From: ask-me-in-public-if-you-want-my-address@address.invalid   
      
   Yesterday night my lovely wife and I turned off the lights, lit candles   
   and watched the next two X-Files episodes.   
      
   s01e09 Space deals with a NASA space mission plagued by a mysterious   
   supernatural or alien entity.  The mission director at the ground   
   station in Huston, Colonel Belt, is a former astronaut himself and a   
   childhood hero of Mulder's.  He had the same disconcerting   
   hallucinations during his own missions, and now the same is happening   
   again.  The Space Shuttle appears to have been been sabotaged, and the   
   crew aboard is in danger.   
   The episode contains some references of the funding problem with   
   NASA, and how it is related to the public perception of space missions:   
   when a mission fails funding gets cut, even if it does not end in   
   tragedy; this creates an incentive to hide problems and lie rather than   
   frankly admitting them.   
      
   Colonel Belt keeps his secret well hidden along with the current Space   
   Shuttle problems, which somewhat affects Mulder's perception of him.   
   Here Scully is cruel, belittling and almost openly mocking Mulder for   
   once having been an immature kid dreaming of space.   
      
   I found that meanness unwarranted, understanding Mulder's point of view   
   perfectly even without ever particularly sharing his specific dream.   
   Just when I was pausing the video to comment this issue with my wife   
   Scully was replying, about Mulder's childhood dreams:   
   - It ranks right up there with getting a pony and learning how to braid   
     my own hair.   
   My wife understood Scully's coldness by linking the astronaut dream to   
   a distinctly *boyish* idea, difficult for a woman to identify with.   
      
      
   A single fly had been roaming over us as we were watching the episodes,   
   distracting us.  Before watching the next we opened the window, enjoying   
   the soft sound of the rain in the warm night.   
      
      
   While Space was by all means not a bad episode I liked s01e10 Fallen   
   Angel even better.   
      
   Mulder sneaks, alone, into a closed Wisconsin forest area in which a   
   fallen alien spacecraft has just fallen; the US military are already   
   busy hiding evidence.  Like Mulder we feel ourselves close to some   
   important truth; but as he is excitedly taking photographs of the scene   
   Mulder gets caught and arrested.  In his detention Mulder meets Max   
   Fenig, an eccentric member of the “NICAP” UFO association, and a fan of   
   his.   
      
   In the mean time, an alien is held in the area; it seems to have a   
   transparent body and moves very fast; we perceive the world from its   
   point of view, which really looks alien and disconcerting.  The alien   
   evades.   
      
   Scully arrives the next day, just like a parent summoned at school   
   to take a misbehaving kid back home.  Soon Mulder and Scully have to   
   stand at some internal FBI audition in Washington, in which the X-Files   
   might be closed, following Mulder's continuous disregard of protocols   
   and authority.   
   Scully dismisses the UFO explanation and accepts that the fallen object   
   is indeed a Libyan fighter jet -- Mulder laughs, as we do.   
      
   The alien suddenly attacks the military personnel.  People suffer what   
   looks like radiation damage; Scully, a medical doctor herself, remains   
   to help the injured, welcomed by the doctor and much to the chagrin of   
   the military authorities.   
   Scully tries to help, but the situation with the injured is desperate.   
      
   Mulder sees Max Fenig in his camper; Fenig seems quirky but intelligent,   
   and very knowledgeable.  Fenig has a seizure.  Mulder, as he holds him,   
   notices a characteristic scar or burn behind Fenig's ear, characteristic   
   of some alien abuctees.  Scully, noticing Fenig's psychiatric   
   medications, dismisses the abduction idea as a delusion; Mulder,   
   however, argues that Fenig never claimed himself to have been abducted:   
   only Mulder does.   
   The alien suddenly attacks again.  As Mulder is physically thrown away   
   by the impact Fenig remains hovering midair, before disappearing.   
      
   At the FBI hearing back in Washington Mulder is on crutches, still   
   recovering from the encounter.  Despite Scully's defense the section   
   chief is squarely against them.  After everything seems lost, the chief   
   section is secretly advised by Deep Throat to let work on the X-Files   
   continue: people like Mulder are less dangerous when not openly fought,   
   he argues.  Deep Throat's allegiance becomes even more mysterious.   
      
   Fenig is not one of the three “lone gunmen” people we are going to meet   
   later -- I checked -- but he certainly resembles them in character.   
   “NICAP”, pronounced like kneecap, is an awesome name for a club of any   
   kind.   
      
   I believe that in this episode, like in the previous one, the audience   
   is supposed to identify with Mulder.  Scully arises little sympathy, the   
   way I see it.  She is too “neat”, the scruffy me says.   
      
   Mulder's monologue at the audition is idealistic and almost poetic in   
   its candidness:   
   - You can deny all the things I've seen, all the things l've discovered,   
     but not for much longer.   
     'Cause too many know what's happening out there and no one, no   
     government agency has jurisdiction over the truth.   
      
   Poor simple-minded, well-meaning, honest, naïf, blindly optimistic   
   Mulder.   
      
   --   
   Scruffy Beard   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)