I saw the Firefly series only after it came out on DVD, thanks to the suicide Friday night time slot in which it was run. My only beef about the show was that Christina/Saffron was only in two of the episodes. If the show had continued for more seasons, I would like to think Whedon and company might have found a way for her and Mal's crew to let bygones be bygones and get her on the ship as a regular. They are all thieves, after all.
I think this episode would have been impossible to shoot without an actress like Ms Hendricks, who can change her face and turn her character on a dime. You can just look at the shots of her in the Bio section on her page, and see that she can look quite different from one shot to the next. Looking at her filmography, I realize that I've seen her many times on TV when she made little impression on me, but her skills are a perfect fit for her character on Firefly.
I think this episode would have been impossible to shoot without an actress like Ms Hendricks, who can change her face and turn her character on a dime. You can just look at the shots of her in the Bio section on her page, and see that she can look quite different from one shot to the next. Looking at her filmography, I realize that I've seen her many times on TV when she made little impression on me, but her skills are a perfect fit for her character on Firefly.