Buffy The Vampire Slayer
PILOT
At night, two teenagers break into Sunnydale High. The boy, a former student, takes the girl he is with into a drama theatre, where they kiss. However, the girl is jumpy, and seems convinced that someone is watching them. When they have made sure that there is no-one around, her face suddenly becomes distorted. She reveals herself to be a vampire, and kills him by sucking his blood.
The next morning, we are introduced to the cast, one by one, as we follow bubblegum-blowing Buffy through her first day in a new school. She is met by Principal Flutie, who tells her some of the school's regulations, in-between repeatedly forgetting her name. Next we meet Xander, who is immediately attracted to her, describing her as "new and improved" with a lascivious glint in his eye. Rupert Giles, the librarian, is then introduced. Buffy tries to ask him for some books to help her catch up with her classes, but Giles produces an ancient book bearing the legend "Vampyr". She tells him that she is "way sure" that she was not looking for that book, before running away.
Next we meet short, dumpy, but intelligent Willow, and the superficial Cordelia, who is constantly surrounded by two other equally vapid girls. This meeting ends prematurely when Buffy learns that a boy has been murdered and dumped in the girl's locker room. Buffy investigates, and finds two small puncture marks on the corpse's neck. She runs back to the library, but only to tell Giles that she is not interested in vampires, and that in coming to a new town she hoped to leave them behind her. Giles retorts by reminding her that she is the Slayer, and thus it is her duty to slay not only vampires, but also whatever other demons present themselves. Buffy says she is still not interested, and leaves, as the camera cuts to a confused Xander behind a bookcase.
Later, queuing for the Bronze, Xander tells Buffy that Willow has a date with a pale boy, dressed like Lionel Richie. Buffy guesses that it is a vampire, and runs back to the school, where she rescues Willow from a gang of the undead.
In the final scene, Giles berates Buffy for letting one of the vampires get away, for revealing her identity as the Slayer, and for simply being a "teen thing". Buffy tells him not to worry, and expertly throws her stake into the centre of a poster of Nosferatu.
Bad Things
This episode is difficult to describe in terms of plot, as what little plot it has is very basic. It is more of a "let's meet the characters" episode than a plot-driven one. American shows generally have four plots which run concurrently; an "A" plot, which is the focus of the episode, a "B" plot, which is the main sub-plot, and "C" and "D" plots, though the "D" plot is often omitted. This episode contains just the "A" plot, the invariably weak "meet-the-characters" part (see the first episode of "Crusade" for an equally excruciatingly-bad example), the "B" plot, the dead boy, and a skeletal "C" plot, the "hey, I'm the Slayer" part. The finished episode fleshed out the "C" plot, by having Giles meet Buffy in the Bronze, and the introduction of Jesse. It also added the "D" plot, the Harvest.
Fundamentally, this episode is "Welcome to the Hellmouth" with all of the Buffy goodness taken out; it is like a dress-rehearsal. It does not have any incidental music, the actors' delivery of their lines is very flat, and they have not yet managed to entirely develop their characters. Buffy's character is darker than it is in the series; though no mention is made of her burning down her old gym, there is the suggestion that she has seen and done much worse. Giles is either slightly more mystical, or simply more wimpish, depending on your reading of the character. Xander and Cordelia, on the other hand, just need a little more confidence in themselves. Willow is a different matter entirely. The actress' interpretation of the part bears no resemblance to the real Willow. Her acting is wooden at best, and the episode suffers enormously from Alyson Hannigan's absence.
The writing has also yet to mature. This episode forms the bridge between the occasionally cringingly-bad film and the generally superb series, as the standard of writing wavers erratically. The on-going gag, that Flutie cannot remember Buffy's name, is rather embarrassing. However, in the same breath he sympathetically describes his feelings about the dead boy as "that thing like when you burp and you got that vomity taste in your mouth", which is classic Whedon and should have made it into the episode proper.
The effects are similarly poor, though this, like the absence of incidental music, is understandable. Why waste money on a series that might not get made?
Good Things
The "vomity taste" exchange makes the episode worth seeing, and it is interesting to have seen what might have been, had Alyson not been cast as Willow. There is also a scene where Xander points out all of the different social groups in the school to Buffy, including the "Howzers", who would be "genuine hard-core gangsters, 'cept for the upper-class white-guy stigma", the "way-gesturey" theatre club (visual gag only), and the film club, who spend their time "deciding that every movie is an existential meditation on Freudian sexuality" (the same is true of English degree students).
Finally, there is one stand-out shot where Buffy somersaults from the top of the spiral staircase in the library to the floor below. Rather than just show her begin to jump, and then her feet landing, as is often the case in the series, the whole stunt is shown.
Trivia
Chris's Notes
If anyone can get this on a VHS, contact me please!
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