And which makes me wonder if, since Inara was apparently the least favorite character, she Baccarin was being let go..?

I doubt it. Tim seemed to like her a lot. Which is too bad, because I absolutely hated the character. In HoG she's just useless and childish.

Some other things that bugged in HoG (white-fonted):

Wash, Zoe, and Mal leaving Serenity unguarded and unlocked when they knew they would need it. Mal shouldn't be that stupid, Zoe would never be that stupid, and Wash...

Wash trapping the bad guys by locking himself in the wrong end of the ship. Again with the making Wash look stupid and inept. Yeah, I know he isn't plan guy, but have some kind of clue.

Um. I didn't hate the character. But we know that already.

I was going to repost your eval of the unaired three a bit upthread, DX, and just nod. You pegged my opinions pretty well. I do agree on HoG as the worst of the whole series, for the reasons you listed. I liked Trash, primarily for the dialogue, and I loved The Message for the Jayne character expansion and the casting spoiler love.

My problem with the "Objects in Space" is the last episode concept is that in "The Message" Jayne refers to River as a "mind-reading genius", something he wouldn't have done before the conversation in OiS. Also, in "Trash" Simon takes River's inutuition as fact, even going so far as to confront Jayne based on it. Also, River's "threat" to Jayne isn't very convincing if her abilities haven't already been discussed by the crew.

I assumed that Simon spoke to River more in depth after the scene where she said what she said, and before the injury later in the ep.

Plus? River's been a threat since she stabbed jayne in "Aiel"

As for the whitefonting... I assumed the most reasonable assumption that they somehow overrode the codes and broke in. Leaving it ungaurded? not so smart. However, they seemed to be counting on the ambush, somewhat. Sort of playing into the hands. I'll have to re-watch.

That having been said, I enjoyed the eps, and I look forward to the discussion next week and what are we going to do about that in the main firefly thread?

Like The Message, due to You-Know-Who-Not-Voldemort, was okay on Trash, loathed Heart of Gold. HOG was the one that was a clue that I might have had a screaming argument with the show, the way I had with Angel in S3, and never regain my initial enjoyment of it. It made me doubtful of the good intentions of the creators, which is a feeling I hate to have.

Glad to see I wasn't alone in my opinion of the HoG storyline (I've only read, not watched).

Nope, not alone. It sucked in many and sundry ways.

I think HoG was the first ever script by Joss' former asst., Brett. I sort of expect it to be a bit on the green side, which I suspect will help in my viewing of it. Does it help the perception at all by saying, "ah, new guy fresh from the stork's beak"?

Allyson, just emailed you...