5X15 - Travelers

Summary

The stinker of the fifth season...not a whole lot more to say on that one. If you ever want to know that TXF can succeed without M&S, don't watch this episode. By the way, at the time, I really thought that DD's antics with his wedding ring made it even worse. (At this stage of the game as we await an abbreviated Season Eight — abbreviated for DD, anyway — does anyone think that the significance of the wedding ring and smoking thing will ever be addressed?) For the second time this season, I waited through an episode wondering if Mulder was going to show up for more than ten minutes. While he appeared in this one more than in Christmas Carol, it didn't make for a much more satisfying experience for this viewer. Not a whole lot to say about this one, all told.

Didja catch it? Huh? Didja??

In the context of a one-off stand-alone story, if The X-Files had been an anthology series like Night Gallery, this could have been a darn good yarn if you didn't examine it up close. Although the alien aspects are too reminiscent of “Alien”, well drawn characters — I really like Arthur Dales and the actor who portrays him (Fredric Lane) — and that familiar x-files vibe created something that I did not expect to enjoy, at least a little, on this re-viewing. Now, I have to say for the record that a TXF episode should never go this route: no Scully and an oddly behaving Mulder (the hesitating speech, the distracting habit of wiping his hair to one side to show his wedding band and — yes — the smoking thing; all the more weird when you consider that the time frame wasn’t even that far ahead of the series’ start).

We had already had a “what happened back when” episode in Unusual Suspects earlier this season, the events of which took place in May 1989. The “real time” portion of this episode occurs in November 1990. So we are told — in typical “we’ll screw with you any way we can” X-Files fashion — that sometime between those two dates, Mulder went from being single to wearing a wedding ring. Notice I didn't say, went from being single to being married.

That’s because I still am of the opinion that the events of my story, Truths Revealed, also happened and explains why he was running around with a wedding ring. The smoking thing? Meh... considering that they ultimately went down the “[Luke], I am your father” path, this was an unnecessarily heavy-handed suggestion.

To get back to the story, what brings Travelers down a notch or three for me is the odd combination of a communist threat and the unusual lengths to which supposed “powers that be” decided to tackle the problem. That whole era being before my time and my not being an American probably affects my appreciation of the threat, but some of the dialogue here about how dangerous the USSR was becoming went right over my head. Even more incredible was the idea that someone (J Edgar himself?) thought the best way to attack this growing problem was to go the xenotransplantation route. Really?? Talk about a totally inappropriate solution.

As the story goes, seems Papa Mulder was at least peripherally involved in this initiative via the US State Department. Eventually succumbing to conscience, he was the one who ultimately let the central perpetrator/victim in this episode (Edward Skur) go free.

In the end, this story is ultimately unsatisfying — not because of the various Mulder machinations — but because of everything else. A supposedly huge threat to the freedom and identity of the great US of A was addressed by a stupid plan. Not only that, but no one knows what happened to that plan after about, what? Three iterations?

Picayune Peculiarities

Exactly what was transplanted or grafted into these poor fellas? A thousand eggs waiting to hatch? It appears to me that the creature is expelled during an attack and enters the victim to kill him/her. I would assume that it doesn’t find its way back home, so to speak, so does Mr. Skur keep burping up these things to support his killing spree? If so, wow... thirty-eight years is a long time to keep that up!

Best or Worst Moment

You know what? I DON'T KNOW. Maybe the teaser sequence? Was that where there was some hint of a big spider or whatnot? Hell, what was this show about anyway? Communism or something? Have I ever watched it again in its entirety? No.

Well, now I have and I still don't know what the best/worst moment was. But I don't hate it as much as I did.

Original Rating: *
Revised Rating: * *