"The X Files" First Person Shooter (2000)

User Rating:

6.4/10   

Director:

Chris Carter

Writers:

Chris Carter (creator)
William Gibson (writer) ...

TV Series:

"The X Files" (1993)

Original Air Date:

27 February 2000 (Season 7, Episode 13)

Genre:

Drama | Horror | Mystery | Sci-Fi | Thriller

Plot:

The Lone Gunmen request Mulder and Scully's assistance in a murder case at a video game company. A virtual reality game has gone haywire...

Plot Keywords:

Beautiful Woman | Title Spoken By Character | FBI | FBI Agent | Alien

Cast

David Duchovny	...	Fox Mulder
Gillian Anderson	...	Dana Scully
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Krista Allen	...	Maitreya / Jade Blue Afterglow
Michael Bower	...	Lo-Fat (as Michael Ray Bower)
Tom Braidwood	...	Melvin Frohike
Billy Ray Gallion	...	Retro
James Geralden	...	Detective Lecoeur
William Gibson
Dean Haglund	...	Richard 'Ringo' Langly
Bruce Harwood	...	John Fitzgerald Byers
John Marrott	...	Security Guard
James Marsh	...	Ivan Martinez
Christopher Ng	...	Darryl Musashi
Matthew Sutherland	...	Records Clerk (as Matt Sutherland)
Ryan Todd	...	Moxie
Constance Zimmer	...	Phoebe

Runtime:

Argentina:60 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Certification:

USA:TV-14 | Argentina:13

Company:

20th Century Fox Television

Goofs:

Audio/visual unsynchronized: When Mulder disappears into the game and Scully runs into the room at the top of the stairs, she is heard saying "Where's Mulder?" but her lips do not match what she is saying.

Quotes:

Fox Mulder: [to the Lone Gunmen] If I were you guys, right now I'd be checking my shorts for cake.

Movie Connections:

References Basic Instinct (1992)

Episode 7.13 drinking game

Take a shot every time some technical term is misappropriated in this episode, such as "download", "online", "crashed", and "wire-frame". Take a bonus three when "goosh" or "wiggy" is used, and you'll polish off your 5th.

The previous William Gibson episode "Kill Switch" was excellent, and not overly laden with computer technology jargon at all the wrong places as this episode was. This isn't a complaint so much about the lack of "realism" with regard to the portrayal of video games or the computer industry; there have been many previous X-Files episodes that were tongue in cheek as this one was apparently aiming to be, but did so in a fashion that honored the subject matter (such as sci-fi concepts like virtual reality and man being able to transfer his consciousness into "cyberspace" as in "Kill Switch") without being completely oblivious or ignorant of said subject matter (as in this episode).

The sexist undercurrent to the story was just the coup de grace on this ridiculous, fragmented, ill-informed, and completely unworthy followup to Gibson's previous contribution to the series. It's a shame he didn't get to write another episode that might have better explored some of the social changes and perceptions in the coming digital age, touched on in "Kill Switch", and that are so prevalent in his written works.