Re: The X-Files

I propose that we pretend that The X-Files Reborn be taken as X-Files canon within the Sliders board community. All in favor?

It is a good solution. Mulder not only speaks this person's language when it comes to aliens, but it could utilize Mulder's oft-forgotten skills as a criminal profiler. It calls for a distinction between someone who rightfully pursues the truth about a conspiracy that actually did exist, and someone who is so obsessed with this truth that they become the threat to themselves and others. Where does Mulder fit on that spectrum? Where does Scully?

And discovering that nobody has been pursuing the monsters of the week for that stretch of time opens the door for Mulder and Scully to recruit and train new X-Files team members.


I like it!

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Re: The X-Files

I think when the president is Donald Trump, not sure if they can write anything off the wall enough to be considered an "X-file."

Re: The X-Files

Informant wrote:

I propose that we pretend that The X-Files Reborn be taken as X-Files canon within the Sliders board community. All in favor?

To be honest, I'd rather you canonized SLIDERS REBORN first.

Informant wrote:

It is a good solution. Mulder not only speaks this person's language when it comes to aliens, but it could utilize Mulder's oft-forgotten skills as a criminal profiler. It calls for a distinction between someone who rightfully pursues the truth about a conspiracy that actually did exist, and someone who is so obsessed with this truth that they become the threat to themselves and others. Where does Mulder fit on that spectrum? Where does Scully?

I didn't even think of that! I thought of the killer as representing the alien conspiracy: compelling and splashy but now incoherent, insane, outdated, obsessed with the past at the expense of the future, explosively unstable -- and for the good of THE X-FILES and everyone in it, the alien conspiracy plot is locked in a vault, isolated from anyone it might harm and left to blow itself up as we always knew it would, freeing THE X-FILES to focus on what actually matters.

But yes. All the elements you point out are indeed there. Albeit unintentionally.

Re: The X-Files

ireactions wrote:

To be honest, I'd rather you canonized SLIDERS REBORN first.

Bah. Anyone could have written Sliders Reborn! The X-Files stuff is your greatest accomplishment! I really appreciate the effort that you put into it.





(I'm just going to duck and cover now)

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Re: The X-Files

I didn't really think of any characterization for the killer, although I do like yours. I think, also, the killer should have a dated, oversized Nokia dumbphone; a G-Shock wristwatch; cargo pants; a solid gray shirt under a blazer -- all these fashion trends of the 90s. And the killer should be holding that phone and wearing these clothes when Mulder throws him into a bank vault and lets him detonate himself.

I don't know if this is a good way to approach stories.

126 (edited by RussianCabbie_Lotteryfan 2017-01-06 16:04:30)

Re: The X-Files

http://variety.com/2017/tv/news/remote- … 201953719/

Podcast with a fox exec. 15:38  Talks about unknown status of x-files.

Re: The X-Files

http://tvline.com/2017/01/11/the-x-file … -episodes/

“A lot of conversations are going on. As you can imagine, these conversations are complex. We hope to be able to announce something shortly.” (The exec later confirmed that goal is to order more than Season 10’s six episodes but less than 22).

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Re: The X-Files

Good news. Thanks for posting.

Re: The X-Files

http://www.superherohype.com/news/39475 … ew-project

This sounds like a better idea for season 11 than what we got.

Re: The X-Files

I love that they are doing that. Makes the weight for a new season a bit easier.

Re: The X-Files

An audio book?  Ehhhhhhhh.  At least a video game.

Re: The X-Files

That's cool. I think the Veronica Mars novels were really good at continuing the story, so this could work.

But... I'm not sure why they're setting it when they're setting it. Since it's just voices, they could so easily go back and produce audio books or radio shows that are set during the original run, so they don't have to bend over backwards in order to include familiar (yet dead) characters.

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Re: The X-Files

Informant, Slider_Quinn21, RussianCabbie, Grizzlor -- I am mildly irked by your posts in this thread regarding the audiobooks. I spend a lot of time crafting my contributions to this Bboard, many of which were in this thread regarding the IDW published Season 10 - 11 comics. The audiobooks have been announced as adaptations of the SEASON 10 - 11 comics on which I wrote extensively. Despite this, none of you seem to know anything about them even though I've described them in lavish detail in previous posts in this thread.

I am fractionally upset to the point where I shall refuse to talk to any of you ever again for the next thirty seconds or so.

..............................

Alrighty then. So, the comic book SEASON 10 - 11 are being adapted into audio productions with the banner title of COLD CASES with the actual actors. This is both interesting and confusing in that the IDW comic books and the FOX revival are completely irreconcilable, yet the press release is presenting COLD CASES as set between I WANT TO BELIEVE and the Revival.

From a continuity standpoint, that's impossible. SEASON 10 had Mulder and Scully rejoining the FBI in 2013; the Revival had them rejoining in 2015 with no reference to an earlier and abortive return to the FBI. SEASON 10 had Mulder and Scully as a settled, permanent couple; the Revival shows them having broken up. SEASON 10 has Mulder and Scully discovering that William Mulder has gone missing and his foster parents have been murdered; the Revival has them believing William is safe. SEASON 10 has promoted Skinner to Deputy Director; the Revival has Skinner still an Assistant Director. SEASON 10 has Mulder and Scully reopening the X-Files in 2013; the Revival has Skinner saying nobody's been in the Basement since the show got cancelled.

The main discrepancy: SEASON 10 treats Colonization as genuine. The 2012 invasion doesn't seem to have happened, but the comics indicate that the invasion has been delayed due to different alien factions warring over who will dominate the Earth. The faceless rebels return; there's buried spaceships, the black oil makes a comeback.

Confirming the Colonization plot is also the revelation that all Syndicate members periodically had their memories and personalities copied into clone bodies to carry on their work should the originals be killed, and a mysterious figure creates a new Syndicate comprised clones of all the deceased members, including the Cigarette Smoking Man. This is impossible to fit with the Revival's reveal that Colonization was a hoax to distract from the Smoking Man's Spartan Virus endgame. In fact, when reading the comics, one gets the sense that the Revival is set in an alternate continuity and it's the comics that take place in the TV show's universe.

This sense that the Revival is not set in the same reality as the original TV show is further deepened in the SEASON 11 finale: Mulder and the mystery man, revealed to be a now adult Gibson Praise, confront each other in the desert. It's revealed that Gibson has distributed the alien-repelling magnetite mineral throughout the Earth, making the planet a decidedly inhospitable place for the Colonists. As a spaceship comes at Gibson's beckoning, reality is briefly ripped open and Mulder sees a glimpse of alternate universes -- and one glimpse shows Scully with her Revival hairstyle and Mulder in his "My Struggle" costume -- determinedly separating the continuity of the comics and the TV show as taking place on parallel tracks.

I really don't know how an adaptation of SEASON 10 and SEASON 11's comic books can serve as a middle chapter that bridges I WANT TO BELIEVE and the Revival. SEASONS 10 - 11 end by declaring themselves apocryphal and offering a gentle finale to the alien myth-arc. That said, audiobook director Dirk Maggs has a history of adapting what seems initially unadaptable. The HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE radio series had finished two seasons and ended on a cliffhanger where Arthur Dent discovers that his friend, Zaphod, had allowed Earth to be destroyed. Arthur stole Zaphod's ship and vowed revenge. The novels, however, had adopted the material from the radio show and then gone well past it with original material that didn't incorporate this revelation or cliffhanger. And then Maggs was hired to do a radio series that would adapt the latter books into the radio format despite the mismatch.

Maggs, clumsily but perhaps unavoidably, declared that the cliffhanger had been a bad dream. In addition, the fifth and final book of the series, MOSTLY HARMLESS, ended on another cliffhanger where most of the characters were killed off and the author died before he could finish it. Maggs adapted MOSTLY HARMLESS faithfully but with an additional end-scene where the characters were shown to have survived.

So, could Maggs do something similar and retrofit his adaptation of SEASON 10 and SEASON 11 for an in-continuity approach? I don't know, because the problem isn't really the comics; if anything, it's the TV Revival that's out of step with continuity. However, SEASON 11's final issue ended the storyline with a reality warping event caused by an alien spacecraft, so I guess Maggs could alter the story to have reality rewritten with the aliens retroactively having never existed and the stage cleared for the Revival storyline... ?

Re: The X-Files

No, I'm familiar with the arcs that you wrote about. I'm just saying that it's odd to have the actors and the opportunity to go back and create some classic X-Files-era stories without a need to respect who is dead or explain what's been happening in everyone's lives. Yet, they chose to set it after the series anyway.

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Re: The X-Files

Yea, I was familiar with the existence of the comics (and some of the other X-Files media being put out). wink It's great to see Gillian and David voicing some of these stories.

Re: The X-Files

I'm gonna blame my own idiocy.  I had no idea that the audiobook was the same as the comics, despite reading the summary of both.  I figured it was it's own thing.

I posted the link for ireactions primarily, since he's the one most likely to listen/enjoy the audiobook smile

Re: The X-Files

And 10 is the magic number...

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-f … fox-996132

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Re: The X-Files

Yep!  Supposedly they may try to fit it into the fall, although I don't see that happening.

Hopefully the rush into production doesn't affect the quality.

Re: The X-Files

If anyone had any sense at all, they would have been thinking about stories and scripts before the details were hammered out. Fox always wanted more. We all knew there would be more.

But really, they start filming this summer, when all of the other shows start filming. It isn't really rushed, it is just standard TV scheduling.


It would be nice if they aired it in the fall. It is a good Halloween type show. I just want Chris Carter to observe the writing from a safe distance. Bring back some old writers, but also add some all-star newbies. Bryan Fuller, Eric Kripke, and people like that. Some new writers who grew up with the show would be cool.

And I want mostly stand alone episodes!

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Re: The X-Files

Did anyone seriously believe this wasn't coming? I can't speak to the quality of the episodes coming (although them being largely standalone is guaranteed if Chris Carter is running the show), but as long as there is money to be made, THE X-FILES will return. This isn't like the Sci-Fi Channel's pathetic incompetence where they cancelled their own highest rated series.

Re: The X-Files

I don't mind mythology episodes as long as there's thought behind them.  But, yeah, standalone episodes usually have more potential for fun because anything can happen.

I don't think Fox will rush them.  They're doing some revolutionary/bizarre things with their lineup.  They'll probably just air whenever they're done, bumping whatever was going to be on at the time (no matter what that is or where that show is in their airing schedule smile )

142 (edited by RussianCabbie_Lotteryfan 2017-04-21 09:09:59)

Re: The X-Files

My hunch is Gillian was holding out on $ and perhaps finally gave in. It took so long for them to get a deal done, and lo and behold they are filming this summer. It does not sound like a "scheduling" thing to me as had been the official word during negotiations.

Yea FOX definitely wanted to do it. With enough episodes and at the right costs.

Re: The X-Files

I'm not sure that's necessarily true. From December 2015 to April 2016, Gillian was filming The Fall (a series that she had a prior commitment to). Then she was signed onto American God, which started filming around the time that The Fall was finishing. I don't know how involved she is with American Gods, but her being committed at all would make it hard for them to schedule The X-Files.

So she has really been busy since they filmed the original revival, and since they didn't sign her or David to multi-year contracts right away, she really had no choice but to pursue other work while others worked out the X-Files details. I'm sure that she was negotiating for more money as well, but that goes hand in hand with her being a steadily-working actress.

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Re: The X-Files

Nice to hear.

Re: The X-Files

Informant wrote:

I'm not sure that's necessarily true. From December 2015 to April 2016, Gillian was filming The Fall (a series that she had a prior commitment to). Then she was signed onto American God, which started filming around the time that The Fall was finishing. I don't know how involved she is with American Gods, but her being committed at all would make it hard for them to schedule The X-Files.

So she has really been busy since they filmed the original revival, and since they didn't sign her or David to multi-year contracts right away, she really had no choice but to pursue other work while others worked out the X-Files details. I'm sure that she was negotiating for more money as well, but that goes hand in hand with her being a steadily-working actress.

She was booked for The Fall and American Gods for a long, long time, and it still took all this extra time for them to finally reach an agreement on X-Files.

Re: The X-Files

Joe Harris, who writes the X-FILES comics, recently revealed in a podcast that his next story arc will be Mulder and Scully taking on the Trump administration in a storyline entitled "Resistance." The synchronicity is hilarious.

The Christmas Special of 2016 also had Mulder remarking grimly on how he often had dreams of a "debunked, disavowed, disallowed alien invasion plot that never came to pass," a delightfully wry line of dialogue commenting on the massive retcon of "My Struggle."

Re: The X-Files

Why? During the Clinton administration, the show involved massive government conspiracies, yet never pointed a finger at Clinton. Clinton, who was insanely corrupt. The show didn't take jabs at Obama last season, when he was in office. Obama, who loved to seize as much control for himself as possible.

And I'm fine with that stuff, because it doesn't really belong in the story. When they panned over to the picture of Bush in the last movie, it was awkward, childish, and a horrible decision. So, why go after Trump? It's just part of this hysteria that is going around, which is making rabid Trump haters look even more crazy than Trump... which is saying something.

These people are more outraged by Trump than they are ISIS, and I'm not even exaggerating. There is absolutely no sense of perspective, or measured thinking. It's getting old.

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148 (edited by RussianCabbie_Lotteryfan 2017-05-03 23:43:38)

Re: The X-Files

Given x-files' ties to fox, a mass audience network with viewers everywhere not to mention all of the other stuff (murdoch, fox news), its hard for me to believe even the comics would explicitedly mention Trump or be over the top obvious insinuating it.

Re: The X-Files

Well, it's happening. Currently, it looks like FOX is renegotiating the comics licence with IDW and this five issue arc is conceivably the final set of TXF comics from this publisher.

Re: The X-Files

ireactions wrote:

Joe Harris, who writes the X-FILES comics, recently revealed in a podcast that his next story arc will be Mulder and Scully taking on the Trump administration in a storyline entitled "Resistance."

Is Trump going to end up being an alien or a vampire or something?  Or is it just going to be a standard FBI story with no supernatural elements where they take Trump down?  Something like X-Files: Homeland?

Re: The X-Files

ireactions wrote:

Well, it's happening. Currently, it looks like FOX is renegotiating the comics licence with IDW and this five issue arc is conceivably the final set of TXF comics from this publisher.

Wow, some move. This may be a stupid question but do we know anything about Carter's politics?  I know he ran a surfing magazine so I can guess but from what I've seen he's always steered clear of commenting directly on it.

Re: The X-Files

Carter is a liberal liberal. I've seen an old interview where he claims to be more in the center, but the same interview also claimed that government distrust is a liberal mindset, so I think their political scale was broken.

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Re: The X-Files

His politics aside....what do Mulder and Scully have to do with mundane political issues?  Even if Trump were the fascist mastermind that people paint him to be (and he's not, he can't get anything done even with control of Congress), that's not even their area of expertise.  For it to be an X-File, he'd have to be an alien or a werewolf or working with aliens and werewolves.

Or is it going to be a straightforward "This is more important than X-Files! This is about America!" kind of thing?

Re: The X-Files

They'll probably make it about the Trump admin covering up Aliens or something. If they do take on other stuff (eg Policies, the Russia stuff etc), I think they'll get a surge of PR and praise, but my hunch is the feeling over time might be that it ultimately veeers too much into a territory folks don't think the X-Files should be operating in.

Re: The X-Files

The only concrete piece of info I have about this upcoming story arc -- it involves aliens having infiltrated the Trump administration.

Chris Carter isn't really involved in the comics. For the comic book SEASON 10, Carter consulted on the first five issues. Writer Joe Harris wanted the villain of SEASON 10 to be a teenaged William with telekinetic and psychic powers, taking control of the Colonists and Rebels with a new faction called the Believers. But Carter vetoed this, saying he wanted William saved for THE X-FILES III if it ever happened.

Carter also provided some guidance so that Harris could steer clear of any plots that would contradict a future feature film finale. But we got a TV series instead, Carter had a different vision for THE X-FILES on TV and the comics became part of an alternate universe that wrapped up (somewhat abruptly) before the comics shifted to the Revival universe (with the same writer). While Carter's name is on the covers and he has an Executive Producer credit and he reads the comic scripts, he's not driving it creatively.

Anyway. Joe Harris and I are of very similar mindsets politically and creatively -- his X-FILES comics are essentially the X-FILES version of SLIDERS REBORN (obsessive love letters to the legacy and history of an unfinished TV show), right to the point of using the same title in our stories where icons of 90s sci-fi TV take on Donald Trump.

So, keeping with that, I imagine a situation where Mulder's old friend, Senator Matheson, recruits Mulder and Scully to investigate potential sleeper agents in the White House administration. It's revealed that the sleepers are actually the fire aliens introduced in THE X-FILES #1 (2017) that have been taking over human hosts for some unknown endgame, and Mulder and Scully find themselves forced to protect Trump and his staff from an enemy only they can fight, wrestling with the conflicts between their beliefs and their duty.

Continuing with the conceit that Harris and I think the same, I'd never have the sliders -- or Mulder and Scully -- defeat Donald Trump. In fact, I think it would be critical that Quinn, Mulder and Scully end completely beaten but score some sort of symbolic, moral victory.

Re: The X-Files

ireactions wrote:

The only concrete piece of info I have about this upcoming story arc -- it involves aliens having infiltrated the Trump administration.

Chris Carter isn't really involved in the comics. For the comic book SEASON 10, Carter consulted on the first five issues. Writer Joe Harris wanted the villain of SEASON 10 to be a teenaged William with telekinetic and psychic powers, taking control of the Colonists and Rebels with a new faction called the Believers. But Carter vetoed this, saying he wanted William saved for THE X-FILES III if it ever happened.

Carter also provided some guidance so that Harris could steer clear of any plots that would contradict a future feature film finale. But we got a TV series instead, Carter had a different vision for THE X-FILES on TV and the comics became part of an alternate universe that wrapped up (somewhat abruptly) before the comics shifted to the Revival universe (with the same writer). While Carter's name is on the covers and he has an Executive Producer credit and he reads the comic scripts, he's not driving it creatively.

Anyway. Joe Harris and I are of very similar mindsets politically and creatively -- his X-FILES comics are essentially the X-FILES version of SLIDERS REBORN (obsessive love letters to the legacy and history of an unfinished TV show), right to the point of using the same title in our stories where icons of 90s sci-fi TV take on Donald Trump.

So, keeping with that, I imagine a situation where Mulder's old friend, Senator Matheson, recruits Mulder and Scully to investigate potential sleeper agents in the White House administration. It's revealed that the sleepers are actually the fire aliens introduced in THE X-FILES #1 (2017) that have been taking over human hosts for some unknown endgame, and Mulder and Scully find themselves forced to protect Trump and his staff from an enemy only they can fight, wrestling with the conflicts between their beliefs and their duty.

Continuing with the conceit that Harris and I think the same, I'd never have the sliders -- or Mulder and Scully -- defeat Donald Trump. In fact, I think it would be critical that Quinn, Mulder and Scully end completely beaten but score some sort of symbolic, moral victory.

Thanks for the info. It sounds interesting. I don't think it will piss anyone off, though it's clear with the Resistance title he's taking a subtle shot, and I would imagine Chris OK'd it.

I once had heard a really good interview with Joe on one of the X-Files podcasts.  Would you happen to have a link or know the podcast name of the latest interview you mentioned?

Re: The X-Files

https://www.ivoox.com/the-x-cast-89-joe … 698_1.html

Re: The X-Files


thanks!

Re: The X-Files

I wonder how real life for the FBI will affect Mulder and Scully, although, to be blunt, Mulder and Scully and the writers ignored the FBI's mission, purpose, protocol and function so often, they might as well have been Agents Mulder and Scully of PHOENIX, KITT, UNIT, the Lightman Group, GI JOE, SHIELD or some other fictional organization.

Re: The X-Files

Midseason 2018!
http://screenrant.com/x-files-2018-midseason-premiere/

Re: The X-Files

So, we're coming up on the end of THE X-FILES comics where Mulder and Scully take on the Trump administration. Trump doesn't ever appear on the page -- he's heard in a phone call with a hilarious pastiche of his incoherent repetition of key words. The plot is that due to the White House's overall ineptitude, they've failed to notice that their staffers have been infiltrated and replaced by aliens plotting to bring the planet to nuclear war.

Re: The X-Files

Okay, I think that's fair.

Re: The X-Files

I'd assume Trump would be one of two things to The X-Files lore....some kind of alien masquerading as a President, aka an X-File himself.  OR someone who is rabidly interested in the program, I mean, he's basically the editor of the National Enquirer.

Re: The X-Files

My Struggle III...

WTF did I just watch? It was like a film school project, made by the dumb kid in class. How many bad writing/directing cliches did Carter include here? It's like he was working from a checklist.

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Re: The X-Files

*facepalm*

A face full of *facepalm*

Re: The X-Files

Perhaps the most telling aspect of "My Struggle III" is how Mulder and Scully are taken to the hospital in dire straits, depart the hospital to engage in meandering drives here and there only to drive right back to where they started with the script trying to use voiceover and quick cutting to clumsily veil how nothing is happening. What we have here is Chris Carter having improvised himself into a brick wall: he scripted "My Struggle" to retcon the alien colonization.

While the fifth episode of the season was filming, he hurriedly scripted the sixth episode, "My Struggle II," in a mad dash of improvisation as well. Carter doesn't like to plan, instead writing to whatever his inclinations are; this is why his continuity across his series has been so full of holes and contradictions. His instinct was to bring about the Colonization event he'd teased for the first nine seasons of the show but through the Spartan Virus, then provide a cure for the virus, then end on a cliffhanger -- and now he must improvise a solution.

His solution is that the Spartan Virus being unleashed was a dream; that it was merely a vision of what will happen when the Smoking Man lets the virus loose. This makes no sense whatsoever; if the virus has been seeded, why is the Smoking Man holding back? Carter's only rationale: the Smoking Man needs William -- except he didn't in the vision, so how can the vision be trusted? What's happened here: Carter, as usual, does not want to lose the standalone monster of the week, so he decided to declare his end of the world scenario a prophetic hallucination, offer a shocking reveal about Scully's child -- and in between, he has the characters drive around in pointless circles.

There is no explanation for why Scully's medical condition ceases to be a concern by the end of the episode. There is no rationale for why Scully trusts her vision when the Spartan Virus clearly hasn't been unleashed. Once again, Carter has declared the end of the world is here -- but awkwardly taken a step back because he has another season of episode's to fill and more monsters of the week to write. So Scully recovers for no reason and offers that tired old chestnut that the answers lie in Mulder and Scully going through the non-myth-arc episodes. And the William revelation is a cumbersome effort to add consequence and weight to an episode that has none whatsoever.

Honestly, I can't believe THE X-FILES is doing something so unbelievably lame as to declare "My Struggle II"'s cliffhanger to be a dream -- except I can because it reflects the same idiocy that had Carter do things like kill Mulder off and then bring him back to life in the silliest way possible or offer a date for Colonization that he unfortunately missed. Carter has often created massive problems without mapping out a solution before lensing his scripts and he's done it here once again.

The simplest way to deal with "My Struggle II" would have been to pick up two years later: the cure was mass produced and distributed, all is well, but Mulder and Scully are missing. Agents Miller and Einstein are investigating a monster of the week and caught in a deadly situation when suddenly, Mulder and Scully reappear to come to the rescue. Where have they been? They decline to explain and get on with the case of the week. It's not like Carter even enjoys these myth-arc episodes anyway; he clearly takes the most pleasure in the standalones. The only reason he perpetuates the myth-arc; he is trapped in this hopeless belief that if the myth-arc ends, the show ends.

I think we know that's not the case. BUFFY wrapped up its myth-arc every year, as did ANGEL. SUPERNATURAL played out its five year arc and came up with a new one. But Chris Carter is still trapped in the 1990s and maybe he should have just stayed there because he's looking embarrassingly out of touch. Maybe he and Tim Kring should start a support group for TV writers who clearly have no idea what they're writing anymore.

Re: The X-Files

Very confusing, I will agree.  The fact that the finale of the previous season is NOW a flashforward is incredibly head spinning.  That being said, I will say that most people I know seemed to enjoy the premiere FWIW....

Re: The X-Files

It's pretty fun being an outsider in the X-Files fandom.  I just sorta watch the "My Struggle" episodes with a child-like "Okay! I guess this is happening now!" way.  Jeffrey Spender shows up and I think "Oh man, I thought he died at some point.  Maybe I'll look that up on the X-Files wiki".  And so I do that and Jeffrey Spender's page is convoluted and it looks like he did die but then was horribly scarred but now is back to normal and I just go "Okay, I guess this is happening now!"

Cigarette Smoking Man is back and seems alive and healthy and has a new name now and I thought he'd died like five times before but I just smile and go "Okay, I guess this is happening now!"

I watched My Struggle III having not seen a good chunk of the beginning of the series, a good chunk of the end of the series, and having forgotten huge blocks of the time when I watched the show religiously.  I watched Season 10 but couldn't remember what the cliffhanger was.  I just smiled like Sammy Jankis and went with the flow.

There are no continuity errors when I watch the X-Files because I don't remember enough and I'm not invested enough to worry about what's a continuity error.  It ends up making the show a lot more watchable.

169 (edited by RussianCabbie_Lotteryfan 2018-01-08 21:23:23)

Re: The X-Files

I feel similarly, but I also read / listen to what a lot of hardcore X-Files fans say and can't say their hate is unwarranted.  Some just want the mythology to go a certain way (eg less convoluted) others are incredibly offended by how My Struggle III ended.

I thought the episode was entirely rushed from a pacing perspective and wayyyyyy too dense.  It needed another 30 minutes.  It was not good. BUT, I liked the twist at the end. I liked how they referenced an older episode of the X-Files. It gave me a payoff that made the episode overall entertaining.  I was not offended by any of it.  But I respect the position of those who are and can see why.

Either way, I think there may be more too it -- and since they are moving to the MOW stuff until the finale, I think/hope people will be pleased by those stories.  I've seen a couple of good reviews.   As for the finale, I suspect their may be a twist.

I just hate that the narrative has become "Gillian doesn't want to do another X-Files" / "X Files creator says they won't do another season without her" /  "This is the last season for X-Files" etc etc when we basically just are one episode in. Let's enjoy this.  And frankly, X-Files is or has the potential to be one of the shows on TV that we can connect with the characters and have a strong affinity for.  It should not just be thrown away.  Even if Gillian doesn't want to return.  I don't think it has to have her.

I do feel though that David was rough in finding the Mulder character in the first episode.

Re: The X-Files

I don't know that half an hour added to "My Struggle III" would have done anything but drag out the pointless car chases away from the hospital that lead right back to the hospital.

Re: The X-Files

I'm going to have to agree with ireactions on this one. I don't think the problem was that the episode was too dense. I think it was pretty much all fluff.

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Re: The X-Files

Fair enough smile

Re: The X-Files

"This" feels like an appropriate title for episode 2 of this season. It's like Glen Morgan just flopped his hands around a keyboard, printed whatever auto-correct typed up, and named it what it was.

The episode has no thrust. The action came to Mulder and Scully, rather than them going to the action. This is rarely a good thing for a series like this. There was no lead-in. We're just thrown into a story, and while I kept hoping that it would be revealed to be a work of genius as the story unraveled... it didn't. Scully is suddenly an action star, and Donald Trump now leads an elite team of Russians who work for an American mercenary company that's based out of Moscow, because... I'm assuming the tax incentives in Moscow are great? Except this group has existed for many years apparently, so the strained connection to the President seems a little awkward.

They did an episode where Langley was uploaded into a computer without referencing "Kill Switch", which was an episode from 1998 that dealt with the same concept.

The episode had more focus and better direction than last week, but it lacked an actual plot.

Gillian Anderson is probably smart for jumping ship. While we'd all love to see The X-Files resurrected in all of its former glory, the revival has never actually felt like The X-Files. When we think back on the series, how many of us will include anything that's happened since the show went off the air all those year ago?

I hope the rest of this season is good. I really do. But it just isn't doing well so far. Chris Carter is not only a bad writer, he's done a horrible job at running this revival as a whole.

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Re: The X-Files

I didn't think the episode was perfect but I enjoyed it. But I will never be a big critic of the show, I am just always happy to see it exist.

Now that Gillian has made it clear she's done with Scully, I wonder what you guys think -- would you want to see it continue?  I would, of course, even if it'd be a blow to the content.  There's only one or two other tv shows I care enough to watch live. I love having it back. I think they can find there way if they keep it going but I'm not sure David or Chris would continue.

Re: The X-Files

I'm fine with seeing it continue without Gillian. I'm not okay seeing it continue with Chris Carter.

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Re: The X-Files

I'd be okay with it being David Duchovny as a mentor to younger agents.  I don't really see any point in the show continuing as it is now without Gillian Anderson.  I'm also not sure the story would make sense, as things stand now, with Mulder but no Scully.

I'd end it.

I also think Carter is on record as saying that he's going to end the season on a cliffhanger either way. So look forward to that.

Re: The X-Files

Maybe I'll just skip the finale. smile

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Re: The X-Files

... I don't believe.

I don't believe Gillian Anderson. She's repeatedly claimed she was done with THE X-FILES; she said she was done in Season 7, again in Season 8. After I WANT TO BELIEVE, she said she was done with THE X-FILES on TV. She said she was done after Season 10. And now she's saying she's done after Season 11. She's said a variety of things: she wanted to spend more time with her daughter, she wanted to play other roles, she wanted to avoid a TV schedule -- but what she really wants, I think, is to get paid a fair wage.

FOX offered her half of Duchovny's salary for Season 10 which pissed her off. Negotiations for Season 11 were contentious again. I think Anderson is fed up with the studio and the network, but if they start treating her with the respect she's earned, she'll come back.

She just won't come back if she has to battle and demand and pull and howl in order to get the same pay as Duchovny.

Re: The X-Files

See, the way I've read the reports, it sounds like Anderson's people are just less demanding than Duchovny's, and that's more of a "them" problem than a "studio" problem.

They pushed for more money after learning that he was making more money, but that's probably because his people asked for more money in the first place.

I'm not really sure what happened, but I have a lot of questions about it. She asked for more and she got more. So the question is, did Fox just run at David with more money, or did his people negotiate better than her people?

But yeah, I do think that if they upped her pay enough, she'd return. Hell, they could move production to the UK if they had to. There's no reason why they couldn't tell a few stories there.

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180 (edited by RussianCabbie_Lotteryfan 2018-01-12 12:14:32)

Re: The X-Files

ireactions wrote:

... I don't believe.

I don't believe Gillian Anderson. She's repeatedly claimed she was done with THE X-FILES; she said she was done in Season 7, again in Season 8. After I WANT TO BELIEVE, she said she was done with THE X-FILES on TV. She said she was done after Season 10. And now she's saying she's done after Season 11. She's said a variety of things: she wanted to spend more time with her daughter, she wanted to play other roles, she wanted to avoid a TV schedule -- but what she really wants, I think, is to get paid a fair wage.

FOX offered her half of Duchovny's salary for Season 10 which pissed her off. Negotiations for Season 11 were contentious again. I think Anderson is fed up with the studio and the network, but if they start treating her with the respect she's earned, she'll come back.

She just won't come back if she has to battle and demand and pull and howl in order to get the same pay as Duchovny.

I've thought about this a lot myself... but Gillian keeps doubling down, especially at yesterday's event, that I don't think this is a negotiating tactic. The fact that it took them so long to be able to go ahead with a season 11 was a negotiating tactic.

I just wish season 11 wasn't draped in negativity.  People don't like what they have produced (fair).  It's not coming back.  Gillian doesn't want to do it again.  Rather than getting to enjoy the thing while its still alive, everything has become about it's death.

David made a good point yesterday, saying the X Files is essentially a frame.  I agree with that and with so much bad stuff on air, I'd like to see FOX invest in the franchise long term.  With enough trial and error you can find a rhythm and what works. Sometimes invention is messy, and they've had to experience that a bit since bringing it back.  But it can be ironed out.