Showing posts with label River Tam. Show all posts
Showing posts with label River Tam. Show all posts

Wednesday 13 February 2019

The Ceremony of Innocence : Mal’s Ship


MAL
Well, let's see what a man like you would kill for.

SIMON
No, don't!
Mal kicks off the top of the box. 
It flies off, clattering to the floor 
as the smoke clears from over what's inside.
Mal steps forward, looks.

ANGLE: ABOVE THE BOX
Curled inside is a naked, unconscious teenage girl.
The box is clearly a cryo-chamber of some sort, perfectly conformed to her body, a sleep metallic womb.

Mal looks at the girl.
 At Simon. At the girl.

MAL
Huh.

BLACK OUT.




INT. SERENITY - DINING ROOM - LATER
Book and Kaylee have made dinner. People are gathering, sitting, helping themselves to things -- everybody's moving and talking 
over each other and everyone's there 
save Wash and Inara.

ZOE
Oh, this is incredible.

BOOK
It's not much -- I had a garden 
at the Abbey, thought I should 
bring what I could.

SIMON
It's very kind of you to share with
all of us.

ZOE
I'm gonna make a plate for Wash...

BOOK
(to Simon)
Well, it won't last, and they're never the same when they're frozen. 

The important thing is the spices.

A man can live on packaged food from here 'til Judgment Day 
if he's got enough rosemary.

DOBSON
(over this, to Jayne)
Can you pass me the tomatoes?
He does, after taking several slices. 
People settle.

BOOK :
Captain, you mind if I Say Grace?

MAL (which means ‘Bad’) :
Only if you say it out loud.

A beat -- Mal has broken the mood. 
He starts eating, others follow. 
Book lowers his head a moment, as do Kaylee, Dobson, and Jayne, 
then they eat as well.

SIMON
So, does it happen a lot? 
Government commandeering Your Ship, 
telling you where to go?

MAL
That's what Governments are for --  
get in a man's way.

DOBSON
Well, it's good, if the supplies are
needed.

JAYNE
We're just happy to be doing Good Works.

DOBSON
I hear a lot of the border moons 
are
in bad shape. Plagues, and famine...

ZOE
Well, some of that's exaggerated, and some of it ain't. 
All those moons --
just like the central planets,
they're as close to Earth-That-Was as
we could make 'em: gravity, atmosphere,
and such, but...

MAL
Once they're terraformed, They'll
dump settlers on there with nothing
but blankets, hatchets, maybe a herd.
Some of them make it, some of them…

SIMON
Then I guess it's good we're helping.

KAYLEE
(to Simon)
You're a Doctor, right?

SIMON
Oh. Uh, yes. Yes, I was a trauma surgeon on Osiris, in Capital City.

MAL
Long way from here.

KAYLEE
(to Simon)
You seem so Young. To be A Doctor.

SIMON
(changing the subject)
Yeah. You're pretty young 
to be a ship's mechanic.

KAYLEE
No how. Machines just got workings, 
and they talk to me.

BOOK
That's a rare gift.

KAYLEE
Oh, not like being a doctor. 
Helping fix people, that's important.

JAYNE
Little Kaylee here just wishes 
you was a gynecologist.

Jayne cackles. Kaylee, visibly humiliated, looks down.

MAL
(hard)
Jayne
You'll keep a civil tongue in that mouth 
or I will sew it shut, 
is there an understanding between us?

JAYNE
You don't pay me to talk pretty
Just because Kaylee gets lubed-up 
over some big city dandy --

MAL
Walk away from this table. Right now.

A beat. Jayne doesn't believe it, 
but Mal's expression is stony. 
Jayne goes, grabbing a bunch of food as he does. 
Everyone is silent a moment.

SIMON
What do you pay him for?

MAL
What?

SIMON
I was just wondering 
what His Job is.
On The Ship.

Mal stares a moment.

MAL
….Public Relations.

Thursday 17 May 2018

And It Hurts Me


Rev. Samuel Runt
My Lord Bullingdon -- You seem 
particularly glum today. 

You should be happy that 
Your Mother has re-married. 

Lord Bullingdon
Not in this way. 

And not in such haste

And certainly not to this man. 

Motherfucker.

Rev. Samuel Runt
I think you judge Your Mother too harshly -- 
Do you not like Your New Father? 

Lord Bullingdon
(hate-glare)
Not very much. 
He seems to me little more than 
a common opportunist

I don't think he loves 
My Mother at all.

And it hurts me very much, 
to see her make 
such a Fool of herself.


Doctor, I'm takin' Your Little Sister 
Under My Protection, here. 

If anything happens to her, anything at all, I swear to you, I will get VERY choked up. 

Honestly. There could be tears.




WHAT'S THE FIRST RULE 
OF FLYING, JESSI?








Tuesday 16 January 2018

The Tams

SIMON & RIVER 
SHY/SIMPLE/RELATIVELY-PERFECT-MAN

Tam is a Hebrew word meaning shy or simple or relatively perfect man.

The Simon has (or had) a job; he was employed; he has nice, clean, neat hair, clipped accent, fine clothes and good manners - he was "respectable"

The River runs wild.






"I look out for me and mine. 

That don't include you 'less I conjure it does. 

Now you stuck a thorn in the Alliance's paw. That tickles me a bit. But it also means I got to step twice as fast to avoid them and that means turning down plenty of jobs. Even honest ones. 

Put this crew together with the promise of work, which the Alliance makes harder every year. 

Come a day there won’t be room for naughty men like us to slip about at all. 

This job goes South, there well may not be another. 

So here is us, on the raggedy edge. 

Don't push me, and I won't push you.


Esau, a “man of the field,” [ a savage ] became a hunter who had “rough” qualities that distinguished him from his twin brother. 

Among these distinguishing qualities were his red hair and noticeable hairiness.

Jacob was a shy or simple man, depending on the translation of the Hebrew word “Tam” (which also means “relatively perfect man”).

Throughout Genesis, Esau is frequently shown as being supplanted by his younger twin Jacob (Israel).



11And Jacob said to Rebekah his mother, Behold, Esau my brother is a hairy man, and I am a smooth man: 

12 My father peradventure will feel me, and I shall seem to him as a deceiver; and I shall bring a curse upon me, and not a blessing. 

13 And his mother said unto him, Upon me be thy curse, my son: only obey my voice, and go fetch me them.

14 And he went, and fetched, and brought them to his mother: and his mother made savoury meat, such as his father loved. 

15 And Rebekah took goodly raiment of her eldest son Esau, which were with her in the house, and put them upon Jacob her younger son: 

16 And she put the skins of the kids of the goats upon his hands, and upon the smooth of his neck:



ZOE: 
You've never heard of Reavers?

SIMON: 
Campfire stories . . . Men gone savage at the edge of space, killing, and . . .

ZOE: 
They're not stories.

SIMON: 
What happens if they board us?

ZOE: 
If they take the ship, they'll rape us to death, eat our flesh and sew our skins into their clothing, and if we're very, very lucky, they'll do it in that order. 

Saturday 13 January 2018

Don't Fix The Bible


Noah's Ark is a problem--
We'll have to call it early Quantum
State phenomenon



Shepherd Book (Ron Glass) walks in on River (Summer Glau) as she is "fixing" his Bible. 




INT. SERENITY - DINING ROOM - DAY
River sits at the dining table. Book's Bible is open in front of her, and she scribbles furiously into it, crossing out words, writing in the margins. Book walks in, speaks from across the room.
BOOK
What are we up to, sweetheart?

RIVER
Fixing your Bible.

BOOK
I--uh-- What?

He starts moving over to her.

RIVER
Bible's broken. Contradictions,
faulty logistics--it doesn't make
sense...

Now Book sees what she's doing. His Bible's all fucked up, and there's a small stack of torn out pages next to it..

BOOK
No, no, you can't...

River's still scribbling away as she chatters manically.

RIVER
So we'll integrate non-progressional
evolution theory with God's creation
of Eden -- eleven inherent metaphoric
parallels already there... eleven,
important number, prime number, one
goes into the house of eleven eleven
times but always comes out one--

BOOK
River, just take it easy. You
shouldn't--

RIVER
Noah's Ark is a problem--

She flips a page back and forth, frowning at it.

BOOK
Really.

RIVER
(rapid nod)
We'll have to call it early quantum
state phenomenon-- Only way to fit
five-thousand species of mammal on
the same boat-
She tears the page out of the book.

BOOK
Gimme that!

Book snatches the Bible up, somewhat possessively.

BOOK (cont'd)
River! You don't fix the Bible!

River looks up at him, sweet, sincere, deadpan:

RIVER
(holds up torn out
pages)
It's broken. It doesn't make sense.

BOOK
It's not about making sense. 
It's about believing in something, and
letting that belief be real enough to
change your life. 

It's about 'faith'.

(gets up)

You don't fix faith, River. 

It fixes you.


He smiles, trying to gently take the crumpled, torn-out pages from her hand. She tugs back. They have a short tug-of-war then Book relents.

BOOK (cont'd)
Why don't you, ah, you hang on to
those then.





[River finds Book reading the Bible]

River: 
Don't be afraid. 
That's what it says. 
"Don't be afraid."

Shepherd Book: 
Yes.

River: 
But you are afraid.

Shepherd Book: 
Yes.

River: 
You're afraid we're going to run out of air. 
That we'll die gasping. But we won't. 
That's not going to happen.

[Book looks at her hopefully]

River: 
We'll freeze to death first.

***?!•57!?*** ?!?!?!?!?!? ***?!•57?!***

KAOS + DISORDER = The Bleeding Edge of Yesterday's News

SOLVE ET COAGULA

L7

***?!•57!?*** ?!?!?!?!?!? ***?!•57?!*** 


***?!•57!?*** ?!?!?!?!?!? ***?!•57?!*** 


KAOS + DISORDER = The Bleeding Edge of Yesterday's News

SOLVE ET COAGULA 

L7

***?!•57!?*** ?!?!?!?!?!? ***?!•57?!***