NAUTICALGAL'S BLOG

nauticalgal

Pilot Ep Discussion
Monday, October 23, 2006

Partly this post is a test, because I'm trying to figure out how this site works; but, partly, it's my attempt at starting some sort of Firefly discussion, so feel free to respond.

Spoilers abound below!

I remember seeing/hearing/reading, I forget where, that Joss made the pilot, screened it for Fox, and they *hated* it. Wasn't what they
wanted at all. What they did want was apparently unclear, but Joss's attempt to satisfy was the train robbery ep, which was more of a traditional action piece, and IIRC was the first ep aired.

When I heard/read that, whichever it was, I thought, "eh?" They didn't like the *pilot*? Of *Firefly*? Do these people have rocks for brains? Have they never seen a pilot before? I've seen plenty of pilots, and guess what -- most of them are really, really, *really* bad. Ever seen the "Seinfeld" pilot, just to take an example from a show that survived and thrived? It's bad. The timing's off, the actors aren't solid in their characters yet . . . it's not funny. How that show lived past its pilot . . . well, it has nothing to do with the quality of the pilot episode, that's for sure.

The pilot ep of Firefly was *not* like most pilots.

Every actor had a solid grip on their character; the interactions rang true; the timing was perfect. The story was fun, managing to
introduce a fairly large cast in a fairly short time with a great deal of clarity, as well as having plenty of actiony stuff. The entire
cast, with one glaring exception, seemed as though they had worked together for years and had the thing down pat. They were *good* -- with, as I said, one exception in the casting, and a couple of scenes that didn't really work. The only bit of miscasting in the entire thing ultimately turned out not to matter, because Mal shot that guy and dumped him out the cargo lock. The scenes that didn't work were Inara's scenes with her client, which needed to be either more or less graphic (the way the love scene was played was just . . . what's the word I'm looking for? . . . cheesy?), and seemed as though Morena hadn't quite yet decided how to play the character. But once she came aboard Serenity, she was right in tune.

Also, the whole thing was just *lots* and *lots* of fun.

What kind of knuckleheaded, braindead lice could *not* like "Serenity"? I'd really like to know.

COMMENTS

Friday, October 27, 2006 6:42 AM

NAUTICALGAL


Oh! Hey! There's that comment! How did I lose it?

Boy, I have really got to figure how this darn thing works.

I liked Morena so well in the role that I haven't actually been curious about the other lady.

Wednesday, October 25, 2006 3:53 PM

BLUEEYEDBRIGADIER


I still wanna see the clips of the scenes with Rebecca Gayheart as Inara before she got replaced with Morena. Just to see how she was doing the character...

And I too can't fathom why Fox wasn't all fired up over "Serenity." It was upbeat in pace, things got dealt with and character moments were made. Though the Inara/Rude Client scene was a tad bit off in that we get the impression that the pigu's comments come at a time when we don't know if Inara's actually dickering with the clock or not, so his comment causes you to second-guess the character right off the bat in a way where you're never quite sure till a lot later than she's a poster child for Guild rules...except she hangs out with Serenity's crew;)

BEB


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