h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hey, an X-Files thread that isn't fossilized!
I agree with all of the above in that S9 was a waste that fizzled out. Shame. & Reyes is just too trite!
As for Taken: it was far too explicit & objectively overt. They revealed aliens & confirmed conspiracy in episode one!? & this left it devoid of mystery, suspense & most of all, drama! X-Files worked because of what they DIDN'T show & so everything was subjective & implied. But Taken's Ally IS better than William plot.

A fave moment? Bad Blood: Thinking she's seen a clue Mulder asks Scully why she thinks culprit won't be a vampire & she replies, it won't be a vampire "BECAUSE THEY DON'T EXIST!"

It is true, that the X files isn't one for closing off avenues - even The Truth doesn't answer everything! I thoroughly agree that William should have had a larger part to play in the story, but remember he would have to grow up first, and it would probably have been unfeasible for the show to have leapt forward about sixteen years, say, in order to accomplish this. For a start, they would have ended up finishing the show slap-bang in the middle of alien colonisation. I do think, as I suggested before, that the plot concerning William and his destiny should be taken up in a film at some point - I'll be incredibly disappointed if the X Files never resolves the war with and between the alien races. However, for the last two years or so, The Plan has been that the second X File movie would not deal with the show's mythology and, frankly, a movie that did may simply be too unpopular with the cinema-going-non-X-phile public to be viable.

I'm not quite sure what you mean when you say there's been 'abuse of Scully'. I haven't been aware of a weakening in the character, although she has been marginalised slightly, for the reason that Gillian Anderson would have left the regular cast if the show went on beyond its ninth season, and the audience needed to get gradually more used to seeing Doggett and Reyes as the main characters. If you could expand slightly on what you meant, that would be great

Anyway, today on TV we get Stargate, Smallville, 24 and the X Files - I better get some work done before that all starts!

R25968

Yay! More people! Now we have a party!

'Bad Blood' is a brilliant episode - definitely in the top 10 somewhere!

I don't agree that 'Taken' should have waited a while before revealing the existence of its aliens - it was treading on the X Files' toes a little too much already without trying that routine too. The series is more disappointing to me because recently nothing seems to be happening! (I should at this point mention that I haven't seen the episode shown last night on BBC 2, but hope to catch the repeat on Friday) Whilst well written, and taking a fairly novel approach to space-alien style sci-fi (ie focusing more on the lives of the people affected than on the aliens), it's still slow and pretty dull at points. Perhaps an hour and a half per episode is too much time to fill. I'll keep watching anyway, and we're almost at the end now...

R25968

for the directions

'Abuse of Scully' basically this comes from the idea that William's conception was something 'engineered' by the conspiracy.

In En Ami when the CSM elaboratly decieves Scully into going on a roadtrip with him to meet Cobra. The CSM drugs Scully, undresses her and puts her to bed its been suggested that he did something to Scully in order to allow her concieve, by remodulating the chip in some way for example. Then the fertility clinic that Scully chose messed around with embryos and implanted them into women without their knowledge that they or thier babies were being experimented on. Along with the implication that Scully has a 'special' place in the CSM's heart didn't help, talking mega , the drugging, the undressing, the re-dressing in the little black dress ewwww, none of this helped me get my head round Scully's pregnancy at the time

Anyway, Scully gets her genetic materail stolen during her abduction and is robbed of the opporunity to become a mother, or so she thinks, because really Mulder conceals the fact that he has recovered some of her ova, meanwhile the conspiracy are busily creating Scully's genetic children (Emily), to cap it all William may be a 'product' of the conspiracy so probably the biggest problem that I have was that Scully was always denied the opportunity to make her own choices except that final one in William.

Because of these lack of choices I started to see Scully as very much disempowered lol if there is such a word as disempowered and if not a victim then certainly victimised. All I could see was Scully (and her baby) going through all that and being eventually overwhelmed. I couldn't put it one side much as I tried to, the more I watched the more annoyed and angst ridden I became. So switching off was a good choice for me simply because the xf mythology raised too many issues for me that I couldn't address through Scully, neither was I confident at that point the xf could address them. Bottomline it wasn't 'enjoyable' in the same way as the black oil was.

That said, I've kept in touch, have got much milage out of the supersoliders and the vids, Deadalive/existance and NIHT have much to recommend them. I just would have prefered it if Scully had found out more about her pregnancy, the possibilitlites, early on in her pregnancy and been able to choose to go forward from that point.

William I have to say is in a class of its own. Bit too sophisticated an ep for me, invincible supersoldiers and shapeshifting bounty hunters are the sort of unsubtle that I can get to grips with. In terms of choice Scully gets to make one and she makes its in the best interests of William. She make an incredibly unselfish decision that took courage and (i suspect) a certain amount of faith. I don't see William as an ending either, its just another 'chapter', lickle Will is cast adrift

Love Peanut xx

Hey there everyone!

Bad Blood - aah, I really want to see that episode, does anyone know if anywhere has the b1g1f offers still on?

Scully is such a strong character that I felt she was overshadowed by the attempts to save her. Also, much as I love all Xfiles, there were way too many 'Character in peril' episodes, if u get what I mean. Three eps in a row, Doggett or Reyes ended up in comas. I know they were trying to increase the audiences liking of them, but they should have been spread out. NIHT was wasted, they were trying to set up the new mythology, which was successful, but the depth of character was lost.

I always enjoy watching Redux - whenever I'm bored, I stick it on! Anyone else have any eps they put on constantly? Also, if I'm depressed, Closures a great one to watch!

Ok, shutting up now...

Waves to Element9inety2wo

With regard to taken, something about it really appealed to me, I've not seen the last ep yet, will be headed off in a few mins to see it
I hope they manage to pull it off and not spoiling the good work which they have achieved so far. Even if that is/was not the case, I still think that X-F would have been much more wise to have taken a similar course with William Scully, I wouldn't have expected them to jump forward in time to a point where WS could have really shown what impact he was to have on society, evolution, ...life the universe and everything... But now it seems that that will not happen. Cannot happen.

Argh but then I wonder if it *should* happen (see what you do to me Peanut?!) and I just don't know, all I do know is that I still find 'William' to be a very unsatisfying note for WS to go out on, and I am not sure that they will take time to come back and redress this issue should there be any further movies. I think they found the easiest way out they possibly could, to get rid of the whole situation for good, and in one foul swoop.

William was not the 1st time ether, they did the same with Closure, again I don't like the way they seemed to discount things we'd been told and shown in accounting for Samantha's disappearance. Making a complete U turn just didn't cut it, at least not for me. But now I'm getting ahead of where we're at with this conversation, at least for now

Peanut's cut to the chase with the 'Abuse of Scully' thing, we've spoken long and hard about this, and it's given me a whole new view of much of the WS storyline, and not for the better.

I've still not seen 'William' again, I'll probably catch up with it after I've seen The Truth tomorrow night. God what will I do when it's over? Even though I've already seen it, it will be strange to know that even the BBC has screened all the X-F eps there will ever be

Re S9: I don't know that I'd call it a complete waste of time, as I said I enjoyed quite a large chunk of what I saw, Sunshine days alone made the whole season worth while! Wonderful stuff! Reminiscent of 'Je Souhaite' in the feel good factor. It will never be my favourite season, not even close, however any chance we get to see Scully grin is worth it, never mind giggle like a loon!

Hi All

Taken seemed slow cos it took the characters so long to find out what was blatantly revealed to us at the start! & spanning story over 50years seemed good but resulted in a rather staccato narrative. I liked WW2 scenes & that squirrel & eps 7-9 were good but in the end it wallowed in sub-Star Trek cliches: "We've come to learn more about this emotion you call ... love." NOOOOoooo!

So how did you like "The Truth"? I saw it on Sky & was a bit disappointed. Although the ad hoc court was nicely Kafka-esque the use of a trial for finale along with old clips is the sort of hackneyed tv device the XFiles took pride in subverting in previous years. But the true Mayan Prophecy story was a nice touch (something I wanted XFiles to "do" along with the forever missing Fake Moon Landing plot ) & I did like the final scene. I would've loved whole episode to have been like that: just Mulder & Scully discussing the past & hoping for the future. I've always prefered those poignant profound episodes

Oh & sorry, I don't know where you get videos, I only have the movie (& I can't see how they can do a sequel)

As for s9, I just thought the Supersoldier thing was an unnecessary reworking of "Sleepless" & Mulders resurrection strained credibility. I realise this was initiated in s8 but it left the "mythology" in a state which could never be resolved with satisfaction. Well, MY satisfaction.

Hi everyone

and

For the time being I think we can assume that William is in safe hands I reckon that's something. As I see it Scully is being pro-active about protecting him rather that reactive, like Beav said trying to assert some authority and control over the situation. This way Scully does to some degree protect him from extreme UFO cults, peeps like Spender who have only got to William, indirectly or directy through his parents and the XF.

It maybe that ultimately it wouldn't defend him against 'them' (whoever 'they' may be) but at the mo getting to Will is as easy as turning up on Scully's front door. This move seems to have come out nowhere but I can't really believe that. Its something that Scully must have contemplated, even prepared for so hopefully she has murked any trail that could led to William, along with some help from the LGM (RIP), they left some parting gifts of their own, lessons learnt from Providence 'Cept that form that they had to sign MF Luder on the MB introduced a few gremlims

Aside from the practicalities of the situation I came away respecting Scully absolutly, again with the courage and unselfishness. It was a stunning performance by all but particulary by GA well worth another watch. Anyway you know that I'm going to keep on and on 'til you do and you know how I can on

Love peanut xx

Ooops... I've been away a while and have missed just about anything and everything that's been going on here. Um...

'Taken' got so dull and slow for me that I haven't bothered watching the last two episodes yet. I have them taped off the BBC somewhere, but honestly can't be bothered sitting through them. I was rather impressed that the novelisation based on the series has managed to condense the events of each of the ten episodes into roughly twenty pages per episode :D I always knew very little actually happened in them...

I liked 'The Truth'. I thought the clips taken from old episodes were used incredibly well, and still setting the standard for the X Files high above any other shows ever to have 'clip' episodes - for a start, clips were only used as a sort of visual memory jogger, something to break the monotony of watching people sit around in a courtroom for an hour - they were only flashes, so we didn't have to sit through whole excerpts of stuff we'd seen before, and the pace was kept up very successfully, I felt. It would have been nice to see a little more information about how the events of Provenance/Providence fit into the mythology, because that really left me confused, but still, a good episode.

Now, a question for those who feel they may be up to answering it... can anyone help me figure out how the clones we saw in seasons 1, 2 and 3 fit into the mythology? Remember that, apparently, the Syndicate were trying to create successful alien/human hybrids, but that Cassandra Spender was supposed to have been their first success. If that was the case, does that mean the clones in episodes such as Colony and Herrenvolk were not successful hybrids? I couldn't really see anything wrong with them, and they bled green alien blood, so they seemed to be hybrids... Ah, the confusion...

R25968 15/4/03 12:09

I think the spooky kids in Herrenvolk were dumb drones, which would hardly be the pinnacle of the project. As for the others ...hmm.. perhaps its important to distinguish between a alien hybrid & a "normal" clone (!) created using alien technology, or perhaps the alien DNA was integrated gradually in successive experiments until the correct balance was achieved? But this is meaningless guesswork as I've said before, the beauty of The XFiles was the uncertainty & ambiguity that is a prerequisite for the "unexplained".

That was quite a big question . The cloning technology everyone seems to have sussed but the ultimate aim of many projects seems to be some sort of hybridisation, which was not so sussed.

Emily for instance had many complications which resulted in her early death. Cassandra was part of another hybridisation project, one taking a different tack. She was certainly seen to be a break-
through but the rebels chucked a spanner (or few) in the works. With respect to this particular project,a huge amount of knowledge and expertise went up in smoke. So as always with the xf two steps forward, three steps back

I thought the kids had been altered delibrately to be deaf and speechless, so quite a high degree of manipulation going on there. They were also immune to the bees which means that somewhere along the line someone had worked out the whole immunity thing

Love Peanut xx

Thanks, that helps me quite a bit Although I'm still a little confused, but I think that's probably the idea with the X Files :D

Thinking about it you must be right... I seem to remember one of the clones saying (possibly in 'Colony') that, although they were succesful hybrids, they were still working on diversity (i.e. hybrids could *only* be produced through cloning, something which would not have suited the Syndicate's plans to hybridise themselves and their family members to allow them to survive the alien invasion). However, my memory could be, and usually is, faulty so goodness knows if that inspirational flash - which came to me in the shower, as all good ideas do - is really that trustworthy.

R25968 18:40 23/4/03

I reckon William will reappear in the next movie, a few years on:

Scully: William, is that really you? You're so grown up!

William: Hi mom, it's been a while. I'd like you to meet someone...

Ally: Hi Ms Scully, I've heard so much about you...

*gasp* Are you trying to tell me Ally McBeal hes been dragged in to the conspiracy too???

I'm with you that the clones we saw in the early seasons were imperfect. The fact that they tuned to green toxic goo when their skin was punctured could be a bit of a problem for anyone wishing to integrate them in to society for the time being (was Cassandra's too? Perhaps still not perfect then, but more of the foundations to success?), not to mention they all looked the same.

Perhaps it was something to do with problems grafting the two sets of DNA. Cassandra being the breakthrough in making that possible on an small & individual scale. Therefor making it possible to take the desirable parts from a specific person's gene code, while editing in all the stuff they might have wanted from the alien DNA.

Something from Redux pulling at my thoughts, and The Beginning, but don't know why, gonna have to have another look

Anyway, as for what William is, was, will be - whatever, I've not wrapped my brain round that one... ?

Well... technically most of the aliens turn into green goo, but not only when their skin is punctured... rather, only when they're stabbed in the base of the neck with one of the stiletto weapons (even the bounty hunters and faceless rebels end up the same). All the aliens seem to bleed green blood, except the baby 'greys', which bleed the black 'Purity' oil... A little confusing that, but I'll say no more because that's perhaps looking a little too deeply into it... (But, yes, Cassandra's blood was green too - cf. 'Two Fathers')


I think the clones were an attempt to splice the alien and human DNA, but only the first stages of the project, which would go on to hybridising humans already born. Another part of the project was creating the almost indestructible 'slave race' for the aliens, of which William was the first real success... (everybody following? )

I seriously, seriously doubt we'll ever see William again. Another X file movie, if one ever comes into existence, will most likely make a passing reference to him, for the sake of continuity, but I doubt that he'll be important to any future stories.

R25968 15:30 30/4/03

Think I'm following I'm not sure about the design of a indestructable slave race tho, the whole indestructable part might make them a bit difficult to enslave.

I think the shapeshifters and the hybrids when injured have all bled green 'blood' for want of a better word. The shapeshifters tho also ooze black oil like the greys.

Love Peanut xx

Well, by 'indestructible slave race' I meant the alien 'super-soldiers' we've seen appearing in seasons 8 and 9 - and they do seem to be under the control of the aliens in some way that I don't quite understand :S It seems that the super-soldiers are under the control of the black oil, even though it doesn't seem to physically possess their bodies, as it did with Krycek or the humans in the movie...

However, it was suggested that Mulder was almost transformed into a super-soldier as a result of the black oil that had been introduced into his blood in Tunguska/Terma being activated by the spaceship from Biogenesis, which would seem to imply that 'Purity' is in control somewhere along the line... Perhaps the spaceship activated the 'junk DNA' that caused Mulder and Gibson Praise's psychic abilities, but also started the transformation from human to super-soldier, making the alien virus effectively part of the DNA of the resulting 'soldiers, and hence under the control of the oil, which is effectively the virus contained in a different medium.

Now I'm even confusing myself... Does that sound right to you, or am I making bloopers?

And I'm afraid I don't remember the shape-shifters ever bleeding black oil, any idea what episode that happened in?

R25968 21:35 15/5/03

Off the top of my head I can't remember the name of the eps, I'll check my sources and get back to you. Certainly sounds like a fine theory the supersoliders being controlled by the virus/black oil. I just don't believe it works like that in practise tho

I'm off on me holidays in a couple of hours so will see you in a week or so

Love Peanut xx