REVIEW: Autumn's "Biogenesis" Review - REPOST
Autumn Tysko
"Biogenesis" Review
(c) 1999 Autumn Tysko
"Matter and gas."
As with all the cliffhangers (especially those over the summer) the audience
is left to wonder what really mattered and what was merely 1013 gas. As
opposed to most of the mythology episodes served up by the X-Files lately,
"Biogenesis" was actually a fairly clean script with a minimum of
foolishness, but when it was foolish it went for it with a gusto. I found
myself captivated by the episode and liked the feeling of trying to puzzle
out exactly what the impact of all of this would be - something that hasn't
been that much fun in a while. Perhaps it was the more spiritual bent
"Biogenesis" took - hitting at the very heart of why do we exist. Perhaps it
was because it involved Scully by spearing her own personal crux between
faith and science. Perhaps it was because we finally got to see Mulder
screaming in the loony bin - something that's been a long time in coming.
Or, perhaps it was I was just thankful for the complete and total lack of
those idiotic bees. Whatever the reason, I found myself fascinated by what
"Biogenesis" could mean for the series. That is, of course, if 1013 decides
to make it matter next year instead of just dissolving it into so much
mythology gas leaving nothing but a bad smell.
While we are all no doubt interested in Scully's internal musings, the
teaser was not that. It was instead "Dr. Dana Scully Explains it all to you"
from the start of time to now in four easy minutes. Sometimes I really pity
the actors on this show being tasked with trying to make stuff like that
interesting. Luckily, the second voice over was a little more personal and
less like a history lesson. I'd much rather watch characters interacting or
Paranoid!Scully searching the office for bugs than hear Scully explain how
bugs actually evolved over time.
Good work by both Duchovny and Anderson to cap off the season. I did enjoy
some of the little digs they managed like Mulder's stressing "science
journal" in the meeting with Skinner or the small victory he had over Scully
saying "it was from outer space". It was however annoying to see the writing
backtrack on Scully - turning her into that always trying to wrap things up
"what more could you possibly hope to find" version of herself - just so we
could have a gratuitous Samantha reference. Duchovny certainly has that man
pain look down as the voices in his head started talking to him. (I do think
all that hair on his head could be increasing the pressure as well and
perhaps at least one of the things he might have been hearing was "get a
haircut"). I did also get a perverse pleasure out of his screaming nut
moments. I'm only human. Anderson had a few of those patented little moments
I especially liked like that subtle squint when Fowley answered the phone at
Mulder's or the look that crossed her face at "he was asking for you last
night". My favorite moment was how she played Scully's reluctance to enter
the Navajo ceremony out of respect for their beliefs. Moments like that
define Scully for me. There was a lot of confusion and soul searching going
on with Scully in this episode and the capable Anderson got to run the gamut
of concern, suspicion, paranoia, anger and awe. The last scene at the
hospital as she sees past all that Dana/hand holding BS and her suspicions
set in is a wonderfully righteous moment that I'm sure A.D. "oopsie did I
mention a report I shouldn't have" Skinner will not soon be forgetting.
I have to say I was disappointed in once again Carter insisting on playing
the Fowley card in a mythology episode. First, she appears out of nowhere
with no good explanation. Second, she makes Mulder look like a total idiot
whenever she is with him. Third, she's always thrown in because the boys at
1013 seem to think it is cool to make Scully appear jealous of her.
Thankfully Gillian Anderson manages to still infuse Scully with dignity
while all this foolishness is going on and the hissing is kept to a minimum.
However, hands down the most annoying thing was of course having Fowley
began to disrobe in Mulder's apartment because the only logical purpose it
served was for the writers to tweak the audience. It's pure self indulgence
on the part of Carter and Spotnitz and serves to take everyone away from the
story while they have their little chuckle at how they imagine the audience
will react to their veiled assertion that their most ridiculous creation is
going to try to seduce an ill man. Whatever.
I've got to talk about the cliffhanger for this one, because behavior like
this from the writing staff is to be encouraged. First of all, no one
"appears" to be dead. For that alone we should thank our lucky stars. How
old was that little "shocking twist" getting? Also, in the biggest and most
refreshing surprise, they actually end the season on a big Scully revelation
for a change - one key to her beliefs. Plus, Mulder is halfway around the
world pulling the legs off the bugs in his special room at the time wearing
that fetching little dress. Finally a finale that leaves BOTH our Heroes in
an interesting and challenging position, and sets up for a hell of a season
opener. Thank you.
So, now that Scully has been abducted, experimented on, had a horde of
little aliens run by her in the dark, seen shape-shifters and dissolving
clones, had a daughter die from the heebie greenies, seen someone sucked
into a spaceship while her implant called her to a dam, was stung by an evil
alien minion bee, has been shoved in an alien pod naked in green goo, chased
through a spaceship by a lizard alien, fallen off a giant spaceship while it
took off, and now stood on another one, all I ask is that they not turn this
into another game called "I had a farce in Africa" and have her blow off the
whole damn thing. Meanwhile, Mulder surely will not be able to keep this new
Gibson Praisesque power (and kudos to the little boy for handling his gift a
lot better than Mulder - perhaps Mulder should stop screaming and start
watching the cartoon network to calm his nerves). If you thought Mulder's
leaps of logic were incredible before, he could have every case wrapped up
in the teaser in season seven with his new Spooky sense. Someone get him a
cape for his hospital smock. So, we can also look forward to figuring a way
out of that predicament. Meanwhile, in our brief time with CancerMan we see
he is attending a meeting with the new Junior Consortium and they are all
worried about annihilation. Plus, for the Skinner fans, they get to spend
the summer fretting about Skinner being turned into a traitorous liar and
Krycek lackey. We also are left to ponder whether or not we are the
byproduct of aliens and their own little take on the whole Genesis 1:28 be
fruitful and multiply idea - something that has been hinted at for a while.
All in all, lots to keep fans minds pondering in the long summer, and a lot
more interesting pondering than the eternal alt.tv.x-files question "IS
MOULDER DED?"
Technically there were a few really odd moments in this episode. I cannot
for the life of me figure out why director Bowman and Director of
Photography Bill Roe appeared to go to videotape rather than film stock when
Scully first enters the hospital in New Mexico. The whole sequence before
she got to Albert's room was oddly lit and shot. Then there was that really
weird close-up of Scully's ear as she was tracking down Sandoz where I half
expected to hear that "Bionic Woman" hearing noise. I guess we were supposed
to realize Scully was hearing the stair alarm going off, but it was just
odd. Let's not forget the super ridiculous Skinner spying on them scene as
he peers out the door Mulder just slammed just in time for Mulder telling
Scully about the spying. How more obvious could that have been? Also, as
much as I liked the ending, and believe me, I really liked the ending, I do
have a complaint. It really destroyed the impact of a breathtaking moment of
discovery to leave the audience thinking that Scully and all the fishermen
were too stupid to be able to see this big honking UFO with huge pieces of
it sticking dramatically out of the water because they were distracted by a
little piece of metal in the sand a few feet away.
Thus ends another season.
Random Musings
--------------
-Here's a fun way to spend the summer: Figure out how Chris Carter will try
to weasel out of Scully realizing she's standing on the big honking UFO. My
guess is that he will start doing interviews in a month and between his
"beware Diana Fowley" cackles he will start talking about how jetlagged
Scully was, thus making her "woozy". Perhaps they'll even do an article in
the official magazine about how long plane flights can alter your perception
via jetlag.
-Mark Snow certainly has had an easier year since he wrote the movie score.
He samples heavily from it here as well as from (and please do not ask how I
recognized this - I'll almost embarrassed to admit it) "Teliko".
-Not only do they sample from the movie's score, they also managed to sample
from the movie itself. During that Discovery channel special masquerading as
a teaser we even saw the cavemen from the film.
-If Scully is going to start doing voiceovers for the Discovery channel
could she at least host "Shark Week" next year?
-Not only does the amazing, spinning, flying artifact imbed itself in the
Bible highlighting an important passage, but it also manages to rearrange
the whole bookshelf around it. Between the time it lands in the Bible and
when Dr. Merkallen retrieves it, several of the books that were standing
vertically to the right of it are now horizontal to the left.
-Frank's Fashion Spot: Sigh. Finally. It was not black. What a lovely choice
for the professional gal searching the Ivory Coast for truth. And most
importantly it was not black. Perhaps a little long for barefoot traipsing
in the sand, but it was not black.
-Frank's Fashion Spot 2: Let's call it the Anti-Frank Fashion Spot shall we?
Perhaps Fowley was merely trying to change out of that hideous green little
shell and that explains it. Well, whatever the reason, at least we can rest
assured that seeing Fowley and her twin torpedoes of 18 hour cross your
heart deceit was enough to send Mulder to the rubber room screaming for
Scully all night. Don't worry Mulder, it scared everyone.
-Anyone else think the magic squares thing was just tossed in there for
absolutely no reason except for sort of sounding cool and occultish?
-Great work by production designer Corey Kaplan and team on the scenes at
the Universite' Cote D'Ivoire. I loved the feel of that room. It really took
you to another place.
-I do have to quibble however with the idea that the professor was having to
call out on a rotary phone. Surely they'd have touch tone capability there,
wouldn't they?
-Sort of a fun "death amongst the monkey cages" tie in to that first
stunning finale "The Erlenmeyer Flask."
-Speaking of the monkeys, they also seemed to have quite an intense reaction
to the artifact. What does it say that only Mulder and monkeys are bothered
by this thing?
-The writers manage another dig at the fans who believe that after 6 years
Scully also has a place in the downstairs office with Mulder's "I'm sorry, I
thought this was my office" line.
-Even though it is not her office at least Scully knows where the missing
screen was for the projector.
-Once again in the everyone gets to call him "Fox" but Scully category we
have Chuck referring to him as that.
-While we are on Chuck, I was glad to see him again. It's a fun little
character and I did like the idea of Scully being the one to call him in for
something right up his "twisted little alley". Plus he gets one of the best
lines in the show: "been there, debunked that."
-It seems Mulder has wasted no time in getting his pencils in the ceiling
collection back. Had to make it home again I guess.
-I always think it is funny how Mulder and Scully make cops that have
already searched crime scenes look immediately stupid by just waltzing up to
the garbage and finding a big smelly clue.
-Was anyone else a little frightened thinking of that bow tied little nerd
of a Doctor wearing the cowboy hat draped over his bedpost? I don't even
want to go there.
-Also you have to love the CLUE photo: Here's me, my artifact and Albert!
Say Scully is that Albert the World War II Navajo code talker for those just
joining us? Why yes it is!
-Most distressing moment for me in the finale was when Scully answered "no"
when asked if she was packing any latex by Mulder. MY GOD what is the world
coming to? I thought those gloves just grew in her pockets or multiplied
like bunnies in there. Or that every morning she put on her watch and shoved
gloves in her suit pocket. I'm sadly disillusioned.
-Can someone who knows these things please explain why in the world your
arms would have more radiation in them than the rest of the body? Or is that
just with "cosmic galactic radiation", which is, by the way, one of the
silliest names for radiation I've ever heard. I think they should have made
it even more impressive and called it "super kaduper cosmic galactic
universal radiation".
-I really enjoyed the moment where Scully smacked her hand down on the
spinning artifact as if by doing that it would negate what had just
happened. What they really ought to do is take the thing on Letterman for a
version of "Stupid Artifact Tricks".
-I found it very amusing the way Sandoz tells Scully not to tell anyone
where he is after he listens to her do that very thing on the phone. Duh!
Autumn Tysko
"You're both liars."
--
Autumn Tysko
Sister of OBSSE - http://www.obsse.com
"I owe you everything Scully and you owe me nothing"
My episode reviews available at (email me for mailing list info):
http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Vault/1411/main_rev.html
Autumn Tysko
> Um...what's man pain?
Something CC talks about. From the Two Father's script:
ACT ONE
FADE IN ON:
8 AN OLD BLACK AND WRITE PHOTOGRAPH
A snapshot, faded and rather old now. Two men, standing as friends in a
featureless landscape. Close but not touching, squinting at the photographer
in what might be mistaken for smiles. Obliged looks, as though the subjects
were caught in the middle of something. A disagreement, or a
misunderstanding. The men are in their young 30s, wearing the more
conservative attire of men in 1973. It is a picture of nothing in particular
that somehow says almost all there is to say about certain men of
consequence. About the pain of being a man and the state of political
savagery in which they must by necessity dwell.
Baronessie
Duchovny certainly has that man
> pain look down as the voices in his head started talking to him. (I
do think
> all that hair on his head could be increasing the pressure as well and
> perhaps at least one of the things he might have been hearing was
"get a
> haircut").
Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
Before you buy.
HTMLsue
(major snippage of excellent commentary)
> I did also get a perverse pleasure out of his screaming nut
>moments.
Oh that was my favorite part! More! More! I want to see Scully calm him
down. Maybe she'll walk in wearing a hospital gown of her own so we can see
her tattoo. What if her tattoo talks to Mulder?
> I'm only human.
Are you sure? ;-) This ep has me wondering about my own origins. The voices
in my head are screaming, "IT'S ONLY TV!" though. :)
http://members.aol.com/sheattle/xf.htm for twisted minds only, please.
-Sheattle Sue [sheattle(at)aol(dot)com] All email blocked from htm...@aol.com
http://members.aol.com/sheattle/
If you're a spammer, send junkmail to the WA State Attorney General:
junk...@atg.wa.gov at the risk of prosecution. :-)
C. Morgan
reviews...I'm still not sure.
Connie
MBC agent
Michael P. Walsh
Autumn Tysko wrote:
> "Biogenesis" Review
> (c) 1999 Autumn Tysko
>
>
> So, now that Scully has been abducted, experimented on,
------
---
She knows that and is quite angry about it. She quite properly
blames it on the "Secret Government", the very Earth based
Consortium. There is no problem with the Scully character
on this one.
---
---
---
> had a horde of
> little aliens run by her in the dark,
------
---
Explained as human experiments by the Consortium. There are a lot
of weird and distorted creatures, but no compelling evidence that
they are extra-terrestial.
---
---
---
> seen shape-shifters and dissolving
> clones, had a daughter die from the heebie greenies,
------
---
Is this any different from the sewer monster and all of the other
strange earthly creatures she and Mulder seem to run into week
after week? More mad earth scientists is a reasonable
explanation.
---
---
---
> seen someone sucked
> into a spaceship while her implant called her to a dam,
------
---
I keep asking why everyone should assume these craft are
spaceships rather than some kind of strange aircraft. After all,
we know the "Dreamland" people have operational flying saucers
that were developed by technology obtained from "Utah". The
Air Force contact wanted to find out if Mulder knew they were
obtained from extra-terrestials.
---
---
---
> was stung by an evil
> alien minion bee,
------
---
Bees are earth creatures and seem to have been specially bred by
the Earth consortium.
---
---
---
> has been shoved in an alien pod naked in green goo, chased
> through a spaceship by a lizard alien, fallen off a giant spaceship while it
> took off,
------
----
Scully was out of it while all this was happening. Once again, why is everyone
so sure what was observed that that craft was a spacecraft. When do you
determine the strange creature is extra-terrestial rather than the product of
an earth mad scientist?
---
---
---
> and now stood on another one, all I ask is that they not turn this
> into another game called "I had a farce in Africa" and have her blow off the
> whole damn thing.
------
---
Are you talking about the grounded submarine she discovered. Seriously,
how can you tell it isn't a descendant of a Costeau diving saucer?
Most of the evidence provided to the viewers has been from the viewpoint
of the Consortium and neither Mulder nor Scully has seen it from that point
of view. Mulder has seen things that are quite consistent with extra-terrestial
life forms, but Scully doesn't get to observe the same things.
On another subject, Chris Carter seems to have been inspired by the
"Bible Code" which I hope can be dispensed with fairly soon. Perhaps
he hasn't learned anything from Millenium which suffered, in my opinion,
from the supernatural religious plot. These things should be kept out of
the main plot line, in my opinion.
Mike Walsh
Deborah
I love your reviews. Your style is superb. The Isak Dinesen reference made
me feel like my college education was not wasted after all. Can't wait for
the season to start. Can't wait for your next review.
Thanks.
--
Deborah
"If I quit now, they win."
--Mulder, FTF
©
Autumn Tysko <aty...@mindspring.com> wrote in message
news:7v09p7$vuc$1...@nntp5.atl.mindspring.net...
Baronessie
"Autumn Tysko" <aty...@mindspring.Killspam.com> wrote:
> Baronessie wrote in message <7v0dgi$7ll$1...@nnrp1.deja.com>...
> > Um...what's man pain?
>
> Something CC talks about. From the Two Father's script:
>
> ACT ONE
> FADE IN ON:
>
> 8 AN OLD BLACK AND WRITE PHOTOGRAPH
>
> A snapshot, faded and rather old now. Two men, standing as friends in
a
> featureless landscape. Close but not touching, squinting at the
photographer
> in what might be mistaken for smiles. Obliged looks, as though the
subjects
> were caught in the middle of something. A disagreement, or a
> misunderstanding. The men are in their young 30s, wearing the more
> conservative attire of men in 1973. It is a picture of nothing in
particular
> that somehow says almost all there is to say about certain men of
> consequence. About the pain of being a man and the state of political
> savagery in which they must by necessity dwell.
>
> --
> Autumn Tysko
Donna
Autumn Tysko wrote:
>
> "Biogenesis" Review
> (c) 1999 Autumn Tysko
>
Duchovny certainly has that man
>pain look down as the voices in his head started talking to him. (I do think
> all that hair on his head could be increasing the pressure as well and
> perhaps at least one of the things he might have been hearing was "get a
> haircut").
Awww...I love Longerhair!Mulder!
> -Mark Snow certainly has had an easier year since he wrote the movie score.
> He samples heavily from it here as well as from (and please do not ask how I
> recognized this - I'll almost embarrassed to admit it) "Teliko".
>
> -Not only do they sample from the movie's score, they also managed to sample
> from the movie itself. During that Discovery channel special masquerading as
> a teaser we even saw the cavemen from the film.
I enjoy hearing the bits and pieces of Mark Snow's movie score. I loved
the music in the movie and it brings back fond memories of "X-File
summer of 98". ;P
--Donna <---Who wonders, was it just the summer of 98?
Konrad Douglas Frye
>> has been shoved in an alien pod naked in green goo, chased
>> through a spaceship by a lizard alien, fallen off a giant spaceship
>> while it took off,
>Scully was out of it while all this was happening.
And this was almost a bigger copout than the hallway scene. I'd love to
pop in the dvd and crank the center channel so Carter can hear "I
saw it" until his ears bleed.
>Once again, why is everyone so sure what was observed that that craft was
>a spacecraft. When do you determine the strange creature is
>extra-terrestial rather than the product of an earth mad scientist?
Speaking as an Engineer, it couldn't have been built by the hand of man.
The technology doesn't exist and even if it did, there's no way in hell an
engineering project of that size could be kept secret. We'd be talking
about *trillions* of dollars and *decades* of man hours just to build that
thing. On top of that, the entire project would need to be kept secret for
god only knows how many years. Good luck.
They can't even fly planes into Antarctica for most of the year. I'm sorry
but Scully is pretty dense if she thinks mankind is capable of building
the craft we saw in FtF. It's all a question of scale, money, secrecy, and
available technology. Occam's Razor and all that ...
------
Konrad Frye (k f r y e @ e s c a p e . c a)
---------------------------------------------------------------------
"Or what? You'll release the dogs? Or the bees? Or the dogs with the
bees in their mouths and when they bark they shoot bees at you?"
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Molly
news:381520EE...@home.com...
>
>
> Autumn Tysko wrote:
> >
> > "Biogenesis" Review
> > (c) 1999 Autumn Tysko
> >
> >pain look down as the voices in his head started talking to him. (I do
think
> > all that hair on his head could be increasing the pressure as well and
> > perhaps at least one of the things he might have been hearing was "get a
> > haircut").
>
<snip>
I like Longerhair!Mulder too, but not when it's overbalanced on the top in a
Elvis like fashion. I don't remember noticing it before, but when I watched
the ep again this Sunday it really was awfully unbecoming (now that it's
short again I guess there will be mighty morphing hair between Biogenesis
and the season premiere--though maybe it was weed whacked against his will
while in the psych ward).
--Molly :)
Michael P. Walsh
Konrad Douglas Frye wrote:
> "Michael P. Walsh" <mp_w...@pacbell.net> writes:
>
> >> has been shoved in an alien pod naked in green goo, chased
> >> through a spaceship by a lizard alien, fallen off a giant spaceship
> >> while it took off,
>
> >Scully was out of it while all this was happening.
>
> And this was almost a bigger copout than the hallway scene. I'd love to
> pop in the dvd and crank the center channel so Carter can hear "I
> saw it" until his ears bleed.
----
--
Words I never heard. So what, Scully may have seen something but
have been far to dazed to know what it was.
---
---
---
> >Once again, why is everyone so sure what was observed that that craft was
> >a spacecraft. When do you determine the strange creature is
> >extra-terrestial rather than the product of an earth mad scientist?
>
> Speaking as an Engineer, it couldn't have been built by the hand of man.
> The technology doesn't exist and even if it did, there's no way in hell an
> engineering project of that size could be kept secret. We'd be talking
> about *trillions* of dollars and *decades* of man hours just to build that
> thing. On top of that, the entire project would need to be kept secret for
> god only knows how many years. Good luck.
----
---
And this is so much different from the background theme of
"The X-Files"?
I am a retired engineer and I am reasonably well up on the current
capabilities of technology in the real world. In the story, something built
that ship and why should we assume it is extra-terrestial. My point was
that it doesn't have to be a spaceship. I believe current technology is
quite capable of building very large aerial craft, but the questions of
why and funding effectively prevent following that line. No, it very
likely wouldn't be done in the real world, but what does that have to
do with "The X-Files".
The Dreamland people were able to keep their vehicle a secret,
except of course for the UFO rumors. Perhaps the huge craft in
Antarctica comes from technology developed in Utah.
---
---
---
> They can't even fly planes into Antarctica for most of the year. I'm sorry
> but Scully is pretty dense if she thinks mankind is capable of building
> the craft we saw in FtF. It's all a question of scale, money, secrecy, and
> available technology. Occam's Razor and all that ...
------
---
Occam's Razor would call for a terrestial rather than an extra-terrestial
explanation. I find it more credible to believe that scale, money, secrecy,
and technology problems could be resolved by earth science and
engineering than that the vehicle was extra-terrestial. I am assuming
the vehicle would have lower performance capabilities than required for
an orbital space craft.
C-130's are used to fly into Antarctica. If there was an economic incentive
to providing closer to all-weather capability to the South Pole we would
probably build it. Antartica during high wind combined with snow is a
more hostile environment to flight than space launches, so it would be a
problem.
---
---
---
> ------
> Konrad Frye (k f r y e @ e s c a p e . c a)
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
> "Or what? You'll release the dogs? Or the bees? Or the dogs with the
> bees in their mouths and when they bark they shoot bees at you?"
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
----
--
Thanks for the disagreement. It was logical, but I don't believe it
refutes the possibility of a terrestial source for the very large flying
vehicles we have seen on "The X-Files".
Mike Walsh