Question: In some scenes, why do the Serenity crew members speak Chinese?
Question: Which episode aired first, "Unreasonable Doubt" or "Netherworld"? I have the season 1 DVD set, and "Netherworld" is listed as episode number five, but in episode guides I've seen, "Unreasonable Doubt" is.
Chosen answer: Unreasonable Doubt aired as the fifth episode, on July 14 2002, with Netherworld airing as the eighth episode on August 4th. One possible explanation is that the networks are sometimes known to air episodes out of their actual production order. In cases like this, the DVD release usually uses the production order, thus placing the episodes in the order which they were intended to be watched.
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.