The "Cry Baby"

POSTED BY: Calhoun
UPDATED: Sunday, January 11, 2004 19:26
VIEWED: 9242
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SHINY

Thursday, January 8, 2004 3:20 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Calhoun:
Guys.. The rock/moon is entirely relevant to the cry baby senario!

Joss seems so on top of his game that the rock/moon could not possibly be of no consequence.

How can I ask the question of Joss? Get it straight from the horses mouth as it were.

Actually, I think Joss mentions something about this in his commentary...something about how the special effects people wanted to add all these nifty space visuals and Joss was like, "guys, we only have one thing we need to get across here..."

RIVER
Purple elephants are flying.
MAL
Good. Thanks for the update.

CANTTAKESKY

Thursday, January 8, 2004 3:25 PM

Quote:
Such a mass might go a long way toward disguising the absence of a large ship from the cruiser's long-range sensors. Thoughts?

My vote's with Noocyte. I don't think a moon can really be mistaken for a personnel carrier (size incompatibility, distance from ship, location of known bodies, etc). But it can certainly be an easy assumption for not detecting one. The moon still serves a purpose, just a more subtle, clever one.

Can't Take My Gorram Sky

BROWNCOAT1

Thursday, January 8, 2004 6:10 PM

I noticed the # 6 too. It would seem it was the latest in a string of decoy devices.

I agree w/ everyone that it appears to be cobbled together out of spare parts, and it seems to be disposable. The scene it was used in, and the way Mal waited until he was certain they would be spotted before he had Walsh trigger it leads me to think that it is a last ditch sort of thing. Perhaps they are not 100% reliable since they are cobbled together? Maybe I am reading too much into that though.

I had not thought of Cry Baby's proximity to the moon and the possibility that it could be using the mass of the moon to create a false image on Alliance scanners, but I suppose it is possible. I don't think it very likely though. How would Mal have known there would be a large enough object nearby to use, or could it have simply have been a lucky circumstance that put them close enough to use it?

Intresting theory nonetheless.

"May have been the losing side. Still not convinced it was the wrong one."

HANS

Thursday, January 8, 2004 6:28 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Calhoun:
Yeah 13 klicks is kilometres here now to us but our frame of reference is from walking or driving on a planet. I imagine in the future travelling vast distances through space a klick might be 1000 or 10000 or even 1000000 kilometres.

Hadn't thought of that. I'm not sure even what the origin of "clicks" is, but your explanation make sense.

HERO

Thursday, January 8, 2004 7:18 PM

Hmmmm

Here's a theory nobody else came up with. The "Cry Baby" refers to something completely different. Its just a coincidence that there's a coffee can with 'cry baby' written on it floating nearby. We're all mean to think its the thing, when really its something completely different.

Just shoes how 'deep' the show really is.

H

SAINT JAYNE

Thursday, January 8, 2004 7:55 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Calhoun:
I imagine in the future travelling vast distances through space a klick might be 1000 or 10000 or even 1000000 kilometres.

Isn't the rest of the show in imperial units? I seem to remember someone using "miles". If that's the case, I'm sure they've just recycled the term "klicks" and it doesn't mean kilometres.

MRGREEN

Thursday, January 8, 2004 8:55 PM

Ok, I wan't to make sure I was right before I went spouting my mouth off...

Checked the Serenity DVD commentary, and Joss specifically says that the CGI guys 'put the coffee can in front of this really cool planet', ''zause they love that kinda stuff'.

In other words, his script didn't call for the Cry Baby to be in front of or near a planet or anything like that. It was just visual effects guys having fun.

All of the theories about gravitation from the moon and what not are very interesting, and I think that the idea that the moon simply hides the absense of a ships gravity is most plausible. However, none of them were the intention of the writer/director/producer, so it's all jus fun chit chat, imho.

Also, somehting that no one has suggested... Clearly they have a good contorl of gravity at this point, and is fairly simple and inexpensive As evidence, all ships, even small shuttles have artificial gravity. They also mention that they alter the gravity of planets during terraforming.

It also seems that the energy used by the artificial gravity systems are pretty insignificant, as it kept running while the entire ship powers down, in Out of Gas.

It is entirely plausable that they rigged up some sort of artificial gravity field generator (maybe scavenged from an otherwise destroyed vessle?) in the Cry Baby to make it seem that it was much larger than it actually was.

Again, I think it's just a fun thing to debate about. It was obviosly just a plot device, and not a whole lot of thought from the writers went into it.

Rob

EARLY

Friday, January 9, 2004 12:31 AM

Quote:
Isn't the rest of the show in imperial units? I seem to remember someone using "miles". If that's the case, I'm sure they've just recycled the term "klicks" and it doesn't mean kilometres.

Could be but in the Marines we used klicks to mean kilometers and we used meters on the ranges but we also used miles, and feet. So a combo of standard and metric would not be unheard of, especially in a place where cultures have combined (being we in the US are one of only 3 countries that still use that outdated standard system). But I think realistically speaking klicks would probably be larger. When you discuss moving klicks in the military it is usually that a grid on a map is one kilometer, so maybe they use the term klick to be one grid square which could be any lenth at all and given the vastness of space most likely very large.

PHOSPHORUS

Friday, January 9, 2004 4:52 PM

It's certainly possible that clicks are not kilometers, but the distance is irrelevant. Note that the underling asked, "Should we deploy gunships and bring her in." They're on patrol. We're talking about mounting a rescue operation, not running suicide sprints on a basketball court. They'd need to get the pilots into the gunships, launch them, get to the disabled ship, asses the status, evacuate it or prepare to tow it, and then do that. Finally, they would go chase Serenity. That's why they can't do it. 13 clicks has nothing to do with it.

BLINKER

Friday, January 9, 2004 6:18 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by ladyjayne:
I love the code they used to deploy it, myself. Of course The Beatles are still going to be quoted 500 years from now!

--Kala

I was amused to notice another possible Beatles reference in "The Hero of Canton." Both Boss Higgins and the "Taxman" enforce a 95% taxation rate:

And he saw the Magistrate taking
Every dollar, and leaving five cents

Let me tell you how it will be
There's one for you, nineteen for me
Should five percent appear too small
Be grateful I don't take it all

The more political protest songs change...

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