First Person Shooter

Free Web Site - Free Web Space and Site Hosting - Web Hosting - Internet Store and Ecommerce Solution Provider - High Speed Internet

PLOT:Mulder and Scully investigate a murder that occurred in a virtual reality game.

After watching Season 5's "Kill Switch," I was wondering when that kind of X-File would come up again, because it brought about new directions that the series could take. After all, the series came about at a time when the internet became widely accessible than just for people in college, the military and big business. Part of the charm of any episode is to see what other people think about it in the virtual world. So I thought "Kill Switch" would be a great starting point to delve deeper into the world of the internet and virtual reality. Since so much of the virtual world has been depicted rather poorly on-screen (i.e. The Net, Johnny Nemonic), I was hoping that the series would help make it seem a bit more palatable.

So after waiting two seasons, "First Person Shooter" (FPS) comes along by the same writing team of "Kill Switch," Tom Maddox and William Gibson. Unlike that episode, FPS did not make the virtual world more palatable. Far from being bland, it was definitely fun and action-packed, but also somewhat sexist and an ultimate male macho teen fantasy. There are guns and a stunningly beautiful babe, obviously fashioned in the Tomb Raider point of view. What exactly is this supposed to say to the mass of people out there who have not even heard the word "technobabble," much less anything dealing with the world of the internet or virtual reality? For pure entertainment and mayhem, this satisfies, but an intelligent morality play, it is not.

I've read some people's comments that compare this plot to the similar "Holodeck gone wrong" plots of countless Star Trek shows (as recently as last week's latest Voyager episode). Yet, unlike most of those Star Trek plots, FPS did not delve into what made Matreiya kill with no remorse, or if she even had anything worth understanding beneath all that (or lack thereof) leather. That is where the sexist themes seem to come about. The teaser specifically shows three testosterone-frenzied guys get ready for the ultimate adrenaline rush: a virtually harmless bloodbath (an oxymoron if I ever heard one). As Scully says, they are getting their "yah-yahs" from this game that supposedly helps quench the inherent violent nature in all of us. Yet, one of the guys unexpectedly gets killed.

Interesting that Maddox and Gibson make a drop-dead gorgeous woman as the assassin. It's already presumed that this game is mainly for the appeal of males. So as is the case for many a man out there who has ever had a woman bug them while playing their "important" computer games, a woman spoils the fun. That is an obvious underlying theme in the story, since everyone is surprised to see a woman incorporated into FPS. At least the sexist theme seems to put both genders in a bad light. The men, including Mulder, act like pre-pubescent idiots when Ms. Afterglow is sitting in the police interrogation room like Sharon Stone in Basic Instinct.

In fact, examining the females in the story, they are all vastly different from each other. First, we meet Phoebe, who is a computer nerd and attractive, though in a plain way. She has admitted to being weak and caught in a world of testosterone. Then, there's Scully. She is strong-willed, intelligent and beautiful. Scully does not think of her gender as being a weak one and seems to thrive very well in a male-dominated field. Finally, we have Matreiya, the virtual identity of Ms. Afterglow. She is cunning, superhuman and stunningly gorgeous and seems to garner her strength by feeding off male aggressiveness. Matreiya is a goddess and everything that Phoebe wishes to be. Yet, she is out of control by killing the game players in the virtual environment that she thrives in.

The rest of the story was rather silly. As usual, no explanation as to how or why Matreiya was even involved in the game. And if this character was for Phoebe's game, did she instill the obvious contempt for males she has into the character? That could be the closest thing to an explanation as we will get. Other than her need to lash out and make her female presence known, there is no other motive involved for Phoebe. It's a classic case of passive-aggressiveness.

Not really much here for Mulder and Scully to do. In fact, if the Lone Gunmen weren't involved with FPS, it's highly unlikely that the Bureau would be involved at all, since this would most likely fall under the jurisdiction of the local police. And what was wrong with TLG? They actually sounded very *bad* in this one. It's as if they were heavily medicated when they were reciting their lines and at times, sounded as natural as someone off the street reading their parts for the first time. I just thought they acted totally bizarre.

Since Mulder and Scully seemed to show up almost immediately, they were probably just getting off from their "X-Cops" fiasco from last week. How else to explain their quick arrival shortly after the first killing? And even though they both looked pretty sharp in their battle armor, why even risk themselves against an obviously invulnerable opponent who can easily kill them? I think Mulder would have thought twice, especially after Darryl Musashi was "trimmed," before pursuing Matreiya. When he did finally confront her, Mulder was easily trashed by the virtual babe. It didn't exactly make Mulder look very macho after that. In fact, he looked even more silly. It wasn't surprising to see Scully enter the game to save Mulder's butt. I *did* find it amusing to see Mulder look very turned on when he saw Scully in all her glory. Suddenly, the virtual babe just didn't seem that appealing to him.

Overall, this episode could have been better. The guns and special effects were impressive for about the first two minutes. Once the story took over, it wasn't though definitely entertaining which of itself is a good thing. I just hope that any future endeavors into the virtual world has more bite and less cleavage to show us. Of course, even I admired Ms. Afterglow's profile as she left. It must be a guy thing.

Please use the "Back" Button on your browser.