Wow.

All I can say. Very cool.

SPOILER WARNING:
At the very end, why is the sheriff staked out with his partners? What were they waiting for? The thieves to have an attack of conscience?

This was the actual first episode aired tonight.

Not really a nit but an observation. The handgun Baldie points at Jayne (just before the Serenity flies up behind Jayne) is the same .44 model that Dirty Harry used when he lost his famout Smith & Wesson .44 revolver in Sudden Impact.

I just got to say that the ship on the show looks like some sort of flying dino and once the show gets going good ,in my opinion, will be very good.

Well, I like the show a lot. I like the fact that Mal isn't above killing someone who is out to kill him. Its refreshingly realistic.

One thing I noticed is that during one of her rants, River says, ""Two by two, hands of blue, two by two, hands of blue." And how does the show end? Two guys wearing blue surgical gloves. This promises to be an interesting show.

Duane Parsons put out a call for nitpicks. Here goes...
Why did none of the troopers guarding the medicine on the train ever look up long enough to see that big honking spaceship hovering over the cargo car? Someone should've explained to them that guard duty entails NOT keeping their heads stuck up their butts.
When Reynolds shoved the head thug toward the SERENITY's engine, the thug was clearly shown being sucked into it, as if it has a turbofan air intake like a jet engine. Why does a spaceship engine have an air intake?

Note: the Running order of Firefly is not the same in the U.K, as in the U.S (Train Job came 6th in the U.K Sci-Fi Channel Showing )so this board is somewhat disorientating to any non-U.S Nitpicker !
As to the intake question, some future Rocket engine designs are hybrids (i.e they'll act as a normal Jet-type engine until a certain altitude, then switch into a full rocket mode. this is done to save carrying large amounts of oxidiser e.g Liquid Oxygen into orbit !)

The exchange

"Nice shot"
"I was aiming at his head"

was previously used in the Blake's 7 episode Orac. Is this a direct steal or coincidence?

It's called a homage. Joss Wheden is a big fan of Blake's 7.

Did that really originate in Blake's 7? I seem to recall a very similar line in the movie "Geronimo" from the early 90s.

Considering that Blake's 7 first aired in 1979 (or thereabouts), I'd say yes.

When Reynolds shoved the head thug toward the SERENITY's engine, the thug was clearly shown being sucked into it, as if it has a turbofan air intake like a jet engine. Why does a spaceship engine have an air intake?

Maybe because it also spends a lot of time in atmosphere.

I don't get it. Don't the train conductors have any sensors to let them know that there's a huge Firefly-class ship right over their tale section? Hell, can't the passengers hear it from inside? Doesn't the planet have planetary sensors to let them know about ships entering the planet's system?

Trains don't need sensors.
I don't know, but maybe it's a loud train and a not tremendously loud ship.
It's a backwater planet.

Wouldn't what happened in this ep indicate that they do need them?

Looking at it from the perspective of the Alliance, a government portrayed as completely apathetic to the needs of the border planets, they would say that trains don't need sensors.

Or even if they did need the sensors, they would take forever to get there like the medicine in this very episode.

The exchange

"Nice shot"
"I was aiming at his head"
was previously used in the Blake's 7 episode Orac. Is this a direct steal or coincidence?

It's called a homage. Joss Wheden is a big fan of Blake's 7.

Did that really originate in Blake's 7? I seem to recall a very similar line in the movie "Geronimo" from the early 90s.

That's a joke that I've seen in several versions in several places. The earliers one I can think of was reversed.

[Britt has just shot a fleeing bandit off his horse]
Chico: Ah, that was the greatest shot I've ever seen.
Britt: The worst! I was aiming at the horse.

The Magnificent Seven (1960)

I also remember it from Young Indiana Jones and the Phantom Train of Doom

"Nice Shot"

"I was aiming for your head."

Nice continuity touch with the film 'Serenity', the scar from the shoulder\chest wound Mal gets in this episode is in place in the movie.

Just to add another citing, in an episode of THE FORBIDDEN SHOW* Martin Prince has a hot air balloon at a science project fair, and Nelson Muntz shoots the balloon, which deflates. Nelson comments "I was aiming for his head!"

*The Simpsons, that is.

I don't get it. Don't the train conductors have any sensors to let them know that there's a huge Firefly-class ship right over their tale section? Hell, can't the passengers hear it from inside? Doesn't the planet have planetary sensors to let them know about ships entering the planet's system?

By Anonymous on Friday, September 02, 2005 - 1:47 pm:

Trains don't need sensors.

Wouldn't what happened in this ep indicate that they do need them?

These aren't high security military transports or the united federation of planets, it's a civilian train on a backwater planet. There's all kinds of ways to make things more secure, but most folks don't bother with them. Check out a truck stop some time, you've got semis filled with hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of consumer electronics and nothing but a cheap lock that can be cut with any set of bolt cutters.

Hannah: At the very end, why is the sheriff staked out with his partners? What were they waiting for? The thieves to have an attack of conscience?
The sheriff heard about a ship in that direction and was on his way to check it out. Why his deputies, or whatever, where in hiding I don't know.

Mark: The handgun Baldie points at Jayne (just before the Serenity flies up behind Jayne) is the same .44 model that Dirty Harry used when he lost his famous Smith & Wesson .44 revolver in Sudden Impact.
Actually no it wasn't. Dirty Harry used a .44 magnum Automag; and I don't think Harry lost his S&W, he just decided to use the Automag instead. The bald guy had Widley .475 caliber automatic, which Charles Bronson used on one of the Death Wish movies.

Solaris: Why did none of the troopers guarding the medicine on the train ever look up long enough to see that big honking spaceship hovering over the cargo car?
If I remember correctly, most of them were either asleep or too preoccupied to notice. Also, since they were in a car or two in front of the target one, and the windows are along the sides, unless there was a sharp curve they wouldn't be able to see Serenity.

I re-watched this ep because I was looking for the Weyland-Yutani logo from the Alien series and Wikipedia said was in the pilot; I checked both and didn't find it but I mis-remembered a couple things I commented about:

me: Why his deputies, or whatever, where in hiding I don't know.
They were likely in hiding because that four-wheeler had its headlights on and made a lot of noise, so they heard/saw it coming and they took cover for saftey.

me again: most of them were either asleep or too preoccupied to notice...
All the feds seemed awake and alert, but the train had no windows so no luck seeing Serenity. Luigi made a good point about no sensors, and the train did seem louder than the ship, but surely somebody in the car closest to the cargo would hear something out of the ordinary and alert the feds.

Gregg Henry, who played the sheriff, was to work with Nathan Fillion again on "Slither."