Getting Your X-Files Fix?

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This month, August 2004, is exactly two years since the first-run episodes ended on Fox television in the United States. Since I already saw all of the final season's episodes and had them on tape, I didn't watch the very last repeat episode. My time with my beloved show was over with the showing of the series finale, "The Truth," in May. What was the point of watching repeats when I was already depressed with the fact that the series ended?

Well, I eventually had to move on as we all have to when a chapter of our lives ends. Besides, we really don't have much of a choice anyway. It's either move on or just not watch TV. Unfortunately, I have a bad habit of watching too much TV sometimes as my significant other likes to point out to me. Since I do watch other types of shows besides supernatural dramas like "The X-Files," there were always the TV staples like "Friends," "ER," "NYPD Blue" and "JAG" just to name a few.

But of course, none of those shows provided the appeal of an "X-Files" fix that Mulder and Scully did to me every week for at least eight seasons. Season 9 is another essay for the future. So what does a poor hapless guy do to get that fix? I tried to read a few fanfics, but I got fed up with many of the "writers" (I use that term very loosely) spelling and grammatical errors. The journalist in me would always want to mentally "edit" their stories as I read it. What fun is that? Besides, they were usually the unoriginal plots of Mulder and Scully eventually falling into each other's arms with very little paranormal action going on around them. Heck, I've been guilty of writing a few of those myself.

The next course of action would be to try to find a show that appealed the science fiction nerd in me as well as the great character interaction that Mulder and Scully had not to forget some supernatural twist as well. I definitely recommend shows like "The Dead Zone" and "Tru Calling."

I never read the Stephen King novel or seen the original movie, but "The Dead Zone" series highlights the life of John Smith (played by Anthony Michael Hall of "Sixteen Candles" fame), who had been in a coma for six years to awaken with the ability to tap into his "dead zone." It's that part of the brain that most humans are never able to use. For Smith, he cannot only tap into it, but he becomes the most amazing psychic that ever lived. By just touching a person or something that person possessed, Smith can literally "see" the past, present and future. The special effects are amazing, particularly in the pilot episode. Smith "freeze frames" a another person's memory of an event some 30 years earlier. He was able to see every detail and angle. He saw something that the person who lived that event did not. Besides that amazing premise, "The Dead Zone" is a well written and acted show.

Another show that caught my eye even though I only saw the latter half of the show's season is "Tru Calling." Though it has gotten many mixed reviews, I find the premise of Tru Davies (played by "Buffy" alum, Eliza Dushku) having the ability to "rewind" a day's events to solve murders very much in the X-Files mode. It especially got more interesting when "Beverly Hills 90210" vet, Jason Priestley, joined the cast as the mysterious Jack Harper. While Tru would try to change events in a person's past to prevent their death, Jack would always show up at the most inopportune times and make things more complicated for her. If you saw the season (possibly series?) finale, you know what his real motives were. Of course, I don't want to spoil it for people living outside of the U.S. who are watching it for the first time.

Now the one show that just recently finished its short summer run on the USA Network in the States definitely has "X-Files" influences among the writers and producers. Admittedly, I think it needs some work to flesh out the characters, but the premise is highly intriguing. One day, a huge bright ball of light comes out of nowhere and lands in the Pacific Northwest of the United States. Out of that ball of light strands over 4,000 people who had been "abducted" over the past 50 years. None of them have any recollection of why they were abducted or that time has even passed. An eight-year-old girl was abducted in the 1930s. A black military pilot gets abducted during the Korean War. An insurance salesman in his 50s gets abducted in the 1970s. A teen is abducted just three years earlier. These were just the ones highlighted in the pilot episode.

As they are all "quarantined" by the government branch of Homeland Security, we see that two agents are trying to investigate why these "4400" (a name the media came up with) have been returned to this particular time. One is a former FBI investigator, Tom Baldwin. The other is a former CDC investigator, Diana Skouris. As they try to understand why these particular people with no apparent ties to each other were abducted, some of them start showing signs of superhuman abilities. The eight-year-old girl who is old enough (in real time) to be anyone's great grandmother starts telling strange things to people that come true. The insurance salesman causes earthquakes and squished brains when he gets angry. While the teen, who happens to be Tom Baldwin's nephew, is able to heal or cause much pain to any living thing he touches.

Though I think there is a very good seed of a great show, the two leads do not necessarily "click" for me like Mulder and Scully initially did. The foundation of having over 4,000 people come back with no recollection of where they've been as well as having enhanced abilities is a classic "Monster of the Week" premise. The show definitely has promise if they can flesh out the characters more. Seeing that some of the writers and producers were also in that capacity on previous Star Trek series gives me some hope that the show will get better with time.

Anyway, I thought that would help you get some idea that there are shows out there that are trying to fill the huge void that "The X-Files" left two years ago. It's not exactly going to be the same thing, but at least, the spirit is there. If you haven't seen any of the shows I mentioned, you should check them out. I think it will be well worth your time.

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