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Television Media

Scully Leaving X-Files 114

Thomas M Hughes sent us a link where Gillian Anderson announces that Sculley will follow Mulder's footsteps off the X-files after this season. (And since I'm in Germany for LinuxTag I get to post something before I usually even get up!)
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Scully Leaving X-Files

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  • by Anonymous Coward
    > surely readers of Slashdot are people who have
    > better tastes in entertainment!

    Why would you say that? The bulk of the Slashdot crowd are morons.

  • (Or should I say "backside"?) Now she can be in more (R-rated) movies where she can be naked.

    Yes, I read the article where she talks about spending more time with her progeny and husband and stage acting. I'm just hoping the money runs out soon, at least before her looks do.

  • Is television really so powerful that a well-crafted science fiction series can increase the gullibility of millions of Americans?

    I remember that, when I was younger (I'm only 17 now, so this is not that long ago), Fox came out with some series that involved aliens coming to Earth (I believe they were attempting to escape another, evil species of aliens). I was convinced throughout most of its run that they were actual aliens, and that Fox had somehow obtained footage of them.

    Perhaps younger children have a harder time differentiating reality and television than I thought.


  • "(And since I'm in Germany for LinuxTag I get to post something before I usually even get up!)"

    So when are you going to realise that a lot of readers are in Europe, and that you could do with a full-time European correspondent?


    --
    Barry de la Rosa,
    public[at]bpdlr.org

  • At least, we don't know for sure : )

    He was pushed down the stairs and knocked unconscious, but Krychek didn't check his pulse to verify that he was finished off.

    Similarly, we don't know whether Jeffrey Spender might resurface. He was shot, but we were never told whether he died.
  • That would be truly funny. A spin-off movie of a spin-off TV show of a movie. :)
  • Guess you haven't seen all the advertisements for Dale Earnhartd memoribilia. Sci-Fi fans arent the only ones that "flog a 'dead' horse".
  • Geena Davis is no scully. *sigh*
  • It sounds to me as if G.A. is doing the right thing for her career and her kid. It's time for X-philes and Fox to let go.



  • Actually, I agree with most, the season following the movie is when the show really started going downhill. Actually it was more like it fell off of a cliff. I believe that the real slide began when they moved the set to California, but I cannot remember whether that was before or after the movie.

    The show was, basically, the characters, and they should have ended it when Duchovny didn't want to come back.
  • According to the Fake Detective [fake-detective.com] Gillian Anderson is still the most "faked" celebrity on the Internet.
  • dude, are you like the most naive person on this Internet or what? Gillian Anderson has done porn. *That* is why fakes of her are so popular.
  • she was born on august 8, 1968. a year before i was. i am 31. she is 32. you are an idiot.
  • by vbrtrmn ( 62760 )
    That's news.. didn't it seem pretty obvious by the last episode that Scully & Mulder were out?

    --
    microsoft, it's what's for dinner

    bq--3b7y4vyll6xi5x2rnrj7q.com
  • I'll second this... I watched Sliders series 1-4 on UK Terrestrial TV, right up until the point where Wade's actress left and Quinn was left standing around in some strange futuristic place... then the BBC stopped showing it indefinitely.

    I got cable TV some time later, and watched some of what was, it seems by your descriptions, the last series. It was terrible, it has to be said. ('Composite' Quinn Malorie?!) The thing about the batteries running out in the timer was just the last straw. Pathetic.

    I continue to hope that either the BBC or Sky One will show some of the earlier Sliders episodes again so I can see the ones I missed the first time around.

  • by ^DA ( 82715 )
    X-Files has sucked bigtime for many, many moons now...
  • The search by Mulder for his sister, which formed the true heart of the series and propulsion for his career and search for "truth" ended a couple of seasons ago with Mulder romping around with her ghost in a forest!. Turns out she died at the age of 13 or so.

    Damn, I must have missed that episode. I know this is starting to get off-topic, but can you give me a synopsis? Or at least an episode number, so that I can look it up? I still watch The X-Files, and I've been wondering for a long time why I haven't seen anything about his sister.
    --
    Lord Nimon

  • studios feel the need to extend shows beyond any kind of reasonable shelf life
    I would like to point out that ST:TNG was ended very near its peak of popularity. Too bad they chose to milk it anyway, with a crappy series like ST:V.
  • I thought the decline of the X-Files started when people realised that every single episode followed the same pattern:
    1. Some kind of alien comits some kind of crime.

    2. No one can figure out what happened.
      Mulder investigates, witnesses the alien in the flesh and solves the case.
      Mulder tells Scully and others.
      No one beleives him, although Scully wants to beleive him.
      Mulder gets suspended for being a fruit-cake.
      The truth is exposed and everyone appologises to Mulder.
      The end.
    Think that about sums it up.

    ----------------------------
  • Some examples of non-sci-fi resurrections:

    • Charlie's Angels
    • Mission Impossible
    • The Brady Bunch
    • The Grinch
    • The Scooby Doo Movie (coming soon)

    It's not just sci-fi that has rabid fans (although I plead guilty to wanting a resurrected Doctor Who series).

  • The episodes that I have seen with Doggett in them (TV here in NZ has pulled it mid series...grr), are actually much much better IMHO.
  • Robert Patrick is the bastard son of Ted McGinley
  • ...left to be replaced by big-busted Kate Wohler...

    Uh, her name is Kari Wuhrer [imdb.com]. Don't personally know who Kate Wohler [genealogy.com] might be.

    Always nice to see that hard-earned +1 bonus employed to promote well-researched posts. :)

  • Usually when a show starts doing this sort of thing, it hits the spin-off zone.

    The three geeks would probably make good candidates (despite being terrible characatures).

    maybe she's off to do more pvc clad spreads for FHM - great
    .oO0Oo.
  • hahaha I never knew that.
    I've never seen it promoted in the UK but I'm too busy working to watch much TV so maybe I missed it

    Those tv people are so totally predictable
    Maybe I should become a TV consultant.


    .oO0Oo.
  • This movie, jesus, bah, nevermentionitagain..argh!! Its evil! shh!
  • What happend to Buffy?? Us over here in germany thought it was alright with Buffy?? Shes leaving or what?? Lispy
  • This is so weird...what is happening to Angel? Sold too? Why on earth would a network want to sell a good running show?? I dont get it...hmm...
  • by Lispy ( 136512 )
    these are the 21s, anything goes!
  • I wonder if BTVS will face the same destiny? With all those characters leaving and loining the plot and Sarah Michelle getting way to mature to play a teenie girlie i sometimes wonder if it wasnt the best for BTVS to make a big screen Movie and kill the original series. The Spinoffs are great still, so why let the original show go down? Anyways i really loved the 5th season and hope they can keep up with their high standards... Lispy
  • but you dont know what your missing. Ive never seen a series where trash and quality are so close together...give it a try someday..
  • Faust7 wrote: "2) The Consortium alien invasion / mytharc ends (primarily) with all the main baddies getting torched in a hanger. Effectively, the threat of a "V"-like global alien invasion, which was introduced as a potential threat in the 4th season and created a palpable urgency for a few seasons following, was neutralized simply by killing off two dozen old white men that drank brandy with Cancerman. " This was never stated - only implied. The Consortium figure heads died in that fire - but the Consortium was made up of hundreds (maybe thousands) of people across the globe. Surely they weren't ALL killed.... I always believed that the Consortium would come back... with different figureheads... and the fact that CSM was still around, I would beg to differ that the Consortium ceased to exist. The alien invasion? Well - I guess it's still up in the air... there was hints about such an invasion when Scully was pregnant... (and what was that all about??) And now Fox Mulder is a deadbeat dad to Dana's new baby. How are they gonna kill Fox off for good??? Hell - he came to life after being dead and BURIED for 3 months. When a person dies, they DRAIN all their fluids, break their spine so they don't sit up in the coffin, and replace their drained fluids with EMBALMING FLUID. So HOW could Mulder still be alive?!? You're right tho - the show is now a hollow self-parody of what it started out to be. I'm Another Disgusted Fan(tm)
  • I always thought she was a weak character, a real waste of potential.

    You're kidding right? Scully kicked ass on numerous occasions. She was rarely not able to hold her own against whatever was menacing the world that particular week. There were times that she was positioned as the victim for plot reasons. Since the show was really centered on Mulder, they had to make him look like a hero every now and then by letting him rescue the person who meant the most to him, his partner.

    She's weak in combat, always seeming to get her gun knocked away.

    She shot everybody! Hell, she even shot Mulder once. On purpose!

    I tend to agree with your analysis of her not being a partner to Mulder. But, only early on. And, this was intentional. She was origionally paired with Mulder to debunk his X-Files conclusions.

    As far as the show with new agents is concerned, it may very well end up being a decent show. (I doubt it) Even if it is a fine show, it still will not be the X-Files that some of us have come to know and love. But then, I guess is hasn't for past couple of seasons either. :)
  • My wife and I have a deal. If I have sex with Gillian Anderson it's not cheating.

    Sadly Gillian hasn't returned my calls.
    ---
  • Out of curiosity, why is it only sci-fi gets this kind of rabid fandom?

    Apparently you've never heard of Baywatch, Dynasty, Wheel of Fortune, Tele-tubies, or slashdot.org? :)

    Jason.

  • Coupled with that the stories dont even make sense any more, its like the writers forget what they wrote half way through an episode and just leave things unexplained.

    Thank god, I thought it was just me... seems like the show has been failing to do any quality storytelling for years now.

    I like Robert Patrick, a lot better than Mulder actually... but he can't save the show. Stick a fork in it... you know the rest. At least it had a few good seasons.
  • bloody lazy slashdot editors.
    dont you just love when they post a story [msn.com] about another story [sunday-times.co.uk]! The article even tells you where to find the original story.

    Use the source [sunday-times.co.uk]! that goes for news as well as code.

    Is it just me or are an awful lot of MSNBC stories getting posted? Keep you friends close and your enemies closer.

  • I quite agree. After becoming a rather religious X-Files fan around the third season, I always thought that Carter had a plan in mind. That plan seems to have ended during the "Full Disclosure" clifhanger episode of a few years back. After torching the Consortium, who lent a great sort of cloak and dagger mystery to the show, Carter seemed to lose focus with the show, and had absolutely NO clue as to where to take the series. I mean, losing Mulder, and now Scully, and giving us two good episodes, and then about a month of standalone, completely random, eps. He also left a TON of things unexplained. How about the oil rig? Why exactly was the Black Oil under the sea, and how did it get there? I know some of you will think I forgot the fact that the spot is about where the Doomsday asteroid supposedly hit to wipe out the dinosaurs. But, to just kinda leave the story with the Oil hanging there, seems very short-sighted on Carter's part....really, I think Gish is a great actress (see SLC Punk for more of her), but she couldn't replace the early Scully...if Carter is trying to restart the series, this won't work...Sorry Chris
  • Skully returens from being abducted, the aliens decided to have some fun, a changed body with an improved personality. Wow this could be a new actor :P
  • I think with Gillian Anderson announcing this is the last season she will be on X-Files, I think it is time for creator Chris Carter to finally end the show.

    It has been a long, nice run, but without Mulder and Scully it really isn't the same. :-(
  • furtively clutching copies of News of the World

    Perhaps you mean Weekly World News. News of the World is a gutterpress red-top from Blighty out on Sundays.

  • ...on Doctor Who they'd call this "regenerating".
  • Ah, now this is interesting, is she or isn't she?

    The MSN Article is datelined July 4, the Yahoo story is datelined July 2, so maybe she is going, but all these stories have a certain lead time, so maybe it's still undecided...

    Further, when you consider that it's becoming a well-established tradition for these actors to state they're leaving loudly and publicly, only to return after getting promised more money, better scripts, whatever, it could very well be that both stories are equally inaccurate, and that Slashdot fell for a non-news story. "Stuff that matters" indeed.

    And to think of all the fascinating stories I submitted that got rejected because we weren't in the summer news-vacuum yet...

    Ron Obvious

  • So, last I figured Doggett was the new Scully and Scully was the new Mulder. Now I guess Doggett will be the new Mulder and someone else will be the new Scully?
  • Hmm, good to hear that someone else dislikes Akira.
  • Well, while still cant believe it, there are people suiciding for this already...

    I guess everybody knew this would happen way back when both GA and DD were in legal issues against FOX...

    And if the series still persists, everybody knows it won't be the same thing, no matter how great are the new actors. Anyone remembers Michael J. Fox leaving Spin City? Well, i guess its X-File's spin off now... the time has come, its the end.

    -----
    Im so sad today.
  • Is television really so powerful that a well-crafted science fiction series can increase the gullibility of millions of Americans?

    No, it isn't.
  • A lot of people here seem to have stopped watching the X-Files entirely since the film, so whatever happens the x-files is already dead to them.

    I am actually not so displeased that she is leaving. Robert Patrick gives a rock-solid performance as Doggett(apparently I'm not the only one since he won an award for best television actor [thexfiles.com]).

    The departure of Scully will hopefully allow Carter(if he wants to) to be more creative by letting loose the ties of the past. I for one will be tuning in to watch Patrick's character(Doggett) evolve. Krycek's dead, so there's one block of the whole conspiracy dead, now they just need to kill off the rest once and for all.
  • "1) Scully / Mulder kiss (and probably boinked 9 months prior) as the cliffhanger for last season, with Mulder not to return to the series.

    I like to think the kiss was more friendship than romance, but man, the way they've been dancing around each other... yeah, I'm disappointed and feel somewhat betrayed. I'm even more amazed that they intend to carry on the show without Duchovny.

    2) The Consortium alien invasion / mytharc ends (primarily) with all the main baddies getting torched in a hanger. Effectively, the threat of a "V"-like global alien invasion, which was introduced as a potential threat in the 4th season and created a palpable urgency for a few seasons following, was neutralized simply by killing off two dozen old white men that drank brandy with Cancerman.

    I don't know about that. The Syndicate is dead, but that was mostly Cancerman exacting revenge for their trying to kill him awhile back. The old administrators of the conspiracy are dead, but the last couple of seasons have affirmed that the alien invasion is still imminent.

    3) The search by Mulder for his sister, which formed the true heart of the series and propulsion for his career and search for "truth" ended a couple of seasons ago with Mulder romping around with her ghost in a forest!. Turns out she died at the age of 13 or so. (insert comic 'boing!' sound effect here).

    Yeah, that sucked. There was so much potential for that storyline. I'm of the opinion that they either couldn't agree or couldn't figure out how to resolve it and so took some kind of easy out. Thud.

  • They should have pulled the plug on the show when Mulder left, if the show is supposed to go on now with Scully leaving. Well, the show accomblished to morph into a "spinoff" of it self. Sad, very sad indeed. It just shows(like we didnt allready know that) that, that the producers worrie alot more about $$ that actually making a good show(i mean, it wouldve been way better for the XFILES storyline if they have stopped with Mulder. For me X-FILES without Mulder is like soda with out the carbondioxide(aka. some sort of juice, its just not the same thing!!)).
  • Your time is up, and you leave with nothing! Burn it!
  • maybe because the show was a spinoff of a movie?

    i was angry:1 with:2 my:4 friend - i told:3 4 wrath:5, 4 5 did end.
  • they should have killed it off before it got this bad, but what else are the actors going to do? maybe it's a bit late to warn them about being typecast.

    i was angry:1 with:2 my:4 friend - i told:3 4 wrath:5, 4 5 did end.
  • wooden, raddled, over-rated - just like the whole of the whow, they should have got rid of the lot years ago
  • It's quite sad, really. I guess the love of penguins and crappy TV go hand-in-hand... no wonder TiVo runs off linux ;)
  • by Anonymous Coward
    Is it a X front-end for a file server or a FBI spy program ?
    Well I just did a 'ps ax | grep xfiles' and it doesn't show up.
    So it's not running. I think.
    Maybe the process died.
    Oh wait ! There is something in my crontab scheduled sunday at 9PM EDT. Is that what we call a zombie process ?
  • The three geeks would probably make good candidates (despite being terrible characatures).
    Been done [lonegunmen.com], got cancelled [slashdot.org].
    maybe she's off to do more pvc clad spreads for FHM - great
    I think she's off to the West End in London, to work in the theatre for a while.

    -dair
  • Sliders, another FOX invention, had about 3 good seasons with the original cast of characters; then John-Rhye Davies (aka Professor Arturo) left to be replaced by big-busted Kate Wohler; next season the actress played Wade left, replaced by the brother of the actor that played Quinn; the next season (this one strictly on the Sci-Fi channel), both of *them* left, replaced by two no-names, leaving only Remmy as the only original character during the last season (and in the end, he dies too!). I believe there was also significant behind-the-scenes direction changes (eg, Trace Torme, the main person behind the concept, leaving). The first season was great, but by the time we hit that last season, it was flopping around for it's last breath.

    Of course, one can argue that MST3K fell into the trap, with all the changes between season 6 and 10, but since much of the creative talent was still on the show, it didn't suffer as badly (most people still argue that Joel was better than Mike in an infinite number of ways).

  • > Anderson says she's leaving Chris Carter's long-running sci-fi hit so
    > she can spend more time with her daughter,

    > "Now, when I am with her, I don't work," she told the Times . "But for
    > the first seven series it was very difficult. She spent a lot of time
    > on the set. We all operated under the illusion that was enough.

    > Outside of TV, Anderson has been working to shed her Scully image,
    > appearing a bit more feminine as a socialite in last year's The House
    > of Mirth.

    Whew. More feminine eh. Amazing how times change. I remember when being a "supermom" and having the husband sacrifice his career to be with the daughter was the rage. Everyone thought there would be female computer scientists and presidents of countries. Now bring up so much as the idea of a female CEO and people call you a child abuser. It's almost like the 80's never were.

  • No, Anne Tomlinson will. She recently decided to change careers.
  • Buffy goes, Angel stays. The network isn't selling "Buffy", they don't own it. The studio that does is selling it to a different network (UPN) than they had been previously. For an interesting write-up about why the series is changing networks, read this article [washingtonpost.com] from the Washington Post

    I've never watched either show or felt any desire to do so, but I try to keep track of broadcasting shenanigans.

  • "(And since I'm in Germany for LinuxTag I get to post something before I usually even get it up!)"

    Too much detail!!


    --
  • I started watching the x-files and it was a cool 'outer limits' style show, with different spookiness each week. And that was cool.

    And then the plot arc stuff happened and that was immensely cool. I _love_ ongoing stories ever since Bab5 got me addicted (and then DS9 and Buffy).

    And then the plot arc stuff went on, and on, and on, and on. And eventually I realised that there wasn't an end point and that Carter was just making it up as he went along.

    And it died for me.
    _____
  • Agreed. It was at about the same time that we had the song "Mulder and Scully" by Catatonia [google.com] getting solid airtime. You know the feeling - it's on every radio station you tune into. Becoming a household name is often the first sign of forthcoming doom.
  • I can't remember when the film came out, but I'm pretty sure i gave up on the x-files before that (of course, being in Europe, it took a while to get here).
    Generally: first three seasons great (only because of the Darin Morgan episodes in the third), next two seasons shite, other seasons unwatched.
  • Fortunately, Geena Davis [sirlinksalot.net] looks a lot like Scully, but more sexy (and her show is more funny than X-Files) .

    -- Pure FTP server [pureftpd.org] - Upgrade your FTP server to something simple and secure.
  • I was never entirely gripped by the X-Files, but I did find it at times diverting. Still, I did notice an interesting social phenomenon that seemed to correlate with the popularity of the X-Files:

    America seemed to get dumber. Before the X-Files made paranoia almost chic, the only black helicopter and gray proctologist fans were those you met furtively clutching copies of News of the World. If you caught them and smirked, they were buying it for a friend (sort of like all of the inflatable dolls that no one ever buys for themselves, and the millions of Playboys sold every year to those who only peruse the articles).

    After the X-Files, it was okay to be dumb. People who weren't escapees from mental wards would tell you with a straight face that they'd had their fillings removed so that the government wouldn't spy or them. In the years of its peak popularity, I talked to an increasing number of the imbecilic who believed that every episode of the X-Files were real FBI secret reports re-enacted for television.

    I've always wondered whether the X-Files was merely liberating the existant mentally feeble, or creating them anew?

    Is television really so powerful that a well-crafted science fiction series can increase the gullibility of millions of Americans?
  • I think this is a great opportunity to bring Michelle Pffeifer in as a replacement. Only her character should inexpicably wear that vinyl cat woman suit throughout every episode. Yeah, that'd revive my interest in the show...
  • I've got to admit that if the choice was to wrap up the X-Files a few years ago in a manner that would make it an enduring classic always honed to a sharp edge or to continue it by dragging it out and then try to swap out the lead characters to keep it going, I'd take the former in a flash. The X Files will always be remembered as significant but now also as something that should have quit while it was ahead. That's tragic, when it could have been so much more powerful as a complete body of work if it had been distilled instead of diluted. However, since Carter has choosen this path, what could have been no longer matters. The X Files may have been better as just Mulder and Sculley in their prime, but the reality is that the X Files AS A WHOLE now consists of M&S in their prime, M&S over-the-hill, and also Doggett and Reyes. (Kind of like all our lives, which would be best if we could time warp thru college forever and skip the ex-wife before we get to the good relationship...) So again I say, I'm giving Doggett and Reyes a chance.
  • Boy, do I ever agree with the resolution of Samantha's abduction. I halfway expected to see Barney come on-camera from the left when Mulder was roamping around with her happy happy joy joy ghost. This was absolutely the low point of the series and marked the moment the X-Files cut itself loose from the mythical aspect that made it great.
  • Actually, Remmy didn't die, he exited via making one last jump back to (our) Earth after injecting himself with local blood (!?!) containing a virus sample deadly to the show's bad guys who had overrun multiple dimensions including our own. (Sounds kind of silly when you say it like that, huh?) He left behind all of the Slider second stringers who looked at each other saying "Now what?", which was the show's unofficial motto.

    I really liked the idea of Sliders but it was very very seldom realized. The writers just never hit a good balance of what the show could be, much less the characters. Arturo is shot, but that's OK, he's dying of an incurable disease anyway. Quinn is a whiz kid from a single parent home in San Francisco, no wait, he's Superman from the dimension Krypton, no wait, he's the quantum changeling spawn from a mad scientist...Don't even get me started on dumping the Wade character off in a CroMag breeding camp never to be seen again. At least the Remmy character made a decent transition from comic relief to heroic leader.

    The main point is that even with a multi-million dollar budget and hundreds of people involved, all shows come down to one guy sitting in front of a blank piece of paper to determine whether the show will suck or soar. The fact that it does the former more often than the latter shows just how brutal that blank sheet of paper can be.

  • It hasn't ever been promoted over here (UK) - I'm guessing that after the luke-warm reviews from the US, Fox/Sky won't have any plans to screen it. SARCASM STRENGTH="veryveryheavy"Especially when they've got a series as fine as Next./SARCASM
  • Hey, you can't get much more "News for Nerds" than X-Files miscellanea.

    Stuff that matters? Well, it matters to nerds I guess.

  • 1. loss of writers, producers, directors to millenium.

    2. loss of writers, producers, directors to move to hollywood from canada.

    3. chris carter's abandonement of his original idea of a planned 5 year story arc.
  • Hey, I wish I'd said that. Oh, wait, I did. [slashdot.org]
  • I don't watch TV alot, but B5 was one of the best TV series (scifi or not) I ever saw. JMS truly created a little gem there, and he's definitively not a one-shot poney (just look at what he did to the comic world with Rising Stars).

    If he takes the same care with Legends of the Rangers than he did with B5, and since TNT doesn't have anything to do with the new serie and thus can't mess it us (Crusade anyone?), I really don't see how you can condemn it before even seeing it (or knowing anything about it for that matter).

    Maybe it will suck. Maybe it will be just as good as B5. Knowing JMS, I think (and hope) for the latter. In any case, I'll wait 'till it out before making any judgements.



    -Earthling
  • Was it the second or third time they found Mulder's Sister?
    ---
  • No no no...Doggett is the new Scully and that New Orleans detective played by Annabeth Gish is the new Mulder. I thought it was pretty evident in the last episode from this season when they told Kersh they were the X-Files now...

    Could be a good show, still, if Carter uses it to do some of the things he wanted to do with The Lone Gunmen and Harsh Realm...almost a fresh start.

    We shall see.

    P.

  • Especially an entertainment link at MSN. According to this [yahoo.com] she may be back for more, assuming the show is still on.
  • You forgot the bit where they got John Dawgit (spelling?) and he just reads all the lines that were normally scripted for Scully and Scully reads the lines normally written for Mulder.

    Amazing how Scully suddenly believes everything and John wont believe anything even though he sees things with his own eyes.

    Coupled with that the stories dont even make sense any more, its like the writers forget what they wrote half way through an episode and just leave things unexplained.

    --
  • 1) Scully / Mulder kiss (and probably boinked 9 months prior) as the cliffhanger for last season, with Mulder not to return to the series.

    This was actually Duchovny's idea, and not originally in the script, at least, according to his interview [eonline.com] at EOnline.[1]

    I agree with your rant. I quit watching shortly after the movie, and nothing I've heard about recent seasons makes me regret it.

    [1]While I'm posting, might as well throw in the Beeb's coverage [bbc.co.uk] of Anderson's career move, since I haven't seen it linked here yet.

  • And since I'm in Germany for LinuxTag I get to post something before I usually even get up!

    And I am loser for having nothing better to do than sit in Seattle and post at 3:30am.

    I wish *I* was dead. -Homer Simpson

  • they already are off and have been from the beginning... bloody annoying too
  • the x-files has really gone downhill now...
  • I liked the "mythology" episodes that advanced the store and some of the standalone episodes. What I didn't like was how the grand plot kept twisting in ways that made no sense. It really made me wish that someone had mapped out a five-year plot for the show. I also got sick of seeing two "mythology" episodes that built up to something, then some crappy standalone episode the next week.
  • by harmonica ( 29841 ) on Wednesday July 04, 2001 @02:27AM (#109403)
    This one at Yahoo [yahoo.com] (nice photo!) says she hasn't ruled out to return, this one at Mrshowbiz [go.com] reports that she will not be back. Let's just wait and see...

    Personally, I would have preferred more episodes with no conspiracy plot in them. One monster / phenomenon per episode, that's it. Now that Scully is a mother, I find it hard to believe that she would do anything dangerous...
  • by Xenex ( 97062 ) <`xenex' `at' `opinionstick.com'> on Wednesday July 04, 2001 @11:27AM (#109404) Journal
    Mulder and Scully is the first track on Catatonia [catatonia.com]'s second album International Velvet. It also helped, along with Road Rage, to push Catatonia into the spotlight.

    Because I'm sure a few people reading this haven't heard of Catatonia, or this song, I've got it hosted (fot a limited time only, no doubt) here [geocities.com], or directly linked here [geocities.com], although that may not work due to the way GeoCities servers stop direct linking.

    If you would like any other Catatonia mp3s, feel free to e-mail me. Nothing like assimlating a few more people into raving fans ;)

    Catatonia are one of my favorite bands, and with the singer Cerys' 'odd' voice can be an aquired taste. Mulder and Scully is far from their best (imho), but is a good sampler.

    If you'd like some more info on the band, a good and constantly updated site is here [hot.ee].

    To go further offtopic, I'd like to thank the late Napster, because without it I'd never have bought 3 Catatonia albums, a bucketload of their singles, and an EP imported from Japan, and 2 EP's from Amazon.... but Napster robs from artists, right?

  • by Wizard of OS ( 111213 ) on Wednesday July 04, 2001 @01:08AM (#109405)
    Well, after almost everybody got killed in the season finale a few years ago, and Cancerman was killed afterwards, X-files kinda died.
    Then Duchovny stepped out of it (the episodes with mr family man (*puke*) still haven't aired in the Netherlands, but I assume they suck bigtime), now Anderson. Going downhill fast.

    In my opinion, Carter should've ended the series a long time ago, maybe with a cliffhanger, but the series lost the charm it had a few years ago.

    --
  • by billybob2001 ( 234675 ) on Wednesday July 04, 2001 @02:31AM (#109406)
    Will Ann Robinson be the new Scully?

    She's got the hair for it.

  • by OpCode42 ( 253084 ) on Wednesday July 04, 2001 @01:04AM (#109407) Homepage
    The Lone Gunmen have already had a spin-off show.

    Frankly, when they've reached the spin-off stage, the main people decide to run-off, its time for me to turn-off.

  • by Rogerborg ( 306625 ) on Wednesday July 04, 2001 @02:48AM (#109408) Homepage
    • on the exact moment the X-Files Jumped The Shark

    I think it was more of a slow lingering death. The best episodes were superb, but the dross just drowned it all out in the end.

    In particular, there was only so many times that I could take Mulder's whiny monotonic yelling and flashbacks to childhood anal probings. The whole alien conspiracy thing got tired, confused and irritating, and I stopped caring long before Duchovny left.

    Basically, they ran out of ideas about the time the movie was made, and have been coasting since then. Gillian will be missed, but only in an abstract way, I think. Frankly, I'm surprised she's stayed so long, considering the amount of skin they've been making her show in the past couple of seasons. Not that I've watched much of them, but the trailers have all been Gillian in a vest, Gillian sweating through a blouse, looking down Gillian's pleasant but modest cleavage... The sexual tension between Scully and Mulder was delightfully and tastefully handled - it's sad to see Scully reduced to a titillation role, and I think Gillian's right to get out while she's still got some dignity and credibility left.

  • by beanerspace ( 443710 ) on Wednesday July 04, 2001 @02:39AM (#109409) Homepage
    The way this discussion is going, I figured I might mention a website that is dedicated to TV Shows that go from popular, to DOA through a process known as "Jumping the Shark". Here's are the gory X-File specifics to this : http://jumptheshark.com/x/xfiles.htm
  • by cybrpnk ( 94636 ) on Wednesday July 04, 2001 @03:37AM (#109410)
    Actually, I wish Anderson was leaving THIS season so we could get on with a clean slate instead of this drag-it-on-til-it-stinks mentality the X-Files has now. Chris Carter & Co. have in my opinion pulled a minor miracle off by establishing Robert Pattrick / John Dogget as a viable and even desirable alternative to Duchovney / Mulder. I have become quite a fan of Doggett's take-no-crap mentality over Mulder's trust-no-one. I also think Gish is a hottie. I say lets wish Mulder and Scully well as enduring icons and get on to seeing what the dynamic could be with people who actually are on a first name basis with one another. The original X-files was about 90s-style alienation and distance between people. I'd like to see them explore the conspiracy of the 21st century now, which is all becoming one big happy group / hive mind led by M$.
  • I like John Doggett and Monica Reyes too. They are a very DIFFERENT pair than Mulder and Scully, but not any less viable. And they haven't personally pissed off half of the U.S. government, which might work in their favour as investigators :-) Between this, and the fact that they are played by capable actors (Gish is good, Patrick is of course amazing), the show could be very good this season, as long as the writers keep their heads out of their asses. It almost makes me want GA to "retire" to the stage now for some well-deserved artistic exploration. We'll still have our tape collections for when we need a Scully fix after all :-) But I can see how the character could serve as a "bridge" for the audience, and a useful connection for the new agents (who are still pretty new to the alien/mutant/monster hunting game).
  • by IronChef ( 164482 ) on Wednesday July 04, 2001 @07:11AM (#109412)
    We'll still have our tape collections for when we need a Scully fix after all :-)

    I never got into the Cult of Scully. I always thought she was a weak character, a real waste of potential. She's a weak personally, always taking orders from Mulder. She's weak in combat, always seeming to get her gun knocked away. And lately with the baby thing she's been weak emotionally.

    They could have written her much better, made her a PARTNER to Mulder instead of a subordinate. They could have made her tougher, which EVERY GUY would have loved. Women viewers too, I suspect. But they overdid her role as a foil to Mulder, and as a result she's just not that interesting, being incapable of anything but a good autopsy. A real waste.

    She is a hottie though. :)

    Anyway, I say BRING ON the new agents. Maybe they can bring the show back from the zombie-like state it has been in for years.
  • by sharkticon ( 312992 ) on Wednesday July 04, 2001 @01:39AM (#109413)

    So what? Who cares?

    When the X-Files first came out it was interesting and innovative, catching the mood of the time perfectly and holding it with well written stories and interesting characters. There was a good balance of one-off shows and the main story arc, and it was all original material.

    And now? The main characters have left or are leaving, we're seeing the same old shit time and time again and it's just not exciting any more. I gave up after the film came out, and I've not missed it at all.

    It's just a pity that studios feel the need to extend shows beyond any kind of reasonable shelf life, and that far too many writers are all too willing to make a quick buck by going along with it. Let's face it, most writers just aren't talented enough to keep coming up with fresh ideas for years and years, and so we see recycled crap repeating itself again and again. Let it die for Christ's sake!

    And even worse, there's the resurrected show, in which studios decide that they can re-milk a dead cash cow. There's a new Star Trek series coming out (oh joy), and even worse, new Babylon 5 as well (ugh). This is just riding on the backs of those viewers who are so fanatical about these things they'll spend their money on it no matter what, which in my book is pretty low.

    Out of curiosity, why is it only sci-fi gets this kind of rabid fandom? Other genres have shows which are popular, but it seems only Trekkers and whatever it is B5 fans call themselves are willing to fork out big bucks for some kind of novelty alarm clock which plays their show's theme tune. Is it a substitute for a healthy social life? I just don't get it myself.

  • by number one duck ( 319827 ) on Wednesday July 04, 2001 @12:09PM (#109414) Journal
    Geeze, man, thats like suggesting that some people still believe in God!! What makes believing in ghosts or demons any sillier than that?

  • by smirkleton ( 69652 ) on Wednesday July 04, 2001 @03:41AM (#109415)
    While the quality of the series may have begun to decline before the X-Files movie, I was at that point still engaged enough to care about the characters, interested enough to want to see how the whole Cancerman/Consortium/Mytharc would resolve itself, and dedicated enough to come to the series defense on the occasion I found it being derided by purists for a decline in quality.

    I am no longer thusly inclined. My trust in Chris Carter's instincts was misplaced.

    Nowadays, if there is to be dissing of the series, I'll join the chorus and ask for a refrain if it ends too quickly.

    I find I'm amazed at and depressed by the actions of Chris Carter. He was once a vocal defendant of preserving the dignity of the series. He spoke lucidly about needing to make decisions that were in the best interest of the characters, and one would assume, the legacy of the show. He stated repeatedly on the record there would be no romance between Scully & Mulder, such as in this interview from 1999:
    "I've resisted any temptation (of romance) because I don't think it's right for the characters," says Carter. "For me, the passion and the protectiveness of one towards the other is something that we all admire and envy because that kind of trust and caring happens so infrequently in life. When it does, it is transcendent."

    I'm amazed at what Chris Carter has done with the trust of viewers...

    1) Scully / Mulder kiss (and probably boinked 9 months prior) as the cliffhanger for last season, with Mulder not to return to the series.


    2) The Consortium alien invasion / mytharc ends (primarily) with all the main baddies getting torched in a hanger. Effectively, the threat of a "V"-like global alien invasion, which was introduced as a potential threat in the 4th season and created a palpable urgency for a few seasons following, was neutralized simply by killing off two dozen old white men that drank brandy with Cancerman.

    3) The search by Mulder for his sister, which formed the true heart of the series and propulsion for his career and search for "truth" ended a couple of seasons ago with Mulder romping around with her ghost in a forest!. Turns out she died at the age of 13 or so. (insert comic 'boing!' sound effect here).

    4) (insert countless examples of depressing recent plot-points, complaints about new agents, spin-off series, lack-of-focus, lack-of-care, comments about THE MONEY being more important than THE ART at this point, digs at Duchovny for forcing the relocation to California, digs at Fox for milking a cow to death, then milking a dead-cow, and a joke about "All Your Base Are Belong To Us" here).

    The show has become an insufferable self-parody, and Chris Carter will have only himself to blame when it comes time to reflect on the legacy of the series. I suspect he will, for the rest of his life (particularly AFTER the series dies presumably a couple of seasons from now) hear fans and critics alike tell him that he blew it. The X-files was, in its day, both a cultural phenomenon and a show of the highest calibre. But it has become now a depressing, hollow shell of its former self. It has no heart, no soul and no mind, and it asks the same of its viewers.

  • Sources at the Open Source Developer Network have revealed that this version of the Slashcode is going to be the last one that sees original Slashdot characters Cmdr Taco, Hemos and Cowboy Neal working as editors. It's beliveded that before the next release of the Slashcode the characters will be killed off, to allow them to work on other projects.

    Rob Malda (who plays Cmdr Taco) said "Yeah, we've been with Slashdot for several years now, and we just felt it was time for a change". The plot twist mirrors those of The X-Files and Buffy, where major characters were killed off for similar reasons.

    Industry analysts suspect that fear of typecasting prompted the move, though some wonder if the editors will be able to live down previous glories; Doug Synergy, Self Proclaimed Web-Guru, said "Y'know, they've been doing news for nerds and bashing Microsoft for so long it's difficult to imagine them doing something like The Barbie Fan Club".

    In recent weeks Slashdot has been subject to a series of intriguing plot twists, with the server repeatedley being unavailable, but even this hasn't held the interest of previously loyal fans.

    It seems unlikely that the site will continue in it's current form for much longer, but it's been suggested that current editors Michael Simms and John Katz could take over a spin-off site; Slashtroll, Goatse.cx That Matters.

  • by gowen ( 141411 ) <gwowen@gmail.com> on Wednesday July 04, 2001 @01:02AM (#109417) Homepage Journal
    on the exact moment the X-Files Jumped The Shark [jumptheshark.com]. For me, it was the movie, and the realisation that the plot was never going to have a satisfying story arc as long as they milked it like a cash cow...

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