X-Files mythology, TenThirteen Interviews Database, and more

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French podcast: Season 10

[FRENCH] Podcast sur la saison 10 de The X-Files. Que dire sur cette continuation qui désormais approche 10 ans d’âge ? La distance permet d’être un peu plus objectif, sans l’excitation initiale et avec le savoir de ce qui va faire suite (ou, dans le cas de la mythologie, de ce qui n’aura pas de suite), ce qui permet d’être plus clément sur certains épisodes mais aussi moins patient avec des défauts flagrants. En tout cas, c’est intéressant de découvrir des podcasts francophones et anglophones : les uns ne mâchent pas leurs mots avec une baisse de qualité indéniable, tandis que les autres ont tendance à voir du positif partout, peut-être parce qu’ils passent plus de temps à analyser les détails. Bonne écoute !

https://www.facebook.com/LeCoinPopPodcast/videos/1379869233383648

TXF-themed set in LEGO Ideas competition

**VOTE BEFORE 21 Feb**

This Lego set based on The X-Files is very, very cool, filled with in-jokes, is made up of 2000+ pieces, and it has a high chance of being officially commercialized, if fans vote for it. And if rights issues get resolved — but Lego already produces Disney-licensed products.

Lego takes ideas for certain new sets among submissions. This creator, Brent Waller / WetWired, submitted a TXF-themed set to Lego before (set, promo video, on the set of the revival with Duchovny & Anderson). But at the time Lego did not choose it, justifying this by saying it was considered too violent and not on-brand for the company. Times have changed, and now this updated set is up against just four other submissions in a specifically 90s-themed competition.

Now, I’m not much of a fan of “collectibles” — Funko Pops, figurines, and other creative ways capitalism consumes more plastic — but… I *am* partial to Legos! I mean look at it!

Promo video:

Photos:

Jedi Knights – The Truth

Since we are on the topic of The X-Files music, here is a fun piece. This electro funk tune from the UK uses samples from the series: the main theme, Mulder from the 1X79: Pilot and Mulder from 1X09: Fallen Angel.

This is Jedi Knights (a collaboration between Mark Pritchard and Tom Middleton), it’s from their 1996 album “New School Science”, track “The Truth”, and it is very 90s. Enjoy!

Mark Snow music analysis

Today, an analysis video of some of Mark Snow’s score for The X-Files. Now this is something that there should be more of! Such soundtrack breakdown videos have become more common, especially on monuments like John Williams or Howard Shore, but it’s rare that video-makers take the time to delve into the music of episodic television.

This musician, Darren Rampton, did a transcription of some tracks, music sheet and all, recreates it on his synth, and provides commentary.

What are the exact elements in Snow’s music that create the series’ unique melancholy atmosphere? There’s all the instruments-on-synths — strings, harp, piano — and there’s the technical vocabulary of musicology — keys, minor scales, chords, chromaticism, dissonance, atonality, Penderecki plucking, figures and motifs, etc.

The video examines the main theme as well as music from 1X01: Deep Throat, 1X20: Tooms, 1X22: Roland and 2X07: 3. He even identifies a reference to the main theme in “3“!

He promises for more but there’s only been this video for now. Plus, this video where he recreated a track from 3X14: Grotesque. Enjoy!

RIP David Lynch

“In heaven, everything is fine.” / “I hope I see all of you again. Every one of you.”

Goodbye David Lynch, right at the top in my personal film pantheon. Now you know what lies on the other side of the curtain, like his purple quantum foam sea. From first to last, from “Eraserhead” to “Twin Peaks The Return“, imagery and soundscapes that have lived in my dreams from an early age.

In particular, “Twin Peaks” (1990-1991), largely the result of the collaboration between David Lynch and Mark Frost, was a big influence on The X-Files: from its sense of weird and mystery, its out-there male FBI agent, its Pacific Northwest setting, its ambition to bring cinema photography and directing to television… all documented in the influences page — to which must be added a revival many years later. The Twin Peaks revival aired in-between the two X-Files revival seasons, and the two projects have different legacies. Twin Peaks gave us a wildly different approach on how to make a continuation while also subverting fans’ expectations, a project of unique artistic ambition that commented on the passage of time and consisted in a sort of synthesis of Lynch’s entire career.

Three days of mourning!

2000-2025

Happy new year! It’s hard to believe it’s already 25 years — a quarter century ago — since the turn of the millennium — and that new year’s kiss at the end of the crossover episode 7X05: Millennium! But then, at the risk of sounding like a math geek, 2001 was actually the start of the new millennium. The series is getting seriously old — but more and more people keep discovering it. It seems to have passed television muster to become the rare artistic creation that crosses over to a new generation. Here’s to another year of covering all things X-Files.