Superman Week is Coming: June 10 - June 14

Mark your calendar!

June 10th through June 14, 2013 will be Superman Week here on the blog.

In anticipation of The Man of Steel (2013), I'll be posting (relentlessly...) about Superman movies, TV series, and toys/collectibles from Monday thru Friday. Should be a blast...

Don't miss it!

Reader Top Ten Science Fiction Films: Bruce Nims

Reader Bruce Nims contributes a final top ten list for today.  Lists resume tomorrow!

He writes:

"As a caveat, I don't get into boxing a movie into a "sci-fi" category instead of some other genre as I think some of the best movies out there easily cross multiple genres.  (For example, I think you can just as easily argue that Blade Runner is a Film Noir instead of a "sci-fi" movie).

In no particular order, but if there is an overriding theme in my list it is that I feel that each of these movies have been incredibly influential on movies and popular culture (so much so that I think their impact is self-evident):

1)  Alien

2)  Outland

3)  Forbidden Planet

4)  Blade Runner

5)  Star Wars

6)  2001 A Space Odyssey

7)  Close Encounters of the Third Kind

8)  The Matrix

9)  The Thing

10)  The Terminator

Bruce, I am thrilled to see that Outland (1981) made your list.  I am a big fan of that movie, and think it is time to watch it and review it again for the blog.  I feel it was always unfairly dismissed with the "space western" label, when in fact some of the production design is exquisite, and the ideas about corporations very timely.

Well done!

Reader Top Ten Science Fiction Films: Cannon Blaster

The amazing Cannon Blaster, the cat who helped me to re-consider and re-contextualize the 2011 version of The Thing -- and who brilliantly went toe-to-toe with me on Oblivion and Return of the Jedi -- offers his list of top ten SF films.  

As you might suspect, there are some surprises here...

Here's Cannon: 

1. The Thing

2. Alien

3. Blade Runner

4. Jurassic Park

5. Star Trek: The Motion Picture

6. Ghost in the Shell

7. THX 1138

8. Youth Without Youth

9. Forbidden Planet

10. Things to Come

Runner-ups:

2001: A Space Odyssey

Dredd

Starman

Akira

The Terminator

Minority Report

Total Recall

Altered States 

12 Monkeys

Robinson Crusoe on Mars

This is the first list to include THX-1138, a great film from 1971 that likely deserves a stronger showing than it has received.  

I'll confess, I've never seen Francis Ford Coppola's Youth Without Youth (2007), but I plan to rectify that oversight immediately...

And it looks like Star Trek: The Motion Picture is having a very strong showing in our tally.  It has made the top ten in quite a few lists at this point...

Reader Top Ten Science Fiction Films: Mike S.

Mike S. contributes our second list for this beautiful Friday, and provides a little tweak on the format:

Here he is:

"Here's my top 10 science fiction list (with a twist).

Lists are easy, but giving yourself limits can be fun. My list is limited to only one movie per decade..."

01. Metropolis (1927)

02. Things to Come (1936)

03. Dr. Cyclops (1940) [hard to pick, sci-fi not a big genre in the 40's ?]

04. The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)

05. Planet of the Apes (1968)

06. Star Wars (1977)

07. Blade Runner (1982)

08. Terminator 2: Judgement Day (1991)

09. Serenity (2005)

10. Looper (2012) [well, so far]

Some hard choices for me, especially in the 60's to 80's period.

And now for my next trick, top 10 science fiction SEQUELS (and only one sequel per franchise)....er, maybe not...

Mike S, I like your self-imposed limit here, although in my opinion, that makes matters way too difficult.  I just saw Looper (2012) a week ago and thought it was great.  I'll be reviewing it this summer on the blog, but suffice it to say...it was amazing.  I agree with you about the 1940s too.  I've made a mental note that not many titles on these lists originates from the decade of film noir...

Reader Top Ten Science Fiction Films: SGB

The great SGB, a frequent comment-writer and regular reader here on the blog this morning offers the first "top" science fiction film list of the day.

Here's SGB:

"I had to jump into this fun.

 

All of these science-fiction films I experienced in theaters beginning as a boy in the '70s, including re-releases in theaters. It is based on both the emotional impact and the milestone of the film at the time of it's original release.  Sorry, I have a top fifteen list.  I just can not 'tie' as they are numbered by importance to me beginning with most important number one.

 

1. Star Trek:The Motion Picture(1979)

2. Planet Of The Apes(1968)

3. Empire Strikes Back(1980)

4. Star Trek II:The Wrath Of Khan(1982)

5. Star Wars(1977)

6. Beneath The Planet Of The Apes(1970)

7. Walt Disney's 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea(1954)

8. Escape From The Planet Of The Apes(1971)

9. Alien (1979)

10. Andromeda Strain(1971)

11. The Time Machine (1960)

12. Logan's Run(1976)

13. 2001:A Space Odyssey(1968)

14. Westworld(1973)

15. Silent Running(1972)

 

There is nothing like sitting in the theater with others and experiencing a film."

SGB: I love your final sentiment there, and I agree with it wholeheartedly.  Going to the movies is a magical experience, to be sure. 

I also love your selections.  I grew up with 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and still love that film with a passion.  I also appreciate that you express some love for a few of the Planet of the Apes sequels.  I've always thought that the Apes saga had quite a few outstanding installments.  

Cult Movie Review: Moon (2009)

Victor Hugo once wrote that "the greatest happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved; loved for ourselves or rather loved in spite of ourselves.”

Now imagine a world in which you carry such great happiness and love in your heart, only to discover one day....that it's not true. 

Or more accurately, that it's not yours. It isn't your love at all.  Rather it is an illusion, and the love you carry is but the "property" of someone else, another individual.

In broad terms that's the crux of the understated and haunting Moon (2009), a  science-fiction film starring Sam Rockwell, written by Nathan Parker, and directed by Duncan Jones.

Moon is set in the near future, primarily on a moon base called Sarang that is busy producing Helium-3, the miraculous new energy source needed down here on Earth.

Manning Moonbase Sarang is one lonely, strung-out astronaut, Sam Bell (Rockwell). Sam is rapidly nearing the end of his three year contract, growing a little loopy from passing the hours alone, and he spends much of his day chatting with the base's ambulatory computer/robot, Gerty (voiced by Kevin Spacey).

But Sam longs to return home to his beautiful wife, Tess, who periodically sends him recorded video messages. Sam also has a beautiful little daughter, Eve, that he misses desperately. In two short weeks, he can resume his life with them, he believes.

That's the only thing he is holding onto.

Sam is so excited about returning to his family that he ignores some odd events going on around him. Like the fact that the large diorama/model he's worked on for 938 hours was actually begun before he arrived at the base. 

Sam also ignores the phantasm of the girl in the yellow dress, and jolting video images of himself that seem to sparkle to life and then vanish on his view screen without rhyme or reason. He doesn't seem to worry much, either, that he can never, ever get a live feed transmission back to planet Earth.

Then, one day, there's an accident on the lunar surface involving one of the powerful energy harvesters. Sam is injured in a lunar rover and suddenly things take a turn for the truly weird. Somehow, Sam is returned safely to Sarang's infirmary.

 Who rescued him? How did he get there? Why can't he remember the specifics of the accident?

Upon recuperation, Sam overhears Gerty talking to officials of the LUNAR Corp. in hushed, conspiratorial tones...even though supposedly there's no available live feed to Earth. Then the officials abruptly decide to send a rescue mission to recover Sam before his tour of duty is over. Why? What is the real reason the enigmatic "Eliza" rescue team is moon bound?

Finally, Sam meets someone on the lunar surface, in the wreck of the lunar rover, and comes to realize that he's been a patsy in someone else's game for a long time. That reality is nothing like he had imagined it to be.

I don't want to write too much more about Moon's plot except to say that it is fascinating, and lives up to Outland's (1981) famous ad-line: "Even in space, the ultimate enemy is still Man."

And that allusion to an older science fiction film -- one set on a moon base orbiting Jupiter -- leads nicely into a discussion of Moon as dedicated homage to the outer space film tradition of the late 1960s-early 1980s.

I'm not talking about the swashbuckling Star Wars adventure tradition here, but something else entirely: the sort of "man alone"-confronting-the-mysteries-of-existence tradition. These are films and TV installments that focus on the details of our near-future space "tech" or hardware, but also on the condition and future of the man who operates it. It's not the holodeck/transporter room/bumpy-headed tradition of latter-day Star Trek, either (not that there's anything wrong with that...). But here, life in space is extremely difficult, and one little mistake means instant death.

Accordingly, Moon references a number of respected older productions. 

Alone on his job, going slightly bonkers, Sam might well be Bruce Dern's Freeman Lowell in Douglas Trumball's Silent Running (1972). 

There, Dern's character -- the only human aboard an agro-freighter called The Valley Forge -- had only three drones (Huey, Dewey and Louie) to converse with and play poker with. Here Sam has the company only of the computer, Gerty. 

Dern's character was also put in the position of disobeying orders and attempting an escape of sorts. Sam's journey mirrors that aspect of Silent Running too.

There's also a reference in Moon to 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). 

Remember the scene in Kubrick's masterpiece which featured Dr. Floyd arriving on the space station and telephoning home to wish his daughter a happy birthday? There's a recorded birthday call between Sam and his daughter here too. It's interesting how the same idea is re-purposed in an original way by Jones. In 2001, the phone call represented a marvel of communication: a way for humans to stay close across vast distances. 

In Moon, the call represents precisely the opposite: Sam's distance from his family. The recorded message allows no real back-and-forth. It's only a reminder of what's lost: real-time contact between father and daughter.

And, viewers familiar with Outland (1981) will instantly recognize the over sized, digital countdown clock ticking away to the "rescue" shuttle's arrival at Sarang. 

A similar clock counted down the arrival of a supply shuttle at Io in the older film. But that Outland shuttle was really carrying a team of assassins to murder troublesome Marshal O'Neil (Sean Connery). 

Likewise, the countdown clock serves the same purpose in Moon: building suspense, and carrying assassins bent on murdering poor Sam. In both cases, an individual (O'Neil or Sam) has stepped out of the prescribed order, learned a secret, and must be dealt with before the population-at-large discovers the hidden truth. 

There are even some similarities in shuttle design in the two pictures.

Right down to the smallest details, Moon echoes the outer space thrillers of yesteryear. One Purina-style logo on the computers comes right out of Alien (1979), as does the frequent talk of work "contracts." 

Also, the company LUNAR -- which runs the moon base -- is of English/Asian origin, just like nefarious Weyland-Yutani. 

And Sam's discovery of a body on the lunar surface -- wiping ice away from the face plate of a space suit -- also refers back to a haunting image from the classic Space:1999 (1975-1977) episode titled "Another Time, Another Place," and it's actually the same discovery: the horrifying vision of a corpse that can't possibly be a corpse.

 In that Johnny Byrne episode of Space:1999, the discovery involved alternate worlds and alternate selves. Moon boasts a resonance of the latter element.

Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, the film's plot and resolution come around to echo Blade Runner's (1982) central them: the idea of man playing God with living beings who feel, think...and love; mankind tampering with life-spans, memories, and emotions.

What I found so consistently intriguing and delightful about Moon is that although it indeed alludes to all these great productions of the late 1960s-1980s, it isn't a remake, a re-boot, a re-imagination, a "brand," or a sequel. While cleverly aping the austere, minimalist visual style of 2001, Silent Running and Space: 1999, director Jones nonetheless weaves an original and thoughtful narrative.

It's one that -- like Silent Running, Solaris, Blade Runner, etc. -- asks important questions about what it means to be a human being in the technological, "space age."  And Moon also questions whether love is something we can transfer -- perhaps through osmosis, perhaps through programming, perhaps through cloning -- to our creations.

Gerty is one answer to that question. 

Jones teases us throughout the film that Gerty (a robot with a 1970s yellow smiley face screen...) may be as secretive and manipulative as Kubrick's HAL 9000. The truth is somewhat different...and ultimately affecting from an emotional standpoint..

Gerty lives up to his programming, but it's implicit that he's doing something more than that as well. He boasts an (apparent) emotional bond with Sam that goes well beyond company directives and protocols. I mean, the robot understands the concept of self-sacrifice. 

So Moon seems to suggest that man and machine, clone and robot, are more than the sum of their "constructed" parts. 

When we dismiss such things out of hand, it makes us all...less human.  It diminishes us all.

Interestingly, Moon opens by explaining that we have conquered our energy problems. A voiceover narration informs the audience "there was a time when energy was a dirty word," for instance. But after optimistic talk of this great breakthrough, the movie then it goes on to tell Sam's story; a story of a corporation that has made moral compromises to achieve that breakthrough. 

A Space:1999 episode of the 1970s ("Dragon's Domain") noted that "space adventuring is terribly expensive" and that "the opportunities" come "one at a time." Moon acknowledges that reality: watching the bottom line, LUNAR has assured that no humans will die on the moon; and that no interruption of the energy flow will occur either. But the way the corporation has achieved this end is both deceitful and immoral.

Moon is a sturdy, introspective, highly-intelligent meditation on the near-future trajectory of humanity. When we go to the stars, how will we treat the men and women who represent the vanguard? How will we replace people who are injured? How will we assure that those astronauts remain psychologically sound during a long span alone, isolated? 

Moon finds answers -- and it also pitfalls -- in LUNAR's solutions.

The film is not a shoot-em-up, it is not a blockbuster, and it is not a crowd-pleaser, either. The location may be "space," but the approach is entirely human; entirely grounded. The last film that attempted this alchemy was Solaris (2002), and I remember how vehemently modern audiences hated, hated, hated it. 

It's easier to tell a sci-if story about light sabers, aliens, and rampaging robots than it is about the condition of the human heart, I suppose. By some way of thinking, Moon is even a love story: an impossible love story.

Moon is a space epic all right, but it is an emotional epic.

And no, that desciption needn't be a contradiction in terms.

Movie Trailer: Moon (2009)

Reader Top Ten Science Fiction Films: Roman J. Martel at Roman's Movie Reviews and Musings

Roman J. Martel is the great writer headlining the blog, Roman's Movie Reviews and Musings, and today, he offers his tally for the top ten science fiction films.  

Take it away, Roman:

"As you said, this is a fun question but a tough one. I ended up picking films that had a lasting impact on science fiction as a genre and an impact on film as a whole. Then I put them in order of what I perceived as having the greatest impact.

I’m sure if you asked me again next week it would change, but these were my top ten with a few runners up. Now, if you asked for a list of favorites, it would be a bit different. Star Trek: The Motion Picture and Ghost in the Shell would be much higher on the list.

1. Star Wars: A New Hope (1977)

2. Metropolis (1926)

3. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

4. Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)

5. Forbidden Planet (1956)

6. Blade Runner (1982)

7. Alien (1979)

8. Akira (1988)

9. Close Encounters of a Third Kind (1977)

10. The Matrix (1999)

Planet of the Apes (1968)

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982)

Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back (1980)

Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979)

Ghost in the Shell (1995)

Looking forward to your compiled list this weekend!"

Thanks, Roman.  I love your list, especially for including Metropolis.  I can't wait to start collating the results of this exercise...

Reader Top Ten Science Fiction Films: Meredith

A regular reader, Meredith, contributes an excellent top ten list below.

Here goes:

"No particular order, but these are films that have made a lasting impression on me:

2001: A Space Odyssey 

Close Encounters of the Third Kind

Star Wars

Raiders of the Lost Ark

Superman (the first Christopher Reeve film)

Jurassic Park

Jumanji

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (okay, not as good as the BBC incarnation, but still a favorite)

Galaxy Quest

Planet of the Apes (scared me silly the first time I saw it!)"

There are some new and worthy titles on this list.  I took special note of Superman: The Movie (1978), which I grappled with for my own list, and Jurassic Park (1993), undeniably a classic.  Galaxy Quest is also a beloved sci-fi film, and a great comedy, so it's cool to see it here.  Well done!

Reader Top Ten Science Fiction Films: Rob B at Edge of the Fringe

Reader and blogger Rob B. at Edge of the Fringe contributes his top ten list this afternoon. 

Check it out:

The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)

Forbidden Planet (1956)

2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

Planet of the Apes (1968)

Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)

The Empire Strikes Back (1980)

The Thing (1982)

Blade Runner (1982)

The Matrix (1999)

Sunshine (2007)

I am very happy to see Sunshine on the official tally.  It has cracked at least a few "honorable mention" lists, but I believe this is its first appearance in a top ten.  Cool!

Reader Top Ten Science Fiction Films: Robert

A regular reader of the blog, Robert, makes his list, our first for today, and it is filled with intriguing and unconventional choices.  

Check it out:

"Robert’s Top Ten Science Fiction Movies

(in alphabetical order)

Back to the Future (1985): Still as fun and exciting as it was in 1985. 

The Black Hole (1979): Crap science but stunning production design and a creepy, Gothic atmosphere. It's almost like a haunted house movie in space.  And don't forget that insane ending.

Children of Men (2006): An incredibly powerful, deeply moving film.  An allegory of our times.

Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977): Up there with Jaws and Raiders of the Lost Ark as Spielberg's best.  All those faces looking up in wonder.  Spellbinding.

Flash Gordon (1980): Hail Flash!

Planet of the Apes (1968): Best twist ending ever.  A movie featured twice this season on Mad Men!

Starman (1984): Poignant and soulful.  I love the scene in the truck-stop parking lot where Jeff Bridges's alien resurrects the deer strapped to the back of the car.

They Live (1988): An indictment of the Reagan era that still resonates today.              

Time After Time (1979): A great cat-and-mouse chase across time.

The Time Machine (1960): Fascinating in that most of the action takes place in a man's back garden--over a period of 800, 000 years." 

I just want to say I give serious kudos to a list that includes two dramatically underrated John Carpenter films (Starman, They Live), and pays respect to two incredibly popular films from my generation, Flash Gordon and The Black Hole.  Well-done!

The X-Files 20th Anniversary Blogging: "Colony"/"End Game" (February 10 and 17, 1995)

An action-rich and suspenseful mythology story, the second season double-header of “Colony”/”End Game” suggests the inherent and indisputable movie potential of the X-Files franchise.  Even today, twenty years later, one can screen these two episodes back-to-back and get caught up in the visual and emotional arcs of the Chris Carter/Frank Spotnitz tale

Interestingly, I often encounter folks who claim not to like the The X-Files Mytharc stories, and complain that such tales are too complicated, or just too difficult to follow. 

That argument isn’t exactly air tight, especially in the case of “Colony/End Game,” which offers a dramatic narrative hook as simple (and violent) as that featured in The Terminator (1984). 

Here, a powerful, muscle-bound alien bounty hunter -- armed with a trademark alien “stiletto” -- sets about destroying the fruits of an unauthorized hybridization experiment.

Mulder and Scully attempt to stop the assassin/shape-shifter before all evidence of the experiment is lost, but Mulder is thrown for a loop when his long-missing sister Samantha shows up unexpectedly.  Now, he must determine the “truth” of the situation. 

The set-up with the hired murderer is compelling visually and narratively, and the ostensible return of Samantha packs quite the emotional wallop.  Also, the details of the experiment (if not the ultimate purpose of it…) are spelled out crisply and cleanly.

If that plot doesn’t provide the template for the ultimate X-Files movie, I don’t know what would. 

Delightfully, the visuals engineered by directors Nick Marck and Rob Bowman only enhance the feature film quality of this epic from 1995.  In particular, there are several amazing shots here (in “End Game”) of Mulder walking on the ice, with a submarine conning tower poking above the cracked surface.  This sequence is the stuff of legends for X-philes, and was created by bringing over one hundred tons of ice into the shooting sound-stage, and refrigerating the set for something like five days.

The action beats of both parts are absolutely unimpeachable too, with the high-point being a brutal, nearly James-Bond-like smack-down between X (Steven Williams) and Skinner (Mitch Pileggi) in a cramped elevator.

All these efforts pay off richly, and this X-Files twofer remains one of the most thrill-packed and important “movie”-style shows of the entire canon.

An alien flying saucer crashes in the ocean, and deposits a human-appearing but deadly bounty hunter (Brian Thompson) on Earth. 

This shape-shifter’s task is to eliminate the participants -- alien, human, and clone -- in a top secret hybridization program first uncovered by Mulder (David Duchovny) and Scully (Gillian Anderson) with the help of Deep Throat (in “The Erlenmeyer Flask.”

Realizing that evidence is being destroyed, Mulder and Scully race to keep the identical-looking aliens alive.  Miraculously, the female of the group appears to be Mulder’s long-lost sister, Samantha (Megan Leitch). 

While Mulder deals with Samantha’s unexpected return, and visits his in-shock Mom (Rebecca Toolan) and inscrutable Dad (Peter Donat), Scully unexpectedly tangles with the bounty hunter and is made his captive.

Accordingly, Mulder is forced to trade Samantha for Scully, but soon learns that the woman claiming to be Samantha was a clone based on his sister’s DNA, not the genuine article. 

Hoping to garner incontrovertible evidence of extra-terrestrial life, Mulder races to the Arctic.  There, a U.S. nuclear submarine, the U.S.S. Allegiance, is immobilized in the ice, ostensibly by the bounty hunter’s downed craft. 

Beneath the ice fields, Mulder finally meets the murderous bounty hunter and asks him if his sister still lives…

“Colony/End Game” sees the addition of a remarkable new villain in the X-Files canon: Brian Thompson’s single-minded bounty hunter. 

The physically-imposing character and his trademark weapon would return several times in the ensuing years, and he represents something of a departure from the series norm.  For one this, this character is extra-terrestrial in nature, and no bones are made of that fact.   The series doesn’t attempt to play him two ways.  There is not alternative explanation for his presence or mission.

Rather, the Bounty Hunter represents the “alien” side of the conspiracy we detect in many episodes.  He is, sort of, the other shoe dropping: the indication that a human agenda is not the only consideration that matters in this (presumably) cosmic game of chess. 

And again, like the Terminator, this bounty hunter is unstoppable once he is on the attack.  In “End Game,” he is particularly brutal with Scully in a well-choreographed and executed motel room fight, and yet there is also the feeling, particularly in the finale, that for this killer, it’s nothing personal. The Bounty Hunter is doing his job as efficiently as possible, and even seems slightly amused by these obsessive humans and their constant but futile attempts to stop him or get in his way.  To enhance the menace of Brian Thompson -- already a huge guy, with no camera trickery whatsoever -- he is frequently seen in this two-parter from a dramatic low-angle.

The events of these two episodes also play as a continuation -- and at times a deliberate inversion -- of the action we witnessed in “The Erlenmeyer Flask.”   That episode, the last of Season One, revealed human/alien hybrid experimentation at a warehouse named Zeus, and featured a tense stand-off, and hostage-exchange on a bridge at night.  Significant suspense arises in this two-parter when the same set-piece is repeated, nearly note-for-note.  There’s another exchange on a bridge at night, and again, an important character is doomed to die there.   The repetition of the setting and scenario create a real sense of inevitability and doom.   We’ve been here before, and we know it isn’t going to end well.

One of the key mysteries of The X-Files is, simply, what happened to Samantha. Was she really abducted by aliens?  Or by forces within the government?  Or, perhaps, did Mulder make up the whole incident so he could deal with the loss of his sibling? 

A facet of the series I absolutely love is that the writers keep obsessing on this mystery, and keep presenting alternate possibilities.  They provide an alternate explanation for Samantha’s disappearance in the fourth season episode, “Paper Hearts,” and then, finally, provide a sense of closure about her in the most touching, tragic way possible in the seventh season two-parter “Sein und Zeit”/”Closure.” 

In terms of “Colony”/”Endgame,” this episode suggests that the abducted Samantha at some point became fodder for alien and human genetic scientists. Her DNA forms the foundational research in the hybridization experiment that could, perhaps, save humanity in the event of colonization.  But this fact of cloning raises all kinds of moral questions. Can it be said that Samantha is, in fact, immortal now, since her genetic material lives on in so many others?  Or, is this a kind of assault, or rape, of her human individuality?  Did she consent to the experiments, or was she used against her will? 

One of the most intriguing aspects of these episodes is Peter Donat’s opaque performance as Mulder’s Dad, Bill.  He plays his cards awfully close-to-the-vest here, so we can’t tell if he is happy to see his daughter returned, or aware that this is, in fact, not his daughter.  Given what we know and understand of Bill Mulder’s history in the conspiracy, he must have every reason to suspect what this Samantha really is (a genetic copy), and yet he provides Mulder no clue, and no solace.  Instead, he simply complains because his wife’s hopes are raised and dashed.  After he gave up Samantha all those years ago, he presumably doesn’t want to relive the trauma it caused his family.  He treats the whole thing here like a massive inconvenience, and remains an inscrutable character.

If any character is ill-served in this effective two-parter, it is probably Scully, who is captured and once more made a hostage or bargaining tool.  In Season Two, this kind of thing had already happened to Scully in other (great) episodes such as “Duane Barry/Ascension” and “Irresistible.”  The end of the second episode redeems Scully, however, since she comes through with the cure that will save Mulder’s life. 

Also, Scully pretty clearly has a close encounter here, with the Bounty Hunter.  She sees Mulder present in her motel room, and he calls on the phone simultaneously.  There is no acceptable scientific explanation for this experience, and yet Scully never professes any belief in anything “extreme,” even though she has witnessed it with her own eyes.  I always wondered how she rationalized the experience…

Next week, another brilliant and timely 1990s story: “F Emasculata."