Mal has second thoughts after discovering that two boxes of Alliance goods, his crew has been hired to steal, are full of badly needed medical supplies, heading for the town of Paradiso

I guess in other hands this would have been an ordinary, run-of-the-mill episode, but not here. I really like it. The central story is actually very simple, but there's enough going on around the periphery to keep things interesting. River's first flashback and mention of "two by two, hands of blue", for instance. Or the fact that, not for the last time, Jayne shows himself willing to take charge and sell out one or more of his crewmates. Simon's solution is very apt. There's the appearance of the Alliance soldiers on the train (I'm sure they were wearing uniforms from Starship Troopers :blink: ) and, of course, Niska. The teaser is a nice way of reintroducing the background to the story as told in Serenity. River's observation that "mal" is latin for "bad" is quite an intriguing moment as well.

And there's humour aplenty, too, most of it involving Mal and Jayne again ("You know what the chain of command is? That's the chain I go get and beat you with 'til you understand who's in ruttin' command here" or "Hey, I didn't fight in no war. Best of luck, though" or "I was aiming for his head", although my particular favourite is Mal asking Inara if she's got time to do his hair :lol: ).

The special effects are absolutely first class, especially in and around the train robbery itself. They make excellent use of motion blur and focus on this show and I find it adds a real edge to the effects shots that makes them stand out from the crowd. Crow's grisly end is effectively done. Firefly is also that rare entity that admits that sound doesn't travel in a vacuum, which is always a turn up for the books.

The other aspect that the story reinforces is that Mal, and - by extension - the crew, are honourable crooks (with the exception of Jayne, perhaps), returning the medicine having discovered what was going on. There's a hint of Butch and Sundance about it which plays into the Western angle quite nicely.

A very enjoyable episode.

As an episode this works pretty well. Not so well as a pilot, and you have to wonder how many more viewers the show would initially have gotten had they gone with Serenity instead. The writing and characters are spot on right from the off, and I love the bar brawl at the beginning. "Say, your coat looks kinda......brown." :lol:

When I first saw the series it was from the episodes that aired in the States, as such it was The Train Job that convinced me to watch more. More than that though I was compelled to do so.

As far as the characters go this is quite indicative, there are no weak links there at all.

Inara:- (pissed) "What did I say to you about barging into my shuttle?"
Mal:- "That it was manly and impulsive?"
Inara:- "Yes, precisely. Only the exact phrase I used was 'don't'."

Jayne:- "Time for some thrilling heroics."

:lol:

:thumbsup: I love this ep

It has bags of humour, a simple plan, and a tortured man hanging upside, what's not to love :lol:

I love the bar brawl at the beginning, interesting insight into Mal, the war hasn't quite ended for him. Loved the rescue by Serenity :thumbsup:

The plan itself, simple but daring and executed, almost, with no glitch. Loved Mal's glee at pullling the job of, under the noses of an Alliance platoon.

Jayne and the goods safely onboard Serenity, Mal and Zoe are still planetside, trying desperately to pull off the 'newlywed' routine.

It's at this point that the story becomes very interesting. Mal and Zoe find out, that the goods they stole, were urgently needed medical supplies, intended for the planet's occupants. Cue rescue by Inara, and Mal and Zoe return to Serenity, leaving the goods behind. I love the scene with the sheriff and Mal. I found it very touching.

LMAO at Mal trying to give the money back to Niska, via the henchman. I don't know what was funnier, Mal giving the exact same spiel to the second henchman, or the second henchmans immediate acceptance :lol: :lol:

Most definitely the second henchman's acceptance :lol: :lol: :lol:

What can I say that the rest of you havent already?

It was a very interesting episode filled with humour, very interesting little additional bits of info about each of the members of the crew and a good storyline.

The bit where Mal kicks the first henchman so that it goes through the engine is priceless in itself.

I am sorry but I still do not understand why this series got canned. Its just a further example to show that U.S. tv executives know bugger all.

An excellent episode!!

:thumbsup: Watched this episode again last night.

Just to add, I loved that Mal goes looking for a fight in an Allied associated bar every anniversary of the victory just so he can get stuck into them for the day :lol: and that Jayne doesn't automatically go to help them.

The shot of them being picked up by Serenity coming up the canyon is also great :p to the dumb yokels.

Also loved Simon's what are we doing and Kayleighs " Crime, we're doing crime" :lol: with her sweet bubbly voice

Superb ep as everyone has said.

Ooooooooooh, haven't commented on this one yet, LOL ;)

Can't add much that hasn't already been said, loved the bar scene at the beginning and the subsequent realisation from Zoe that this is something Mal does on every anniversary. I think Inara says something like "Once again, the key to a good fight is to give Jayne a big stick and stand back" LMAO. The ship coming up behind them is a wonderful bit of cinematography :D

Some good diversary dialogue when they're trying to get Mal and Zoe back and Inara says someone with prestige could do it and, of course, we automatically assume it's Book in question, cut to Inara doing the deed, LOL.

And the end is good where we see that although they live outside the law they, or at least Mal, still has a strong code of ethics by returning the medicine.

I believe, in the states, this was the first episode aired since the network wanted to kick off with a more action packed episode rather than starting with the actual right order :rolleyes:

I'm hopeless at writing reviews, I've already tried and failed to write this on 4 different occasions over the past couple of days! So instead of a nice coherent, sentence-full review like the rest of them, I'm just gonna bullet point the bits I liked :rolleyes:

Summary: A fantastic episode which begins to expand on everything introduced in Serenity. Not as good as Serenity, but still a fantabulous episode.

Bits I liked:
- I love the shot at the beginning just after mal has said "I'm thinking we'll rise again." and Serenity flies up behind them. One of my favourite shots of the series, I think. It just looks so nice!
- The first of many Jayne hats!
- It begins to lay down a lot of things that continue for the whole series. It's the first time Jayne questions Book's past (why would a shepherd know about Niska). We get the start of River's "two by two, hands of blue" and then we see the creepy hands of blue guys at the end :fear:
- This episode is where we start to see more into the relationships of the crew, and how they all fit together. It was touched upon in Serenity, but it really develops here.
- General Mal and Inara cuteness:
INARA :Mal, if you're being a gentleman I may die of shock.
MAL Have you got time to do my hair? :lol:
- Jayne's humour. I know it's in every episode, so doesn't just apply here, but he's so funny! Everything he says cracks me up.

And I'll end on a quote...

SIMON
So what are we doing?

KAYLEE
Oh! Crime. [I love the way she says it so casually, in her bright/cheerful voice!]

SIMON
Crime, good. Okay. Crime.

:lol: :lol:

There's plenty more good bits, but I think it would be a little over the top to paste the entire script! A great episode :thumbsup:

:thumbsup: Jayne is always funny, he is a really well written for character but to be honest it is the looks he gives that are normally the funniest.

They were. Joss/Tim mentioned on commentary that they hired the costumes from the people who did Starship Troopers.

I loved this ep. It would have been even better as a normal ep and not a rushed second pilot, because we could have skipped all the exposition at the beginning. Having said that, putting the blue gloved guys in at the end did give a lot more menace to the Alliance, which was something I felt was lacking in Serenity.

The idea of a well-executed plan coming off flawlessly is an underused plot device imo. It's one reason why I love Ariel as well, not to mention Oceans 11. There's definitely mileage in throwing spanners in the works of plans, but every now and again it's great to see that things do go well.

This was the ep which convinced me to keep watching Firefly. I wasn't sure after seeing Serenity, but this ep hooked me.

Can't really think of anything else to add, everybody's said it all, it was brilliant :thumbsup:
Why has it took me so long to discover this and why was it axed? Definitily going to buy the DVD :thumbsup:
Fantastic!!!!!!!!!

And it keeps getting better :thumbsup:

I recommended Firefly to a friend: A few days later he told me that he had downloaded the first episode and wasn't that impressed. So I asked him which first episode he watched and it was 'The Train Job'. Now he's watched the real first episode and likes Firefly. When I watched this ep, however, I was impressed, I thought it was great. This seems to back up what has been suggested previously on this thread: 'The Train Job' is a great episode, but a not so great pilot.

So my discovery of Firefly continues with the Train Job....

The first thing that immediatly gripped me by the first epiosde was the characters and how interesting they seem and how the interaction between them was so fascinating. Episode 3 taks this even further, building on it just enough to keep your mouth watering for more.

The plot took a few nice turns that kept it lively but I could just watch the charcters all day let alone what they were up to. I loved the ending too with the whole 'blue hands' and that vision of those men saying "we're looking for this girl" is really imprinted in my mind. Reminded me a of a Who cliffhanger,

All in all after watching Serenity and The Train Job I am very much impressed. The exciting part is Ive got another 11 episodes to enjoy, none of which ive seen.

If this keeps it up...it could turn out ot be one of my favourite shows ever


8/10

I think you can pretty much count on that ;)

I only got into Fire fly last week. Thanks to Hovis. :)

He lent me the dvd to watch, I was a bit sceptical at first and thought i would only watch the first episode. When it finished i wanted more so watched this one as well.

I was very impressed as I like westerns anyway but could not fathom how they can set it in space.

I am hooked and it has overtaken Xfiles as my fav show.

I have seen the the first 2 discs in the box set and can't wait till i watch disc 3

As seems to be the general consensus here, another fantastic episode :thumbsup:

I love the bar brawl (Mal : There's just an acre of you fellas. This is why we lost, you know. Superior numbers. Zoe: Thanks for the re-enactment, sir. ) and the sudden arrival of Serenity that ends it :lol:

Mal to Simon : Well, they tell ya, never hit a man with a closed fist, but it is on occasion hilarious. :lol:

The banter between Zoe and Mal on board the train when they discover the feds is hilarious too:

Zoe: Sir, is there some information we might maybe be lacking as to why there's an entire fedsquad sitting on this train?
Mal: Doesn't concern us.
Zoe: It kinda concerns me.
Mal: I mean they're not protecting the goods. If they were, they wouldn't be letting people past 'em.
Zoe: You don't think that changes the situation a bit?
Mal: I surely do. Makes it more fun.
Zoe: Sir? I think you have a problem with your brain being missing.

and then him saying he'd do the job for free and her asking if she could have his share :lmao:

Anyone else think Inara got far too much pleasure out of slapping Mal? :lol:

I think everything that I wanted to say has pretty much been said by everyone else so I'll stop now ;)

:lol: she had a great cover for it :lol:

I thought she should've slapped him harder, just for the hell of it :lol:

What I loved about that scene was the way he and Zoe immediately tuned in to what Inara was doing. Brilliant teamwork :thumbsup:

It was obvious they were no strangers to the need for improvisation :lmao:

I don't really have anything else to add to what everyone else has said. I really enjoyed this episode. The scene at the start in the bar was good (and I finally understand all the Browncoat references everyone has been making!).

There were a few funny moments - Simon drugging Jayne; Inara's rescue of Mal and Zoe (Sheriff: "His story had a kind of odour to it", Inara: "Yes. It's not the only thing about him that does" :lmao: ); and Mal trying to give the money back to Niska's goons to name but a few.

Not sure about the blue handed guys, interesting concept but I didn't think they were at all menacing. I also thought the Sheriff was too forgiving of Mal and Zoe - they did after all steal the goods and only gave them back once they found out it was medicine. Crooks with a conscience yes, but crooks nonetheless.

Even after what they did to River? :unsure:

Well, when you put it like that......................... :ponder: :lol: . I don't know what it was, maybe it's because I thought the very blue hands looked a bit lame, as though someone in the makeup department said to the two actors "just dip your hands in some blue paint, that'll look cool" :shifty:. I think I was too busy looking at just how blue their hands were instead of thinking about what or who they were :blush:

I always thought that their hands were blue as they had gloves on :unsure:

Ah, gloves - now that makes more sense! Hadn't thought of that :blush: (it was pretty late when I watched it the other night). Oh well, when I've finished watching the rest of the series I'm just going to have to go back and watch it all over again (not that I need an excuse to do a rewatch ;) )

It's not gloves - Their hands are blue :)

Ah, right - "two by two, hands of blue", I get it now. Sometimes I get confused too easily :whistling: :blush:

Really :blink: I'll have to have a closer look :lol:

I forgot how good this episode was.

Funny pub bit at the start, YAY for serenity. Jayne was funny.

I'm glad Mal returned the medical suppies to the town. :thumbsup:

It was so cruel to kick that big man, forgot his name, in the engines of serenity, but it was still funny! :lol: Then the other man was all scared. :lmao:

River's "Two by Two, Hands Of Blue" freaked me out. It's really werid, because we never find out what they do, except they want river. I thought they were gloves, but I must of been wrong. :ermm:

I still think they look like they are wearing really thick blue latex gloves :p

:lmao: Me too, watched it again and they are definitely wearing gloves (either that or they have saggy skin around their knuckles and no fingernails ;) )

Thanks! It's good to know I'm not alone :D

I agree, I was and still am convinced that they are wearing gloves!

a good episode

the stealing was a little too quick (for a team who was doing it for the first time, they were good)

mal enjoying kicking military bad ass

ivana to the rescue (she must have enjoyed slapping mal more that she showed :lol: )

jayne as himself ( :lol: @ simon drug effect)

mal giving back the stealing good and trying to explain the situation to the henchman (did walsh know about the reaction and started the engine early or just a coincidence giving mal a neat killing machine :ponder: ).

i like it