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joepinetree
Apr 5, 2012

haveblue posted:

It's more that unlike a lot of shows they never show the exact moment where they decided to give it a go, instead they just reveal at some point that they've become an item in the recent past.

While we are never shown when they start being together, there is a retcon to their relationship. The retcon is that in season 8 there is an episode where they show through flashbacks an unspecified time in the past where Mulder and Scully were trying to have a baby through in vitro fertilization unsuccessfully. Which was doubly annoying because they would only have Duchovny for 8 episodes that season and decided to use up one of his episodes to just have him in flashbacks discussing babies and pregnancy with Scully.

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Basebf555
Feb 29, 2008

The greatest sensual pleasure there is is to know the desires of another!

Fun Shoe
I always felt like the baby thing was kind of an in-between issue. Scully decided she wanted a baby and when she thought about who the father should be she realized Mulder was her closest friend at that point and one of the few people she trusted. Even in their retcon, wasn't all that theoretically before they were "together". I thought they were only officially together after the show ended(as shown in the recent movie).

joepinetree
Apr 5, 2012

Basebf555 posted:

I always felt like the baby thing was kind of an in-between issue. Scully decided she wanted a baby and when she thought about who the father should be she realized Mulder was her closest friend at that point and one of the few people she trusted. Even in their retcon, wasn't all that theoretically before they were "together". I thought they were only officially together after the show ended(as shown in the recent movie).

"Officially," we never know when they are together.
Even in the movie, where they are supposedly living together, there is a falling out scene that indicates that she may be moving out.
There are no "real" answers, ever. If you go around the x files forums and so on you will have people saying anything from they are together since after the 1st movie to they were only briefly together after the series is over.

But I think the discussion of "when" isn't a very interesting one. To the extent that it exists, as others have mentioned I prefer when it is left in the background and not really discussed. My point about the retcon, as well as stuff like trust no 1 and all things, is that in those instances they make the story entirely about the relationship, even if they don't provide any answers. And they are terrible.

joepinetree fucked around with this message at 22:03 on Feb 4, 2014

QuickbreathFinisher
Sep 28, 2008

by reading this post you have agreed to form a gay socialist micronation.
`

joepinetree posted:

But I think the discussion of "when" isn't a very interesting one. To the extent that it exists, as others have mentioned I prefer when it is left in the background and not really discussed. My point about the retcon, as well as stuff like trust no 1 and all things, is that in those instances they make the story entirely about the relationship, even if they don't provide any answers. And they are terrible.

I totally agree. I'm just gonna say that I think people that watch the X-Files trying to figure out precisely when/if Mulder and Scully consummate their relationship are entirely missing the point of the show. There are so many other awesome aspects to the subject and the way the show is presented, and even their relationship, that it's kinda depressing to see someone's takeaway be "they totes bang in season 8." I think overanalyzing it kinda cheapens the great chemistry between them and the obviously deep relationship they end up having for each other, and that's why the episodes that bring it front and center don't work.

But shippers will be shippers, I guess.

I just started rewatching and remembered how great "Ice" is. That was my favorite episode for a long time. Also the girl in "Shadows" has a really goofy name. "LAUREN KYTE." They keep saying it, first and last name, over and over, too.

Cristatus
Apr 23, 2010

QuickbreathFinisher posted:

Also the girl in "Shadows" has a really goofy name. "LAUREN KYTE." They keep saying it, first and last name, over and over, too.

The writers had to come up with so many one-shot characters that it's not surprising some of the names got a little goofy. I also remember (from an interview or something) that the writer of Teso Dos Bichos gave one of the characters his mother's name. And then killed her off.

Come to think of it, is there a comprehensive list somewhere of all the minor characters from the X-Files? Now I'm curious.

Slate Action
Feb 13, 2012

by exmarx

Cristatus posted:

Come to think of it, is there a comprehensive list somewhere of all the minor characters from the X-Files? Now I'm curious.

You could just go to the complete series cast list on IMDB and scroll to the bottom.

Octy
Apr 1, 2010

Slate Action posted:

You could just go to the complete series cast list on IMDB and scroll to the bottom.

Oh no! John Neville aka The Well-Manicured Man is dead. I was really liking his character so far. The structure of the Syndicate always interested me in the early episodes because while it's clear that CSM is powerful and influential in Washington, he's still just one of several who all appear to be more or less equal in rank. I wonder where exactly Deep Throat and X fitted in.

Well Manicured Man
Aug 21, 2010

Well Manicured Mort

Octy posted:

Oh no! John Neville aka The Well-Manicured Man is dead. I was really liking his character so far.

Oh no!

I liked the nomenclature for all the members of the Syndicate, it sorta helped "sell" that these men are members of such a deep conspiracy--the archetypal Men in Black G-Men spooks--that these basic, pretty banal identifying features like whether they smoke or what haircut they have or the state of their fingernails become their "names".

Exploder
Nov 15, 2005

Just a humble motherfucker with a big ass dick

QuickbreathFinisher posted:

I just started rewatching and remembered how great "Ice" is.

Ice was one of those episodes that, upon my first re-watch a few years ago, I could have sworn was a full-length movie as a child. You really become immersed in it. Along with Squeeze/Tooms, Beyond the Sea, and the early mytharc episodes, it set the bar high in the first season for what this show could accomplish.

Octy posted:

Oh no! John Neville aka The Well-Manicured Man is dead. I was really liking his character so far. The structure of the Syndicate always interested me in the early episodes because while it's clear that CSM is powerful and influential in Washington, he's still just one of several who all appear to be more or less equal in rank. I wonder where exactly Deep Throat and X fitted in.

I think Deep Throat was on the same level as CSM, and X was a rank below them. As far as I can tell, the totem pole went something like this:
Conrad Strughold
The Well-Manicured Man
CSM, the Elders, Deep Throat, Bill Mulder, Victor Klemper
X, Krycek
Scott Ostlehoff, Luis Cardinal, generic goons

Vintersorg
Mar 3, 2004

President of
the Brendan Fraser
Fan Club



Oh, apparently SATAN exists in this universe? Or is it a SATANIC ALIEN. Holy poo poo this episode was insane - "Die Hand Die Verletzt". It sure was something to watch before bed. I am surprised it didn't feature Scully freaking the gently caress out since she really holds onto her beliefs.

QuickbreathFinisher
Sep 28, 2008

by reading this post you have agreed to form a gay socialist micronation.
`

Vintersorg posted:

Oh, apparently SATAN exists in this universe? Or is it a SATANIC ALIEN. Holy poo poo this episode was insane - "Die Hand Die Verletzt". It sure was something to watch before bed. I am surprised it didn't feature Scully freaking the gently caress out since she really holds onto her beliefs.

:allears: I love that one, Mrs. Paddock is one of the creepiest MOTWs in the series. The whole episode is really well done, especially since she ends up not even being the real monster compared to the motherfuckers she's exacting revenge on. You're pretty much on her side by the end of it.

e: In addition to LITERALLY SATAN, doesn't Bruce Campbell play a demon trying to make a half-demon baby in a later episode?

QuickbreathFinisher fucked around with this message at 18:25 on Feb 5, 2014

Stare-Out
Mar 11, 2010

QuickbreathFinisher posted:

e: In addition to LITERALLY SATAN, doesn't Bruce Campbell play a demon trying to make a half-demon baby in a later episode?
Actually he's accused of being a demon because his wife keeps giving birth to horrible demon babies which he then kills and buries but it turns out it's actually his wife who is a demon and actually wants a horrible demon baby of her own.

I think that's it anyway.

Vintersorg
Mar 3, 2004

President of
the Brendan Fraser
Fan Club



I hate this cliche but:

This loving show.

haveblue
Aug 15, 2005



Toilet Rascal

Stare-Out posted:

Actually he's accused of being a demon because his wife keeps giving birth to horrible demon babies which he then kills and buries but it turns out it's actually his wife who is a demon and actually wants a horrible demon baby of her own.

I think that's it anyway.

They're both demons, but with opposite goals. He wants to live a normal human life, but every time he impregnates a woman the child comes out as a demon so he kills it and moves on. She wants to have a demon baby, but every time a human male impregnates her the child comes out normal, so she kills it and moves on. By the time M&S figure this out, she's gotten knocked up by Campbell's character, stopped him from killing it, and escaped.

Yeah, this loving show.

Stare-Out
Mar 11, 2010

haveblue posted:

They're both demons, but with opposite goals. He wants to live a normal human life, but every time he impregnates a woman the child comes out as a demon so he kills it and moves on. She wants to have a demon baby, but every time a human male impregnates her the child comes out normal, so she kills it and moves on. By the time M&S figure this out, she's gotten knocked up by Campbell's character, stopped him from killing it, and escaped.

Yeah, this loving show.
Right, that's the one. Also man that is loving grim even for this show, though the last shot of the episode is weirdly silly and almost sweet.

escape artist
Sep 24, 2005

Slow train coming
That's amazing. I always turned that episode off earlier because I was like "meh, I've already seen Rosemary's Baby."

Guess I'll have to check it out. Somehow, during my initial run, I missed Small Potatoes, and just caught that last night. That was a nice surprise.

Bob Ojeda
Apr 15, 2008

I AM A WHINY LITTLE EMOTIONAL BITCH BABY WITH NO SENSE OF HUMOR

IF YOU SEE ME POSTING REMIND ME TO SHUT THE FUCK UP

Vintersorg posted:

Oh, apparently SATAN exists in this universe? Or is it a SATANIC ALIEN. Holy poo poo this episode was insane - "Die Hand Die Verletzt". It sure was something to watch before bed. I am surprised it didn't feature Scully freaking the gently caress out since she really holds onto her beliefs.

What I like about that episode is that, if you think about it, Mulder and Scully don't really do anything - Mrs. Paddock just kills the bad guys and then disappears. They're completely ineffectual. They could have never shown up and everything would have turned out more or less exactly the same way. I love episodes like that - it really underscores how bizarre and weird the world of the X-Files is, that there's all these crazy things happening and even if you stumble onto what's happening, sometimes it just goes on and there's nothing you can do about it or understand about it.

I just watched The Calusari and that's another episode that's kind of like that - Mulder kind of helps out, but in the end, the ones who actually accomplish something are a bunch of old Romanian dudes; Mulder and Scully are just there hanging out. Fun episode as well.

Good to see an X-Files thread again, even though I never posted in the old ones. Everyone go read Shaenon Garrity's X-Files recap comic.

Stare-Out
Mar 11, 2010

enuma elish posted:

Good to see an X-Files thread again, even though I never posted in the old ones. Everyone go read Shaenon Garrity's X-Files recap comic.
I'm reading through this now (mostly because it's not a bad way to recap on the show) and the War of the Coprophages comic is pretty good.

haveblue
Aug 15, 2005



Toilet Rascal

Stare-Out posted:

Right, that's the one. Also man that is loving grim even for this show, though the last shot of the episode is weirdly silly and almost sweet.

Also really dated. This show did not make the best use of licensed music.

Season 6 is a mixed bag overall. The wheels hadn't fully come off the mythology yet but they were starting to wobble, and the MOTW stories were getting more experimental and avant-garde, not always successfully. It also had the jarring California scenery throwing everything off.

Octy
Apr 1, 2010

^ Interestingly, 'Agua Mala' is notable for making the cast and crew feel like they were filming back in Vancouver because of all the rain and lack of bright lighting.

We could have got worse episodes in Season 6, though. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_unmade_episodes_of_The_X-Files#Season_6

EDIT - God drat, 'Grotesque' from Season 3 is a really, really dark episode.

Octy fucked around with this message at 01:46 on Feb 6, 2014

david_a
Apr 24, 2010




Megamarm
Man, I don't remember Agent Pendrell (the lab tech with the hots for Scully) from when I watched this show on the air at all... Just watched S4E3 'Teliko':

Mulder: Scully's not coming. She's got a date...
Pendrell: :(
Mulder: ... with a corpse
Pendrell: :hawaaaafap:

Octy
Apr 1, 2010

Pendrell turns up a lot in Season 3. If I recall correctly he dies.

colonel_korn
May 16, 2003

Octy posted:

Pendrell turns up a lot in Season 3. If I recall correctly he dies.
Yeah, he gets accidentally shot by an assassin after buying Scully a birthday drink :smith:

Exploder
Nov 15, 2005

Just a humble motherfucker with a big ass dick

Haha, I'm curious about the Tilt-a-whirl one. I like the way Vince Gilligan's mind works. He is one of the few, if the only person in Hollywood who could make a story about a hostage situation on a Tilt-a-whirl interesting. He is probably the only person in Hollywood who would even think of such a thing.


Octy posted:

Pendrell turns up a lot in Season 3. If I recall correctly he dies.

Yeah, he dies towards the end of season 4, in Max/Tempus Fugit IIRC. Pendrell had his moments, but there was room for only one nerd with an undying crush on Scully on this show, and that was Frohike.

I AM GRANDO
Aug 20, 2006

The Unsolved Mysteries one sounds cool, though really similar to the COPS one that came later.

escape artist
Sep 24, 2005

Slow train coming
The Unsolved Mysteries one would have been awesome.

beanieson
Sep 25, 2008

I had the opportunity to change literally anything about the world and I used it to get a new av
Started a rewatch a few days ago & I'm up to Ice. I hadn't seen Carpenter's The Thing until recently, a year or so ago & never realized till now how much of an homage this episode was.

Femur
Jan 10, 2004
I REALLY NEED TO SHUT THE FUCK UP
I am rewatching the X-Files for the first time in a while, and man, Mulder is so paranoid, and belligerent to his sources. But I am down with his theories for everything except aliens, which he is always wrong about. Scully is a lot better than I remembered. And the show is incredibly darkly lit.

I am going to try making it pass season 5 this time. I think the alien stuff falls apart because they were never a real character, their motives unclear. It's probably for the best, alien scifi is usually pretty trite.

In "Fiwalker," why is that crazy guy using fire to kill poo poo that lives in a volcano? Why does he stay but lets M&S leave?

beanieson posted:

Started a rewatch a few days ago & I'm up to Ice. I hadn't seen Carpenter's The Thing until recently, a year or so ago & never realized till now how much of an homage this episode was.

Love this episode, probably my favorite parasite, the Highlander

Femur fucked around with this message at 06:15 on Feb 7, 2014

Humbug Scoolbus
Apr 25, 2008

The scarlet letter was her passport into regions where other women dared not tread. Shame, Despair, Solitude! These had been her teachers, stern and wild ones, and they had made her strong, but taught her much amiss.
Clapping Larry
Holy poo poo, just watched the new Chris Carter pilot on Amazon Prime. It's called The After and it is starting off properly hosed up.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...rd_i=1001155581

isaboo
Nov 11, 2002

Muay Buok
ขอให้โชคดี

Humbug Scoolbus posted:

Holy poo poo, just watched the new Chris Carter pilot on Amazon Prime. It's called The After and it is starting off properly hosed up.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...rd_i=1001155581

Oh man, thanks for mentioning this. Hadn't heard anything about it and instead of (ok, in addition to) my nightly X-files viewing I'm gonna give this a whirl.

Edit: ok yeah...that was interesting

isaboo fucked around with this message at 04:26 on Feb 7, 2014

Well Manicured Man
Aug 21, 2010

Well Manicured Mort
I'm listening to an old compilation album of music cues from the first three or so seasons (the album is "The Truth and the Light: Music from The X-Files" and splices a lot of dialogue from the show into the music, which makes for a good atmosphere but can be annoying if you just want the music) and it's reminding me of how The X-Files had hands down one of the best and most interesting soundtracks I've ever heard in a TV show, especially one from the 90s.

At the same time that Brannon Braga and Rick Berman were telling the composers for Star Trek TNG, DS9, and Voyager that their compositions had to be as interesting and memorable as "aural wallpaper", here was Mark Snow crafting these dark, moody, gorgeous, incredibly striking sonic atmospheres, and I think Snow's work was instrumental in getting that "X-Files" aesthetic we all know and love.

I'm disappointed I missed out on the huge limited edition X-Files compilation album La La Land Records was selling a while ago. Hopefully one of these days I'll be able to get the second volume before it goes out of print too.

Octy
Apr 1, 2010

Poor CSM. He's killed two of the most influential men in history and he can rig Superbowl games, but he can't control the publication of his own novel. :(

'I can kill you whenever I like... but not today'.

david_a
Apr 24, 2010




Megamarm

Octy posted:

Poor CSM. He's killed two of the most influential men in history and he can rig Superbowl games, but he can't control the publication of his own novel. :(

'I can kill you whenever I like... but not today'.
Ha... I dug up the thread because I just watched Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man. Awesome episode.

Why does everyone call him "Cigarette Smoking Man" anyway? Mulder always calls him Cancer Man which is way cooler. :colbert:

Maybe I'm dense, but why did he start smoking in the first place? Is it just a way of showing that he has zero optimism for the future?

Slate Action
Feb 13, 2012

by exmarx

david_a posted:

Ha... I dug up the thread because I just watched Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man. Awesome episode.

Why does everyone call him "Cigarette Smoking Man" anyway? Mulder always calls him Cancer Man which is way cooler. :colbert:

Maybe I'm dense, but why did he start smoking in the first place? Is it just a way of showing that he has zero optimism for the future?

My understanding that that he's simply credited as 'Cigarette Smoking Man' because that's the title the show creators gave him (i.e. that's his 'name' in the actual show credits). I like to think of it as the fanciful title he gives himself, whereas Mulder cuts straight through the bullshit and calls him 'Cancer Man.'

As for why he started smoking, why does anyone start smoking?

Slate Action fucked around with this message at 23:40 on Feb 18, 2014

haveblue
Aug 15, 2005



Toilet Rascal
I think they actually touch on that in his origin episode- he was trying to quit at the same time he was trying to get out of the world of covert ops, but when his manuscript is rejected he throws up his hands and dives back into both.

marktheando
Nov 4, 2006

haveblue posted:

I think they actually touch on that in his origin episode- he was trying to quit at the same time he was trying to get out of the world of covert ops, but when his manuscript is rejected he throws up his hands and dives back into both.

And when he is first recruited into the conspiracy he's a non smoker, someone offers him one and he says he never touches the things.

david_a
Apr 24, 2010




Megamarm
He first lit up at the movie theater when Oswald got nabbed. He kicks it for a while with that nicotine patch but starts again when he forces Deep Throat to off the alien. My question was more about what the smoking represents for the character. The only thing I can come up with that it shows his general dejectedness and utter lack of hope in the future - the dude literally killed the American dream with JFK and MLK, after all. I was wondering if anybody else had thoughts on it.

I'm not sure I get his statement to Deep Throat either: "I've never killed anybody. I hope to live my entire life without having to do so." I don't know if they were trying to show his way of coping with his actions or what; that all his assassinations were done by The Powers That Be and he was just a cog in the machine.

Small Strange Bird
Sep 22, 2006

Merci, chaton!
I started rewatching the show from beginning with MY GIRLFRIEND recently, and we're both loving it. Doing it in order means I'm seeing the 'minor' episodes that I probably only watched on their original broadcast, and I'm quite surprised how much I've enjoyed ones that I'd passed over when I got the DVDs, like 'Shadows', 'Miracle Man' and 'Roland'. Even 'Born Again' and '3' were... well, not exactly good, but so far even the weakest episodes have still contained something interesting.

I'm not eagerly anticipating episodes that I remember boring me shitless on first broadcast, though. 'Dod Kalm' and 'The Field Where I Died' are both lurking in the future...

escape artist
Sep 24, 2005

Slow train coming
Just skip Dod Kalm. Seriously. I almost gave up on the whole show because of how bad that episode is.

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marktheando
Nov 4, 2006

escape artist posted:

Just skip Dod Kalm. Seriously. I almost gave up on the whole show because of how bad that episode is.

Really? What was so bad about it? It's certainly not a great episode but almost giving up on the show?

The episode where Scully gets a tattoo and the episode where Mulder falls in love with a vampire are much, much worse than Dod Kalm.

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