1.08: Out of Gas

[Lonewolf89]

This episode was packed full of great scenes. It was nice to see how the whole crew got together. Especially since I never saw the Pilot.

[Tabitha]

From www.fox.com/firefly

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“Out of Gas”

1AGE07
Writer: Tim Minear
Director: David Solomon
Airdate: 10/25/02

We see Serenity floating idly in space. The ship is empty, no sign of life anywhere. Until Mal drops to the floor. He doesn't look so healthy. Then we hear somebody talking about buying the ship. Mal flashes back to the first time he showed Zoe the ship. She's unimpressed.

In another flashback, the rest of the crew is laughing and enjoying a great dinner. Talking about good times and planning their next trip. Going to fly under the radar and get far away from everything. Then we hear a rumbling and the lights flicker.

Kaylee goes to check it out. Suddenly, a fireball races down the hallway. Zoe pushes Kaylee aside and the explosion blasts her across the room. The crew scrambles to fix the problem. The fire is contained and blown out the cargo door. The group then rushes Zoe to the infirmary. Kaylee informs Mal that the ship isn't moving. He needs her to figure out what happened.

Mal orders Wash to the bridge, but he refuses to leave his wife's side. Mal grabs him and tells him he's going to get the ship going, and that's not a request.

Flashing back farther, we see the day Mal and Zoe interviewed pilots. Wash, sporting a mustache, takes the job. Zoe says something about Wash bothers her, but she's not sure what. Moving forward in time, Zoe's heart has stopped. Simon jams her with some adrenaline.

Back in the present, Mal is alone in the infirmary bandaging up his belly and shooting himself with some adrenaline. He's not in great shape right now. Flashing back again, Kaylee tells Mal the catalyzer on the port compression coil blew. The ship is dead in the water and she doesn't think she can fix it. What's worse, the main life support is down because the engine is dead. There's no auxiliary life support either. The crew only has a few hours of oxygen left.

Mal asks Wash if he's sent out a beacon yet. Wash doesn't think it'll make a difference They're too far out of range. Mal and Wash have an angry showdown about their options. Wash eventually realizes that Mal's idea will muck up a passerby's navigation system, and they'd be forced to stop and dig out Serenity's signal before they could move on.

In the present, Mal is still staggering around the ship. Nobody else has been seen to this point. Flashing back further again, we find Mal interrupting his mechanic, Bester, and a young lady “in the act.” Mal wonders why Bester hasn't fixed the engine. Bester complains that the grav boot is shot, but the young lady says the right couple is bad. She fixes it by removing the couple and plugging the g-line straight into the port pinlock. The engine starts humming again. The young lady, by the way, turns out to be Kaylee, Serenity's new mechanic.

Moving to the recent past, Kaylee apologizes to Mal for not taking better care of the ship. She says they need a new catalyst. Mal says they have to make due. In the present, Mal stumbles around as the alarms sound about the life support failure. He tries to work the catalyst back into the engine when he drops it down a hole. Gone.

Past again, and Mal has gathered the troops to give them a straight overview of their problems. He says the crew will split up into two shuttles and they'll launch them in opposite directions to see if they can find help. Mal is staying with the ship.

After final preparations, the two shuttles depart, leaving Mal behind. He bundles up in a blanket and falls asleep, missing another ship's radio call about receiving Serenity's beacon.

Later, Mal wakes up and Serenity is nose to nose with the S.S. Walden. The captain is quite skeptical about Mal's intentions, thinking an ambush might be waiting for him. He finally agrees to come onboard and deliver a catalyst.

The Walden crew comes aboards, guns drawn. They're going to check the ship to make sure Mal isn't lying. Finding the ship empty, the Walden captain shoots Mal in the gut and says they're taking Serenity. Mal comes to his feet, gun drawn. He orders the Walden crew off his ship, minus the catalyst they brought over. They leave and Mal drops to the ground, just like we saw at the start.

Mal fixes the engine and attempts to call back the shuttles, but passes out. When he comes to, he's lying in the infirmary with the crew. He's confused as to why everybody is back. Zoe ordered the shuttles back and they found Mal in time. They also found a fixed ship.

One last flashback shows Mal with a ship dealer. The dealer is extolling the virtues of one particular craft. But Mal looks across the lot and sees Serenity. He's sold on it.
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[Tabitha]

I think this was my favourite episode, or maybe Ariel. I loved every minute of this ep, the flashbacks and the way they came together were wonderful, the acting was superb, the sense of jeopardy was miles beyond anything you would get from a Star Trek ep.

I think my favourite part was the flashback scene in which we are introduced to Wash - his moustache was hilarious! As was Zoe's reaction to it! "There's just something about him I don't like" - I wonder what?

[Tabitha]

Poll added.

[Dave]

Originally posted by Tabitha
the sense of jeopardy was miles beyond anything you would get from a Star Trek ep.

They do seem to be more mortal. I could believe any one of them might be killed off, even though I'm well aware there are a few more episodes to come. You get that in a film, but in 'Enterprise' or 'Voyager' you know that the whole crew will make it home again.

Simon, the Doctor certainly earns his passage.

I also liked the crew introductions in flashback, and the way that Mal falling injured onto the deck with the piece of engine, could have been a flashback, but was actually a flashforward.

Originally posted by Lonewolf89
It was nice to see how the whole crew got together. Especially since I never saw the Pilot.

Have you seen it yet? Because you will know that it was the crew not yet addressed in the pilot, that get the treatment here. I liked the other engineer

[obcooke]

Actually the pilot is kinda redundant if you've seen the other episodes. Since Fox postponed the pilot, they had to write background on the characters into the episodes and I think they covered just about everything in the pilot.

It's a fun episode, but there are no real surprises and some of its like, "Yeah, I knew that."

[Tabitha]

Originally posted by obcooke
Actually the pilot is kinda redundant if you've seen the other episodes. Since Fox postponed the pilot, they had to write background on the characters into the episodes and I think they covered just about everything in the pilot.

It's a fun episode, but there are no real surprises and some of its like, "Yeah, I knew that."

Do you mean the original pilot is the one with 'no real surprises'? If so I would agree, but I won't pull this thread off topic.

This episode was also good as a further introduction of sorts. I liked the surprises - the original idiot (genius?) mechanic, and Mal's obviously good instincts about Kaylee were also a nice subplot, but I think my favourite, favourite part was (IIRC) the very final scene, with Mal noticing Serenity on the Spaceship lot while the salesman was trying to interest him in that yellow montrosity. I had seen a grand total of five episodes of this show, and that moment almost brought a tear to my eye.
“I'll tell you what, you buy this ship, treat her proper, she'll be with you for the rest of your life.”

[obcooke]

Well, yes, my comments were about the pilot.

But then they were made in comparison to this episode. This episode more than any of the others supplies the backstory that tries to take the place of the missing pilot. That was kinda my point.

[Tabitha]

Sorry OB - I think it is just my 1AM brain struggling to make the connections.

Would you think that this episode might have been presented differently had the pilot been shown, as intended, first? That this extra exposition was put in for the sake of the befuddled viewer?

I don't know if I would agree with that, as the structure of "Out of Gas" seems quite a sophisticated and delicate one, it certainly didn't feel to me as if it were thrown together to give us some more backstory. I already felt familiar with the characters, and I think you would need this familiarity to have some empathy with Mal and the others, facing the end of their time together, and feel the potential loss of these relationships, never mind lives.

Perhaps this episode would have been even better if "Serenity" had aired first as intended, but I would agree (I think I am getting it now ) that the pilot was less effective for having been aired after this particular show.


Did that make any sense?

[obcooke]

[Tabitha: That this extra exposition was put in for the sake of the befuddled viewer?]

I'm pretty sure that when Fox nixed the pilot as the first episode that I recall someone saying that they were going to have to put more character details into the first few episodes.

[Tabitha: I don't know if I would agree with that, as the structure of "Out of Gas" seems quite a sophisticated and delicate one, it certainly didn't feel to me as if it were thrown together to give us some more backstory.]

Well, I don't know what their timeline was, but the pilot was panned by Fox and they had to come up with a new "first" episode. "Out of Gas" was the fifth episode, so I think they said to themselves very early on - "We need a flashback episode where Mal is facing a crisis and thinks back to how some of the characters came together."

[Tabitha: ...but I would agree (I think I am getting it now) that the pilot was less effective for having been aired after this particular show.]

My point. In fact, the pilot was a let-down as the final episode. I don't even think of it as the final show. If I present it to others, I'm going to make it episode #1.00 and make #1.09 "Objects in Space" (my personal favorite) the finale.

[Quorny]

This was an excellent episode. I have a thing about needles (almost puked at the big needle scene in Pulp Fiction), and I can't imagine someone stabbing themselves in the heart with an adrenaline needle -

Does anyone know if that would actually work? Any medics in the forum?

Wash got some nice scenes here, showed his serious side very effectively, and his insubordination was a nice contrast to insubordination in something like Star trek - it was actually believable!

[obcooke]

[Quorny: Does anyone know if that would actually work? Any medics in the forum?]

Well, I can only say that I have seen several shows that make reference to the technique ["The Rock", with Connery and Cage comes to mind], but I don't actually recall hearing of it ever being done in real life. Although it is done in the emergency room to restart the heart, I don't know the straight scoop on self-injection.

I can say that I found out a few years ago that I have an allergic reaction to fire-ant bites. I was stung by a bunch and my face and hands began to swell. I went to the hospital and was told that the swelling can reach a point where the throat closes and you can't breath. Each time you get bit the reaction will be worse.

I was given an injector of athropeine (spelling?) and told that if I got bit I should hold the injector against my thigh and push the button that would stab me with a needle and inject the drug. That should buy me enough time to get to the emergency room without suffocating! Thank God, I've never had to use it.

[Dave]

Tabitha told me it would be better to watch the pilot episode first, and having watched them that way around I would also present them that way to others. I don't think it harmed this episode at all, to have seen it that way around, but I'm sure the pilot would be spoilt if seen last.

[Tabitha]

Originally posted by obcooke
That should buy me enough time to get to the emergency room without suffocating! Thank God, I've never had to use it.

Blueeeccch!
Sounds horrid, not too keen on needles myself.

I just remembered another part of this ep that I found quite special. In one of the final scenes, when the crew are gathered around Mal in the infirmary, Jayne explains why Inara's shuttle didn't come back faster. "She's done something to the shuttle, it smells funny" :lol:

Like incense slowed the shuttle down or something

[ray gower]

This was another good episode, there was significant suspense, tension and things felt real.

The mistrust between Mal and the second crew of scavengers fitted very nicely into the greater scheme of things. People are out there to survive, not to be philanthropic. Therefore most are likely to be quite unpleasant.

When I watched the first episode, Train Job, I wondered if the pilot was strictly necessary, that finding out about the characters might be more interesting without it and a lot of the backstory would slide in much easier.
I think I would point at this episode as a good case in point.

As for self administration of adreniline to the heart:-
Forget it. In normal circumstances most of us would struggle to even find the heart, let alone hit it and if you do miss you are likely to drown.
In the 60's and early 70's high powered adreniline shots were included in our emergency first aid kits as a partial antidote to radiation. Medics were trained to inject this into the carthroid (sp?) artery in the neck. Us plebs were told to inject it into the thigh or buttocks on the grounds we couldn't miss and where unlikely to kill ourselves
Makes a dramatic story point though!