Editing 580: The Race: Part 4

{{w|Firefly (TV series)|Firefly}} was a television series aired by FOX in 2002 but canceled after only fourteen episodes had been produced. Over ten years later, it still has a devoted fan base, apparently including [[Randall]]. The main characters were the crew of the spaceship "Serenity", including Captain Malcolm "Mal" Reynolds ({{w|Nathan Fillion}}), mechanical genius Kaylee ({{w|Jewel Staite}}), the apparently insane psychic River Tam ({{w|Summer Glau}}), and five others not mentioned in this comic.

Nathan Fillion appeared naked at the beginning and end of the show's eleventh episode, "Trash", after having been stripped of all his weapons, equipment, and clothes in a desert. [[Cueball]] is mentally overloaded by this image (either aroused or repulsed it is hard to say) to the extent that he misses the start signal.

Worried about his pursuer, Nathan wants to perform a {{w|Crazy Ivan}}, an emergency maneuver used by the crew of the Serenity in the pilot episode of the series to escape the hot pursuit of a Reaver ship.  It involves a 180° spin turn followed by rapid acceleration towards (and hopefully past) the pursuer, which does not have the ability to make such a rapid turn. In a Firefly-class vessel, it is performed by temporarily reversing the direction of thrust of one of the two atmospheric engines, achieved by physically rotating the engine nacelle.

The name of the maneuver is taken from the antics of Russian submarines in trying to detect (not to evade) enemy submarines hiding in the sonar blind-spot directly behind their vessel. In reality, sharp turns suffice for this purpose; it is not necessary to completely reverse direction. The name entered popular culture after being used in the movie {{w|The Hunt for Red October (film)|The Hunt For Red October}}.  

Nathan appears to understand exactly what will happen. He asks Jewel to "override the remote {{w|differential (mechanical device)|differential}}", implying that the two driven wheels could then be powered in opposite directions, causing a spin-turn.  As Jewel points out, this will be unlikely to have the intended effect. Nathan is much heavier than his vehicle, and he is not securely attached to it.  Momentum is his enemy.  Even if it were successful, it would be utterly pointless because he would find himself heading away from the finish line.  Cueball is only pursuing him with the intent to overtake him, and the Crazy Ivan guarantees that this will happen.

Summer Glau is often a target of sexual attraction for her appearance and her well-known, eccentric characters. River Tam, in the movie {{w|Serenity (Film)|Serenity}}, had subconscious programming that caused her to be able to take on dozens of foes in hand to hand combat, and her Terminator character in the Sarah Connor Chronicles also regularly beat on men far larger than her, which, for many, just adds to the attraction. Thus, even as Summer fells him with a devastating kick to the face, Cueball is incredibly aroused.

 

All comics in "[[The Race]]" series:

*[[577: The Race: Part 1]]

*[[578: The Race: Part 2]]

*[[579: The Race: Part 3]]

*[[580: The Race: Part 4]]

*[[581: The Race: Part 5]]

 

==Trivia==

*The xkcd's own transcript for this episode is radically wrong, and words like {{Wiktionary|maneuver}} are spelled incorrectly.