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Revisiting The X Files Episode 7 - My Favourite Episodes with Jessica · Death by Multimedia

0:21
Music. Good day everyone, and thanks
0:50
for coming back for revisiting The X-Files where each episode
0:56
I'll be working my way through the 11 series, 2 movies, and
1:00
several books that make up The X-Files.
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And today is a special episode. It's the first episode where I'm
1:08
going to be joined by a special guest.
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And at the end of each season of The X-Files, I'm hoping to be
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able to do an interview or a conversation with a different
1:21
person each time and talk about their favorite episodes of The
1:25
X-Files and also what drew them into The X-Files as of
1:29
initially. And today, I'm going to be
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joined by my eldest daughter, Jessica.
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So she's going to sit here with me and we're going to talk about
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her favorite episodes and how she got into The X-Files.
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I'm sure that'll be a great surprise to you when you find
1:45
out how that occurred and in general, just enjoy our love of
1:50
the series. So I hope you really enjoy this.
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Jessica is always fun to talk with.
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I have to say that I guess because she's my daughter, but I
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hope that you enjoy our conversation as well.
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So here we go, the first of my favorite episodes.
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Episode of Revisiting The X-Files.
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Alright, thank you, Bill for that wonderful intro.
2:16
That was wonderful to hear. And so yes, today we are doing
2:20
our first ever my favorite episodes episode, I guess of The
2:27
X-Files. And the hope is that we'll do
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this at the end of every season. And for this very special
2:35
occasion, we have brought brought aboard a very special
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person, Jessica. Jessica, thank you for agreeing
2:43
to being on today's episode of my favorite X-Files episodes.
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Oh. Tis I?
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I'm here and I'm ready to roll. Here in person in the metal
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cabin. Isn't it crazy?
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The greatest recording studio on the face of the planet.
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I'd say it's pretty good. So we're just going to talk
3:04
about the show. I'm going to ask you a few
3:06
questions and hopefully everybody out there will be
3:09
interested in it all. Well, I hope there's some
3:11
listeners. We have a lot to say.
3:13
Well, I think we're up to about 10 regulars.
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So there you go. That's that's about as good as I
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get. Hey, guys.
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So, Jess, why don't you tell everybody how you discovered and
3:26
how you first began watching The X-Files?
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I think it was actually because of a system that we'd put in
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place for a previous podcast we'd done where we were watching
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movies every week and we would come and talk about our favorite
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TV shows. But then I think you started
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showing me some of your favorite TV shows as well.
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And so one of them was like The Twilight Zone and you realized I
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liked a lot of sci-fi stuff and you went great.
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This is one that will enjoy this series.
3:59
Here's The X-Files. I think I tried Star Trek with
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you and that didn't really take. Yeah.
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And I tried different versions of * treks.
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At the time, I think Star Trek Discovery had just started.
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And I really loved the first two series of Star Trek Discovery.
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And we tried Quantum Leap. I'm not sure if that really ever
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took with you either. There was some interest but I
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don't remember getting crazy into it.
4:24
Yep. So we went through a few
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different science Fish was that you said the Twilight Zone?
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I picked out sort of good episodes from the the original
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series of the Twilight Zone and yes.
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And then eventually we got to The X-Files and that became more
4:40
of an interest where you actually said can we start
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watching The X-Files from the start, which is what we then
4:46
started to do. And what a great first season it
4:49
is. I think only one of my episodes
4:53
today comes from the first season, but if it wasn't for the
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first, like the pilot episode for example, just the the
5:02
characterizations that were immediately there in the main
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characters, that didn't change for the whole season.
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They had their thing and they kept with it and they stuck with
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it. And every interesting thing that
5:13
could have happened, possible abductions in the first episode,
5:17
they see flying spacecraft in the first episode.
5:20
You get all the weird things straight away.
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And it was very obvious what that show is about, and it
5:27
wanted to be wacky, so I was in. Which is good.
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So that leads us into, I guess firstly, you may have already
5:39
answered this, but you can go again.
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But it's basically it's what drew you into the show.
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What? What?
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What made you want to watch more of this once you've started
5:47
watching it? I think the passion from both
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sides of the argument on whether, first of all, whether
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there was really alien life out there, the two main characters
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disagreeing on that a lot, or even just the solution to a
6:04
problem, like a crime has happened.
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And one of the characters, Scully, is like, huh, I I think
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there's a completely reasonable medical process that's happened
6:14
here and I could figure that out.
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Mulder's like, Nah, aliens did it actually.
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Or maybe someone has a superhuman ability to be able to
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control people with their mind and that's how all this
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happened. And the passion coming from both
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sides of the argument. They both genuinely think
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they're right every single episode and you just don't know
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which one of them will be or if either of them will be.
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That is all very true. So once you got into it and, and
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we speak of the main characters of Mulder and Scully say, well,
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I suppose what we should, I should ask you first is, is have
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you watched all the way through all 11 series or have you only
6:58
gotten to a certain point so far?
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I think the furthest I've gotten is season 7 or 8, and the
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furthest I've gotten is With You, but my partner JoJo and I
7:09
are fast approaching season 6 again, so I've almost seen half
7:17
of The X-Files twice. Yeah, yeah.
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I think we got to about halfway through series 7 before you
7:23
moved out. So, yeah.
7:25
OK. So I mean, I mean, that's a fair
7:27
whack. And without too many spoiler
7:30
alerts going forward after the point that we've seen up to,
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there's some changes that occur and changes that I actually
7:38
really like that some other people don't enjoy it all.
7:42
But certainly going back to the initial question, then the the
7:48
characters of of Mulder and Scully, how, how have you seen
7:53
the way that they've been developed through the series
7:56
that you've seen in regards to their professional relationship,
8:03
their, their personal relationship and the way that
8:07
they see things in the world of The X-Files?
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I'd say they both take their jobs pretty seriously.
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I think Molda less so. At the beginning, he's sort of
8:18
hit a wall and has realized that people make fun of him a lot and
8:21
they don't take his work very seriously.
8:25
I think in the first episode he actually thinks that Scully's
8:28
come to spy on him and just Yeah, doesn't have trust for
8:32
anybody. But as they're working
8:35
relationship grows closer, as they get more comfortable with
8:38
each other, he starts to take his job as seriously as Scully
8:41
takes hers. And so it's fun watching the
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characters kind of grow into each other.
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Even though they're arguing back and forth every single episode,
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They do end up learning a lot from each other in that
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professional sense. They they both take what they do
9:00
with great pride. And how do you think that the
9:04
actors portray the roles and and how do you think they grew into
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those roles as I went through obviously David Duchovny playing
9:12
Mulder and Jillian Anthes and playing Scully.
9:15
How do you think that they grew with the roles as as we move
9:18
through the X4 series? Well, you can tell that they
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genuinely connect with these characters and they genuinely
9:24
love the characters that they're playing.
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And you know, maybe they relate to them or maybe they don't.
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I don't, I don't really know. I haven't looked into a lot of
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what they've said about their characters, but just it looks
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like they have so much fun with each other, the actors on set,
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and it really comes through in the play arguments that they
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have with each other in character.
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And I'm sure that that's probably LED into their real
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personal lives. They've probably had Mulder and
9:54
Scully moments on or offset because they just seem to have
9:59
that crazy close chemistry that you can only get with certain
10:03
people. It seems like they're very
10:06
special to each other. Whether it's just the characters
10:08
or whether it's personal as well, I don't know, but it seems
10:11
like super strong I I don't think that you could leave a set
10:17
like that with characters interacting the way they do
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without being at least friendly. I think that's true.
10:24
And, and especially when we had the the two most recent series
10:28
that came out, which is now about 10 years ago, David
10:33
Duchovny always said he would always do it as long as Gillian
10:36
Anderson wanted to do it. And so Gillian Anderson more or
10:39
less said the same thing. And then they reached the end of
10:42
season 11 and she more or less said, I think I'm done.
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But she, you know, was happy for the show to go on.
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And I think David Duchovny just said if Gillian's not doing it,
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I'm not doing it. Yeah, that's me.
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That's my work bestie that doesn't want to do it anymore.
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Yeah, I'm out too. Yeah.
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So that's, I mean, that's really good.
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So we've we watched the first movie together because that came
11:08
at the end of season 5 and went into season 6.
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And apparently, as we'll get to in my episodes, season 5 was
11:16
going to be the last series. That's as far as I thought it
11:19
would go. But because it just was doing so
11:20
well, it just kept going. So they did the movie, which was
11:24
going to be the last thing more or less.
11:26
And then we've kept going. So you wouldn't have seen the
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second movie. Not yet, no.
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OK. And you obviously haven't seen
11:34
any series beyond that and you wouldn't have read any of the
11:36
books. I have not, I have not touched
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the book. They are fantastic.
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I'm really looking forward to doing the episodes on some of
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these books because I've got half a dozen of them.
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I think there weren't that many that were actually written like
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novel. There were novelisations written
11:51
about the episodes which I wasn't interested in, but these
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are standalone novels that were written by a couple of different
11:58
writers that are just fantastic, could have been episodes
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themselves and should have been. But anyway, now he's talking
12:03
about that because you haven't read them, so that's fine and we
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will get to those. So my next question I guess is
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do you have a preference in regards to the episodes of the
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alien mythology or for the monster of the week episodes or
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are you happy to watch both equally?
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I just love I'm big on like overarching story episodes.
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I'm always into like the heavy law of a series and all of the
12:33
like really big plot points I have to study for a long time.
12:36
I think I've watched the episode in season 2 where Scully gets
12:41
abducted like 10 times over just in my spare time because I need
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to know every detail of that episode for some reason.
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And you have also watched the entire series of Lost, yes?
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I have now. I have watched the entire series
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of Lost now. And that is something to behold,
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to be able to actually get through all of that and work out
13:02
what is actually going on in that series.
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I think I would have dropped out halfway through like everyone
13:08
else if I didn't have someone who I was watching it with.
13:10
But I did get to the end and it was interesting pretty much the
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whole way through. So more the alien mythology arc
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because it's the continuing story rather than just the
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single one off stories. Yeah, but that doesn't take away
13:25
from how good some of the Monster of the Week episodes
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are. Like some of them I think are in
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my favourites list. And I mean, there are some
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characters that that come back from more than one episode,
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which also makes for interesting viewing.
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Which leads me to my next question.
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Favorite characters from The X-Files that you've seen?
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Like who? Who is who are the characters
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that you enjoy seeing? I mean, they may only have been
13:52
in a one off episode or they may come back every so often, but
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who are your favorite characters?
13:57
The. First guy I think of is the like
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main subjective squeeze because who the hell is he?
14:05
Where did he come from? How long has he lived for?
14:07
Eugene Toombs. Oh my God, who is this man?
14:10
What's going on? I need to know every detail.
14:13
I need a movie about this one character because I I need to
14:17
know if he's come from space or if he's just part of the earth
14:20
and has lived here for eternity. Like Highlander style or
14:24
something. I don't know.
14:26
I just don't know and I need to desperately.
14:28
He's the first thing. He's the first character I think
14:31
of other than Mulder and Scully. But then a close I'd, I'd say a
14:35
close second is Skinner, obviously, because he comes up
14:39
so much in the main arc and is such an important character, but
14:43
you never really know what side he's on.
14:45
You want to believe that he's with us and that he's with the
14:48
cause of Mulder and Scully and whatever they're doing, because
14:52
sometimes he trusts them and then other times it's like, what
14:55
are you doing? Where did you get this idea
14:59
from? Oh, that's right, you're working
15:00
with the bad guys. He is his character is is
15:05
fabulous the way that he expands as they go through the series
15:10
and wonderfully played, I think by Mitch Poleggi.
15:13
He's. Fantastic.
15:15
And it's. I mean, there are a number of
15:19
characters that are brought in in Series 1, which I've just
15:24
spoken on last week's episode in my season wrap, which is more or
15:28
less saying that some incredibly important characters going
15:32
forward were brought in that you didn't know were going to appear
15:34
again. And they were then utilized
15:38
throughout the series. And, and Skinner is 1 and the
15:41
Lone Gunmen are another and the the Smoking Man, of course,
15:47
they're the main ones who who come into series one just on a
15:51
one off or or two off. And then you think, or maybe
15:54
we'll never see them again, but they become very important down
15:57
the track. So yeah.
16:00
And that's that's the great thing about the whole series.
16:04
So you've chosen your favorite episodes for me.
16:09
Now we know that there won't be any beyond season 7, which you
16:15
know what? I, I, I'm really looking forward
16:18
to these episodes because I'm wondering if anyone will have
16:22
any favorite episodes beyond season 7 because it's so
16:28
different and, and changes a fair bit.
16:32
So you gave me 5, but then we we settled on 6.
16:37
Yes. Which is good.
16:40
And they're all very good, very important episodes.
16:46
And so the first one that I'd like you to tell me about is
16:50
from Season 1. It's episode 8, and it's titled
16:53
Ice. So ice, of course, is where
16:59
Mulder and Scully go up to Alaska to the outpost.
17:05
Tell me why that's one of your favorite episodes.
17:09
It just reminds me so much of The Thing, which is one of my
17:12
favorite movies ever, and it makes me giggle how like they
17:17
probably had a little bit of that in mind while they were
17:22
filming it, and we're probably on set giggling about it going,
17:25
oh, this is so fun. We're kind of making this movie
17:28
right now. Who's it going to be?
17:30
Whodunit. It is kind of like a whodunit as
17:33
well, which is always fun. But yeah, you just, they don't
17:38
know what they're in for. And then suddenly everyone's
17:42
stuck there and they can't do anything.
17:44
And it's quite tense. And you don't get a lot of
17:46
X-Files where it gets that tense where you can feel it in the air
17:53
that something's going to go wrong any second and you don't
17:56
really know what's coming next. It's a little bit scary.
18:00
Exactly right there are. I mean, even just going back
18:04
through the first series again now, there's only several
18:09
episodes where I actually felt tense about what was about to
18:13
happen, even though I knew what was about to happen and trying
18:18
to remember the first time I saw it.
18:19
And, and, and Ice is definitely one of those because as you say,
18:23
who's infected, who's going to try and knock off the next
18:27
person you know, and. Are we going to lose a main
18:29
character here? And it's so beautifully acted
18:33
and and so well written, firstly and directed and but the
18:39
interaction between the characters there is just
18:41
fabulous. Even though we've only met like
18:44
most of the characters that are part of that scene, like
18:50
especially when you figure out who it is, who's infected it,
18:56
it's all, I don't know it. It's feels so surprising, even
19:01
though it really shouldn't be. It's, it's like, as you say,
19:04
it's like, it's, it's almost like because it's a 45 minute
19:07
episode, but it's like watching like an hour 45 movie where you
19:11
just meet the characters at the start and yet you get so
19:14
involved with them straight away.
19:16
And then something happens and you're saying, OK, now you're
19:20
trying to figure it out the same way that they're trying to
19:22
figure it out. And that's the great thing about
19:23
it because it is, it's a whodunit and there's no Sherlock
19:26
Holmes there to sort of solve the mystery for you.
19:28
They're. On your own.
19:29
They're on their own and they're trying to work it out
19:31
themselves. And there's that great scene
19:32
between Scully and Molla where Molla more or less says you
19:37
should, you should be trusting me, Scully.
19:39
And Scully's just saying you're acting irrationally.
19:41
And that really improves their relationship well and showcases
19:46
another side of their relationship at that point that
19:49
was still building, of course, because it is only episode 8.
19:52
I think it shows in terms of the characters, relationships that
19:55
they're not going to. Can I swear in your podcast,
19:58
Dad? You can, because I don't care.
19:59
Fantastic. They're not going to bullshit
20:02
each other ever. If one of them thinks that
20:04
something's wrong, they're not going to hide that from the
20:07
other. And I think that.
20:09
Is a really important part of their relationship going
20:12
forward. Yeah, yeah.
20:15
OK. Well, that is a great episode.
20:17
And yes, I can't say much more on that because I've said it all
20:20
in whatever episode I did already.
20:22
So that was terrific. So your second episode, I'm
20:26
really looking forward to hearing what you've got to say
20:28
about this. This is from series 2 and it's
20:32
episode 6 and it's titled Ascension.
20:36
And this is the one where Scully does get abducted.
20:41
So what makes this episode one of your favourites?
20:45
Well, it's the first time that Mulder's really had to deal with
20:49
anything without having Scully to come back and question him.
20:53
And I feel like there's some points in that episode where
20:56
he's kind of waiting for that to happen, for someone to question
20:59
what's going on because he's just gotten used to having
21:02
someone there who's, you know, going to reel him in if he needs
21:06
it. But he's also going to give him
21:08
the right ideas and the right facts when he needs them.
21:11
And he doesn't have that there anymore.
21:16
And so he kind of goes a little bit insane and makes some
21:21
mistakes. And it all happens in two
21:24
episodes. Like it it's, it's a very
21:28
interesting part of Mulder's character, seeing how he's
21:30
become used to Scully so quickly and that everything kind of
21:34
starts falling apart around him as she's not there anymore.
21:40
Like you say, he made mistakes because in the previous episode,
21:43
which is titled Dwayne Barry, if I remember correctly, Dwayne
21:47
Barry, you know, he's taking people hostage because he
21:52
doesn't, he says he's going to be abducted again and he doesn't
21:54
want to be abducted again. And Mold is trying to raise him
21:57
with him and and he understands that he's been an abductee
22:01
before. But of course, at the end of the
22:03
episode, that's when Dwayne Barry breaks into Scully's
22:06
apartment and abducts her and say this episode is all about
22:10
trying to find Scully. And she's not really in it much
22:14
at all because we see Dwayne Barry take her up to the
22:18
mountain and the lights flash and he's jumping up and down and
22:21
saying, yes, yes, they took her instead of me.
22:25
But I love the fact in this episode we have such great
22:29
characters. So we've got Dwayne Barry, we
22:33
have Skinner, we have X, we have The Smoking Man, and we have the
22:41
great Alex Krawcheck. This is when it all started
22:44
getting serious. And all of those people together
22:48
in this same episode are are so important in making it as good
22:54
as it is. And I think that because we see
23:00
cry check being the double agent or, you know, he know he's
23:05
working for the Smoking Man and he's giving him the information
23:09
that he requires. And and Mulder finally works
23:12
that out, of course. And then we get to the end of
23:14
the episode and he says it was cry check, he did all this.
23:17
And then Skinner says, right, let's find him and question him.
23:21
Oh, Alex has disappeared mysteriously.
23:25
In regular X-Files fashion, you can never get to the bottom of
23:28
anything. No.
23:29
And the big thing about this episode is, of course, because
23:32
in Season 2, we've started where The X-Files has been closed.
23:37
And so the first six episodes have happened without any of
23:41
that. And at the end of this episode
23:42
is when Skinner officially reopens The X-Files and says to
23:47
mold it. We're back on.
23:49
Seems like Skinner might be on the goodies side.
23:53
That's for a little bit. And he's still, yeah.
23:55
He at that time, you're not really sure still, But the fact
24:00
that he's opened The X-Files again, which tumult at the time
24:04
is not much help because Scully's gone and he doesn't
24:09
know if she's ever coming back. And so that's the great tension
24:13
at the end of that episode as well.
24:15
So it's, it really is all done very well.
24:18
Everything builds up really nicely and then you've got the
24:21
goodies and the baddies. Of course, Dwayne Barry, of
24:24
course, after Alex has been talking to him, suddenly chokes
24:27
up and dies. And so the whole mystery side of
24:31
it, the whole alien mythology arc, very much a part of of this
24:36
episode. It feels like if you weren't in,
24:41
like, on Mulder's side, as the audience, if you didn't kind of
24:45
believe that some of what he was saying was true by that episode,
24:48
you would. Yeah.
24:49
And you're supposed to after that.
24:52
Yes. And of course, the other thing
24:54
is on the other side of things where we're talking about
24:56
production and whatever is that this had been built up to
25:00
because Gillian Anderson actually gave birth at this time
25:03
and she'd fallen pregnant halfway through Series 1.
25:06
And they always knew that at some stage she was going to be
25:08
need to be not on screen. And so she appeared in two very
25:13
short scenes in this episode and then didn't appear in the next
25:16
episode at all. And it was all around her
25:19
pregnancy and giving birth to her daughter.
25:22
So and then she was suddenly back.
25:24
Woo Hoo. And yes, anyway, yeah, that that
25:28
is a great episode, I have to say.
25:30
And and as you say it, it builds everything up when it comes to
25:34
that alien mythology arc, that it's where everything really
25:38
starts to really move along in that regard.
25:41
Absolutely. It's when I've got hooked.
25:44
I think fully fully hooked on the series was that episode.
25:48
So now we're coming to your third episode, which is also
25:52
from Season 2. This was episode 20, and this
25:57
was called Humbug and it was written by Darren Morgan.
26:02
Now there is someone else I know who will listen to this episode
26:05
who will be ecstatic that you've chosen this episode because he's
26:09
very much a Darren Morgan aficionado in the episodes that
26:14
he wrote. And Darren Morgan actually first
26:19
appeared in the series as the Flukeman.
26:20
So remember in that episode of the Flukeman, he dressed up in
26:23
that costume because it was written by his, I think it's his
26:27
brother who's the the other Morgan who writes anyway.
26:32
And then he's come on and he's written this one and Jeff over
26:36
there in Florida, who will definitely be listening.
26:40
He'll be very happy that you've chosen this episode because he's
26:44
already nailed me down to say that at some stage he wants to
26:47
come on and talk about all of the Darren Morgan episodes.
26:50
I can't wait to hear about that episode.
26:51
Which will be a bit later on, because we want to get closer to
26:53
where those episodes really start to come into it.
26:56
But why don't you tell us all about Humbug?
26:58
I honestly just remember all of these stills from that episode.
27:05
Like, I could not tell you a lot about what the story is, but I
27:10
can just I I do remember this episode a lot because of the
27:14
stills that the directors obviously seen, like in a dream
27:20
or something. I had had a vision and gone.
27:22
That would be the funniest thing I could make that character do
27:26
right now. It's.
27:27
It's lovely how it's it's actually the Jim Rose Circus,
27:30
which was a real thing in those days, who actually appear in
27:33
this episode. And as you say, we're living in
27:36
the town with all the widows. Well, the Freak Show X.
27:41
We're just doing all these cool, creative camera shots to try and
27:45
make everything more dramatic. And I see all of that all the
27:49
time thinking about The X-Files. This is the episode that I go.
27:53
That direction was great. It is.
27:56
And the great thing about the script, which is what Darren
28:00
Morgan did so well, was the infusion of humour into it.
28:03
Yes, most definitely. You know, there's not always a
28:07
lot of humour. There's, you know, there, there
28:09
are remarks back and forth occasionally through episodes.
28:11
But when it came to actually infusing humour into the scripts
28:15
and the story, Darren Morgan was, well, I hesitate to say
28:19
genius, but he was just fantastic at it.
28:21
And that was what made his scripts so wonderful.
28:26
And it makes this so terrific. Like even just the conclusion,
28:30
you know, I mean, we've got, I can't remember his name.
28:33
What was his name? Who had the conjoined twin?
28:37
Oh yes. Not Marty and Morty.
28:40
It's something like that, though.
28:41
I'll have to look it up now because that's the kind of thing
28:44
I've got to do. Let's see.
28:47
But anyway, remember that, you know?
28:48
So he was going out and his person, who was his main
28:54
conjoined twin part, So it was Leonard.
28:58
That's right. So his conjoined twin was
28:59
Leonard. And so Larry is the main person,
29:06
main body and Leonard is the little conjoined twin is going
29:11
out and seeking out things. But he's trying.
29:13
He's people are dying because he's actually trying to find a
29:17
new host because Larry's dying. And that's how Lanny says that,
29:27
oh, he's just looking for a new host because I'm dying whatever
29:29
he was dying of, which is funny in itself.
29:33
Fact he's killing people is is not right.
29:35
But, you know, it's a funny way to go about it.
29:38
And then the beautiful part of the end when the enigma more or
29:42
less says, doesn't say anything for the whole episode and they
29:48
can't find. Yeah.
29:49
He's only got the one line, doesn't.
29:50
He Yeah, at the end there, it must have been something I ate
29:53
that's. It and Scully's like.
29:56
And they the look that Mulder and Scully give each other.
30:00
At the end of it, they realize exactly what's happened.
30:03
Oh damn. It's just beautiful.
30:05
Yeah. I, I, it's like you say, it's,
30:08
it's very artistic. Isn't the word what I'm looking
30:12
for? But it has that way of being
30:15
filmed. Doesn't.
30:16
It it's like they've like, it's like the writer and the director
30:19
got together and had an incredible dinner and had some
30:22
beers and went, we're going to have the best time tomorrow.
30:27
Yeah, I guess you're probably right.
30:28
That's exactly right there. So that's, yeah, that's always
30:31
been a really a really interesting episode.
30:35
It's honestly I wouldn't have thought that someone would
30:38
choose it as one of their favourites.
30:40
I just think it's. Great.
30:41
And I think that, and that's the great thing about this, because
30:44
everyone has their own favourites for their own
30:45
reasons, and that I think that is a very individualistic
30:49
choice. I thank you.
30:52
So let's go on to your next choice, which is also from
30:57
Season 2. I love season.
31:00
Two and it's episode 25, which is the final episode of Season
31:05
2. Anasazi, tell us all about why
31:10
this is one of your favorite episodes.
31:12
It's kind of a similar reason as to why the episode where Scully
31:19
was abducted was so interesting to me, because this is 1 where
31:23
we don't particularly have communication between the two
31:26
main characters. We kind of know where Mulder is,
31:29
but Scully doesn't all of the time.
31:32
And then when she does, she's not allowed to know or she could
31:36
lose her job or get prosecuted. Because this is all happening as
31:42
sort of like a flashback. You start with her in a
31:46
courtroom going to testify about something to do with the FBI and
31:51
her job, and Mulda's gone missing.
31:53
And then you flashback and you find out what's happening.
31:56
But they have this terrible habit of always losing cell
32:02
service or breaking their phone right when something really
32:05
important's happening. And so neither of them ever have
32:08
the full picture. And then Mulda goes missing.
32:11
And so just not having the full picture at the beginning,
32:16
knowing that Scully's job is in jeopardy and seeing all of the
32:19
trouble she's going to to try and get any information out of
32:22
him, trying to find him. And then at the end, knowing
32:26
that she had all the information for a good lot of the time and
32:31
she was just stalling. I think that ties it together in
32:36
in a, in a pretty cool way. It feels like a really tight
32:39
knit episode. It feels like there's nothing
32:41
left unsaid, which is not often that that happens in an X-Files
32:45
episode. I think it's important that
32:47
Scully got to do some stuff by herself and that there was some
32:51
mystery even for the audience, even though you thought you knew
32:55
what was going on. I, I, yeah, I just think all
32:58
round it, it's a five star episode for me.
33:01
And it is. And for all of the reasons that
33:05
you said there, it was really well thought out.
33:07
Obviously, this is a Chris Carter special.
33:11
David Duchovny also was involved in the the writing of this
33:14
episode. So they had the idea of how to
33:19
move this story forward, move the alien mythology arc story
33:24
forward. And for me, which I'll be
33:29
talking about on my episodes very soon, this was a major part
33:34
because as you say, season 2 is just fantastic.
33:37
And going back and watching season 1 now, I just thought to
33:42
myself, well, this is fantastic. And then I know that I'm going
33:45
to watch season 2 and remember all the great times I had
33:47
watching this the first time. And the the thing about this was
33:54
so this was the final episode of season 2.
33:56
So this aired in Australia. I think it was probably in about
34:00
November and the new series wasn't going to start until
34:06
March the next year. So unlike in this day and age
34:11
where everything seems to move so quickly, we had to wait four
34:15
months. So Anastasi finished and
34:19
Mulder's in the the train thing and they were setting fire to it
34:22
was with all the old, with all the aliens bodies and that was
34:28
it. And we thought, this is
34:30
ridiculous. I can't believe we've got to
34:32
wait whatever it was, because in America they were already
34:36
starting airing season 3. That's.
34:38
Not. Fair because in those days
34:39
Australia, because they don't have ratings period over the
34:44
holiday period. So in America their TV series
34:49
seasons go from like about September through to May,
34:53
whereas in Australia it was from March through to November.
34:56
So they were starting season 3 in America.
35:00
So what they actually did is that at the start of December,
35:05
just in time for Christmas, they put out a video, VHS video of
35:11
Anasazi. The last episode and then the
35:14
1st 2 episodes of the next season, which was those 3
35:18
episodes all go together and it sold billions of copies in
35:24
Australia. So it went from Anasazi and then
35:27
of course the 1st 2 episodes of season 3, which are the blessing
35:30
why? And paper clip.
35:32
And I bought, I bought it for Christmas.
35:35
I had to buy it. I've still got it somewhere,
35:37
probably got it behind me here. I'm not surprised in the slack.
35:40
And, you know, because we couldn't wait, we couldn't wait
35:43
to see what actually happens. You know, not not that we didn't
35:46
think Mullah was going to die, but we wanted to know, oh,
35:48
what's going to happen now when they find this out.
35:51
And that was exactly how this episode was.
35:53
It was so beautifully written and acted and presented that you
35:59
got to the end. And you said, I want more, I
36:01
want more. Oh, well, it wasn't even waiting
36:05
a week. We're waiting months, Yeah, for
36:07
this to be solved. And that was very difficult.
36:09
So yeah, that that's my greatest memories of of that episode.
36:13
But yeah, as you. Said I think you made me wait
36:16
like 2 days so. What's the next one I'm.
36:19
Sure. I think you, Yeah, Said no.
36:21
Well, you know, I had to wait so many months.
36:25
You just have to wait so many days.
36:27
Yes, correct and yes, anyway, you're you're quite correct.
36:33
That's a great episode. It really is, and but that that
36:37
for me will always be my memory of it that it's.
36:41
I might hold it up more than maybe though I would other
36:44
episodes just for the fact that we just don't know.
36:47
Oh my God, we can't possibly wait to see the rest of.
36:50
This. Excellent.
36:53
Yeah, that's really good. And when, you know, we see, you
36:55
know, a smoking man talking to Bill Mulder, of course, and the
36:59
other things going on and back and forth, it's all, yeah, it's
37:02
a really interesting episode. One day someone should count how
37:05
many cigarettes that guy has and how many of them he doesn't
37:08
finish. No, none of them, because he
37:11
wasn't a smoker. No.
37:12
And he had, and he ended up smoking the flowery things with
37:18
no tobacco. Yeah, in the show too, because
37:20
he had to keep doing it. Absolutely got to do something.
37:24
Keep your job. Correct.
37:27
All right, we've got 2 to go. So the next episode is Another
37:32
Beauty Season 3, episode 17 entitled Pusher.
37:40
Tell us all about Pusher. Well, I remember you hyping it
37:45
up. I remember we got to it and you
37:47
went, Oh yes, So I went right, I guess I'd better lock in for
37:52
this episode. And I don't know, like the
37:58
colouring for it. For me, I remember the colouring
38:01
being quite dark and blue throughout most of it and that
38:06
just making it that much more creepy that this was possible,
38:12
that the human mind could. This is the one where the guy is
38:17
able to just talk to someone and talk them into doing something
38:21
correct. Yes, that scared the shit out of
38:25
me. I've had so many nightmares over
38:27
the years where that is the main thing that's happening and it's
38:31
terrifying. I'd never thought of that
38:34
concept before and I have not forgotten it.
38:37
It is stuck in my brain forever. And Robert Modell is another one
38:42
of these characters who appears in more than one episode, which
38:47
is which is great. And like you say, I love the
38:51
fact that this episode is is done so well that he makes it a
38:55
game like Robert Madame makes it a game with him against Fox.
39:00
That's what makes it scarier, because then Mulder's kind of
39:03
getting into it sometimes and you're like, dude, don't get
39:06
drawn in. I like you being the main
39:08
character. And it was just all done so well
39:13
that he ran the part. And then we got to the end of
39:15
the episode, of course, and it was.
39:18
And the actual solution to break that concentration to allow what
39:25
happened at the end, I thought that was genius.
39:29
And it might have been, I know it wasn't the first episode he
39:35
wrote, but it might have been the first time I thought, oh,
39:37
Vince Gilligan, this guy can write.
39:40
Because that was just sensational, something just so
39:44
simple as a crash just to break his concentration.
39:48
And then suddenly Fox was free and away we went.
39:52
So, yeah, it's such, it's so well done.
39:57
And obviously Robert Wisden plays Robert Mardell, who and he
40:03
plays the character. He's terrifying.
40:06
I don't think I'd be able. Like if I saw him in anything
40:09
else I'd go Nope, you're not getting that character today.
40:14
And it was well directed too, because I'm guessing that
40:18
between the director and the writer, they said to him, this
40:22
is how he wants you to say just speak calmly, clearly.
40:25
No, no panic, no anger, no force.
40:29
It was just when he was at the in the opening scene when he's
40:33
in the cop car and he's just talking about the Cerise blue or
40:36
whatever it is and that, oh, it's Cerise blue.
40:38
It's a lovely day. So that they didn't, when the
40:40
car came along that was that colour.
40:42
The cops just didn't see it or the driver just didn't see it
40:44
and ran straight into it. I just, that was so beautifully
40:48
done. That opens that episode that you
40:50
see OK. And then as you go through, I
40:55
mean, you don't see Fox very often matching it with someone
41:01
who's, you know, who is confident enough to think that
41:05
he can beat him. Oh, yeah.
41:07
And he's so, so confident. Fox is so confident that he can
41:12
get past this when I feel like that's just dumb luck.
41:17
If you're going to get past that on your own, you need support.
41:20
Fox, and he's not very good at asking for it, is.
41:23
He no, no, no. He likes to do things.
41:26
So yeah, terrific episode. Really well done.
41:30
And yes, that was another excellent choice, Jessica or I
41:33
must say. And so there was one more which
41:37
we discussed because you hadn't chosen it.
41:41
I've only seen it once, so I hadn't chosen it now, but I did
41:46
have a conversation with one of my teachers this week, a very
41:49
quick conversation about it so. So this is so this is season 6,
41:54
so we've jumped ahead a fair bit, but season 6 number episode
41:57
2 and the episode is called Drive.
42:00
So tell us why this is such a great episode.
42:03
Well. Bryan Cranston's in it.
42:05
And like, you know, that helps. At the time that it was filmed,
42:09
people were probably going, what the hell?
42:11
What is he doing in X-Files? Because he'd only been on
42:15
Malcolm in the Middle. Is that what he was?
42:16
How could Malcolm in the Middle's father?
42:18
Yeah, and that's it. And why would this guy be
42:20
playing an intense character in a high pressure situation in a
42:25
sci-fi show? And he what he also been in
42:28
Seinfeld as Tim Watling. Yeah, well, even more so.
42:32
Correct. And yeah, I, I don't think I'd
42:36
seen Breaking Bad at the time, but I have since then and went
42:43
back a couple days ago and watched it just like a clip of,
42:48
of Bryan Cranston in the back of the car in that episode.
42:51
And he just has it like, how could anyone not think that he
42:57
was a good, serious actor? He just has it immediately.
43:02
And then I don't think, I don't think I doubted him in that role
43:06
that entire episode. The first time I watched it, I
43:09
was very convinced that he was actually going to die if the car
43:12
slowed down. And yeah, it it's another one of
43:17
those episodes where it, like, actually feels tense.
43:20
You feel like you believe what this guy is going through.
43:24
Yeah, I agree. And interestingly, this episode
43:29
is directed by Rob Bowman and written by Vince Gilligan, who
43:32
were the same director and writer As for Pusher.
43:37
So and in the way it's a similar sort of vibe to that episode.
43:44
In this one, you've got like Foxes in the car with him and
43:50
and they're driving and, you know, the whole time Fox is more
43:54
or less thinking, Oh no, this is not true.
43:55
He's talking crap and whatever. And but then there's that point
43:59
as as you were saying earlier today, that everything changed
44:03
and he believed that, OK, this is actually the case and this is
44:07
where we're at. And so then he's got to try and
44:10
find a way to get him through to where they're going to save him.
44:17
And that's all done really well. And mixed in with that, of
44:21
course, is the fact that at this stage, The X-Files existed, but
44:29
Mulder and Scully were not a part of The X-Files.
44:32
They'd been taken over by Jeffrey Spender.
44:35
They've. Been booted off they've.
44:36
Been booted off and Jeffrey Spender and oh, I've forgotten
44:40
her name. But anyway, the other young lady
44:43
who was there, we're supposed to be doing, yeah, so I was
44:47
supposed to be doing The X-Files.
44:48
So. And but yeah, Bryan Cranston in
44:51
this role is just absolutely fantastic.
44:55
And as I said to you today, I mean, when Vince Gilligan went
45:00
away and then created Breaking Bad and he lobbied very hard for
45:07
Bryan Cranston to be in the main role and in the network said, we
45:11
don't see it. And we've got this other guy in
45:13
mind. And then Vince Gilligan made
45:15
them sit down and watch this episode.
45:17
And at the end of the episode, they said, yeah, OK, you've got
45:21
he's the right guy. He's totally got it.
45:24
I would never have doubted it. It's just he's stupendous in
45:29
this episode. I I think if I was in the car
45:32
with him, even if he wasn't actually, if that wasn't
45:36
actually happening, because I don't think I would have been
45:39
like Mulda and opened my mind to that, I would have just gone.
45:42
He's got a gun. I'm going to listen to him.
45:44
I wouldn't have thought any harder about it, you know, But
45:46
Mulda's actively fighting against the logic of this guy
45:50
seeing if he's going to break and then when he nearly passes
45:53
out in the back of the car when Mulda slows down and then he
45:57
comes to and freaks out again, like you got to speed up.
46:00
What are you doing? Like Mulder kind of accepts that
46:05
that's what's happening and goes, OK, well, I'm going to
46:07
take control of this situation now.
46:10
I'm going to figure out how to save you because I don't want
46:12
the same thing that happened to your family to happen to you.
46:15
Whereas, yeah, in that situation, I'm just going, he's
46:18
got a gun. I'm going to drive as safely and
46:20
as quickly as possible. There's nothing going to happen
46:23
if I'm going to slow down a little bit below 80 KS an hour.
46:26
What are you talking about? I just, I wouldn't be able to
46:30
open my mind to that the way that Mulder can.
46:32
And so that's like a really cool perspective to have on like a
46:37
police chase. You don't know what's going on
46:39
in the car. Could be crazy like that.
46:42
And that's true. That's very much so.
46:44
That's what Gilligan's able to do here with Mulder's character
46:49
is, as you say, he's able to say that he's because of the way he
46:55
thinks and the things that he's seen, that he is able to allow
47:00
his way of thinking to go towards his thinking.
47:04
Whereas, as you say, if it had been Scully, it's very unlikely
47:09
that she would have been thinking it's there's a medical
47:11
reason for this or there's a a scientific reason for this.
47:17
We need to slow down and get him to a hospital where he can be
47:20
still and we can operate on it. Then it would have gone
47:24
completely wrong, Yes, If we'd done any of those things, yes.
47:27
Exactly right. Yeah.
47:29
And that is, that's a terrific episode.
47:31
Yeah. And that's it.
47:33
You've chosen 6, and that's your 6.
47:35
That's me. And so many more episodes still
47:39
to be watched. And so many talk about yes.
47:43
Well, Jess, this has been a pleasure, not just because I
47:46
don't get to see you very often anymore or get to sit and run
47:49
and talk to you very often, but being able to talk about this
47:52
show that we, we did start off together with.
47:55
And that I know that eventually with your partner, you will get
47:58
to the end of. And I'm interested about the
48:03
rest of the journey because we've taken the first half of
48:06
the journey together. And I'm really looking forward
48:10
to seeing how you go about the rest of the journey because as I
48:14
said, the rest of the journey from this point on, from Season
48:17
7 onwards is a very different Rd. from what you've seen
48:22
already. Well, I've heard the legends of
48:24
Agent Doggett. Oh.
48:26
Yes. So I'm very excited to meet him,
48:29
Yes, But yeah, that won't be for a little while.
48:32
I've still got some seasons to get through before I get to that
48:34
point and some movies. I think one or two.
48:36
Before there's still another movie and so you've got series
48:40
789 from the original and then 10 and 11 from the the
48:44
Roommates, which came along later.
48:48
But books too. I mean, I'm not going to lend
48:51
you my books because they're too good, but I will.
48:54
I'll just. Come here for a month and read.
48:56
It no, no, I will eventually, when you're ready, when you,
48:59
when you've watched them all. I must prove myself before I may
49:03
read. And also what you'll also have
49:05
to watch, which I will have to lend you because you won't have
49:07
it, is the Lone Gunman series, which is also very, very
49:13
interesting. I've also heard legends of the.
49:15
Oh yes, yes, it's fabulous. Yes, some people have fixed.
49:20
And there's also, which I haven't mentioned anywhere, yet,
49:24
another series called Millennium, which is basically
49:27
it's an offshoot of The X-Files as well, which is also really
49:31
interesting. So I will get to that eventually
49:35
on this podcast and then hopefully eventually you'll get
49:37
to watch all that as well. I would love to.
49:39
Very good. Well, Jess, thank you for very
49:41
much for being a part of this. And I'm sure everyone has
49:44
enjoyed hearing your favorite episodes and your take on on The
49:49
X-Files. Well I hope so.
49:51
Haven't been on a podcast in years at this point.
49:55
We did start off our podcast a long time ago, which is still
49:59
out there for anybody who really wants to listen to that.
50:02
On this same podcast that we are talking on right now, Death by
50:05
Multimedia. If you go back to the very very
50:07
beginning of Death by Multimedia, you will find 17
50:12
episodes entitled Jezebel Death by Multimedia, which is where a
50:17
14 year old Jessica spoke with her very old father every week.
50:22
Well, you're older now. Don't call your past self very
50:25
old. I was then, I'm much older now,
50:27
and we spoke about movies and TV series and music and YouTube.
50:34
Indeed. And they are interesting,
50:39
especially this far in the future.
50:41
I don't even remember what I would have been talking about.
50:43
Probably the same music that I listen to now.
50:46
Some of it, not all of it, but yes.
50:49
Anyway, so if anyone's really interested in hearing more of
50:51
Jess when she was much younger, you can catch those episodes at
50:55
the very start of this podcast. And hopefully we will have Jess
51:00
back again one day, and we can talk more X-Files once she's
51:03
moved on down the track. Oh most definitely, I'll have to
51:06
do my homework. Very good.
51:09
Well, thank you everyone for listening to us.
51:11
I hope you've enjoyed this first wrap up of favorite episodes.
51:15
As I said, anyone who's interested in being a part of
51:20
this podcast and giving me your favorite episodes, maybe sitting
51:23
around and talking for an hour or so about that kind of thing.
51:26
You know where to catch me on the usual socials that I give at
51:29
the end of every episode, but probably won't on this one
51:32
because I don't have them in front of me.
51:34
And if not the next episode, we're into season 2 and things
51:40
start to get a little bit freaky.
51:43
No more X-Files. X-Files is closed, but somehow
51:46
the series is still going on and on.
51:50
So thank you everyone for paying attention and listening.
51:53
And until then, just remember the truth is out there.
52:23
The.