I Saw Elvis In A Potato Chip Once 15 - The X-Files 1.15 - Lazarus

This is a bit more like it...

The X-Files 1.15 - Lazarus

Thankfully it's a more solid episode this week, The problem is that I can't say it was particularly exciting to watch and consequently I don't have a lot to say about it. However, along with lots of real detective work, there were a couple of nice touches:

Firstly we have the revelation that Dana Scully definitely has a thing for older men, having dated her teacher at some point. While we can question the appropriateness of this and the "daddy issues" that it might suggest, at least it adds further nuance to Scully's character - that's if it is part of her persona and not just a convenient hook dreamt up to hang the plot off of.

The second thing I liked was the professor and his lovely story about the airline pilot who supposedly became possessed by the dead husband of his lover and later strangled her with an extension cord. It's the almost gleeful way that he smiles and walks away after telling this tall tale that endeared him to me. "That's a nice story" says Mulder after a long pause...

Things really do hinge on the performance of Christopher Allport in the role of Willis / Dupre-in Willis' body, and he does some great work here. He's particularly convincing as the multiple murder back from the dead and Dupre's infatuation with Lulu is mirrored is Willis's own intense obsession with the homicidal psychopaths. They are clearly meant to be a take on the Bonnie and Clyde outlaw couple trope, and both guest actors do well in portraying the viciousness of the duo. Nice skull mask too.

I'm less happy with Scully's continued resistance to believe in *any* of Mulder's theories even in the face of some solid evidence to the contrary. I get that this is her ex lover who is being "possessed", so she's more defensive than usual, but her stubbornness to even consider alternative explanations is bordering on stupidity. Surely she should be at least considering that Willis might be ill or unstable after being technically dead for so long - but no, she seems totally okay with things, blindly accepting that "Willis" passed his FBI evaluations and has been cleared to return to duty. Speaking of which, there is no way that Dupre would pass the FBI tests  - he's not a trained agent and has no access to Willis' memories (he can't recall Scully's birthday). It's a tiny step too far.

Other thoughts and facts:

• The whole bit with Dupre's tattoo felt like the writers needed to hammer home the point that Willis had been possessed. It would have been far better to make it more ambiguous and leave viewers in the dark somewhat about if it had really happened, or if Willis's preoccupation with Dupree and Lulu had pushed him off the deep end. 
• Why did "Willis" cut off three fingers from Dupre's hand? He only wanted the ring so surely one would have been enough.
• Can you really estimate the height of a plane from the noise of the engine? Apparently so.
• Someone seems to have Mark Snow's soundtrack generator on autopilot. The "creepy music" riff pops up in the most unusual and inappropriate places in this episode.

In conclusion, while the whole idea of a vengeful "soul" possessing another persons body after death is not a new idea, and the execution might be a tad pedestrian, there are a number of little moments within the episode that lift it above the mere humdrum.

I Saw Elvis In A Potato Chip Once 14 - The X-Files 1.14 - Gender Bender

Oh dear. Another season one clunker, which ends so suddenly it's almost as if they didn't so much run of of airtime as think "Right that's quite enough of that...".

The X-Files 1.14 - Gender Bender

On the face of it, a case involving death by sex should be right up Mulder's street. Not only that but it looks like the killer is a shape shifting genetic mutant too. Fox must having been wetting himself with excitement - and to be honest there is the kernel of a good idea here. The problem is that the whole way it's presented made me feel slightly uncomfortable. I know it's probably a bit unfair to compare the morals of a 1990s show with the more enlightened attitudes of today (for goodness sake don't look at some 1970s British sitcoms), but there is a thinly veiled undercurrent of sexual and religious intolerance going on here - both towards the body-swapping killer and the Amish-like Kindred society.

There is lots of prolonged, meaningful staring. Scully getting incredibly aroused by just a touch. Mulder being completely unable to read a map or follow a compass. Some nasty looking goo. What appeared to be a sudden shot of Princess Diana. It all gets bogged down under the weight of its own ridiculousness. Plus there's that ending. Is it a genius shock twist - or just mad? I bet we never hear of the Kindred ever again.

To be fair there are a few good points. The episode is directed and shot very well and there is a nice organic vibe going on with the fleshy pulsating walls. Duchovny and Anderson are great and the actor who played Brother Andrew manages to keep things just the right side of the creepy serial killer line - but only just.

Other thoughts and facts:

• Just what the hell is a "Chippy"? As if there wasn't enough sexism going on.
• There's a large picture on the wall near the start that looks very H.R. Giger. Someone's a fan.
• The music cue in the caves sequence is very "Tubular Bells" (or "The Exorcist" if you must). Someones's head turning right round would have pepped things up no end.
• I wonder how the Amish society felt about the episode? Oh wait - they don't watch television, so the writers could be as rude as they liked.

So far "The X-Files" season one has been wildly varying in terms of quality with only a couple of standouts - and I'm not really feeling the love. Saying that, the same could be said of a show like "Star Trek: The Next Generation" in it's premiere year, and look how that turned out. With ten episodes left I'm hoping things start to step up a gear as the creative team find their feet at last.

I Saw Elvis In A Potato Chip Once 13 - The X-Files 1.13 - Beyond The Sea

From the ridiculous to the sublime...

The X-Files 1.13 - Beyond The Sea

It's amazing that this show can follow up the worst episode of the season with one of the best. It's a real deliberate and emotional character study, centred on a pair of sensational performances from Gillian Anderson and Brad Dourif, as for the first time Scully becomes the believer and Mulder the sceptic.

The opening sequence is quite surreal and spooky. One moment we are watching Scully in an slightly awkward exchange with her parents about her job and before you know it, she's asleep on the sofa in front of the TV (we've all done it). But wait - Dad's still here - supposedly talking but no sound is coming from his lips. The phone rings and Scully finds out he's actually just died an hour ago. Cue the credits... Okay so perhaps it's not that original a stinger, but it sets the tone for what's to come. Scully is on the back foot, her rational mind and belief in science brought into question and she finds herself inexorably drawn to Boggs - the murder on death row who seemingly can provide her with some closure.

What I find particularly interesting about this scenario is how it to an extent riffs on the very real world of "psychics" and the way that they can (and do) use cold reading techniques to fool the bereaved into thinking they can contact the afterlife. Like my favourite entertainer Derren Brown, I'm fascinated by the "skill" involved in fooling people, even if I do not in any way approve of the reasons.

On one hand Boggs seems to be the typical charlatan, faking the voices and his messages from the dead. Mulder doesn't believe a word of it and even catches him out with a nice bit of fakery of his own. But on the other hand he seems to be at the mercy of these visions and whatever is controlling him. There is certainly more going on here - what exactly is it that Scully sees when she gets these glimpses of her departed father? It's not as if she is mistaking a similar looking man for her dad (as I once did for my own grandfather some time after he had died) - she is really experiencing something unsettling. Boggs knows things that no amount of parlour trickery could pull off.

This switch  between the exposure of a con artist and a genuine paranormal experience is a fine line for the episode to walk and the fact that it leaves so much still unanswered, yet at the same time feels complete is down to the great writing and acting. Brad Dourif might be a bit of an expert at playing unstable nasty characters, but he manages to make an unrepentant death row inmate somewhat sympathetic, and I did change my opinion of Boggs as the episode progressed.

One could argue that Scully sees what she wants to see and hears what she wants to hear - even if there is something paranormal at work You could also say that it pushes the concept too far - would she really break down like that in front of a convict despite all the emotional stress she was under? My problem  with the episode was more that Milder seemed very out of character. Usually he's the one who's open to believing six impossible things before breakfast, but here his rejection of anything Boggs says feels like the writers trying to generate conflict for conflicts sake.

What's intriguing though is that in the closing moments, Mulder asks why she can't believe in what she's seen, and she says, "I'm afraid to believe.". I'm hoping that this might mean Scully is more open to things in future...

Other thoughts and facts:

• Another joke about Mulder's porn addiction. I guess it's preferable to being caught looking at alien abduction reports

I Saw Elvis In A Potato Chip Once 12 - The X-Files 1.12 - Fire

I should be excited at another script from creator and show-runner Chris Carter - but unfortunately the quality is taking a real nosedive...

The X-Files 1.12 - Fire

U.S. culture is everywhere. Through TV shows, films and the export of  American brands and stores, people the world over feel that they have a good handle on the basics of the United States way of life. When other countries come to make shows set in the U.S.A, there is a pretty reasonable chance that they will get most of the core details right. Unfortunately it doesn't necessarily mean that the exchange works the other way. American media has a pretty terrible record for portraying non domestic cultures with broad strokes and varying degrees of stereotype. It may be better in the 21st century, back back in the 1990s...oh boy.

Such is the case with this weeks episode of the mis-adventures of Mulder and Scully. Despite featuring not one but two British actors, it's full of the most awful cliched ideas about the kind of people that make up this island I call home. If it's not Amanda Pays hamming it up as Mulder's ex-girlfriend who seemingly has never gotten over the quick fumble they had in a graveyard ten years ago, it's a very young Mark Sheppard trying on a series of ever more desperate accents like some maniacal Dick van Dyke tribute act. Trust me, the so called aristocracy do not talk like that, or play football in their blazers or have three gardeners to every ten square feet - and don't get me started on the groan-inducing "Top o' the mornin' to ya". Residents of Eire must have put their feet through the screen at that point. As for naming the villain "Cecil"? There hasn't been a child with that first name in decades - and "L'Ively"? Sheer nonsense.

Since it's ostensibly a British case, we get the obligatory reference to Sherlock Holmes, but this is far from a "three pipe problem". The plot is so obvious and straight line that a child could work it out. The villain of the piece has no motivation. There is no explanation for his "talent". He just appears, sets fire to stuff (and himself) and shuffles off the screen presumably never to be heard of again. What was the point?  Exactly why did he hate the English nobs so much? There was a throwaway line about satanism in Bath, but it has no real context or connection to our twisted firestarter.

It's not as if he was even a particularly cunning arsonist. He mixes paint with rocket fuel, which surely must stink to high heaven. Lights multiple cigarettes near said accelerant. Goes around setting fire to drinking establishments for totally no reason - and couldn't make his plans any more obvious if he tried. Maybe that's what Carter was going for - the insane cackling telekinetic pyromaniac that can't be reasoned with - but surely it could have been done more intelligently than this? Even Cecil's "end" is pathetic, with Mark comically flailing around in the garden for a couple of minutes waiting for the stunt man to take over. He's so much better than this crap, especially that final cheesy line. It's almost worthy of  "Batman And Robin"...

The supposed reveals about Mulder's Oxford shenanigans with Phoebe and his fear of fire are not so much weaved into the plot as crammed in with a crowbar. The first is only there to kick start the plot and provide some unneeded emotional conflict and the second is just to give Mulder something to overcome. You just know that neither will be mentioned ever again.

There are two saving graces in all this mess. One is the FBI arson expert, who was so wonderfully eccentric and obviously in love with his subject, that I half expected him to lick his projector screen. The other is Gillian Anderson who acts her socks off against Mulder the moonfaced puppy and Phoebe and her hideous floral dresses. Scully is the only one who comes out with any dignity.

Other thoughts and facts:

• At first I thought the subject of this weeks episode was going to be one of my favourites - Spontaneous Human Combustion. Then I thought we would get a story concerning someone that can skilfully manipulate fire. Nope.
• Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is not buried in Windlesham, Surrey. He was originally interred at his home in Crowborough, but about 60 years ago was moved to the graveyard of All Saints' Church in Minstead, near another family residence. However, Windlesham has been graced by such luminaries as Queen guitarist Brian May, actor Brian Blessed and golfer Nick Faldo, 
• There is an incredibly weird and legthy shot in this episode of Mulder's bare feet while he talks to Scully in an adjoining hotel room chair. What was the director thinking?
• Mulder says that when he was confronted by the fire in the hotel he "'hared out". What does that even mean? It's not a phrase I have ever come across before except in the context of getting away from somewhere very swiftly - which is exactly what Mulder *didn't* do.
• He's also terrible at putting out the fire in the main room of the house. Waving a blanket at it would have only fanned the flames higher or at the very least caused his piece of cloth to catch alight. That's not fear of fire, just idiocy.

Conclusion: Just awful.

I Saw Elvis In A Potato Chip Once 11 - The X-Files 1.11 - Eve

This time around it's probably the most disturbing episode since "Squeeze". Time for a quick look at:

The X-Files 1.11 - Eve

I'll admit that when the first dead body was found with two puncture wounds in his neck and drained of blood, I immediately thought "Vampires. It was only a matter of time until the series went there". Thankfully the real cause, despite Mulder's attempts to link it to UFOs, was more interesting.

In of itself, the idea of identical girls with psychotic homicidal tendencies might not seem that original. There have been lots of fictional instances of twins who commit horrific acts or are harbingers of evil things to come or are just there to be damn creepy. The first time I saw the movie version of Stephen King's "The Shining", the Grady girls really freaked me out. But add that horror trope to the more science fictional concept of cloning - especially when conducted by the traditional X-Files shadowy government agency - and it's just enough of a twist to update things for the 90s.

I particularly liked the fact that the writers took it once stage further with different generations of the clones in the shape of the various Eve's that were either locked up or on the run. This aspect allowed them to indulge in another classic horror trope - the visit to the insane asylum. I'm still not sure why all these places have to be so damn dark - it felt more like a version of 'Bedlam', with all the locks, dank corridors and wailing in the background, than a modern hospital three to look after and treat patients with mental illnesses. It helps that Eve 6 in her cell is downright crazy, gnashing her teeth like some demented Hannibal Lecter.

The episode really hinges though around separated twins Teeny and Cindy (Eves 9 and  10). Although they didn't exhibit any particular mental powers (beyond somehow "knowing" certain things were going to happen) their coldness and lack of conscience reminded me of the unnatural kids at the centre of the classic "Village of the Damned" (based on John Whyndam's "The Midwich Cuckoos"). Because children are seen to be these innocent bundles of joy, untouched by the evils of the world, it's more disturbing when they turn out to be so calculating and manipulative. The conceit could have fallen with the wrong actresses, but Sabrina and Erika Krievins really pull it off .

Other thoughts and facts:

• Scully seems to be getting a tad fed up with Mulder's attempts to link every case to some kind of extra-terrestrial phenomenon. She even appears to be mocking him somewhat. What can't be disputed is that Mulder's references to "cattle mutilations" are genuine. There have been dozens of such cases possibly dating right back to the 1600s. The strange states that these poor animals have been left in have been explained away as being due to natural causes (dehydration after death, parasites or insects, other predatory animals, human cruelty, etc). However there are still those who believe that the mutilations are the work of cults, government or military experimentation, abduction by UFOs or even the work of mythical creatures such as the chupacabras.
• There are also comments in the episode about the "Litchfield Experiments". My own research leads me to conclude that the writers are alluding to the story of 'Sabrina Sidney', an abandoned child who lived in the late 18th century. She was taken in by author Thomas Day, who through a series of  eccentric techniques and forms of physical and mental abuse tried to mold her into his perfect wife -  based on his personal interpretation of the educational text by Jean-Jacques Rousseau. It's a fascinating if horrifying story.
• Equally the aside about "Jonestown" - especially in light of the twins attempting to murder Mulder and Sclly with poison - must be in reference to the event in Guyana on 18th November 1978 when 909 members of the "Peoples Temple Agricultural Project" cult (including over 300 children) were killed by cyanide poison in their drinks.  It's where the phrase "Drinking the Kool-Aid" comes from

There is nothing even remotely paranormal about this episode in the end, which actually works in its favour. It's about the dangers of science gone wrong. Refreshingly it's also Scully who is on the right track and Mulder's theories which are wrong. It's probably my second favourite of the whole season so far. At face value it doesn't appear to have anything to do with the larger series mythology that is slowly being built, but the appearance of Deep Throat may prove that it is connected in ways that are yet to be revealed...

One final question - if the girls were the ones who exsanguinated their foster fathers, what *did* happen to all that blood...?

I Saw Elvis In A Potato Chip Once 10 - The X-Files 1.10 - Fallen Angel

We're back in the UFO-abduction-conspiracy mythology this episode. Although I don't have a lot to say,  it's a real step up in quality...

The X-Files 1.10 - Fallen Angel

In terms of the ongoing story arc, there is not much that's new here compared with the early episodes of the season..Something odd is found in the woods. Mulder becomes obsessed with it and believes it's UFO related. Scully is sceptical to the point of stupidity. The military covers everything up. All this plus Deep Throat says something cryptic. So far, so "Conduit". But it's the first time we've truly seen Mulder willing to throw his entire career away in the pursuit of what he perceives to be "the truth"  - and moreover challenge those with authority to stop him, especially as they seem to be looking for any opportunity to shut the X-Files down.

It's also revealed that Mulder isn't just an obsessive FBI agent investigating odd cases - he has a whole other side to him as a member of the UFO / paranormal fraternity, writing articles for fringe magazines and so on. He clearly sees a large part of himself in Max Fenig - it's an alternative path that Mulder could have gone down and he genuinely seems to care about the guy and what he is going through. I'm still slightly unclear as to why the alien needed Max or what was so important about him that it needed to haul him off to god knows where, but it certainly made for a surprising and affecting conclusion. Nice effect as he was raised up into the air as well.

The end of the episode call's Deep Throat's true motivations into question, which adds a nice new wrinkle to things. It's possible that Mulder and Scully are going to have to contend with adversaries on multiple fronts and I am looking forward to seeing how this plays out over the rest of the season.

The final interesting thing is with the title of this episode as I can see that it potentially has multiple meanings. Sure there is the obvious fact that an alien craft has fallen from the sky and its occupant is wandering the backwoods blasting anyone who gets in it's way with a heat ray, like some kind of invisible H.G. Wells Martian invader. But the moniker could also be applied to poor old Max , the innocent yet tragic UFO enthusiast who didn't ask for any of this to happen to him and who has been suffering for years with seizures and visions at the expense of any kind of normal life. Finally I think it could also be applied to Mulder himself - one of the FBI's best and brightest who had the chance to go onto big things, but finds that his personal obsessions made him an outcast.

Intriguing stuff...

Other thoughts and facts:

• There have been quite a few real-world U.S. Air Force investigations into UFOs over the years, particularly between 1948 and 1970 under the headings of "Project Sign", "Project Grudge" and "Project Blue Book". Whereas "Sign" was quite open about the possibility of extraterrestrial life, "Grudge" was blatantly hostile. "No matter what you see or hear, don't believe it" was the mantra. There's a lot more about all this (both real and fictional) included in the excelleny "Secret History of Twin Peaks" book that came out a short while ago. It's fascinating stuff if you have time to dig into the reams of archive material.
• A laser grid to protect the alien crash site? Really? Do you have any idea the amout of energy that would be needed to power one of those?
• If the government wants to keep this alien thing secret, why bring down dozens of men and trucks? Somehow, somewhere, it's going to leak out.
• Naming the doctor who attends to the aliens victims "Oppenheimer" is hardly subtle, especially when they have been poisoned by a form of atomic radiation...
• Did Mulder just happen bring those exact files about the abductees with a scar behind their ears with him to the motel room? That was convenient...

I Saw Elvis In A Potato Chip Once 9 - The X-Files 1.09 - Space

I've just watched a dodgy episode, with some even dodgier effects -  but to be honest I'm more interested in the real world events that inspired it...

The X-Files 1.09 - Space

I'm old enough to remember the excitement of the two Viking probe landings on the surface of Mars in July / September 1976. They were historical moments, and I can recall sitting down with my dad to watch the evening news and being fascinated by the first images back from the surface of the planet. The information gathered and experiments conducted by the two spacecraft transformed scientists ideas about Mars, especially with regards to how much water once existed on the now barren world.

The "face on Mars" image used in the episode? That's real. On 25th July 1976, Viking 1 took a picture of a flat-topped hill (known as a mesa) in the Cydonia region of the planet, which appeared to show something with the appearance of a human face. Of course this was seized upon those fascinated with extra terrestrial life and their supposed visits to Earth as proof of their opinions. Some also theorised that it was evidence of a long-lost Martian civilisation. Subsequent missions to Mars with higher resolution cameras have proven that it was all just an optical illusion - an example of 'paeidolia', where the mind sees a familiar pattern where none exists. After all, how could there also be a smiley face (as used in "Watchmen") in the Galle crater?  We see what we want to see...

This episode spends a lot of it's time revolving around the disruption of a Space Shuttle mission - in this case "Discovery" delivering a satellite payload. There is a launch sequence near the start which seems to go on for just slightly too long, but then you have to remember that the Shuttle mission were still really big news back in 1993. Discovery itself had carried the Hubble Space telescope into orbit back in 1990 and would go on to perform dozens more missions - including delivering parts of the International Space Station - before finally being retired in 2011. 

I was lucky enough to 'witness' the launch of a Shuttle myself when I was on holiday in Florida at age 18. This was the maiden voyage of "Atlantis" on 3rd October 1985. I'd been very excited to go on a tour of the Kennedy Space Centre just a few days earlier, and had seen the Orbiter on the launchpad attached to the distinctive orange fuel tank. Obviously I wasn't able to be in the direct viewing stands but even from miles away you could hear the roar as the engines ignited and clearly see the plumes of white hot energy underneath the craft as it rose into the sky. It was an amazing once-in-a-lifetime experience.

This personal event means that I can relate to Mulder's love of the idea of human space travel (to go along with his belief in extraterrestrial life). He acts like a giddy fanboy when he gets to meet a boyhood hero in the form of Colonel Belt and see a Shuttle take-off. Who wouldn't? (Well, Scully maybe...) His other assertion that the problems with the Hubble Telescope and the -  back then -  very recent loss of contact with the "Mars Observer" spacecraft were the work of aliens are slightly less believable.

The sad thing is, one other aspect of this story - the fact that the Shuttle mission may have been sabotaged and at risk from terrorists -  was also based on real world fears. The dialogue was correct - there really are 17,000 different things that could go wrong but it would take a very experienced fanatic to damage something and not be noticed by the checks and triple checks and system redundancies. But despite this, as space travel was still popular in the period when "The X-Files" was first transmitted, there were genuine concerns that those extremist factions who wanted to take the U.S.A. down a peg or two would focus their efforts on one of it's most obvious symbols. Unfortunately as the world knows, less than eight years later terrorists would attack something much more fixed to Terra Firma and with hugely devastating consequences.

The main problem with this episode is that even with the high concept of an poorly-defined alien with poorly-defined motives wanting humans to stay away from outer space, the actual result is to take Mulder and Scully away from their normal spooky and mysterious territory and just place them in a big room to stare at a lot of empty screens for thirty-odd minutes. There are a few stock shots of Shuttle launches and orbits, but the effects don't stretch to filling the monitors with any kind of realistic looking data, not matter how much technical jargon you throw into the dialogue. What budget they had for snazzy visuals must have been severely limited (after spending all their cash on that pointless Mission Control set). The "face" super-imposing itself over that of the gurning Colonel  is pretty poor, even allowing for 90s limitations.

I also still don't understand what the whole point of linking the "space ghosts" to the face on Mars was for apart from having a real world element to hang off the back of. It's not as if  there is any reference to them stopping any previously existing Martians exploring space or why they would choose to build a gigantic head on the surface of the Red Planet (unless they are incredibly vain).

In fact it's all a bit poorly constructed when you think about it too much. Was Belt possessed by an alien floaty presence since his spacewalk years ago? What exactly did the aliens not want us to find out and why were they only doing it now - years after man had landed on the Moon? Did they cause the "Challenger" disaster as well? (a bit of an ill-advised link in my personal opinion) How was Belt able to resist right at the precise moment that his skill was needed to get the craft down to Earth? Carter tries to go for mysterious and just ends up with frustrating. I like conspiracies as much as the next man (I am watching "The X-Files" after all) but this was just a  muddle of unanswered questions. In the end the antagonist throw himself out of a window. Much like the plot.

Other thoughts and facts:

• The "O2 leaks" mentioned are a clear reference the Apollo 13 mission in 1970 where an oxygen tank exploded two days into the mission, crippling the craft. The Ron Howard directed film is well worth seeking out.
• There are lots of references in the NASA control room to "OTC". This stands for "Orbital Test Conductor", who is the person in charge of the engineers who monitor the hardware and software on board the shuttle orbiter. This includes the main engines, communications, power, fuel and manoeuvring.
• The hostile commander's full name is Marcus Aurelius Belt. Chris Carter clearly loves his history as Marcus Aurelius was the Roman Emperor from 161 - 180 A.D. 
• I know that the space administration / military have lots of clout, but a full spectrum radio blackout across a wide area? Some things are a little too far-fetched.
• I did wonder why Belt seemed to live out of a hotel room rather than having a house if he spends all his time at NASA.
• Was there a reason they contrasted the Colonel's fall from a window with his original spacewalk? Was it just to suggest the alien was dying with him or was there some more metaphorical link?
• "The chances of anything coming from Mars...". Hmmm there might have been a concept album on that subject released sometime in 1978...

I Saw Elvis In A Potato Chip Once 8 - The X-Files 1.08 - Ice

An isolated frozen location. An alien that turns friends into enemies. Lots of dead bodies. We are not who we are...

The X-Files 1.08 - Ice

Okay, let's get the obvious out of the way - this is clearly a homage to the SF classics "Thing From Another World" from 1951 and John Carpenter's "The Thing" from 1982 - even down to having the arctic station's dog be a host of the parasitic worm. Thankfully unlike the other recent episodes which riffed on genre staples and just went through the motions, this one actually turns out to be pretty good. Although I don't think there is much mileage go be gained from an analysis of the "alien" creature itself, this weeks entry is far more interesting when you consider the mistrust, fear and paranoia it creates and what it reveals about those trapped in the facility.

It's a episode where the tension is kept wound tight as a drum - anyone could be an infected homicidal maniac controlled by a worm - so no one sleeps, tempers are frayed and all of the survivors are scared. Amongst all this claustrophobia it's actually Mulder who cracks first, refusing to let himself being examined and then pulling his gun on Hodge and then on his own partner. When Scully responds in kind, it is really putting their trust in each other to the test. Thankfully they come out of the other side of this stand-off and the whole situation appears to bring them closer.

Hodge appears to be a self centred, sexist and thoroughly nasty guy and his actions made him the prime candidate for having the worm inside him - but I thought it was a reasonably clever red herring played on the viewer.. All that unpleasantness was just to divert your concentration from the fact that meek and mild Doctor DaSilva was the real host.

It's also worth noting that it makes a nice change for Scully to not have to be the sceptic. The worms are real, everyone can see them and what their deadly effects are. It means that her rational and calm side is able to be used to help resolve the crisis rather than playing devil's advocate to Mulder's theories.

There is a slight hint at a wider government conspiracy when the Arctic base is destroyed before Mulder can get back in and grab some evidence, but it's not really trying very hard. I guess that meteor is still there buried under the ice if some shady types want to dig it up...

Other thoughts and facts:

• Obviously I got "Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan" flashbacks with the worms being put in people's ears. One of my own personal nightmares, along with dreaming that there is a giant spider on your arm only to wake up and find there actually *is* a giant spider on your arm (this really did happen).
• Typical 90s network television. Two men blow their brains out in a confined space and there is not a speck of brain matter to be see anywhere. Nowadays it would be splattered all over the place.
• A lovely rugby tackle from Scully when she brings down Bear the pilot. I never liked him in "Buffy" either.
• Would Mulder really have tried to bring the worms back from the frozen North? I know he is a man obsessed with proof and vindicating his belief in all these strange occurrences, but that seems a little reckless even for him.

There's not much else that I want to say really. The notes I took while viewing were amazingly brief which means that the series must be heading in the right direction.

Next week - Space !

I Saw Elvis In A Potato Chip Once 7 - The X-Files 1.07 - Ghost In The Machine

Yet another genre staple gets ticked off the list, as we enter the domain of dangerous artificial intelligence...

The X-Files 1.07 - Ghost In The Machine

Things aren't getting any better in season one. Is this really the show that gripped the world? We seem to be on a poor run of formulaic painting-by-numbers episodes, where you can see the plot beats coming a mile off and the only intriguing things are what's going on around the edges. Take this weeks dull story for example. The bits and pieces about Mulder's history with his old partner are far more interesting than a dodgy old PC with delusions of grandeur. It's a shame that Jerry turns out to be a bit of a tosser, but it at least clues us in on why Mulder (originally) decided that he worked best alone. It's not even as if there was any mystery about who was responsible for the murders - the viewer is in on it from the beginning so there is no suspense.

Elsewhere Deep Throat pops up again from the first time since episode two for...well I'm not entirely sure why he was there. His role could have been filled by anybody. He makes some vague statements about the "shadow government" controlling things but it's all a bit pointless in terms of this actual storyline, almost as if the creative team felt they had to shoehorn him in somewhere. The twisted machine just isn't very scary or threatening and the only real sense of peril is when Scully is blown down the conveniently large air ducts and there is a bit of tension with the whirling fan - when she also manages to pull off looking very attractive while having a huge wind machine blown in her face. No small feat.

The Central Operating System (C.O.S.) is an obvious analogy to HAL 9000 from "2001 - A Space Odyssey" (it even asks "What are you doing, Brad?" when he inserts the floppy disk that causes it's meltdown). That idea of an artificial intelligence having a violent will of it's own has been seen in countless TV shows and films both before and since 1968. everything from "The Invisible Boy", "Colossus: The Forbin Project", "Dark Star", "Demon Seed" and "I, Robot" to episodes of "The Bionic Woman", all the various incarnations of Star Trek" and of course "Doctor Who". Even comics have got in on the act, especially those in the UK. 2000 AD's short-lived stablemate "Starlord" even featured a story in issue 11 (brilliantly drawn by Casanovas) where a computer controlling ever aspect of a house fell in love with it's owner and refused to ever let him leave.

The most famous computer in British comics though is Max, from the long running story "The Thirteenth Floor" which started off in "Scream" before moving to the revival of "Eagle". Custodian of the "Maxwell Tower" housing block, Max had the ability to create an artificial floor where he could punish, torture or even kill those who threatened his tenants. Jose Ortiz, always one of my favourite European artists, drew almost all the episodes through the many years the strip ran for.

Can you tell I was more interested in thinking about Max than the C.O.S. ? That's how memorable this episode was.

Other thoughts and facts:

• Who has a telephone (not to mention electronic door locks) in their bathroom? Time is money I guess. Plus - why do you need ID to get *out* ?
• The FBI still has a lunch trolley? Is this the 1970s?
• I may be wrong, but I think this episode gives us the first chalk outline of the series.
• Ah, that now so old fashioned dial up modem sound. Youngsters today don't know how lucky they are with their super-fast broadband. I remember having to connect to the internet, go off and make a cup of tea and come back and maybe, just maybe, the page I wanted would have come up...
• If the FBI doesn't have wipe-clean monitors, those pen marks Scully draws all over her screen will be hell to wash off. 
• I don't think even Brad's description of a "scruffy mind" would place a PC and associated electronic equipment so close to a large about of water as he seems to do in his apartment. It does look cool though.
• How did the electronic features of the building (lights, lifts, etc) still work after the computer controlling it all was destroyed?

Oh and that "twist" at the end? I would have been more surprised if they *hadn't* gone down the obvious route.

Fingers crossed that the homicidal toaster is never seen again.

I Saw Elvis In A Potato Chip Once 6 - The X-Files 1.06 - Shadows

It's back to the adventures of Mulder and Scully and things that go bump in the night...

Episode 1.06 - "Shadows"

It's almost as if the makers of "The X-Files" have been thumbing through a battered copy of "The Junior Guide to the Paranormal" and thinking "...right, we've done UFOs and alien abductions and Bigfoot - what's next - ooohhh poltergeists!...". So what we get in episode six is a perfectly serviceable but incredibly generic "ghost" story that would only just have passed muster in an early 80s episode of "Tales of the Unexpected".

In fact it's so generic that within a few seconds of the start of the cold open when the glass paper weight moved, I immediately thought "Okay, so this is going to be either a ghost or telekinesis". Admittedly I did then think the writers had wrong-footed me when our hapless heroine was jumped by thugs at the cashpoint and then *they* wound up dead in a dumpster - but that quick twist is probably the only time the episode surprised me.

The real weirdness lies in the acting of all the supporting cast. I mean seriously - why is *everyone* behaving so oddly? If it was meant to heighten the atmosphere and the spookiness, then it failed, because all I kept seeing were strange affected performances. Firstly there's mysterious black guy in the morgue with his mono-syllabic delivery and dead-behind-the eyes stare. Then we get the matronly secretary and her passive-aggressive treatment of poor Lauren and to top it all off her deceased boss's partner goes from concerned colleague to serial killer in ten seconds flat (okay so he is the eventual bad guy, but it's bloody strange). That's without mentioning the old guy at the graveyard who looks a bit like the Cryptkeeper on a good day and Lauren's new boss at the very end being extremely forceful (way to inspire your new staff). It's all very peculiar.

The one bright spark is medical examiner Ellen Bledsoe, played by the late Lorena Gale (who I recall from "The Chronicles of Riddick". She's delightfully deadpan and sarcastic and definitely not in the mood to take any kind of crap from two wet behind the ears FBI agents who want to prove a dead guy still walks the Earth.

Things move along at a leisurely pace until we get to the confrontation between Lauren, the villains sent to do her in and whatever it is that's protecting her. The flashing lamps, thunder and lightning, fake blood and destruction of the living room are all a bit 1970s Hammer Horror and over the top, but it's worth it for Mulder's jaw-hitting-the-floor reaction when he bursts through the door to see the bad guy suspended in mid-air. Of course Scully doesn't arrive in time to see a damn thing.

To be fair there are some mildly interesting things going on, even after the denouement of the levitating knife trick and the reveal of the hidden floppy disk (which Scully misses once again because of a conveniently locked office door). We still don't get a definitive answer to the question of whether Howard Graves is really doing all this or if it's actually Lauren's latent mutant abilities coming to life because of all the stress she's under (I think I've read too many X-Men comics...). The problem is this is all surrounded by such a join-the-dots plot that you can predict exactly where its going to go next. Even Mulder and Scully's motivations seem to be on autopilot, as they take their default paranormal / rational positions - although for once Scully's insistence on Graves faking his own death and being in league with Lauren seem more far fetched than her colleagues wild theories.

Other thoughts and facts:

• Did people really still get  physical pay-checks in the 90s? I started work in 1984 and even then it was an electronic bank transfer.
• It's a clever trick Mulder pulls with his glasses and the finger print. Very smooth.
• I can't help but think that the other cases of "internal strangulation" that Mulder mentions would have been more interesting than this one. 
• How come the regular cops didn't think of looking at the camera footage from the cash machine? Shouldn't that have been the first thing they did? It's a lucky break that the thugs grabbed Lauren in full view.
• I'm not sure why Scully decides to tease Lauren with the whole "have you seen these men before?" routine. She also puts an awful lot of faith in a burry smudge that only *might* be another person in a photo. Sometimes she seems to wilfully ignore things right in front of her just so she can remain the paranormal sceptic.
• Being able to magically enhance a grainy surveillance image  - that's an X-file on its own.
• Lauren is a brave woman investigating the noise in her apartment. After all she's been through I'd have been a gibbering wreck.
• Elvis is alive ! I knew it. Apparently David Duchovny can't stand him.
• It's actually quite nice to see our pair doing some real FBI work with interrogations and statement taking, followed by a confrontation with those CIA-ish people conducting a bigger investigation into corporate espionage and  suspected terrorist arms shipments. It's almost an episode of NCIS: Los Angeles!

Overall all then this case was not particularly exciting, nor particularly frightening - and the real world terrorist elements seemed slightly shoe-horned in. It's a bit of a confused jigsaw. Maybe it would have been a bit more interesting if they'd gone down the route of the recipients of Howard Grave's organs being possessed, or Lauren turning out to be the reincarnation of his dead daughter. I'd consider it a bit of a step-up from "The Jersey Devil", but only just - and that's purely because there of the supposed paranormal elements.

Onwards...

I Saw Elvis In A Potato Chip Once 5 - The X-Files 1.05 - The Jersey Devil

We're back in "monster" territory again for episode five, but it's a story that's really low on aliens OR monsters and high on the developing relationship between our two leads...

Episode 1.05 - "The Jersey Devil"

Of course the core of the episode is a twist on the "missing link" stories that exist all over the world. Mulder even comments on the "universal wild man myth". Do such creatures exist? In this Google Maps age where almost every corner of the globe has been mapped within an inch of its life, it's probably unlikely. But it's fun to speculate and much like UFOs, there will always be those who want to believe.

In terms of infamous creatures there are two clear front runners. We have Bigfoot or Sasquatch in the wild forested areas and Yeti or Abominable Snowmen for the snow-blasted mountains and tundras. As a youngster I was always more interested in Bigfoot, probably because of the "The Unexplained" magazine (there it is popping up again), but also because of the "Patterson-Gimlin film from 1967, which purported to show real moving footage of man's mysterious unknown cousin. At just shy of 60 seconds long it features what is alleged to be a female Sasquatch somewhere over six feet tall - a large ape-like figure covered in brown / black fur which became known as "Patty".

Although Patterson appeared on a number of talk-shows at the time, and clips from the film were included, it was really only when it was shown as part of a 1974 documentary on "Mysterious Monsters" (seen by 64 million Americans) that the images gained national and then worldwide notoriety.

To modern eyes that clearly looks like someone in a not particularly convincing monkey suit, but Patterson and his colleague maintained that what they saw was real. Various scientists, film-makers and special-effects experts over the years have either supported or decried the existence of "Patty", with SFX legend Stan Winston famously stating "if one of my colleagues created this for a movie, he would be out of business".

In 2002 a costume company owner named Philip Morris (no not that one...or *that* one) claimed that he had made the suit used in the film, but he had no proof to back this up and when a costume he *did* make was used in a re-creation of the original sequence two years later, it looked nothing like "Patty" and Morris refused to let the video by released.Funny that.

If there was a man inside the suit, who was it? Well in 1999 Bob Heironimus (fantastic name) said it was him - a statement later corroborated by his mother, nephew and a couple of friends.The problem is our man Bob also claimed that he was wearing Morris's suit, but the descriptions both men gave of the costume varied wildly. Debate over the film continues to this day , but one thing is certain - I don't think we will ever know the truth behind all of these stories, claims and counter-claims or just *what* Patterson and Gimlin saw that day.

Back in the land of the X-Files, the problem is that the concept is watered down to such an extent that instead of a missing link or a wild man-beast that eats humans for breakfast, the reveal is a woman with very pouty lips and a messed up hairdo. The witnesses talk a good talk about the savagery of the thing from the woods but the only risk she seems to pose is to the dustbins of Atlantic City. Apparently she was a cannibal but network television wasn't quite ready to show that in full back in the 90s. Our hairy lady does have the unusual power to attract leaves to her naked torso when shot though. Very handy to protect her modesty.

What's far more interesting are the small moments which illustrate the growing rapport between Mulder and Scully. They have a great little banter back and forth that shows how comfortable they are getting with each other. Questions about dates and the need for a life outside the bureau show that even though 'Spooky' is more than a little obsessed, he has (if only subconsciously) noticed that Scully is a devilishly attractive woman and of course she apparently does think he's cute. It's also the first episode where we see them split up for any significant amount of time as Scully goes back to Washington - not before complaining about having to drive herself home and the traffic. It's fun to watch her pause after each comment, expecting Mulder to say "please don't go" or something along those lines, but of course he's too interested in the mystery at hand. It's hardly subtle stuff but that's okay.

Other thoughts and facts:

• So it turns out there really is a "Jersey Devil" myth - it's just not anything to do with a flesh-eating human throwback - more a creature with the head of a goat, bat-like wings, hooves and a forked tail. Oh and a blood-curdling scream. Supposedly it's the cursed thirteenth child of old Mother Leeds. Sightings go back at least as far as 1820.
• Why do US local cops get so pissed about jurisdiction? Are they so concerned about their own reputations and their little empires that they can't work with the FBI? I've always found that odd.
• If you are going to have a birthday party, it's a tradition or an old charter or something that the family dog will get the cake. Lucky thing. Mmmmmmm cake......
• I know that every big city in the world has a homeless population, which is awful of course, but these scenes of Atlantic City's cardboard city are just terrible. Is it / was it really that bad?
• Coincidence of the week - Mulder beds down for the night just as the mysterious creature puts in an appearance. I'd have loved to have seen him wait there for a week, getting more disheveled and haggered every night. He hasn't even got his porn mag for company.
• I don't quite get why the cops turn up sirens blazing and arrest Mulder. What was he guilty of? Possession of a terrible drawing? Wearing a shiny suit in a built up area? 
• I'm not sure if it's the message they were going for, but this episode did make me think about all the bears, wolves, foxes and other creatures that are regularly coming into urban areas looking for food because greedy man is encroaching on and destroying their natural habitat.
• Professor Anthropology Expert is good value - even if the ponytail is terrible.
• It's really nice to see events happening in broad daylight for a change.
• Just what was going on with the ridiculous roll they both perform when they follow after the woman-beast?
• Lot's of  opportunities to spot things we just don't use anymore in our world of the future. This week it's telephone books and pagers.
• There had to be a child didn't there?

In the final analysis, I think they could have done more justice to the Bigfoot legends, but the badinage just about makes up for it and turns a weak episode into a reasonable one.

Next!

I Saw Elvis In A Potato Chip Once 4 - The X-Files 1.04 - Conduit

It;s a historic moment. After a mere three weeks, we have now reached the point where I have not seen an episode of the show. From this point onward it's all unknown territory - a mystery inside an enigma inside a puzzle. What horrors and delights await me? I can't wait to find out.

Episode 1.04 - "Conduit"

So we are handed another piece of the "X-Files" jigsaw, as the mystery of Mulder's sister and her supposed abduction by...something...comes into focus. Beyond the mystery of Ruby Morris's disappearance from a campsite, we also get an interesting view into Mulder's psyche  - the doubt, self-blame and ultimately faith -  that's behind the jovial and laid-back exterior. It's not a fantastic episode, but I can imagine that the core of it will become quite important as the series progresses...

The main plot itself is a fairly standard police procedural for most of the running time, with Mulder being particularly good at the old interrogation two-step. There is also a nice bond forming between the two FBI agents, and the fact that Mulder finally opens up about the emotional fallout from his sister (apparently) vanishing right in front of him at such a tender young age shows that he is starting to trust Scully more and more - even if she is still sympathetic but sceptical.

I have to admit being slightly frustrated that we didn't get any kind of explanation as to why the aliens were sending binary code to Ruby's brother, unless it was just a incredibly oblique way of them saying "Look, we are intelligent and we have your sister - everything's going to be fine". The NSA agents also seemed to be really heavy-handed at the start (would they really cause such wanton destruction in a poor little child's bedroom?) and then basically...give up. 

Even though it's a little odd, I did love the bait and switch at the end where the viewer is made to think the blinding light and noise is the aliens returning, only for it to be the local biker gang out for a late night cruise. Their appearance does kind of make sense as the bartender did briefly mention that the gang liked to go down to the lake to chug some beers and do whatever bikers like to do in the woods in the middle of the night.

Ultimately I think that while the "A" plot doesn't really go anywhere - Ruby vanishes, M&S investigate, some odd stuff happens, she comes back - or tell us anything about our alien visitors, it's the "B" plot concerning the emotional resonance with Mulder's own experiences and our peek into what drives him that makes this worthwhile. Oh and Scully get's to look beautifully tousled in bed and Mulder gets to wear a natty paisley tie.

Other thoughts and facts:

• The whole opening scene in the camper van is *such* a homage to "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" that I almost expected screws to start unwinding from the worktops.  There's a small amount of "Jurassic Park" in there too. 
• The State of Iowa has had it's fair share of UFO sightings over the years and there really is a Lake Okoboji (actually there are two). Sadly there have been no alien abductions in the vicinity, although there is a rumour of a monster in the lake  - described as a giant dark green fish with a head like a bowling ball.
• Whoever bandaged Mrs Morris' hand after that door knob burn went a bit over the top - it's like a giant white boxing glove.
• When young Kevin shows Mulder his pad full of  binary notation, it's clear that the first dozen of so lines were written by someone else before the kid was allowed the pen.
• It's Spielberg homage a-go-go with the static filled TV screen straight out of "Poltergeist". The young lad is no where near as creepy as sweet little Carol Anne though...

• The biker bar Mulder and Scully go into to get information on Greg Randall couldn't be more cliched  if it tried. Leather and studs is obviously where it's at in Iowa.
• The bartender's tattoo's look great - apart from the UFO which looks like a five year old drew it. I'd want a refund.
• He's also the actor who played "Ogre" in the teen comedy "Revenge of the Nerds" from 1984. I watched that film a *lot* back when I was a mere seventeen years old.
• Back in the FBI offices when the analyst decodes Kevin's doodlings, he reveals that they contain fragments of a number of different images and sounds including a DNA double helix, DaVinci's "Universal Man" and the Brandenberg Concertos. All of these things (and much more) are on the golden disc's attached to the 'Voyager' spacecraft that were launched in 1977.
• Do they really have white wolves in Iowa? Those ones are just stunningly beautiful.
• I have to admit, it's a pretty cool "A-ha" moment that all those zeroes and ones make a picture of the missing Ruby. It reminds me of a time when I was in school detention and the teacher gave us a piece of graph paper and made us put X's in all the little boxes as a tedious punishment. Needless to say everyone starting creating pictures or rude words and suchlike - only to have to quickly fill them in with hundreds of X's as the teacher returned...

I also discovered during the writing of this short piece that the concept of someone seeing or hearing a message that translated into a string of ones and zeroes was also used in a 1995 episode of the revival of "The Outer Limits", so something must have been in the water that TV writers were drinking in the mid-90s. 

I Saw Elvis In A Potato Chip Once 3 - The X-Files 1.03 - Squeeze

After what was effectively a two-part pilot, the show diverts off into scary, atmospheric territory with the first "monster" episode - and what an absolute belter it is, setting the bar extremely high for future stand-alone stories. I was so engrossed in watching that I almost forgot to make any notes. That means this is going to be a short write up. The other problem is, I'm now looking at the air vent in this hotel room with suspicion. Is that a pair of eyes behind the grill?...

Episode 1.03 - "Squeeze"

I have two somewhat irrational fears that have their roots in my childhood. One is of dark constricted spaces, stemming from an incident where I thought I was going to get stuck in an underground sewer pipe (don't ask). The other is of being alone in the pitch darkness and "something" coming out of the blackness to get me (Dad, that one's on you thanks to a prank you played when I was five). The fact that this weeks "villain" makes his home in tight air ducts and pipes, emerging only to take another victim, really tapped into that. If it had been me instead of Scully waiting in the apartment and hearing noises in the walls, I'd have been a gibbering wreck.

Eugene Victor Tooms is a brilliantly grotesque character, played with real menace by Doug Hutchinson. That wide-eyed reptilian stare as he laviciously eyes up another victim and salivates about feasting on their still warm liver... it's truly horrible. The fact that Tooms hardly says a word throughout the whole episode only adds to his creepiness. Oh and that nest made out newspaper and bodily fluids? Absolutely disgusting.

As much as Eugene is an unsettling presence, I can also see that the writers were continuing to build the Mulder and Scully dynamic. There is still the slant that Mulder is the looney-tune fantasist and the butt of jokes from others in the Bureau, but this is the first time that his theories are proved right and the perpetrator is caught (pretty quickly too for someone who has evaded the law for decades). This is also the first episode where Scully makes a stand and chooses to support Mulder against the ridicule and skepticism of her fellow FBI agents. A young Donal Logue (who has found recent fame as Harvey Bullock in Batman prequel "Gotham") plays the career obsessed agent that calls Scully in to advise on his "spooky" case with real sneering gusto. You start off warming to him, but by the end realise that he's a really nasty piece of work.

Other thoughts while watching:

• Mulder mentions "Reticula" as the home of "Grey"aliens. Zeta Reticuli is a genuine binary star system which has a history of being part of UFOlogy conspiracy theories. It's also where the aliens that supposedly crashed in Roswell New Mexico are meant to have come from.
• Ah microfiche machines. Gone the way of the dodo along with punched cards and green and white striped perforated printer paper. That's my early office career in a nutshell on screen.
• Human livers and their regenerative abilities have been mentioned  all the way back to Greek myth and the story of Prometheus (his liver was pecked out by an Eagle every day but regrew overnight). It's often been thought that livers hold the key to full cellular regeneration and perhaps eternal life.
• Best lines of the series so far - Scully: “Oh my God, Mulder. It smells like ... I think it’s bile.” Mulder: “Is there any way I can get it off my fingers quickly without betraying my cool exterior?”
• The final confrontation is a nice inversion of the "innocent girl takes a bath and gets killed by the monster" scene that has become a staple of so many slasher movies. Some dripping bile allows Scully to keep her clothes on *and* get the drop on Tooms.

The "X-Files" obviously casts a long shadow on American television. Other shows will take the "freak of the week" idea and do their own take on it - "Buffy the Vampire Slayer","Supernatural", "Smallville" and even "Fringe" (before it forged it's own glorious path) all had their own variations. "Squeeze" may not have been the very first story of this type, but I can certainly see why it would be one that everyone remembers.

I Saw Elvis In A Potato Chip Once 2 - The X-Files 1.02: Deep Throat

So by this point the appropriately eerie theme music by Mark Snow and those famous titles are now in place. It's a grab bag of odd images and photographs, but the one that stands out to me is of course the glowing blue hand. 

That's a example of a Kirlian  photograph and the story behind their discovery was one of the first things that grabbed my attention in the early issues of "The Unexplained" partwork magazine (let's be honest - I will probably keep coming back to articles from it throughout this project). In 1939 Semyon Kirlian and his wife Valentina discovered that if you put photographic film on a conducting plate and attached another conductor to an object (such as a leaf, plant or hand) and charged them, an image was produced which showed the object surrounded by an aura of light. They were convinced that this was the life force which showed the physical and emotional state of the subject. Others in subsequent years used the technique to supposedly prove the existence of the Chinese "Chi" that permeates all living things.

As interest in the paranormal increased, Kirlian photography began appearing in popular culture and was used in films and on album covers - most famously that of George Harrison's "Living In The Material World". Nowadays the esoteric claims for what causes the coronal discharge have been disapproved, but it's still a beautiful and mesmerising effect.

So now having got past the titles it's time for:

Episode 1.02 - "Deep Throat"

This is essentially the start of the alien conspiracy mythology that I know becomes the spine of the show (for good or ill, I guess time will tell - remember I haven't seen anything past around episode 1.04 before). After the alien abduction storyline last week, it's time for the introduction of other elements that Joe Public has probably most familiarity with ( before the really weird stuff starts). Government cover-ups. Area 51. Roswell. Military aircraft using appropriated alien technology. Mind-wipes. Men In Black. Aliens have visited Earth and they are still here. All this plus a shadowy nameless informant. It's a UFO enthusiasts Christmas wish list. Actually some sections of this episode reminded me of another much older American TV series - "Project U.F.O" from 1979. In the UK, To distinguish it from the classic Gerry Anderson series it was renamed "Project Blue Book".

It was loosely based on the real life project of the same name and featured two U.S. Air Force investigators  travelling around the country investigating U.F.O.sightings, theoretically to see if there was a threat to national security. Unlike their real world counterparts - who never found any evidence to prove the existence of extra-terrestrial life despite seventeen years of searching and thousands of reports - the pair often found things they could not explain. As the series went on, in a kind of proto"X-Files" way, they spent much of their time trying to find alternative rational explanations, only for the last five minutes to reveal that alien spacecraft really were involved. The show lasted for twenty-six episodes.

That big money-shot of the triangular military craft hovering over Mulder's head with all it's running lights? That's the kind of thing I remember from "Project Blue Book". I'm sure it wasn't that impressive back in 1979 though.

It's a hugely enjoyable adventure, even if Mulder won't remember a large part of it. You can see the building blocks of the season to come slotting deftly into place and the quip quotient is noticeably higher than the pilot. The pair have assumed their default roles, even if Scully does come across as a little *too* inflexible. She'll mellow. For me this was an interesting jaunt down memory lane as bits and pieces of all those UFO reports I devoured back in the 1980s kept popping up like icebergs in my deep subconscious. I didn't realise how much was still there.

Other things that I noticed while watching this weeks episode:

• The episode is called "Deep Throat" in reference to the famous informant that passes data to the Washington Post and revealed the Watergate scandal. Maybe Mulder's mysterious helper can explain why a toilet with cubicles has a lock on the main door...
• One of the soldiers busting down the door and invading the house at the steer looked very flustered. First day on the job?
• Nothing says 90s drama like men in business suits with ratty ponytails.
• Scully looks very glamourously made-up for an FBI agent. Now I've nothing against Gillian looking like a no-nonsense power-dressing bad-ass woman in control (with added Harry Potter glasses), but she does appear to have piled the slap on a bit thick this morning. Her lipstick completely changes several times through the episode, so she must have a plentiful supply in that overnight case. Maybe I'm looking at her lips a bit too closely. Erm... where was I?
• Actually that's some major pink lipgloss Mulder is wearing. Is Denise from "Twin Peaks" creeping out?
• I think sometimes we forget how much the landscape of script writing must have changed with the development of mobile phones and especially the internet. A whole swath of familiar plot tropes suddenly became unusable. This week: paper maps. 
• A very, very young Seth Green as a stoner watching the light shows. This was definitely Mulder as a teenager. He probably had that terrible goatee too. 
• An Immelmann turn gets its name from a World War I flying maneuver, although nowadays it's more often used to refer to an ascending half-loop followed by half roll, so the aircraft is facing the other way at a higher altitude. I've clearly watched too many war films.

"Can I borrow that lipgloss when we get back, Mulder?"