WITHIN

AIR DATE: November 5, 2000
Written by Chris Carter
Directed by Kim Manners

        There was an article in Thursday, November 2 Boston Globe's Sports section by Bob Ryan about how it isn't the current Boston Celtics fault that they are not as good as previous Celtics. This is how I felt as I watched "Within", that it isn't the X-Files fault that they can't write better stories or as compelling stories as in the past. The comparison one is going to make is Scully's abduction in Season Two where briefly in 4 episodes we saw how much Scully meant to Mulder. Somehow I don't think we are going to get the emotional depth of "One Breath" in the upcoming episodes. How could Chris Carter top "One Breath"? He can't, and we have learned not to expect him to. The past is chasing X-Files and it looks like it will never escape it.

        It is hard to get enthused about the X-Files. If there weren't new episodes of "The Simpsons" and "Malcolm in the Middle" I might have forgotten there was a new episode since I got out of the habit of watching X-Files on Sunday nights this past summer. If I hadn't liked X-Files so much in the past I might not have come back to it (I have stopped watching shows after a summer of reruns). The main problem with "Within" is it moves at a glacial pace. It appears this is going to be one of those cases where one wished they had combined "Within/Without" and not dragged it out. It makes one think they don't have enough ideas to write 22 new episodes. But "Within" wasn't that bad, it was just boring with nothing new added to the storyline. Robert Patrick seems as if he is going to do okay as John Doggett, but how he works out with Scully is still in question.

        Now a few comments on "Within":

- Thank you Chris Carter and director Kim Manners for the cleavage shot of Scully at the beginning of the episode. It just added to the drama of Scully missing Mulder.

- Lucky for Doggett he gave Scully water and not hot coffee though it would have been more fun if she had thrown hot coffee in his face.

- Good to see Scully in her glasses and new ones at that. Also, has Scully's bathroom gone through another redesign since a cabinet was where her bathtub used to be. Is it sad that I notice these trivial things?

- Oh, did we really need to hear Scully vomit. Hey, we know she is pregnant so you don't have to throw it in our face. I can't wait to see 6 months pregnant Scully running after aliens.

- You would think with technology as advanced as it is today they would have invented a telephone bugging device that wouldn't give it self away.

- Dumb character move happens when Scully leaves her apartment with her door wide open to chase someone she thinks is outside her apartment. What was she thinking going out of her apartment with her gun drawn, she could have easily shot one of her neighbors and I know I wouldn't like one of my next door neighbors running around the apartment building with a gun. Though from her landlord's reaction to seeing her with her gun pointed at him it is a common occurrence. Also, what apartment building has an antenna in this age of cable and who would touch it in the middle of a storm.

- Good thing for Scully that Doggett was still at work. I guess Doggett doesn't have a family to go home to. Too bad because it would have added something different to a character though knowing me I would get annoyed if they concentrated too much on Doggett's family life. It's one of the reasons I couldn't get into "Law and Order: Special Victims Unit". Too much family not enough crime.

- Good to see Scully is still using the old have to feed Mulder's fish routine as an excuse to be in Mulder's apartment. Lucky for Scully Mulder has these fish to give her this excuse. Though it appears her hormones must be affecting her because she couldn't find the fish food. It would be a nice touch if we see the fish in Scully's apartment in later episodes. Thinking of apartments what is going to happen to Mulder's apartment? Who is going to pay the rent? Cancel the paper? Pay the electric bill? Well, that didn't seem to be a problem when Scully came back from being gone for 3 months. Of course, she had family who could have takien care of it. Best not to think of these things.

- I seem to remember that Mulder's father was buried in Massachusetts in the episode "The Blessing Way" and not North Carolina. Maybe Mulder had his body moved to the "family plot". Oh wait, I always thought his family came from Massachusetts. Or was it done so Doggett wouldn't know why Mulder headed down to North Carolina every weekend, otherwise it would have taken him two seconds to figure he was going to visit his mother's grave. Also, even if you expect to die you don't put the year you think you are going to die since you might not, but where would the dramatic effect be if it didn't have 2000 next to Mulder's name. Oh yeah, not a very good attempt to try to get the same emotional impact with the gravestone as we did in "One Breath" when Scully's mother had a gravestone made up after Scully's disappearance.

- Mulder sure didn't seem like a sick and dying person to me at the end of season 7 and I'm only writing this because of Scully's comment after looking at Mulder's medical record as if he was going to die quite soon.

- So the alien in the nuclear reactor enrolled Gibson Praise in a school for the deaf. Who says they don't care about us since they care enough to make sure Praise gets a good education.

- Everyone raise their hand if they don't think the Mulder with Praise isn't the Alien Bounty Hunter. Well, I see no hands raised. If it isn't the Alien Bounty Hunter I would truly be surprised.

        Well, there you have it another lackluster start to a season that never should have happened because as I've stated before X-Files is going to die a slow painful death, but when did common sense end a series before it becomes a shell of its old self. Who knows maybe it will turn itself around with Robert Patrick as Scully's new partner, John Doggett. Let's hope "Without" picks up the pace, but not where we get a feeling everything ends up being wrapped up in the last 10 minutes.

Claudia

E-Mail: Claudia.Cauchon@unh.edu

11/06/00

        Extra Comment: This has nothing to do with the X-Files, but I have to get it off my chest. Why start a new season of a show if you are only going to show the last 10 minutes of it. This is in reference to the FOX's network decision to go 20 minutes into "Futurama" because the football game ran overtime. My question to everyone is when doesn't a football game not run overtime which means FOX will be doing this for the rest of the year. FOX might as well not even start the new season of "Futurama" until the football season is over. Well, I guess I don't have to waste my time trying to watch "Futurama" until the football season is over. Let's hope I don't forget it is on and stop watching it. Networks wonder why their viewership is down.

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