AIR DATE:  November 24, 1996
Written by Chris Carter & Frank Spotnitz
Directed by Kim Manners

	"Tunguska" continues where "Piper Maru/Apocrypha" left off with
the oily alien creature getting into people and Cigarette Smoking Man
getting all panicky over what Scully and Mulder are about to find out.  As
is always with 2 parters it is hard to tell where this story is taking us.
We have Mulder running to the middle of nowhere and finding out more than
he bargained for, and Scully back in Washington trying to cover for
Mulder. I have to say this part one is a lot more satisfying than last
season's finale.  Heck, it would have made a better season finale since it
would have giving us a lot more to talk about such as what the hell
happened to Mulder, etc.

	Let's see what we have so far in "Tunguska":  the consortium tries
twice to bring into the country those oily alien creatures, Mulder instead
of doing the old following the money deal does following the pouch, these
oily alien creatures don't seem to have the same abilities as the ones
before, Krycek is back and is as ratty as ever, Scully ends up testifying
in front of a Senate Subcommittee about Mulder's activities, and Mulder
becomes a part of a nasty Russian experiment.  So what have we learned
from all of this, hmm, not really much other than that there are more of
these oily alien creatures out there and the consortium is using them to
experiment on people, and Mulder once again gets into something way over
his head.  There really isn't much more to comment until next week's
conclusion.

	Random thoughts on "Tunguska":

- I found it interesting when Mulder mentions the incident with the custom
officer in Hawaii he didn't mention what happened to him.  Did he know
what happened from his sources or did he decide he didn't need to tell
Scully about everything that happened in Hawaii since it would have been
important informatin in relation to what happened to Dr. Sacks?  This
seems to be the case throughout the episode where you would think more
information would be given out to an individual such as when Mulder leaves
Scully to get Ratboy out of Skinner's apartment.  He never tells her what
is going on so she heads off to Goddard Space Center without knowing what
Mulder is up to though I guess she is so used to it by now she doesn't
even bother asking him where he is going.  I just found this kind of
disturbing since it seemed to be used more to manipulate us the viewers,
than to give us or the characters any real information on what's going on
in the episode. 

- Did anyone else think Scully and Mulder looked just a little bit
ridiculous in those combat outfits?  Somehow they just didn't act
naturally in them.  It cracked me up seeing them in those outfits
especially when they had the helmets on.

- Looks like it was another rainy week in Vancover since almost every
outdoor scene it was raining from New York City to Russia.  No wonder
Duchovny would like to move back to L.A. I think I would if I was stuck
working in the cold rain all day.

- I admit I've never been to Dulles Airport, but I find it hard to believe
Dulles or any airport in America would use military time, ie. 18:45 to
show what time a plane has arrived.  Nothing like using those Canadian
Airports. 

- Would Skinner really have left Ratboy by himself in his apartment as he
goes off to work?  Somehow I can't believe Skinner would trust leaving him
alone though Skinner ends up paying for it by Ratboy throwing a man off
his balcony.  Just one of those plot conveniences you have to ignore when
one of the characters acts slightly out of character. 

- Poor Ratboy not only does everyone get to beat him up (except Scully who
has too much class to do somthing like that), but he ends up being stuck
wearing the same clothes for the whole time.  Boy, I hate to think how he
and Mulder looked on the plane heading to Russia.  Oh yeah, I laugh
everytime someone punches him, especially the last one where he is bugging
Mulder to tell him what is going on and Mulder just punches him one.  You
can just feel how much Mulder wants to kill him for all he has done. 

- Boy, the toxic suit Dr. Sacks was wearing wasn't too protective to keep
those oily creatures out which kind of defeated the whole purpose of him
putting on the suit in the first place.  I guess it is time to get the
lawyers out to sue the company that made the suit.

- I always liked how in tv shows a person is able to go up to a person's
apartment door without having to be buzzed in or even be stopped by
security.  Mulder goes right up to the Uniblonder door with no problem. 
Speaking of the Uniblonder she really isn't as careful as Mr. X or Deep
Throat since she lets him in and gives him diplomatic documents, and she
sure looked at Mulder in a very loving way.

- Loved the scene where CSM goes to see Well-Manicured Man at the horse
barn and the WMM is watching someone who I presume is his daughter riding
a horse.  The look she give CSM is one of pure hatred.  No one likes CSM. 
Oh yeah, I found it interesting the blurb the TV Guide gave the episode
described WMM as CSM's superior.  I always thought of them as equals in
the Consortium.

- So the Consortium has their own counterpart in the Senate with Senator
Sorenson.  Oh well, I guess it wasn't too hard for them to find one in the
Senate though it makes one wonder where Senator Mathanson is in all of
this stuff.  I wonder if he lost in the last election. 

- Okay, now if we take what Ratboy says as true about how those militia
men found him in one of those North Dakota silos what does that say about
the Consortium security around the place.  Also, they found Ratboy with an
alien ship.  Did they not question why he was stuck in an abandoned silo
with an alien ship?  I guess they were too busy trying to get supplies for
their big attack on the Federal Government.

- You would think Mulder would learn that everytime he goes off without
Scully (or even telling her where he's going) he always ends up in
trouble, and she always has to come to his rescue.  I have to admit I kind
of feel Mulder got what he deserved since once again he goes off looking
for the "truth" without thinking about what he was getting himself into or
what the repercussions would be.  Scully once again is the one with some
common sense when she tried to tell Mulder that she would only follow him
so far in his search for the truth, which was her way of trying to tell
him to slowdown and not get himself into a situation where he could end up
dead.  It isn't that Scully isn't willing to risk herself to find the
truth, rather she wants to bring these people to some kind of justice.  We
don't know at the Senate hearing whether or not she knows what has
happened to Mulder, but even in her statement where she states there are
people who work outside the law she still hopes that there is some way to
bring these men to justice.  We of course know this won't happen since the
series has another year or so, and I can't imagine seeing CSM behind bars
for the most of it.  It does show a contrast in different beliefs Scully
and Mulder have about justice and how those beliefs were most likely form
by their childhood, Scully grew up in a loving stable family while Mulder
grews up in an unstable family.  Scully and Mulder's backround shows why
Scully would think justice can be served while Mulder's backround doesn't
believe such justice can be met so he goes off in his quest for the truth
at any cost. 


	As I stated earlier "Tunguska" continues where "Piper
Maru/Apocrypha" left off though this time things are a little bit
different with our oily alien creatures.  I have to admit even though I
know Mulder will be all right in the end, I am kind of interested in
finding out what these oily alien creatures do to their victims and how
Mulder is going to come out of it.  Somehow I think Scully is going to
have to come to the rescue once again.  Anyway, it was a good solid first
parter with a lot of action (mostly Ratboy getting beat up) and CSM
letting things get out of control.  It will be interesting how Chris
Carter and Co. solves this two parter and how much more they will confuse
us about the conspiracy.


Claudia
E-Mail:  Claudia.Cauchon@unh.edu
 
11/25/96

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