Fox's botched episode screening

POSTED BY: Regression
UPDATED: Monday, January 3, 2005 03:55
VIEWED: 4772
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REGRESSION

Friday, December 31, 2004 1:45 PM

I am not trying to troll about Firefly, I love firefly, but I really think the train job was better. It had action, it was fast and to the point. Shoot me for it but i agree with their decision not to screen Serenity first. This comes because of an anecdote which follows.
Well, I live in Australia, and luckily for me, i caught the first episode of firefly that was screened. The idiots here at Ch 7, screened the train job first. I fell in love with it. Got my dvds the next weekend.
Now, firefly here aint too big. So far, recruitment's going pretty slowly. I've been lending my disc 1 to friends. I managed to get about 10 people in the same room at school, where I pursuaded the teacher let us watch an episode of firefly.
Problem was, the only copy of the first dvd was a compressed 4.7 GB backup my friend burnt for himself.
So, up goes the first five minutes of Serenity amid cries of 'thats what firefly's about?' and 'is it all like, this crap?'. and im sayin, no, just watch it, it gets better. Sound was hard to hear, so all the good dialogue got wiped out, and the compression took out the breathtaking CGI.
the first half of serenity admittedly was pretty boring to someone sitting in that classroom.
Now, you'd say, when the shootout comes, then everyone'd sit up...
well, it didn't. the compressed dvd screwed up, and it cut out just before mal started kicking ass.
From Fox perspectives, serenity was slow, not much action in the first hour, lots of character development. Admittedly, Firefly is all about the character development, except with no action to hook in viewers, character development is pretty useless.
After watching the Train Job, Serenity really drew me into Firefly. I can't say that serenity was a bad episode, or i hated it, I'm just saying that as a pilot, it doesnt do the job it should. (too well)
So. Now, I have about 10 people at school, who have decided to make things hell for me when im trying to recruit.
Shiny.

Anyone else feel same or differently?

SIMONWHO

Friday, December 31, 2004 2:07 PM

It's an interesting question. Firefly doesn't necessarily appeal to the lowest common denominator and the original pilot really showcases that. The Train Job is more of a "base" appeal show, action and things going really fast but it isn't necessarily a true reflection of the rest of the show.

Regardless, I don't think DVD5 backups are the way to go (unless you split the episodes across 2 discs). Do you use DVD Shrink, I highly recommend it.

REGRESSION

Friday, December 31, 2004 2:24 PM

As a recruitment device, I'm just saying that the train job would hook in more recruits than serenity. Just as an aside, us Aussie browncoats are now pretty lonely, quite sure Ch 7 cut firefly's midnight slot.

And my friend burnt it with dvd shrink. Not sure about the quality of the file, then again, may have just been the projector. Personally, I'd never compress a Firefly dvd. But the bottom line, THE GORRAM THING CUT OUT BEFORE THE SHOOT OUT!!!

SOUPCATCHER

Saturday, January 1, 2005 12:16 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by Regression:
As a recruitment device, I'm just saying that the train job would hook in more recruits than serenity. Just as an aside, us Aussie browncoats are now pretty lonely, quite sure Ch 7 cut firefly's midnight slot.

I had an experience last night that lends a lot of weight to what you're saying.

[long rambling mode]
In my past recruitment efforts I have targetted single individuals. I'll sit down with someone and show them the two hour pilot episode. The success rate for these recruitments has been close to one hundred percent.

The few times I have tried larger groups the success rate has plummetted. I may hook one or two, but quite a few will get bored quickly and start talking and not paying attention. If you're not paying attention, you can miss a lot of information in the first half hour and, by the time the action starts, some people are lost. Lost and confused is not a good state to be in.

Last night, quite by happenstance, I had a much greater success rate with a larger group by playing the episode Ariel . For Christmas I gave my sister-in-law (my first recruit from a year ago) a Blue Sun shirt. A lot of our friends liked the shirt so the next time I was visiting I popped in Ariel just to show the beginning scene where Jayne gets sliced. Then I just left the episode playing in the background while we were all talking about other things. By the time the blue hands dudes were killing people with their wands everyone had stopped talking and was watching the episode.

When it was all over a couple of my short-attention-span-theater friends were lining up to borrow the DVDs and asking when I could get them Blue Sun and Fighting Elves shirts (I still have to work on shifting the financial burden to them...

).

Ariel is more like Train Job, in my opinion, than Serenity and worked a lot better in that particular instance than playing the pilot would have. So I'm starting to rethink my approach based on the number of people involved.
[/long rambling mode]

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"What sort of raw meat do you people feed your cruiser captains, Hamish?" - Queen Elizabeth III of Manticore

ECGORDON

Saturday, January 1, 2005 12:57 AM

Every time I watch The Train Job I like it more and more, and it was the first ep I saw, when it originally premiered on US tv. However, I still think Serenity is the better intro to the series. It's not my fault, or Joss', that so many people have almost no attention span.

wo men ren ran zai fei xing.

SNOWGUARD

Saturday, January 1, 2005 2:40 AM

Quote:
Just as an aside, us Aussie browncoats are now pretty lonely, quite sure Ch 7 cut firefly's midnight slot.

Have faith! I checked a little ahead, and Jaynestown is on 12:50am Wednesday morning. It just so happens I'll be waiting for a train to come into the depot about then. I have however gotten my sister to say she wouldn't mind borrowing the episodes off of me. She was visiting and I threw on Trash. My sister doesn't watch much television, and she certainly doesn't watch Sci-Fi.

How hard is it to get a Blue Sun or Fighting Elves shirt sent internationally if one doesn't own a credit card. I really REALLY REALLY want one.

VETERAN

Saturday, January 1, 2005 6:27 AM

I think the episodes are best shown in order. However, if I had to show only one episode of FF to someone I would choose either Out of Gas or Objects in Space. Probably best with OoG, it explains more about the characters.

NYWOE

Saturday, January 1, 2005 3:26 PM

Interesting theory, Soupcatcher. I think you may be right. For 1 or 2 friends: "Serenity." For a large group or for 2 or more easily distracted people: "The Train Job."

I also like TTJ immensely. I think people just don't like it because of it's history, the way it replaced Serenity. Come on, it's got "You're coat is kinda a brownish color," that great shot of Jayne charging out of the bar, "Did he just go crazy and fall asleep?", Inara slapping Mal, "I... I was weak", and Crow through the engine! Among other things...

SPIXDON

Sunday, January 2, 2005 3:46 AM

i was hooked by the first few minutes of "The Train Job" when it first aired, however, "Serenity" made me love it that much more. the best thing to do in my opinion (and it has worked several times), is to show "the Train Job" first, then after they're hooked, "Serenity", then "The Train Job" again and the rest of the series. although, when faced with my immediate family, trying to to that backfired and after the credits and i told them the name of the episode, they had learned enough by osmosis from me to know that it was the second episode and they demanded to see "Serenity" first. they sat through it and now beg to watch my dvds. but then again, they love me. or so they say.

SOUPCATCHER

Sunday, January 2, 2005 10:13 AM

After I had the DVD set for a few months I noticed that The Train Job was one of the episodes that I re-watched the least. Since that time, it has steadily moved up the list until it's now right up there in the top five in terms of frequency. I think this pattern was probably established by watching the DVD extras and finding out that it was the second pilot - I subconsciuosly demoted it in importance. But since then it's moved back up because it was the episode that hooked me on the series - it was good enough to keep me watching - and also the episode that introduced me to all these great characters.

I wonder if people who started watching Firefly with The Train Job have different perceptions of the characters than those who started watching with Serenity since the way they were introduced was different? (That whole primacy thingamabob).

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"What sort of raw meat do you people feed your cruiser captains, Hamish?" - Queen Elizabeth III of Manticore

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