Ramblings on Bushwacked
POSTED BY: Trickster
UPDATED: Thursday, October 12, 2017 09:40
VIEWED: 27934
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I've only been able to see half of this episode (I'm in Europe and depend on downloads). I love the look of the series, but I'm less keen on the dialogue and accents. The Chinese bits are cool, very Blade Runner-esque, but I think the Western in Space is laid on a bit thick. Also, it seems to be very "American" - more so than Buffy and Angel which always seemed to have this very appealing quirky British influence.
I like the tension in this episode, the Reavers freak me out. Hope I get to see the second half soon.
http://WHEDONesque.com
discussing the jossverse
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So far so good. That is my opninion of Firefly to date. Both the pilot and "Bushwacked" established the characters without detracting from the story of the episode.
My thoughts about the Reavers:
Maybe they are an alien race that were in the system when the humans arrived and the blue hands are the military defensive/offensive answer the Alliance has developed to depend people from the aliens.
Why say that you may ask? Well, glad ya asked. If this show is a sci-fi reflection of the United States western frontier after the Civil War and the Alliance/Independents is the appropriate analogy to the Union/Conferacy, then the Reavers are analogous to the Native Americans. For all we, the viewers, know, Reavers may be the slang that the humans use in much the same way Redskin was used for Native Americans.
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They're basketball game at the beginning was cute. 
Kaylee riding on Janye's shoulders to score a basket. It was a good example of crew unity; they just don't do crime.
Okay, what's the deal with the Blue Sun thing? Joss mentioned it during one of the interviews on the offical site. It was also on Janye's shirt. I managed to recognize the character for sun.
They need to bring the Reavers back. Just seeing the guy they drove crazy was creepy enough. I kinda jumped when the dead guy hit Serenity's front. I was totally expecting Mal to make a quip after he snapped the guy's neck but nothing came. Guess that's what happens when you watch too much Buffy.
All in all, it wasn't a bad second (or fourth) episode.
"Sir, I think you have a problem with your brain being missing." - Zoe
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No, they're humans, they've just got to be diseased or drugged. They were treated as "fallen" humans in the show, and quotes from JW make it clear that he's avoiding the usual sci-fi silliness of aliens that are amazingly similar to humans living on every other planet. It's a basic premise of this show that humans alone are good enough to make good science fiction and "explore the facets of humanity" that Trek uses aliens that aren't alien for, so therefor it's all about what becomes of the human race after exporing some space and living, alone, on multiple different planets.
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I realize it may be silly to comment on so small a thing, but I love how the VFX shots are done to seem as though they're shot with a camera, just like the rest of the show.
You know, how it zooms out suddenly, taking a moment to focus. It's very naturalistic, but disorienting. I loved it.
(Sorry to say it, but didn't this feel like a Star Trek episode to anyone else?)
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Quote:That's not a silly comment at all. Check out this comment from JW himself:
Originally posted by Kalimac:
I realize it may be silly to comment on so small a thing, but I love how the VFX shots are done to seem as though they're shot with a camera, just like the rest of the show.
Quote:
You have the latex monsters in Buffy and Angel, but this seems like it would be a lot more FX heavy.
Whedon: It is. It is. We've got Radium just going out of their minds, Radium Effects, and doing the best visual effects that I've ever seen on TV. They're better than most movies I've seen and they've done an extraordinary job. Because the whole mission statement of the show is to put you there. It is not to make space something grand and epic that you watched from afar. It is to make it something mundane that is happening to you the way your life happens to you. To that end, we shot most of thing hand held. We tried to make it feel a little bit like somebody happened to have camera and found all these people talking, as opposed to the stately, very controlled kind of filming that I usually do with Buffy and Angel. Radium and Loni Peristere are so great at giving you something that feels messy. So their shots, they find folks late, they'll be following a space ship and lose it and come back and zoom in sort of awkwardly. They've made it look like somebody had a handheld camera on the ground just watching space ships go, instead of the stately perfect shot, then cut to the inside and everything is shaking. It all feels very organic and that's a huge thing for me.
Full interview at www.scifi.com/scifimag/october2002/transcripts/.
Since you're into FX, you'll want to read Haken's interview with the Radium folks: www.fireflyfans.net/feature.asp?f=18
JOSS, WHERE'S MY CHECK???!!!
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Zic, thanks for the links - and the affirmation! 
I missed this stuff 'cause before the show aired I was excessively avoiding spoilers.
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Having slo-mode'd the ep and looked carefully I believe I identified some of the KEPs (Kinetic Energy Projectors) used in this ep.
Zoe: Had her cut down Winchester, Jayne held it for her while she suited up.
Mal: Still carrying that odd sidearm of unknown origin and capabilities.
Jayne: Not enough detail on the wall of his quarters. Gotta educate these explitive deleted camera types, they ignore the intesting guns and the full length of a woman's legs... While talking to the Doctor Jayne was loading a Taurus Revolver http://www.taurususa.com/m608.html with some kind of reflector sight. In the scene where Mal restrains the victim, Jayne has a different weapon. In the previews of the next ep, Jayne was holding a large weapon. It seemed to be a dressed up version of a Korean 12 gauge magazine fed shotgun.
The Alliance: Long arms a mix of British SA-80s http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/2284200.stm and pistol caliber 9mm Heckler and Koch 94 carbines http://user.icx.net/~jonesgil/HK94.HTM
The Colonel was carrying a Beretta 92 or the Taurus copy. But I suspect the producers gave him a CZ-75 in the scene where he is attacked by the victim. Maybe it was cheaper to drop or they just want to mess with the detail oriented nitpickers.
Jeff
Who is a detail oriented nitpicker...but hey, any show that has Belly Dancers must be great.
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According to my sister they are actually speaking Mandarin (she's learning it right now) and she was laughing at their accents when I made her watch the download from the Train Job (the bar scene).
According to her he was asking for one coffee when he was talking to the bartender.
And the second line she didn't really hear correctly, but it mentioned something about someone not being happy. I'll have to get her to listen to it again.
If someone has the .wav files on line I can get her to listen and translate. She says it's good practice for her.
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Quote:More likely, whoever's in charge of handing out guns just doesn't have your level of knowledge. They know that Alliance people always pack automatics, but can't tell a Wildey from a Browning. (Nor could I, until you educated me.) If they really knew guns, they'd never put a fancy gas-operated pistol in the hands of thug living on isolated frontier planet.
The Colonel was carrying a Beretta 92 or the Taurus copy. But I suspect the producers gave him a CZ-75 in the scene where he is attacked by the victim. Maybe it was cheaper to drop or they just want to mess with the detail oriented nitpickers.
Quote:Could it be that modified H&A we discussed earlier?
Mal: Still carrying that odd sidearm of unknown origin and capabilities.
JOSS, WHERE'S MY CHECK???!!!
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