Today?

Whenever I watch episodes of The X-Files I tend to muse about the show's age and impact. According to the typewriter reminder text during their first adventure, Mulder and Scully first busted aliens in 1992! The premiere episode aired in 1993 and we are getting a second movie almost 15 years later!

Some of those earlier episodes have a dated quality to them. Season 1's "Ghost in the Machine," which concerns a killer artificial intelligence, does not seem to cut it when the computer uses a DOS interface! And the Samantha abduction scene, where we see her floating mid air in a spread eagle position, falls apart during that hard full frontal shot. I think I can see the gurney she is strapped to!

Then there are those moments that the writers could not have controlled or imagined. I just saw Season 2's "Little Green Men" where Mulder tells Skinner that the FBI had no right to wiretap his phone without a warrant. I laughed during the quip only to realize it is kind of sad I cannot imagine a time before the Patriot Act and FISA.

The X-Files always was and remained an intelligent show. Current debates about the limits of genetic research and loss of nature have some thematic episodes in the X-Files. You also have lovely What If episodes that just fuel those late evening discussions over beer. "Hey, what if I could turn invisible or fly! Like have superpowers! I would totally not stop crime. Forget that!" And there are emotional pieces about what it means to be human in the face of deformities or emotional limits. Like with Mystery Science Theater 3000, that intelligence gives it a timeless quality even when the effects start losing their luster and we forgive the set designer for plastering an angst ridden kid's room with Busta Rhymes posters. Of course, X-Files was a fun show with a good scare potential. The weekly adventures were not academic treatises, but by working with eternal concepts (Even if you do not believe in ghosts or werewolves, they will still populate the imagination long after we are all gone) the show retains this dynamic quality. You can rewatch episodes of the show and take new meanings from everything. When I was a younger fan, I dug the monsters and fangs, but as an older fan, I enjoy a good bit of dialogue or inside joke.

I also wonder if the X-Files could premiere today. What would happen? This is a tough thought experiment because many contemporary shows owe something to the X-Files. The show was originally shot as it were a movie and this help up the integrity and appeal to 1993 audiences. I think that if the X-Files were to premiere today, it would not last as long as it did. It would premiere with some jaw dropping Hollywood opener (Pushing Daisies, much), but then have to cut corners to save money. And while the original X-Files slowly tapped into the then nascent Internet chatroom/fandom support, the new show would be a victim of its own success. It takes time to create a brand phenomenon. There was a certain mystique to X-Files fandom when you talked about it to your friends and co-workers. "Who the hell are these Mulder and Scully people, Garik in legal keeps talking about? I better check them out someday." The weekly broadcasts hooked people and demanded their continued attention if they wanted more.

Look, I LOVE Wikipedia and YouTube and IMDB and all the Internet spolier/discussion sites. I want my shows to give me something beyond the 60 minutes on the TV screen. However, the early X-Files required the sort of discipline that all these things make moot. You can get entire season summaries on Wikipedia. Whatever happened to cruising the reruns on FX for that one season 6 episode you had yet to see? The way we watch television is changing and in a modern day premiere The X-Files would be akin to Lost. Phenomenally good, but already stunted from the start.

We can also speak out about the themes of the show. Would a show about questioning the government be accepted in today's world? What would Jack Bauer have to say about Mulder and Scully? Conversely, considering all the foibles of our government and how we are just getting a handle on Iraq (Shock and awe, much?) would all these decade long conspiracies hold water? As Scully said to Mulder, "They couldn't hide Iran-Contra and they can hide aliens?"

Peace!