AIR DATE:  March 29, 1998
Written by John Shiban and Frank Spotnitz
Directed by William A. Graham

	One of my favorite "St. Elsewhere" episodes was the one where they
flashback to the early years explaining how Dr. Westphall and Dr.
Auschlander started working at Saint Eligius, and how a young Dr. Craig
wasn't that different from Dr. Ehrlich in his attempt to impress his
mentor.  It was a fascinating study into the characters of the show. 
"Unusual Suspects" did this a little bit by showing us how Mulder met up
with the Lone Gunmen and the start of his quest for the truth in the
X-Files.  Now we have "Travelers" where Mulder goes in search of the truth
as to why a man missing for 38 years says as his dying words his father's
name.  Unfortunately, unlike "St. Elsewhere" we really didn't learn
anything more about Mulder or his father's involvement in the conspiracy. 

	The main problem with "Travelers" was there should have been more
of Mulder's father and Agent Dales and less of real life people, Ray Cohn
and J. Edgar Hoover.  If the writers, John Shiban and Frank Spotnitz, had
shown us the inner conflict Mulder's father went through at this early
time in his life when he still had a choice of going along with the
conspiracy or somehow getting out then it would have made for a more
compelling drama.  Instead of this we get stuck with Ray Cohn and J. 
Edgar Hoover telling Agent Dales it is his patriotic duty to help them
stomp out the enemy at any cost even if it meant doing unethical things. 
Boring!  This isn't anything new to us to learn that higher ups in the
government are doing illegal things with aliens or whatever and
experimenting with them on humans.  What would have been really
interesting is if they had a flashback to the events leading up to
Samantha's disappearance or what was the turning point for Mulder's father
to go along with the experiments, but nooo, there is no way they could do
that as it would give too much away.  No, we wouldn't find it interesting
to see if there was some kind of choice he had to make between Mulder and
Samantha? How was Cigarette Smoking Man involved?  What was Mulder's
reaction to it all and was the disappearance truly the beginning of his
falling out with his father?  We have been given hints throughout the past
four years about her disappearance and how it affected the Mulder family. 
Other than Mulder's version of the disappearance everything else has been
hearsay. Now that would have been a fascinating character study into
Mulder and his family. 

	The other thing that bothered me was the fact they felt the need
to introduce another alien species of some kind.  I'm just assuming it is
alien but it could just as easily be a weird species they found in the
jungles of Brazil, but since it was never explained where these creatures
came from we just have to guess.  What do we have so far in this series,
invisible aliens (Fallen Angel), killer bees (Herrenvolk, Zero Sum),
shape-shifting aliens (Colony, Talitah Cumi, Herrenvolk), black oily
creatures (Piper Maru, Red and the Black) and green oozing aliens
(Colony/End Game).  Now we have a spiderlike creature who likes to eat
people inside out, quite quickly I might add.  It would be different if
this was a run of the mill Monster of the Week episode, but they up the
stake when they included Mulder's father as a part of the story.  Once
they did this it means the spider creatures are supposed to be part of the
bigger picture of the conspiracy.  Of course, we most likely will never
see these creatures again or find out where they came from or why the
conspirators thought they would be a good weapon against their enemies
(whoever they are).  When Edward Skur started to roll his eyes when he had
knocked down Agent Dales I expected him to start spraying out the black
oil.  It would have worked better if that had been the case because they
would have told us more about the black oil, the vaccination program and
other conspiracy things.


	Now some general comments on "Travelers": 

- Was Mulder smoking in this episode?  I swear the first time we see him
sitting down and talking with Arthur Dales it seems as if he is exhaling
cigarette smoke.  If you look in the picture they use in the TV Guide
close-up section it looks like he is taking a drag from a cigarette.  They
must have carefully edited it out after the episode was filmed fearing the
negative reaction it would get if we ever found out Mulder smoked at one
time.  I can see the great debate on the net about when Mulder stopped
smoking and why.  Hey, they could have made a whole episode around him
quitting. 

- Did anyone notice at the end of the commercial for this week's
Millennium they used the tag line "Don't watch it alone."  The same tag
line FOX used during the first season of X-Files.  Hey, if it worked once. 

- If Edward Skur was supposed to be trying to keep a low profile why did
he rent the house in his own name?  What did he do after Mulder's father
let him go?  Did he get a job?  How much control did the spider creature
have over him?  He wasn't able to stop it from killing his wife.  Was he
killing people for 38 years to feed the thing?  So many questions so few
answers. 

- It is too bad they couldn't get Darren McGavin to come back as Carl
Kolchak because this way it could have been a way to acknowledge the old
show.  In it we could have had the old retired Kolchak who has seen a lot
of strange things telling both Mulder and SCULLY the story of the killer
spiders or whatever, then taking it further to connect it to a current
case they are investigating. 

- What was the deal with Duchovny throughout the episode pushing his hair
to the side?  It wasn't exactly long enough to be in his eyes.  An early
Mulder quirk. 

- We get to see the Mulder of old wearing his glasses.  Nice to see he
wore them way back when especially since he doesn't wear them anymore. 

- Good old Edward Skur wasn't too smart. Instead of coming up behind his
house to avoid being spotted he decides to enter through the front door. 
The second bonehead award goes to Agent Dales who instead of following
Skur and getting into a better position to capture him yells out his name
even before he is out of his car. 

- Why did they drag out the scene where Agent Dales partner is going to be
killed?  This scene totally dragged down the rest of the episode because
we all knew he was going to get killed by Skur so why take five minutes
building up false suspense.  Just kill him and move the story along. 
Oops, maybe there wasn't much of one. 

- So what did Dales and the Coroner do with the spider they found in the
dead body.  Was it still alive?  Was it only part of one?  Inquiring minds
want to know. 

- We finally learn how the X-Files got it's name from the file clerk who
ran out of "U's" and decided "X's" were better since there were very few
cases that would use the letter X.  You have got to love bureaucracy. 

- Obvious letting Skur go didn't have the desired effect because no one
ever exposed him when he was alive and Mulder has never said anything
about it now that Skur is dead.  So basically Skur was allowed to go on
killing people.  This only proves how much Mulder is Bill Mulder's son
because Mulder's father failed to expose anything of the conspiracy just
like his son. 

	I don't want to make it seem like I totally hated the episode
because I didn't.  The one part I did like was Fredric Lane as the Young
Arthur Dales.  He actually was quite good as an agent doing his regular
F.B.I. job only to find out there is more going on than just communists
infiltrating the government.  They should have him play Agent Spencer from
"Project X/Red and the Black" from now on since he has a mature nature to
him whereas Chris Owens didn't as Agent Spencer.  One episode a season
without Scully and very little Mulder is fine, but two episodes in one
season that is pushing it.  We come to watch X-Files for their teamwork
and chemistry which was sorely missing in "Travelers".  If it wasn't for
Arthur Dales somehow questioning his own beliefs this episode might have
been a total loss.


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

3/30/98