The plot of the story Nathan described -- Serenity landed on an icy planet of people who were friendly, but then tried to steal the ship. When confronted they explained that their planet was dying and there weren't enough resources and they were going to die if they didn't load everyone on the ship and evacuate. The problem was there just wasn't enough fuel and whatnot for all the residents and all the crew, so Mal said to let him sleep on it overnight. While everyone was sleeping overnight he put the ship in gear and took off from the planet and when the crew faced off with him he explained that since they hadn't come across any other planets or ships it proved that if they had brought the others along they all would have died, and in doing things this way he had taken the decision off their shoulders.
That sounded like it could have been worked into a viable episode.