[GardenSirens]

I'll be starting with this when I get the rest of my blu ray in the mail (I got 5 and 6 today, woot woot)

[~MelBelle~]

I'm really excited for you, look forward to reading your rewatch inputs

[GardenSirens]

I look forward to giving them

[~MelBelle~]

awesome

[reason to believe]

Today, I was watching "Chinga" from season 5 and when Scully asks Mulder about dolls that may kill or threaten, Mulder joked about Chucky the doll. And that always makes me think about how "Chucky" was screamed at by Scully in "Beyond the Sea" since that was Brad Dourif, lol.

I have so many memories of watching season 1 and obviously when I was a teen, I watched for the creepy factor and the space aliens/monsters. I discovered during my rewatch that was I was noticing more the relationship signals between Mulder and Scully and all their moments of UST (barely!) and just the way they show care and concern for each other. My highlights of the season now are "Ice" (love Little Scully tackling that guy!), I remember as a teen being surprised by GA's acting in Beyond the Sea since that was the first time Scully really showed a lot more tense emotions, the Erlenmeyer Flask was one of the best most intense cliffhangers I had ever seen and I had forgotten how looooooong one has to wait back then to see what would happen next, lol.

I'm sure there is a lot more I could say or think of if I didn't want to write an essay on season 1, but I'll just say DD and GA look so young, especially GA! (In fact when she is in the rain in the pilot, I think she looks no more than 18, lol) Also, my brother got their autographs in November of 1993 and even tho they were young and relatively unknown, I can tell you, they have never changed their signatures in 23 years, same then, same now, lol.

[Tech Noir]

I think what stood out to me during my rematch of S1 (as far as the MSR is concerned) was how close they used to stand to each other, within the intimate distance zone.

It’s pretty cool that your siblings seemed to enjoy the X-Files too.

[reason to believe]

I was just thinking about how odd the wardrobe department dressed GA in the first season. In the pilot, she isn't even wearing a suit jacket that fits. Did they not have "petite" sizing in 1993 cause it's huge on her, and then I think about all the layers she was wearing under hot set lights, blouses, scarves, suit jacket and trench coat, no one saw her body shape for two seasons.

I'm also glad they quickly ditched the quirky early '90's "cop drama soundtrack you hear in the pilot, when Scully is making her way down to the office basement. it doesn't seem to fit with the rest of the series and sounded hokey.

[frvs]

I decided last night to start re-watching TXF series (the plan is "as a whole" but I'll probably skip the truly awful episodes written by CC). I have a XF novel that I started way back in 2003 that I want to finish one day, but my memory of all things XF lately has been crap. So I'm rewatching while taking notes. Mostly taking notes on the mythology since my novel will deal heavily with that.

While the "Pilot" episodes isn't on my "favorites" list, and I usually don't watch it. I have to say that this time around, paying more attention than usual, it's one of the better constructed episodes written by CC. I'm guessing that those with more experience at FOX (back in the day) had a hand at helping him piece this episode together, and I'm sure it went through more drafts than any other CC script he ever wrote for this series. The attention to detail on the background of characters like Karen Swenson, Billy Miles, Dr. Nemmans, Det. Miles, and even Ray Soames actually blew my mind. I feel like I know those characters better than Mulder and Scully! LOL

I always take notice of the African American agent exiting Mulder's office as Scully is walking down the hallway to meet Mulder. My headcanon is that this man is Reggie Purdue (who we see later in another season 1 episode, which I cannot recall at the moment). Now when he tells Scully that he was under the impression that she was sent to spy on him, could it be that Agent Purdue had been down talking with Mulder about how Blevins and the CSM are assigning a scientist to him? And that's what triggers his suspicion of her? Then again, Mulder seems to have known about her before that day because he had time to read her senior thesis.

Apparently whatever UFO/alien activity there is in the area, it strongly effects electronics (the airplane, the rental car). And it even messes with magnetism, as evidenced by Mulder's compass. The magnetism thing got me thinking though, this can tie in with the Super Soldiers of season 9.

We know that the kids of the class of '89 were being tested on, and that after death they undergo a mutation. So my thinking here is that this is an attempt at creating Super Soldiers. Now in season 9, we know that Super Soldiers are pulled by magnetite, so maybe there is something magnetic in/around Bellefleur that causes any possible Super Soldier-like transformation to fail.

Even more interesting is that it doesn't seem like the human Syndicate is conducting these tests, it seems to be performed by aliens. Now both Billy Miles and Teresa Nemman get abducted at the end of s7's "Requiem," and returned during season 8. Absalom is involved with a group that rescues abductees who have been brought back to Earth, and Jeremiah Smith is with the group to heal these returned abductees - to prevent them from mutating into alien-made Super Soldiers.

Human-made Super Soldiers have the bump on the back of their necks: Gene Crane, Knowle Rohrer, and Shannon McMahon. We know that man-made Super Soldiers were used during the Gulf War in the early 90s (Provenance/Providence flashback scene). So we know for a fact that the Syndicate had scientists working on a human-made Super Soldier project, trying to create soldiers who would be immune to alien viruses, and able to combat aliens without easily dying. So it's not crazy to think that the aliens found out about this, and wanted to plant their own alien-made Super Soldiers on Earth.

We can assume that the Syndicate had been working on Super Soldier prototypes for years (if not decades) before the Gulf War (which primarily took place during 1991) so it makes sense that the aliens would start conducting experiments on kids from the class of '89 (not just in Bellefleur, but also in Sturgis, SD; and Shamrock, TX). We can probably assume in other various locations all over the world.

Perhaps the marks on their backs was an indicator that these kids were being tested on by aliens, and not by the Syndicate, and that's why the CSM took an interest in the case.

I believe that the evidence was destroyed by the Syndicate because Mulder had gotten too close to the truth in Oregon. Though the Syndicate was "destroying evidence" of alien existence and meddling with human genetics, I believe that they didn't actually destroy everything. I don't think Mulder's pictures, x-rays, and whatever was on Scully's laptop were destroyed in the fire. I think the Syndicate took it to study for themselves. They just can't have the general population knowing such things are going on.

I used to think that both Dr. Nemman and Det. Miles were somehow involved in the conspiracy/in-the-know, but after watching the "Pilot" this time around, I don't think so. I think that either one of them discovered what was happening to their children, and got involved to protect them. Because at the end of the episode, when Det. Miles hears Mulder say "How long are you gonna let it happen? He's gonna kill her!" he is faced with the fact that his son is aiding in the murder of these other kids. And what father, upon that realization, would want that to happen? Det. Miles took aim at his own son with his rifle!

The vortex swirls, and there's bright light - then suddenly, Billy Miles can speak again, and the marks on his back are gone. The aliens had to retreat from using this location as testing grounds.

Now what I'm a bit confused about is how the marks on the back, and the nasal implants are related. I get that the metallic implant was a communication device that could control the kids, and that the marks were supposed to be from the tests done to them (though I don't think the episode confirms this). So why would the marks disappear? Unless the aliens quick healed them away to get rid of evidence that they had been there. Right?

I know a lot of XF fans give crap to the season 8 and 9 Super Soldiers storyline, but IMO it had been lying dormant within the series from the very beginning (and the "Pilot" isn't the only early season episode that hints at/suggests Super Soldiers - off the top of my head, there is also "Eve"). The Super Soldier aspect of the mythology fascinates me because it seems to cover the entirety of the XF series. By the time season 8 and 9 rolled around, it only seemed to have come out of nowhere, but if you are paying attention, you can piece it together and make sense of it.

Changing the subject...

I really like the Mulder/Scully dynamic in this episode, and Scully's girly-er voice. In the "Pilot" episode Scully seemed a strong female character (something that is touch-and-go in this series over its ten seasons and two movies). I like that at one point (after finding the substance on Billy's feet) that she seemed out to jump right into believing that Billy was killing the kids, but then when Mulder mentions she has to write it in her case report, she steps back, and knows that she has to compare the sample from Billy's feet to one from the ground in the forest.

Also, Mulder's account (via regression hypnosis) of Samantha's abduction is different from what we are shown in "Little Green Men," and in his dreams in "Paper Hearts" (granted a dream isn't supposed to be an exact replica of what actually happened). Was this change intentional? Are we to believe that Mulder's regressed memories are false, and that the scene that played out in "Little Green Men" is what really happened?

I also love that Mulder and Samantha shared a room as kids. You'd think with fairly wealthy parents that they could afford a home with enough bedrooms for their children to have their own rooms!

[Andromedastargazer]

Originally Posted by frvs (View Post) I decided last night to start re-watching TXF series (the plan is "as a whole" but I'll probably skip the truly awful episodes written by CC). I have a XF novel that I started way back in 2003 that I want to finish one day, but my memory of all things XF lately has been crap. So I'm rewatching while taking notes. Mostly taking notes on the mythology since my novel will deal heavily with that. While the "Pilot" episodes isn't on my "favorites" list, and I usually don't watch it. I have to say that this time around, paying more attention than usual, it's one of the better constructed episodes written by CC. I'm guessing that those with more experience at FOX (back in the day) had a hand at helping him piece this episode together, and I'm sure it went through more drafts than any other CC script he ever wrote for this series. The attention to detail on the background of characters like Karen Swenson, Billy Miles, Dr. Nemmans, Det. Miles, and even Ray Soames actually blew my mind. I feel like I know those characters better than Mulder and Scully! LOL

I love CC episodes ( I love the entire show with few exceptions) so I can help you to fill in the blanks since he rarely doesn't write mythology and I recently rewatched the whole thing and I have a fairly good memory.

I always take notice of the African American agent exiting Mulder's office as Scully is walking down the hallway to meet Mulder. My headcanon is that this man is Reggie Purdue (who we see later in another season 1 episode, which I cannot recall at the moment). Now when he tells Scully that he was under the impression that she was sent to spy on him, could it be that Agent Purdue had been down talking with Mulder about how Blevins and the CSM are assigning a scientist to him? And that's what triggers his suspicion of her? Then again, Mulder seems to have known about her before that day because he had time to read her senior thesis.

Is likely Mulder was notified that he was getting a new agent assigned to his department. The X-Files had been abandoned ever since Agent Arthur Dales retired Mulder opened it himself and settled for staying in the basement since no one took those files seriously enough to give him a real office. He was working on them for at least one year or two alone without anyone helping him and Scully was assigned to him right at the moment he wanted access to those special files people kept blocking him from, so it makes sense he found her suspicious from the get go and did some research on her to be prepared. I think he mentioned that he thought she was going to send to spy on him to see her reaction and maybe intimidate her into leaving if that was the plan because he already uncovered it. Obviously she was not in it and that was the beginning of earning his trust and eventually his heart

Apparently whatever UFO/alien activity there is in the area, it strongly effects electronics (the airplane, the rental car). And it even messes with magnetism, as evidenced by Mulder's compass. The magnetism thing got me thinking though, this can tie in with the Super Soldiers of season 9.

Is a known fact in the alien abductee community that electronic devices get affected by UFO presence and that some zones are more prone to it for whatever reason. That is the reason Mulder was carrying that compass and the spray paint to mark the zone.

We know that the kids of the class of '89 were being tested on, and that after death they undergo a mutation. So my thinking here is that this is an attempt at creating Super Soldiers. Now in season 9, we know that Super Soldiers are pulled by magnetite, so maybe there is something magnetic in/around Bellefleur that causes any possible Super Soldier-like transformation to fail.

I think you are right but I think that the first attempts failed because they didn't understood humans physiology enough to transform them. That is why they need to abduct and test to see what works and what doesn't. If Belleflour had magnetite Billy Miles and everyone else would had been obliterated to pieces from the moment they set foot on the place.

Even more interesting is that it doesn't seem like the human Syndicate is conducting these tests, it seems to be performed by aliens. Now both Billy Miles and Teresa Nemman get abducted at the end of s7's "Requiem," and returned during season 8. Absalom is involved with a group that rescues abductees who have been brought back to Earth, and Jeremiah Smith is with the group to heal these returned abductees - to prevent them from mutating into alien-made Super Soldiers.

There are several groups doing the tests. The syndicate gave the aliens some humans so they could do their own research with their DNA in exchange from the alien fetus infected with black oil we saw in "Erlenmeyer flask". So we have the aliens, the syndicate, the Russians, the military in USA and the hybrids and maybe even the faceless rebels. The syndicate knows about the aliens abducting humans and testing but they don't ask them what are they doing hence how surprised they were in "Fight the future" to find out they can reproduce using human bodies as hosts. The hybrids create benevolent clones like the Samantha's, The Gregors and the Kurts. There was a human cloning program that gave us the Eves and the Adams but I'm not sure if this was just the military using alien tech or just normal eugenics. Then you have the Jeremiahs who are both clones and hybrids with healing powers. Who made them? I'm guessing they are alien made hybrids from the same faction that believe they can wait for human race to go extinct to inherit the planet instead of slaving them or killing them. Any theory about them?

Human-made Super Soldiers have the bump on the back of their necks: Gene Crane, Knowle Rohrer, and Shannon McMahon. We know that man-made Super Soldiers were used during the Gulf War in the early 90s (Provenance/Providence flashback scene). So we know for a fact that the Syndicate had scientists working on a human-made Super Soldier project, trying to create soldiers who would be immune to alien viruses, and able to combat aliens without easily dying. So it's not crazy to think that the aliens found out about this, and wanted to plant their own alien-made Super Soldiers on Earth.

I think the supersoldiers were made by the aliens that later infiltrated the military. If you think about it if you are going to conquer the planet making sure you have most the military under control makes sense. The syndicate was not aware of this that is why Billy Miles first mission was to destroy all the hybrids created by them and the doctors "Per Manum" if you notice all the babies born looked alien and only lived a few days. One the reasons they left William alone in "Existence" is because he was human so they probably thought they made a mistake. After all Dr Parenti was running a legitimate fertiliy clinic too so some of this women gave birth to human babies or at least that looked like them. We know there is at least one other baby, Joy that seemed to also have powers but we don't know exactly why. Any theories on that too?

We can assume that the Syndicate had been working on Super Soldier prototypes for years (if not decades) before the Gulf War (which primarily took place during 1991) so it makes sense that the aliens would start conducting experiments on kids from the class of '89 (not just in Bellefleur, but also in Sturgis, SD; and Shamrock, TX). We can probably assume in other various locations all over the world.

The syndicate was working on creating a human alien hybrid like Casandra Spender and were using Samantha's and Kurts clones to tend to the corn that carried the virus by the bees. The supersoldier program was an alien creation or a military creation only. They had been working on it since the end on WW2 using the chicken pox vaccine to collect tissue and select the people that should be abducted. Probably they were looking for specific genetic markers because not everyone that was tested ended up abducted.

Perhaps the marks on their backs was an indicator that these kids were being tested on by aliens, and not by the Syndicate, and that's why the CSM took an interest in the case.

The marks were probably more implants and they removed them once they ended that round of tests. The aliens remove all evidence the same way the syndicate does to avoid discovery.

I believe that the evidence was destroyed by the Syndicate because Mulder had gotten too close to the truth in Oregon. Though the Syndicate was "destroying evidence" of alien existence and meddling with human genetics, I believe that they didn't actually destroy everything. I don't think Mulder's pictures, x-rays, and whatever was on Scully's laptop were destroyed in the fire. I think the Syndicate took it to study for themselves. They just can't have the general population knowing such things are going on.

I think in this case the fire was caused by the Doctor to protect his son. The syndicate didn't thought this case was that important to mislead Mulder, IMO and they had Scully tagging along so they really didn't needed to show up they had someone that they thought will prove Mulder wrong. I do think that once Scully delivered the implant the syndicate filed it for safe keeping or/and further testing.

I used to think that both Dr. Nemman and Det. Miles were somehow involved in the conspiracy/in-the-know, but after watching the "Pilot" this time around, I don't think so. I think that either one of them discovered what was happening to their children, and got involved to protect them. Because at the end of the episode, when Det. Miles hears Mulder say "How long are you gonna let it happen? He's gonna kill her!" he is faced with the fact that his son is aiding in the murder of these other kids. And what father, upon that realization, would want that to happen? Det. Miles took aim at his own son with his rifle!

Yes pretty much agree. They just weren't sure what was going on and wanted to protect their kids. In Requiem all this people led fairly normal lives after what happened it wouldn't had been the case if they were in it.

The vortex swirls, and there's bright light - then suddenly, Billy Miles can speak again, and the marks on his back are gone. The aliens had to retreat from using this location as testing grounds.

I think they were done with the test and sample collections and needed time to do experiments to find out how to turn them into supersoldiers so I don't think is done out of fear but it was mostly clean up after work.

Now what I'm a bit confused about is how the marks on the back, and the nasal implants are related. I get that the metallic implant was a communication device that could control the kids, and that the marks were supposed to be from the tests done to them (though I don't think the episode confirms this). So why would the marks disappear? Unless the aliens quick healed them away to get rid of evidence that they had been there. Right?

The aliens tend to put several implants for different reasons. The nasal one is probably a controlling and locating device the others were probably to monitor or collect specific cells.

I know a lot of XF fans give crap to the season 8 and 9 Super Soldiers storyline, but IMO it had been lying dormant within the series from the very beginning (and the "Pilot" isn't the only early season episode that hints at/suggests Super Soldiers - off the top of my head, there is also "Eve"). The Super Soldier aspect of the mythology fascinates me because it seems to cover the entirety of the XF series. By the time season 8 and 9 rolled around, it only seemed to have come out of nowhere, but if you are paying attention, you can piece it together and make sense of it.

I agree. I think the issue is that this series has several groups testing and lots of people lying so you get confused but yes the aliens were working on something on their own for a while and it makes sense. The hybrids are too passive they will need soldiers too once they take over the planet and asking the syndicate to create soldiers for them was probably too risky they knew that could send them on panic no to mention that they probably wanted to make sure this soldiers were 100% loyal to them better do it yourself.

Changing the subject... I really like the Mulder/Scully dynamic in this episode, and Scully's girly-er voice. In the "Pilot" episode Scully seemed a strong female character (something that is touch-and-go in this series over its ten seasons and two movies). I like that at one point (after finding the substance on Billy's feet) that she seemed out to jump right into believing that Billy was killing the kids, but then when Mulder mentions she has to write it in her case report, she steps back, and knows that she has to compare the sample from Billy's feet to one from the ground in the forest.

Yes that is the first sign that Scully might not be as close minded and shows Mulder she is not in it just to shut him down but she really wants to do the work.

Also, Mulder's account (via regression hypnosis) of Samantha's abduction is different from what we are shown in "Little Green Men," and in his dreams in "Paper Hearts" (granted a dream isn't supposed to be an exact replica of what actually happened). Was this change intentional? Are we to believe that Mulder's regressed memories are false, and that the scene that played out in "Little Green Men" is what really happened?

Actually the writers that wrote "Little Green Men" didn't watched Conduit and wrote their own version. Carter gives a lot of freedom to his writers and sometimes they just don't feel like doing their homework

I also love that Mulder and Samantha shared a room as kids. You'd think with fairly wealthy parents that they could afford a home with enough bedrooms for their children to have their own rooms!

Sharing rooms is also cultural it might be that they just thought the kids shouldn't sleep alone until they got older and wanted their own space. It could be also their choice my hubby and his brother shared a room and the spare rooms were for toys, books and project for them it felt better to use the rooms just to sleep and play elsewhere.

If you want some more tidbits and behind the scenes I suggest you to visit this site: Cherish the Past lots of goodies there.

[~MelBelle~]

I moved your posts to the Season 1 thread

[kiamay]

Thinking about doing a rewatch of Season 1... if the weather stays medium weird

[reason to believe]

Season 1 is so awesome, no wonder the show became what it did, based on such a good start off!

[SciFiFantasyFan]

Sorry for the vague title, but I didn't want to say anything specific before the heads up on the spoiler alert.

SPOILER ALERT

Season 1, episode 18: Miracle Man

The sheriff gets arrested at the end, but I wasn't too clear on what gave him away as the bad guy to the other local authority figures. Can anyone explain?

[reason to believe]

I have t seen that episode for a while but I looked up the episode description on Wikipedia and it says

Meanwhile, Sheriff Daniels is arrested by one of his deputies for questioning by the district attorney over Samuel's death.

[X Fool]

Originally Posted by reason to believe (View Post) I have t seen that episode for a while but I looked up the episode description on Wikipedia and it says

Ive just found this thread having recently started doing a full rewatch from S1. So many forgotten gems in thi season