the worlds less civilized some barely settled where the Alliance might not control their lives."

"These were hard worlds, and word was where you found it. Those who got by lived by a simple creed."

"Any job, anywhere."

Then it fades into Malcom upsidedown in the spacesuit about to apply the stuff to melt the metal to get into the deserted spaceship.

MrX

That was a pretty good ep IMO. It would have made the show more watchable since you weren't thrown blindly right into it.

The thing I don't get is the reason FOX delayed this was because of the lack of action scenes in it. This ep seemed to have at least as much action as the first one they aired. Stupid Fox.

bdshort

It's really very sad that this show was cancelled. I've heard the production company is shopping it around, and UPN might be a good possibility. Unfortunately, this doesnt really mean much for me, since I can't get UPN with DirecTV

Brian

movielib

I taped it and upon watching it late last night I discovered my local Fox station had cut out for about a half hour after the pre-opening credit sequence until about the 41 minute mark.

Oh well, I think I still got the gist of it and, while I think the show has improved quite a bit from its first shown episodes, I'm still not particularly engaged. I can't say I'll really miss it when it's gone.

Blaze O'Glory

I really love this show. It is tragic that they are cancelling it. My friends and I think Mal is the captain they should have had for the new Enterprise. I don't understand why the people at Fox are so clueless. This has the potential to be a strong cult classic, they just need to give it some time to catch on. Is there any way to put my two cents worth into letting themknow that cancelling this show is a very bad idea?

Breakfast with Girls

Damn, I missed this!

Darren Garrison

And to add insult to injury, Firefly didn't last long enough for Toys-R-Us to carry a "naked River in a box" action figure!

mikehunt

I'd rather have the "naked Kaylee in my bed" live person

just finished it, I missed form 9-9:20 due to my not knowing it was a 2 hour ep unitl I got home from work last night and saw this thread
I thought it was good, better than some of the other eps

Orbi-Wan Techno

We finally sat down and watched this today. Wow. Possibly the best single episode of the bunch. Who's running Fox these days, to let such a well-written, engaging show get away? Widescreen was a terrific bonus, too, with many scenes shot specifically for the format. LOVED the effects of the Reaver ship chasing Serenity over the planet's surface. Incredible.


And Jayne is such a doofus...

spainlinx0

I missed it and came in here to check if this was the same episode that has been available for download for a long time. I saw this before the show started and was wondering if they made any changes.

Sad to see the show gone, and hopefully it will be picked up.

Patman

I've outlined the changes from the unaired pilot and the aired pilot in my previous posts in this thread.

The main big change is the opening sequence where you actually see Mal and Zoe in battle in Serenity valley (it replaces narration on the unaired pilot that's floating around cyberspace). The other change was the history lesson of the Battle of Serenity that Zoe provided for Simon.

spainlinx0

Yeah I read that, was just making sure they were the only changes. Guess I don't have to bother downloading it again. Unless the opening battle scene was really good?

UPN YOU SCUMBAGS PICK THIS UP!!

MrN

Decent episode - not as good as the last two IMO, but cerainly a good pilot. I can't figure out why FOX didn't want to run it first, esp. since this one probably had the best production values.

Loved Mal shooting the horse and then the Fed. Very reminiscent of the kick into the engine.

So I guess the mysteries of Book and River will have to stay in limbo for a while.

What about a 'Bathing Inara' action figure?

teddydogg

Now you have got my interest!!!!


I loved this episode I wish it would have had a little more on how the cast hooked up. I really wanted to know the story of Jayne and I liked preacher enough to want to know more about him. Also my vote for most underrated cast member Wash how did him and Zoe meet?

Aaron Amos

Darn ! I missed it!!

spainlinx0

Zoe and Malcolm were looking for a pilot and Wash was looking for work. This whole story was just done in that torture episode a few weeks back if I'm not mistaken.

dgmayor

Actually in the episode "Out of Gas", they give a good run down of how they met the primary guys.

Draven

Morons. Fox is run by morons.

I am convinced that if this episode had aired as the "pilot," more people would have watched the show. I thought it was top notch, all around. And it set up so many threads that were continued in other episodes.

Morons.