Joss contacts Sci-Fi UK with correct running order

POSTED BY: SimonF
UPDATED: Thursday, June 19, 2003 23:41
VIEWED: 6259
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SIMONF

Wednesday, June 18, 2003 11:13 AM

http://www.bbc.co.uk/cult/news/cult/2003/06/18/5161.shtml

Firefly schedule released

Fans of Joss Whedon's Firefly will be interested to hear that the Sci Fi Channel has announced details of its schedule for the rest of the series.

There has been some debate over the correct
running order of the series, caused by the fact that some episodes have not yet been shown anywhere in the world.

Fortunately creator Joss Whedon has contacted the channel with the correct order. Apparently, he is taken a keen interest in how the show is performing on Sci Fi. No doubt a successful run on Sci Fi would greatly improve his chances of getting a film off the ground.

Here is the correct running order.

Monday 23rd June at 9pm Ep 8 - Jaynestown (UK TV Premiere)
Monday 30th June at 9pm Ep 9 - Out Of Gas (UK TV Premiere)
Monday 7th July at 9pm Ep 10 - Ariel (UK TV Premiere)
Monday 14th July at 9pm Ep 11 - War Stories (UK TV Premiere)
Monday 21st July at 9pm Ep 12 - Trash (World TV Premiere)
Monday 28th July at 9pm Ep 13 - The Message (World TV Premiere)
Monday 4th Aug at 9pm Ep 14 - Heart Of Gold (World TV Premiere)
Monday 11th Aug at 9pm Ep 15 - Objects Of Space (UK TV Premiere - Series Finale)

CHRISTHECYNIC

Wednesday, June 18, 2003 12:12 PM

Well that settles that.

DRAKON

Wednesday, June 18, 2003 12:48 PM

Okay then if that is the order, I am confused.

How come Jayne can casually mention that River is a "mind reading genius" in "The Message" and then is surprised by the possibility that she is later on in OIS?

MANZO

Wednesday, June 18, 2003 12:54 PM

Maybe that's the addition that Tim Minear mentioned on the Buffistas board:

http://www.buffistas.org/showthread.php?thread_id=46&post_id=9264

Joss made a minor adjustment in "Objects" when we aired it, and restored said change for the DVD order.

CHRISTHECYNIC

Wednesday, June 18, 2003 1:36 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Drakon:
Okay then if that is the order, I am confused.

How come Jayne can casually mention that River is a "mind reading genius" in "The Message" and then is surprised by the possibility that she is later on in OIS?

You're not the only one. I think that when the changed the order (the order acording to the scripts was War Stories, Heart of Gold, Objects in Space, Trash, The Message ) they forgot to edit some things.

Quote:
Originally posted by manzo:
Maybe that's the addition that Tim Minear mentioned on the Buffistas board:

http://www.buffistas.org/showthread.php?thread_id=46&post_id=9264

Joss made a minor adjustment in "Objects" when we aired it, and restored said change for the DVD order.

I don't think so, although Jayne could have not been surprised that she was psychic in OiS (that being the change) the entire thing about him talking about the steak knife (quite a bit of the start of OiS) wouldn't fit if Trash had already happened. He immediately shuts up about it the moment the possibility River knew he had betrayed her came up.

Also River says to Jayne that she can kill him with her mind (in Trash), the conversation that is a reference to is in OiS. There are other examples of how it doesn’t fit that I posted other places. The point is that a single adjustment in OiS would account for the glitches in continuity. Just about the entire first 16 minutes is referenced in either Trash or The Message or presents an indirect continuity problem (except for the gun bit.) Considering that the episodes run about 44 minutes I don’t think a change to all of that would be the minor adjustment he makes mention of.

HARBATKIN

Wednesday, June 18, 2003 3:19 PM

Quote:
Monday 14th July at 9pm Ep 11 - War Stories (UK TV Premiere)
Monday 21st July at 9pm Ep 12 - Trash (World TV Premiere)
Monday 28th July at 9pm Ep 13 - The Message (World TV Premiere)
Monday 4th Aug at 9pm Ep 14 - Heart Of Gold (World TV Premiere)
Monday 11th Aug at 9pm Ep 15 - Objects Of Space (UK TV Premiere - Series Finale)

I hate be one to argue with Joss but I have to say that by the episode versions I've seen this order doesn't make much sense to me. Of course we don't know at what point in the process the versions we've got were editied. With the mismatched set of Fox aired eps and unaired production copies we have, and with Fox changing the order around so much, who knows what kind of edits and changes were made to each episode and at what time. The episode versions for the DVD may be waaaay different than the ones we've seen. IMO, with the eps I have, the continuity flows best in the following order:

War Stories
Heart Of Gold
Objects In Space
Trash
The Message

Except for the overly dramatic ending (Inara) in HOG and the not so dramatic, ho-hum resolution at the begining of OIS, everything else fits together well. Personally until I see the DVD or the episode versions that will run in the UK, this is my veiwing order. I'm not saying one order is right or another order is wrong. Everyone should watch them in whatever order they think fits best in there opinion. I think it's really neat how everyone sees the plotlines flow so differently.

...like a trained ape, without the training

SUCCATASH

Wednesday, June 18, 2003 3:19 PM

I am also still a bit boggled.

HJERMSTED

Wednesday, June 18, 2003 4:20 PM

So this means Kaylee will not have come clean with the rest of the crew about what she saw River do (at the end of 'War Stories') until the fourth episode after the fact rather than the second.

I'll be a bit disappointed if the Kaylee/River developments are somehow disrupted by these seemingly new episode order decisions.

I have this strange feeling Joss just wants the last lines of the Firefly DVD set to be "Well... here I am..." because otherwise 'Objects in Space' sure seems out of place at the tail end of the series.

mattro

CHRISTHECYNIC

Wednesday, June 18, 2003 5:36 PM

I'm with Harbatkin on this one (as if it wasn't obvious.) That’s the only way continuity is maintained. The only issue I had with that order was that HoG didn’t seem to flow into OiS but that’s the way it is regardless so I say HoG OiS Trash The Message unless the DVD or British episodes are significantly different.

Still, each to their own.

Just out of curiosity, has anyone actually seen any news that says this is the order?

I know that they changed it, and that is what they changed it to, but the story about Joss being the one to say this is the order only appears (to my knowledge) on http://www.bbc.co.uk/cult/news/cult/2003/06/18/5161.shtml

This news is in fact “News, gossip and events from the world of cult tv” now that doesn’t seem like a reliable source to me. If Sci Fi (UK) got a call from Joss saying this is the right order don’t you think they would say so and not leave it to a gossip place to spread the word? I checked their Firefly site and didn’t see anything about it.

CHRISTHECYNIC

Thursday, June 19, 2003 12:42 AM

I'm bumping this because I still don't know. Is there any news from a credible source that says it was Joss who said this was the right order? If we assume the order is right (not a hard assumption, Tim said so) there is still no reason to believe Joss said this was the right order. Could be some clerk at mutant enemy did, could be Tim did, could be a lackey for Joss did, or it could even be that they read it off the message board Tim posted at.

It’s not really all that important but I have to wonder if Joss really did call up and say, “The right order is…” or if the gossip site simply made it up when the order changed.

(By the way, I still think the HoG, OiS, Trash, The Message order makes more sense. I'm simply taking their word that the right order isn't the one that seems sensible.)

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