Alien Trespass: A Concept Film That Works Great. . . For Its Niche.

The Good: Funny, Realistically recreates '50s science fiction today, Decent acting
The Bad: Purposely ridiculous, Low appeal outside niche audience
The Basics: R.W. Goodwin directs Eric McCormack and Jenni Baird in a brand new 1950's-style science fiction film which will appeal greatly to those who love classic science fiction, but few others.


Sometimes, I need to take a few moments to reiterate my standards and separate the stuff from the stuff. I tend to review all movies on the same scale: Scary Movie competes with Casablanca and The Usual Suspects on a scale of objective standards that evaluates all films I encounter on plot, character, acting and effects. And there are perfect comedies and dramas and every other genre which have superlative ratings in all four categories. Every now and then, there is a flaw in the system which is that a film might be made that does what it attempts to do extraordinarily well, but objectively is not a great film. Alien Trespass is one such film.

My other problem with reviewing Alien Trespass is this; I went to Boston to attend a screening of the film that the movie's director, R.W. Goodwin, was present for. After the viewing, I was able to ask Mr. Goodwin several questions and I enjoyed the movie, his presentation and the opportunity to pick his brain about the making of Alien Trespass and his work on The X-Files (reviewed here!). Moreover, I "get" Alien Trespass and think that for the purpose, Goodwin and writers James Swift and Steven P. Fisher did an awesome job of achieving it. The point of Alien Trespass is to create a 1950's science fiction film today. Alien Trespass achieves the retro look, feel and sound better than the only other comparable concept film, Sky Captain And The World Of Tomorrow.

The news of the day for November 21, 1957 (presented in vivid black and white) includes a story that Goldstone Pictures, having had a contract fallout with one of its big stars, is burying the film Alien Trespass, which is said to be the greatest science fiction masterpiece of all time. All copies of the film are thought destroyed, much to the dismay of the star, who believes it is his best performance. But then, in vivid color, Alien Trespass begins with a flying saucer careening out of control. It crashes in the Mohave Desert near a small town and something inside quickly gets out. One thing that escapes is a one-eyed phallic-looking creature with a tentacle which has the ability to turn invisible and quickly liquefies a wolf.

Also aboard the saucer is a giant silver-suited entity, whose appearance coincides with the disappearance of local astronomer, Dr. Ted Lewis, who investigates the crash of the flying saucer when he realizes it was not simply a meteor as part of the Perseal meteor shower. Ted resurfaces, claiming to his wife and to local waitress Tammy, that he is not Ted. Instead, he claims to be Urp of Codar in the Drago Cluster and he is hunting the vicious Gotah. The Gotah begins attacking everyone it comes in contact with, from the police officer, Vernon, to the nanny of the local doctor. Urp attempts to convince Tammy that they must act fast, for the Gotah is about to multiply and they must get it back into stasis before it kills everyone on the planet!

Alien Trespass is appropriately campy '50's science fiction and director R.W. Goodwin does an amazing job of replicating the look and feel of 1950's science fiction films. The flying saucer rocks awkwardly as it enters the atmosphere, the Gotah is made out of rubber and Urp in his natural form is incredibly low-budget in appearance. As well, attention is paid to the set dressings and props, up to and including getting authentic science fiction movie posters from the '50s for the child's room. There is a greaser and Tammy wears a bright pink skirt which screams bubblegum '50s. Police Chief Dawson is appropriately grizzled and Officer Vernon is accompanied by a young officer who relies on him for guidance completely.

But more than simply replicating the look of 1950s cinema - though the film does not have a grainy look to it that would have been appropriate for its retro appearance - Alien Trespass recreates the sound and feel of '50's America, as captured in the cinema of the time. Characters worry that the crashed vessel could be a "secret commie rocket" and they use "gosh" and "dang" as opposed to anything stronger. The relationship between Dr. Lewis and his wife Lana is healthy; they are celebrating their anniversary when the meteor shower begins. As well, Lana provides Ted a romantic option that is presented in a wholesome and unrevealing way (this is a PG movie appropriate for anyone over ten years old - the Gotah, we were told by the director, has been known to completely scare children younger than ten). Moreover, local youth Dick Perkins and his girlfriend Penny, despite being at the Point, manage to not engage in premarital sex.

The structure of the story even has the retro feel down pat; Ted and his wife are busy living their lives when they are interrupted by Ted being possessed by Urp. Lana believes unquestioningly in her husband and is attentive enough that she notices immediately when he returns from the hills acting strangely. The film explains itself pretty well, likening Urp to a federal marshal, calling attention to his weapon and setting up story elements like Tammy using salt to slow down the Gotah. Urp explains the state of the universe in dramatic terms and characterizes Gotah in a string of technobabble that makes sense when it is broken down, but is remarkably esoteric, which will alienate many viewers.

One of the positive things that most any audience will appreciate about Alien Trespass is the philosophy. In addition to having a strong female protagonist, in the form of Tammy, the film is not lacking in the 1950's sense of optimism about the future and about space travel. Thus, the eventual Big Preachy Speech actually fits the film remarkably well. As well, R.W. Goodwin did an amazing job of directing the film. Goodwin, who directed the seminal mythology episode of The X-Files, "The Erlenmeyer Flask" (reviewed here!) applies the same level of care and detail to making a campy film as he did to making serious science fiction. The look and feel of Alien Trespass is immaculate in its attention to detail.

Also surprisingly well done is the acting. Robert Patrick gives his usual solid performance in the supporting role of Officer Vernon and similarly Dan Lauria does as well as he can in the somewhat monolithic role of Chief Dawson. Eric McCormack gets top billing as Ted Lewis and the alien known as Urp. McCormack is challenged with playing an actor who is hamming it up some as classic science fiction actors were known to. Here, McCormack manages to brilliantly portray both an arrogant actor who believes he is acting at the top of his game and the awkward performance that is that actor's performance. McCormack pulls off that balance wonderfully.

But it is Jenni Baird who steals the show as Tammy. Baird manages to balance the serious appearance of a young woman who is suddenly thrust into a position where she might be responsible for saving the world from an alien invasion, but also playing the role with a sense of comic timing that would achieve the goal of replicating the '50's sense of camp. Baird achieves the goal by playing the role as straightlaced as possible and with an earnest quality that might seem slightly over-the-top by today's standards, but was more par for the course in the '50s. Baird makes Tammy into a worthwhile and memorable heroine.

Largely, though, Alien Trespass is geared toward a very specific audience: science fiction fans who appreciate a sense of classical science fiction, despite the cheesy special effects and predictable frights. The result is a cinematic experiment that is successful, but carries with it the inherent weaknesses of plot and character that the material it is referencing held. In other words, this film is strictly for science fiction fans and in the interest of supporting independent filmmakers and a little (worthwhile) film that can, I heartily recommend Alien Trespass to the niche audience it is intended for. But for general audiences, it might be more worthwhile to check out on DVD when it comes out, because it is more of a fun flick than a movie attempting to seriously express the ideas within it.

Now out on DVD, Alien Trespass comes with an anemic amount of bonus features. With only three featurettes and an interview with McCormack and Goodwin, plus the film's trailers, this makes less use of the DVD medium than other small budget films to truly captivate an audience.

As a final note, at the film's website, there is a bridge for the opening news story (wherein all copies of Alien Trespass are destroyed) and the actual film, where two construction workers recover a lost copy of the movie. It is hilarious and worth the time of anyone who might like a good laugh and who might be swayed to go see the film from outside the target audience.

For other science fiction comedy films, please be sure to visit my reviews of:
Men In Black II
G-Force
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home

6.5/10

For other film reviews, please check out my Movie Review Index Page for an organized listing of all the films I have reviewed!

© 2012, 2009 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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A Lackluster Episode And A Killer Season Finale: "Small Potatoes" and "Gethsemane!"

The Good: "Gethsemane" is riveting and intense, "Small Potatoes" is amusing and well-acted
The Bad: "Small Potatoes" is somewhat pointless with a terrible special effect.
The Basics: A fair episode and a great one define the final VHS for The X-Files, leaving viewers hanging... or searching for DVDs!


Years after a series rises and falls, it is sometimes hard to go back through and recapture the excitement of what it was like to see it the very first time. As I speed through The X-Files, I have been caught both by how wonderful a show it was and how quickly it descended into the formulaic. But there were episodes that defied expectations even at the time and one of those was the fourth season finale, "Gethsemane."

For those who have not seen much of The X-Files, "Gethsemane" is a knock-your-socks-off type season finale where everything about the series is left hanging in the balance. The tagline of "Believe The Lie" made most of us figure - well before the final credits rolled - that Mulder could not and would not have killed himself. But rewatching the episode, it is only the fact that Mulder was the lead character on The X-Files and that the series was network television that kept some of us from believing: 1. Mulder would kill himself, 2. Scully was on death's door with her cancer, and 3. Everything Mulder had believed was a lie, perpetrated by the conspirators who were hiding even more insidious government plots than what Mulder believed they were concealing about extraterrestrials and alien life on Earth. On video, "Gethsemane" appears alongside "Small Potatoes," a much more fun, but also strangely blase episode of The X-Files.

In "Small Potatoes," Mulder and Scully head to a town where five children have each been born with a tail. Mulder's interest is from a tabloid article and the latest woman, a single mother, claiming her pregnancy came from a man from another planet. When she claims Luke Skywalker is the father of the baby, Mulder checks out, but Scully is intrigued when some of the elements of the woman's story do not add up. They soon discover that four of the women, all married, used the same fertility doctor and the agents investigate him.

There they find a janitor, Eddie Van Blundht, who appears to have had a tail and had it removed, which makes him the instant suspect for the inseminations. He is unrepentant and soon the case takes a turn for the weird when it appears he can mimic anyone and he escapes custody. Mulder and Scully begin a hunt for Eddie, only to have Mulder ambushed and Eddie replace him, which leads him to begin pursuing Scully . . .

"Gethsemane" begins with the end: Scully identifying a body in Mulder's apartment. Scully then begins to tell the story of how she and Mulder have, essentially, parted ways with one another over the x-files. To a professional review board, she begins to tell the story of an associate of Mulder's finding the holy grail for his cause: an alien body frozen on a mountaintop in Canada. When the team of excavators there are killed, Mulder becomes more convinced of the reality of the corpse and he witnesses an autopsy performed on the body.

Scully, skeptical as always, becomes increasingly skeptical when the alien body disappears and everyone associated with the find is found dead. She is further disturbed by the appearance of an agent, Michael Kritschgau who details exactly how much of a pawn Mulder has been in the plans of the government and the conspiracy of misdirection designed to keep the populace looking in the other direction as it rules the world. Convinced Kritschgau is telling the truth by his knowledge of how Scully has contracted cancer, Scully abandons an increasingly distraught Mulder . . .

"Small Potatoes" is a very simple "mutant-of-the-week" episode and it is actually one of the less inspired comedies of The X-Files. Most comedies that the series did tended to be humor around the obvious or having fun with the narrative technique. The latter stories worked very well because the "mutant-of-the-week" stories quickly became formulaic and the more fans watched, the more familiar they became.

"Small Potatoes" is a simple idea hampered by an even more ridiculous special effect. In fact, the only real point to the episode seems to be to get Mulder (well, Eddie as Mulder) on a couch with Scully drinking wine and coming a hair's breadth away from kissing. Fortunately, the scene is brought to a resolution before anything problematic like a Scully rape by Eddie as Mulder can occur.

But what redeems this video is the presence of "Gethsemane." After all of the evidence that has been shown on The X-Files to attempt to illustrate to the willing fans that Mulder is right, extraterrestrials are amongst us and we ought to be fear the government, an even more insidious idea is brought forth: what if the cover-up is a cover-up to hide a very different truth. Kritschgau is both convincing and intriguing and the story he spins about the government experimenting on the populace, blaming it on aliens and letting then letting themselves get caught covering up alien life on Earth is a compelling one.

"Gethsemane" works because it is equally plausible as all of Mulder's weird stories and the intense aspect that works so well in the episode is that Mulder comes around to the hard science Scully has always demanded from him. Even more intriguing is what that hard science tells Scully!

"Gethsemane" is supposed to be a Mulder story and truth be told, it is one of David Duchovny's more interesting performances in The X-Files. Actually, "Small Potatoes" allows Duchovny to act like Darin Morgan (who plays the natural Eddie) and that seems like even more of an acting challenge than playing Mulder with real dramatic gravitas.

But it is Scully who has the chance to shine in "Gethsemane" and she delivers. She is strong and has a firm boundary she refuses to step over with Mulder and that works. Gillian Anderson gives a compelling performance as Scully with a steely reserve that we have not seen from her before.

This is the final video that was released for The X-Files before DVD took over and it is enough to make one want to hunt down the fifth season of The X-Files on DVD, just to see how it ends!

[Given that VHS is a rapidly dying medium, a far better investment would be The X-Files - The Complete Fourth Season, reviewed by me here!
As well, those who already love The X-Files will find The X-Files - The Complete Series to be an even better buy, here!
Thanks for reading!]

"Small Potatoes" - 5.5/10
"Gethsemane" - 8.5/10
VHS - 7/10

For other television episode or DVD reviews, please visit my index page by clicking here!

© 2011, 2009 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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The Colony Exposed And One Of The Most Horrific Hours Of Television With "Herrenvolk"/"Home!"

The Good: Decent continuation of story and character for "Herrenvolk," Video bonus footage
The Bad: Almost everything about "Home," Medium issues
The Basics: An average season premiere is trumped by the unredeemably gross second episode which may be done well, but is not worth anyone's time.


It's interesting sometimes to see what we take from our experiences, especially the effect of art and media on our personal development. I say this because in the documentary Fahrenheit 9/11, there is a scene where an officer mentions his objections to returning to Iraq because he does not like what he was exposed to there did to his person, his character. I never needed to go to war to know I would not like it (just like I don't need to go to Abu Ghraib to know I wouldn't like to be treated the way the prisoners there were treated!). But far from the political things, that phrase from that officer comes back to me whenever I encounter something so terrible that it disturbs me and I realize I never, ever want to subject myself to that experience again.

Since seeing Fahrenheit 9/11, there have been a number of movies or television shows I have seen that I will never again subject myself to. The only one I promised myself never to watch again before I saw that movie was an episode of The X-Files: "Home." "Home" is so graphically violent, creepy and outright disgusting that I will not ever watch it again in my life. Indeed, watching the footage of the episode included in the bonus feature on this video was enough to remind me why. The other episode on this tape, the fourth season premiere, "Herrenvolk" is one that is much better and I enjoy rewatching. But its quality cannot match the pure vileness of "Home."

In "Herrenvolk," a telephone line repair man dies from bee stings, despite not being allergic to bee stings. This death happens at virtually the same time that Mulder, Scully, and Jeremiah Smith are facing off with the shapeshifting Alien Bounty Hunter. After a prolonged chase and Mulder apparently killing the Alien Bounty Hunter, Mulder and Jeremiah head for Alberta, Canada and proof of the sinister agenda that the shadow conspiracy is working on.

Unfortunately for Mulder, the Alien Bounty Hunter was not killed by the coveted weapon Mulder jammed into the back of its head and it captures Scully, determined to find Jeremiah Smith and Mulder. Jeremiah, however, brings Mulder to a farm in Alberta where bees are being used to pollinate an alien plant and the caretakers of the farm are drones . . . one of whom is a clone of Samantha Mulder!

In "Home," Mulder and Scully investigate the Peacock family, an inbred family who keep their deformed mother under a bed and roll her out to have sex with her. The Peacocks are killing people and Mulder and Scully are part of a team sent into their house to capture them for prosecution while avoid being killed by them.

So I can get off the topic of "Home," this episode is essentially a haunted house story where Mulder and Scully fight for their life against mutants who are inbred and gross. If one has been subjected to the movie Wrong Turn, it is essentially like that movie. "Home" had a parental warning before it when it aired and might have the distinction of being the only episode to bear one.

"Home" was aired two weeks before the pilot episode of Millennium and was intended to prepare audiences for the graphic violence of that show. But what made Millennium so good was not its level of gore or how creepy it was (and it was!), but rather how effectively it used the chance to show serial killers, abductions and violence. Carter terrorized audiences with Millennium not by grossing them out, but by scaring them. It's like the difference between a horror movie and a gore flick. "Home" is a gore flick and it is a huge disappointment. It did, however, do what it set out to do so effectively that I know I will never watch it again. I do recall, however, that even at the time I thought it deserved to win an Emmy for Musical Direction as their use of the song "Wonderful World" enhanced the creepiness of the episode expertly.

But "Herrenvolk" is what most fans would want this video for anyway. Picking up where the third season finale, “Talitha Cumi" (reviewed here!) left off, "Herrenvolk" finally answers some key questions of The X-Files while asking new ones. The fact that Samantha Mulder ended up cloned is finally confirmed as the female alien drones are Samanthas. The viewer learns more about the Alien Bounty Hunter and the connection between it and Jeremiah Smith is more or less confirmed, especially in the episode's final moments. And, yes, this is not a safe episode! If the third season did not exactly end with a bang, the fourth season sure opens with one!

"Herrenvolk" continues the story of Jeremiah Smith, a defector from the secret agenda the U.S. government has in cahoots with the aliens Mulder has had hints of on Earth before now. And it's a good episode. Unfortunately, it is not a great episode. While it is arguably part of the essential mythology of The X-Files, it is not one of the best episodes in that arc. Mulder, Jeremiah Smith and the Alien Bounty Hunter spend the first act largely running around in a dark building. It is visually confusing; it is shot in a way and in lighting so dark that there are long stretches where it is almost impossible to tell what is going on.

As well, "Herrenvolk" is a bit light on character for my tastes. Mulder pays lip service to using Jeremiah to save his mother's life, but when push comes to shove, he and Jeremiah flee to Canada rather than actually saving Mrs. Mulder. The Cigarette-Smoking Man, whose own lung cancer was implied cured by Jeremiah in the prior episode, has only a bit part in "Herrenvolk." This is rather problematic when the episodes are played back to back and the vital character of the first part is only minimally in the second.

Scully's own search, one that leads her and Agent Pendrel to conclude that everyone with a smallpox inoculation is tagged and catalogued, seems to go nowhere and the implication of her discovery is buried. In other words, Scully picks up a vital piece of the mythology mystery, but it means little or nothing in the context of this episode.

Conversely, Gillian Anderson gives a pretty awesome performance in "Herrenvolk." In the scene where Scully tries desperately to warn Mulder to not give her any information over the phone, the staging of the shot tells seasoned viewers that the Alien Bounty Hunter is behind her. But long before that dawns on the viewer, it is Anderson's performance, the intensity of her eyes and body language that tell the viewer she is being menaced by something off camera. It is a perfect and intriguing performance that works wonderfully for her.

David Duchovny plays Mulder as exhausted and wounded throughout "Herrenvolk," something we've seen him play before a number of times. He does it well, though.

In "Home," there is little acting; it's mostly running, ducking, dodging and shooting. At least they don't put up a pretense of it being more than it is. Sadly, what it is is enough to sink this video enough for me to recommend strongly against anyone buying it. Then again, those who purchase it can choose to watch the episode that follows "Herrenvolk," but I suspect that the vast majority who do will only go that far in the tape once.

[Given that VHS is a rapidly dying medium, a far better investment would be The X-Files - The Complete Fourth Season, reviewed by me here!
As well, those who already love The X-Files will find The X-Files - The Complete Series to be an even better buy, here!
Thanks for reading!]

“Herrenvolk” – 7/10
“Home” – 0/10
VHS - 3/10

For other television episode reviews, please be sure to visit my index page on the subject by clicking here!

© 2011, 2008 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Scully's Turn To Get Doped Up/Mulder's Turn To Have A Family Member In Peril:"Wetwired"/"Talitha Cumi!"

The Good: Scary, Clever, Moments of character, Moments of acting
The Bad: "Wetwired" is a bit predictable, "Talitha Cumi" is rather expository
The Basics: Two good episode of The X-Files are presented with "Wetwired" and "Talitha Cumi," but we could have lived with the first episode being swapped with "Quagmire!"



As The X-Files wrapped up its third season, I was in college and finally becoming a fan of the show. As a result, I distinctly remember watching the third season finale, "Talitha Cumi" and being excited about it. So when it was released on video, I also remember picking it right up and being pretty excited about that, too. Rewatching the video of "Wetwired" and "Talitha Cumi" reminds me how timeless television series' can actually endure well after the decade they helped define. The X-Files had some serious issues in its later seasons, especially in the "mythology" stories. But here at the end of the third season . . . wow.

"Wetwired" finds Mulder and Scully investigating a series of murders where a man, in a crazed state, claims he was actually attacking a Serbian war criminal. Disturbed by the correlation between what the man has been watching on television and who he thinks he was killing, Mulder and Scully begin to investigate his video collection when another murder occurs, this time a woman thinking her husband was having an affair that she sees out her window while doing dishes (in fact, the old woman blows away her neighbor, whose dog was laying on him in his hammock!).

As the investigation persists, Scully begins to hear a telephone ringing and she becomes paranoid about Mulder. Convinced he is betraying her to the Cigarette-Smoking Man, Scully fires off some shots at Mulder and goes AWOL, a series of events that convinces Mulder of what the Lone Gunmen suspect; that someone is using a sub-channel on the television monitors to agitate people into killing!

"Talitha Cumi" opens with a man freaking out in a fast food restaurant and shooting up several people there before he is shot by police. By the time Mulder and Scully arrive on the scene, though, there are no wounded and the man who went on the spree claims to have been touched by god, who healed him. The agents attempt to corroborate his story and are disturbed to discover that the man who healed him with his touch disappeared and appears to be able to take on multiple forms.

The hunt for Jeremiah Smith, the man with the miraculous healing power, continues when Mulder is informed that his mother has had a stroke while at the Rhode Island cottage the family owned. He is presented by X with information that the Cigarette-Smoking Man was present moments before Mrs. Mulder's collapse and that the Cigarette-Smoking Man had come to the house looking for something, something Mulder becomes obsessed with finding, while Scully tries to work out who and what Jeremiah Smith truly is!

"Wetwired" is a tough sell to die-hard fans of The X-Files if for no other reason than in the second season finale, Mulder's water is contaminated with LSD much the same way that the various killers' televisions are plagued by the added aggression pattern creator. We've seen the paranoia, hallucinations and strung-out quality as a result of influence by the shadowy conspiracy before and frankly it's not much different with Scully as the victim as opposed to Mulder.

Still, it is a clever and frightening idea that is well-developed by Mat Beck who worked on The X-Files as the visual effects supervisor. He gets the voice and feel of the characters and show right in his script and were it not for the almost identical elements in "Anasazi" (reviewed here!), "Wetwired" might be a knock-it-out-of-the-park episode. As it is, it is light on character - though it does reinforce well the relationship between Mulder and Scully and returns Scully to her mother's care, which works well for the character. Outside the fact that the plot is essentially recycled the only real problem is that when Mulder calls Mrs. Scully, she doesn't ream him out about losing her daughter yet again. After all, poor Scully got the crap kicked out of her numerous times in the second season and she was abducted twice in that season. Now, about a year and a half later, Mulder calls up Mrs. Scully to say "yeah, I lost your daughter" and she doesn't go ape on him (especially after her other daughter was shot and killed because of the work Mulder and Scully do) . . . come on!

"Talitha Cumi," on the other hand, is both a much tighter and much more nebulous episode. How is that possible? First, it is a mythology episode that is laying down important information for the viewer in virtually every scene. It is in this episode that we (along with Mulder) learn that Mulder's mother and the Cigarette-Smoking Man have known each other for years, which set off years of rumors that Mulder might be the Cigarette-Smoking Man's son. We learn that the Alien Bounty hunter is part of a race that is here to colonize the Earth. We also learn that the colonization plan seems to be largely what the big secret conspiracy is all about. And when the Alien Bounty Hunter reappears, it's pretty cool.

In "Talitha Cumi," the viewer also learns that the race represented by Jeremiah Smith and the Alien Bounty Hunter seems to have more powers than simply the ability to shapechange along humanoid lines. They can heal and there is the implication in the scenes between Smith and the Cigarette-Smoking Man that they might have some form of telepathy or sight that allows them to see within a person. It is the scenes between the Cigarette-Smoking Man and Jeremiah Smith, as the shapechanger takes on the appearance of Mulder's father and Deep Throat, that the episode takes on a remarkably nebulous tone. The characters talk in code, alluding to plans that are not made explicit. This adds an air of realism to the dialogue (those in the know would not need to spell it all out) but is problematic to viewers who are being run over with the sheer amount of information packed into the expository dialogue.

"Talitha Cumi" is by no means a perfect season finale, either. There is a scene wherein Mulder and X get into a pretty violent fight and while there is some believability to Skinner - a former Marine - holding his own with the shadowy operative, that X doesn't succeed in completely shutting Mulder down is unbelievable.

That said, it does set up a number of threads that take years to pay off and it holds up remarkably well over multiple viewings, making for a decent episode to return to again and again.

On video, "Wetwired" and "Talitha Cumi" include a bonus feature, an interview with Chris Carter that spells out a number of behind-the-scenes details on the making of the two episodes and it is a good way to add value to these video tapes even now.

Fans of The X-Files will love "Talitha Cumi," despite its flaws, but fans of science fiction, horror, or general thrillers, will probably get more out of "Wetwired," which has a good premise and whose real flaw is that premise has (essentially) already been explored on The X-Files before.

[Given that VHS is a rapidly dying medium, a far better investment would be The X-Files - The Complete Third Season, reviewed by me here!
As well, those who already love The X-Files will find The X-Files - The Complete Series to be an even better buy, here!
Thanks for reading!]

"Wetwired" - 5/10
"Talitha Cumi" - 7.5/10
VHS - 6/10

For other television episode or season reviews, please click here to visit my index page!

© 2011, 2008 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Return To The Dangerous Place Where The Truth Kills: "The Blessing Way" And "Paper Clip!"

The Good: Good acting, Decent stories, Pacing, Video bonus features
The Bad: Somewhat light on character for my tastes
The Basics: Dark and impressive, "The Blessing Way" and "Paper Clip" put Mulder and Scully on the trail of the conspiracy that is racking up quite a body count!


The truth, if there is an absolute of that concept that can be translated by measly humans limited by their perspective, is out there, we are told by The X-Files, which wisely manages not to suggest where out there they mean. Even so, some episodes of The X-Files are essentially the U.F.O. cover-up conspiracy stories the show is oft-assumed to be about. Such is as it is when The X-Files began its third season with the two parter "The Blessing Way" and "Paper Clip."

Actually, the two parts that open the third season are actually the last two parts to the second season finale, "Anasazi" (reviewed here!) and lacking any "Previously on The X-Files. . ." recaps on the videos, one is left to piece together what happened in that episode if they only watch this tape. There is something strange about starting with an episode where Mulder is presumed dead, a digital tape is referenced, Mulder's father has been killed with Mulder himself implicated in the murder and Scully is about to be fired for breaches in protocol by her superiors at the F.B.I.

In "The Blessing Way," Scully returns to the Navajo reservation in New Mexico to discover that Mulder has been killed and that the agents of the Cigarette-Smoking Man have beaten up everyone they could find in their vain attempt to find the digital tape containing the MJ files. After being stopped by an unmarked helicopter which whisks away her hard copy of the files, Scully returns to Washington, D.C. where an inquiry strips her of her position and puts her on suspension.

Back in New Mexico, Mulder's body is found in a state near death and Albert Holsteen begins the Blessing Way Chant to attempt to heal him. In his delirium, Mulder connects with his dead father and Deep Throat who urge him to return to the land of the living to finish the work he set out to and to find the truths that they worked so hard in life to hide. Scully, on the trail of the truth thanks to Frohike, is given an ominous warning at Bill Mulder's funeral, one which puts her in imminent danger of assassins.

In "Paper Clip," Skinner and Scully are shocked to learn that Mulder is actually alive and back in town and the location of the digital tape is revealed. Pressured by his shadow consortium, the Cigarette-Smoking Man intensifies his search for the digital tape, dispatching Krycek to recover it. When the Lone Gunmen clue Mulder and Scully in on the identity of one of the men in a photograph with Bill Mulder, the F.B.I. agents go in search of Nazi scientist Victor Klemper.

Klemper sends the pair to West Virginia to a subterranean record's storage facility where the agents discover genetic histories of Scully and Samantha Mulder and thousands of others. While Skinner attempts to negotiate with the Cigarette-Smoking Man for Mulder and Scully's safe return to work, the agents are hunted by those who want to keep the truth buried!

"The Blessing Way" is essentially a healing story for Mulder and a setup of Dana Scully's larger character arc for the rest of the season and series. Forced to go through the front door at the Hoover Building, Scully discovers a chip implanted in the soft tissue in the back of her neck, which she soon comes to believe was left there when she was abducted back in "Ascension" (reviewed here!). Its presence and removal in "The Blessing Way" sets off a chain of events that will plague Scully for years.

The thing is, though, this is treated as a b-plot to Mulder's healing story. Mulder is given the will to keep on fighting the shadowy forces of lies and deceit by his dead father who warns Mulder that the truth will force the young man to look at his father differently. That Mulder opts for the truth and the fight for life says much about his character. But most of his part in the episode is quiet, subtle and hardly action packed.

On the other hand, "Paper Clip" is packed with all of the exposition, aliens and U.F.O.'s that fans have waited years to see. Trigger-happy Krycek illustrates he has a backbone, Mulder and Scully run around in the dark, Skinner shows exactly whose side he is on and the Cigarette-Smoking Man's position is revealed to be a lot more tenuous than most might think! "Paper Clip" is a pretty packed episode.

The thing about both episodes that unifies them well - outside the obvious chronological order - is a general sense of Navajo spirituality and a generally decent sense of connectedness between Man and Earth. This is not theologically overbearing, but rather it is utilized for exposition of its own and to illustrate a fairly incredible concept of price, debts and consequences. Mulder is granted his life back through the Blessing Way, but another life is taken (for those keeping score, this is technically three lives for Mulder's as Bill Mulder and the Thinker were killed in "Anasazi" to get this little bloodletting started). The question, then, becomes whether it is all worth it or not.

I'd argue it is because Mulder and now Scully are off searching for a truth they believe must be exposed to right the wrongs of . . . well, world history. Scully manages to press Klemper pretty hard and her encounter with the Well-Manicured Man in both episodes clearly shakes her. Unable to return to work without Skinner's help and told exactly how his men will come for her, Scully's experience with the Well-Manicured Man emboldens her and sets her running for the truth alongside Mulder in a way that they had not been before.

Arguably, Mulder and Scully have never been too far apart in their beliefs; both utilize science to justify their beliefs. Scully has always used more earthbound science while Mulder has more readily made more fanciful hypotheses to prove. They both use the same methodology to prove their beliefs. The thing is, in "The Blessing Way" and "Paper Clip," there is an attention to detail and philosophy that accents the simple plot expositions. As far as details go, the producers were smart enough to include Mulder's gunshot wound (in "Anasazi" he was shot by Scully) and as far as philosophy, this two parter becomes all about defining what the shadowy conspiracy's agenda actually is: to control the future.

Mitch Pileggi gives a great performance as Walter Skinner who finally falls off the fence and firmly into the category of "ally" to Mulder and Scully as he openly defies the wishes of the Cigarette-Smoking Man. Pileggi provides realistic scenes of physical battles as well as pulling off cool and neutral scenes where he impresses the viewer with his ability to portray an Assistant Director in the F.B.I. He balances well the physical and intellectual roles that it takes to make a character like Skinner work.

But nobody does cool like John Neville, who joins the recurring cast as the Well-Manicured Man. Neville might best be known to audiences for his role as the title character in The Adventures Of Baron Munchausen. Here he is completely different. There is no spark of life or adventure in his character on The X-Files. Instead, he plays the part with cold detachment and makes one of the most intriguing villains the show has.

David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson leap into the new season with Anderson doing the lion's share of the acting heavy lifting in "The Blessing Way" (Mulder, being wounded, requires Duchovny mostly to lay still for several scenes). Duchovny also gives an unfortunate monologue - a telepathic contact from Mulder to Scully - that seems strangely out of character. As odd as it is to suggest, the scene has Duchovny speaking more like Duchovny than Mulder.

Outside such miniscule details, these two parts get the third season of The X-Files off to a pretty rockin' start!

[Given that VHS is a rapidly dying medium, a far better investment would be The X-Files - The Complete Third Season, reviewed by me here!
As well, those who already love The X-Files will find The X-Files - The Complete Series to be an even better buy, here!
Thanks for reading!]

"The Blessing Way" - 9/10
"Paper Clip" - 8.5/10
VHS - 8/10

For other television show and episode reviews, please visit my index page by clicking here!

© 2011, 2008 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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The First The X-Files Comedy And Another Conspiracy Episode Appears With "Humbug" And "Anasazi!"

The Good: "Humbug" is funny/quirky, "Anasazi" is dark and dangerous, Acting, Concepts, Extra features.
The Bad: Both are a little light on character development for my tastes.
The Basics: In another fairly incredible video of The X-Files, Scully and Mulder do comedy and end up at one another's throats with "Humbug" and "Anasazi!"


The wonderful thing about The X-Files might well be that the series did not take long to attempt to find its footing and simultaneously reinvent itself. On the one hand, The X-Files began to develop its own mythology, figuring out exactly what the government conspiracy was in relation to the existence to extraterrestrials on Earth. That mythology framed the larger arcs of the series and was balanced by bottle episodes with a monster-of-the-week. The monster-of-the-week stories essentially came in two types: one where the viewer knows the monster from the beginning of the episode or one where the viewer follows the clues with Mulder and Scully to figure out just who or what the creature of the week is.

"Humbug" became the first bottle episode to change that and it did it by playing with the whole concept of The X-Files. Instead of a serious, tense murder mystery, it has the distinction of being the first comedic episode of the series. As a result, there is a ramped up amount of wordplay, physical jokes and, indeed, a lighter tone to the piece than most episodes of The X-Files. And because it worked so well, the series would (at least attempt to) produce one comedy episode per season. Also on this video is "Anasazi," the second season finale, which was designed to top the first season ender and manages to give it a fair run for its money with a solid conspiracy mythology episode.

In "Humbug," Mulder and Scully investigate a murder in Florida that is part of a string of murders going back over forty years. The victim in the latest murder is a carnival freakshow performer and much of the mystery in the case revolves around the lack of easy access to the various victims as well as a lack of pattern in the people being killed. This puts the FBI agents in a small town with a carnival where virtually everyone in the park is a suspect.

Mulder's initial fascination with the Fiji Mermaid quickly gives way to Scully suspecting that the killer might well be an extreme personality or circumstance. Amid contortionists, geeks, and sadly disfigured individuals, the pair hunts for perhaps the most unusual killer yet.

In "Anasazi," Mulder has been behaving erratically for days when he loses his temper and attacks Assistant Director Skinner. Relieved of his duties for the attack and his suspected receipt of the Defense Department's MJ files (all of the proof of extraterrestrial contact that the U.S. government has), Mulder is called to Martha's Vineyard by his father, who attempts to confess to Mulder his role in the conspiracy to keep the knowledge in the MJ files private.

As Scully works to salvage Mulder's career and to translate the MJ files from Navajo, Mulder's father is killed by Krycek and Mulder begins a hunt for the rogue. In the process, Mulder and Scully find themselves closer to the truth than they ever have been before and Scully uncovers the reason for Mulder's behavior, but finds herself met with paranoia and a life threatening situation.

On the plot front, both episodes work very well. "Humbug" is clearly an episode with a pretty light plot: it's a creature feature with a fairly obvious antagonist. Instead of belaboring the investigation, "Humbug" plays with the characters Mulder and Scully encounter as they attempt to track down the killer. Virtually from the beginning, the general location of the killer is known and it is simply a matter of figuring out who among the carnival folk might have done it.

The result is a very effective comedy. Gags include such things as a Siamese twin peeking at Scully's breasts while Scully tries to sneak a peak at his conjoined twin, Mulder assuming that a man of short stature once worked the freakshow circuit only to be given a lecture on prejudice wherein the man surmises that Mulder could be an FBI agent, and Mulder and Scully's attempt to find the killer leads them to exhume . . . a potato. "Humbug" is funny and it manages to be funny in a way that maintains the general spirit of The X-Files while still being a remarkably rewatchable comedy.

In fact, watching "Humbug" now has the added flavor of seeing Michael J. Anderson in a carnival freakshow setting long before there ever was Carnivale (reviewed here!). As always, Anderson is articulate, funny and able to perform in a way that makes his character's appearance memorable. He is almost as memorable as Floyd "Red Crow" Westerman, who makes his debut on The X-Files in "Anasazi" as Albert Holsteen. This is the first of several appearances Holsteen makes and Westerman embodies the Navajo elder in such a way that the viewer becomes glad that he is not simply a one-shot character. Instead, Albert seems instantly layered as a Navajo who has a clear understanding of how nature works and he seems able to commune with the desert.

"Anasazi" also puts Nicholas Lea back in play as Krycek, who disappeared early in the second season after aiding the shadow conspiracy forces in facilitating Scully's abduction. Krycek's role here is simple: he's come to kill Bill Mulder and this foreshadows well how Krycek will be utilized in the future. Nicholas Lea is able to play cold-blooded and efficient with an intensity that is believably murderous. Krycek may well be the villain most fans of The X-Files love to hate, but Lea plays him perfectly!

"Humbug" helps to illustrate something that actress Gillian Anderson has not - classically - been allowed to exhibit, namely her sense of comic timing. Instead of being relegated to Mulder's expository soundingboard, Anderson's Scully is portrayed as quick-witted and able to deliver the witty lines with the best of them. Anderson - or the episode's editor - has a great sense of comic ability and is able to emote humorously with facial expressions and body language as well as deliver great funny lines while in character.

Similarly, "Anasazi" gives David Duchovny the opportunity to strut his stuff and show off his acting chops. Duchovny is saddled with playing Mulder consistently on edge, which involves a lot of Mulder yelling at, well, everybody. Duchovny manages to play the scenes with a genuinely dangerous quality and he keeps it interesting by making his character's body language sag slowly over the course of the episode. As Mulder becomes more and more deranged, Duchovny shows is with his performance beautifully.

Of course, the whole point of "Anasazi" is to set up a cliffhanger and it manages to do that, going out with a bang that will leave fans of The X-Files clamoring for more. Even on video, "Humbug" and "Anasazi" come with a bonus feature, which is a little featurette about each episode called "a private conversation with Chris Carter," where he discusses some behind-the-scenes aspects of the episodes. They are interesting and those who have not, traditionally, been fans of The X-Files will enjoy the stories of such things as Gillian Anderson's sleight of hand and painting the Vancouver hills red.

"Humbug" and "Anasazi" are definitely episodes for fans of science fiction more than those who like straightforward drama or straightforward comedy. But for those looking to expand their horizons, you could do a lot worse than these two episodes!

[Given that VHS is a rapidly dying medium, a far better investment would be The X-Files - The Complete Second Season, reviewed here!
As well, those who already love The X-Files will find The X-Files - The Complete Series to be an even better buy and my review may be accessed by clicking here!
Thanks for reading!]

"Humbug" - 8/10
"Anasazi" - 9/10
VHS - 7.5/10

For other television episode, season and series reviews, please check out the organized listing of them on this index page!

© 2011, 2008 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Deny Everything About Scully: "Ascension" And "One Breath" Are Perfect X-Files!

The Good: Amazing character study, Tense plot, Creepy, Well-acted, Intense, Bonus feature
The Bad: None that I can find! (Medium issues)
The Basics: When Scully is abducted, Mulder hunts those responsible and attempts to find her in two episodes loaded with great performances and wonderful character moments.


It takes a pretty extraordinary series to hit perfection early on. Some shows have a number of perfect episodes, like Star Trek: Deep Space Nine which arguably made the best hour of television ever with the episode "Duet" near the climax of its first season. The X-Files managed a perfect episode or two in its first season, most notably "Darkness Falls" and "The Erlenmeyer Flask" (reviewed here!). Illustrating that the show could be kept taut and interesting and create more episodes that were groundbreaking and excellent, The X-Files soared to perfection with two episodes that essentially act as a two-parter (though they were separated by an episode in their original airing and in The X-Files mythos) with "Ascension" and "One Breath."

"Ascension" and "One Breath" are essentially the stories of FBI agent Dana Scully's abduction and return, which was necessary because actress Gillian Anderson was pregnant and needed to be written out of the series for a short time. In the process, The X-Files created two episodes that are perfect in very different ways. "Ascension" is a plot-driven thriller as Mulder races to rescue Scully from Duane Barry and "One Breath" is perhaps the ultimate early The X-Files character study.

In "Ascension," Mulder checks his answering machine to discover that Scully has been abducted and reaching her apartment, it is clear to Mulder that Duane Barry is responsible. Going without sleep, Mulder launches an investigation into Scully's abduction, with Krycek in tow. For his part, Duane Barry begins to make a beeline for the place he believes his prior abductions occurred. Pulled over for speeding, Barry kills a trooper.

That death puts Mulder and Krycek on the right direction, to Starland Mountain. Eager to prevent Duane Barry from exchanging Scully for himself with the aliens, Mulder takes a risky gambit; riding the lift car up the mountain to try to reach the top first. Unfortunately for Mulder, there is someone working against his - and Scully's - interests and by the time he realizes this, it may well be too late for Scully!

In "One Breath," Mulder is exhausted from searching for Scully and Scully's mother decides it is time to move on and she purchases a grave marker for Dana. The next day, Scully's comatose body turns up at a Washington hospital and Mulder bursts onto the scene demanding to know how she got there. Calmed down, her doctor reveals that no one knows how she arrived at the hospital or why she is in a coma. Kept on life support while her mother and sister watch over her, Mulder goes in search of answers.

Mulder does his best to contact X, who finds Mulder when the FBI agent chases down a mysterious man who steals a sample of Scully's blood. Determined not to end up like his predecessor, X lets Mulder know Mulder doesn't have it in him to do what he does. While Mulder turns to the Lone Gunmen and Skinner for assistance in tracking down any leads - and the Cigarette-Smoking Man - Scully drifts in the netherworld between life and death seeing visions.

"Ascension" continues pretty much where "Duane Barry" (reviewed here!) left off, though for those who did not see that episode, everything is fairly well explained, without doing a "previously on The X-Files" bit. Instead, Mulder infers what happened when he visits Scully's apartment. The episode then becomes a chase and Mulder and Krycek hunt for Duane Barry, a hunt that intensifies when Mulder realizes that Scully is still alive.

It is in that scene where David Duchovny infuses a look into Mulder that says what virtually every fan of The X-Files wanted at the time. Without saying "I love you," Mulder leaps into action and Duchovny does it perfectly with the understated performance of the line "she's still alive. . ." Throughout "Ascension," Mulder acts far more like a man who loves - perhaps not romantically - his ex-partner than one who is simply hunting down a colleague.

But for genuine character, "One Breath" is packed end to end with it. Opening with a story about Scully told from Scully's mother, the episode gives big character sequences - usually in the form of monologues from the characters - to X, the Cigarette-Smoking Man ("I've watched presidents die . . ."), Walter Skinner, the deceased Scully (Dana's father), and Dana Scully (through visions and what her family says about her). Every act has a remarkably complete explanation of who and what the characters of The X-Files are with revealing explanations into how they became who they are. Skinner's is perhaps the most extensive and obvious exposition and his potentially monolithic character is suddenly exploded into a substantive and essential role.

That said, the character who does the most in "One Breath" is Mulder whose sleep deprivation puts him in a rage that compels him to chase down those responsible while Scully lays dying. Instead of dealing with her impending death when her mother insists they execute her living will and take Dana off life support, Mulder attempts to avoid his feelings and chase down those who were responsible for abducting Scully and the ultimate character act of the episode comes in his decision as to what kind of person he wants to be for the rest of his life. It's a huge decision and he has to choose whether to become one of the people who utilizes power or retain his innocence.

This is not to say that Mulder is the only worthwhile character to watch or Duchovny's performance is the only one that makes a splash. Far from it; both episodes are graced with wonderful performances, ranging from Steve Railsbeck's brilliant portrayal of crazy as Duane Barry to Nicholas Lea's cold and brutal portrayal of Krycek. Don S. Davis makes an auspicious return to The X-Files in a vision where he delivers one of the most beautiful pieces of writing ever to be voiced on the series.

But Gillian Anderson ought to get a lot of credit for her performance in "One Breath." In "Ascension," she is stuck in the trunk of a car, which was ballsy for the producers and director to do to a pregnant woman, but in "One Breath," Anderson has to perform, usually by playing dead. The thing is, her performance in her own dream/vision sequences is so good they often do not feel like what they are: Anderson as Scully sitting and looking blankly while the world turns around her. Anderson helps the viewer get inside the mind of Scully, cleverly infusing a genuine sense of genuine loss into even her most mundane scenes.

Fans of The X-Files who like to nit-pick things should still absolutely love "One Breath" because it implies that the future is not yet written. Presumably, Scully's dead father has some knowledge of the future when he says to Scully that she will join him soon, but not now. Die-hard fans of the show come to realize that after a certain episode there is a real lack of ability to believe Scully is in danger as a result of something that happens to her (it's real irksome to tiptoe around revealing the big secrets one garners if they simply pay attention to the show). "One Breath" happens well before that and the nice thing is, even for fans of the show, it reminds us that the jeopardy to Scully is still very real.

On video, these two episodes are accompanied by a little behind-the-scenes featurette called "A private conversation with Chris Carter." It gives details on how parts of the episodes were made and they are fun for fans and add a little extra value to the video.

But this is a pairing of episodes that hardly needs additional value; they are tight, fun, suspenseful and heartwrenching. In other words, they are everything great television ought to be.

[Given that VHS is a rapidly dying medium, a far better investment would be The X-Files - The Complete Second Season, reviewed here!
As well, those who already love The X-Files will find The X-Files - The Complete Series to be an even better buy and my review may be accessed by clicking here!
Thanks for reading!]

"Ascension" - 9.5/10
"One Breath" - 10/10
VHS - 8.5/10

For other television episode and season reviews, please visit my index page!

© 2011, 2008 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Top Of The Game Early On: "Darkness Falls" And "The Erlenmeyer Flask" Are Only Brought Down On Video By The Medium!

The Good: Plot, Character, Acting, Effects
The Bad: None that come to mind . . . with the content, medium issues with VHS, the dying medium.
The Basics: Scary and intelligent, a pair of episodes that all television - not just science fiction - ought to aspire to are brought down on the rating by medium issues.


Someone in the Fox Video Department did something terribly right when they made this video. "Darkness Falls" and "The Erlenmeyer Flask" are easily two of the top ten best episodes of The X-Files ever. Putting them together on the same tape was some sharp marketing. Basically, the tape is a pair of perfect episodes and if they're not perfect, I've yet to figure out where they go wrong. In fact, only the fact that VHS is an almost dead medium make me rate the video anything but perfect. That said, the episodes are amazing and anyone still using a VHS ought to pick them up; anyone more hip ought to digitally download them (there are links below for that!).

"Darkness Falls" is an amazing "bottle episode" wherein Mulder and Scully travel to the woods of the Pacific Northwest to try to discover what happened to a logging team that disappeared. The answer (which we, the viewer, know from the teaser) are creepy little phosphorescent bugs and they are easily the most disturbing scenes in the episode and one of the best, most subtle visual effects ever on television. Anyone who can make little glowing pixels terrifying is pretty cool.

"The Erlenmeyer Flask" is the seminal mythology episode in which the basic running theme of the rest of the series is introduced. Until this episode, the government seems to have been in collusion with covering up a U.F.O. conspiracy, here we learn what the government might actually do with such materials. It's a cool episode and it involves a man fleeing arrest that the Deep Throat character brings to Mulder's attention. Baffled about what the mystery is, Mulder and Scully are ready to give up . . . until they get solid evidence of what they've each been looking for.

The strength of both episodes is the level of character. Mulder and Scully are perfectly defined, intelligent, often witty in each episode. But the peripheral characters are all compelling. In "Darkness Falls" the U.S. Marshal and the environmentalist both are strongly independent, they are vivid beings not merely caricatures of what we expect government workers and eco-terrorists to be.

In addition, the acting is solid. Jerry Harding as "Deep Throat" in "The Erlenmeyer Flask" plays the character as amazingly torn between betraying his position and helping Mulder. And David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson aren't bland or unemotive in these episodes (which was part of what plagued their acting near the beginning of the series).

There's a lot to enjoy here. "Darkness Falls" is just plain scary and the final lines of it are easily some of the most creepy and psychologically devastating in television ever. "The Erlenmeyer Flask" is the intellectual's solution to the brainless action film. It's fast paced, smartly written and - being near the beginning of the mythology of "The X-Files" - it's remarkably accessible to any viewer.

[Given that VHS is a rapidly dying medium, a far better investment would be The X-Files - The Complete First Season, reviewed here!
As well, those who already love The X-Files will find The X-Files - The Complete Series to be an even better buy and my review may be accessed by clicking here!
Thanks for reading!]

“Darkness Falls” – 10/10
“The Erlenmeyer Flask” – 10/10
VHS – 8/10

For other television episode and DVD boxed set reviews, please visit my index page!

© 2011, 2008, 2001 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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