Continuity mistake: During the duel, after Atherton breaks Mal's sword, he puts the blade to Mal's chest with his arm straight and his wrist slightly bent. The angle changes, and Atherton is suddenly holding the sword with his elbow bent and a straight wrist, in a completely different manner. (00:37:30)
Continuity mistake: At the beginning of the episode, Mal, Jayne and the slavers are playing holographic snooker. One of the slavers gets ready to hit the white ball and leans over the table with his snooker cue. The holographic balls then start to malfunction. In the shot of them malfunctioning the snooker cue that the slaver was holding has disappeared from the table only to return in the following shot.
Continuity mistake: After River brings Simon the hodgeberries, the hair on her left shoulder constantly moves between shots.
Continuity mistake: In the opening scene where Simon is talking to his father about his dedicated source box, a newspaper on the table in front of his father keeps moving between shots.
Continuity mistake: As the crew leave Simon and River behind on Jiangyin, Simon's fringe changes between shots. In some there are 3 curled strands of hair, in others there are 2.
Continuity mistake: When Serenity disembarks from the Alliance ship after getting Shepherd Book stitched up, 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: As Mal approaches the desk, saying "we got a couple of DOAs" he puts his left hand directly on the corner. Cut to a shot from behind and his hand's moved about a foot.
War Stories - S1-E9
Continuity mistake: As Zoë is walking through the halls of Niska's ship to give him the money, her hands keep switching from raised to down by her sides.
War Stories - S1-E9
Continuity mistake: During the torture scene, Wash has quite a large stomach. But after he is saved by Zoë, his stomach is considerably smaller.
War Stories - S1-E9
Continuity mistake: In Niska's office, behind his desk, there is a door that slides open to a small torture chamber. In "War Stories," there is a small staircase that leads into this torture chamber behind the door. However, in "The Train Job" (the first time we see this chamber) there is no staircase.
War Stories - S1-E9
Continuity mistake: In the scene where Malcolm Reynolds is being tortured, after Zoë takes Wash away, the villain cuts off Malcolm's left ear. The shot changes, and then returns to Malcolm, showing the other side of his face. Now the visible ear, the right one, is missing. The shot changes to the front, and now his left ear is missing again.
War Stories - S1-E9
Continuity mistake: The size of the red marks on Wash's body change from when he first leaves the torture chamber to going into the cockpit of the shuttle.
Continuity mistake: When Early drops an unconscious Mal down the hatch to his room, in the shot from above Mal falls with his arms by his side, but in the next shot when he lands, his arms are above his head and fall to his sides when he hits the ground.
Continuity mistake: In the close-up shot of the explosive in the sticky substance being applied to the outside of the cargo hold, the pink wire sticks out at the bottom, and in a loop in the middle. In the next shot, from slightly further back, the wire doesn't stick out anywhere, and the shape of the explosive ring has changed and become more oval. (00:05:30)
Continuity mistake: At the beginning of the episode when Mal, Jayne and Zoë are ransacking the destroyed ship for supplies, after Mal says "Vault's sealed" there is a shot of Mal as he inspects the door hatch before asking Jayne for the explosive gel gun. The ring around the door hatch's handle from the explosive gel gun is already visible in this shot.
Continuity mistake: Just prior to the crazy Ivan, Kaylee tells Jayne to cut the hydraulics to the port engine, yet it is the port engine which rotates to perform the maneuver. Also, the cut scenes of the engine thrusting just prior to and after the crazy Ivan are reversed.
Continuity mistake: The first shot we see of Nandi waking up shows her hair loose on the pillow, and her hand curled up on the sheet beside her; in the next shot, a close-up, her hair is mostly tucked behind her ear and her hand is closer to her face than previously. (00:25:10)
Answer: Inara is actually Arabic in origin; it means "ray of light" or alternatively "heaven sent". Serra, on the other hand, is Portuguese and means "mountain range" - derived from the same word in Latin, where it means 'saw' (as in the cutting implement, which a mountain range might resemble, rather than the act of seeing).
Tailkinker ★