Firefly: “The Message.”

Space has broadcast the second of the “lost” episodes of Firefly, previously unaired in North America. It follows immediately from “Trash,” and is one of the show’s strongest eps. Expect to find it on the DVD.


“The Message”

Cast and Crew:


Nathan Fillion as Malcolm Reynolds
Gina Torres as Zoe
Alan Tudyk as Wash
Jewel Staite as Kaylee
Morena Baccarin as Inara
Adam Baldwin as Jayne
Sean Maher as Simon Tam
Summer Glau as River Tam
Ron Glass as Book

Writers: Joss Whedon and Tim Minear

Plot:

The crew pick up the post at a space station– and find the corpse of an old war buddy of Mal and Zoe’s among their parcels. Then the episode turns a little weird.

High Points:

This episode scores high for having an essential SF concept at its core, and for generally strong handling of character relations.

Also:

Jayne’s package from home.

“My food is problematic.”

Low Point:

Firefly handles so many things so much better than most pop-SF. It annoys me (as it did in “Serenity”) that scenes from the Alliance/Independent conflict play like out-takes from World War II. The technology evident doesn’t suit that kind of fighting.

The Scores:

Originality: 5/6 See “plot.”

Effects: 6/6 Firefly once again shows that ships don’t have to go “whoosh” in the vacuum of space for the shots to be exciting– and Deep Space 9 should’ve looked a little more like the station where the crew pick up their post.

Story: 5/6 For the most part, Firefly has been action/adventure (with heavy doses of gallow’s humour) in an SF/western setting. This episode has an SF concept at its heart, and handles it quite well. The ending, however, becomes somewhat predictable.

Acting: 5/6 We see more of the developing relationships, especially between Simon and Kaylee.

Emotional Response: 5/6

Production: 6/6

Overall: 5/6

Total: 37/42

7 replies on “Firefly: “The Message.””

  1. Foul temptor!
    Foul temptor! Only a week to go before the DVDs, only a week…

    Argh!

    Must…not…read…review…

    • Just one bite, Eve….

      Foul temptor! Only a week to go before the DVDs, only a

      Go ahead. There aren’t any major spoilers in my review….

      • Re: Just one bite, Eve….

        Foul temptor! Only a week to go before the DVDs, only a

        Go ahead. There aren’t any major spoilers in my
        review….

        I must not read the review
        Reading the review is the mind killer
        Reading the review is the little death that brings total anihilation…

        • Re: Just one bite, Eve….
          *rotfl*

          I got the DVDs a few days ago, and am going through all the reviews for the unaired eps now. I hope there’s a ‘review’ for the whole set, so I can comment about how much it rocks (I forgot how damn good this show is/was).

  2. The Ridley Scott Effect

    …and Deep Space 9 should’ve looked a little more like the station where the crew pick up their post

    I couldn’t agree more – the shot of the outside of the station with all the television-esque billboards and neon was like something out of Blade Runner.

    Also, I think there were some implications as to what or who the Shepard is in this episode too – the rest of the crew might start asking questions as to why a simple preacher knows so much about the SOP of the Alliance. We’ll probably never got to know, though… Stupid Fox.

  3. SPOILER WARNING
    Maybe I’m just cynical but I think it would of been better if they let him die then sold his organs on the condition they kept the body for burial. Also they didn’t make any effort to treat him after they shot him, considering they already got rid of the thugs they might as well have tried to save him. Either way those were the only two flaws I found and overall this was an excellent ep

    • Re: SPOILER WARNING
      MORE SPOILER

      Is the corpse the only actor to have appeared in Buffy, Angel, and Firefly?

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