Gosh, Mr.Carter no–you will make me blush! “It wasn’t until the second movie that we actually saw them in what I would consider a provocative intimacy, in the same bed together.”
“Are 51” inspiration for #TheXFiles revival confirmed:
“It was from scratch… But that’s not exactly true because I had written another script that had nothing to do with the X-Files that had certain elements in it that my wife had remembered and she said “What about this this and this?” and that became some of the raw material that I used to do the pilot episode of this limited series.”
Plus, what to make of this? “Glenn Beck is someone I have a relationship with, same with Alex Jones and his site on the internet. I find it to be fascinating.”
Bonus: “The Lone Gunmen returned so there’s no reason Krycek can’t!”
Lots of interesting Carter, but oddly not direct quotes:
“Talking about additional episodes, Carter said there were a few he had written that he think could still be used today, and even more interesting, admitted he’s had an episode in his story vault that he’s wanted to bring to air for more than 20 years.”
“Besides the miniseries, however, Carter also said that he was open to making a third X-Files movie, but had a very specific set of rules that would have to be met in order to do so. Unlike the second movie, which Carter admitted was full of problems, the creator said he would have to be given the same kind of freedom and tools he and his team received while working on the first film.”
#mythXplained “William”: Here it is, the XF episode that singlehandedly badly tarnished the reputation of the entire series and casts a long dreadful shadow to this day! (Not to mention the entirely unnecessary resurrection of a certain character.) The adoption was perhaps necessary, in the mind of Carter, in order to clear the complications and have Mulder & Scully ready to jump in the movie franchise still hoped for at the time. However since then this plan backfired somewhat — and hopefully the upcoming revival will start making amends.
#mythXplained “The Truth”: what’s been called the “series finale” for the past 13 years…is no more! A highly frustrating ending to a disappointing season, only bits of this episode are memorable. As a cry to the world, Carter spends most of this episode summarizing the mythology, to *prove* that this whole enterprise is not as non-sensical as most reviewers/fans were accusing for years — but simultaneously turns the big finale into a clip show. Another unnecessary return and re-death of a dead character later… the Mulder-Scully couple reunite in a scene recreating the motel scene from the Pilot; whatever truths they will seek, they will seek together.
Today, January 23, is a full moon. I think #TheXFiles revival ep.3, Darin Morgan’s “Mulder and Scully Meet the Were-Monster”, takes place today!
Oh, what a moving tribute to director Kim Manners and assistant director Jack Hardy — among the chief Ten Thirteen people who have passed away over the past decade — in Darin’s episode!
D-1 for #TheXFiles revival–yet also D-30 for “My Struggle II”! In barely one month it will all be over. It’s been a wild ride for a year since last January when serious declarations started being made for a revival — let us hope it will have not only been worth the wait but that this revival will be worthy to take its place next to some of the best work of one of the best series of the past 20 years. See you after the premiere!
You can skip to the parts that interest you most. In short, a great return to form, although some story directions are odd but we will refrain from passing quick judgment before seeing episode 6 as well.
THE POWER TO BELIEVE TURNS OUT TO BE THE STRONGEST FORCE THERE IS ON AN ALL-NEW “THE X-FILES” MONDAY, FEBRUARY 15, ON FOX
Episode Written and Directed by Creator Chris Carter; William B. Davis, Robbie Amell and Lauren Ambrose Guest-Star
When an art gallery that’s showing potentially offensive artwork is bombed, Mulder and Scully seek some way to communicate with the comatose bomber in order to prevent a future attack. Meanwhile, a pair of younger FBI agents on the case (guest stars Robbie Amell and Lauren Ambrose) push Mulder and Scully to examine their own beliefs as Scully seeks answers from neuroscience and Mulder from mysticism in the all-new “Babylon” episode of THE X-FILES
Behind the scenes at #XFilesRevival, many revelations from Carter!
Carter “wrote a third movie—which has yet to see the light of day” ?!
On the CSM being back: “In Episode 6, you’re going to see exactly what the product of that failure to die [in the 2002 series finale] was.”
Season 11? “Carter hopes the hard-core fans are satisfied, and since much is left unresolved at the end of Episode 6, another miniseries is possible.”
Confirmation: #XF3 has been written!!! It exists somewhere in Chris Carter’s laptop!
“Chris Carter wrote a third #TheXFiles movie before Fox ordered the limited series”
@[96190405425:274:20th Century Fox], pick up that budget sheet and make it happen!
Chris Carter wrote a third #TheXFiles movie before Fox ordered the limited series. #TCA16
The “Story and visual influences on The X-Files” guide is being updated. Film, TV and literature inspirations, both story-wise and cinematography-wise, complete with visual comparisons! — here is Season 1.
D-9 days!
We reenter the “Carter universe” in one week. On this occasion, EatTheCorn presents an original look on “The Obsessions of Chris Carter” than can be seen throughout his entire corpus: history and memory, loss, religion, trust, family. A very interesting article by French academic Séverine Barthes (Paris IV-Sorbonne).
D-7!
#mythXplained “NIHT”: And so the most controversial season begins. Carter went away during the summer holidays, leaving Spotnitz to develop what would have been the “Next Generation XF”, and Carter came back at the very last minute as a show-runner for season 9. Instead of making a clean break with Mulder, Scully and the whole mythology around them and focus just on the new faces, season 9 chooses to make Mulder the absent centre (again), make baby William into a mystery (again), make Scully the weeping caretaker (alas!), and add soap operatic drama making Reyes less interesting (introducing her ex Brad Follmer). Nevertheless, these two episodes are perhaps the season’s most interesting mythology episodes, with more mysteries around the Supersoldiers (governmental? alien?), more genetic experiments and more conspiracy theories (chloramine in tap water). It goes downhill from here.
#mythXplained “Trust No 1”: NSA surveillance, constant paranoia, Terry O’Quinn, suspicions of experiments on babies: what could go wrong with such an episode? Yet this episode comes out as some of the most bitter experiences of watching The X-Files: not just the horribly out of place melodrama of the Scully and Mulder e-mails and love sickness, but also the focus yet again on whom we know we will not see, and the cheesiness of the kryptonite-like magnetite and the scene of destruction of a Supersoldier. Many interesting things, but not the XF we knew…
#mythXplained “Provenance/Providence”: The setting is familiar: religious cults, secrets buried underground, alien-as-God parallel, flashbacks revealing truths about the military, hints of greater forces at work (here, while Doggett is recovering at the hospital)… And yet it comes down to this: William is the object of an alien prophecy. The X-Files had gotten us used to more subtlety and more interesting storylines. Regardless, the decision has already been taken: The X-Files will be ending with this season and after these episodes everything accelerates to the conclusion.
Sad news from our friends at @[109517928483:274:BacktoFrankBlack Campaign]: despite a very interesting five-issue special featuring the return of Frank Black and his dark/light universe, it seems IDW will not be producing more “Millennium” comics. IDW does have many plans for The X-Files though, so perhaps another crossover would not be impossible?…
No matter what you are hearing, IDW has no plans to continue the Millennium comic unfortunately. Lots of rumors and speculation with no facts, we on the other hand have spoken to IDW.
Jan 19, 2016 22:54
201 episodes, 2 movies = 205 references! The illustrated guide into the story and visual influences on The X-Files has just been updated.
From “The Mothman Prophecies” to “Lex Luthor: The Unauthorized Biography”, from H.P. Lovecraft to “Alien”, from “The Spy Who Came in from the Cold” to Semisonic’s “Closing Time”, and many many more…
I tried to hit exactly 203 references, but then I figured this list can only grow, so why bother?
Chris Carter himself on #TheXFiles revival:
“In this context, it seemed like a perfect time to rattle some cages and shine a light on the dark and distrustful mood toward government that polls tell us pervades our country.”
“Over the past ten months about 500 people came together to make six episodes of the best TV we know how.”
“Mulder and Scully, colleagues who developed a tempestuous affection and intimacy, have a child together, William. He was put up for adoption when they feared for his life, due to the same conspirators Mulder so believes in. This becomes a very personal story that is explored through the course of these six episodes.”
via @[183227235893:274:YahooTV]
#TheXFiles teases from Anne Simon:
Genetic modification technology will play a major role, she said.
CRISPR-Cas9 makes it possible for us to alter the DNA of living cells, including human cells. And this science will tie into a “really big” plot twist, that will “kind of explain the whole conspiracy theory and what the cigarette-smoking man was doing.”
From 2X08: One Breath:
BYERS: The Thinker reports the protein chains are a result of branched DNA.
MULDER: Branched DNA?
LANGLY: The cutting edge of genetic engineering.
BYERS: A biological equivalent of a silicon microchip.
LANGLY: This is way beyond cutting edge. This technology fifty years down the line.
MULDER: What’s it used for?
FROHIKE: Could be a tracking system.
BYERS: Developmental stages of a biological marker.
MULDER: You mean a high-tech identity card?
LANGLY: Or something as insidious as grafting a human into something… inhuman.
(The computer beeps again.)
BYERS: Good theories, gentlemen, but all for naught.
(He points at a protein data map.)
This branched DNA is inactive. It’s waste product. Whoever was experimenting on Scully is finished. Now it’s nothing more than a biological poison.
A press release is also up for the second episode (http://www.spoilertv.com/2016/01/the-x-files-episode-1002-founders.html)
This order is production order 1-5-3-2-4-6, so very different compared to what we naturally thought would be the airing order — especially since the second produced “Home Again” sounded like a natural choice for the a second episode. Mulder and Scully are said to follow an emotional arc throughout the six episodes, with each episode evolving from the previous one and significant elements of the past we believe are revealed in the two “My Struggle”s but also in “Founder’s Mutation”.
Whether the exact airing order was determined beforehand, with production order following actor or other constraints, or whether it was decided in post-production once executive producers Carter and Morgan saw the whole 6 and how they flowed, we do not know (https://twitter.com/Annealiz1/status/684814044767883265). Perhaps this whole business shows that episodes are more independent from each other than Carter would like to admit, perhaps not.
Some more thoughts on the reordering, including some spoilers on actors appearances and re-appearances around the episodes, can be found here: https://twitter.com/DemijanOmeragic/status/684879670450491394
Jan 08, 2016 19:00
All the writers room and much more is here! An excellent history from inception success twilight and revival!…
#mythXplained “Within/Without”: The main shortcoming of Season 8 is that…it exists! that the story was not wrapped up properly with the two leads at the end of season 7. Otherwise, these episodes launch one of the most interesting periods of the show, with a solid new lead in Robert Patrick, a great sense of purpose and a welcome return to the darkness of earlier seasons. But these episodes are not free of flaws: mainly the ret-conning of Mulder’s illness, and long scenes in the desert as if material for a bit more than one episode was spread over two episodes.
#mythXplained “Per Manum”: The plot thickens, with some great material — experiments in fertility clinics, double agents and general paranoia — and some less so — the unnecessary “who’s the daddy?” plotline. Still, in hindsight, this episode shows how well the season as a whole had been plotted in advance, possibly the only XF season where this happened! (Despite the feature film at its end, season 5 was much more loosely plotted/interlinked.)
#mythXplained “This Is Not Happening”: Everyone will agree that this is one of the best X-Files mythology episodes. The Mulder missing/dead drama at its height, the introduction of Monica Reyes (back when her character was still quirky and thus interesting), the return of Jeremiah Smith, alien cults and great performances overall!
#mythXplained “DeadAlive”: …and then things get more complicated. A dramatic time jump — to allow for the launch of The Lone Gunmen spin-off series — and Mulder very literally returns from the dead. While the episode tries to mix older mythology elements (Krycek, the vaccine against the Black Oil) with new mysteries, it really fails to clearly explain the central mystery: why were these replicants-to-be dumped randomly, and why Mulder’s replication failed. The tense mysterious atmosphere and production values still make this a success, but at this point the mythology starts challenging suspension of disbelief seriously.
X-Files Files podcaster and #XFilesRevival guest star Kumail Nanjiani’s much-awaited chat with Gillian Anderson & David Duchovny, one late night during the shooting of Darin Morgan’s episode, “Mulder and Scully Meet the Were-Monster”!…
“The two may watch now that they will be shown in flashbacks on the reboot. They will appear in episodes two and four.”
“Founder’s Mutation” and “Home Again”? Surely this is wrong. I guess more like “Babylon” and “My Struggle II”.
Duchovny being very candid about Fox’s (non)promotion of IWTB — very different from what we are seeing now for the promotion of the revival from Fox *Television*. #XF3, why not?
Cast: They managed to bring back the two stoner kids from “War of the Coprophages” and “Quagmire”! + Alex Diakun, another 1013/Darin familiar!
“When a dead body is found in the woods, Mulder and Scully are called in to investigate whether it was an animal attack, a serial killer or just maybe a strange creature as described by eyewitnesses. Meanwhile, Mulder is able to confront some of his own demons about feeling disillusioned with his life’s work”
#mythXplained “Three Words”: By now The X-Files is a fully serialized show, with an ensemble cast and storylines unfolding on a week-to-week basis. These are episodes of transition between the old guard, chief among them Mulder, who feels awkward, and the new. A good, classic, efficient episode that recalls many previous ones, notably the Lone Gunmen-aided infiltration of a facility in “Memento Mori”, and a meetup with an informant in a running field like in “Deep Throat”…
#mythXplained “Vienen”: The buddy action adventure of Mulder and Doggett! “New” writer Steven Maeda resurrects the Black Oil, last seen (in this form) in the movie 3 years before, and has the obvious idea to link it…to the oil drilling business. A solid episode, that hints at story developments that could have been followed around the Black Oil virus and immunity that were not exploited fully…
#mythXplained “Essence/Existence”: Season 8 ends and like with the previous season it could have been the end of it all. Same issues as with “Within/Without”, too many scenes in a single setting (here, underground parking lot). Confusing happenings with who hunts the baby and why. An oddly directed ending for a beloved character that should not have been. A “who’s the daddy?” that is unnecessarily drawn out to beyond the end. And, in retrospective, a very interesting season that ultimately raises too many questions for this to be the end, making a season 9 necessary (as opposed to last year)!
#mythXplained Sein&Zeit/Closure: In the mythology-lightest season ever it certainly looks like #XFiles is heading towards its end — and here comes a double-parter like no other, introspective and elegiac, that even if it doesn’t fit well with the rest of the mythology, it never fails to generate some strong emotions. Thank you David Duchovny, Kim Manners and Moby, among others, for those life-defining moments in Mulder’s life.
“The series will return as part of a two-night special event across all licensed territories within the international FOX portfolio starting on January 25th, and will reach audiences throughout Latin America in markets such as Mexico, Brazil, Colombia, Argentina; in South East Asia including Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia; and markets in Europe including Bulgaria, Finland, Greece, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Turkey and Africa.”
#mythXplained [catching-up!] “En Ami”: WBDavis writes so he can share some scenes with Gillian A, and CCarter & FSpotnitz take the opportunity to seamlessly incorporate this into the s7 mythology: the CSM’s cynical resignation, hints that Scully oculd have been manipulated, further parallels of the alien and the divine
#mythXplained Requiem: s7 ends, and with it a certain life of the show. If there’s any novelistic quality to the overall story of the X-Files, a story with beginning middle and end, then Requiem could very well have been the end! The fates of the characters, tragic or open-ended, are appropriate for a show like XF. Not the end of the series, mostly due to non-XF issues at Fox, but still, this is a memorable and landmark episode.
Three years ago was Dec-22-2012, a most significant date for X-Files fans for over a decade. Some years after the lukewarm reception of the second movie and before the IDW comics were announced, interest on XF was on an all-time low and its future was at stake. At the time I wrote:
“Would Carter accept anything less than a theatrical release? Actually, sometimes it feels like the unlikelihood of an X-Files feature film is linked to the desire for it to be a theatrical feature, which is inherently more expensive. As if Carter and the X-Files wanted to “graduate” from TV to the big screen, while top-rate directors do not stop at the opportunity of doing the opposite (the Martin Scorcese-directed pilot of Boardwalk Empire reportedly cost $ 18 million) and many recognize that the 1970s kind of inventivity that existed in movies has now shifted to television. In a shifting environment for movie-making, the X-Files could take advantage of new means of release, distribution and funding, such as an exclusive television event, direct-to-video with special theatrical screenings, Japanese-inspired V-Cinema, Video On Demand pre-orders, iTunes premiere or YouTube premiere, funding from multiple sources (see 2012’s Cloud Atlas), international sale bundled with an HD remastering of the entire series, the economies on special effects and on-location shooting using full-greenscreen”
…and here we are some 3 years later barely one month from the release of not a third film but truly one of these alternative solutions mentioned above! D-29 days.
#mythXplained Bonus! Since FOX-TV does not promote FOX-feature films, we’ll add this to #201daysofxfiles. “Fight the Future”: XF goes BIG summer blockbuster with this Rob Bowman-helmed conspiracy thriller-cum-alien horror flick! Everything XF is here, with added explosions and action pieces. Colonization, the corn, the bees, and strong emotions: much is revealed here. “Multiply your fears by X”
An excellent and detailed history of the X-Files fandom by Matt from @[8273206453:69:The X-Files Lexicon] is now published at @[139191826118516:274:Den Of Geek]! (with a mention of @[413368385523727:274:The X-Files\: Eat The Corn])
Watch #XFiles writer-producers be themselves: Carter’s long ponders before giving answers, Glen Morgan’s quick as a flash abrasive comments, and Darin Morgan’s dodging characterizing his work as genius
#mythXplained The Beginning (catching up!): Opening shot: a big Californian sun! XF moves production to Los Angeles, changes a big part of its crew, and has to deal with less “free mood” from the rainy Vancouver and higher production costs all around. Still manages to transition from both s5 and the movie in this second pilot of sorts. The closing scene ties everything back together in the alien life cycle.
#mythXplained SR819: After The Pine-Bluff Variant @[147409421937269:274:John Shiban] creates another tense thriller and brings back Senator Matheson in one of his too rare appearances. Follow the link for musings on WTO/GATT rules and the Tunisian connection!
“My Struggle”
THE X-FILES HAVE BEEN RE-OPENED!! THE FIRST NIGHT OF THE TWO-NIGHT SEASON PREMIERE OF “THE X-FILES” AIRS SUNDAY, JANUARY 24 ON FOX SUN JAN 24 7/8c
Thirteen years after the original series run, the next mind-bending chapter of the thrilling series THE X-FILES has arrived. FOX MULDER (David Duchovny) and DANA SCULLY (Gillian Anderson) have been contacted by TAD O’MALLEY (guest star Joel McHale), a popular conspiracy theorist web-TV show host who believes he has uncovered a significant government conspiracy. With the assistance of FBI Asst. Dir. WALTER SKINNER (Mitch Pileggi), O’Malley seeks to enlist the help of former X-Files agents Mulder and Scully, who have since severed ties with the FBI. Through O’Malley they are introduced to SVETA (guest star Annett Mahendru), a possible alien abductee who shares shocking information with them that will challenge everything that Mulder has ever believed about the existence of aliens and the government’s role in covering them up. “My Struggle,” the premiere episode of THE X-FILES, airs Sunday, January 24 (7:00-8:00 PM ET/PT) on FOX.
@[108381559187017:274:Frank Spotnitz]’s @[1600262146899838:274:The Man in the High Castle] — Philip K Dick’s novel adapted into a “TV/web” series — just came out! Find no less than 90 interviews with Frank in Eat The Corn’s Interviews Database!
#mythXplained “Two Fathers”/”One Son”: after not much of a build-up in the first half of the season, it’s time for the big reveal! The adding of layers to an ever-complexifying mythology stops, the cards are all laid on the table and the pieces are ranked in chronological order. It’s the end of the mythology that was developed over five and a half years, the quality of which the X-Files will try to imitate afterwards. After this, it’s a different show. The andswers are here
#mythXplained “Biogenesis”! The mytharc leaves the abysmally tangled web and moral tale of the Syndicate years, and heads towards a magnificently elegiac exploration of religion, science and spirituality. This results in EatTheCorn’s longest review by far:
SCULLY: It began with an act of supreme violence–
a big bang expanding ever outward, cosmos born of matter and gas,
matter and gas ten billion years ago. Whose idea was this?
Who had the audacity for such invention? And the reason?
Were we part of that plan ten billion years ago? Are we born only to die?
To be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth before giving way to
our generations? If there is a beginning, must there be an end?
We burn like fires in our time only to be extinguished. To surrender
to the elements’ eternal reclaim. Matter and gas… will this all end one day?
Life no longer passing to life, the Earth left barren like the stars above,
like the cosmos. Will the hand that lit the flame let it burn down?
Let it burn out? Could we, too, become extinct? Or if this fire of life
living inside us is meant to go on, who decides? Who tends the flames?
Can he reignite the spark even as it grows cold and weak?
After the Spanish version a few months ago, EatTheCorn is proud to present its Mytharc Primer, the definitive chronicle and explanation of the X-Files mythology (until further notice in barely a few months’ time!…) — in German!
—
Wir begrüßen unsere Besucher aus Deutschland, Österreich, der Schweiz und anderen Ländern!
Hier finden Sie eine Zusammenfassung und eine detaillierte Erklärung über die X-Files Mythologie finden.
#mythXplained 4 writers, 1 essential ep: “Memento Mori”, or how to elevate the series to unprecedented emotional heights without introducing any mytharc elements that were not introduced before. The painful “cancer arc begins. Note: watch *after* Never Again.
Eat The Corn Dossier: An examination of what @[362989843738755:274:The X-Files] has left unresolved, in what ways it could develop, and what new it could add to the mix, in 3 parts
Eat The Corn Dossier, Part 2/3: An examination of how the world has changed since @[362989843738755:274:The X-Files] has left the air and what it could incorporate in its storylines from the news
#mythXplained Tempus Fugit/Max, or how to do a double episode nearly independent from the rest of the mythology with quality set design and action pieces — this could be a feature film of itself! RIP Pendrell.
Part 3/3 on the future(s) of @[362989843738755:274:The X-Files]: some speculation, some wild theories, some creative paths the show could take — and there are several!
Full liveblog of Chris Carter at world premiere of @[362989843738755:274:The X-Files].
“It’s really a dream come true for me to do something.”
“Every day I look at the newspaper and I see a possible X-Files episode, so this is obviously something that – I did it for a long time and you never quite lose the eye for what would be good X-Files storytelling. It’s a perfect time to come back with the X-Files considering global politics.”
Asked about the future potential for new episodes, Carter was optimistic. “I love telling X-Files stories. The truth is out there! If we satisfy audience expectations, certainly there’s an opportunity,” he said.
#XFilesRevival premiere first reactions by French journalists Romain Nigita Alain Carrazé: Great! + thank you for the non-spoiler policy!
7 Oct 2015, 11:11
#XFilesRevival premier Italian review: “uno dei più grandi ed importanti eventi televisivi dell’anno prossimo” — did Carter really say “dopo le prime sei puntate” (after the *first* six episodes)?
#XFilesRevival premiere press in German: its fulfilling! “Um es kurz auf den Punkt zu bringen für diejenigen, die an dieser Stelle lieber nicht weiterlesen möchten um so wenig wie möglich zu wissen, nur so viel: Es werden viele Erwartungen erfüllt.”
#XFilesRevival premiere: short Carter interview: answers coming, but questions too
9 Oct 2015, 08:57
#mythXplained “Zero Sum”: Skinner specialist Howard Gordon teams with @[108381559187017:274:Frank Spotnitz] for an episode making the fullest out of the very serialized story-telling in the last half of season 4
#XFilesRevival premiere press: Carter only mentions seasons 1-3 eps as essential viewing before the revival. That + forgetting that the opening credits were different in seasons 8-9 says quite a bit!
10 Oct 2015, 21:46
#XFilesRevival press: US premiere at #NYCC before a crowd of 3000: despite some fans who know how to keep a secret, expect spoilers to hit the internets soon (and, who knows how good rule-keeping was, perhaps video clips of the episode will surface as well). The January premiere is still over 3 months away.
#XFilesRevival premiere press: It’s back to classic X-Files!
Alien conspiracy theorists treated as an X-Files in of itself: “Mulder has been diagnosed as depressive by his wife” Will we learn more about what happened between Mulder and Scully? “I don’t think so, that’s for other shows” + teasing the stand-alone episodes, like Darin Morgan’s “Curse of the Were-Lizard” (interview below does go into some spoilers)
There have been plenty of articles and some interviews that have come out, some go into extremely spoiler territory. I will not relay all this here, those who want them can look for them.
I am very intrigued and interested to see where this goes. It really feels like Carter took a long break and is back with an X-Files for present times, and has kept a good memory of old-school seasons 1-3 X-Files as if these defining seasons is what should really remembered about the show. Wait and see.
12 Oct 2015, 00:25
Lets we forget! #mythXplained “Demons”: producer Bob Goodwin provides the story, Chris Carter turns it into a mytharc episode full of half-truths, deliciously ambiguous about what is real and what is memory warped by obsession. An oft-forgotten gem
#mythXplained “Gethsemane”: Carter’s very personal themes of faith and skepticism cry out in pain for the whole world to hear in this episode that tries to shake everything in the world of the show’s mythology, kicking off one of the show’s very best multi-part episodes
This philosophical existential dialogue between our two heroes is one of the best in the series:
MULDER: I’m as skeptical of that man
as you are, but proof… definitive proof of sentient beings sharing
the same time and existence with us, that would change everything.
Every truth we live my would be shaken to the ground. There’s no
greater revelation imaginable, no greater scientific discovery.
SCULLY: You already believe, Mulder. What difference would it make?
I mean, what would proof change for you?
MULDER: If someone could prove to you the existence of God,
would it change you?
SCULLY: Only if it were disproven.
MULDER: Then you accept the possibility that belief in God is a lie?
SCULLY: I don’t think about it, actually, and I don’t think it can be
proven.
MULDER: But what if it could be? Wouldn’t that knowledge be worth
seeking? Or is it just easier to go on believing the lie?
Apart from some other anniversaries, October 13 is also the anniversary to one of @[362989843738755:274:The X-Files]’ best episodes.
Read genius Darin Morgan with his typical self-depreciation:
“A lot of that free will and fate stuff had to do with the fact that I was really bad, at the time, at plotting.”
“I left it in there as my own inside joke; I laugh every time I see it.”
“My pitch to Chris was, because Mulder’s interested in the psychic ability, that’s all he focuses on, and doesn’t really treat Clyde Bruckman as another human; he’s just interested in the phenomenon. Because Scully didn’t believe in it, she could treat him as a person, and see how his belief that he could see the future had ruined his life.”
#mythXplained It’s 1989! Vince Gilligan professes his love for the Lone Gunmen, gets all MK-Ultra on them, plus we get those vintage shoebox-sized cell phones
The leaks are out there! 4 promos with unfinished VFX are spreading through the internet. Our first glance at the non-mythology episodes — monsters, mutants, psi powers, medical experiments — and it’s touching all the notes it’s supposed to touch (maybe too much so?). The X-Files are back!
#mythXplained “Christmas Carol/Emily”: an acute sign of torture porn on Scully on the second half, but brought about so smoothly, beautifully, ethereally in its first part. A wonderful mix of mythology and character study — despite a link of these episodes with the core mythology that is problematic at best, besides they were written by John Gillnitz and not Carter
#XFilesRevival is going to be a mix of same-old same-old and radical break with what came before.
Chris Carter: “I jumped at the idea when I found out the actors were interested. I can tell you the idea of a reboot wasn’t the way I wanted to go. I didn’t want to come back to do a victory lap, to do sequels, or anything like that. I wanted fresh, new material, and that’s what we’ve done.”
Then why not do an original series instead of more X-Files? And why not use the opportunity to wrap up the X-Files properly instead of opening all-new mysteries?
@[362989843738755:274:The X-Files] Massive Music Compilation has been updated! Find @[107907589230040:274:Mark Snow] music requests from no less than 150 episodes! FYI @[56031953754:274:La-La Land Records].
#mythXplained Patient X/The Red and the Black: A pivotal 2-parter. The aliens-as-God parallel at its apex, a continuation and reversal of Mulder’s crisis of faith, the introduction of the Faceless Rebels, cinema-quality direction by Manners & Carter and memorable music by @[114444205294473:274:Mark Snow]. As “Fight the Future” approaches, definitve answers in the mythology come in spades.
This exchange in particular becomes more and more relevant as the #XFilesRevival approaches:
Mulder: It all comes down to a question, one that hasn’t been answered or I don’t think honestly addressed. Who made that chip in your neck? That chip was found in a military research facility. Our government made that chip, implanted it in your neck as part of a secret military project to develop a biochemical weapon, to monitor your immunity or to destroy you like a lab rat… if the truth were to be exposed. Your cancer, your cure. Everything that’s happening to you now. It all points to that chip. The truth I’ve been searching for? That truth is IN you.
Scully: (pauses, looks down) Mulder, when I met you five years ago, you told me that your sister had been abducted… by aliens. That that event had marked you so deeply that nothing else mattered. I didn’t believe you, but I followed you… on nothing more than your faith that the truth was out there, based not on facts, not on science, but on your memories that your sister had been taken from you. Your memories were all that you had.
Mulder: I don’t trust those memories now.
#mythXplained Travelers: It’s back in time within a back in time episode, exploring a very Dark Skies-like type of alien we never see again. Also never referenced again: Mulder’s ring, a Duchovny improvisation, that could be linked to the later introduction of Diana Fowley. Nice reuse of actors (young version of Mulder’s father from “Musings”, “Demons”; same actor for J.E.Hoover in Millennium’s “Matryoshka”)!
Two interviews with Chris Carter on the big twist in the mythology in the #XFilesRevival, preparing the ground for what ought to be some massive questions:
(6:40) Question: we’ve been lied at the whole time
“Not necessarily the whole time, he [Tad I guess] makes a reference to something. But you don’t know to take people to face value and to trust what they’re saying. Everyone’s got their version of the truth and they may be lying as well. So, we wanted to sort of throw that out there.”
(1:05) “People are not necessarily to be trusted. So when someone says something you can’t necessarily take it at face value in The X-Files.”
#mythXplained This is the end…of the best period for XF, the Vancouver era, and of Carter’s initially planned 5-year span for the series. The first of many ends. For the occasion, a scene actually takes place in Vancouver (@[802493469802487:274:Every Frame a Painting] 😉 ), we meet a boy who is “the key to everything”, and with Spender and Fowley and the Syndicate shenanigans the show is more an ensemble than ever. Bye bye Bob Goodwin & Vancouver crew!
