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BillyAnkers

Plot Summaries from the Wild West
Friday, February 24, 2006

If some of my favorite westerns were made into Firefly episodes how would they play out?
Here are a few examples…

# 1. Jeremiah Johnson
I have added a fictionalized scene from this episode below.
Original scene: Will Geer lures a grizzly bear into a mountain cabin for our mountain man Jeremiah Johnson (played by Robert Redford).

Firefly episode: “Vendetta”
Plot Summary
A freighter captain who wishes to live his life away from the Alliance becomes the unwilling object of a long vendetta by Reavers when he proves to be the match of their warriors in one-to-one combat on the frontier.

EXT. PLANETSIDE DAY
Mal Reynolds is seen waving his arms and running as fast as he can towards the open bay door of Serenity. His brown coat flies behind him. His holster is empty and dust is following him in large plumes.

QUICK CUT TO:
Disgusting blood-encrusted Reaver chasing closely behind Mal as he runs towards the ship.

QUICK CUT TO:
Mal getting closer to the open bay door.

MAL
“All manner of trouble coming your way”, he shouts into his communicator.

INT. CARGO BAY SERENITY
Mal enters the cargo bay running at a high rate of speed. He runs through the bay, up the gantry stairs and out of camera shot.

ENTER
Reaver who looks stage left, looks stage right and when not seeing his victim growls.

CUT TO:
River Tam’s ballet-fu drop-kick combat boot hitting the Reaver in the face and sending him sprawling to the floor in a heap. She stands defiantly over the body with Zoë’s communicator gripped tightly in her hand.

ZOE From the catwalk over the cargo bay looking down at River.
“How many Reaver’s you expect to bait today, sir?”

MAL Standing beside her.
“Every last one of ‘em!”

FADE TO BLACK




# 2. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
Plot Summary
Firefly episode: “The Man Who Shot Adelai Niska”
An elderly Doctor Simon Tam returns to the metropolis-city of Skyplex to attend the funeral of his friend, Malcolm Reynolds. To a journalist, who’s wondering what the doctor is doing in Skyplex, he tells how his career started as “the man who shot Adelai Niska.” As a young doctor he went to Skyplex, where he met his wife Kaylee and Captain Malcolm Reynolds. Then he met the greatest bandit of the region, Adelai Niska....

# 3. The Cheyenne Social Club
Plot Summary
Firefly episode: “The Nandi Social Ranch”
Mal is working as a rogue bandit for very little money with his friend Zoe when he gets word an old Independent officer has left him The Nandi Social Ranch. He and Zoe fly for nearly an AU to his inheritance only to find he is now the owner of a first class brothel.
Wait! This one has already been done! Sort of…..
See Season 1: Episode 14 Heart of Gold

# 4 Tombstone
Plot Summary
Firefly episode: “Tombstone”
After success cleaning up the frontier, Mal Reynolds moves to Tombstone planet, and wishes to get rich in obscurity. He meets his crew there, as well as his old army friend Zoë. A band of outlaws that call themselves The Reavers are causing problems in the region with various acts of random violence, rape and cannibalism and inevitably come into confrontation with Reynolds and the crew of Serenity, which leads to a shoot-out.

# 5 Dances With Wolves
Plot Summary
Firefly episode: “Dances with Jayne”
Jayne Cobb is dubbed a hero (again) after he accidentally leads Alliance troops to a victory during the war. He requests a position on the frontier, but finds it mostly deserted. He soon finds out he is not alone and meets a ring of criminals and joins up with them. Cobb quickly makes friends with the ring, but discovers during a hold up gone bad that he would rather work elsewhere when a better offer is proposed. He gradually earns the respect of the Serenity crew.

# 6 The Searchers
Plot summary
Firefly episode: “The Searchers”
Malcolm Reynolds, an ex-Independent soldier back home from the war, finds that his family has been massacred and his niece captured by the Alliance. He vows to bring her back and kill every one of the blue-hands that did this. He buys a Firefly class spaceship and travels for five years in order to find her and when he does realizes even though she has been found she has become one of them.







# 7 The Wild Bunch
Plot Summary
Firefly episode: “The Wild Bunch”
Outlaws on the frontier face the march of progress, the Alliance and a gang of Reaver hunters while they plan a robbery of an Alliance train. No one is innocent in this gritty tale of desperation against changing times. Pump shotguns, machine guns, Vera, and spaceships mix with horses and “mules” in this ultra violent adventure.
See Season 1: Episode 1 “The Train Job”

# 8 Stagecoach
Plot Summary
Firefly episode: “Spaceship”
A simple spaceship trip is complicated by the fact that Reaver’s are on the warpath in the area. The passengers on the ship include a citified doctor, a psychic woman, a shiny mechanic, an ex- soldier, a shepherd, and the famous Jayne Cobb, the hero of Canton, among others.

WHR,III
Kenosha, Wisconsin

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