BB Firefly Rewatch Day Seven: Out of Gas

[Taake]

After Serenity suffers a catastrophe that leaves her crew with only hours of oxygen, flashbacks show how Mal and Zoe acquired Serenity and assembled their motley crew.

source: Wikipedia.org

 

[Buffy Summers]

I love this episode, seeing everyone come together and how different they were at the beginning (and how the same) lol

This ep really shows how they are a family...

 

[white avenger]

I liked the story, but I just couldn't help thinking that, in order for Mal to breathe up all the oxygen in a vessel the size of "Serenity" in that short a time, he would have had to have lungs bigger than Godzilla's. Also, I don't think that the temperature inside the ship would drop so low so quickly. But, you know, I'm the guy who counts how many times somebody shoots without reloading. Details are my passion.

 

[nightshade]

Empty Serentiy
Except Mal who isn't looking too god
Aww Zoe doesn't think much of Serenity
"It's a death trap"
Yay laughing and joking crew
Simon looks so awkward trying to tell funny stories
River trying to cover up that she forgot Simon's birthday
Fire!
Don't think the fire is done well
I think the change between the past and present, with the blue tones.
hahaha Wash with that moustache!
Genius mechanic? seems more like stoner mechanic!
Ewww needles
Simon now is not the time to get all medical on dying!
River you need to work on your comforting skills!
Peacemaker Jayne, never thought that would happen!
Love how Kaylee gets the mechanic job! Have sex on a ship and get a new job!
Business woman Inara, telling Mal that she's going to have the ship and for less than he's charging
Aww Mal "Everybody dies alone"
It is an ambush!
Jayne really isn't the brightest!
Never got why they left so easily, they all had guns and it was 5 on 1
I love final image of Serenity parked

 

[Buffy Summers]

I liked the story, but I just couldn't help thinking that, in order for Mal to breathe up all the oxygen in a vessel the size of "Serenity" in that short a time, he would have had to have lungs bigger than Godzilla's. Also, I don't think that the temperature inside the ship would drop so low so quickly. But, you know, I'm the guy who counts how many times somebody shoots without reloading. Details are my passion.

Most of the excess heat and oxygen was vented or burned up by the fire.

 

[white avenger]

Most of the excess heat and oxygen was vented or burned up by the fire.

Yes, it was, but what was left had enough oxygen to sustain life, or they would all have died. Don't confuse atmospheric pressure with oxygen content. Blowing the fire out the cargo hold didn't affect the oxygen content of the remaining atmosphere, it only reduced the atmospheric pressure. Otherwise, the entire crew would have died within minutes. The remaining atmosphere, thin as it might have been, filled filled the entire living area of "Serenity." By volume, that would still be a tremendous amount of oxygen, whether one man was breathing it, or seven. Granted, they wouldn't be playing any basketball games, but there was no real danger of short term suffocation, and, given all that volume, the CO2 exhaled by the crew wouldn't pose any threat, either.

As for freezing to death, that would obviously depend more on "Serenity's" proximity to their system's sun, and how much of its surface area was exposed to solar radiation than any loss of atmospheric pressure, but I suspect that that was more dramatic than scientific.

Robert Heinlein explained a very similar situation in the book, "Farmer In The Sky," with more detail taken from science than drama, and the point that he made was, if a vacuum was somehow inherently cold, then hot coffee poured into an old Thermos bottle would have frozen immediately, rather than remaining hot.

 

[Taake]

I love this episode. It's great in spacing and plot, very nicely balanced between the seriousness of the present and the levity of the past.
I absolutely love seeing how the crew were all gathered up. Can't even pick a favorite introduction story! A toss up between Kaylee and Jayne I think 🙂

Kaylee's and Mal's little sister/big brother relationship is still one of the sweetest things on the show for me.

I think they did a great job with the last shot of Mal, looking at the Serenity. I mean obviously when I started re-watching the show I thought "oh how young he looks" compared to now. But in that last shot he looks young even by the show's standards, almost like a little boy in his expression, looking at his best toy. Just a fantastic scene all together.

 

[Jules]

I think this is such an emotional episode. I love watching how the crew came together. Jayne hasn't changed a bit lol

I liked how the episode started with Mal injured, alone and collapsing to the floor, then it flashed back.

It was a nice 'the captain always goes done with the ship' episode.