The X-Files. Definite spoilers. I'm *asking* for them.

[Aankh]

Long years ago, when I was a wee one in India, I watched a few episodes of the X-Files on cable TV. One had a soldier who'd never slept a wink his whole life because of government experimentation in 'Nam, and now he'd developed psychic powers due to insomnia, and so went around killing the people who'd done this to him. Another one I remember had a fellow who periodically popped out of a puke-encrusted sewer, munched on a few human livers, and then popped back into the sewer to hibernate awhile. Umm...oookaaay.

Well, it was interesting and all, but rather dark and dingy. I quit watching pretty soon after that, not because I disliked the show, but because it just wan't a priority. Then one day, years later, a friend of mine revealed to me that she was a rabid, passionate X-phile, and that she wrote tonnes of Mulder-Scully mush fanfic. I was asked to become "literary" editor and grammar-checker. Wokay. Can do. So, through the world of angsty teenage fanfic, I learned that aliens were involved in the process, that there was some black oil somewhere, that some people got cloned, and other such exciting things happened.

Well, it got me curious. I've no idea when the show became about aliens and government conspiracies, and all the bad fanfic only served to confuse me about the actual plot of the series. So, my question is, could someone please summarise the X-files plot over all the seasons please? Just a very short summary would do! Thank you in advance!

I realise that the entire OP can be condensed to "Summarise the X-Files for me" but it's my OP and I'll do what I want with it, so nyah.

[spiralscratch]

The X-Files has always been about the aliens and government conspiracies. It looks like the episodes you've seen are the "filler" episodes.

I'd do a brief summary for you, but I'm pretty rusty on X-Files and would probably get some important stuff wrong or miss it altogether. So, I'll instead point you to this episode guide / timeline that I googled.

[BrotherCadfael]

The X-Files shows are about evenly divided into two groups: The so-called "conspiracy arc" shows, which involve alian abductions, black oil, evil government types, etc, and the "Monster of the Week" episodes. There was surprisingly little overlap between the two.

Fans are also about evenly divided between the conspiracy fans and the MOTW fans. Most MOTW fans disdain the conspiracy episodes and vice versa.

Me, I'm firmly in the Monster of the Week camp, and I dislike (to the point of not watching) the conspiracy episodes, with the exception of "Reflections of a Cigarette-Smoking Man", which is pretty damned funny.

[booklover]

I stopped watching the show at some point after the movie was released because it started getting really weird. Like Brother Cadfael, I was much more fond of the Monster-of-the-Week shows than the government conspiracy stuff.

However, I can tell you that X-Files was definitely all about government conspiracy and aliens from the very beginning. In the first ep, Scully (who is an MD) was basically assigned by the Powers That Be to spy on the conspiracy-investigating Mulder. They go out to Oregon to investigate a teen's death, which of course ties into the whole extra-terrestrial bit.

There are some show recaps here: http://www.televisionwithoutpity.com/show.cgi?show=5

www.tvtome.com also has very excellent episode guides, with goofs, nitpicks, etc. but unfortunately the site seems to be down at the moment so I can't do a direct link.

[Homebrew]

I'm a conspiracy arc fan, or I was until the season following the movie. They really mussed it up that season and I switched teams to the MOTW fandom. Before that I preferred the conspiracy storyline but I also enjoyed the MOTW episodes, particularly Home.

I think both were important to the show. The MOTW gave the whole reason for existence to the X-Files. It was through investigating those that Mulder discovered the conspiracy.

[Sister Vigilante]

I was definitely a MOTW fan, to the point where I stopped watching it after the movie came out. I really hated the alien conspiracy arc; I just never thought it was believable or even remotely interesting.

[Draelin]

Homebrew, Home is my absolute, #1 favorite episode. Which probably doesn't say anything positive about my mental health. And now I'm going to have that Johnny Mathis song stuck in my head all day.

I had planned to post a link to TVTome, but booklover is right, the site seems to be down for the moment. You can also try Fox TV's site, which has the official home page, though that page is also disliking me or my connection at the moment.

[BrotherCadfael]

It's also important to note (as has been done in a couple of other threads), that the show ended when Duchovny left. There have been rumors over the years that the producers wanted to keep the show going with some other actor playing the lead X-Files investigator, but fortunately, this never happened.

[Aankh]

Thank you for all the episode guide link, people, but actually I already googled those. They don't quite offer the more holistic summary I seek.

I'm looking for something that prunes out all the unnecessary bits (such as my liver-eater seems to have been), and gives me only the meat. Something like:

There were these aliens, and they did XYZ with the government, and the plan was to PQR with the help of MNO and DEF, but Mulder and Scully did ABC, and so humanity won the day. If indeed humanity did win the day.

[av8rmike]

Originally Posted by aankh

I'm looking for something that prunes out all the unnecessary bits (such as my liver-eater seems to have been), and gives me only the meat. Something like:

There were these aliens, and they did XYZ with the government, and the plan was to PQR with the help of MNO and DEF, but Mulder and Scully did ABC, and so humanity won the day. If indeed humanity did win the day.

That's because you can't. Even from the beginning, Chris Carter and the other writers were making up the alien myth-arc storyline as they went along, revealing bits of it at a time. Somewhere around seasons 4-5, there was a three-parter where Mulder met a DOD employee named Kritschgau who convinced him that everything he'd believed about aliens was all government black projects. Then, a season or two later, a second set of aliens is introduced and kill many of the CSM's co-conspirators. Then they start the whole Super Soldier story-arc, and all continuity basically goes out the window. So what are the "unnecessary bits" and the "meat"? No one can really say.

[Aankh]

Originally Posted by av8rmike

That's because you can't.

Dang. That does put a damper on my question. ::deflated::

[Draelin]

Mike is right, unfortunately. Even in Monster of the Week episodes, there can be a clue to the conspiracy. And episodes that seem to be completely unrelated suddenly have something important buried in them. Half the people in the very first episode show up again in the seventh season, and even I got pretty confused after that. X-Files is an all-or-nothing commitment, I'm afraid.

I say start renting with Season One, and hope you can stick with it. Good luck!

[ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness]

[quote=aankh]I'm looking for something that prunes out all the unnecessary bits (such as my liver-eater seems to have been), and gives me only the meat. QUOTE]

The movie soundtrack contains an unlisted track that features roughly 8 minutes of silence followed byusome dude narrating a conspiracy summary. I've seen transcripts of this on-line, but don't have a link. However, keep in mind that this only covers the first 4 seasons (the movie was released between seasons 5 & 6, but was filmed between seasons 4 & 5, so certain season 5 developments, such as the rebel aliens out to foil the conspiracy, go unmentioned). But this at least covers the core of the conspiracy, as the season 6 two-parter "Two Fathers/One Son" pretty much kills off most of the conspirators, and then the show floundered around for a season and a half not knowing where to go, dropping new hints and never revisiting them again (what was the deal with the spaceship in Africa?) before settling on Season 8's abduction of and search for Mulder storyline.

There was a retcon attempt to bring everything together in the show's final episode. Mulder is on trial for murder, and the defense was the "victim" was a super soldier (a goofy concept introduced at the end of Season 8) and not really dead, therefore Mulder didn't commit murder. The next 90 minutes or so is a clip-show style summary of the "evidence", with various witnesses testifying what they know of the conspiracy, ordered chronologically. Maybe an episode guide desciption of this episode would provide what you're looking for.

[Green Bean]

I used to like both the MOTW eps and the mytharc eps. I even preferred the mytharc eps, because I was so curious to find out what was going on. It was so cool how when one question got answered, more popped up in its place. Unfortunately, we never did find out what was going on. It all seemed to be building up to a big reveal--but it never happened. There was no payoff.

Like av8rmike said, looking back at it, you can't tell what was meat and what was unneccessary. I guess all the mytharc stuff was unneccesary bits. The fact that there was no payoff was a great disappointment and I actually feel resentful about it. I watched less and less in the season after the movie, wasn't watching at all by the time Doggett came along, and didn't watch any reruns for several years.

I just started watching it again occasionally, and I am firmly in the MOTW camp now. The mytharc episodes just seem silly.

I like Home, too. I do tend to enjoy the funnier episodes, though. Humbug is probably my favorite episode overall, and if I had to show someone just one X-files ep, that would be it.

[dalovindj]

The method, as they called it, though it was more so a germ-line procedure of singular meta-scientific complexity, had been given to them by the alien colonists as quid pro quo. The Syndicate would help them to create a population of alien hybrids who would hide in plain sight, cloned from human ova and alien bio-material, so there would be a cloned race immune to the effects of the black oil when the return to the planet began. For this, the Syndicate would be sequestered, granted a sort of immunity or asylum, given a place in the grander scheme.

(( For full quote, see:
Chris Carter link -- CKDH ))

~ Chris Carter

Easy, right? I never understood why people had trouble following the conspiracy arc. It all made pretty good sense to me. I also hated Monster of the Week episodes for the most part. I felt cheated every time. There were some standouts, but for the most part those episodes were what you had to put up with waiting for them to move the story forward. I also really dug the T-1000 as an agent, but that semi-psychic bitch sucked.

Anyway, the way it was left in the final episode, the aliens (black oil - not the rebels) are supposed to attack/invade in 2012, which is the supposed predicted date for the end of the world on the Mayan calendar. I feel confident that I can field any specific questions not addressed in Carter's (somewhat verbose) reveal, should anyone want to ask . . .

Dalovin' Dj

[booklover]

Good god almighty. Reading that last post makes me remember why I stopped watching the show.

Home was awesome, but I have a personal soft spot for Eve. Nothing better than creepy, murderous schoolkids, IMO.

[Judith Prietht]

I lost interest in the mytharc episodes pretty early on, preferring the containment of the Freak of the Week. My only hope is that if they do another movie that it be a Freak of the Week. As far as Carter making up the alien myth stuff, wasn't Scully's abduction written in to explain Gillian Anderson's absence from the show due to her pregnancy? Who knew it would have mushroomed from there.

I usually show Clyde Bruckman's Repose as my favorite X-Files episode.

[Judith Prietht]

Originally Posted by Judith Prietht

I usually show Clyde Bruckman's Repose as my favorite X-Files episode.

That, of course, would be Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose. Stupid library computer.

[bughunter]

That was a great one, but there are many that are just as good.

My favorite, just for its uniqueness (not to mention its Geek appeal), is the season two MOTW Humbug, also known as "Gillian Anderson Eats a Cricket."

[elfkin477]

I definitely far and away prefer the MOTW episodes to the mytharc; they're far less messy. People on the XF boards looooove "Memento Mori" and the "Redux" episodes, but I'm bored at best by them. All five of my favorite episodes are MOTW:

1. How The Ghosts Stole Christmas (ghosts)
2. Detour (um...eternal tree people?)
3. Darkness Falls (killer glow bugs)
4. Invocation (Ghost, kinda- if you never watch any other season 8 or 9 episodes, watch this one)
5. Jose Chung's From Outer Space (aliens not connected to the mytharc)

[Aankh]

Originally Posted by dalovindj

Easy, right?

Well, it does raise some questions. If Mulder and Scully were the "threat from without" why did the syndicate leave them alive? Why not kill them during some innocuous Joe Monster episode and breathe a sigh of relief? And he gets kidnapped by some aliens in the end, no? Does he ever return or what?

At the risk of alienating (ha ha) Dalovin'Dj, I have a feeling that were I to start watching the series from scratch now, the conspiracy episodes would fly right by me. The plot seems a tad forced and unnecessarily convoluted. But maybe that's a premature judgment based on insufficient information, I don't know.

[Diceman]

At the risk of alienating (ha ha) Dalovin'Dj, I have a feeling that were I to start watching the series from scratch now, the conspiracy episodes would fly right by me. The plot seems a tad forced and unnecessarily convoluted. But maybe that's a premature judgment based on insufficient information, I don't know.

I'd have to say that this assessment is pretty accurate. I lost interest in the show around the time that the movie came out. I was never a huge fan of the conspiracy episodes. (Yeah, I'm in the Monster of the Week camp.) Plus, the Syndicate's near-dictatorial power was kinda depressing. You knew that if Mulder and Scully ever got too close, it would be a trivial matter for them to have both agents murdered. The fact that the mytharc was a tangled mess with no master plan didn't help. I understand that the mytharc became even more of a Gordian knot in later seasons.

[spiralscratch]

I've always been more of a fan of the conspiracy arc over MOTW, but Jose Chung's From Outer Space is one of the greatest X-Files episodes ever.

Jesse Ventura and Alex Trebek as Men In Black! Hilarious!

One day I'll own the DVD sets and start watching the whole series all over again.

[dalovindj]

Well, it does raise some questions. If Mulder and Scully were the "threat from without" why did the syndicate leave them alive? Why not kill them during some innocuous Joe Monster episode and breathe a sigh of relief?

Well, at first they said they didn't want to make them Martyrs. Better to have every one in the Bureau think M&S were crazy, rather than kill them and make them martyrs - resulting in people thinking they were killed because they were onto something. It was later revealed that Mulder's father was one of the original men in the syndicate deal, and he (along wiht others) had paid a sacrifice of one child each. this sacrifice was respected, and Mulder's life was spared because of this many times.

DaLovin' Dj

[friedo]

To expand on the DJ's point, a recurring theme throughout the series is Mulder's quest to find his long lost sister.

I was always a fan of the conspiracy episodes, and kept close track of it until around season 5 or 6 when it spiraled into a complete narrative meltdown. It ended with the final episode, the writing for which was so terrible, I'm still pissed off about it today.

X-Files: Worst Series Finale EVER. Spoilers.

[dalovindj]

Yeah, the deal was that everyone in the syndicate had to give up one of their kids in return for the alien fetus which contained the (alien) genetic material needed for the production of the planned hybrids. The genetic material would also, they hoped, facilitate the top secret production of a vaccine - as stated above. The thing about the conspirators was that their goals were ultimately good ones. They wanted to save humanity. The grey, or should I say 'Gray' (ha ha), area arose from the fact that they would do anything to achieve their goals. They murdered, took over governments, tested new technologies and weapons on innocent people the world over, and in the end, had they not created a vaccine, and had not they been killed by the alien rebels, they would have helped them to conquer us when they come. In return they would get to be overlord types managing the human slaves/hosts.

The sacrifice of one child made the lives of their brothers and sisters that much more special. The syndicate did try to operate on a somewhat distorted honor system, the 'code among the Syndicate members that put honor and the future above personal politics'. The future of the children of the members of the syndicate that were not chosen to be given to the aliens were often afforded every protection the syndicate could afford.

And he gets kidnapped by some aliens in the end, no? Does he ever return or what?

Yeah, he gets returned. And he knows when the aliens are going to attack, as well as how to kill the bounty hunters.

DaLovin' Dj

[dalovindj]

The future of the children of the members of the syndicate that were not chosen to be given to the aliens were often afforded every protection the syndicate could afford.

Geez. That sentence came out fucked up. Let's try it again:

The futures and, by extension, the lives of the syndicate members children that were not chosen to be hostages were often provided every protection the syndicate could afford them. This was illustrated in the episode where we saw how Mulder met the Lone Gunmen. At the end, conspirators flood into a warehouse where Mulder ends up unconcious. The head agent (cool blacvk actor) says something like "nothing happens to this man". We also hear the Cigarette man talking about how proud he is of what Mulder's son had accomplished, while being disgusted by his own son (who was shot and killed by his own Dad - so much for affording protection).

DaLovin' Dj

[Neurotik]

So were the sacrificed kids killed or kept alive as experiments or what?

[pepperlandgirl]

Originally Posted by Neurotik

So were the sacrificed kids killed or kept alive as experiments or what?

Both. Clones of Samantha (Mulder's sister) were made, and she was killed in um...'78 I think.

[dalovindj]

Unlike the other children, Samantha was returned secretly to the April Air Base, where Cassandra and the Cigarette-Smoking Man raised her with CSM's other son, Spender. At the base, the Syndicate did hybridization and cloning experiments on Samantha. The other Syndicate family members taken by the aliens were used as human collateral to ensure the Syndicate's cooperation. Mulder's father had hoped that Samantha would survive the colonization as a hybrid made by the Syndicate. He quit the Project long ago after the Syndicate decided against resisting the aliens in favor of saving themselves. Eventually, Samantha escaped in 1979. She ran away from the base and turned up at a hospital. Right before CSM and his men found her and were going to take her away, she vanished without a trace. What happened is that "walk-ins," friendly spirits, saved Samantha from the horror she would have to go through at the base for the rest of her life by converting her body into pure energy and taking her to a better place, the "starlight". She was cloned a bit before she disappeared.

I know. . . What can I say? I'm an apologist.

DaLovin' Dj

[Ranchoth]

Originally Posted by dalovindj

Easy, right? I never understood why people had trouble following the conspiracy arc.

Probably because it took years to unravel, seemed grossly convoluted, and seemed rife with contradictions as it was being told. Not to mention all the lies, half-truths, and disinformation the characters encountered.

Plus, all the mysticism involved with the whole thing probably tended to throw some people off.

And we have to remember...at least some of the explainations for the conspiracy's actions are just on-screen rationalizations for very off-screen motives. (Why didn't the Syndicate just kill Mulder and Scully? A: The same reason that 007 always gets chained to an execution machine that doesn't work.)

An [=http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?postid=2863438]earlier discussion of the arc[/url].

[dalovindj]

Probably because it took years to unravel, seemed grossly convoluted, and seemed rife with contradictions as it was being told. Not to mention all the lies, half-truths, and disinformation the characters encountered.

It did take years to unravel. You really had to catch all the mythology episodes to keep up, but if you did it all made sense. The contradictions and disinformation were my favorite parts. Head fakes galore made the whole thing alot of fun for me. Is it really aliens? Or is it bio-research on humans which uses the UFO culture as a screen? Mulder flip-floped a bunch of times on what he believed. Was he really onto something? Or was he simply the victim of misdirection and misinformation. 'The Truth is Out There', or so Mulder believed, but the truth, it turns out, depended on where you were standing. Were these syndicate men heros or scoundrels? Are the aliens real or a red herring? The show '24' uses the head fake trick all the time. Just when you think you know what is going on something happens that turns everything on its ear. Fun stuff. While it can be a bit confusing, in the end the X-Files revealed a relatively coherent picture of what was going on. But by the time they had done this you didn't know who to believe any more. Doubt, faith, the frustration of unanswered questions - these are human issues we all deal with. The arc not only revealed a cool alien story, but it also showed how many pitfalls and incorrect paths the search for truth can take you down. It was about trying to find the Straight Dope, and just like in philosophy, the more you learn the more you realize that you don't really know anything.

Why didn't the Syndicate just kill Mulder and Scully? A: The same reason that 007 always gets chained to an execution machine that doesn't work.)

Not true. Bond manages a daring escape based on some gadget or some broad helping himout. Mulder and Scully were not killed because it would draw more heat to the Syndicate by making martyrs out of them. As well as the fact that Mulder had special protections because of his father's role in the Syndicate. No Q gadgets or hot double spys ever saved Mulder from a brutally slow execution machine.

There is no reasoning behind why Bond didn't die - the people who wanted him dead tried to kill him. They were simply incompetenet. The people in the Syndicate did not want Mulder dead. It wasn't incompetence, it was a calculated decision. I'm sure the execution machines of the Syndicate would work just fine. My favorite syndicate kill was when CSM just put a bullet in an alien that was a survivor of a crash. Dr. Evil's son would be proud. They just got a gun and shot him . . .

DaLovin' Dj

[Snooooopy]

I really, really liked the walk-ins as a means of explaining the fate of Mulder's sister. For as long as I had followed the series, I wasn't sure if they would come up with something that was really satisfying, that wouldn't leave me saying, "So ... that's IT?" after seasons of his desperate searching.

I think the series should have ended with the birth of Mulder and Scully's baby. Then you could imply that the child will be the salvation of humanity and leave it at that. One last movie to answer any other questions, and you've got yourself a nice little series wrapped up with a big bow on top.

[Green Bean]

Originally Posted by dalovindj

I know. . . What can I say? I'm an apologist.

That's for sure! I think you "want to believe" even more than Mulder ever did!

[dalovindj]

What I really want to believe is that they will make the great X-Files movie that I know is possible. What I fear is that they will blow it instead, and send the whole franchise into a downaward spiral that would make 'ST: Nemesis' look like a good movie. David Duchovney has said he would really like to do an X-Files flick every 3 years or so indefinitely. He thinks that it would be a great artistic experiment to follow Mulder & Scully into old age. That could be cool. Not sure that it will happen though. There's word Fox might be offloading some of their older properties to some of the distribs. One company called Arclight and another Gecchi are apparenlty in talks to take both "X Files" and "Millenium" away. The studio doesn't plan to follow through on their promises for films of both, but have given the go ahead to another studio to do so. For a nice sum I'm sure. Whether some third party studio can give the proper love to the franchise remains to be seen.

DaLovin' Dj

[Ranchoth]

Originally Posted by dalovindj

Not true. Bond manages a daring escape based on some gadget or some broad helping himout. Mulder and Scully were not killed because it would draw more heat to the Syndicate by making martyrs out of them. As well as the fact that Mulder had special protections because of his father's role in the Syndicate. No Q gadgets or hot double spys ever saved Mulder from a brutally slow execution machine.

There is no reasoning behind why Bond didn't die - the people who wanted him dead tried to kill him. They were simply incompetenet. The people in the Syndicate did not want Mulder dead. It wasn't incompetence, it was a calculated decision.

No, the reason the Bond villains never killed Bond was because it would end the movie in under 45 minutes. The reason the Syndicate didn't "want" Mulder and Scully dead was because if they did kill them, they'd have won, and the series would have ended. Leaving them alive isn't part of a grand, byzantine strategy. It's a simple storyteller's trick—you don't just have Snidley Whiplash win by murdering all the heroes in the first act, and run wild for the rest of the play! It'd be like giving the characters a "Win" button.

Mulder and Scully's continued survival has no more justification behind it than the reason the Transporters fail on the Starship Enterprise when they're needed the most...it's just a way of keeping the story going. A plot device. There's nothing wrong with that, mind you. It doesn't make it a bad story. But that doesn't automatically make it a brilliant, impeccable story, either.

[TheRealJohnPeat]

The real charm of the X-Files came from the way the 'conspiracy' and 'MOTW' episodes were interwoven - which made the whole thing 'unexpected' - you never knew what you were going to get.

The series also produced some stand-out 'oddity' episodes such as

How the Ghosts Stole Christmas
Clyde Bruckman's FInal Repose
Jose Chungs from Outer Space
War of the Coprophages
Bad Blood

and there is one I've forgotten the name of, but it tells the story through the eyes of a teenager and Mulder/Scully appear as the 'nasty G-Men' rather than their usual selves.

It was that ability to 'not take things too seriously' - along with seriously-great-chemistry between Mulder and Scully - which made the series watchable for me.

Once one or the other actor started dropping out the series just went all-to-hell tho - many X-Philes simply ended their interest in Series 6 in fact!!

JP

[Aankh]

Originally Posted by dalovindj

saved Samantha from the horror she would have to go through at the base for the rest of her life by converting her body into pure energy and taking her to a better place, the "starlight". She was cloned a bit before she disappeared.

You are joking here, right? Am I being whooshed?

Actually, it doesn't sound all too bad, after all. If I figure out the plot before I watch the series, I think I might enjoy it quite a bit.

[Ranchoth]

Originally Posted by aankh

You are joking here, right? Am I being whooshed?

No, that was actually in the episode. Samantha was spontaniously turned into a ghost, so she wouldn't have to die.

::Pause::

You just can't make "stuff" like that up.



Ranchoth
(Well, the show's *writers* had to make it up in the first place, to film it...but you know what I mean.)

[dalovindj]

The reason the Syndicate didn't "want" Mulder and Scully dead was because if they did kill them, they'd have won, and the series would have ended.

Not true. They explained quite clearly the reasoning for not just killing Mulder outright. And the series went on a couple of seasons without Mulder and very little Scully. Fox and Dana were not necessary to keep the X-Files show going (although some might argue that they should have been). There was a feeling, particularly in the later seasons (when the success of the show got the actors demanding more money), that they just might kill one of them. Hell, as a matter of fact, they still might kill one (or both) of them in the movies.

I understand the common storytelling quandry that you are talking about. But Chris Carter was always talking about how the show was the X-files, not the Mulder Files. The story can and will continue whether those actors want to do it or not. I think they bypassed this whole problem and could have (and must have talked about during the writing meetings) killed anyone at anytime. Right now the show '24' is also facing the Immortality Trap. The show is badass because you know that they could kill anyone on the show at any time - xxcept Jack Bauer - the man on the poster. Kieffer Sutherland has said that, as much as he would hate not doing the show, the only way for '24' to maintain its street cred is to eventually kill Jack. Then '24' would be a CTU show and not a Jack Bauer show. We'll see how it works out. My point is that the X-Files managed to keep the stakes high, and unlike Bond movies, I really thought (think) one or both of them may eventually get iced. Sure, the writers faced the trap you spoke about, but they also managed to disarm and move past it incredibly well IMO.

You are joking here, right? Am I being whooshed?

It really was cooler than it sounds. I shed a tear when she got beamed . . .

DaLovin' Dj

[Ranchoth]

Originally Posted by dalovindj

Not true. They explained quite clearly the reasoning for not just killing Mulder outright. And the series went on a couple of seasons without Mulder and very little Scully.

Just because they explain it clearly doesn't mean they're not just making on-screen justifications for a plot hole. I mean, look at Scully and Mulders' alien abductions. Those weren't part of a preplanned story arc—they just needed an excuse for having the characters suddenly dissapear. (Scully, for Anderson's maternity leave; And Mulder, because Duchovny wanted out of the series.)

By the by, didn't they nearly kill Mulder on a number of occasions? Including his alien abduction, where he actually died?

And yes, the story did continue without Scully and Mulder. For about a year. And, as I remember, the ratings tanked.

[friedo]

Yeah, Mulder died like six times. The only one who beats his record is CSM.

[Green Bean]

Originally Posted by dalovindj

Fox and Dana were not necessary to keep the X-Files show going ...

You're on a first-name basis with them!? Heck, they weren't even on a first name basis with each other. Boy, howdy! Before this post, I found your devotion to the show a little bit admirable. Now I think I pity you a little bit.

(insert smilie here for the humor-impaired)

[c_r_y_s_t_a_l]

hi!
The X-Files was by far the best show! (actually, season 9 comes out today on DVD!!!!) YAY!! Its a show about government conspiracies, aliens and religious cults, with an underlying unspoken love story. Its a beautiful show! Im a big fan, so if you need more info, write me back!

[sunfish]

Coming in to the discussion late, but what the hell.

Originally Posted by dalovindj

My point is that the X-Files managed to keep the stakes high, and unlike Bond movies, I really thought (think) one or both of them may eventually get iced.

Well, Clyde Bruckman suggests that Mulder dies tinkering with autoerotic asphyxiation, and that Scully doesn't die - ever. So maybe Scully meets the walk-ins as well. That would be cool, plus it would give a little more religious imagery (Scully the Catholic "assumed into heaven" a la the Virgin Mary, with her miraculously-born son as the savior of the world).

[dalovindj]

The final episodes did seem to suggest that God had come into play. The reason that the aliens didn't kill/take her baby seems to be the fact that God had somehow given Earth a protected status. The aliens were afraid to go up against the almighty. Now whether the aliens consider this being mystical & all powerful, or instead just another powerful alien remains to be seen. But they definitely seemed spooked . . .

[Ranchoth]

But not spooked enough to call off the invasion and genocide/bio-assimilation, apparently.

[dalovindj]

Well, there is no telling how far this god-like entity's protection extends. It could be to the child alone, or the mother and father, or the whole species. I got the feeling that the aliens themselves don't quite understand the motives of "God", but they know direct involvement when they see it, and it gives them pause . . .

DaLovin' Dj