"Out of Gas"? I don't think so.

Well, that was nice. The good folks at FIREFLY were nice enough to give us an origin story that, like the series itself, was far from the norm.

I found the plan of showing an origin story some time into the season reminiscent of the original THE FUGITIVE. The premise of THE FUGITIVE was simple, and was therefore was not told at the top. The show started with the narrator giving a quick explanation in the opening credits. "Dr. Richard Kimble, an innocent victim of blind justice..." "Repreived by fate, while en route to the death house..." "Free to run from the police lieutenant obsessed with his capture." That was it. After that, the episode began and we saw David Janssen (Kimble, the fugitive) running from Barry Morse (Lieutenant Philip Gerard.) A few episodes later, Kimble gets struck by a car and during the course of the episode relives the events which led him to become a fugitive through nightmarish flashbacks.

And you know what? That was good enough. Earlier in the season, I remarked that I thought FIREFLY needed a better pilot, one that showed us who these people were and how they came together. I felt that it was information overload being introduced to these people and not knowing how they got to be where they were. To a certain extent, I still believe that. Simon and River are abit much to have to swallow from that early on. I'm still a bit fuzzy on who they are and how they got to be there.

Putting them aside for a moment, I feel great about what I saw last night. Kaylee's introduction was certainly the most unethical, and in retrospect, one of the coolest intros in sci-fi history. Of course it raises the question of whether or not she is qualified to be an engineer, but I think someone else might agree that we're willing to overlook that due to her other, more impressive attributes.

We also got to see great insight into Mal and Inara's relationship. To invoke a horrifying analogy I sensed something akin to, if not greater than the relationship between Captain Picard and Guinan on Star Trek: The Next Generation (::shudder::)

I was only a little disappointed that we didn't get to see where 'The Shepherd' came from, but I have a feeling that that may be a story complex enough to rate a full hour (as I'm sure Simon and River will.)

This show keeps proving (when it's not being preempted by the national pasttime) that it is not any piece of conventional Sci-Fi. Here's to keeping the fingers crossed that the show will continue and blossom.

  posted by J @ 23:01