And so it begins! The first instalment of the story of The X Files and our two heroes, Mulder and Scully, who for this episode I have dubbed 'Baby FBI Agents,' mostly because David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson look so young, you could assume they have only just graduated High School. This is my first review of this series, so I may be a little rusty and disjointed but bear with me, they can only get better as I go on!
The X Files pilot first aired on 10th September 1993 and was written by series creator Chris Carter, and directed by Robert Mandel. A short synopsis of the episode is as follows: Sceptical FBI Special Agent Dana Katherine Scully is assigned by Division Chief Scott Blevins to work with the "believer" Special Agent Fox William Mulder, who works on a series of unexplained cases called 'The X Files.' Their first case together takes them to Bellefleur, Oregon; where the fourth member of the local High School's class of '89 has been found dead...with two mysterious pink marks on her back, same as all the other victims.
Let me start by saying Pilot episodes are the strange beasts of TV series. Characters are sketchily painted by the script writers in pilots, they often act out of character, overly emotional or irrationally antagonistic. Plots are introduced in pilot episodes that never appear again in later episodes and characters that at first appear important are subsequently dropped when they fail to appeal to audiences. Watch the pilot episode of most any successful TV show (Breaking Bad, The Wire and The Sopranos being exceptions to the rule) and you will find yourself wondering if you are watching the same show that exists in later episodes (and sometimes cringing). So it is a credit to the writers of the X Files that this first episode is pretty much on point with the rest of the series. Mulder is a little bit overly wacky but I think that is because David Duchovny had not got to grips with portraying the character yet. Both actors (DD and GA) look and act very young. Scully seems a little more mature (she is a ‘Medical Doctor’ after all) but their voices are unnaturally high at times, which makes them both seem a little hilarious and inexperienced and adds further to the charm of re-watching the pilot more than 20 years after it was first aired.
The pilot was shot in Vancouver which makes an excellent set for the X Files with its misty weather, rain, thick forests and bleak landscapes. This our first introduction into the Canadian woods that will become extremely familiar to the viewer as the series progresses. It is also our first introduction to the traditional TV teaser; the first few minutes of the episode that sets up the mystery. In the pilot it is a scene in which a girl has a paranormal experience and is actually very sinister with its hollow swirling noise effects and lots of dark shadows. It looks a little like shaky camcorder footage that is often used as evidence of supposed paranormal activity. I also noticed some similarities to other shows that I did originally pick up on when I first watched the pilot in my mid-teens. The episode contains more than a few similarities to
Close Encounters of the Third Kind, as a group of former alien abductees are all drawn and compelled to a particular location. Dana Scully bears more than a passing resemblance to FBI Agent Clarice Starling in S
ilence of the Lambs and even has the same auburn hair colour as Clarice.
The Themes
An interesting aspect of this first episode is how much of
the themes of the original series were written in to the programme from day
one: banter between Mulder and Scully despite their different belief systems,
extra-terrestrials, Mulder’s sister’s abduction and the government’s attempts
to hide information from the public and discredit Mulder and his work.
Almost right away we get to see the theme that I like to
call: The Unnerving Familiarity Effect.
Yes I have completely and utterly made up this term simply because I could not
find my Thesaurus on my bookshelf. In my mind, The Unnerving Familiarity Effect is when The X Files takes something
we consider comfortable and familiar (such as white picket fences, suburban
houses, supermarkets, doctors’ surgeries, playgrounds, small towns, nature etc)
and twists it around to make the familiar threatening and scary. The show turns
the ideas of family, safety, medicine, home and other such themes on their head
and makes them insidious and creepy. The places we would never consider a
threat now contain them. In this episode it is the small town and the quiet
woods that become threatening and dark places. One character even has a
nosebleed in an innocuous-looking American diner.
The X Files is well known for being one of the first major
prime time TV shows to try to incorporate serialisation. This means that it was
often trying to tell a long-form story (or story arc as it can be known) over a
series of episodes and even seasons. Sometimes it succeeds, other times it
doesn’t (we will hear more about this later as we progress through series 1).
But the fact that the show tries to embrace the idea of longer storylines and
serialisation in an era before online streaming or wide-spread cable TV is
something that the producers and scriptwriters should be proud of and is one of
the things that attracted the large fan base that still faithfully follow the
show to this day.
It may not be a ‘theme’ as such, but right in the first
episode you can feel the 90s pop culture and the beginnings of the technological
revolution seeping through the scenes. I once read on the Internet that The X
Files ‘seems to slot almost perfectly between the end of the Cold War and the
start of The War on Terror.’ In the pilot, but especially in the rest of series
1, there are echoes of paranoia, distrust of the government and the theme of a
post-Watergate mythology. The government is lying to the American public and
the truth is constantly being buried and censored like it often is during
wartime.
Watching the pilot episode now is like opening a time
capsule. The use of old desk phones, Mulder looking something up in a book, the
old fashioned car phones and brick-sized mobiles transport the audience back to
a time that feels distant but was actually not that long ago. I felt especially
nostalgic watching Mulder do a slide show with an overhead projector. I
remember doing shadow puppets with my hands and an overhead projector at
School. Sigh….
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| You are going to regret asking this... |
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So many theories in fact...you will be hearing them for the next 9 years...
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The X Files is a very serious show. It has its comical
episodes but it is really a very earnest attempt to address some of the wider
philosophical questions that we as humans have about the world and our
existence. Sometimes the show takes itself too seriously and can become a bit pretentious
and ridiculous but seriousness in television drama is not always a bad thing.
As stated in an online comment that I read in a forum (from a commentator whose
name I do not know, so I apologise for not citing the individual who wrote
this):
‘The X-Files is really
Chris Carter's response to a culture of scepticism. And yet, more interesting
than that, it encourages scepticism at the same time. I don't doubt that there
are other Sci-Fi / Fantasy shows out there that are more thoroughly conceived,
but I've never seen another show that has such profound philosophical
underpinnings. Often executed haphazardly, but sometimes executed brilliantly.
And yes, it does take itself too seriously, but ... not always, as others have
pointed out, and even when it does take itself too seriously, I don't
necessarily consider that a flaw. I wish more popular culture erred on the side
of seriousness, as opposed to the side of low expectations.’
I agree with this statement completely. The lengthy
story-telling, the serialisation format, the serious examination of
philosophical ideas, the slower pace and the long burning romance are all what
make the X Files a truly fantastic televisual journey. With our fast-paced
entertainment today, our quick and instant technology and our short attention
spans, I can’t help but think that this might have been the type of show that
would have been cancelled by studio executives within weeks of airing in
today’s TV landscape. A sad thought when you think about how hugely popular The
X Files was about to become over the next 9 years.
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| Oh hey! My name's Fox Mulder and I am about to change your life with all sorts of Spooky shit... |
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| Well hello, my name is Dana Scully and I am about to rock your world with Science... |
The Characters
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The over-sized 90s suit brigade....
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Let me say it right now. I have always been more of a Mulder
fan. Don’t get me wrong, I love Scully. When I was a teenager, she was (apart
from a few characters from Star Trek and Babylon 5) my ultimate role model. She
was smart and brave and she saved Mulder multiple times. She was also not
afraid to show how smart she was. As a teenager I always felt being smart (or
geeky) was something to hide because being clever or interested or curious was
not being a cool indifferent teenager, which so many of peers seemed to be. Scully
was never indifferent. She was wholly committed to making a difference and that
appealed to me. But I have always preferred Mulder. Why? I think his enthusiasm
for finding the truth, his manic quest, his sense of humour, his love for Scully and his stubbornness
in the face of adversity made me love him from the outset (his good looks didn’t
hurt either).
So what do we gain about Mulder from the pilot and the start of
series 1?
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| I'm a 'fox' in these wire-rimmed glasses... |
He likes slideshows. I mean, who doesn’t?! We will see a fair
amount of Mulder’s slideshows over the next few years.
Mulder is often overly emotional. He veers between being
deadpan to being emotionally intense for much of the first series.
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Thank god for ALIENS!
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The pilot episode has a sort of hysterical tone to it. Mulder
does a lot of shouting. His excitement during the autopsy scene is extreme. He
is similarly overexcited when the agents lose time in their car due to a UFO
encounter. This may be because DD was nervous acting in this role to begin with
or that he needed to understand the character better as the show went on. But
it also does make sense to have Mulder mellow as he gets older. Many people
feel emotionally turbulent when they are young and settle more comfortably into
their skin as they mature. This is Baby Mulder remember. He loses his gun a lot, pouts, shouts and gazes at Scully.
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Is this an ALIEN? Sure looks like an ALIEN...
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Mulder works beneath a sign reading "I Want To Believe."
Because believing in the paranormal, gives everything he's been through up to
this point in his life, (beginning with the unexplained abduction of his
sister and his banishment to the basement at the FBI), some sort of meaning.
And, in my opinion, that search for a higher meaning in the face of apparent
meaninglessness (and random fate) is just as much as key to the show's success as the aliens and
the ‘monster of the week’ episodes that come later. I believe that Mulder
needs to believe in a conspiracy of humans or aliens rather than fate or divine
intervention. I think he finds random acts of uncontrollable fate much more
frightening than the idea of a shadowy government making those acts happen.
In the pilot episode, as in most episodes, Mulder makes some
huge leaps in his theories. He plucks these leaps out of thin air and with
literally no evidence. Get used to it, because this just the beginning of his
bat-shit crazy ideas….
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| This is one of the lines to look out for in the X Files Drinking Game |
So now we come to Scully. Ah Scully. Lovely, short, rational, sceptical, science-obsessed Scully! When re-watching this pilot in later life (I am now older than Gillian Anderson was when she first starred in the pilot) I am struck by how I never noticed before how ambitious Scully is in the beginning.
She marches right in to the FBI headquarters, confident, ready, willing and able to forge a glittering career in law enforcement. If only she knew what working with Mulder was going to do to her career prospects. Poor Baby Scully...
I am also struck by how young she is in the pilot. Gillian Anderson has been quoted as saying:
“I was 24, and I lied, I told them I was 27. Scully had to be, a few times, she kind of had to be the boss in a few situations and tell people what to do. And I felt like I was like twelve, and I had this really kinda squeaky voice. And I was, you know, a professional FBI agent. And a medical doctor, for fuck’s sake! And I had to pretend like I knew my shit!
When I look at myself in, say, the pilot, I am so green. Simultaneous to [Scully] being so green. It’s a greenness that, ‘cause it’s so organic, you don’t necessarily—usually when people are playing green, they’re acting green and they do a good job at it, but this was literally like, “she doesn’t know what the fuck she’s doing”. I mean, I’m a child! I’m a child in the pilot, pretending to be an adult. It’s so obvious.”
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| Baby Scully rocks 90s plaid fashion... |
I actually think GA does not give herself enough credit. I think her acting is on point right from the first scene. She becomes Scully right away and portrays a very confident and intelligent young woman. Her acting is all the more impressive knowing now how nervous and inexperienced she was in the television industry.
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| You can only impress me with Science |
So what else did I notice about Baby Scully?
So what else did I notice about Baby ScullyThe first time she appears on screen Scully is in the most powerful power-suit I have ever seen. With shoulder pads! I have to say that I think the buttons are really badly placed in an awkward position on the front of her jacket. I don’t want to offend anyone but I feel as if America entered the 90s ten years after everyone else in the world when it came to fashion because Scully looks a lot more 80s than 90s in that huge outfit.When watching the pilot I felt that Scully, a woman in a man’s
world at the FBI, makes an extra effort not to be intimidated or seem feminine
when she travels down into the basement to meet Mulder for the first time. She acts like she is not
impressed by Mulder but I think she is, as she shows off her scientific
background and knowledge almost immediately. Remember Mulder is a brilliant
profiler with years more field experience than herself and a widely known
reputation at the FBI.
Although Scully may be bewildered by Mulder and even
irritated by him, she is also intrigued by him and does exhibit concern for him
even as early on as this very first episode.
I have always maintained that the real journey of the X
Files is actually Scully’s journey. She is the straight man to Mulder’s crazy.
She is the one we, as the audience, are supposed to identify with. Ironically
Scully’s stake in the conspiracy grows over the 9 seasons as Mulder’s stake
gets smaller. Remember in the beginning Scully does not have to do half of the
stuff that she does for Mulder. She follows him again and again even when she
has a choice not to. Unfortunately this does mean she ends up in a lot of
trouble later on. I am not the only one with this theory, pop culture critic,
Darren Mooney says, in his blog (
http://them0vieblog.com/):
‘Over the course of
the series, Scully makes the journey from sceptic to believer. She sees things
that she can’t explain (even in this pilot episode) and struggles to reconcile
them with her understanding of the scientific world. Mulder made that journey
before the series began, as he confesses to Scully in the motel in this episode.
Of course, both leads carry the show and drive the narrative at different
points in the journey, but I think you can make a strong case that The X-Files is Scully’s story
more than Mulder’s.
We walk into the FBI
building with Scully (in the first episode). Despite some interesting character work during the show’s
fourth and fifth seasons, Mulder’s faith never truly waivers. He might get a
little disillusioned, but he ends the show believing pretty much what he
believes when we first meet him in the basement in The Pilot. All that has really changed for Mulder as a character
between The Pilot and The Truth is his degree of
knowledge…
..Despite the
popularity of Mulder as a character and the fact that Duchovny’s name comes
higher on the credits – Dana Scully is the real protagonist of The X-Files. – She is the audience’s way of gaining entrance into this world.’
Nitpicks, Some notable mentions and Episode Gems
- Distracting early nineties background music. It was not just a bad era for fashion. It was also a bad era for television scores...
- This is the first time we see Mulder’s office and it is
everything we know and love: clutter, slideshows, the famous ‘I Want To
Believe’ poster and lots of and lots of photos of dead people pinned to the
wall. No wonder Mulder doesn’t sleep well at night….
- How did Mulder get a hold of Scully’s undergraduate thesis?
I mean these are the days before widespread Internet, so he couldn’t just look
it up online. And am I the only one who finds it a bit creepy and offensive of
Mulder to read it and then mock her with it’s content?
- Who is the man walking around holding a takeaway coffee in
the basement corridor near Mulder’s office? Is he also another one of the FBI’s
most unwanted agents who has an office down there? What does he investigate?
- A true gem of the episode is when Mulder sprays an X on the
road with orange spray paint while Scully just stares at him in confusion. Poor
Scully, she has no idea what she is getting herself into. This will not be the
strangest thing he will ever do.
- And then it is really quite exciting when Scully and Mulder
experience the UFO /lost time and realise it is on the same spot where he drew
the X on the road earlier!
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| Always carry spray paint. You never know when you might need to mark a spot with an 'X' |
- First Cigarette Smoking Man (CSM) appearance…and he says nothing! Never has there
been a more silent sinister smoking character on Television. He does not seem so frightening at first, but then you see him depositing evidence in a giant warehouse in the Pentagon and you know he is hiding all sorts of scary stuff in those vast shelves of boxes.
- There is also a great scene where Scully holds out a handful
of what looks like ash or soil and Mulder says; ‘What do you think it is?’
Scully replies, ‘I don’t know. It was all over the ground.’ This is scientific
proof that Mulder and Scully cannot identify dirt. God help us all.
- A true, in fact entire season 1, episode gem is when Mulder asks if Scully wants to go running with him. They both look like super cute high
school students. A notable mention goes out to Scully’s 90s leggings and high-top trainers…
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| Wanna go for a run? Or make out? |
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| I will never look this young...or this happy again... |
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| I will totally end up in bed with you....someday...maybe in 7 years.. |
- Mulder obviously is nonplussed when the plane he is in suddenly loses altitude. I admire his cool.
- Mulder’s sunflower seed habit makes its first appearance!
- We have our first case of Mulder and Scully venturing into a dark and dangerous area (that you could not pay me to enter) with flashlights. In this case the forest in Oregon. In later episodes they will seemingly enter any badly lit space just for fun….no sense of danger at all...
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| Another episode gem: Scully giggling in the rain in the graveyard. |
- Do Mulder and Scully actually solve the case or not? NOPE. Get used to it because they are going to not solve a lot of unsolved
cases over the next 9 years… There will however be a lot of walking while talking, intense eye contact, hand holding and lack of personal space.
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| Walking, talking, investigating crimes, intense eye contact, lack of personal space... |
- Mulder stands by a burning hotel and does not seem afraid. Keep this in mind. He is not afraid of fire. This will become important later on in series 1.
- It is a small point, but I love the intense look that Mulder gives Scully through a two-way mirror at the end of the episode. He looks both serious, paranoid and gorgeous all at once. No wonder she looks a little scared.
- This is the first time you realise most of the X Files is filmed in the dark. Chris Carter forgot to pay the lighting department in 1993 and they punished him for it for the next 9 years...
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| Wait! Did the lighting department actually switch on some lights?! |
- First time we see the height difference between our two heroes. He's tall (tol) and she is small (smol) and they weirdly use it to their advantage in new and unusual ways...
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Just going to leave this romantic quote here-
From As You Like It:
JAQUES
What stature is she of?
ORLANDO
Just as high as my heart
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- The biggest victim of the episode - I am going to say the whole graduating class of 1989 at the Bellefleur High School in Oregon. Those kids do not deserve to get abducted by aliens simply because they decided to drink beer in the woods one night. It is rather tragic how freaked out Peggy O’Dell gets when confronted with the idea of being subjected to medical tests and Karen Swenson, the girl who is found dead in the woods at the beginning of the episode, is a victim of terrible 90s fashion (her nightgown looks practically Victorian). It is a sad sad world when teenagers cannot binge drink safely in deserted woodland at night…..
- Scully’s Scepticism Meter – It varies in the pilot from 10 (highly sceptical) on the Sceptic meter to around a 5 (less sceptical). She yo-yos back and forth, but hey she's new to all of this paranormal stuff.
- The Shipper Stuff - you knew it was coming! The part of this incredibly long analysis where I finally get to the MSR (Mulder and Scully Romance) good stuff. Well here we go...Natalie (my fellow geek) thinks that there was romance or at least some sex between these two right from the beginning because they are so close and physical with each other almost from the get go. But I am not so sure. I think they are definitely attracted to each other and there is quite a bit of flirting early on (Scully smiles at Mulder a lot in Season 1) but they are virtual strangers to each other in this first episode and both are very concerned with solving the first few mysteries they investigate and learning to trust each other, so I don't think there is anything actually sexual taking place in the early days of their partnership.
Which brings me to the scene where Scully rushes semi-naked
into Mulder’s hotel room after discovering two mysterious marks on her back.
She disrobes in front of him and asks him to look at her naked lower back with
only candlelight to light his way. Does the disrobing scene sexualise Scully?
Many people have said so. Perhaps it does a little. Before she sees the marks
and panics, there is a rather gratuitous shot of her butt and bra, but it is
not especially sexy and it will be a long time in the show before we see Scully
so unclothed again or portrayed as a sexual object. I think the scene is great,
not for its shippiness or romantic quality but because it shows that Scully,
the sceptic is starting to believe Mulder and trust him. Mulder who in later
episodes proves to be a little kinky in his own way, is nothing but gentlemanly
and really rather sweet towards her as she takes off her robe in front of him. This
scene allows Mulder, who has been quite confrontational and condescending
towards Scully to exhibit a softer side of his personality and to demonstrate
that he might actually be able to bring himself to care about this new partner,
even if she’s been foisted on him by those in authority. Remember Scully was
sent to spy on him and debunk his work. This of course leads to the all-important
scene in the hotel room in which Mulder and Scully have the most heart to heart
conversation they will have for most of season 1. In this scene Mulder starts
to trust Scully and she in turn, reassures him of her integrity.
And right there is where the trust begins! There you have it! The start of a beautiful partnership!
Episode Quotes
(memorise them and quote them at family dinners, just to really freak everyone out)
Mulder: Sorry, nobody down here but the FBI's most unwanted.
Scully: Agent Mulder? I'm Dana Scully. I've been assigned to
work with you.
Mulder: Oh, isn't it nice to be suddenly so highly regarded.
So, who did you tick off to get stuck with this detail, Scully?
Scully: Actually, I'm looking forward to working with you.
I've heard a lot about you.
Mulder: Oh, really? I was under the impression that you were
sent to spy on me.
Scully: What happened?
Mulder: We lost power. Brakes, steering,
everything.
[checks watch]
Mulder: We lost nine minutes!
Scully: ...You're saying that time
disappeared. Time can't just disappear. It's a universal invariant!
[car restarts itself]
Mulder: Not in this zip code!
Mulder: When convention and science offer
us no answers, might we not finally turn to the fantastic as a plausibility?
Scully: ...What I find fantastic is any
notion that there are answers beyond the realm of science. The answers are
there. You just have to know where to look.
Mulder: That's why they put the I in FBI.
Mulder: I was twelve when it happened. My sister was eight.
She just disappeared out of her bed one night. Just gone. Vanished. No note, no
phone calls, no evidence of anything.
Scully: You never found her?
Mulder: Tore the family apart. No one would talk about it.
There were no facts to confront, nothing… to offer any hope.
Till next time fellow Geeks!
Clara
