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Revisiting The X Files Episode 1 · Death by Multimedia

0:22
Music. Hello everyone, and thanks for
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tuning in to today's program, which is the first in a new
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series for this podcast in which I'll be watching and dissecting
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every episode of The X-Files from Season 1, episode 1 all the
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way through to the very end. The very disappointing and non
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conclusive end as it turned out, but that is so far in the future
1:15
that we don't want to have to worry about that yet because
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we've got so much great stuff to look forward to before we get
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anywhere near those last few episodes.
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So look, to begin with, let me offer you a little background on
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how I came to be a fan of The X-Files.
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So from a very young age, I grew up watching science fiction
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shows and alien shows. I used to watch a show called
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Great Mysteries of the World on Channel 7 here in Australia on a
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Saturday afternoon that was always on after the Aussie Rules
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game had finished from 5:00 till 6:00 PM.
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And it was the USTV show called In Search Of.
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But in Australia it was retitled as Great Mysteries of the World,
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and each episode had a different unsolved mystery to talk about.
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Things, for instance, like the disappearance of the settlers
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from Roanoke Island, the supposed pirate treasure on Oak
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Island, the statues on Easter Island, the Mayans or the Mayans
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probably is a better way of pronouncing that bill.
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And of course, flying sources and alien abduction and stories
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such as those. So it was hosted by Leonard
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Nimoy and I watched it every weekend and it was fascinating
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for me. And then on Sunday afternoons in
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the same time slot, 5 till 6:00 PM, they used to show the
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original series of Star Trek, and I just loved that as well
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and became obsessed with Star Trek from that age.
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So my love of science fiction and mysteries and aliens all
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probably came from those days. Beyond that, through the 1980s I
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grew to love other shows that tied in with where The X-Files
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would eventually take us. So firstly there was The
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Twilight Zone. So the original series is
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especially good. That was on late nights on
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Thursdays on Channel 10 in Australia, Bill Collins hosted a
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weekly hour of two episodes from the original Twilight Zone
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series from I think it was 11:00 PM till midnight.
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And I would stay up every week to watch it because in those
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days it was pre video recorders for me anyway.
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And I've since bought that entire 5 Series of the original
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Twilight Zone on DVD. And actually I did a series on
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my blog on the Internet, which is still there, where I watched
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every episode over a period of 18 months.
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And this is about 10 years ago. And I did an entry on each
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episode and it was awesome. So I really enjoyed doing that
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and I would probably love to do that again but more on that
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later. So I would watch that.
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And then there was a revival series made in the mid to late
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1980s and that was really good too.
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Not as good as the original series, but it had some really
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excellent episodes. It was also my favorite ever
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science fiction series that began in 1989, which was Quantum
4:17
Leap with Scott Bakula and Dean Stockwell, and that ran for five
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series about a time traveller who leapt into other people
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through time and had a problem to fix in their lives every week
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before we could leap again. And as the tagline went, hoping
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that the next leap would be the Leap Home.
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And it's an amazing series. And if this goes well, I may
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well do podcast episodes on that as well because it was
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fantastic. I bought all of those on DVD as
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soon as DVDs were a thing, and I still have them here and I still
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watch all 5 Series whenever I can.
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Beyond that, there's also, I guess, a show like Twin Peaks
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that was just so brilliantly quirky and weird that you
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couldn't help but watch it, even if we were never going to have a
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satisfying conclusion as to what happened to Laura Palmer.
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But if anyone watched Twin Peaks at the time, you'll know exactly
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what I'm talking about. Just read really weird.
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Cole McLaughlin was just fantastic in the main role.
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Just brilliant. So add to that the start of Star
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Trek The Next Generation, when that started, all the Star Trek
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movies that went on through the 1980s, and then just other
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general science fiction movies like Alien, The Thing, Predator,
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and so many others. I guess you can probably
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understand what drew me to The X-Files when it was first
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announced that it would be coming out on our television
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sets. So obviously from the very first
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episode, The X-Files shows that this is very much like an alien
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based unexplained phenomenon based I want to believe series.
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As the tagline was eventually to say, conspiracy theories, the
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alien mythology arc, a cover up at the highest levels of
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government. I mean, what isn't to like about
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all that kind of stuff? And all of that of course piqued
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my interest from the very beginning.
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But what really drew me into The X-Files was not only the
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overreaching story of alien mythology arc of The X-Files
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show, but it was also the monster of the week episodes
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which explored every other possibility you could think of
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in regards to unexplained phenomena and and things like
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that. So throughout the entire run of
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the show, about 1/3 of the episodes eventually make up the
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alien conspiracy act that is the bedrock of the show, and the
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rest are individual cases that make up the bulk of The X-Files
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that would be funnelled to that department, you know, of the
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FBI. So some series have less than
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1/3 of episodes in this regard. Other series have more.
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It was dependent, I think more or less on the writers and the
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writers room at that point in time and how much they wanted to
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ramp up that angle of the show. The majority of these episodes
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came at the end of the season, and I'm talking about the alien
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mythology arc that was going on. It seemed that most of those
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episodes would come at the end of the season and then seep into
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the beginning of the next season and there'd be a block in the
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middle of the season to tease out that part of the show as
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well. Interestingly, I think many fans
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were only interested in this alien mythology arc, which meant
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that they either didn't like or missed a hell of a lot of great
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episodes in The X-Files. Because I just think that there
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are so many great stories there that are told that are not to do
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with what the main cannon of the story is.
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So then in order to make it all work, the characters had to
8:01
work, and the actors who were portraying the characters had to
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work. And not only did you have to
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have the main characters, but you had to have the peripheral
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characters who were always going to be able to come in and out of
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the story in order to make each episode work properly.
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And from the very beginning, The X-Files did that.
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It had its main actors in David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson,
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who played the title roles of Agent Fox Mulder and Agent Dana
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Scully. And it had the peripheral actors
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who became such an integral part of the show.
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And then it had the guest actors coming in, you know, for a one
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off week to portray one off characters for the storylines
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that they were coming in to do. And the number of people they
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had coming in with such great names, many of whom probably
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weren't known at the time, but then became rather big things as
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actors and actresses, as it turned out, as they went along
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in their careers. So looking back on the early
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episodes, you get to see them in the early stages of their
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careers and you can now appreciate the fact that they
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were actually in this show. So yes, The X-Files from the
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very start for me were something that I was very much looking
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forward to and it obviously became so much more.
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So what I'm going to do on these episodes is I'm probably going
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to take anything from 4 to 6 episodes of this series for each
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episode of this podcast. And I'm going to watch them all
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again. And then I'm going to discuss
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them. I'm going to talk about
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interesting things that I enjoyed about them.
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I'm going to give each episode a rating or a ranking.
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And then obviously we'll put the episode out, the podcast episode
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that is. And let's see if it interests
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anyone out there and whether they want to continue to listen
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to me talking about them. And I truly hope that you enjoy
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this. It's going to be good for me to
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go back and watch all of this again.
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And I've done it before, as it turns out, over the course of a
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number of years. A few years ago, I started
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watching this with my eldest daughter Jessica, from the very
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beginning, and we got up to about halfway through season 7
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before she probably got too old and moved out of home.
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So we must have started in COVID when she was still in high
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school and then of course got to that point where she grew old
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enough to move away before we could get to the end, which for
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me is a shame, not getting to finish it together.
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And so I got to a point where I was either going to finish those
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episodes again myself from where we finished off and go through
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to the very end, or I was going to go back and start again and
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do something like this. Or as I said, do something like
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I did with The Twilight Zone and do a blog and do each episode.
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But podcasting is so much more fun now.
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So I started doing this even further ago.
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As I said before I started watching with Jess.
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So back in 2015, I actually started watching the show from
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the start and I was starting to do a blog on each episode there.
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And that does still exist out there in the in the the blog
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blog universe. But those things was just a
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short two or three paragraphs on each episode.
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And well, let's just talk about how I feel really quickly about
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the episode, whether it worked or whether it didn't, gave it a
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rating and moved on to the next episode.
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And I didn't finish it that time either.
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So I only got about halfway through season 5, I think,
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before Jess wanted to start watching from the beginning and
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so went back and started again. And then we only got halfway
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through season 7. So it's been a long time since
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I've actually got through all the way through every season.
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And since then, of course, there have been two further series
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actually added on to the very end.
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So this podcast is going to be sort of like that blog.
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I'm not going to sit here and dissect every episode to the NTH
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degree. It's going to be about the
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things that I find that are interesting, things that I find
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that are funny, things that don't work, the relationships
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between the characters. And of course, when we have the
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overarching story, the overarching alien mythology part
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of the story. We'll discuss how those episodes
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work each time they come up. And then of course, we've got
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all the great monster of the week episodes and I'll talk
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about whether they're brilliant ones, average ones, or absolute
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crap ones. And there are some out there
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that are absolute crap. So I hope you enjoy the journey.
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It's going to take some time obviously with the 11 series, 2
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movies, each series up to series 9 has 20 to 24 episodes in each
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series. So that's at four or five
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episodes per series. That's, you know, looking at 45
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episodes plus a couple of movies makes 47 in the last two series.
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So in the end, I guess we're talking somewhere above 50
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episodes. If I do it that way and we get
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to the very end, that's exactly how long it's going to be.
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So it's going to take some time. We're, I'm looking, I've already
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looked at it, you know, it's going to be over a couple of
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years, so strap yourselves in if you're interested and hopefully
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may even have some special guests along the way.
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I'm actually hoping to have my daughter Jessica on at some
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stage to talk on some episodes and her favourites and maybe a
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couple other friends as well. I've got a couple of friends who
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really enjoy The X-Files and maybe they'll deem myself worthy
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enough for them to come on and talk to me about that as well
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and we'll see how we go. Anyway, enough out of this
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beginning part. Let's get stuck into it, shall
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we? So here we go.
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Let's start off with Season 1 Episode 1, simply titled Pilot,
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and this was directed by Robert Mandel and written by Chris
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Carter. Now, Chris Carter, who I haven't
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spoken about, of course, is the creator of The X-Files, and we'd
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write many, many of the great episodes of the series.
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And of course, he was always there with his hands on the
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wheel, making sure that the direction was going where he
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felt it should go. And it follows his vision
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throughout. Even though there are some quite
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excellent and influential writers who become involved with
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this show throughout its run, and we will talk about them as
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they come up in all these episodes along the way, but
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Chris Carter is still the main guy and was often involved in
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the writing of the episodes that maintained the alien mythology
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arc of the show. So the show, the series, and the
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episode opens up not with the theme music that would become
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such a part of the whole love of this show, but with a black
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title page simply with this sentence.
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The following story is inspired by actual documented accounts,
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and the episode opens up the series with the first shot of
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what immediately appears to be an alien spacecraft beaming like
15:15
down into a field with a girl you know standing there.
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And then when the light disappears, she's dead.
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So from the very first heartbeat of the show, aliens are at the
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forefront and the world knows what they're getting.
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We then had the introduction of Dana Scully as she meets with
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Division Chiefs chief, even Scott Blevins, who plays an
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important part in the early seasons of the show.
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Now Scully has been brought in to write reports on Agent
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Mulder's work, Agent Fox Boulder of The X-Files, to provide
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scientific analysis of what he's going at and doing.
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So standing in that meeting is a mysterious older man whose
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presence is ignored by all except Scully herself.
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And of course, he's going to come into this show a lot more
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as we go along. Now.
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She then heads down to Mulder's office down in the subterraneous
16:16
caverns of the building. And both have obviously
16:20
researched each other's credentials, as well as Scully
16:23
knowing that Fox Mulder's nickname was spooky for what
16:28
she's explained during the episode.
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And then while Fox actually says I was led to believe you were
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sent to debunk my work, which Scully then assures him that she
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is only there to provide scientific evaluation of his
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work and write reports. Yeah, right.
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That's what she obviously thinks at that point in time.
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So their chemistry as characters don't quite fit early on in this
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first episode. Look, they both smile far more
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than they would eventually do. So there is less cynicism
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between the two. Mulder is far too excited about
17:06
the discovery of the so-called alien body in the grave when
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they exhume the grave, or when they lose power in the car and
17:14
then lose 9 minutes on the drive back from the forest site.
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So Scully is immediately too scared when she finds 2 lumps on
17:24
her back that she thinks means that she must have been abducted
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or experimented on. Which is funny because she's
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already explained away that as having no evidence of being
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true, and yet she's suddenly scared that it's happened to
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her. But then when Mulder confirms
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that they're only mosquito bite, she's too overwhelmingly
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relieved immediately and hugs Mulder, even though they've only
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known each other for like a day or so at that time.
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So the characters don't quite fit early on.
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I, I, I think that it would be far better if they look back
18:00
now. I'm sure that that Chris Carter
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looks at it and thinks, yeah, it just wasn't quite how he would
18:06
have hoped early on. But it's the start of a new
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show, so that's just the way it's going to be.
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Mulder also confides in Scully about the disappearance of his
18:15
sister Samantha, and that he'd gone through regression hypnosis
18:20
to discover that she'd been abducted by aliens.
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Now, this is not really the kind of thing you would discuss with
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a new partner after such a short period of time together, but
18:29
again, it's for our benefit, not for theirs.
18:34
All the other factors you expect from a conspiracy theory shows
18:38
happen here as well, too, though.
18:39
They the hotel is burned down while they aren't there,
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destroying all the evidence they'd collected.
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The body from the coffin disappears as well.
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All of his convenient destruction of everything useful
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happens, and surprisingly, this would not be the last time over
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the next nine years that this would occur.
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It's very hard to believe, isn't it?
19:02
So between the back and forth with the former students from 1
19:06
graduating class apparently being murdered, we discover it's
19:10
poor old Billy Miles, who has been in a waking coma for four
19:14
years, who comes to life and takes these classmates to the
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clearing in the forest where they are apparently abducted and
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experimented on. Until Mulder and Scully put two
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and two together and come up with five, rush to the clearing
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and save both Billy and Teresa and whose lumps on their back
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have now mysteriously disappeared.
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Amazing. Now, when Scully submits her
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report, Blevins chastises the lack of scientific backing or
19:44
evidence until Scully drops an implant from Billy's nose into
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his hands, claiming it is all that has survived.
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Of course, this means nothing because as Mulder reveals to
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Scully, Billy's case files are missing.
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And then we see the mysterious older man dropping the implant
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in a box with other similar contraptions in a secret
20:06
warehouse in the Pentagon. Much like the end of Raiders of
20:10
the Lost Ark, this man that he currently has not been
20:14
identified at all will of course soon become known.
20:18
As the Cigarette Smoking Man, played by William B Davis, one
20:23
of the great arch nemesis and enemies on The X-Files, and his
20:27
character, though mysterious, will eventually be fleshed out
20:31
far more than we see here, and his character is one of the
20:35
great parts of this series. What happened?
20:40
Who lost power? Brake steering, everything.
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Who lost 9 minutes? Wow, he lost what, 9 minutes?
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I looked at my watch just before the flash.
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It was 9 O3. It just turned 913.
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Look, look. Oh yes, Objectees.
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People that have made UFO sightings, they've reported
21:12
unexplained time loss. Come on.
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Gone just like that. You're saying that that time
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disappeared. Time can't just disappear, it's
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a universal invariance. That list zip code.
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So overall, the episode opens up really well.
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It gives the overview of what is to come with the mythology arc
21:41
of extraterrestrials. And in the long run, as an
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opening episode for me, it gets a four out of five.
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You look back on it now, which is what I've done this week, and
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it's dated because we see obviously this show gets so much
21:56
better as everyone gets a hold of what their characters are and
22:01
who they are, and the writing becomes so much stronger and
22:05
they get these amazing writers into the show.
22:08
So it probably doesn't always come across as a four out of
22:12
five if you watch this episode now, but as an opening to the
22:17
show and in sending a setting the scene for the show, it
22:21
definitely does rate as a four out of five.
22:29
We move on to Season 1, episode 2 and it's titled Deep Throat
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and it's directed by Daniel Sackheim and written by Chris
22:40
Carter again. And as the title suggests, here
22:44
is where we meet Deep Throat for the first time.
22:47
And what is even better, Fox just ignores everything he says
22:52
and goes and does whatever he wants to.
22:53
Anyway. What a surprise.
22:56
So we have some funny goings on at Ellen's Air Force Base.
22:59
Apparently a number of test pilots have gone missing.
23:03
The FBI won't investigate, so of course Mulder tells Scully that
23:07
that's what they are going to do and Mulder is confronted by a
23:11
mysterious man in the toilet of a pub who tells him to avoid the
23:16
case and that he is under surveillance.
23:19
But you know Mulder, that isn't going to scare him off, so off
23:23
they go to investigate. Anyway.
23:26
The story itself is really well constructed.
23:29
While initially you feel as though we are going to get the
23:31
usual UFO story, it actually builds itself around military
23:35
aircraft that are designed from UFO technology that they found
23:40
at Roswell in 1947. And the mental breakdown of the
23:43
highly trained pilots is because they are simply incapable of
23:47
handling the kind of maneuvers that these aircraft are capable
23:51
of and eventually they just crack under the pressure and the
23:54
strain. So although Mulder is eventually
23:58
looking for a UFO being housed on base, of course it's more
24:02
about the aircraft and the military who are hell bent on on
24:06
not allowing anyone to actually find it.
24:10
Scully has a great line of dialogue here where she
24:12
describes it being like any secret military project that
24:16
they would be reticent to allow anyone to see their technology,
24:19
whether it was built on UFO technology or just thought up by
24:22
brilliant human minds. They don't want spies coming in
24:25
and looking for it. But you know, Mulder finds the
24:29
base, obviously gets caught for the first time of many, and then
24:33
has his mind erased or rewired, like the pilots who had gone
24:37
missing but then conveniently showed up again as soon as
24:40
Mulder and Scully start snooping.
24:44
And so at the end, Scully insists that they leave, as they
24:47
know less now than when they turned up in town, which is
24:50
completely and utterly true, and that the reason they turned up
24:54
was to locate the missing pilot, who is now not missing at all.
24:57
So it's case closed, good job, Scully.
25:01
But then at the end of the episode, there's the return of
25:03
Deep Throat and the excellent conversation between he and
25:06
Mulder that sets up everything that is to come.
25:11
Sometimes they come in real low and just put on the Skitters,
25:15
right? It's like And then they just
25:17
hang there and hover without making a sound, and you just
25:21
think, you know who turned down the volume, right?
25:25
What do you think they are OK? Everybody thinks that they're
25:28
like UFOs, but I think it's some kind of Star Wars, Cybertek
25:34
newfangled hardware, right? I don't know.
25:36
They probably rolled out for Desert Storm 2 or something like
25:39
that. Cruise right over Saddam's
25:41
house. You know you'd be like what?
25:48
Do they look anything like this? No, they look exactly like that.
25:57
So the appearance of Seth Green in this episode is perfectly
26:00
cast and perfectly acted as the male portion of the couple who
26:04
have been sneaking onto the base to watch the aircraft fly for
26:07
the previous year. He is excellent.
26:10
He plays the role terrifically well and plays off Mulder really
26:14
well too. They their scenes together are
26:15
excellent and the story's terrific.
26:19
They playoff the playoff sorry, between the UFOs and and
26:23
military aircraft makes it a realistic scenario.
26:26
Whichever route you wanted to take with the story as to
26:29
whether it was true or false, Scully's thoughts are granted in
26:33
facts and she is soon as the most believable of the two main
26:36
protagonists this time around. And the arrival of Deep Throat,
26:40
who will become an emissary of sorts between the two agents and
26:43
the government conspiracies that swirl around them, gives the
26:48
agents their information source which they need to make the
26:52
story work. So for me this is a 4.5 out of
26:57
five episode. It's actually pretty close to
27:00
A5, and if I really reflected on it, it probably is A5.
27:04
But Mulder constantly ignoring Scully's very reasonable
27:09
arguments throughout and just going out on his own here.
27:13
It's just a tad annoying. And the loose ends are not
27:16
really tied up. All those that are just left
27:19
hanging in the breeze, they're a nuisance that brings this
27:24
episode for me. Just back that half a point.
27:39
Your lives may be in danger. Why?
27:43
You've seen things that weren't to be seen.
27:47
Care and discretion are now imperative.
27:50
I saw as I. Said I can provide you with
27:54
information, but only so long as it's in my best interest to do
27:57
so. What is your interest?
27:59
The truth. I did see something, but it's
28:06
gone. They took it from me.
28:10
They erased it. You have to tell me what it was.
28:15
The military UFO Mr. Malden, why are those like yourself who
28:29
believe in the existence of extraterrestrial life on this
28:32
Earth not dissuaded by all the evidence to the contrary?
28:37
Because all the evidence to the contrary is not entirely
28:43
dissuasive. Precisely.
28:50
They're here, aren't they? Mr. Mulder, they've been here
28:54
for a long, long time. So here we go Season 1 episode 3
29:17
titled Squeeze, directed by Harry Longstreet.
29:22
Though apparently he was replaced during filming for not
29:26
getting on with anyone. And it was written by Glenn
29:28
Morgan and James Wong. And this is where The X-Files
29:32
gets its mojo. This is the episode that
29:35
explores just how wide-ranging this series could be, and then
29:40
would be that it wasn't just going to be an alien conspiracy
29:43
television show as much as that was going to be one of the most
29:47
important aspects of the whole shebang.
29:51
But Squeeze showcased the kind of episodes and characters and
29:55
the back and forth between Mulder and Scully that really
29:57
made this show as excellent as it was.
30:01
And even better, it was one of the best Monsters of the week
30:04
characters right off the bat with the man that Tony Martin
30:08
and Mick Malloy referred to on their radio show.
30:10
Martin Malloy as. Was it X-Files last night?
30:15
Yeah, I think it was the stretchy liver eaten bloke last
30:18
night that was him. He's one of my favorite
30:20
villains. You know I enjoy it too, but you
30:22
know what? I can't watch it without getting
30:23
the urge to give it a try myself, and anyway, I do
30:27
apologise to my neighbors. But about 3:00 last night, the
30:31
people who own the Jaws of Life were called to remove me from an
30:34
air duct above my house. He's bloody scary, the old
30:37
stretchy liver eaten guy, but he's damn handy when you knock a
30:40
pen down behind the fridge. The great Eugene Victor teams
30:47
played by the equally creepy Doug Hutchison and as great as
30:52
he is in this role, most people would remember him as the
30:56
wonderfully villainous Percy Whitmore from the movie The
30:59
Green Mile. Surely a role that this prepared
31:03
him for perfectly. There is so much that works in
31:06
this episode that as the follow up to the first two episodes
31:11
that had the aliens slash UFO theme about them, it rounds out
31:15
the story of the FB is X-Files perfectly.
31:18
That not all of The X-Files are about little green men as Agent
31:22
Tom Colton says in this episode before Mulder corrects him by
31:25
saying little grey men. Colton has an Academy
31:30
relationship with Scully and looks to bring in she and Mulder
31:34
to create a profile for him on a serial murder as a murderer.
31:38
Sorry, as he is a ladder climber and he wants to catch his man.
31:43
This episode is terrific in that it shows the growing picture we
31:47
have of both Mulder and Scully. Mulder chastises Scully at one
31:52
point for suggesting that their perp would return to the scene
31:55
of the crime. But when he does return to the
31:59
scene of the crime, Mulder, without ego, says to Scully, you
32:04
are right. Letting us know that they aren't
32:07
competing against each other with their theories and beliefs.
32:11
Mulder admits that even though Scully often doesn't agree with
32:15
his theories, that she allows him the freedom to run with them
32:18
despite this, which he appreciates.
32:22
And Scully, though unable to truly grasp what Mulder has
32:25
obviously discovered, will stick with him while trying to
32:29
continue to come up with creditable scientific reasoning
32:32
behind what is going on. At times down the track in
32:36
future episodes. The lack of seeing and believing
32:39
does get annoying, but here on Squeeze it is the right amount
32:43
both ways to continue to flesh out both characters and their
32:47
working relationships. You knew they wouldn't believe
32:52
you. Why did you push it?
32:53
Maybe I thought you caught the right guy, and maybe I run into
32:58
so many people who are hostile just because they can't open
33:02
their minds to the possibilities, that sometimes
33:04
the need to mess with their heads outweighs the millstone of
33:09
humiliation. It seems like you were acting
33:12
very territorial. I don't know, forget it.
33:15
Of course, I was in our investigations.
33:17
You may not always agree with me, but at least you respect the
33:21
journey and if you want to continue working with them, I
33:25
won't hold it against you. I don't know, You must have
33:33
something more than your polygraph interpretation to back
33:36
up this bizarre theory, and I have to see what it is.
33:42
There are some great scenes here.
33:43
Tombs squeezing himself down the chimney to get his fourth victim
33:47
was done exceptionally well, including just even the grunt he
33:51
had at one point when he was contorting to get down that
33:54
chimney. The discussion with Henry
33:57
Beckman, who had investigated the 1933 murders, was terrific
34:02
and the discovery of Tombs Nest. This is the shape on Warner's
34:08
mantle. Frank said he collected trophies
34:11
does. He live in here.
34:18
It looks like the wall's deteriorating.
34:21
No, somebody made it. This is a nest.
34:31
Look, it's made out of rags and newspapers.
34:35
This looks like the opening. Think there's anything inside?
34:39
Oh my God, Mulder, it smells like I think it's bile.
34:48
Is there any way I can get off my fingers quickly without
34:50
betraying my cool exterior? No one could live in this I.
34:57
Don't think it's where he lives, I think it's where he
35:00
hibernates. Hibernates.
35:03
Just listen. What if some genetic mutation
35:07
could allow a man to awaken every 30 years, Mulder?
35:12
And what if the five livers could provide him sustenance for
35:15
that period? What if Tombs is some kind of
35:19
20th century genetic mutant? In any case, he's not here now,
35:25
and he's got to come back. Well, we're going to need a
35:27
surveillance team. Yeah, that'll take some
35:29
finagling. Well, you go downtown and see
35:32
what you can finagle, and I'll keep watch.
35:39
And finally, when Tombs began to build himself a new nest in his
35:43
cell. And then smiling deviously as
35:47
the slot for his mules is left open.
35:49
I mean, how dumb are these jail attendants?
35:52
Surely they know this is what's going to happen, don't they?
35:56
Apart from that, some of the acting here though is a little
36:00
bit mediocre. Now, Donald Logue, who played
36:03
Agent Tom Colton, didn't really nail the guy who was passive
36:08
aggressive to Mulder, but buddy buddy with Scully.
36:12
And that performance still grates with me when I watched
36:15
the episode. And because he's he wants to
36:19
climb the ladder, he doesn't give enough to actually make you
36:24
think that this kind of guy is going to be so professional that
36:27
he's going to get to the top of the ladder.
36:29
And even even his acting actually even affected David
36:32
Duchovny on a couple of occasions in scenes together
36:35
where the chemistry just didn't cut it.
36:38
And to me, this shows where the director was not on board with
36:40
the episode because these things should have been noticed and
36:44
reshot. And because there was problems
36:46
on the set with him which actually led to him quitting or
36:49
not actually doing his job and not completing all of these
36:52
scenes. It seems obvious to me that
36:55
those scenes where the characters are all dialoguing
36:59
together obviously just didn't work either.
37:04
Hutchison and Duchovny both said later that they had difficulty
37:07
with Longstreet's directing, and they were quoted as such, with
37:10
Hutchison finding his acting instructions ridiculous like
37:14
that. And Duchovny disagreed with the
37:17
director's take on how Mulder should be portrayed, noting the
37:20
director wanted me to be mad about this horrible serial
37:24
killer. I was like, no, this is an
37:26
amazing discovery. He's not morally culpable
37:29
because he's genetically driven. I judge no one and that shows
37:35
how he was. Duchovny was already so sure
37:38
about what drives his character of Mulder going forward, so I
37:42
think that's terrific. This is a superb episode.
37:47
It has an easy to follow storyline, a great bad guy who
37:50
Mulder states isn't a bad guy but is a mutant looking to
37:53
survive, great interaction between Mulder and Scully, and a
37:57
conclusion that ends the story but obviously leaves it open for
38:02
further adventures down the track.
38:04
Let's just simply brilliant and the first true 5 out of five
38:09
episode of the series, but definitely not the last.
38:18
Right now, let's dive into Season 1, Episode 4 with the
38:22
title Conduit, which was directed by Daniel Sacchaim, who
38:27
directed episode 2 and was written by Alex Ganza and Howard
38:31
Gordon who would go on to create the show Homeland down the track
38:35
a little. So we've had three terrific
38:38
episodes in a row. And because when this was show
38:41
was on the air, it was all on free to air because that was all
38:45
that existed in Australia at that time.
38:47
And we got our episodes weekly. So for three weeks there has
38:51
been this massive rush of excellence and then we come to
38:55
this episode. Now calm down everyone.
38:58
This isn't a terrible episode, but it just feels a bit generic
39:03
with storylines that have been cherry picked from different
39:06
movies and series over time. To start with, the kid Kevin
39:12
seems to be getting messages through the television and even
39:15
though he doesn't actually turn around and say they're here
39:20
right out of Poltergeist, you get the same effect.
39:25
We have the possibly kidnapped or possibly just run away from
39:29
home daughter who may or may not be pregnant from her boyfriend.
39:33
And we have the mother who witnessed the UFO event back in
39:36
her childhood, but of course no one believed her and it has
39:40
scarred her for life. So all of this is a bit generic
39:44
in structure and storyline. What it does do is give a little
39:49
more perspective to Mulder's continued haunting of his sister
39:53
Samantha's disappearance. It is obvious, familiar that the
39:57
case has hit a nerve with Mulder and that he is more frantic than
40:01
his usual personality, and that it has really triggered him.
40:05
Scully, of course, has been called in by Blevins to insist
40:09
that she gives a thorough report on what is happening, as well as
40:13
giving Scully an X file on Samantha Mulder herself, which
40:17
Fox had created. And one of the things I love
40:21
about this show is that. When Scully met with Mulder in
40:24
his office to discuss the case before they left.
40:28
I loved the use of a slide projector and overhead projector
40:33
in Mulder's office. It just reminds all of us that
40:37
technology has moved fairly quickly in the years since this
40:40
was first made, and it looks so archaic now.
40:44
But at the time, that's what they had to use.
40:48
So while the episode itself has its story being told, it acts as
40:54
the vehicle to explore Mulder's story a little more, but also to
40:59
see how much it has affected him through his life and how much it
41:03
still drives him to do what he is doing against everything that
41:07
his partner might believe, and how it puts him offside with his
41:10
colleagues and superiors. Yes.
41:14
Which is that in all likelihood, Ruby is dead.
41:17
Is that your conclusion or the conclusion of the Sioux City
41:19
Sheriff's Department? They're searching the National
41:22
Park and the rescue dive team is coming in from Des Moines to
41:25
drag the lake. They're wasting their time.
41:28
Do you really think Tessa Sears is telling the truth?
41:31
Why not? What if Ruby never did show up
41:33
that night? She lied to us in the library.
41:35
She lied to us about her pregnancy.
41:38
What makes you think she wouldn't lie to us about killing
41:39
Ruby? Because something was out there
41:42
in those. Woods We have a suspect in
41:46
custody, we have a confession to 1 murder, and we have a
41:50
statement which speaks to the intent to commit another.
41:53
It's over, Mulder. It's time to go home and turn
41:57
this over to local law enforcement.
41:59
I can't do that. Mulder, where are you going?
42:04
To talk to the boy. Well, they won't even let you in
42:06
the door. Well, I've got to see him.
42:08
They don't want to have anything to do with us.
42:11
Mulder, stop. Stop running after your sister.
42:19
This won't bring her back. Come with me or don't come with
42:24
me, but until they find a body, I'm not giving up on that girl.
42:35
But beyond that, yeah, there's a lot of thumb twiddling waiting
42:39
for the story to get to its conclusion.
42:41
And then once it gets there, you wonder why you bothered to spend
42:44
45 minutes doing all of this just to have the typical I can't
42:49
say and I'm not talking to you guys anymore answers.
42:55
And the final scenes of Scully listening to Mulder's regressive
42:57
thoughts under hypnosis on tape and Mulder crying in a church
43:01
looking at the photo of his sister gives us a better view of
43:05
at least that situation. But your eyes are open.
43:11
Yeah, they're open. It's like nothing's happening.
43:15
Try turning your head. I can't.
43:19
Why not? I don't know.
43:23
I can't move, so I don't. I just lie there in bed.
43:31
Can you see your sister? No, but I can hear her.
43:39
What is she saying? She's calling out my name over
43:44
and over again. She's crying out for help, but I
43:50
can't help her. I can't move.
43:55
Are you scared? I know I should be, but I'm not.
44:00
Do you know why? Because of the voice.
44:04
The voice? The voice in my head.
44:07
What's it telling you not to be afraid?
44:12
It's telling me that no harm will come to her and that one
44:16
day she'll return. Do you believe the voice I want
44:23
to believe? So yeah, for me it's an average
44:30
episode. We have a problem and we have a
44:33
solution and we don't have an answer.
44:36
So it does follow the usual X-Files episode rules, but
44:41
perhaps it focuses too much on the Samantha question, which on
44:45
1st viewing when you first watch the series it's necessary and a
44:49
really good hole filler when it comes to what is driving Molder
44:52
and how all of this started. But on rewatching and revisiting
44:58
it just isn't anything special. So for me this is a 3.5 out of
45:04
five episode. And that, my friends, is the end
45:13
of the first episode of Revisiting The X-Files.
45:17
For those of you who have made it this far, which I'm assuming
45:20
is no one, thank you for your company, and I hope you got
45:23
something out of it that may have been of interest.
45:27
So my hope is to have an episode coming out every two to three
45:30
weeks, depending on how much time I have to watch each
45:34
episode again, and then put these episodes together for you.
45:38
And look, if you've got any thoughts or comments you'd like
45:41
to make either about this podcast episode or about The
45:44
X-Files episodes I've discussed today, you can get in contact
45:48
with you through the usual channels such as on X or Blue
45:51
Sky or on Patreon or the other avenues available to you.
45:56
And I'd really like to hear anything you have to say,
46:00
positive or negative. So until next time, just
46:04
remember that we all want to believe and that the truth is
46:10
out there. Cheers.
46:12
Until next time. Thanks guys.