Which one is your least favourite Firefly episode?
POSTED BY: Khyron
UPDATED: Thursday, March 22, 2007 00:07
VIEWED: 56043
PAGE 4 of 16
Quote:
Originally posted by minra:
I had to tack this on to this "worst episode" thread as well.
Gold was easily the dumbest espisode of the bunch. It just does not mesh with the character Mal and what the whole crew is. They are scrounging for jobs all the time and they are *forced* to look out for number-one 90% of the time just to survive.
Who is Mal? "He's not an evil man... He hasn't lost his moral compass completely. He has just given up on the idea of the decency of human nature. Or that anything is worth fighting for, except the next meal and the people around him." ~Joss Whedon
Yet in Heart of Gold, Mal and the entire crew of firefly, risk DEATH in a deadly firefight - a western-style shootout because one hooker doesn't want to give up her baby. (cue Madonna song). The core of the conflict is this, and there's no exposition whatsoever to the interesting and real issues surrounding parental rights in a situation like this.
Instead, we get an entire firefly crew who is willing to kill, and be killed, as a favor.
We see the townsman whose barren wife won't give him a kid, which is reasonable motivation to seek a mother via a third party, yet the story is written to portray him with a shallowness that requires laser interferometry to measure. Why? They could have written him as the hardass town boss who has a valid motivation, but who botched negotiations with the whore. Or she could have been a surrogate who breached contract. All potentially interesting stories leading up to the conflict are ignored. There's not a fair protrayal of two legitimate interests in a conflict (something that Firefly does quite well in the alliance vs browncoat conflict).
To top it off, *it is assumed* that a woman has a higher claim to parenthood of an infant than a man. The attitude of this episode, the whole mental frame of reference is drenched in unjustified feminazi self-righteousness.
It's a mindless hackneyed cliche. It's just a dumbed-down good gals versus bad guys western bang-bang shootemup.
In defense of the producers, i see this as a protest against Fox, who had just cancelled the series during ep 12. To me this episode is a frustrated Firefly ranting at the lameness of the TV world "You want dreck? We can give you dreck! Here! See?"
I'd agree with your assessment of the episode, except on one point. They don't go into why Burgess has no right to the infant (didn't he contract one, or is he an idiot?), but I would point out that if they didn't contract one, then sleeping once or twice with a whore is no reason you should get to run off with the baby she carried for nine months. Also, the word "feminazi" is guaranteed to score you points with the ladies. But they frankly did have both the "good guys" and the "bad guys" have no real explanation for the incident. It's like an episode of Xena, complete with the same actors and all...
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Early: Where'd she go?
Simon: I can't keep track of her when she's NOT incorporeally possessing a spaceship, don't look at me --
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Quote:
Originally posted by Madman007:
I also say "Bushwacked" because it played like a poor man's version of Alien with the sole survivor becomming the alien. The fact that he slaughtered Alliance purple bellies was nice, but it was presented like cheap horror. And now, with what we know now from the movie (Spoiler disclaimer) it is hard to believe anyone can "become" a Reaver since their creation had to do with a failed attempt to control people.Quote:
No.....this is what going mad feels like.
while i enjoyed Bushwhacked, i must agree about "made" Reavers. of course having seen the movie first, i never really counted him as a Reaver. still, in the thick of it what good does it do you to make distinctions between for-real Reavers and copycats?
the hell was the name of that episode with Saffron? the first one. well, both of them... those would be my least favorite.
now all i need is a big gun and a "very fine hat"...
Reavers ate my homework
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I definitley don't hate any of the episodes, which is quite uncommon because all T.V. shows have poor outings. But I do have a least favourite, which would have to be Safe. I still like it alright, but there's just something about backwood hicks obsessed with God that I don't like.
I would have to agree with those who said it doesn't matter if a certain plot element has been done before, all what matters is if it's done properly. And Firefly pulls off western cliches very good.
On a whole, my second least favourite episode would be Train Job. I did like the brawl at the beginning, but when they were in Paradiso, the show didn't retain my attention as well as it could have.
Finally, I would have to say Serenity, Ariel, Our Mrs. Reynolds, Shindig, & The Message are my favourites.
"I aim to misbehave."
FOX executives who visited a pre-screening of Serenity met well deserved fates: 
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Quote:
Originally posted by Captain:
As for "The Train Job", I also felt it was one of the weaker stories in many ways, but it had a lot of external circumstances: it was written literally over a weekend under pressure and had to satisfy those gorram fools at Fox so that they would at least greenlight the series at all. Despite all that, I felt that Joss and Tim banged out a story that took a lot of western cliches and found ways to turn them on their heads a bit, turn them inside out. Mal being thrown through a holographic window for one, the ending of the episode involving the big ugly henchman for another.
Thanks for saying what I was thinking when reading what everyone was saying about The Train Job.
I would have to say that Heart of Gold is probably my least favorite but there are really good Wash/Zoe and Wash/Kaylee moments that make it much better for me.
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Well.. it's hard to say what my "least" favorite episode is without clarification. As others have said.. even my least favorite episode of FF is probably 10 times better than just about any other show.
With that being said.. I would probably have to say Safe would be the episode I would watch last if I where watching them in order of preference. And I can't quite put my finger on it.. I think I need to watch it again, considering I have only seen it once, and I might have more insight. But I think it's maybe because I feel that episode has the least "story" to it. I think every episode gives us a self-contained story (but that is continous with what has happened previously), character developement/interactions/growth, hints at our character's secrets, and small peeks at the larger story arc Joss is trying to tell. And in each episode.. those elements are played to different levels. The best episodes are the ones where all those elements come together in a wonderful balance while telling a great semi-self-contained story.
But with all of that in just about every episode.. you can't cast off even ones' least favorite episode. Even as I would say Safe is my least favorite.. It is revealied in the episode that Book has a deeper more interesting past than we previously had imagined. We see that Simon is probably always going to stick his foot in his mouth when it comes to Kaylee. WE see that River does really love to dance. We see that River IS pyhsic. We see history repeating itself in the villagers of this boarder world reverting back to a 16th centry witch hunt type of mentality. Which ssems seems to be the bane of humankind in repeating history all over again.. and just seems very real. We see that even though Mal will say to not ever tell him what to do on his boat that he is NOT a dictator.. he does listen and take into account everyone's opinous and thoughts when he takes Inara's recommendation to seek help from the alliance. We see that Simon and River and part of Mal's crew.. but not yet part of the "family".. So we still see all these great character moments..
So we see all this, and this is just what I can remember off the top of my head, so in that.. it's still a great episode. Even if I didn't necissarily love the story of it.. 
Smaug.. 
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"Heart of Gold". I love every episode, but this, i feel, is the weakest of the bunch. I did'nt like the storyline as much as others, and the cheesy villain with the even cheesier hovercraft was a little annoying. Dont get me wrong, I really love cheesy television (see sig), but i really think that everything else about Firefly is so Un-cheesy, that even a slight bit of cheesiness dont seem right to me. It probably sounds stupid what im trying to say, but... yeah...
Also, the laser gun seemed out of place in this episode too - anybody else agree?
-------Huge Fan of:---------
Firefly\Serenity
Farscape
Andromeda (Early Seasons)
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For me, it's Bushwhacked. I don't enjoy horror, so the horror overtones of this episode ruin it for me. There is still plenty to love, as with all of Firefly; the interrogation scenes, the crew playing in the cargo bay, Mal saving the day even when unarmed and handcuffed, and so forth.
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Maybe I'm a big softie but I don't have a least favorite ep. I love all of them- they're all so shiny and sugar-coated
The human body can be drained of blood in 8.6 seconds given adequate vacuuming systems.
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My least favorite is Episode 14. I was mostly disappointed with the complete lack of good writing, directing, and acting.
I expected more, especially after 13 great episodes.
H
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I have to go with 'Our Mrs. Reynolds' for the single reason that watching Yo-Saf-Brig is so very annoying as the biddable, i am so innocent, please let me be your wife!! I love sooo many things about that episode but unfortunatly if I was forced by gun to skip one it would have to be this because of her annoyingness.
Though watching all their reactions when they find out Mal is married would be hard to give up.
Love, Ally
'Comfort me with apples for I am sick of love' -Solomon
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