Revisiting The X-Files

- Agent Mulder, the pilot episode

Richard was kind enough to tell me about Tor's science fiction website where I came upon Reopening The X-Files ... A rewatch of the creepy, complex science fiction show The X-Files, discussing select episodes, myth arcs, monsters of the week, and more. A chance to dig into the show’s themes and to track its evolution, watch it, talk it over, and head on down to the basement to find yourselves some truth.

The X-Files was one of my favorite shows so I've decided to rewatch the series, starting with the pilot episode tonight. Wow - it's hard to find video clips of X-Files episodes, perhaps because you can watch the series on hulu, but here's a short one from the pilot showing Mulder and Scully doing something they do a lot in the series - exhuming a dead body :)



In this episode, in which Mulder and Scully meet for the first time, we learn that Scully, a medical doctor as well as an FBI agent, has been assigned by her superiors to spy on and report about Agent Mulder as she works as his new partner. And we learn that Mulder, who has a degree in psychology from Oxford and who is a gifted profiler, had a sister who was abducted when he was just a kid ... now he trawls the X-Files, mysterious and unsolved cases, searching for any clues to her strange disappearance.

BTW, later we learn that Scully is a Catholic and Catholic stuff comes up quite a lot in the series, from incorruptibles to the sacred heart of Jesus to hidden gospels :)