Wednesday, 26 June 2013
Sunday, 23 June 2013
Season One, Episode One - "Pilot"
So here we are, the beginning of what will hopefully be an enjoyable trip throughout the complete screen X-Files experience. It will be re-watch and review from the very beginning of the whole saga of The X-Files encompassing not only the series itself but the films and also the Lone Gunmen spin-off.
But for now, let's go back to the very beginning. to the Episode that started it all. "Pilot".
First broadcast on the Fox Television Network in the US on 19th September 1994 this initial episode checking in at a mere 46 mins from start to finish would introduce us to the world, the characters and the themes behind what would come to be a truly global phenomenon.
The first story opens with a caption that informs us that 'The following story is inspired by actual documented accounts' before plunging us straight into the heart of a nighttime forest scene as a girl clad in nightclothes attempts to escape from an unseen pursuer. As a brilliant light enfolds the scene the silhouetted man is revealed followed by a flurried, tornado of leaves before the light swallows everything else.
This has always been to me, a great way to set the stall for the rest of the show's run as it skirts the line between a scene we've seen countless times in what has become a horror staple and then introducing the light to throw you off balance, offering something new that you just didn't expect to happen.
Either way, the results are the same with next scene revealing the now deceased girl face down on the forest floor seemingly having expired from exposure, an examination of the body at the scene reveals two raised markings on the girl's back.
Cutting straight to the FBI building in Washington we're introduced to our heroine, Dana Scully's character and achievements as she's briefed on her new assignment. To report and assist a man who she knows by his own brilliant and yet strange reputation Fox 'Spooky' Mulder on a set of cases, the 'so-called X-Files'.
This scene also gives us our first meeting with the 'Cigarette Smoking Man' a shadowy figure who would come to be a recurring character throughout the series.
When the question is asked by Scully is she is expected to debunk the X Files (a group of files dealing with unexplained phenomena) she is informed that she is simply expected to report, scientifically on her findings.
We then journey with Dana down into the depths of the building to meet the man that, due to the nature of what we have heard already, we are looking forward to meeting Agent Fox Mulder.
Within the first 30 seconds of his performance, David Duchovny, shows us a multi-faceted character who is all too aware of the real reason for Scully's assignment 'I thought you were sent to spy on me...' before we are briefly provided with an expository run through the facts as they are known relating to the girl in the opening scene.
This in turn leads to the first of many philosophical discussions between the sceptic Scully and the believer Mulder
"When convention and science offer us no answers might we not finally turn to the fantastic as plausibility"...
"What I find fantastic are that there are answers beyond the realm of science. The answers are there, you just have to know where to look"
”That's why they put the 'eye' in F.B.I."
From there the action moves straight into small town Oregon where the vehicle (the first in a long, long line of rentals) in which the dynamic duo are travelling experience some engine trouble and Mulder marks the point on the road with a big red 'X', clearly anticipating something a little more than a dodgy engine.
By this time we've already established via a cryptic comment in the opening scene and in more matter of fact way that the dead girl is actually the latest in quartet of unexplained deaths, the former trio having no mention of any strange marks but with the last report signed off by a different Doctor.
The choice to exhume the last victim leads to a startling discovery of a small town cover-up as well as something a little more 'juicy' and an autopsy is swiftly arranged.
Re-opening the episode on the autopsy itself we find the two distinct characters of Fox and Dana in full flow. An excitable child on Christmas morning armed with a camera, Mulder flits around the table whilst the slow, steady hand of Scully peforms the examination of a mis-shapen, mutated husk that purports to be a 20 year old male who has only been in the ground for 3 months.
We later find that retreived from the nasal cavity of the body was a small metallic object kept, along with the X-rays and notes of the autopsy in Scully's hotel room.
The next day during a visit to the local Hospital where two of the remaining three troubled young people are housed, one in a vegatative state and one a cripple. Mulder spots similar marks as appeared on the dead girl on Paula O'Dell's back after she falls from her wheelchair whilst suffering from a painful nosebleed. Mulder revealing this to Scully in addition to his suspicions that the kids were all Alien Abductees much to the annoyance and disbelief of Agent Scully.
The camerawork, plot movement and direction of this opening 25 minutes have all been superb with, by now, a distinct feeling of unease creeping in...Mark Snow's minimalistic piano based score really adds to the atmosphere.
A late night visit by the agents to the forest area results in Scully collecting a handful of strange dust from the ground before the visit is curtailed by the local sheriff ejecting them swiftly from the area. Travelling back to the motel the two lose 9 minutes of time on the same spot as the original disturbance suffered by the car. A classic sign of alien abduction.
Back at the motel more is revealed about the background of Mulder as the two talk during a power cut. We find that Mulder's sister Samantha disappeared without a trace when he was 12 driving his obsession with the unexplained. In less than one episode we have set up for us two distinct and wonderful characters whose stories, like onions will be revealed, layer by layer as we move through the series.
With another death, a fire in the motel and a leap of faith the story in Oregon draws to a close leaving the detail obsessed Scully in a quandry as to how she can report what she has witnessed to her superiors. Doing her best, her report is dismissed by them as a flight of fancy from a small town. Leaving them with the only surviving evidence, the metallic implant, Scully leaves the office, crossing paths with the Cigarette Smoking Man.
The final shot of this first episode finds us in a gigantic evidence warehouse where the ' CSM' deposits the implant in a case visibly filled with other implants before leaving via a door marked as being on the interior of the Pentagon...
The Government can't know about this surely? Can they?...
Easily one of the best Pilot episodes ever made. Taut, thrilling and genuinely investing. The characters are well rounded and even by the conclusion of the episode you really feel that you have a sketch that you would like to see completed.
The Template for the next decade of television is set and the chemistry between Duchovny and Anderson is present from their first scene together. As Fox and Dana they will live in the hearts of millions of fans the world over forevermore.
Pilot gets a solid 9/10
But for now, let's go back to the very beginning. to the Episode that started it all. "Pilot".
First broadcast on the Fox Television Network in the US on 19th September 1994 this initial episode checking in at a mere 46 mins from start to finish would introduce us to the world, the characters and the themes behind what would come to be a truly global phenomenon.
The first story opens with a caption that informs us that 'The following story is inspired by actual documented accounts' before plunging us straight into the heart of a nighttime forest scene as a girl clad in nightclothes attempts to escape from an unseen pursuer. As a brilliant light enfolds the scene the silhouetted man is revealed followed by a flurried, tornado of leaves before the light swallows everything else.
This has always been to me, a great way to set the stall for the rest of the show's run as it skirts the line between a scene we've seen countless times in what has become a horror staple and then introducing the light to throw you off balance, offering something new that you just didn't expect to happen.
Either way, the results are the same with next scene revealing the now deceased girl face down on the forest floor seemingly having expired from exposure, an examination of the body at the scene reveals two raised markings on the girl's back.
Cutting straight to the FBI building in Washington we're introduced to our heroine, Dana Scully's character and achievements as she's briefed on her new assignment. To report and assist a man who she knows by his own brilliant and yet strange reputation Fox 'Spooky' Mulder on a set of cases, the 'so-called X-Files'.
This scene also gives us our first meeting with the 'Cigarette Smoking Man' a shadowy figure who would come to be a recurring character throughout the series.
When the question is asked by Scully is she is expected to debunk the X Files (a group of files dealing with unexplained phenomena) she is informed that she is simply expected to report, scientifically on her findings.
We then journey with Dana down into the depths of the building to meet the man that, due to the nature of what we have heard already, we are looking forward to meeting Agent Fox Mulder.
Within the first 30 seconds of his performance, David Duchovny, shows us a multi-faceted character who is all too aware of the real reason for Scully's assignment 'I thought you were sent to spy on me...' before we are briefly provided with an expository run through the facts as they are known relating to the girl in the opening scene.
This in turn leads to the first of many philosophical discussions between the sceptic Scully and the believer Mulder
"When convention and science offer us no answers might we not finally turn to the fantastic as plausibility"...
"What I find fantastic are that there are answers beyond the realm of science. The answers are there, you just have to know where to look"
”That's why they put the 'eye' in F.B.I."
From there the action moves straight into small town Oregon where the vehicle (the first in a long, long line of rentals) in which the dynamic duo are travelling experience some engine trouble and Mulder marks the point on the road with a big red 'X', clearly anticipating something a little more than a dodgy engine.
By this time we've already established via a cryptic comment in the opening scene and in more matter of fact way that the dead girl is actually the latest in quartet of unexplained deaths, the former trio having no mention of any strange marks but with the last report signed off by a different Doctor.
The choice to exhume the last victim leads to a startling discovery of a small town cover-up as well as something a little more 'juicy' and an autopsy is swiftly arranged.
Re-opening the episode on the autopsy itself we find the two distinct characters of Fox and Dana in full flow. An excitable child on Christmas morning armed with a camera, Mulder flits around the table whilst the slow, steady hand of Scully peforms the examination of a mis-shapen, mutated husk that purports to be a 20 year old male who has only been in the ground for 3 months.
We later find that retreived from the nasal cavity of the body was a small metallic object kept, along with the X-rays and notes of the autopsy in Scully's hotel room.
The next day during a visit to the local Hospital where two of the remaining three troubled young people are housed, one in a vegatative state and one a cripple. Mulder spots similar marks as appeared on the dead girl on Paula O'Dell's back after she falls from her wheelchair whilst suffering from a painful nosebleed. Mulder revealing this to Scully in addition to his suspicions that the kids were all Alien Abductees much to the annoyance and disbelief of Agent Scully.
The camerawork, plot movement and direction of this opening 25 minutes have all been superb with, by now, a distinct feeling of unease creeping in...Mark Snow's minimalistic piano based score really adds to the atmosphere.
A late night visit by the agents to the forest area results in Scully collecting a handful of strange dust from the ground before the visit is curtailed by the local sheriff ejecting them swiftly from the area. Travelling back to the motel the two lose 9 minutes of time on the same spot as the original disturbance suffered by the car. A classic sign of alien abduction.
Back at the motel more is revealed about the background of Mulder as the two talk during a power cut. We find that Mulder's sister Samantha disappeared without a trace when he was 12 driving his obsession with the unexplained. In less than one episode we have set up for us two distinct and wonderful characters whose stories, like onions will be revealed, layer by layer as we move through the series.
With another death, a fire in the motel and a leap of faith the story in Oregon draws to a close leaving the detail obsessed Scully in a quandry as to how she can report what she has witnessed to her superiors. Doing her best, her report is dismissed by them as a flight of fancy from a small town. Leaving them with the only surviving evidence, the metallic implant, Scully leaves the office, crossing paths with the Cigarette Smoking Man.
The final shot of this first episode finds us in a gigantic evidence warehouse where the ' CSM' deposits the implant in a case visibly filled with other implants before leaving via a door marked as being on the interior of the Pentagon...
The Government can't know about this surely? Can they?...
Easily one of the best Pilot episodes ever made. Taut, thrilling and genuinely investing. The characters are well rounded and even by the conclusion of the episode you really feel that you have a sketch that you would like to see completed.
The Template for the next decade of television is set and the chemistry between Duchovny and Anderson is present from their first scene together. As Fox and Dana they will live in the hearts of millions of fans the world over forevermore.
Pilot gets a solid 9/10
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