Robin's Firefly Class - Semester 1 2013: 3/31/13

Friday, April 5, 2013

Week 6: Out of Gas and Ariel

Out of Gas
The best hour of television ever written.

Written by Tim Minear, directed by David Solomon
Vocabulary for 'Out of Gas'.

Trivia (wikipedia):
In this episode, the ship is crippled by the failure of the catalyzer on the port compression coil. Kaylee mentioned that this part needed fixing twice before: in "Serenity", when she asked Mal to buy a new compression coil for the engine, and in "The Train Job", when she complained that "somebody won't replace that crappy compression coil". In "Serenity", Kaylee alludes to the compression coil as a "nothing part, till you don't got one"; a sentiment repeated by Mal to the salvage crew when he is hailed. In the trash-yards of "Ariel", Wash can be seen finding a catalyzer and throwing it away.

According to the DVD commentary, Alan Tudyk took the big red "recall" button from the Firefly set and presented it to Joss Whedon, telling him that if Whedon managed to get the series renewed, he could press it to call the cast back.
Also according to the commentary, Gina Torres (Zoe) was written out of the bulk of the episode because the filming took place just after her marriage to Laurence Fishburne and they were away on their honeymoon.

One more thing: Executive producer of Firefly and writer of 'Out of Gas' has written some questions for your midterm! oooooo! assa!

Ariel

Written by Jose Molina

Directed by Allan Kroeker
Vocabulary for Ariel

Trivia (from Wikipedia):

The medical shuttle that appears in the episode and is used to ferry the main characters back and forth from St. Lucy's is built from a 2/3 scale model of a Soviet Mil Mi-24 Hind D helicopter. A group of fans have bought the scrapped medical shuttle (from a scrapyard in Mojave, California), and are in the process of restoring it, hoping to show it on the Firefly convention circuit.
Go learn about the Ariel Ambulance Rescue Group! :)

When the crew returns to Serenity after their successful raid of the Alliance hospital, Malcolm grabs Kaylee from behind and pulls her into a friendly hug. This was improvised by Nathan Fillion, and was left in the shot because Joss Whedon felt it was such a natural movement for Malcolm to make.

And, guess what?! The writer of this episode, Jose Molina, also wrote a question for your midterm! :)

Fan art corner!

Out of Gas:

Ariel:

Sunday, March 31, 2013

Week 5: Our Mrs. Reynolds, Jaynestown

Our Mrs. Reynolds
Directed by Vondie Curtis-Hall
Written by Joss Whedon

Trivia (imdb):

This is the only episode in which River does not speak. She had lines in the original shooting script, but they were cut before the episode made it to air.
The supposedly biblical quote Saffron uses in her seduction of Mal does not appear in the Bible. She may have fabricated it, assuming Mal would not known the difference.

Vocabulary for Our Mrs. Reynolds.

Jaynestown

Directed by Marita Grabiak
Written by Ben Edlund

Trivia (wikipedia):

After finishing the episode, Adam Baldwin took the head of Jayne's statue as a souvenir. It was later returned as additional shoots were needed where the Serenity crew first sees the statue. If one looks closely, they can see the visible crack where the head was broken off and then reattached.
I know the person who now owns the head. He bid on it at a charity auction. He tweets as @Jayne_Statue. He wrote some questions for your midterm. :)

Vocabulary for Jaynestown.

Homework for today:

1. Assignment #2 due due April 11th.

2. Watch episode 'Out of Gas' and 'Ariel'

Vocabulary for 'Out of Gas'

Vocabulary for 'Ariel'

3. Note: Your midterm is Week 7. It covers all episodes up to and including 'Ariel'.

Fan Art Corner!

Our Mrs. Reynolds: