Created by Chris Carter, featuring Robert Patrick (as John Doggett),
Gillian Anderson (as Scully) and David Duchovny (as Fox Mulder).
The first two installments of X-File's 8th Season is in memorandum
to Jim Engh 1961 - 2000.
Just to have you updated, last season's closer posed the questions:
Who is the father of Scully's baby? Is she pregnant at all or
is it a writer's trick? Where are the aliens taking Fox Mulder?
Why would they take him at all? This season promises to answer
all these questions.
This year Robert Patrick replaces David Duchnovy (Fox) by playing
the part of Special Agent John Doggett; a hard line skeptic,
ex-marine. Doggett is an "insider" of the FBI unlike the "outsider"
character of Fox Mulder.
The others that were up for the part of John Doggett were Lou
Diamond Phillips (La Bamba), Hart Bochner (Anywhere But Here)
and my favorite pick Bruce Campbell (Evil Dead). David Duchovny
will be in 11of the 20 upcoming episodes including the two-part
opener. David Duchovny will write and direct some of the upcoming
episodes and fans should note he isn't totally out of the picture,
he will be in 6 complete episodes this season.
Scully is, as usual, the reluctant believer but scientist first.
Oh, did I mention she's pregnant and throws water in Doggitt's
face? Well, she does, the first time she meets him? While Scully
was checking out Doggitt on her home PC she vomits. Perhaps
this was precognition at work? Perhaps the writers will take
this advice and throw it into the script!
Scully's role is refreshingly reversed in this eighth season
with Agent Doggett assuming her previous role as die-hard skeptic,
which makes sense as Scully has had experiences and seen things
while riding side by side with Fox all these years. Well, there's
that and the issue that she is carrying Fox's love child, so
it seems that more than Fox's believer status rubbed off on
Scully, eh! I suppose one could say (and I will of course) that
it's easy to get casual when you think as she did that she was
barren due to past alien experimentations.
Everytime Scully closes her eyes she dreams, envisions, Fox
being restrained and tortured by unseen but obvious alien persons.
These are entirely gross scenes with screws and skin hooks everywhere.
It appears that Fox or someone, has bought himself a grave-marker
with 2000 as his date of death. Of course, Scully very upset
with this but doesn't agree with Doggett who found out Mulder
was going to the doctors for a year and he was dying, Doggett
thinks Fox's temporal lobe problem, is the reason for all this,
that Fox has gone over the edge, disappeared, and has stolen
an x-file. Scully and Skinner (the Assistant Director or 2nd
in command of FBI) know that Fox was abducted by Aliens because
Skinner saw it happen. The Lone Gunmen (UFOlogy conspiracy theorists
and computer hackers extraordinaire) discover that the alien
ship that abducted Mulder actually follows a predictable route;
they instruct Skinner and Scully of its upcoming whereabouts.
Scully's lightbulb goes off, she realizes why the aliens took
Mulder and why the ship is predicted to be in Arizona. She has
an epiphany regarding why people refuse to believe in aliens
even with all the reported sightings, and that the lack of alien
proof of existence is because the aliens themselves are removing
all the proof of themselves. That in order to do so they are
looking to find that which is not in the files of any one department
of research, rather they are looking for good hard proof that
actually belongs in the body of a person. And that person is
a little boy named Gibson Andrew, the world chess champ of 1997.
She remembers that she and Fox and worked on his case during
a failed attempt on his life. It's Gibson Andrew's x-file that
have been stolen from FBI headquarters and in the files Scully
remembers that Mulder wrote that Gibson has abnormal unexplained
brain activity and reads people thoughts (telepathy). Mulder
also said that Gibson might have alien physiology and was last
seen in Arizona.
While Scully and Skinner go off on their own (trying to keep
one step ahead of Doggett for Mulder's sake) looking for Gibson
in the Arizona desert, Scully sees the ship through a desert
heat wave.
Meanwhile, Doggett has confirmed Gibson's location in Arizona
at a school for the deaf, Gibson is living at the school. Doggett
instructs the Principal to isolate Gibson in his office, that
he will be there right away and that it is a serious FBI matter.
While being ushered into the principals office, Gibson gets
wise to the situation and telepathically tells a deaf girl what
going on, that he is being isolated and in danger. At which
moment Doggett lands just outside the door in a helicopter and
Scully and Skinnner pull up into the parking lot in a car.
Doggett demands the presence of Gibson but the Principal demands
an explanation first. I realize this is television with only
split seconds to visually get a point across to the audience,
but really the editing sucked here as the Principal doesn't
put up an iota of any defense on Gibson's behalf and instead
immediately wimps out giving into Doggitt's authority-figure
status way too easily and quickly. Any parents out there, make
sure you know the policy of your child's school in any occasion
where the child's presence will be requested by anyone other
than yourself - even an authority figure such as police. As
a mother I was really upset with this scene and other than the
images of Fox in the alien experimentation lab I found this
to be the scariest part of the show! By the way, in Canada and
the USA all persons are allowed to question an authority figure
when they are approached, that includes taxation departments,
traffic police (you don't have to roll your window down completely
to get a ticket or give over identification) and other policing
agents. There is a difference between obstructing justice and
demanding proof of authority and reasoning for questioning or
detainment. (Our JETIU Company Team Members of "S.I.S", Private
Investigators John and V-Roy will be having more to say on this
very topic in this web-site's "Coffee Jarr" and "Wake Up…" magazine
segments, stay tuned.)
Gibson quickly sneaks out the office window before Doggett finds
him. Doggett discovers the office empty and runs out of the
building (through the door) where he barges into Scully and
Skinner just as the FBI Full-Task Force arrives.
We see Gibson running into an adult person's legs then we see
that Dogggett has discovered Gibson and the adult's footprints
in the sand leading into the deep desert. We see that the adult
Gibson is being pulled along by is Mulder, who looks swollen,
weird and who is really not acting like himself - more like
a puppet. This is the end of the 8th season's first part of
the two part opener.
I would like to make some important issues regarding the shows
commercials and how they affect you. The following commercials
were played: Herbal Essence hair color, a new sleek sporty but
tough and affordable to middle income peoples car, Wendy's Hamburger
featuring the founder Dave at a pro race car track with star
drivers eating his lunch while laughing at Dave even though
they knew he'd be upset because he said he really looked forward
to his lunch, Moore's Men's Clothing spotlighting suits for
the up and coming young man, a Zelda Nintendo game with UFO
imagery and the slogan 'the world is waiting for you', a mutual
funds investment company, Videon's promo for digital cable with
high action shots, a station promo (Global) of action shots
from movies and Disney's new theme part with Global as a prime
time sponsor, another Wendy's ad now with Dave in a meditation
circle talking about inner peace being a hamburger, "Canada's
own" Leather Ranch, an Insurance Co. re: car insurance 'for
people with less than perfect driving records', Design Jewelers
computer high-tech gem cuts , a promo for the Cinderella retro
new-age theme sit-com "Dharma (not Kharma) and Greg", *and here
people is a Canadian Liberal Party Federal Election 2000 campaign
ad showing baby footsteps in the sand. Then a commercial for
Milk where a good looking boy gives a pretty girl a cookie,
she asks him for milk and so the boy sneaks out of class and
through the school to get it, he returns, offers it to the girl
and she accepts it even though another guy behind her - who
is homely and nerdy - has also offered her a drink (depicting,
in my opinion, that you can get what you want even if you are
deceitful, playing outside of the rules, using sexual motivation
to instigate another to act likewise and of course if you are
good looking you won't be caught or rejected). Next a Videon
high speed internet commercial featuring an action filled Spanish
Bull Run in the public streets and restaurant reviews (where
I suppose you can eat the bulls if they don't run you down and
stomp you to bits). All tied up with another station promo of
Global's featuring the comedy shows "Friends", "Cursed", "Will
and Grace" and "Just Shoot Me" (single, pagan, gay & touched
by glamour?).
Commercials of course are aimed at the majority of people (called
the target groups) who are watching the particular program,
in this case the X-Files. Have you noticed that the target groups
they are aiming for are young single sexually active straight
and gay men (lesser played to young women) with no dependants
and eat fast food that have bad driving records, but enough
money or the type of jobs to be considered middle to upper middle
class incomes able to purchase reasonably priced (but look more
expensive) suits, sporty cars, engagement rings/jewelry and
can invest in mutuals, who are looking for danger (equivocated
with fun) in their lives, believe in psychism and are of pagan
spiritual bents. Well, kick in the Liberal Party's tie-in to
the footsteps in the sand which relates extremely closely to
the end moments of the X-Files, we can also determine what they
feel the target group's political bents should be, or are, too;
(considering they are pagan believers with no money who like
to travel, play games, party, get wild and who should invest
their money so they don't blow it). No political Canadian Alliance
Party commercial there! I was insulted but also intrigued. Particularly
as I had just watched "Touched By An Angel" on the same channel
two hours previous to the X-Files. In which case the commercials
were from some of the same companies (with drastically different
plots) featured here in the X-Files. However all were aimed
at much different Target Groups. The targeted groups aimed at
on "Touched" were all age group Christians and the overall feeling/message
I felt was indicated was that if you believed in psychics or
new-age philosophies then there was something bad in you, and
you should get straight by conforming before something bad happened
to you. Again, I was insulted and intrigued, frankly I hadn't
bothered to pay attention to commercials in a long while, why
I bothered to on this evening is no mystery though. I was curious
as to why companies had so many variations of their commercials--silly
me. Well, now we know. What insulted me you may ask. It is that
they made fun of non-Christians, defining that as being anyone
with new-age beliefs and even swayed toward insinuating that
new-age philosophies should be taken with a grain of salt because
they are not wholesome somehow. That in the variations of these
commercials (remember they are the same co.'s in many cases)
non-christians or psychic believers are irresponsible, poor,
have drinking or drug problems and that whatever they do believe
in (if it isn't Christian) is geared toward self-serving agendas
or personal gratification only with little or no compassion
toward other beings.
I'm sure I will be highly criticized for making this a public
statement, but I felt somebody in my profession and of my beliefs
had to. Defining a type of person through advertising campaigns
can obviously be quite judgmental, disrespectful, derogatory
and that usually adds up to discrimination. Don't buy into it.
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