More Subtle yet interesting show observations - post yours

POSTED BY: jewelstaitefan
UPDATED: Friday, December 19, 2008 17:29
VIEWED: 34355
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JONGSSTRAW

Thursday, January 3, 2008 4:05 PM

What the heck was Wash wearing in the BDM? Some sort of laconic flight school suit? What happenned to his trademark Hawaii shirt? I think non-series viewers would have really liked and appreciated Wash's personality in those Hawaii shirts.

ASARIAN

Friday, January 4, 2008 10:21 AM

Jaynestown starts with the whole swearing thingy, and that the whole point of swearing is that it ain't appropriate. And even though Kaylee offers him an open door ("Now see, this'd be the perfect time for a swear-word,") Simon remains the gentleman, even after Jayne ransacked his infirmary. It's only after Simon sees the statue of Jayne that he belches out a very audible "Son of a bitch!" :)

Now, apart from the fact that this is the first time I noticed it, I find it rather subtle, because you'd think, as Kaylee suggested, that someone messing up your infirmary really WOULD be the perfect occassion for a swear-word. Yet instead Simon only swears about something that really matters to him: his 'rivalry' with Jayne; not that he considers Jayne his intellectual match or anything, but I'm referring to the whole "I re-attached a girl's leg. Her whole leg. She named her hamster after me. I got a hamster. He drops a box of money, he gets a town." thingy. It's really seeing a statue in Jayne's honor that is his perfect time for a swear-word. :)

--
"Mei-mei, everything I have is right here." -- Simon Tam

SHEPARDBOOKEM

Monday, January 14, 2008 5:15 AM

Check it out - just after Wash (with the help of Kaylee, Book and Jayne) pulls the 'Crazy Ivan" on the reavers, in the next scene on the bridge, right after the Cap'n says "I knew there was a reason I hired you"... look closely, the camera shows Wash, his arms extended as he's still piloting, but there's nothing in his hands - no controls. My guess is that he wasn't expecting his hands to be in the frame, and after they filmed it was a good take... why re-do it?

WHITESILENCE

Tuesday, January 15, 2008 6:21 AM

I think they actually explain why this was in the visual companion. If I remember correctly, it had to do with moving the pilot's seat so that they could fit everyone into the frame.

SCHOOLBOYSWINK

Tuesday, January 15, 2008 11:33 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by jewelstaitefan:
End of OMR, talking about Saffron, Inara says "don't play a player". It sounds so...90's, as in 20th century.

Mal has said "we're in space, it's always dark" and the theme refers to space as "the black". However, in fact, this is a solar system with these dozen planets and hundreds of moons, all getting night and day from their sun. So the ONLY time you're in the black/dark is when you land on the shadow side of a world. When out of atmo, yo're always in the deathly, blindingly, bright sunlight which you need heavy-duty filters/shields to keep you from getting crispy. Unless you always fly in the shadow of some body between you and the sun, which would be difficult and cumbersome. Likewise, when the script says "day" it does not refer to a calendar/time component, it only refers to which side of the planet you landed on when you entered fro space - the shadow side or the lit side.
I do like the theme and it's implications, but realistically "the black" doesn't make sense for being in space.

I think what you're saying is part of why space IS "black." That single star would be unbearably bright, but its light isn't hitting anything, isn't reflecting off of anything except, well...you. Also, while in that light, it would tend to drown out the starlight, I think. So, no starlight, no reflected light, just this one colossal fusion-bomb of a star and anywhere else you look...nothing. Not the filtered, diffuse glow of sunlight coming through the atmosphere and bouncing off a million things until the whole landscape kind of shines. Wherever you look, just the Black of empty space.

Also, one of my favorite bits is the end of the Pilot, with Book in Inara's shuttle. I won't quote the dialogue, since I'm sure we all know it. It has always interested me that we don't know for sure WHY he chose to go to her with his burden, but we can be sure he didn't just wind up in her shuttle by chance. He lays his fears, his doubts, his guilt of not feeling pity for the lawman, all bare before Inara as he kneels before her. And she stands before him, and tells him maybe he's where he needs to be: i.e. You did the right thing. And then the camera pans back, we see Inara, with her hand on Book's head in a gesture of blessing that is at least as old as human history itself. And there it is: The priest seeking absolution from the whore.

Forget Book's and Inara's dark pasts, and all the subtext that scene might now have for those of us who have watched these few episodes, these gems, obsessively, and go back to the first time you saw it. I always try to do that each time that scene appears because all the discussion and debate about past sins distracts me from the beauty of that moment, which is truly sublime all on its own.

"When you can't do somethin' smart, do somethin' right!" -Jayne Cobb quotes Shepherd Book

FREDGIBLET

Tuesday, January 15, 2008 11:56 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by whitesilence:
If I remember correctly, it had to do with moving the pilot's seat so that they could fit everyone into the frame.

Pretty much, they just hoped that no one would notice.

WHITESILENCE

Wednesday, January 23, 2008 5:54 PM

In the bar at the beginning of Train Job, Mal sets his cup down on the bar with a sound like a glass makes but his cup is actually the bottom portion of a generic plastic water bottle.

SBAR

Thursday, January 24, 2008 8:40 PM

I have puzzled on the introduction given to she and the captain on entering the "Shindig" - "Kaywinnet Lee Frye,and escort" kinda sounds like someone with "standing" (accompanied by someone without). Maybe running from being the misfit tom-girl of a well-to-do family?

I think Mal was being a gentleman and stepping out of the limelight to let Kaylee have her moment. If you notice she enters all alone and he walks behind her, then steps down and takes her hand. I thought it was one of the sweetest moments in the whole series. From the time he realized his big mistake when he hurt her feelings, to telling her he had a job for her, to the dance scene. All very sweet and to me, so Mal. He does have a very caring side, but it comes out one on one.
Also, I don't think Mal wanted his name broadcast around the room. He is a petty thief, you know. HaHa Remember when he chastised Jayne for always calling his name in a heist? He likes to be more incognito.
JMO
SBar

SHEPARDBOOKEM

Thursday, January 24, 2008 11:30 PM

I think you're "right as rain" (to quote another favorite sci-fi!)... in a way the upfront sub-text (is there such a thing?) of that ep. was Mal trying trying to make right what he clearly realizes is his bumbling way with people (women specifically) whom he cares for and loves. He's like the schoolyard tough kid who's not all bad, has a sense of honor beneath the swagger, and his sublimated heart makes everyone like him, in spite of - you name it!!

'course, Kaylee really got him back by giving him the un-shakable nickname "Cap'n tight-pants"!!

MRMGRAPHICS

Sunday, February 3, 2008 3:33 AM

+

In "The Train Job," I have an interesting observation on the train itself: it's a magnetic levitation (maglev) train, but in the typical mash-up culture of Firefly, it looks more like a train from the late 1800s to early 1900s.

The interesting thing is that maglev trains are real, right now, on this Earth-That-Is, and any model of maglev train you look at, including decades'-old German Transrapid technology, looks downright futuristic compared to the train in "The Train Job," like the Earth-That-Is maglevs are from sci-fi, and not the other way around.

mrmgraphics
(website under serious reconstruction, if not life-saving surgery)

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