Spaced/Beginnings

Beginnings
Season 1, Episode 1
Airdate	September 24, 1999
Production Number	—
Written by	Jessica Stevenson & Simon Pegg
Directed by	Edgar Wright
— N/A	1x02 → Gatherings
Spaced — Season One

Beginnings is the first episode of the first season of Spaced. Two bewildered twenty somethings find themselves homeless and looking for a new flat. They find that the only way they can get a decent flat is to pretend to be in a long term relationship, after having known each other for two weeks.

Starring: Jessica Stevenson (Daisy Steiner), Simon Pegg (Tim Bisley)

Cast: Bill Bailey (Bilbo Bagshot), Katy Carmichael (Twist Morgan), Julia Deakin (Marsha Klein), Nick Frost (Mike Watt), Mark Heap (Brian Topp), James Lance (Richard), Peter Serafinowicz (Duane Benzie), Anna Wilson-Jones (Sarah)

Plot Overview

Tim Bisley and Daisy Steiner each have to leave their previous homes. Tim's girlfriend broke up with him and Daisy decided to move out of the squat she was living in. They both go to a crowded cafe and have to share a table. They learn each other's story and search for a new flat. They meet at the cafe every day for two weeks but to no avail. After a short breakdown they realize that they can move into a flat together if they pretend that they're a professional couple.

So they set out to learn everything they can about each other so they can prove that they're a long term couple. We find out that Tim is an aspiring graphic artist who is currently employed at the Fantasy Bazaar comic book shop by Bilbo Bagshot, and Daisy is a university graduate hoping to become a journalist.

They arrive to see the flat and meet Marsha the landlady. After looking round the flat Marsha asks them a few questions about their professions and relationships, and then says they can move in when they're ready.

Tim's best friend Mike helps him move out of his girlfriend's place and Daisy leaves her squat and they move into the new flat. Tim discovers Brian in the flat downstairs who is an artist. They have some drinks and a chat in the kitchen with Marsha and almost reveal that they're not actually a couple, but Marsha had too much to drink and didn't notice. After Brian leaves, unconsciously hinting that there may be something between him and Marsha, Tim and Daisy retire to their rooms.

Notes

Music

• "Getting to Know You" by Marti Nixon: The song that plays during the montage of Tim and Daisy meeting each other and bonding of their shared inability to find a place to live is "Getting to Know You", written by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II for their musical The King and I. The play was eventually adapted into a film where the song was sung by Marni Nixon (although the role of Anna was played on screen by Deborah Kerr). This is the version used in the episode.

• Fatboy Slim - The Weekend Starts Here
• David Holmes - Gritty Shaker
• Mercury Rev - Delta Sun Bottle Neck Stomp (Chemical Brothers Remix)
• Tai - Fun Space Food

Locations

• The scene where Tim and Daisy are walking down a street was filmed on Middleton Road in Wood Green.
• The house which is used in the exterior shots is in Tufnell Park. The front room of this house was used as the squat that Daisy was moving out of.

Arc Advancement

Happenings

• Tim and Daisy meet and become friends while trying to find somewhere to live. They later move into a flat together.
• They meet Marsha who is the landlady and Brian who lives in the flat downstairs.

Characters

• Daisy has a boyfriend in Hull.
• Tim's girlfriend Sarah broke up with him to be with Duane Benzie.

Trivia

The Show

• Cameo: Director Edgar Wright and the director of photography Andy Hollis can be seen comatose in Daisy's squat when she says goodbye.
• In-Joke: The band that Tim made the album cover for, God's Third Leg, was actually a band that Simon Pegg was the drummer for when he was 16.

Allusions and References

• Terminator 2: Tim references the ending of Terminator 2 where the T-800 model terminator, played by Arnold Schwarzenegger, sacrifices himself in a vat of molten steel at a steel mill so that there is no SkyNet technology remaining in the past.

Tim: Jesus, I cried like a child at the end of Terminator 2. You know with his... with the thumb and the molten... you know?

• Return of the Jedi: The conversation that Tim and Daisy have in the café when Tim is wearing an alien costume is taken directly from a conversation between Han Solo and Luke Skywalker in Return of the Jedi. The exchange is the first thing that they say to each other when they meet again in Jabba the Hutt's throne room early in the film.

Tim: How's it going?

Daisy: Same as always.

Tim: That bad, huh?

• Dark Horse Comics: The name of the comic book publisher Tim wants to work for is Dark Star Comics, which is a reference the independent American comic publisher Dark Horse Comics. Dark Horse is most famous for publishing creator owned books like Hellboy and The Goon, as well as comics based on licensed properties like Star Wars, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Aliens. Unlike Marvel and DC, they don't typically publish superhero comics.

• Bilbo Baggins: Tim's employer at the comic book shop is named Bilbo, a reference to Bilbo Baggins, the main character in The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien. In a later episode, his surname is revealed to be "Bagshot," which is a reference to the name of the street Bilbo Baggins lived on, Bagshot Row.

• Titanic: The shot of Tim's hand reaching out on his bed while pleasuring himself is reminiscent of the hand on the carriage window during a sex scene between Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet in the movie Titanic.

• The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: When Tim is describing Daisy's fear that spiders and rats will crossbreed to create a mutant spider-rat, a bit of animation shows how that might look. The animation was purposefully done in a similar style to the "guide" portions of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy television series.

• Green Card: Daisy and Tim take a bunch of Polaroid pictures around town in order to further fake a history together, like in a movie she saw once. Green Card, the movie that they can't remember the name of, stars Gérard Depardieu as a man who marries an American played by Andie MacDowell in order to get a green card.

• The Shining: Tim and Daisy have an exchange taken directly from the 1980 horror film The Shining, adapted from a book written by Stephen King, before finding the twin girls in the cupboard (another reference to the film and book). In the film, Jack Nicholson's character goes insane and tries to kill his family in an empty hotel that is apparently haunted.

Tim: Yeah, it's perfect for a child

Daisy: Yeah. Very, erm

Tim: Homey

Daisy: Yeah homey, homey. It's very homey

• 2001: A Space Odyssey: When Daisy investigates the large box in Tim's room, a version of "Also Sprach Zarathustra" by Richard Wagner can be heard in the background. This was popularly used in the Stanley Kubrick film 2001: A Space Odyssey when the monolith is revealed in the opening scenes.

• Scooby-Doo, Where Are You: Tim relates Daisy's "investigating" to "playing Scooby-Doo" after she finds his alien costume. Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! is a long-running animated series about a group of friends and their talking dog who investigate strange goings on, usually people dressed up as ghosts in supposedly "haunted" places. Tim claims that he was always playing Freddy as a kid, while Daisy said she played Daphne. When the camera pulls back, they are dressed, respectively, like Shaggy and Velma and the musical sting from the cartoon plays.

• The Dukes of Hazzard: Richard and Daisy's pet names for each other are characters from the popular 1970s television show, The Dukes of Hazzard. Daisy Duke was the beautiful but naïve cousin of the main characters and namesakes of the series, Bo and Luke Duke. Boss Hogg was the corrupt County Commissioner who had it in for the Dukes

Richard: I love you Daisy Duke.

Daisy: I love you too, Boss Hogg.

Memorable Moments

• In the first scene, we are apparently watching an argument between two people, later revealed to be Tim and Daisy, going through a bad break-up. But, it's then revealed that the characters are having two entirely different arguments with Sarah (Tim's ex) and a homeless man, respectively.
• Tim and Daisy comment on which Scooby-Doo characters they used to pretend to be (Fred and Daphne) and Daisy says "and look at us now" takes off her apron and knocks her thick glasses down onto her face and the camera pulls back to reveal them looking exactly like Shaggy and Velma.

Quotes

• Tim: You're scared of mice and spiders, but oh-so-much greater is your fear that one day the two species will cross-breed to form an all-powerful race of mice-spiders who will immobilize human beings in giant webs in order to steal cheese.

• Tim: You can't dangle the bogus carrot of possible reconciliation in front of my face whilst riding some other donkey.

• Daisy: Oh hi, do you rent downstairs?
  Brian: Do you mean am I gay?
  Daisy: What?
  Brian: Do you mean am I gay?
  Daisy: No, no, I meant are you renting the downstairs flat?
  Brian: Oh right, yep. Sort of.
  Tim: Are you gay?
  Brian: What?
  Tim: Are you gay?
  Brian: [thinks] ...No.