Minute44 - Dan Schonhaar

So I’ve decided to embark on a mammoth enterprise. I’m planning on watching every episode of The X Files from “Pilot” to “The Truth“. That’s nine seasons of between 19 and 24 episodes each episode being 45 minutes long. I looked at my collection on the shelf and realised I had never watched all the episodes close enough together to be able to put the story together properly. I mean, I know roughly the whole conspiracy plot and who did what and why, but There are elements of the main arc that I still don’t quite know. For example, I’m a little fuzzy on the whole involvement of Alex Krycek and the well manicured man.

I also plan, after watching seasons 1-4 watching the Feature length movie which was made to be a part of the whole story and an interim between seasons 5 and 6. The movie, titled “Fight the Future” was the first major revelation that Earth was being colonised and the government was in on it. It’s status as a feature length movie wasn’t just in order to conveniently bridge the gap between 5 and 6, it needed the bigger budget it got from 20th Century Fox in order to fully display the special effects it needed to, especially in the climax where we see a gigantic space craft rise out of the Antarctic ice.

Sure, after season 7 they could and, arguably should, have called it quits with Scully (Gillian Anderson) pregnant and Mulder (David Duchovny) abducted but they didn’t and despite the characters not being as rich and interesting as the previous stars, seasons 8 and 9 did yield some very interesting and well written episodes, not to mention some seriously mind-bending ones. An example of this is when agents Dogget and Reyes (Robert Patrick and Anabeth Gish) come up against a murderer who is able to walk between parallel universes as well as one who is able to kill his victims by separating his soul from his physical body. My favourite part of the series has to be seasons 4-6. You can tell in these episodes, more than ever, the writers were really feeling the personal and professional relationship between Mulder and Scully and much more interesting and, at times, amusing stories resulted. My favourite episode of all time is in season 6 and was a two-parter (Dreamland I and Dreamland II) This episode saw mulder swap bodies with an Area 51 operative called Morris Fletcher played by Michael McKean.

I suppose what’s really got me going on this is news that a new X Files movie is in the pipeline and will not be linked with the original story arc. Since the final episode of the series, The Truth, left with Mulder and Scully on the run from various pursuers and the final, unavoidable invasion date revealed I can only assume that the story takes place some time between 1993 and 2001, during the time that the original series took place. This will undoubtedly lead to an obscene amount of fan-boy fury as it will, unless Chris Carter is very careful indeed, lead to some continuity errors and glaring plot holes. You have to be super careful of this kind of thing when writing science fiction.

But yes, as I write this I’m watching the second episode in season one, Deep Throat where, guest star, Seth Green seems to sport the same haircut as Agent Scully. I’ve got a long way to go but I’m gonna enjoy it. The X Files is my favourite television series of all time. It’ll take something pretty spectacular to move it from that pedestal.