Continuity Conflict - 'The Message' vs 'Objects in Space'

POSTED BY: Schism
UPDATED: Friday, March 6, 2009 08:28
VIEWED: 9490
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SCHISM

Friday, February 27, 2009 2:32 AM

The third-last episode.
Now it wasn't until OiS that it was revealed that River was a 'reader'.
I mean, we all pretty much saw it, but it was only then that the cap'n announced it and it was accepted as true.
Before then, no one really said it.

I'm watching 'The Message'.
River said her food was problematic.
Jayne says "she's a mind reader and she can't figure out how to eat a rice ball" (or whatever the food was called).

But no one deduced by that point that she was a reader.

Did they?

YINYANG

Friday, February 27, 2009 2:40 AM

"Girl's a mind-readin' genius, can't even figure out how to eat a ice-planet."

Well, Jayne may have thought this after Trash, when Simon and River confronted him about what he did on Ariel. Or, it's just a continuity error because The Message was filmed last, then Joss re-arranged the order for the boxed set.

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"Pray that there's intelligent life somewhere up in space, 'cause there's bugger all down here on Earth."

PHOENIXROSE

Friday, February 27, 2009 4:14 AM

The Message was the last episode written, and the last episode filmed. However, simply put, Objects in Space was Joss's favorite episode, and when he wasn't sure there would be more of the story told, that was how he wanted it to end. It was actually the third or fourth to last episode filmed, I think. If I'm not mistaken, Trash was also written after it, which is why Jayne kind of believed River when she said she could kill him with her brain, and why Simon didn't doubt River's word on Jayne being afraid they'd know, and why we see Early's ship.

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RALLEM

Friday, February 27, 2009 11:21 AM

Wasn't it revealed that River was a reader in "Safe?"

http://www.swyzzlestyx.com/index.html

SCHISM

Friday, February 27, 2009 8:05 PM

Revealed?
No.
Heavily implied?
Yes.
Hence my uncertainty.
Everyone else might have wondered, up until Mal confirmed their suspicions.
But Jayne?

He ain't hardly....intuitive...

ZEEK

Friday, February 27, 2009 8:22 PM

I think Joss just rearranged the last few episodes on the box set. Objects in Space was the last aired episode (beside the pilot). Trash, The Message and Heart of Gold were all unaired. I'm not sure if Fox messed with the episodes when they put Objects in Space on or not. I do know that the part about Inara leaving was different in the episode that aired on TV. So, I'm not sure if Joss was unsure of the order at that point and filmed to scenes or what.

The other part that messes with my head is we see Early's ship in Trash. So, either Trash came before Objects in Space, that was an easter egg that Early surived or it was just the same model ship.

It's all nice and confusing.

SCHISM

Saturday, February 28, 2009 3:03 AM

Early's ship is in 'Trash'???

Where?
When?

Could there be ANY other order to disc four?

Could 'The Message' be the last episode?

HoG and OiS have to follow one-another due to the Inara-leaving arc.

The Message could theoretically follow OiS provided you ignore the fact that Inara is still there and hadn't left YET.

OiS just makes a better ending point.

06K64

Saturday, February 28, 2009 4:19 AM

You see Early fly past from the inside of one of Hamor's windows... It's pretty amusing.

With all the talk about what was filmed when and organised how, I think it's exactly the Inara arc that confims the order of the last three as they're laid out on the boxed set.

(And, separately, didn't I see Tim Minear say on the CE that they wrapped the series (did the final bit of filming)with a couple of scenes from HoG?)

GWEK

Saturday, February 28, 2009 4:40 AM

It's my understanding that there was a lot of chaos going on behind the scenes, as the writers and crew were working on multiple episodes simultaneously and the specter of cancellation hung over the show.

Joss knew that if the show was going to end, he wanted to end with "Objects in Space." What he didn't know, though, was how many episodes he would have in order to get there. So to protect the integrity of what he wanted, the script for OiS was written (and then filmed) out of order so that Joss had his "finale" in the can for whenever he needed it. He even filmed two different versions of one of the early scenes (one version assuming the episode took place after "Heart of Gold," the other, not so much).

Meanwhile, work continued on the other episodes, and as they were writing, they didn't know for sure the order in which they would be aired (again, because they didn't know how many episodes FOX would give them).

I'm pretty sure the "mindreading genius" line is not a continuity error but an EDITING error. Had FOX renewed the show for an entire season, the episodes would likely have aired in roughly the order we see on the DVD, and Joss and crew would probably have caught the hiccup during final editing.

As a side note, I'm not sure about the actual final shot for the series, but the final day of shooting for the cast and crew as a whole was for "The Message." In fact, it's the "funeral march" where the crew brings Casey home. The sorry you see on the actors' faces is real.

www.stillflying.net: "Here's how it might have been..."

06K64

Saturday, February 28, 2009 5:15 AM

Oh, ok. I thought it was that they filmed the funeral scene for the Message just after they'd gotten the news of the cancellation, and the sorry was, as you say, real. But, yeah, either way, the whole filming-out-of-order trickery that they employ in tv/film land always has my head spinning. Some eps are absolutely essential in a what-happens-when kind of way, and then some eps lend to the wider arc, but can be played in different order and still contribute. And it's all up there in Whedon's brain the whole time... (and I think you're right about them probably catching the edit.)

It must've been a nightmare for them, though. The cloud of cancellation, the actual event, keeping track of it all, and having to continue on filimg afterward.

And they still managed to give us the some of the best tv ever..!

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