AIR DATE:  October 29, 1993
Written by Alex Gansa & Howard Gordon
Directed by Jerrold Freedman

	I thought I'll give a few comments on "Ghost in the Machine" 
since I haven't seen it for about 3 years and it is considered one of the
classic bad episodes from the first season.  First off I have to say it
was a lot better than certain episodes from this season (Home,
Sanguinarium) though in the context of the first season it was a fairly
weak episode because the whole concept really asked you to suspend your
disbelief. 

	I am glad it wasn't as bad as I remembered it.  Actually, it was
kind of funny in a way considering everything that has come after it.  We
had Deep Throat thrown in to keep the story going and to bring in the big
bad government again.  I guess it would have been too easy to have just
left it as a Hal wanna-be killing everyone who gets in its way, no sir,
writers Gansa and Gordon had to bring in the evil government who only want
to use this technically for evil purposes.  This is kind of ironic since
the internet was funded by government money in order for the Defense
Department to be able to communicate in case the big one dropped on us,
and now look at the internet, it's something that has exploded beyond its
original intent.

	Also, in "Ghost in the Machine" we see how Scully and Mulder's
relationship had changed in just seven episodes.  In "Conduit"  Scully
gives the big bad government guys the information they wanted without
questioning their motives while in "Ghost in the Machine" she doesn't fall
for the scumbag defense guy's line and she tells Mulder to put the virus
into the computer.  It showed the beginning of Scully trusting Mulder's
judgment even when his theories are a bit wacky.

	Some random musings on the episode:

- Wasn't it in Mystery Science Theater 3000 where they comment on that
only in movies do office buildings have ventilator systems big enough to
fit a human being?  I don't want to say anything, but Scully really didn't
seem to have a great sense of direction since it took her no time to get
lost in the ventilator system.

- I always like how whenever Scully and Mulder go up to someone's house
that person never seems to have a doorbell so they have to knock. 
Doorbells, who needs them.  That just occurred to me when they go up to
Wilczek's house and knock instead of ringing the doorbell.

- Here is another one of those tv land things:  tv characters never have
to save anything they do on their computer.  We didn't see Drake save
anything before he closed his laptop and Scully just turned off her
computer without saving anything.  Ah, I only wish it could be so easy for
me, instead I have think up good filenames to satisfy my computer. Talking
about computers, now I remember this being brought up when the episode was
first shown, and this is the Hal wanna-be being able to call up Scully's
computer and turn it on with no problem.  This was the most annoying plot
hole in the episode because it wasn't really necessary to the overall plot
other than to show how powerful the Hal wanna-be was though that point was
made clear with the way Drake was killed.

- Loved how they did the old tv/movie deal of the partner who by trying to
prove himself gets killed when he goes in alone.  At least he wasn't the
old few days away from retirement deal.  I just realize he was one of two
ex-partners of Mulder's who gets killed by the bad guy.  I guess in the
first season being Mulder's ex-partner meant death.

- Already in the first season Scully is telling Mulder to go get help to
deal with his problems, and we get Mulder basically ignoring her and doing
what he wants to do anyway.  At least this time she caught up with him to
keep him out of danger (though not herself since she listened to Mulder
and went up the ventilator ducts). 

- Scully and Mulder's theme song should be that old Ray Charles song "The
Right Time" which has the line "The Nighttime is the Right Time".  Why do
things in daylight when doing things in the pitch dark is perfectly fine.
Oh yeah, I kept waiting to hear Scully say to Mulder when the lights went
out on the staircase "Ah, Mulder, did you remember to bring a flash
light?"  Lucky for her Mulder thinks ahead. 

- What the hell kind of cut was that into a commerical after we hear the
gate thing fall down on Scully and Mulder's car?  I kept expecting the
people at FOX to realize they inadvertently cut in too early and cut back
to the show.  It was just a very awkward cut. 

- The following is the biggest problem with this episode:  I am sorry I
cannot believe the government can easily have Wilczek disappear without
anyone noticing.  He is supposed to be this well-known computer guy worth
millions of dollars who confesses to two murders and he can quietly
disappear.  I don't think so.  What do the bad government guys control the
media, Wilczek's lawyer or any of his friends and family.  I'd liked to
see what would happen if this happened in the real world and Wilczek was
Bill Gates you can bet they wouldn't get away with it. 

- The worse part about this episode:  Was forgetting to press the mute
button when the commericals came on and having to sit through that Burger
King commerical using that damn Foreigner song "Double Vision".  God, I
hated that band when I was in high school.  They were just one of those
bands that would make my skin crawl along with Journey.  It just brings
back all those high school years where my classmates would be listening to
that music while I was rocking to the Clash and the Ramones.  Okay, before
anyone starts flaming me for criticizing their favorite band I just want
to say if you like Journey or Foreigner they obviously did something for
you but didn't do it for me.  I never look down on someone's musical
taste, sure I might not understand it, but I would never knock a person
for liking bands I despise. 

	Well, "Ghost in the Machine" wasn't as bad as I remembered it and
it did have some classic Scully and Mulder moments.  I guess the worse
episode from the first season still goes to "Space". 


Claudia 
E-Mail:  Claudia.Cauchon@unh.edu

12/30/96

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