The Truth Is Out There: The X-Files Discussion Thread

Well is see today that Gillian said that her and David are ready to go, and Chris Carter even has a script, but Carter is suing FOX, says Reuters, so who knows if it will ever happen, doesn't look that good, if he is currently suing the studio that would pay for the movie.

 

What a great show! I truly miss X-Files.

I'm sure you have already discussed - but did you know the producer was inspired by
Kolchak the Night Stalker?

What a great show that would have been , Kolchak the original investigative reporter on the paranormal , weird and unusual and Mulder.

I was very disappointed that the new Night Stalker was canceled.

 

After starting the X-Files for the first time, from the very first episode, in June I've finally finished with "The Truth". It was a truly amazing journey.

 

1 X 04 The Jersey Devil

Mulder posits the existence of a feral human in a case of apparent cannibalism outside Atlantic City.

*Prior to this, there had been three episodes that I am comfortable labeling great and one that was actually perfect. It had to end sometime.

*This episode bizarrely starts with Scully walking through some sort of bull pen to get to Mulder?s office. Some people rag on this show for never keeping straight where Mulder?s office is in relation to the elevators. At least most of the time they remember it?s in the basement.

*This episode does introduce the cop who works in opposition to the FBI rather than in cooperation with it.

*I love the way the medical examiner tells the cop, ?For God?s sake, Tommy, this is no time to get pissy.? Way to just destroy the guy?s dignity there.

*It?s interesting, sporadically, to see Scully at something so mundane as a godson?s birthday party. Of course, she doesn?t have any godchildren any more since everyone she cares about by this point HAS BEEN KILLED!

*I do like the actor who plays Ranger Boulay. He?s pitch perfect. I love his delivery.

*I love the way that homeless guy passes Mulder a sloppy drawing of a naked man and acts like it?s proof.

*Okay, not one, but two men make horrible retching sounds in this episode. Life is a banquet.

*I like the way that agent looks at Scully after she remarks, in a humorously loud voice, that Mulder is in the drunk tank.

*I find the remarks about having a life interesting, given how that discussion will continue to a resonant and moving end in Shadows. Here it?s just a throwaway, but our agents will again visit this theme.

*Dr. Diamond is so cheesy it?s hilarious. I love how Scully takes Mulder to see him to get Diamond to disprove Mulder?s theory and Mulder ends up convincing him. Great . . . fabulous.

*I find Scully?s assertion that humans are at the top of the food chain humorous. That?s said a lot and it?s never true. Lions, in case you didn?t know, eat us. So do tigers. So do bears. So do sharks. We are not the top of the freaking food chain, people.

*And then Diamond says that it?s nice to see that Dana left his teaching with more than a degree. Yeah, apparently she left with a lot of misinformation as well. Good job, Einstein.

*On second thought, the fact that this crackpot buys Mulder?s theory is not that surprising.

*It?s interesting to see Scully on a date and it?s amusing to see Anderson doing a great job looking bored out of her mind.

*She?s practically overjoyed when Mulder calls, which is amusing to see.

*Again with the freaking drawings. A line sketch is not evidence, genius.

*I like the scene where it begins with Mulder and Scully and slowly the camera moves to reveal that Boulay and Diamond are there as well. It reminds me of that Simpsons episode about Armon Tensarian and when Homer was driving that car that was full of a ludicrous number of people who kept being slowly revealed.

*To this point, the episode has been merely boring and unremarkable. And now it becomes laughable in several ways.

*At this point, Mulder and Scully, accompanied by Park Ranger Boulay and Dr. Diamond begin scouring the city to find the beast woman. And it just dies. It just rolls up and dies. For several reasons.

*Number one, this feels like freaking Scooby Doo . . . what?s with the big team here?

*Number two, they just start looking . . . with no reason for the place they pick . . . and IMMEDIATELY find her! Suspension of disbelief is one thing . . . coincidence is one thing . . . this is just lazy.

*And thirdly, while the X-Files is often a philosophical show, I just hate the stupid meandering ramblings of Mulder during this segment: ?How different is she from you and me, Scully? Is she really human? Or simply animal?? Dude, shut up. Just shut up.

*Fourth, what?s with Mulder and this love struck attitude? She?s a frigging naked woman who has never had a bath or brushed her teeth. And, oh, yes, she tears a five foot ga

 

I like your four star rating system. I use that, too, for years now. I'll have to post my ratings when you finish the first season.

 

I wouldn't call "Jersey Devil" one of the worst episodes, maybe a 2 1/2 star rating instead of 1 1/2.

I like Mulder being off by himself and on the hunt in this episode and I like the "big-foot/neanderthal" type premises of the story since they didn't cover that storyline elsewhere during the show.

Again, it's not a favorite of mine, but I don't see it as being one of the worst episodes.

 

1 X 05 Shadows

A Defense Department investigation crosses paths with Mulder and Scully as they investigate a young woman who may be being protected by the ghost of her dead boss.

*Wait, that woman is crying because her boss is dead . . . I know this is science fiction, but that?s just too unbelievable!

*One today is worth two tomorrows . . . wow. I mean, wow . . . I?d forgotten that Benjamin Franklin was so inane.

*It?s interesting to see the DoD team, also a pair of agents, a man and a woman. Coincidentally, the woman is also incredibly short.

*This is, while not a particularly strong episode plotwise, one of the best episodes to see Mulder and Scully involve themselves in real down and dirty policework. Every step they take here is logical and sensible.

*The opening gambit of getting a fingerprint off of a corpse by using the lens of his glasses . . . that?s just stellar.

*The villain here, Mr. Dorland, is played by an actor who really resembles the Cigarette Smoking Man, who, at this point, had only appeared in the one episode. That?s an odd coincidence.

*I love the way Scully asks Lauren Kyte, ?Have you ever seen this man before?? while pointing to a milk spot on a photograph. What?s even more hilarious is that Lauren recognizes the blur as Howard Graves. Please.

*Mulder gets off a great line as they watch Lauren visiting her boss?s grave: You don?t see too many bosses graves without people dancing on it.

*Okay, isn?t it just a little creepy that the groundskeeper is able to tell the frigging life stories of every person buried in his cemetary? I mean, somebody needs a hobby or something.

*Incredibly creepy scene when Howard reveals to Lauren that he was murdered.

*Don?t you just love when people tell murderers that they know that they killed so and so and are going to see them burn? Don?t you just love that?

*A great sequence with two hitmen (actually one female) coming to kill Lauren and being killed by Howard Graves.

*The series would often go out of its way to keep Scully from seeing anything too bizarre. This is by far the stupidest occurrence of that where she misses seeing Howard Graves beat a man to death because she is STUCK IN HER SEATBELT!!

*Great line where Mulder advises the interrogator not to get too rough with Lauren.

*Scully uses real psychology to get Lauren to talk to them. It?s fun to see her really play it smart.

*Though I seriously doubt that you would actually take your star witness into the office with you as you served a search warrant.

*Or allow the witness to conduct the search.

*I love the bittersweet ending with Mulder and Scully discussing the meaning of life: ?Scully, do you believe in an afterlife?? ?I?d settle for a life in this one.? ?Have you ever seen the liberty bell?? Beautiful.

*All in all, this is a solid episode, never quite making it past the extreme predictability of the story to become a great one. It?s bolstered by the chemistry of the leads, some very strong visual images, a logical investigation shown to us step by step and a great ending.

*** out of **** stars.

 

I like this episode, it is solid, and yes, predictable. However, it's one of the rare ghost stories that they covered in the series. I loved the underlying plot of the avenging angel and the cool kinetic/telepathic energy scenes in the episode.

Not one of the most memorable episodes, but I always enjoy watching it.

 

I only watched this one again yesterday and I definitely thought that. It's especially evident when the company premises are raided and Dorland looks totally unfazed by events. Mulder notes this whilst watching him talking to investigators from across the room. Really strange.

 

Boy oh boy!

'Eve'

What a superb episode. Really chilling. Great performance from Harriet Harris (Bebe Glazer ), particularly as the incarcerated Eve 6. I'd entirely forgotten about this episode and so it cam as a wonderful surprise. I duped me completely regarding the two young girls. I mention Bebe because when I see this woman in things that aren't Frasier, Bebe always rears her head and ruins her performance for me. Not here. Great stuff.

Best of the season so far. Easily.

 

Something else...

Does anyone know where I can find a reproduction of the 'I WANT TO BELIEVE' poster that hangs in Mulder's basement office? I've done a - what I considered to be - fairly comprehensive search online, but have drawn a blank. A few posters that look like it, but none that match it.

 

Interesting story - that poster was the first thing I ever bought online, back in 1994 iirc. Got it shipped from the USA, years before shops in the UK were selling them.

Sorry, that doesn't help you

 

A classic . . . I'll post my review shortly for that one. One of the four star efforts of the first season.

1 X 06 Ghost in the Machine

Mulder and Scully investigate when one of Mulder? sold partners asks for help regarding a murder in a building governed by a state of the art computer system.

*This is considered by many to be the worst episode of the first season. Personally, I don?t find it to be such.

*A pretty weak teaser.

*But instantly after the theme song, we get one of the main reasons I can?t be as down on this episode as many are: Mulder?s old partner, Jerry Lamana, perfectly played, a total ass of a man who manages to actually be sympathetic.

*The back story to Jerry is also very well done, giving him a lot of sympathetic motivation to do a good job.

*And one of the main reasons that I DO hate this episode: far, far too many artsy camera point of view shots. I think before the teaser was over we all figured out that the big computer had gone evil. No need to pound it into our head with a ?Security Camera? shot with eerie music every five seconds.

*A nice moment of characterization regarding Jerry and his theft of Mulder?s profile notes.

*Here?s the list? One name? Well, he said it would be short.

*Brad Wilzcek is obviously intended as a sort of Bill Gates clone, albeit a shabby one. To some degree, he's irritating.

*I can buy a computer tapping into Scully?s computer through the phone line, but how the heck does it turn on her monitor through the phone line?

*And, for all his flaws, Jerry?s death is truly touching and tragic.

*And the second appearance of Jerry Hardin as Deep Throat!

*Yet another reason I can?t hate this episode as much as some do. For all its flaws, it did establish the character of Deep Throat as more than a one shot.

*Although this does imply that Mulder and Deep Throat have been in contact between his first appearance and this one, given that Deep Throat refers to an ?agreement? between the two of them, something that we aren?t privy too.

*A nice conversation between Wilzcek and Mulder about the responsibilities of science: ?After Hiroshima, Oppenheimer spent the rest of his life wishing he?d never glimpsed an atom.? ?Oppenheimer loved the work. His mistake was in sharing it with an immoral government.?

*Uh, I don?t get this: you put a guy in prison for using a computer system to kill two people and then allow him access to a laptop? Is this not DEFEATING THE PURPOSE?!

*Okay, mr. Supersmart computer, when accessing someone?s computer, don?t call and wake them up first.

*And it?s Die Hard only with a computer as the villain instead of Alan Rickman. Which makes you realize one thing. Die Hard would have sucked with a computer as the villain.

*Suffice it to say that the computer asks ?Why, Brad?? as it dies. Why? Because 2001 was a good movie and the writers were on a deadline this week, would be my guess.

*If you guessed that the computer wakes back up at the end, give yourself a cookie and the writer of this episode a sharp slap upside the head.

*On the whole, a boring villain and a predictable story line. But it has some slight redemption at the hands of Mulder?s old partner, Jerry, and Mulder?s new partner, Jerry Hardin, as Deep Throat.

* ½ out of **** stars

 

I think you're being kind w/ giving Ghost in the Machine 1 1/2 stars. That is the most forgettable episode I think that they ever produced for the series.

Eve is a classic episode. I always wish they'd done a followup so we could've found out, not only what happened to the girls but they could've instead found some Adams around.

We weren't born, we were created. We have no parents. Excellent creepy kid episode. The only one to come close is Chinga (I think was the title) with the Stephen King episode w/ the autistic girl and her possessed doll...one of my favorite episodes ever.

 

re: a follow up to Eve. Funnily enough I found myself thinking exactly that as I pondered the episode last night. In the show's last season they were struggling somewhat to fill their quota of episodes, and a return to teh Eve's would've been a good move - harking back to the show's glory years (and I do believe they started from the Pilot itself). I'm sure Harriet Harris would've come back, and the girls would've been still fine for the job. Missed opportunity, really.

 

You know they could do a movie with them all in it....

 

Interesting...

 

Isn't there a proposition for a second X-Files movie on the table?

 

I don't think so. There's lots of rumours about when the film might finally lumber into production... but I don't know anythin about what it might be about. Personally, I'm hoping for a 'standalone' tale rather than another attempt to untangle the show's Mythology.

 

1 X 07 Ice

A research team in the arctic disappears after breaking a drilling record. Mulder and Scully investigate with a team of scientists.

*The guys at Ten-Thirteen were not into the ?Great obscure titles for every episode? mindset just yet . . .
*An intense and horrific teaser here . . .

*Well, here?s a new quirk. The geologist listens to old football games on his headphones. Are there really people who do this? I suppose the people who do would call me crazy for watching movies more than once . . .

*One reason this is one of my favorites: Xander Berkeley, a truly fine character actor, gives great support. He?s probably most widely known for his brief, but well done turn as the foster father of John Conner in Terminator 2, the one who gets skewered through his, er, milk carton. Of late, he?s been doing the best work of his entire career on 24 as the career minded and occasionally duplicitous George Mason, sometime ally and sometime thorn in the side of Jack Bauer. Horror buffs, as well, may remember him as the caddish yet sympathetic husband of Virginia Madsen?s tormented character in the Clive Barker masterpiece, Candy Man. Great to see him here. Love that guy!

*It?s always interesting to see people, years before they really hit the big time. Felicity Huffman is also a supporting player here, some time before she hit the big time on Desperate Housewives, the current big television rave. And, having only seen one episode of that show, I think I can still argue that she is significantly more desperate here . . .

*First ?Something Under the Skin Moving and Making the Skin Ripple in a Creepy Fashion!? Talk about a milestone for the series.

*These kind of episodes are just all about the conflict.

*Great lines: Mulder: (upon being told they will all have to give a stool sample) Er, anyone got the Sunday sports section?

*Another great line: Bear (Being told he will have to give a stool sample) I ain?t droppin? my cargo for nobody!

*A truly cringe inducing scene as Hodge cuts into Bear?s neck to remove the worm . . . gah, it seems to go on forever.

*And at this point, the episode moves into a segment that owes more than a little to Carpenter?s Thing and the original story Who Goes There?

*I like the bit where everyone has to strip to be examined. As he prepares to disrobe, Mulder remarks, ?May I just remind everyone: we ARE in the Arctic.?

*A nice montage of each of the players trying to relax in their own way.

*And a great moment when Mulder has a stand off with all the others. Very viscerally shot with a real feeling of claustrophobia and horror.

*Scully unloads her guns by ejecting the clips, but she doesn?t eject the rounds in the chamber. It?s not referenced, but I choose to believe she did this one purpose.

*I love the matter of fact way that Hodge throws out a curveball to discredit Scully?s theory by saying that individuals within a species don?t kill each other because they have to procreate. And then Da Silva, not missing a beat, snaps, ?Worms are hermaphoriditic.? She seems to be resisting the urge to add, ?Idiot? on the end.

*And the finest performance in this episode has to come from that dog who looks incredibly pitiful as the worms battle it out for mastery of his brain.

*And a horrifying moment when Hodge and Da Silva contrive to get a worm into Mulder?s ear, believing they?ll help him, when in fact, since he isn?t infected, it?ll just, er, drive him insane.

*And a nice wrap up.

*All in all, this is an incredibly strong episode. It?s claustrophobic and paranoiac, owing a huge debt to John Carpenter?s Thing and the original short story, Who Goes There. The cast is pitch perfect and Scully and Mulder are forced to confront each other over their weapons. It?s the first time the two draw on each other. It won?t be the last.

*** ½ out of **** stars.

 

I love this episode, it's one of the first times we really see Mulder and Scully butting heads, yet trusting each other deeply under VERY stressful circumstances.

Mulder's Arctic comment always makes me laugh

I'm always happy that the dog makes it out OK in the end of this episode

 

1 X 08 Space

When sabotage endangers a shuttle mission, Mulder and Scully investigate the top branches of NASA.

*I have a relative who works at NASA. Just thought I?d say.

*Jeez, check out the seventies television reporter! HAHAHAHAAHAHA!

*And this show has given us some stupid names, but, for my money, none stupider than our main character here, Colonel Marcus Aurelius Belt. Seriouly, read that out loud. Without laughing.

*This is a fairly creepy intro though with the face from the photographs of Mars appearing on Belt?s ceiling. I think we?ve all lain awake, staring at the ceiling. The idea that a face might suddenly appear is a pretty darn chilling one actually.

*Hmm, lot of stock footage in this one. The vaults at NASA must have gone to the bargain bins.

*Can I just say I find Mulder?s little hero worship thing with astronauts to be a little out of character?

*It?s hilarious the way that, no matter how the scene starts, by the end, Belt will be in full speechifying mode. ?And God willing, we?ll see that in about an hour!!?

*Okay, this is not on the level of Apollo 13 or anything.

*It?s okay, don?t try to move. Gee, Scully, maybe you should have said something before Mulder grabbed the injured lady by her head and pulled her out of the car.

*Okay, you probably shouldn?t be throwing your coats on those consoles like that.

*Let?s make time, this is boring even talking about.

*I do give this episodes props for actually saying explicitly that Colonel Belt sabotaged the Challenger. That?s nervy, man. Rather than taking the easy way out and just intimating it, they explicitly state it. That?s gutsy.

*Of course, astronauts home safe . . . Belt redeems himself, the alien spirit dies. Blah. Blah. Blah.

*All in all, a quite blasé and passionless exercise. * ½ out of **** stars.

 

i remember Space as the first episode of x-files i watched. i suppose it wasn't bad enough that i never watched the show again, so i can at least give it that!

 

Nicely put.

 

I'd give Space a 1 1/2 stars, at least the FX in the episode were alright, it was better than Ghost in the Machine but that's not saying much