ORBzine - 2004 UK Television Review: "Soon"

Season

X-Files [Season 1, Episode 19] Shapes
Shown 2nd November 2001 - Friday

Mulder and Scully go to a Native American Reservation. A strange beast has killed several people, but when it was shot the sheriff only found the body of a naked man.

X-Files [Season 1, Episode 20] Darkness Falls
Shown 9th November 2001 - Friday

Mulder and Scully go to a forest high in the mountains of the American Northwest. Some loggers have disappeared in mysterious circumstances ...

The storyline of this episode is quite similar to two other episodes, Fire and Ice. Like them, it sticks Mulder and Scully in a remote location [with some cannon-fodder] where they are menaced by an unseen entity.

This episode ends with a preview of the next episode. Eugene Victor Tooms [the best villain of the Season] is up for release, and Cancer Man uses the opportunity to get Skinner to move Mulder from the X-Files. In other words, the best aspects of the first Season are being replaced by the things that made the show slide into a slow decline.

X-Files [Season 1, Episode 21] Tooms
Shown 16th November 2001 - Friday

Yes, Eugene Victor Tooms [Doug Hutchison - The Green Mile ] is up for release. Yes, okay, so he's a century-old liver-eating mutant, but that's not a crime. And since the only witness against him is Spooky Mulder, what are his chances of getting out?

Minor roles are filled out by Paul Ben Victor [ The Invisible Man ] and Teryl Rothery .

X-Files [Season 1, Episode 22] Born Again
Shown 23rd November 2001 - Friday

An 8-year-old girl is somehow telepathically causing people to die mysteriously.

This script was written by Morgan & Wong, and has all the hallmarks of their work.

X-Files [Season 1, Episode 23] Roland
Shown 30th November 2001 - Friday

A scientist is murdered in a wind tunnel at his laboratory. Mulder suspects the retarded Janitor, Roland [Zeljko Ivanek - Hannibal ].

X-Files [Season 1, Episode 22] The Erhlrmeyer Flask
Shown 7th December 2001 - Friday

Mulder gets a tip-off from Deep Throat. He investigates high-speed car chase, and uncovers a conspiracy. Anne DeSalvo pops up as a helpful scientist.

The ending is notable for a couple of reasons. The scene with Deep Throat seems to many to be the end of an era for the show, though in truth the era ended several episodes previously. His line, Trust no one, sets the tone for the next Season. The scene with CSM, on the other hand, imitates the end of the first episode and thus indicates the underlying conspiracy theory arc that has been present all along.


X-Files
Home
M and S investigate inbred hillbillys in Pennsylvania
sheriff Tucker Smallwood [
Space: Above and Beyond
], Deputy Sebastian Spence [
First Wave
]


x-files
frenzy
mulder on compulsory vacation - spiritual pilgrimage to Graceland
Scully to Pennsylvania, inv Russian Mafia
An embittered divorcee [Rodney Rowland - 
Space: Above and Beyond
] gets tatoo "betty" [v/o by 
Jody Foster
].
Scully opens her heart. Damp Squib

Xfiles
518
Skinner poisoned by unknown, has 24 hrs to hunt down conspiracy and 
get antidote


Xfiles
3 of a kind
Michael McKean, John Billingsly

X-files
Theef
Billy Drago uses black Magic to hex the family of Dr James Morrison 
[who does most of the investigation]

X-Files [Season 5, Episode 10] Chinga
Shown 12th November 2001 - Monday

Typical of the show's horrible tendency to trendiness, it was written by Stephen King and Chris Carter.

A young girl and her dolly are psychically terrorizing a small town in Maine. By strange co-incidence, Scully is on vacation there. We get to see our favourite redhead in a nice white tee-shirt [and in the bath], which more than makes up for the fact that Mulder's only appearances are brief phone-chat scenes. Oddly enough, while Mulder proposes scientific explanations it is Scully who is willing to believe in extreme possibilities.

With regards to the storyline, however ... The Simpsons did it so much better!

X-Files [Season 5, Episode 11] Kill Switch
Shown 19th November 2001 - Monday

Typical of the show's horrible tendency to trendiness, it was written by William Gibson and Chris Carter.

X-Files [Season 8, Episode 2] Without (2)
Shown 8th December 2001 - Saturday

New guy Doggett [Robert Patrick - Terminator 2 ], actually in the title credits, is in pursuit of David Duchovney. Yes, this is the start of Mulder being written out of the show. However, there is a good side to DD forcing the show to move to Los Angeles: they can now shoot on locations which don't look like Canada! The action here is set in the desert, and brings to mind the X-Files movie!

The shapechanging Alien bounty-hunter [Brian Thompson] is after the mind-reading boy, Gibson. Doggett is the sceptic, while Scully [looking great in a white t-shirt] is now the believer!

X-Files [Season 8, Episode 3] Patience
Shown 15th December 2001 - Saturday

David Duchovny is no longer in the regular cast list. New guy Doggett [Robert Patrick - Terminator 2 ], actually in the title credits, joins Scully in pursuit of a murderous man-bat.

soon [Season 1, Episode 2 ]
Shown th June 2006 [Wednesday]

ORBzine - soon TV Review

Season

Soon