Out of Gas: a masterpiece!
POSTED BY: Delvo
UPDATED: Wednesday, January 29, 2003 18:05
VIEWED: 23910
PAGE 1 of 8
WOW.
This episode is an example of why I don't like the "x out of 10" kind of rating system for anything. You cold mistakenly give some other episodes a 10, and then there's nowhere left to go when you see on elike this... but then, how far down are you supposed to hedge the numbers for another episode that you also loved, just because you weren't floored by it? How do you measure the difference between them?
Anyway, I'm convinced now the silent space scene aren't just that way because sci-fi fans have been saying they should be for years; taht might be what made JW think of it, but the use he's putting it to is so much more... It just makes them "feel" so much morepowerful!
Also, when Mal was alone and made his way back up to the cockpit, the atmosphere as he worked his way through the ship closing all those doors and wrapped himself in his blanket was possibly some of the most dramaticly moving material I've seen in my life. It got cold and hard to breathe in my living room! And whoever does the music for this show deserves several times the pay of whoever does the music for most other shows.
The other ship's crew's betrayal was predictable, and Mal saw it coming too, but it was clear he had no choices and accepted that. It was interesting to see him make those instantaneous decisions when his back was to the wall, more than once.
Characterization for all on the show went clipping right along pretty well, except for one little issue: JW seems to have an immature, girlish perspective on love/sex/dating/romance. I was worried when I found out this show was being done by the creator of Buffy that this might happen. It hasn't gotten too bad on firefly yet, though. But still, it's becoming a noticible problem with the characters of Kaylee and Inara. Even in the episode when we find out Inara's reason for being there (paying Mal rent for transportation and a place to live and work), she does practically nothing else but oggle Mal and act nonsensically toward him. And Kaylee... why was she even on the ship in the middle of nowhere in the first place when not a part of the crew, and how are we supposed to believe her tastes in men? Doing that scene that way was just cheap sensationalism.
Other than that, though, the only nitpick I can think of is that I would prefer them to have had a line or two explaining why they can't do the obvious and grab parts from one or both of the other craft like the crew of Apollo 13 did. I know it's no great challenge to think of one for those in the audience who need one, but it would still be better to GIVE us one than to make it look like the crew never even THOUGHT of it...
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I agree, it was an amazing episode, and I believe I can clear up one of your little problems with it. Kaylee was on the ship because she was... hmm.. being intimate... with their current mechanic at the time. The ship apparently wasn't as "out in the middle of nowhere" as the backdrops may suggest but rather was just out on the edge of a town or village or what not, likely on the same planet even where Mal bought the ship. As she didn't seem to have any particular taste for the airhead mechanic, we can only surmise that she probably was doing that for money.
--
Funny and/or insightful quote coming soon.
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Quote:
Originally posted by MoonKnight:
we can only surmise that she probably was doing that for money.
Oh, please. She liked sex and was enjoying it with a pretty boy.
m.
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Out of Gas was so good, I watched it again immediately after it was over. Wow. The way the flashbacks were interwoven with the present-time was so beautifully done, I hardly realized that there were two sets of flashbacks going on. That's damn hard to pull off. Kudos to Tim Minear.
Having the space scenes be silent (as they should be!) made the noise and confusion of the chaos inside the ship even more dramatic. And I was so glad when Mal used the vaccuum created by opening the doors to pull the fire out of the ship! Too few sci-fi scripts are written by people who understand any of the physics of being in space. (I do sometimes worry about one o' them bullets punching through the hull, but then I'll just say to myself, they have really thick bulkheads, okay? Shut up.)
As to Joss Whedon's (shows) handling love/sex/romance in a "girlish" way, which shows of his have you been watching? Buffy, Angel, and Firefly all handle those subjects very realistically, I think, and I've been onboard for Buffy since Day One. I didn't understand the problems you said you had with Kaylee and Inara. Kaylee was on the planet because she lived there, obviously, as when she dashed off to ask her parents' permission to fly off with a total stranger on an open-ended mission. (Imagine how hard up that family must have been to have said yes! They probably saw it as her only chance. I wonder if she sends money home.) She was having sex in the engine room because the boy was pretty and engines make her hot, and she's clearly not at all hung up about having sex when she wants to. This all made sense. As for Inara, wow, it's like we were watching different scenes. I didn't see her ogle Mal once, and she didn't act nonsensically. She drove a hard bargain because she knew exactly what her presence there was worth to Mal and she wasn't afraid to say so. She laid down the law and got what she wanted for a discount. That's not the action of a giggling girl; that's a woman in business. What I'm still wondering is the answer to Mal's question: Why ship out with them, instead of the luxury liner she clearly could be on? If she's not running from anything, what's her motivation? Is there, maybe, a secret adventurous side to Imara that she's never gotten a chance to express, and she simply jumped at the chance to ship out on something "with a few miles on it"?
I especially loved the flashback to how Mal got Jayne aboard. Bought him right out from under his employer! Mal rocks. And it's my opinion that, while he may not think so, Mal *can* trust Jayne, to watch his back and be loyal to him. I think Jayne's never met a man with anything near the kind of honor and integrity Mal shows, and he's more impressed by that than he'd like Mal to know.
The tag scene was great, too - "you treat her right and this ship'll be with you for the rest of your life" was a theme running through the whole episode, and then we find out the salesman wasn't even talking about Serenity! He's trying to sell this huge hunk of junk, and Mal's already in love with the jalopy.
Fantastic episode. This is what I knew this show could be.
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Quote:
Originally posted by Zencat:
She was having sex in the engine room because the boy was pretty and engines make her hot, and she's clearly not at all hung up about having sex when she wants to. This all made sense.
I loved this scene. Kaylee's been teetering toward saintly and/or everyone's little sister since the show began, it was so nice to see that's not the case at all. It also adds a nice little twist on the Simon/Kaylee romance possibilities. She obviously sees Simon as a relationship guy and not just a good lay. Or possibly both.
Quote:
I especially loved the flashback to how Mal got Jayne aboard. Bought him right out from under his employer! Mal rocks. And it's my opinion that, while he may not think so, Mal *can* trust Jayne, to watch his back and be loyal to him. I think Jayne's never met a man with anything near the kind of honor and integrity Mal shows, and he's more impressed by that than he'd like Mal to know.
Okay, Jayne is the one who tracked them down right? That's how it sounded to me, but I haven't heard anyone else mention it. Being the Jayne lover that I am I do hope this is true as it shows that he's good for something other than shooting people and looking damn pretty.
"I was gonna get me an ear, too." - Jayne
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Quote:
Originally posted by JaynesGirlfriend:
....looking damn pretty.
I would have gone with "ruggidly handsome in a hot kind of way", but whatever works for you.
Personally, I think Mal is cuter...
________________
"You still don't get it. It's not about right. It's not about wrong... It's about Power." —Morph-O-Monster, "Lessons"
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Question -
Was 'Out of Gas' just a re-working of the original 2 hour pilot, cut down to fit in one hour? My local newspaper reports that is what they've done. Does this mean we'll never see 'Serenity'?
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Quote:
Originally posted by Kobayashi:
Question -
Was 'Out of Gas' just a re-working of the original 2 hour pilot, cut down to fit in one hour? My local newspaper reports that is what they've done. Does this mean we'll never see 'Serenity'?
No, Serentiy has a completely different plot. It explains how River and Simon joined the crew.
________________
"You still don't get it. It's not about right. It's not about wrong... It's about Power." —Morph-O-Monster, "Lessons"
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Quote:
Originally posted by LivingImpaired:
I would have gone with "ruggidly handsome in a hot kind of way", but whatever works for you.
Hmm, actually that's just about right, except "in a really hot kind of way."
Quote:
Personally, I think Mal is cuter...
Sacrilege! He's got nose flare. *backs away in fear of having her boyfriend's chest hair dissed*
"I was gonna get me an ear, too." - Jayne
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Wow. I live in the UK, so I've been downloading every episode of Firefly from the 'net, a not inconsiderable undertaking. But, boy, if I didn't think it was worth it before, I know it now (not that that was ever really an issue :D). This was a spectacular episode.
On reflection the thing I think I love about this show is its down-to-earth attitude. Everything about it tells the story of a workman-like environment, one that you could yourself imagine inhabiting. Take the silent-space - more than just a stylistic choice, it hammers home the idea that this is a real environment, one the characters have to deal with daily. It's not some fantasy environment, where ships go "whooosh", it's real, and it's everyday. The plot for this episode was no different - look at Star Trek when it says the life support is going down. Does anyone remember that ever being as well done as this? In the space of 6 shows (including Serenity), this show has become THE best sci-fi on TV.
And just an aside to all those who fear cancellation, one thing I've not heard talk about is its non-US potential. I've got a good feeling about this show, because a) FOX would be foolish not to give it some leeway if it has the potential to become as popular as Buffy or Angel in the long term (unlike other US shows I've read about that are doing a bit better), and b) those aforementioned shows may be doing better and staving off cancellation in the US, but by the sounds of it, they're not exactly gonna be primetime material, say, in the UK. Buffy and Angel have been consistent viewer magnets on Sky One, BBC2 and Channel 4 over here - Joss' shows and the type of writing and humour they engender are particularly appealing to our British sensibilities (presumably down to the fact that he lived here for a good long while) - it's possible that they're more popular over here (per person, you guys have more people, let's be fair :D), and that's gonna have to be a factor in FOX's decision.
So cheer up - things are looking shiny :-) We got a good show that's performing exceptionally well, FOX have just displayed a vote of confidence by ordering three more scripts, and it's only 6 days until the next episode :-)
My apartment is infested with Koalas. It's the cutest infestation ever. Every time I turn on the lights they scatter, and I'm like, "Come back you guys", or, "Let me hold one of you".
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