Saturday 19 October 2013

The X-Files: Season 1, Episodes 4-9

Conduit (Season 1, Episode 4)
Conduit-X
Written by Alex Gansa and Howard Gordon; Directed by Daniel Sackheim
David Duchovny as Fox Mulder
Gillian Anderson as Dana Scully
Charles Cioffi as Scott Blevins
Carrie Snodgress as Darlene Morris
Joel Palmer as Kevin Morris
Taunya Dee as Ruby Morris
Shelley Owens as Tessa
Don Thompson as Holtzman
Don Gibb as Kipp
Akiko Morison as Leza Atsumi
Conduit returns to the theme of alien abduction with Mulder and Scully travelling to Sioux City in Iowa to investigate the disappearance of a teenage girl.
This further explores the disappearance of Mulder's younger sister, Samantha, with the parallels in the two cases causing Scully to suspect that he has lost his objectivity.
Despite its theme the episode really doesn't add much to the show overall, other than a little bit of extra characterisation for the lead characters. Gillian Anderson's portrayal of Scully trying to help Mulder whilst simultaneously questioning his motives is characteristically excellent, but for the first episode to truly focus on Mulder and his search it's really Duchovny's performance that's the most important, and here he unfortunately fails to deliver. Perhaps this episode came too early in the season, before he'd properly gotten to grips with the character, as he does much better in later episodes.
As a standalone story, there are also problems, with my never being particularly invested in the case or its mysteries (like how a young boy can pick up top secret binary code in a television showing only static).
(6/10 - not a bad episode, by any means, but the first one that is less than great)

The Jersey Devil (Season 1, Episode 5)
Jersey Devil
Written by Chris Carter; Directed by Joe Napolitano
David Duchovny as Fox Mulder
Gillian Anderson as Dana Scully
Wayne Tippit as Detective Thompson
Michael MacRae as Peter Boulle
Gregory Sierra as Dr. Diamond
Claire Stansfield as The Jersey Devi
Jill Teed as Glenna
Tamsin Kelsey as Ellen
Andrew Airlie as Rob
Bill Dow as Dad
Hrothgar Matthews as Jack
Jayme Knox as Mom
For some reason, I always remember this episode coming later in the season. It came as a shock to me reading the episode list to find that it was only the second monster-of-the-week episode. Unfortunately, The Jersey Devil doesn't provide any of the surprises or quality of Tooms.
The general idea is one that The X-Files would return to multiple times throughout its life - take a "real life" urban legend, and reimagine it into the show's timeline. In this case, the titular Jersey Devil is a genetic throwback to the neanderthal era that lives in the woods of New Jersey. Or rather, she's one of a family of genetic throwbacks who is attacking people to protect her young after the death of the male in the family.
Strangely, the New Jersey police department seem to want to keep the whole thing hushed up, and go to extreme lengths to cover it up in order to "keep tourists in the casinos" - a rather unconvincing explanation for some very unconvincing actions by some of the supporting cast. It's probably things like this that cause the episode (though interesting to begin with, with the case officially being considered cannibalism) to go downhill after the first 20 minutes or so. It's never particularly bad, but by the end, I don't particularly care about what happens to the "Devil", either.
(6/10 - an interesting idea which loses steam too quickly)

Shadows (Season 1, Episode 6)
Shadows
Written by Glen Morgan & James Wong; Directed by Michael Lange
David Duchovny as Fox Mulder
Gillian Anderson as Dana Scully
Barry Primus as Robert Dorlund
Lisa Waltz as Lauren Kyte
Lorena Gale as Ellen Bledsoe
Veena Sood as Miss Saunders
Deryl Hayes as Mr. Webster
Janie-Woods Morris as Miss Lange
Nora McLellan as Jane Morris
Anna Ferguson as Miss Winn
In this episode, people who intend to harm a young secretary at a technology company (Lauren Kyte) have a nasty habit of ending up dead in mysterious circumstances. When a pair of terrorists find themselves with their throats crushed from the inside, Mulder and Scully are called in by a mysterious government agency to assist with the investigation.
What they uncover is that Kyte's boss - Robert Dorlund - is an unscrupulous bastard who may be responsible for the apparent suicide of his business partner, Howard Graves. And that Graves is now a poltergeist dedicated to protecting Lauren.
So far, my opinion on these episodes has generally been in line with public consensus, but here it takes a bit of a turn, as I found this to be a particularly strong episode, mixing up a traditional ghost tale with corporate corruption. It's not one of my favourite episodes, but it's definitely an improvement on the two that came before.
(8/10 - a combination of a traditional ghost/poltergeist story with corporate corruption makes for a compelling episode)

Ghost In The Machine (Season 1, Episode 7)
Gitm
Written by Alex Gansa & Howard Gordon; Directed by Jerrold Freeman
David Duchovny as Fox Mulder
Gillian Anderson as Dana Scully
Jerry Hardin as Deep Throat
Rob LaBelle as Brad Wilczek
Wayne Duvall as Jerry Lamanda
Blu Mankuma as Claude Peterson
Tom Butler as Benjamin Drake
Gillian Barber as Nancy Spiller
Theodore Thomas as Clyde
A down-on-his-luck friend of Mulder's in the FBI requests Mulder and Scully's assistance in a case relating to the murder of the CEO of a computing company. What follows is - basically - the worst 45 minutes that The X-Files ever gave us.
Even at a time when not many people knew how computers worked, the episode - in which a computer used to control an entire building gains sentience and starts killing people it perceives as a threat - was an insult to anyone's intelligence.
There's no way I could care about any of the guest stars in this episode as none of the characters are remotely believable, the performances are even worse, and every time you're reminded of what the plot is about you're left with a feeling of, "Really? Even for a show like The X-Files this is pushing it!"
I suppose the best thing I can say about this episode is that - as far as I recall, and I'll be severely depressed if I am proved wrong - the show never got this bad ever again. Even in Season 9.
(1/10 - insultingly bad)

Ice (Season 1, Episode 8)
Parasitic ice worms
Written by Glen Morgan & James Wong; Directed by David Nutter
David Duchovny as Fox Mulder
Gillian Anderson as Dana Scully
Xander Berkeley as Dr. Hodge
Felicity Huffman as Dr. Nancy Da Silva
Steve Hytner as Dr. Denny Murphy
Jeff Kober as Bear
Ken Kirzinger as Mr. Richter
Sonny Surowiec as Mr. Campbell
This is much better. Thank you, everyone involved for following one of the worst episodes of the show with one of its best.
Mulder and Scully travel to the ice core project in Alaska to investigate why communication has been lost with one of its teams. Together with helicopter pilot, Bear and two scientists - who would later become 24's George Mason and Desperate Housewives' Lynette Scavo - they find that the entire team have been murdered each other or killed themselves.
It doesn't take long before an angry dog attacks, with examinations revealing that a parasite has infected it causing extreme aggression.
Taking place mostly on one set, this episode is a brilliantly claustrophobic episode, with the minimal cast becoming increasingly paranoid and aggressive towards each other when they realise that any one of them could be infected. It definitely owes more than a little to The Thing, but it remains a high point for Season 1.
The way I see it, by the end of this episode, Mulder and Scully have formed a bond of trust that would only become stronger as the show went on. It was kind of a trial by fire for their partnership, which they managed to pass. After this episode, they definitely seem more at ease with each other.
(9/10 - The X-Files back on top form with this claustrophobic and paranoid ode to The Thing)

Space (Season 1, Episode 9)
Space
Written by Chris Carter; Directed by William Graham
David Duchovny as Fox Mulder
Gillian Anderson as Dana Scully
Ed Lauter as Marcus Aurelius Belt
Susanna Thompson as Michelle Generoo
As great as Ice is, it's made to look even better by the fact that it's bookended by two absolutely terrible episodes. Space doesn't trudge the depths of quality quite as much as Ghost In The Machine did, but it does get fairly close.
A NASA mission to Mars is haunted by something that seems to have some connection to the Face On Mars - otherwise known as just a random rock formation that happens to look a bit like a face from above. It's made clear exactly what it is, or why it wants to sabotage NASA's mission, or... anything, really.
I've praised the fact that some episodes leave the agents just as in the dark as they started, but there's no excuse for never actually giving a point to what is going on. And that's the mistake they made. We're never given even an idea of what is happening, and as a result we don't actually care about it.
(3/10 - not quite as bad as Ghost In The Machine, but still one of the worst episodes the show would ever produce)

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