Spaced/Gatherings

Gatherings
Season 1, Episode 2
Airdate	October 1, 1999
Written by	Simon Pegg & Jessica Stevenson
Directed by	Edgar Wright
← 1x01 Beginnings	1x03 → Art
Spaced — Season One

Gatherings is the second episode of the first season of Spaced. Now settled in the flat, Daisy finds herself unable to write and instead plans an ill attended housewarming party.

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

Cast: Katy Carmichael (Twist Morgan), Julia Deakin (Marsha Klein), Nick Frost (Mike Watt), Mark Heap (Brian Topp), James Lance (Richard), Tony Way (Paperboy), Anna Wilson-Jones (Sarah)

Plot Overview

Tim awakens to find himself in a clean, bright flat where his ex-girlfriend, Sarah, is making him breakfast. He tells her about having a dream where she dumped him and he moved in with a girl he hardly knew. The illusion is shattered when his alien costume comes to life and drags him back to his room. Tim wakes up for real this time, finds the same flat as before and tackles the costume to the ground for ruining his dream.

Back in reality, Daisy is having a hard time concentrating on work. She, after a brief struggle with her typewriter, declares that they need to unpack so that she can get some work done. She's shocked to find that Tim's room is already completely unpacked, but the common space still remains. He, in turn, criticizes her for not sitting behind her typewriter for more than two minutes. She goes back to work for a second and returns immediately, saying they need to "establish domestic equilibrium." She starts to work on a list of chores, which seems to take hours but actually takes two and a half minutes. Tim stops her and suggests that there is something they absolutely have to do that'll make everyone feel much better.

Nine and a half minutes later, the two are lying on the floor, talking about how they're glad to get it out of the way before long since otherwise there would be a great deal of tension between them. When the camera pulls out, it turns out that they were cleaning, not having sex.

Now in a clean flat, Daisy should have no trouble working. About two more minutes into her new attempt at work, Daisy suddenly declares that they should have a housewarming party that night. Tim reluctantly agrees and she disposes of her typewriter in her room. Daisy and Tim go on to invite Marcia and Brian to their party, although Marcia warns her that Amber, her daughter, is also going to be having a party that night. When the party actually comes around, it's very poorly attended and Daisy's singing Prefab Sprout doesn't help things. Eventually Mike shows up with a landmine and their party is drowned out by music from Amber's party. Twist shows up as well and is told to put her wrap in Daisy's room, which leads to Daisy blowing it to Brian that they're not a couple. They ask that he not tell Marcia, who shows up immediately after. When Marcia asks where to put her coat, Brian comes through for them by taking her coat and putting it in "Tim and Daisy's room."

When "The Time Warp" starts playing on the stereo, Tim vacates the party with Mike and they decide to crash Amber's party, seeing as how their party is a total dud. Left to their own devices, Marcia passes out on Brian, who is sharing an awkward moment with Twist. Away from them, Daisy is making out with the paperboy. Tim comes back down looking for more booze and drags everyone up to Amber's party.

Notes

Music

• "There Must Be an Angel (Playing with My Heart)" by Eurythmics: In the background of Tim's dream sequence where he wakes up and discovers that he had never gotten dumped by Sarah after-all, the song playing in the background is a "Japanese style" version of "There Must Be an Angel (Playing with My Heart)" by Eurythmics. The original version of the song first appeared on the band's 1985 album Be Yourself Tonight.

• "The King of Rock and Roll" by Prefab Sprout: At the party, when Daisy puts on a tape, she starts (badly) singing "The King of Rock and Roll" by Prefab Sprout, a British pop band that, while popular in Britain, never reached mainstream success in the United States. The song is the first track from the band's 1988 album From Langley Park to Memphis. In the episode, Daisy mis-sings the last line of the chorus as "Alma cookies" instead of "Albuquerque." The chorus is meant to be a novelty song written by a washed-up novelty song one-hit wonder that the rest of the song is about.

• "The Time Warp" from Rocky Horror Picture Show: During Tim and Daisy's party, "The Time Warp" plays on the stereo and receives three different reactions: delight, resentment and disgust. "Time Warp" is a song from The Rocky Horror Picture Show, a musical about a newly engaged couple who get wrapped up in the machinations of a transvestite named Dr. Frank-N-Furter. The song is a dance that the couple stumbles upon when they enter Frank-N-Furter's mansion. Incidentally, Julia Deakin starred in a stage adaptation of the film.

Arc Advancement

Happenings

• Tim and Daisy admit to Brian that they aren't really a couple.

Trivia

The Show

• Cameo: Simon Pegg's sister, Katy Pegg, appears briefly as one of the girls looking for Amber's party. She's the girl wearing red when Mike shows up at Tim and Daisy's party.
• First Appearance: Mike and Twist both make their first appearances as something more than photographs in this episode. Also occurring for the first time is the running joke of young Tim and Mike on the tree limb.

Allusions and References

• Close Encounters of the Third Kind: Two references to Close Enounters of the Third Kind are made in this episode. The first comes when Daisy opens Tim's room and is blinded by a bright white light, like the one which came from the alien space ship in the film. This gag is cut back to when the gang decides to go to Amber's party and abandon theirs. The second is when Tim sculpts a plateau out of mashed potatoes, an oft parodied scene from the film.

• Fantasia: The montage of pots, pans and rubber gloves that is intercut with Daisy's mad typing is a reference to Fantasia, the 1940 Disney film which presents several animated segments scored to classical music. In one particular segment, Mickey Mouse uses magic to make his broom sentient and double, but he finds that he can't control the magic an is nearly drowned by the brooms bringing more and more buckets of water in.

• Field of Dreams: After Daisy suggests that they have a party, Tim agrees and she leaves to toss her typewriter in her room. When the camera cuts back to him, a voice says "If you have it, they will come." This is a reference to Field of Dreams, in which Kevin Costner hears a voice bidding him to build a baseball field in a corn field. When he does build the field, it becomes populated with ghostly baseball players, including his father.

• 2001: A Space Odyssey: During the party, Daisy goes to the freezer and discovers that it has frozen over once again. Brian comments that perhaps the machine is self-aware, but that is ignored. This scene was the basis of what would have been an even longer 2001: A Space Odyssey parody where the refrigerator takes the role of the homicidal AI unit, HAL-9000. In the original script, the overworked freezer causes a black-out.