Continuity mistake: In the final shot of Serenity leaving Regina near the end, the lights on the port (left) and starboard (right) sides of the ship are reversed - the port lights are green when they should be red and the starboard lights are red when they should be green.
Continuity mistake: After the opening credits River wakes up from a nightmare. She knocks over a rolling tray and some objects fall off it onto the floor. The position of the tray and the objects left on it changes between shots.
Continuity mistake: When Mal is fighting Crow on the ship, he falls over the containers of medical supplies, knocking some of them over. A few shots later when Jayne shoots Crow, the containers are standing upright again.
Bushwhacked - S1-E2
Continuity mistake: When Kaylee and Simon go looking for spare parts on board the derelict ship, there are two green lights lit up on a control box behind Kaylee. But once Kaylee pulls one of the ship's parts out, the two green lights are no longer lit. Several lights in the room flicker and flash on/off, but the two green lights on the control box behind Kaylee do not.
Bushwhacked - S1-E2
Continuity mistake: After Simon and River come down from Serenity's roof, River asks Simon if Mal is coming back. Simon tells her that he is. River's head then moves from looking down to looking up between shots.
Bushwhacked - S1-E2
Continuity mistake: As Mal tells Commander Harken that the Reavers made the survivor watch as they killed everyone on board, Commander Harken's hands move from separated to clasped together on the table.
Bushwhacked - S1-E2
Continuity mistake: At the beginning of the episode, when Inara asks Simon how River is, River's hair is hanging down behind her back on both sides. But when Simon tells Inara that she still won't talk about what was done to her at the Academy, her hair is hanging in front of her right shoulder. A few shots later her hair is hanging behind her back again.
Continuity mistake: When Saffron first hits Wash, he falls with his head in the centre of the doorway (from our point of view), but a second later, when she goes to lift his legs through the door so she can shut it, his head is noticeably more to the left (again, from the viewer's point of view). (00:27:05)
Continuity mistake: When Inara finds Mal unconscious in his quarters, his head is resting up against the wall. When the angle changes to show her running over to him, he has moved away from the wall and his head is on the floor. After she has called for help, his head is once again up against the wall. (00:31:00)
Continuity mistake: When Shepherd Book tells everyone about the electrical nets, Jayne says, "One day you're gonna tell us all how a preacher knows so damn much about crime." Shepherd then turns to leave. But in the immediate close up of him and Mal, he turns to leave again.
Continuity mistake: When Zoë and Wash are on the bridge talking about Saffron, Zoë's necklace moves position between shots.
Continuity mistake: Just before Serenity disembarks from Triumph near the beginning of the episode, there are some small areas of shrubbery and foliage surrounding the exit ramp. But once Serenity takes off, the shrubbery and foliage is gone.
Jaynestown - S1-E4
Continuity mistake: When the foreman first slaps Simon on the back, the muddy handprint has quite identifiable finger marks, but in the next shot, when Simon is walking away, the muddy shape has changed. In a subsequent shot, the mudprint has disappeared entirely. (00:04:25 - 00:06:00)
Jaynestown - S1-E4
Continuity mistake: Right after Simon gives his "box dropping man ape gone wrong" line, as Kaylee says "you're pretty funny", he starts to take a drink. When Kaylee finishes talking, the shot changes to in front of them both and Simon's hand and mug are now in his lap.
Jaynestown - S1-E4
Continuity mistake: The mud left on Simon's shoulder by the foreman slapping his back disappears soon after, despite him having had no opportunity to change or clean his jacket.
Out of Gas - S1-E5
Continuity mistake: When we see the flashback of Mal and Zoë first entering Serenity's cargo bay, just after Mal has bought the ship, there is a cable on the floor behind them. For a short moment, we see the cable being dragged over the grille right behind them, then the shot changes and there is nothing there at all; the only cable is much further back and lying at a completely different angle. (00:01:55)
Out of Gas - S1-E5
Continuity mistake: In the flashback where Mal and Zoë meet Jayne for the first time, every close-up of Mal and the one close-up of Zoë shows their hair blowing in the wind. But in the shots of them together, their hair is completely still.
Out of Gas - S1-E5
Continuity mistake: One of the candles on Simon's birthday cake keeps blowing out and re-lighting itself between shots.
Out of Gas - S1-E5
Continuity mistake: Kaylee has just put Simon's birthday cake down on the table when the explosion happens, but in many subsequent shots of both the table and the floor in the dining room, the cake is nowhere to be seen.
Out of Gas - S1-E5
Continuity mistake: In the first flashback in the episode, Malcolm is showing Zoe Serenity after buying it. You can see on his left arm the stitched-up bullet hole that was from the very first episode when Mal gets shot. This episode would have taken place much later than the flashback.
Chosen answer: One of the premises of the show is that the two major Earth societies that survived, and ultimately merged, were the Chinese and Americans. As a result the common language includes much Chinese. Clothing, signage, and building designs also have a heavy Chinese influence.