Synopsis

On Serenity, River wakes from a nightmare of medical torture; Simon explains they're aboard a ship (she reels off the catalog information after a quick look around the infirmary) and they can't go home, or she'll be sent back to the 'Academy'. Mal arrives to clean up after the brawl, but rather rudely refuses any medical help; outside the infirmary, Book asks Mal why he's letting Simon and River stay, and Mal can't supply an answer. He goes to haul Kaylee back to work from a girl talk/beauty session with Inara; Inara and Mal have a short bicker-session laced with enough sexual tension to implode the shuttle. Mal retreats, after warning Inara to stay out of the way of their client, who is not a nice person. Which is amply proven in the ensuing meeting -- Niska offers Mal a contract to steal two crates from a train, and demonstrates the consequences of failure by displaying the dead guy hanging upside down in the next room. Following the plan, Zoe and Mal board the train dressed as passengers and prepare to start the job, only to walk straight into a carload of Alliance soldiers.

On Serenity, Inara and Book try to occupy themselves talking while everyone else does the real work -- um, stealing. Zoe and Mal play it cool walking through the soldiers to the next car, as Kaylee prepares the cargo bay aboard Serenity for the rest of the job, cheerfully explaining the plan to Simon as she goes. The plan, by the way, is to lower Jayne on a rope to the moving train and haul everyone back up the same way -- Jayne is less than thrilled with this plan, and a little cranky about it. Simon retreats and Jayne informs Kaylee (and River, eavesdropping) that Mal must have a plan for making a profit off of Simon and his sister, or he wouldn't keep them around. Mal's only current plan is in action -- Zoe rigs a smoke bomb on the door of the target car, and the pair quickly locate the boxes. Jayne drops in right on time, but a soldier breaks in just as they get the boxes hooked onto the rope. Jayne, shot in the leg, retreats alone to the ship, and Zoe and Mal lose themselves in the smoke and the crowd of passengers, all of whom are taken into custody by colony authorities. As they wait, they overhear when the sheriff learns what was stolen -- desperately-needed medicine. Mal: "Son of a bitch."

The commander of a nearby Alliance ship is informed of the theft, and decides it's too petty for them to care. Jayne, as he's being patched up, yells at the others to head for the rendezvous point, but they all flatly refuse to leave without Mal and Zoe (except River, who suddenly goes on a riff about people coming "two by two, hands of blue," then subsides). Book points out that having to admit Mal was captured (and therefore able to rat out Niska) could be Bad, and Jayne reluctantly agrees to wait. Zoe and Mal, meanwhile, are trapped in the middle of a refugee camp, full of the victims of the degenerative disease the medicine was supposed to treat. When questioned, they spin a story about being a married couple looking for work, which the sheriff doesn't really buy, since their supposed contact is dead. Aboard ship, Jayne loses patience and demands they leave; everyone continues to stand against him, until he starts babbling about the light, then falls on his face -- Simon's drugs took longer than he thought to kick in. The gang forms a plan to send in someone respectable to pull Mal and Zoe out; Inara turns out to be that person, and she puts on a lovely performance as she recovers her runaway "indentured servants." As he returns to the ship and steps over Jayne, who is sprawled on the stairs to the cargo bay where the others left him, Mal informs his crew that they're giving the medicine back and ending the contract. Which they're going to have to explain to the crowd of heavily muscled and armed minions stalking up the cargo bay ramp.

The head minion (last seen with the dead body) demands an explanation, and doesn't like the one he gets. He throws a knife into Mal's shoulder and the non-combatants dive for cover as all hell breaks loose. Guns fire, fists fly, Wash turns a dune buggy into an assault vehicle, and the still-doped Jayne manages to cripple Head Minion before he can kill Mal. Zoe and Mal return the medicine via dune buggy, and walk directly into the Sheriff's guard party. He lets them go, since they were bringing it back, and he understands about taking jobs you later regret. Back at Serenity, Mal explains carefully to the head minion that he's giving back the money and that they and Niska are even. Head Minion informs him that he and Niska will hunt them throughout the galaxy until vengeance is gained, the last thing they see will be his face, yadda yadda... Mal interrupts the villainous speech by drop-kicking Head Minion into an engine. Second-in-Command Minion is much more understanding, and the Serenity heads away from the planet.

In the infirmary, Simon sews up Mal's shoulder, and Mal grants him some grudging respect for dealing so effectively with Jayne. River is still fading in and out of coherency, huddled in her room chanting about the blue hands, coming two by two, as the Alliance commander greets two visitors in black suits looking for a girl. They display River's picture -- held in blue-gloved hands.

Perri's Review

Continuity:
Someone's looking for River, and she seems to be able to sense it. Or she's just having insanely bad flashbacks. other than that... it's the first episode. Hard to do continuity.

Relationships:
See above re: Mal, Inara, UST. And they've been doing this for 8 months? Everyone else on the ship must be ready to strangle them (except possibly Wash and Zoe, who one would assume are getting some, and can therefore just be amused).

Kaylee is far too cute with her Simon proto-crush. She's got good taste.

Characters:
The characters were far less cardboard than I was anticipating, and almost none of them was exactly what I was expecting from hanging out at the official page -- all hail the Joss.

I love Kaylee already; she's almost exactly what I was expecting -- cheerful, sweet (but not too sweet, as the cussing as she stomps out of the shuttle attests), competent, and unfazed by anything anyone can throw at her. Zoe was a lot of fun, sarcastic and uber-competent (and she fights dirty!), but I hope she gets to kick a little more ass in the future; Gina Torres is far too cool not to be kicking as much ass as humanly possible. Inara is, obviously, a goddess. < g > And I say this as a straight woman who simply covets her wardrobe. She's calm, she's kind to Kaylee, she gives as good as she gets when Mal is acting like an 11-year-old with a crush, and she comes through in a pinch. Very cool. River is... odd, due to heinous trauma, so it's hard to get a read on her other than the trauma and the obvious intelligence; I wonder how much of the babbling was knowing and being afraid that someone is coming after her, and knowing as in visions.

As for the guys, Jayne needs his butt kicked on a regular basis, methinks; gotta get those testoterone levels down just a tad. Not *too* far, 'cause Adam Baldwin is a babe, but just enough to allow his brain to kick in a bit more often. < g > But he's fun, and the tension between him and most of the other characters is all of the good. Simon I adore unconditionally -- I was expecting someone much more rigid, much more self-conciously upper-class, but he's a sweet, polite kind of guy... who'll dope Jayne into unconciousness without batting an eye. You gotta respect that. Plus, he adores his sister to a ridiculous extent.

Book is also quite cool -- not a bible-thumper by any means, just a guy wandering around trying to do what's Right, without sweating whether things are strictly, you know, right. Wash is a sweetheart, seems to have the same level of competence as everyone else aboard, and those are some good arms to have, yow. Any more will have to wait until I see more of him, but I admire Joss for hanging on and giving us a married couple right off the bat -- it takes chutzpah. Now let's see if he can write them on a day-to-day basis.

Mal is a good guy. Most of the time. But he's also a practical guy -- I loved the dropkick of the minion into the engine. < g > Mal does the right thing while trying real hard to rationalize it to himself as the practical thing or the pragmatic thing, until he runs into something that is Just Wrong. I find this entertaining. It's going to be interesting to watch where he goes.

I really do like the character interactions aboard Serenity -- it's not all puppies and kittens. Everyone rubs along reasonably well, but there's some tension between Inara and Mal, Mal and Simon, Simon and Jayne, Jayne and almost everyone, Mal and Book... the dynamics have the potential to be endlessly fascinating. Zoe and Wash seem sweet together, Kaylee and Simon are going to be very adorable, Mal and Inara... well, I've already commented. Fabulous bit of casting on those two.

Best Moments:
The entire brawl was funny as hell, and really set the scne of the time, the place and people exceptionally well. I particularly loved the little touches -- the Chinese checkers game, the almost invisible pass of the job contact and Mal getting thrown through the force filed "window" -- that last is a brilliant, incredibly Jossian twist on the sterotype that really gives me hope for the rest of the series.

The opening credits are very interesting -- I think I'm coming down on the side that loves the song, but then, I like country. The lyrics are really cool, the credits themselves are pretty, and that last shot of the Serenity flying over the horses is far too cool and appropriate.

I liked the initial few scenes on Serenity, as Mal roamed through the ship and managed to interact with almost everyone. Very smooth way to get everyone introduced and some initial relationships established.

I keep circling back to the scene with Mal and Inara on her shuttle -- the Mal/Kaylee stuff was fun, but the best part was the banter. < g > And then Mal has to back-pedal and try to warn Inara to be careful without trying to sound like he's concerned or anything. Very cute, but total 11-year-old.

The entire scene in Niska's office. Very scary in a totally low-key kind of terrifying way. Good villain, I hope we see him again.

Simon and Kaylee in the cargo bay -- Kaylee's perky "Crime!" and Simon's blinking reaction were really cute.

Jayne passing out and everyone's ensuing reactions. Have I mentioned I love Simon?

Inara rescuing Mal and Zoe -- she's just too cool for the room, and Mal whinging later about the slap was funny as hell, as was Zoe's delivery on, "I was weak." And I join the crowd that's completely entertained by the courtesan being the most respectable person around.

Mal drop-kicking the Head Minion into the engine. That's just never going to stop being funny (in a grim kind of way, but still...)

Questions and Comments:
I admit it, the accents threw me. I had no clue Joss was that literally serious about doing a Western in space. I could feel my own accent getting thicker as I watched, which is going to drive me completely nuts -- as I have repeatedly stated over the years, I left Texas for a reason! But I do think I'm going to go with Kiki, here -- I can tolerate the accents (hoping they'll get lighter after Jossi s finished making his point); it's the deliberately terrible grammer that's going to make me truly insane. Love the cussing in Chinese, and its use as the lingua fraca; it's not as much fun as the made-up cursing on Farscape, but it beats the Southern "substitute" cursing they occasionally popped off with. It was less annoying the second time around, when I was expecting it, so that's of the good.

Book's intro narration is cool, but we need more details, stat. 'Cause I'm left wondering how the colonists found hundreds of terraformable worlds/bodies in one solar system.

The dialogue was almost always funny and good (allowing for the limitations of the aforementioned accents and grammer < shudder >), except for one horribly clunky bit with Inarra talking about her 'clients'. that came out of nowhere, and left just as fast, so I'm hoping it was an anomaly. Everything else flowed pretty well, considering how much exposition they had to work in around the edges.

The Serenity set just rocks the house down!!! Plus, cool effects throughout, especially on the train. So, it's a solid opening, but I just was not expecting them to take the western part of 'space western' this seriously! I adjusted, but I don't know if everyone else will be able to....

Rating:
3.5 stars out of 5. It's a pilot that wasn't meant to be a pilot, so the exposition is, at times, even more heavy-handed than when it's supposed to be a pilot. It's not Joss and Tim's fault, I blame the network -- I'm sure the movie was subtle and brilliant (as pilots go). But the dialogue was (mostly) up to par, the caper was fun, the characters already rock, and I can't wait for next week!

SunSpeak

"Am I the only one who took Joss at his word & expected and got a western? (Oooo...I *like* westerns. Spaceships are the chocolate topping! Yeah, I'm having a chocolate attack. Bite me. < beg >" -- Julie

"I'm gonna be going nuts too; more for the unnecessarily bad grammar than anything else. I know that not everyone speaks British Standard in the future, but I'm not that fond of this kind of speech now, why would I like it in space? *sigh* At least I got used to it on the second viewing.... It's not overwhelming. As long as they don't reach Farscape-levels of weird accent mixes, it'll be bearable."
"It really didn't bother me much. But then again....::looks furatively about and whispers:: I used to watch the Dukes of Hazzard. ::ducks and places a bag over her head:: I'm better now. Really. Anyway, after the heavy accents in that (not to mention some cousins of my from the deep South...of whom I was the only one up here who could understand them) this didn't bother me at all."
"What's weird is: I didn't even notice. So, um, I guess it's not bugging me. (May it will after a while... who knows. :)"
"Didn't bother me in the least. I'm like, "Western. Space western. Accents are a given. Ooooh, want her clothes!" -- Kiki, Julie, Dianne and Tina

"The Southern thing... I dunno, I hope they lighten up on that. I know he got the idea from the book "Rebel Angels" about former Confederacy officers out West after the Civil War, but it's hitting all the wrong buttons for me, even knowing it's set in the future and in totally different circumstances. The set-up is fine, it's just the trigger phrases that are making me twitch." -- Kiki

"[Kaylee] was just wonderful. She was so shyly sweet in a way she kinda reminds me of Tara."
"Funny, I saw her as *so* Willow (in the earlier seasons)."
"Whereas I don't see her as either. Perky teenage mechanic geek? Were I forced to comepare her to *anyone*, I'd actually pick Sam Carter from Stargate, except with a somewhat giggly lawless streak."
"Forced to, I'd go with Fred (self-interrupting spaz), but to me she just seemed very Kaylee." -- Julie, Dianne, Tina, Val

"Inara is, obviously, a goddess. < g > And I say this as a straight woman who covets her wardrobe."
"Ditto. But it would look awful on me, but I still want it!"
"Ditto. I want to be her when I grow up! < g >"
"I don't want to be her, I just want her wardrobe. < drool > I only got one teeny Cordelia flash about her, but otherwise, nothing. < beam > I do indeed adore her. " -- Perri, Julie, Dianne, Tina

"I admire Joss for hanging on and giving us a married couple right off the bat -- it takes chutzpah. Now let's see if he can write them on a day-to-day basis."
"I hope so. I'm so tired of everyone being single & the neck-of-the-week thing.*gah* " -- Perri and Julie

"Oh, I love the irony there. When they need someone to make them look legit and professional, [Inara]'s the one."
"Which I suspect is gonna get the fundamentalist Christian groups that already hate BtVS/Angel all kinds of riled up. Again. I have to say, I suspect that part of the reason she *is* the respectable one is Joss' sort of subtle way of tweaking their noses."
"*snerk* You're so not wrong. Being that they have nothing better to do than bash imaginary outer space courtesans. Which is exactly what she is -- methinks either Dangerous Beauty made an impression on Joss, or he's had some other reason to be interested in the courtesans of late-Renaissance Venice, because Inarra is 100% cortigiana onesta. (The easy way to understand that is to see Dangerous Beauty. The more involved but very worthwhile way is to read the biography on which it's loosely based, The Honest Courtesan. Deeply cool.) " -- Dianne, Tina and Val

"Zoe was fun, but I hope she gets to kick a little more ass in the future."
"Me too on more ass-kicking, but she did great with what she was given (of course). Loved her reactions to Mal most of all, with that "Can I have your share if you die?" conversation ranking right up there. Plus, giving him a hard time about the drinking in an Alliance bar; it's been six years, Zoe. You *know* he does this. You knew what day it was. You wanted to get into a fight too. Jayne, now, Jayne I believe had no idea... but then, he didn't know what month it was, so. (It's all the same when you're Jayne in space; every day is an excuse to beat someone up, never mind anniversaries.) Loved him shooting that guy from a lying-down- semiconscious position. Almost as much as I loved Kaylee's "We tried to get him into medbay, but he's *heavy.*" *snerk snerk snerk*" -- Perri and Kiki

"Fun, fun guy. [Simon] and Bashir are now on my dream medic team."
"Yea, Simon. He may end up being my favorite. He plays well with others, and isn't a fool. Just goes and does what he feels is necessary and then caucuses." -- Kiki and Julie

"I think some of [Simon's protectivenes towards River] may be his feeling guilty at not protecting her from whatever happened. He doesn't know, but he's damned if he'll let them do it again. Besides, western, remember? The protective brother thing was always a staple in those. As a matter of fact in "The Quest", it was the main underlining theme. (Yeah, you're too young for that one. (1976--it had Kurt Russell and Tim Matheson as two brothers searching for their sister who had been abducted by the Cheyenne.) )" -- Julie

"...[Y]es, Book is fantastic. He may be a man of God, but he hasn't forgotten that he is human and so is everyone else and that everyone deserves respect regardless and circumstances and understand that sometimes one must operate in the grey areas. And again, happy to see Ron Glass, as I always loved watching him on 'Barney Miller'." -- Julie

"I was going to groan and hit my head at the whole 'leaving the bad guy alive 'cause we're the good guys' thing that was setting up-- but no! Yay! Hail Joss and Mal, they decided that Mal isn't *stupid*: pissing off one of the mobsters of the border territories may be unavoidable, but leaving someone at your back with a grudge to come after you in five minutes *isn't* unavoidable." -- Kiki

"I like that it's a western town microcosm...but with a Joss-eyed view. The respectable woman isn't the schoolmarm, its the madam. The marshall and the deputy are crooks. The sweet farm girl is a whiz mechanic. Its all...Jossed. I'm looking foward to more. " -- Julie

"I like it, I want to stick with it, and if they keep it entertaining, I'll hang on for the ride. I do want to know what's up with River, and I want to see what happens with Inara and Mal already. Soooo... new fandom. Cool. :> " -- Kiki

"I know of several people who can't [deal]. They hate westerns and only watched because of Joss and aren't happy. To them I say "phhht". I plan on watching." -- Julie