[ S1:E8 "Ice" <<< Season 1 >>> S1:E10 "Fallen Angel" ]
Mulder and Scully sit in on the launch of a space shuttle, after receiving a tip that somebody may be trying to sabotage the mission. The primary suspect is a former astronaut who is haunted by the face on Mars. The effects are a little hokey, but still fairly creepy, and though I doubt this episode makes anybody's list of top favorites (unless you're an astronaut), it still manages to reach a pretty dramatic crescendo.
Memorable quotes:
Scully: Why would somebody want to sabotage a Space Shuttle?
Mulder: Well, if you're a terrorist, there probably isn't a more potent symbol of American progress and prosperity. And if you're an opponent of big science, NASA itself represents a vast money trench that exists outside the crucible and debate of the democratic process. And of course there are those futurists who believe the Space Shuttle is a rusty old bucket that should be mothballed - a dinosaur spacecraft built in the '70s by scientists setting their sights on space in an ever declining scale.
Scully: And we thought we could rest easy with the fall of the Soviet Union.
Mulder: Not to mention certain fringe elements who accuse our government itself of space sabotage. The failure of the Hubble telescope and the Mars Observer are directly connected to a conspiracy to deny us evidence.
Scully: Evidence of what?
Mulder: Alien civilizations.
Scully: Oh, of course.
Monday, July 6, 2015
Friday, July 3, 2015
The X-Files - S1:E8 "Ice"
[ S1:E7 "Ghost in the Machine" <<< Season 1 >>> S1:E9 "Space" ]
Mulder and Scully are sent out with some scientists to investigate the mysterious demise of a research team in Alaska, who went insane after unwittingly liberating an alien parasite from a prehistoric impact crater deep under the ice. This episode is an obvious homage (I don't want to say "imitation") to John Carpenter's The Thing, complete with a pervading sense of isolation and paranoia (but minus the killer creature effects). It may only be "The Thing Lite", but considering the quality of the source material, it's pretty good for a monster-of-the-week episode (I'm not sure this alien parasite has any connection to the one we'll see later in the series). Plus, it's pretty neat if you consider it from the perspective of bringing some of the sci-fi/horror genre's greatest hits to the television screen (although that may be less of a spectacle in this day and age when we watch TV and movies all on the same screen through our streaming digital services).
Memorable quotes:
Infected Scientist: We're not who we are.
Mulder and Scully are sent out with some scientists to investigate the mysterious demise of a research team in Alaska, who went insane after unwittingly liberating an alien parasite from a prehistoric impact crater deep under the ice. This episode is an obvious homage (I don't want to say "imitation") to John Carpenter's The Thing, complete with a pervading sense of isolation and paranoia (but minus the killer creature effects). It may only be "The Thing Lite", but considering the quality of the source material, it's pretty good for a monster-of-the-week episode (I'm not sure this alien parasite has any connection to the one we'll see later in the series). Plus, it's pretty neat if you consider it from the perspective of bringing some of the sci-fi/horror genre's greatest hits to the television screen (although that may be less of a spectacle in this day and age when we watch TV and movies all on the same screen through our streaming digital services).
Memorable quotes:
Infected Scientist: We're not who we are.
The X-Files - S1:E7 "Ghost in the Machine"
[ S1:E6 "Shadows" <<< Season 1 >>> S1:E8 "Ice" ]
It's inevitable that, in this first season, before it hits its stride, The X-Files would find itself mining pop culture for science fiction themes to explore. This episode about a sentient and vindictive computer program is reminiscent of 2001: A Space Odyssey, and, obviously, the title recalls Ghost in the Shell (although the popular film adaptation of the original manga series wasn't released until 1995).
Memorable quotes:
Scully: Brad Wilczek? We're with the FBI.
Wilczek: What took you guys so long?
Wilczek: You can divide the computer science industry into two kinds of people: neat, and scruffy. Neat people like things neat. They wear nicely pressed suits and work on surface phenomena, things they can understand - market shares, and third quarter profits.
Mulder: Could someone have hacked into the system?
Wilczek: Well, not your average phone freak, that's for sure. But there's plenty of kooks out there - data travellers, electro-wizards, techno-anarchists. Anything's possible.
Wilczek: It's a puzzle, Miss Scully, and scruffy minds like me like puzzles. We enjoy walking down unpredictable avenues of thought, turning new corners. But as a general rule, scruffy minds don't commit murder.
It's inevitable that, in this first season, before it hits its stride, The X-Files would find itself mining pop culture for science fiction themes to explore. This episode about a sentient and vindictive computer program is reminiscent of 2001: A Space Odyssey, and, obviously, the title recalls Ghost in the Shell (although the popular film adaptation of the original manga series wasn't released until 1995).
Memorable quotes:
Scully: Brad Wilczek? We're with the FBI.
Wilczek: What took you guys so long?
Wilczek: You can divide the computer science industry into two kinds of people: neat, and scruffy. Neat people like things neat. They wear nicely pressed suits and work on surface phenomena, things they can understand - market shares, and third quarter profits.
Mulder: Could someone have hacked into the system?
Wilczek: Well, not your average phone freak, that's for sure. But there's plenty of kooks out there - data travellers, electro-wizards, techno-anarchists. Anything's possible.
Wilczek: It's a puzzle, Miss Scully, and scruffy minds like me like puzzles. We enjoy walking down unpredictable avenues of thought, turning new corners. But as a general rule, scruffy minds don't commit murder.
The X-Files - S1:E6 "Shadows"
[ S1:E5 "The Jersey Devil" <<< Season 1 >>> S1:E7 "Ghost in the Machine" ]
Mulder and Scully investigate a young woman who seems to be followed around by a murderous, psychokinetic force, in this episode that features overt, self-conscious references to both Carrie and Poltergeist. We're into the bulk of the season now, and it looks like we're in for a string of monster-of-the-week episodes.
Memorable quotes:
Scully: You lied to them.
Mulder: I would never lie. I willfully participated in a campaign of misinformation.
Mulder: What are you doing, Scully? You don't believe.
Scully: Mulder, there's no such thing as ghosts or psychokinesis. I'm sure there's an explanation. But I believe that she believes.
Mulder and Scully investigate a young woman who seems to be followed around by a murderous, psychokinetic force, in this episode that features overt, self-conscious references to both Carrie and Poltergeist. We're into the bulk of the season now, and it looks like we're in for a string of monster-of-the-week episodes.
Memorable quotes:
Scully: You lied to them.
Mulder: I would never lie. I willfully participated in a campaign of misinformation.
Mulder: What are you doing, Scully? You don't believe.
Scully: Mulder, there's no such thing as ghosts or psychokinesis. I'm sure there's an explanation. But I believe that she believes.
Thursday, July 2, 2015
An Analytical Observation on The X-Files
This is something that's been stewing in my head for a few days. I might have more to say about it after I rewatch a particular episode in the second season, or when I eventually get to the part late in the series where David Duchovny leaves the show. But these are my thoughts at this moment in time.
When I started this project (re-opening The X-Files), I was checking how many episodes there are in the series, when I happened to notice on the IMDb page that Gillian Anderson appears in 201 out of 202 episodes (I distinctly remember the early episode she was absent in, due to a pregnancy) [edit: actually, there are a few more throughout the series]. And I've realized that from the start of the series, the character of Dana Scully serves the role of the 'audience surrogate'. She's the skeptic who questions Mulder's crazy theories, and thus probably represents the average viewer. How many people, after all, really believe in UFOs, let alone a government conspiracy to cover them up?
To be more precise, I think that most people who watch The X-Files, who are fans of the show, those who are drawn to, and respond to, the show - the X-Philes, if you will - are of a certain type. They're probably skeptical to a point, since that's the default position of a rational mind (although I may be giving humanity too much credit here), but they're probably also the sort who, like Mulder, want to believe. And the series rewards that desire, because it presents the paranormal as incontrovertible, even in the face of (very competent!) scientific doubt.
So I was thinking about which of the two leads is more important to the show. By attendance records, and the importance for the audience to have a surrogate, it would seem that Scully is the core of The X-Files. (Remember that we are introduced to her first in the pilot, and it is through her that we meet Mulder). But it was when Mulder left the series that I stopped watching (and I know I'm not the only one). Now, not to belittle the importance of Scully's character - which received considerable development over the course of the series - but at least on a superficial level, you could put any skeptic in her place as the audience surrogate.
It is Mulder's righteous irreverence, on the other hand, and his [nearly] unwavering confidence in his own out-there theories, that makes the show so much fun to watch. I would go so far as to say that Mulder provides the personality to the series. And while the show puts Scully through a lot (listing her ordeals here would be unnecessarily spoileriffic), I never felt so invested in her struggles as I did in Mulder's roller coaster ride of a quest to find the truth.
To give voice to the obvious, I think it's probably the case that you can't truly have The X-Files without either Mulder or Scully - and one of the best aspects of the series is definitely the interplay between them. But I would say that while the character of Dana Scully adds depth to the series, it is Fox Mulder who makes the series The X-Files, and not any other, run-of-the-mill, cookie-cutter, sci-fi procedural.
But what do you think? If you had to choose between the two, which character would you say you like more? Mulder, or Scully?
When I started this project (re-opening The X-Files), I was checking how many episodes there are in the series, when I happened to notice on the IMDb page that Gillian Anderson appears in 201 out of 202 episodes (I distinctly remember the early episode she was absent in, due to a pregnancy) [edit: actually, there are a few more throughout the series]. And I've realized that from the start of the series, the character of Dana Scully serves the role of the 'audience surrogate'. She's the skeptic who questions Mulder's crazy theories, and thus probably represents the average viewer. How many people, after all, really believe in UFOs, let alone a government conspiracy to cover them up?
To be more precise, I think that most people who watch The X-Files, who are fans of the show, those who are drawn to, and respond to, the show - the X-Philes, if you will - are of a certain type. They're probably skeptical to a point, since that's the default position of a rational mind (although I may be giving humanity too much credit here), but they're probably also the sort who, like Mulder, want to believe. And the series rewards that desire, because it presents the paranormal as incontrovertible, even in the face of (very competent!) scientific doubt.
So I was thinking about which of the two leads is more important to the show. By attendance records, and the importance for the audience to have a surrogate, it would seem that Scully is the core of The X-Files. (Remember that we are introduced to her first in the pilot, and it is through her that we meet Mulder). But it was when Mulder left the series that I stopped watching (and I know I'm not the only one). Now, not to belittle the importance of Scully's character - which received considerable development over the course of the series - but at least on a superficial level, you could put any skeptic in her place as the audience surrogate.
It is Mulder's righteous irreverence, on the other hand, and his [nearly] unwavering confidence in his own out-there theories, that makes the show so much fun to watch. I would go so far as to say that Mulder provides the personality to the series. And while the show puts Scully through a lot (listing her ordeals here would be unnecessarily spoileriffic), I never felt so invested in her struggles as I did in Mulder's roller coaster ride of a quest to find the truth.
To give voice to the obvious, I think it's probably the case that you can't truly have The X-Files without either Mulder or Scully - and one of the best aspects of the series is definitely the interplay between them. But I would say that while the character of Dana Scully adds depth to the series, it is Fox Mulder who makes the series The X-Files, and not any other, run-of-the-mill, cookie-cutter, sci-fi procedural.
But what do you think? If you had to choose between the two, which character would you say you like more? Mulder, or Scully?
The X-Files - S1:E5 "The Jersey Devil"
[ S1:E4 "Conduit" <<< Season 1 >>> S1:E6 "Shadows" ]
The X-Files tackles cryptozoology in this monster-of-the-week episode, in which Mulder goes on a hunt for the east coast version of Bigfoot. Meanwhile, thinking that Mulder is too absorbed in his work, Scully takes a stab at dating, but finds the social life boring compared to the thrill of solving cases. On the subject of a romance between the two leads, there was some minor romantic tension in as early as the pilot episode, so it's not something that was just tacked on later in the series, but it will take some time to develop into anything substantial. Mulder and Scully's growing relationship (and I use that word in a holistic sense - meaning not strictly romantic, but also as friends and work partners) is a mature one; they have lots of respect for each other, but it definitely lends evidence (in the long run) to the belief that men and women can't be "just friends". On the other hand, this is first and foremost a sci-fi/horror crime/thriller series, and not a romantic drama, so there's never too much time spent on any of that lovey-dovey stuff.
Memorable quotes:
Anthropologist: It's just...highly unlikely that what you're suggesting could have survived civilization or evolution out in the woods of New Jersey.
Mulder: Highly unlikely, but not outside the realm of extreme possibility?
Anthropologist: Well, it would be an amazing discovery.
Mulder: Eight million years out of Africa, I don't think we're all that different.
Scully: Mulder, we've put men into space. We've built computers that work faster than the human mind.
Mulder: While we overpopulate the world and create new technologies to kill each other with? Maybe we're just beasts with big brains.
The X-Files tackles cryptozoology in this monster-of-the-week episode, in which Mulder goes on a hunt for the east coast version of Bigfoot. Meanwhile, thinking that Mulder is too absorbed in his work, Scully takes a stab at dating, but finds the social life boring compared to the thrill of solving cases. On the subject of a romance between the two leads, there was some minor romantic tension in as early as the pilot episode, so it's not something that was just tacked on later in the series, but it will take some time to develop into anything substantial. Mulder and Scully's growing relationship (and I use that word in a holistic sense - meaning not strictly romantic, but also as friends and work partners) is a mature one; they have lots of respect for each other, but it definitely lends evidence (in the long run) to the belief that men and women can't be "just friends". On the other hand, this is first and foremost a sci-fi/horror crime/thriller series, and not a romantic drama, so there's never too much time spent on any of that lovey-dovey stuff.
Memorable quotes:
Anthropologist: It's just...highly unlikely that what you're suggesting could have survived civilization or evolution out in the woods of New Jersey.
Mulder: Highly unlikely, but not outside the realm of extreme possibility?
Anthropologist: Well, it would be an amazing discovery.
Mulder: Eight million years out of Africa, I don't think we're all that different.
Scully: Mulder, we've put men into space. We've built computers that work faster than the human mind.
Mulder: While we overpopulate the world and create new technologies to kill each other with? Maybe we're just beasts with big brains.
Wednesday, July 1, 2015
The X-Files - S1:E4 "Conduit"
[ S1:E3 "Squeeze" <<< Season 1 >>> S1:E5 "The Jersey Devil" ]
The bureau is concerned that Mulder's personal agenda is clouding his professional judgment when he latches onto a tabloid case involving an abducted girl that resembles the childhood loss of his own sister (who is now given a name - Samantha!). We get to learn a little more about that incident and the emotional impact of her loss on Mulder, in an episode that tugs at the heartstrings, and features Mulder uttering the phrase, "I want to believe," that also appears on the UFO poster he hangs in his basement office (and that I hung on the wall in my college dorm). Of personal note is the fact that this may have been the first episode of The X-Files that ever registered on my radar. Years before I started watching the show, I remember seeing either commercials for this particular episode, or else I might have caught bits and pieces of it when it aired for the first time!
Memorable quotes:
Mulder: This is the essence of science: you ask an impertinent question, and you're on your way to a pertinent answer.
Therapist: Are you scared?
Mulder: I know I should be, but I'm not.
Therapist: Do you know why?
Mulder: Because of the voice.
Therapist: The voice?
Mulder: The voice in my head.
Therapist: What's it telling you?
Mulder: Not to be afraid. It's telling me that no harm will come to her, and that one day she'll return.
Therapist: Do you believe the voice?
Mulder: I want to believe.
The bureau is concerned that Mulder's personal agenda is clouding his professional judgment when he latches onto a tabloid case involving an abducted girl that resembles the childhood loss of his own sister (who is now given a name - Samantha!). We get to learn a little more about that incident and the emotional impact of her loss on Mulder, in an episode that tugs at the heartstrings, and features Mulder uttering the phrase, "I want to believe," that also appears on the UFO poster he hangs in his basement office (and that I hung on the wall in my college dorm). Of personal note is the fact that this may have been the first episode of The X-Files that ever registered on my radar. Years before I started watching the show, I remember seeing either commercials for this particular episode, or else I might have caught bits and pieces of it when it aired for the first time!
Memorable quotes:
Mulder: This is the essence of science: you ask an impertinent question, and you're on your way to a pertinent answer.
Therapist: Are you scared?
Mulder: I know I should be, but I'm not.
Therapist: Do you know why?
Mulder: Because of the voice.
Therapist: The voice?
Mulder: The voice in my head.
Therapist: What's it telling you?
Mulder: Not to be afraid. It's telling me that no harm will come to her, and that one day she'll return.
Therapist: Do you believe the voice?
Mulder: I want to believe.
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