FIRST PERSON SHOOTER

        If I didn’t know better I’d swear I was watching an episode of Star Trek (your choice of Next Generation, Deep Space Nine or Voyager), where the crew has a problem with that pesky holodeck instead of an X-Files episode. I mostly thought of Voyager because the last Voyager episode had holodeck problems yet again (you would think these holodecks would have been shut down a long time ago for safety). In "First Person Shooter" I could see Janeway and gang having the same discussions Mulder, Scully, and the Lone Gunmen had with the game designers on shutting down the game/holodeck. Also, we get the patented Star Trek discussions between characters about the morality of what is going on around them when Scully and Mulder discuss the point of video games in the first place with Scully taking the position that they could encourage more violence while Mulder takes the position they let people release their violent tendencies. Not that I’m knocking Voyager by making this comparison because I enjoy Voyager, it isn’t a great show, but I still find it entertaining. It is that I watch X-Files and Voyager for different reasons. With Voyager I get the old Star Trek need fulfilled of going out and exploring while with the X-Files I have higher expectations of the story lines, acting and general overall quality so when I see what I feel is a Star Trek rip off I’m disappointed because I expected more from X-Files. Wasn’t there a movie called "Tron" that dealt with the same thing though it’s been so long since I’ve seen that movie that the only thing I remember is Jeff Bridges’ character being sent into a computer game by a bad guy.

        "First Person Shooter" would have been a decent episode if it wasn’t for one scene which is an embarrassment to the X-Files. I don’t think it is hard to figure out what scene I’m writing about and that is the scene in the police station where Jade Blue Afterglow is being held and all the policemen are acting like a bunch of 15 year olds, and I do mean men since there doesn’t seem to be one female on that police force. A very bad attempt at a "Basic Instinct" rip off. I hate to say this Chris Carter, but please leave it to the pros who know how to pull that off. It is even harder to find this scene funny since a local police department where I live is being sued by female cops for being sexist and an "old boy network". I couldn’t help thinking do these men have families to go home to and would they want their own sons to act like that. This was one of the most painful things I’ve ever watched on X-Files, made even worse when Mulder leaned over to watch her walk out.

        Now a few more comments on "First Person Shooter":

-  For a company to have a big modern building as this computer software company has I doubt that they would be acting like this is their first computer game and everything depends on it. What makes it worse is the game looks fairly dull. There was nothing unique about it and it was fairly predictable on what was going to happen next. The only inventive thing was Maitreya because she was the only one whose action you couldn’t predict. First they come on motorcycles, then they shoot at you from windows, then you get sent up to the wild wild west where no one has gone beyond that level which if it was true would make people stop trying after a while if you can’t get beyond a certain level. Though it is hard to believe that no one in the outside world wouldn’t eventually figure it out.

-  Where is the CEO of this company? Are we to believe Ivan and Phoebe run the company? Somehow I find it hard to believe they would have time to do both write computer software and run a big company.

-  So have Scully and Mulder moved their office to L.A. or were they still hanging out there after the "X-Cops" episode. Why do I ask this? I hate to think how long that dead body was left to rot in the game area of the building since it takes a few hours to get from D.C. to L.A. Shouldn’t the L.A. police be a little bit upset about being called in after the F.B.I.?

-  Why does Ivan think Scully saying the cause of death was unknown would make everyone happy since it would be really surprising if that company isn’t sued by Retro’s family or Darryl Mushashi’s family.

-  The FOX people better fix the closed caption on this episode because the closed caption was about 3 minutes ahead of what was going on in the scene. I feel sorry for any deaf people trying to keep up with what was going on.

-  Coolest scene was Darryl Mushashi getting his hands chopped off. That’ll teach him to be too cocky.

-  Mulder knows Phoebe knows more about what is going on by the look he gives her after Mushashi was killed, but does he pursue it any further? No, he doesn’t even question her at all so that he goes into the game with no information on what he is going against or asking if the game can be stopped. Of course, if he did we wouldn’t get to see him in that stupid outfit and those ridiculous sunglasses which made no sense to wear since the area he was going into was dark. At least true to Mulder’s character he did go chasing that woman without thinking it might be better to get the hell out of there with the Lone Gunmen.

-  I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I found in bad taste Mulder’s little joke about his birthday coming up while holding up Retro’s uniform especially since he just saw Mushashi die a gruesome death.

-  Do Scully and Mulder have the authority to release Jade Blue Afterglow? I’m fairly sure the case is under the L.A. police department’s jurisdiction and not the F.B.I..

-  "First Person Shooter" would have been better off if they made Maitreya into something other than a mindless killing machine. At least on Star Trek when the holodeck goes out of whack the holodeck characters have a bit of intelligence to them.

-  Why is it that every time an evil woman approaches a man she feels the need to back flip. Must be a guy thing.

-  So you are a mindless computer animated killing machine and you just conjured up a tank, what do you do? 1) use it 2)stick you body out of tank and shoot a gun or 3) don’t use the tank at all because that would be too easy.

-  Gee, I’m surprised they didn’t try Ctl/alt/delete to close down the program since those are my three favorite key strokes whenever my computer acts up.

-  William Gibson & Tom Maddox shouldn’t give up their day jobs.

        "First Person Shooter" is one of those episodes where it seems they thought up the idea of Mulder and Scully in those military outfits, then attempted to built a story around that idea. Unfortunately, it came off as a weak Star Trek, the holodeck has gone off line again in storyline.

Claudia

E-Mail: Claudia.Cauchon@unh.edu

02/28/00

Back to Top of Page