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Firefly The Train Job (2002–2003) Online

Firefly The Train Job (2002–2003) Online
2002–2003 Nathan Fillion Gina Torres Alan Tudyk Joss Whedon
Original Title :
The Train Job
Genre :
TV Episode / Adventure / Drama / Sci-Fi
Year :
2002–2003
Directror :
Joss Whedon
Cast :
Nathan Fillion,Gina Torres,Alan Tudyk
Writer :
Joss Whedon,Joss Whedon
Type :
TV Episode
Time :
42min
Rating :
8.5/10

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Firefly The Train Job (2002–2003) Online

Captain Mal Reynolds and his motley crew of space traders get a job that seems to be right up their alley. Gangster Adelai Niska wants them to rob a train and deliver the goods to them. Mal and Zoey have little trouble getting the job done and even convincing the local authorities that are just a married couple who have come looking for work. When the overhear that the stolen cargo was urgently needed medical supplies, Mal reconsiders whether he wants to do Nishka's dirty work. Back on the ship, Dr. Simon Tam continues to worry about his sister River who is still having nightmares about her institutionalization.
Episode cast overview, first billed only:
Nathan Fillion Nathan Fillion - Captain Malcolm 'Mal' Reynolds
Gina Torres Gina Torres - Zoë Washburne
Alan Tudyk Alan Tudyk - Hoban 'Wash' Washburne
Morena Baccarin Morena Baccarin - Inara Serra
Adam Baldwin Adam Baldwin - Jayne Cobb
Jewel Staite Jewel Staite - Kaylee Frye
Sean Maher Sean Maher - Dr. Simon Tam
Summer Glau Summer Glau - River Tam
Ron Glass Ron Glass - Shepherd Derrial Book
Tom Towles Tom Towles - Lund
Andrew Bryniarski Andrew Bryniarski - Crow
Michael Fairman Michael Fairman - Adelai Niska
Gregg Henry Gregg Henry - Sheriff Bourne
Valerie Red-Horse Valerie Red-Horse - Deputy
Kevin Will Kevin Will - Officer

The two-hour Firefly: Serenity (2002) was originally intended as the pilot for the show. The network (FOX) however, decided not to air it, citing that they wanted a pilot with a more action-packed feel to it. With exactly one weekend to write a new pilot, executive producers Joss Whedon and Tim Minear wrote Firefly: The Train Job (2002), which appeared first on the show. A slightly retooled version of "Serenity" was later showed as an 'origins' story after Firefly (2002) had been canceled.

When Serenity approaches to dock with Niska's space station, you can see what looks like a US Space shuttle docked in much the way it would be at the International Space Station.

Chinese translations:

  • 1- MAL: "Ching zie lie ee bay Ng-Ka-Pei?" ~ "Can I have one more glass of Ng-Ka-Pei [a medicinal-herb wine], please?"
  • 2- MAL: "Oh, juh jen sh guh kwai luh duh jean jan..." ~ "Oh, this is a happy development..."
  • 3- KAYLEE (to Mal): "Kuh-ooh duh lao bao jurn..." ~ "Horrible old tyrant..."
  • 4- KAYLEE (about Mal when it comes to plans): "jen duh sh tyen tsai" ~ "an absolute genius"
  • 5- JAYNE: "dong ma" ~ "understand"

The big fight scene with Niska's men was actually written and choreographed for Angel (1999), but Tim Minear changed the names in the script and handed it to Joss Whedon to use on Firefly. Angel was still in this scene in a sense, however: the guy that Wash hits with the ATV, was played by Angel's stunt double.

Jayne's line after shooting Crow in the leg, "I was aiming for his head", later used by Nathan Fillion in Castle (2009), is lifted from Blake's 7: Orac (1978), which was on while Joss Whedon was living in the UK. That line itself is a mis-quote from The Magnificent Seven (1960), where the original line was "I was aiming for his horse".

The ominous "Hands of Blue", two men who are pursuing River, first appear in this episode.

On DVD, Netflix and more, this is the second episode, as originally intended.

Since this second episode was actually the first to be aired, Joss Whedon and Tim Minear had to introduce the characters to the new audience, even though many elements of these introductions were covered in the actual pilot, Firefly: Serenity (2002). Quite a bit of the dialogue alludes to information provided in the pilot.

As noted by Tim Minear in the DVD commentary, Book's knowledge of underworld dealings (particularly his theory of Niska's reaction to an incarcerated Mal and Zoe) alludes to his cryptic past.

The map Niska shows Mal and Jayne, in font and graphics, is a nod to Railroad Tycoon 2 (1998).

Inara questions Mal for walking into her shuttle "unannounced", just as she did in the pilot.

The battle gear from the film Starship Troopers was later reused in the episode The Train Job.

Michael Fairman plays a character named 'Adelai Niska'. In '13 Days', he played politician Adlai Stevenson.

Episode #2 in the "Joss Whedon Intended Timeline" for "Firefly" and NOT as Fox dictated the episodes were to be run.

Joss Whedon planned to have Mal keep the cargo from the train to show that Mal puts the needs of his crew above the needs of others. However, executives at Fox told Joss to have Mal return the cargo to the town folk in order to make Mal more likable to the audience.

Kaylee claims that her messy rewiring in the engine room is required because "somebody won't replace that crappy compression coil", which she first brought up in Firefly: Serenity (2002). In Firefly: Out of Gas (2002), the catalyzer on the compression coil will be the source of the explosion that stops Serenity dead, just as she predicted in "Serenity".

Niska warns Mal that "things between us [will be] not so solid" if Mal fails to bring him the cargo, and Zoe is perturbed by mental images of the dead man hanging from the ceiling (leading Mal to express a desire for it not to be him). Niska's lieutenant dies rather than accept Mal's returning of the money. Mal's thwarting of Niska's goal comes back to bite Serenity's crew in Firefly: War Stories (2002).


User reviews

Kitaxe

Kitaxe

The Dvd box set of this show and wiki, indicates that this is episode 2, not 1 as stated. While this may have been aired first, it was not intended to be the first episode. If you wish to watch the series in order, imdb episode 11 (Serenity) is the first episode. Would be nice if imdb could update the series order to the correct listing.

The show is great and its a shame it didn't get another few seasons. The film Serenity at least brings some closure. The show makes more sense when viewed in the correct order.
THOMAS

THOMAS

OK, this show Firefly was a great show that got screwed over by fox. Premiting show times, moving show times, and most important not showing the pilot first. Train job was the first aired. This is out of sequence. Serenity pilot should have been the first aired. So fox who didn't like the pilot wanted a more A team approach so this was written in literally in a weekend. Its still a quality job done by the firefly boys. A western railroad train heist in the spirit of Ole Jesse James Gang except ya have a space ship coming down on a hyper train riding on air in arid type planet of the future. The crew of Serenity on the wrong side of the law perform a heist on a train in military fashion. With a sheriff who is fair and extremely upset that what is stolen is medicine for his small mining town. The crew of the firefly transport working for a gangster are remorseful and give it back. But now the motley crew has to deal with the gangster's hench men.
anneli

anneli

The second pilot of Firefly probably made executives very happy, it's a watered down version of the first pilot that is more serviceable to the general public. Is it bad? No, it just doesn't have the same life as the real pilot. It goes over some of the same ground and feels almost like an opening episode of another season, just to refresh your memory. The best thing about it is that it introduces Adelei Nishka, a character that I think would have played a larger part in the whole of the series. He is one of those men who will do anything to get what he wants and hides his rough edges behind a mask of eloquence. There are decent cameos by Gregg Henry and Tom Towles and a good story about the crew stealing medical supplies only to have second thoughts once they find out about the village that needs them. The best thing about this episode is the best thing about the series, the chemistry between the big cast. The worst part, the people who were subjected to the out of order episode running missed the true beginning of the series.
Zorve

Zorve

Mal and his crew are hired by the dangerous criminal Adelai Niska to heist two packages from a train for him. He goes with Zoe and they find an Alliance troop in the train, but they succeed and Jayne takes the cargo to Serenity. However Mal and Zoe have to stay in the train and Sheriff Bourne investigates the robbery. Soon they learn that the stolen cargoes are medical supplies for the mining settlers that need them; otherwise they will die. Mal and Zoe reevaluate the heist and come up to a decision.

"The Train Job" is a full of action episode of "Firefly". The cynical Mal proves that has heart with his final decision. The funniest moment of the show is when Crow tells that will hunt Mal down to hell. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): Not Available.
Malalrajas

Malalrajas

Having decided they didn't like the original pilot the people at FOX asked for another and this is what we got. Thankfully not too long is wasted explaining who is who and we are soon in to the story proper. Needing a job Mal approaches a rather unpleasant character called Adelei Niska. He hires them to steal an unspecified cargo from a train and makes it clear that failure to deliver will have serious consequences. The caper doesn't go quite according to plan because there is a squad of Alliance troops on board the train, they get the cargo of the train but Jayne ends up with a bullet in his leg and Mal and Zoe are left on the train. When they get to the next stop they are interviewed by the local sheriff and are disturbed to learn that they have stolen vital medical supplies. Back on Serenity Jayne wants to take the cargo to Niska's men but the others disagree and when Simon gives him a pain killer for his wound he gives a large enough dosage to knock Jayne out. After Inara has rescued Mal and Zoe they do the right thing even though it leads to a confrontation with Niska's men.

While slightly less dark then the original pilot this episode was a lot of fun and introduces the characters in a way that doesn't seem like a rehash of how it was done previously. We are clearly shown that while our heroes are quite happy to operate outside the law they won't do so at the expense of those even worse off than themselves. The robbery itself was very impressive with Jayne being lowered from Serenity as it flies over a high speed maglev type train. As well as the great main cast the supporting cast did a good job, particularly Michael Fairman as Niska and Gregg Henry as the sheriff.
Sataxe

Sataxe

Plot; A seemingly simple job to steal two crates from a train becomes much more complicated when the crew discover what's inside them.

Originally aired as the pilot episode, this wouldn't have made a lick of sense w/o having seen the actual pilot (which I almost decided to skip and save for the end to preserve how they originally aired). I mean you can sorta follow the story on the margins. Understand the basics. But the characters, their circumstances and the galactic politics (not even fully fleshed out in the pilot, but I suppose that's on purpose) would've left you scratching your head.

Anyway, what's here is quite good. That whole Western in space motif is pushed to the max w/an actual train robbery and yet another planet w/an arid, Western-style environment, but as I said before, that's okay w/me. Though initially it seemed like the episode was going to struggle to include the Firefly's passengers in any significant way, it finds a way to cleverly and compellingly bring everyone into the story.
Dancing Lion

Dancing Lion

The good; We see a more moral side to the Serenity crew and love the face-off between Jayne and the others without Mal around.

The bad; The sick bay design is rather stupid, wouldn't you want some privacy rather than all those windows for people to see in? No one notices Serenity flying alongside the train?

Notches on the Serenity bedpost; Inarra;1-a paying customer who wishes to make her his kept woman Wash; 1-the missus Zoe; 1-the hubby

Capt subtext; Mal talks of'being on the edge' then 'moving towards the middle', possibly alluding to the frontier and the central planets. Innara and Kaylee have a big girly hair-stroking session (how the Summer's girls on Buffy used to express physical affection for one another). Inarra remarks to Kaylee "We could experiment". Mal seems keen on the idea and refers to Inarra 'servicing the crew' but she dismisses that as his 'lonely pathetic dreams'. Summer points out that Mal=Bad in Latin/French. Mal tells Zoe he loves her but it's all part of their cover(?)

Happy high-class hookers in Space (the title the porn industry wished they'd thought of!); Kaylee seems fascinated by the details of Inarra's profession. Inarra claims a companion gets to pick and choose her clients which I think is about as realistic and truthful as the Dollhouse staff pretending to themselves that they don't hire the Actives out as sexual submissives. Mal still needles Inarra about her hooking but does so more subtly and less nastily than he did in 'Serenity'. The nature of the companions work is left very vague here, if you hadn't seen Serenity you wouldn't know exactly what her job is, she could be a beautician. Inarra enjoys turning the tables on Mal, pretending he's her indentured man (some form of community service in the future?).

Questions and observations; We now know the war ended 6 years ago. Inarra has been on the ship 8 months. Here we have a much more upbeat, likable Mal, perhaps the events of Serenity mellowed him? He even says 'It's the right thing to do'. Book refers to the 'Fuzzy wuzzies' referring to Kiplings poems concerning the Sudan campaign Britain fought against Islamic fundamentalists in C19th (and we're still doing it today!). What is the chain of command on Serenity? It seems to go Mal, Zoe, Jayne, Wash, after that anyone's guess. Note Mal doesn't kill the Fed on the train, just knocks him out. Joss refers to Inarra and Mal as Beatrice and Benedict from 'Much ado about nothing', check out the Kenneth Branagh version for the Beatrice and the Duke (Denzel Washington) proposal scene alone. Joss refers to Firefly as Star Trek;TNG dark underbelly, much as what was explored in DS;9. Marks out of 10; 5 out of ten, nowhere near as good as Serenity, not a bad ep in itself but feels cheap in comparison to it's predecessor, like Charmed to Buffy.