The Train Job
"The Train Job" is the original series premiere and second episode of the American science-fiction western television series Firefly created by Joss Whedon. It was the second episode produced and aired on Friday, September 20, 2002, on Fox. The episode was written by Whedon and Tim Minear as the second pilot to the series following Fox after executives were unsatisfied with original pilot "Serenity", which later aired as the series finale. According to the 2003 DVD commentary, Whedon and Minear had only two days to write the script. The crew of Serenity take on a hovertrain robbery commissioned by a sinister crime lord. However, the cargo is worth more than they realize. Synopsis Captain Malcolm "Mal" Reynolds, Zoe and Jayne Cobb are in a bar. When a drunk patron named Lund celebrates the sixth anniversary of the Alliance's victory on Unification Day with a toast, Mal, a former Browncoat soldier, picks a fight. Zoe immediately backs him up, Jayne hesitates but reluctantly joins the fight. Greatly outnumbered, Mal radios his pilot, Wash, for help. Serenity rescues them, despite the ship not having any weapons. In the ship's infirmary, Dr. Simon Tam tends to his mentally disturbed teenage sister River. Another