And now for the first nit of the season:

At the Beginning of "The Beginning", Skinner implys that they are considering reopening the X-Files. But, they fought for that in Fight the Future and they reopened at the end. Did they open them in the summer and close them this fall?

Possible timeline:
"The End"
Fight the Future (Dallas through Antartic sceens)
"The Beginning"
Fight the Future (Tatouine sceene)

Is this needlessly complicated?

Also, the pannel is diffrent in "The Beginning" and the movie

To answer Charles Cabe's "Is this needlessly complicated?" I reply: it's "The X-Files". Of course it's needlessly complicated. :-)

I must be rusty on my nitpicking, or my alien infection/invasion conspiracy theories, because I picked up very little. To start, though, when the carpool van comes to pick up our poor exploded friend at 7:04 am, the van casts virtually no shadow. This would happen only if the sun were high in the sky, not low as in early morning. (Is this needlessly obsessive? It's nitpicking: of course it's needlessly obsessive. ;-)

I questioned right off how easy it was for Mulder and Fowley(sp?) to sneak into the nuclear plant and right up to the crime scene, after all that tight security beforehand. Of course, it may all have been a set-up, so stay tuned ... (Exactly what they want, no doubt.)

Is it really standard operating procedure for a hospital, when they've stuck tubes into virtually every orifice a little boy has, to still leave his glasses on? Just seemed a bit incongruous.

And just how radioactive was that room entered by Gibson and the driver-assistant to CSM? That flunky must be extremely loyal, because I would have been screaming for some lead jockey shorts before entering that place.

I thought it was a pretty good episode. They did seem to spell out the plot from the movie and what little we learned in big high letters. But I guess it was necessary for the non-movie goers to understand any future plots.

Nit
-After the guy injects himself with the virus and becomes cold, he turns up the heat to 80 degrees when he go home it was still day, wouldn't it be hotter than 80 already, he is in AZ. And I know it gets cold in the desert at night.

~Amos

It should be real hard for F&M to get in to a nuclear plant in the middle of a crime sceene. I worked during the summer at a paper plant and it is next to impossible to get in without ID, even if you work there. Do I don't see how they got in, unless Homer Simpson was working security.

Also, some of the machinery in the backgroud looked like the paper mill.

Well that was pretty interesting! Among other things, I continue to be amazed at Mulder's bravery (hubris?).

He knows this alien carries a virus that births other aliens within humans and then eviscerates those humans as the baby aliens birth themselves. Yet . . . yet he swirls his fingers in what is probably alien goop! Hmmm.

All in all though, this was fun!

Liked the way they worked in the last episode of S5 and the movie into this one. But I also assumed that the XFiles was reopened (based on the telegram). Apparently not.

Spender must be in a hurry to rise to the top. He's allied with his father, the CSM (and called him as such towards the end). Must be his way to get even with Mulder and Scully for losing his mom.

At the end, Scully asks Mulder to trust her. I thought that they had complete trust on each other. What changed that? The fact that she didn't back him up in front of the panel? I don't think it's because she's debunking him ... she's been doing that ever since. Or is it Fowley?

So, how does this vestigial "junk" part of our DNA get activated that differentiate "normal" humans from Gibson/"alien"? Sounds like they'll take the entire season to explain this one. :-) Hmm, sounds like we're all extra-terrestrial somehow ... ooh.

Well, just musing. :-)

Two time 47's ; 7:04 and 12:17 (1+2+1=4) (If I remember right)

I agree Mulder touching that alien goo was pretty stupid, you'd think he'd be woried about contracting something?

The soon to be exivated guy originally has his house temp set for 60 something, isn't that only like 10 celcious, wouldent that be awfully cold?

Just a few wonderments.

So who died and nominated that guy Lord and Ruler of the Car Pool? His friend was OBVIOSULY in some sort fo distress and looked, to me, like he was about to "get sick" all over that Van's nice upholstery. Would really have hurt to stop and let him purge? Granted, it wouldn't have helped, but the guy didn't need to be so crass with him.

In general, I like the "new" X-Files (filming in L.A. now) I'm sure there'll be some interesting episodes this year.

I'm concerned about this core-reactor room. The little bow and his kidnapper enter through a normal door. Into a room with rods sticking into a pool of water. If my limited knowledge of Nuclear Power Plants is correct THIS IS NOT A GOOD PLACE TO BE!!!! Nuclear Power Plants (I think) uses heated rods of uranium to super-heat slightly radioactive water, which they use to heat fresh water to turn turbines to generate electricity. This mat very well be the CORE REACTOR (even though it dosen't look at all like the ones I've seen discribed on TV). Not only that, but Mulder is trapped behind a heavy radiation door.... strange.

I guess we could also nit that now the conspiracy an other cases M&S will be pursuing seemed to have opted for a more arid climate.

Intersting note/NEWS. Not sure if anyone else caught this, but my local news station, apparently, got some behind-the-sceens info on the X-Files. And according to them, we will see Mulder's bedroom this season.

When Mulder and Scully get the boy, they take him back to a hotel (I think). Then they move away from him to the other side of the room and begin whispering about what they're going to do with him. Does anybody else see a problem with this: the boy can read minds! It probably doesn't matter where you are, unless his range is limited, but I know it isn't limited to just a few feet b/c in the last episode he tells Scully that the shooter (at least 100 ft way) has come to "get" her.

Not a nit, just an observation--a tip of the hat to the writer's for including a sleeping atomic power plant employee named Homer. When the alien killed him, I was waiting for him to say "Doh!"

Not mad at all!

The carpool guy seemed to get to his recently-deceased buddy's door awfully fast.

How exactly did our Gooey Alien friend get inside the plant in the first place without someone being alerted.

If I were Scully, I'd have stuck with Gibson in the hospital. I'd have a sneaking suspicion that he'd vanish somehow!

So why are the doctors in the OR so wimpy that they don't tell Cigarette Smoking Man to put out his butts?

Gibson has major brain surgery, but CSM sends him on the road anyway. We know CSM is evil and sadistic, but has he no sense of practicality?

[profanity deleted], someone already got the Red Dwarf reference. Theiving smegheads.

Actually Nicholas, Gibson told Fowley the turncoat that the shooter was aiming at her.

This episode cleared up some problems I had had with the movie (namely that the grays didn't seem violent). "The Beginning" makes it obvious that the long clawed killer alien is a "larval" stage.

That still doesn't explain the little dudes running around Strughold Mining in "Paper Clip", though...

I also loved the Simpson's reference. At first, I thought the inspector(?) guy was calling him Homer out of sarcasm, because he was acting like Homer Simpson, but it turns out the guys real name was Homer! DOH!

-- 12 --

Remember , Anonymous, this is a 0-profanity site. Phil, I agree with your nit-- but
M&S have a history of ignoring common sense apropos contaminites. Shirlyn, of course
*dear* Diana is Scully's problem... and I don't blame her. (Friendshipper/mild 'shipper
speaking.) Nicholas, we try, sometimes futily, to have privacy no matter what. It's
pychological. Mike, I saw that too... and I have a witness. [K.N.D.'s dad: She did. She
also said, when the guy turned up his thermostat, "He's alien-inhabited." There is no
way for you to check who this is, so you have to take it on faith. :-) ]
So there. :-)
Hans, I think the CSM controls the doctors... though I hope there wasn't pure oxy in
that room. :-o
the reason I'm only posting answers to other people's nits is because, well, you
already got them all. :-( As for the actual show, i really enjoyed it. I think this season
will be tighter, darker, than the previous seasons, although I hope there will be
humor too. Speaking of which, I LUVED the MiB reference. Well, that's it. If I see any
other nits when I rewatch my tape, I'll let you know...
P.S. I won't be too upset if 'Su'Spenders gets infected.

A few people seem to be confused about how the xfiles were reopened in the movie, and apparently only being considered for reopening in "Beginning." The impression I got was that while the x-files were opened again, there was nothing actually said in the movie about M&S being reassigned to them. That's what Mulder was fighting for at the beginning of "Beginning." Instead, the panel decided to assign two other agents to the xfiles, and reassign M&S, as we saw at the end of "Beginning."

So if they didn't want a conspiracy nut like Mulder on the Xfiles anymore, why'd they assign Agent Fowley? I gathered from "The End" that she was almost as into this stuff as he is.

I like the way they tied together the movie and "The End", although the "virus is part of our DNA" explanation sounded like the plot setup for the TNG episode "Genesis."

Some folks have alluded to this, but I gotta ask straight out...How come Mulder and Diana can just run all around the nuclear power plant without going through security doors, not having alarms go off, and so on? Maybe I've watched too many "meltdown" movies, but seems to me there've got to be some restricted access points at SOME place before they get to the center of it all...

And when Scully was yelling around the hospital corridor asking where Gibson was, did the cat get EVERYONE's tongue? NO ONE cared to even blink an eye at her question? very odd...

Have you noticed? This BBS is already at 32 k. And Sarah, the same thing happened to
Mulder in One Breath & Redux. (I think that's the name of the ep when Scully almost
dies of cancer. Help me out here.)
" How did she get here? Who did this to her? I swear, if you had *anything* to do with
it..

So if they didn't want a conspiracy nut like Mulder on the Xfiles anymore,
why'd they assign Agent Fowley? I gathered from "The End" that she was
almost as into this stuff as he is.

I have the answer to that. T.H.E.Y. wanted Mulder to feel like he'd been stabbed in the back, to get him off guard. Duh! Big red truck!

Of course this makes one wonder what T.H.E.M. is up to.

They are attempting to take everything from Mulder, to make him embittered,
indifferent, to give up The Quest For The Truth. Of course, this is a fine line to tread,
as They have pointed out repeatedly. They didn't kill Mulder's mom, because " the
most dangerous man is a man with nothing to lose." they repeatedly tried to kill
Scully: "Then we must take away that without which he cannot survive" etc.,etc.
I wish They would make up their minds... 8-

Scully contradicted herself here... in the movie, she told Mulder that the virus was quite clearly extra-terrestrial in origin; she couldn't identify it at all, but knew it couldn't come from Earth. Now, in "The Beginning", we very quickly discover that the virus is in fact apparently entirely terrestrial in origin. So what gives?

Nope. the impression I got was that the virus is E.T., it's just been visiting for a long
time--and somehow it got mixed into our DNA. I think that Scully is just too freaked
out and maybe a little frightened to admit it. (See Phil's sidebar, 'Whose Truth Is Out
There?' for more details on both of the character's oddities.) What was it that Gibson
(the chess kid) told her, that she 'already knew but didn't want to admit it?'
You know, this kid could have interesting consequnces for the MSR, if he keeps
blurting these things ou

I'm not so sure about how the series is going to deal with the reassignment of M&S to "mundane" cases. The show is going to have to do some Millenniumesque (Season 1) episodes, because if M&S become involved in weird X-Files-type things on every "mundane" case, things could get highly ridiculous.

Wherever Mulder goes, the paranormal will follow...
Just consider Detour and and whatever that one was where he had tickets to the
game. They basically took those cases for fun, yet, sure enough, the paranormal
turned out to be involved...It's my theory that the Consortium uses M&S as a pawn to
solve their problems.

Go Carter!!!!!! The Simpsons analogy was DA BOMB!

Another thing, I noticed that in the beginning of the episode the morning after the alien gestates when the camera shows the "CARPOOL KING"
coming up to the door through the window. The camera then pans over to the door and there is a table directly to the left of the window and there is nothing in between the table and the door. Later in the episode M&S enter the same room. This time the table is in front of the window and there is a light between the door and the table.

Oh, and another thing, I liked the fact that the Carpool King died (punk).

Note to Phil: I also just used this nit for registering into the guild so don't think that I got it from the Bulletin Thanks

Welcome to the Guild, Mike! Happy nitpicking!

What's up with Spender? His dad vanishes, appears out of nowhere one day, promises him "access", and bam! Spender is now willing to just stand there and let Cancerman tell him about his plans to destroy Mulder! Sure, I can se him disliking Mulder, but in that case, I might have a few bones to pick with my "dad" too! (Starting with, where have you been all this time?)

maybe Spender and CSM spent some "quality time" together off-screen. (Of course, WE never get to see good stuff like that!)

I sat there. I waited with baited breath. They talked about Mulder and Scully's escape from the artic. Mulder opened his mouth--to explain how the snow heated! Hey, bub, how about how you got back! Don't you know you have people out here who crave that information!

Aaargh!

I agree with K.N.D. It does seem like everytime they are pushed away from the x-files, they seem run into the paranormal when Skinner gives what originally appears to be some deadbeat job ends up being Mulder's specialty. The way I see it, Skinner either belongs to the consortium, or he seems to know the details about the case and knows that only M&S can solve.

I think that Skinner is employed by the consortium personally, but as far as I know, (Considering the fact that I haven't seen most of the 3rd and 4th seasons I couldn't tell exactly so correct me if I'm wrong) there is no hard evidence that Skinner is part of them. But I don't see why Skinner would have access to the file with the host after gestation and see the connection if no one has seen the host body after gestation except the scientist who happens to be dead underneath a playground in Northern Texas without having some sort of connection with the consortium.

By the way, thanks K.N.D.

Hey, Mark, that last bit: I have a book called Star Trek: Future Perfect. In it, there
interviews with several people including my favorite ST writer, Brannon Braga, while
he was co-writing ST: First Contact. (BTW, if you are under 18 and read this book, skip
the part at Braga's house-- it's REALLY disgusting.) Here is a bit of Ron Moore's and
Braga's conversation: (bear with me, this does have some connection.)
BB: "What do the Enterprise's engines use? Antimatter."
RM: "I don't think the Phoenix uses antimatter."
BB: "Then how does it go to warp?"
RM: "Well, we've implied that they are using a nuclear warhead in some way. We've
been careful not to say exactly *how*, because we haven't a (profanity) idea."
I think this is what happened here. CC didn't know how they could get back, so he
doesn't give it away. (I know that was a long way to go for that, but...)
Mike, I think they employ Skinner, but he's not necessarily a big fan of the

Just wondering, KND. Are you over 18? I think you mentioned something about being in school on one of the other 300+ boards at nitcentral.

PS this is probably none of my business.

No, it isn't really, but I'll tell anyway. And please don't spread this around on the
official XF site (not that I go there often, now; probably no one would recognize my
handle!) However, this being the official Nitpicker's BBS, run by Phil Farrand, I have
permission to say that I am under 18. I wouldn't say this on any other BBS, though. I
trust you guys to a certain extent, though I still wouldn't tell you exactly where I
live or anything stupid like that.
"Yep, enigmatic Dr. Scully!" ;-) ;-)

Does it really matter how old a BBS user is? I myself am only 16 but still have a position as a moderator on the SLIDERS board! I have also been a guild member since I was 13, so I think that as long as one knows what one is talking about, it doesn't matter how old they are!

Aaron, I believe that K.N.D is referring to her parent's desire to keep her safe from any wierdos (certainly not us <g>) that may be out there!

-12-

Affirmative... and you know how nutty some X-Philes are! GR&D
Long live LINUX!

Mulder doesn't have a bedroom. Not unless he moved. And if we're all "extraterrestrial" in some way, doesn't that make the virus terrestrial or at least imply that we aren't from Earth?

Not at all. The *virus* is extraterrestrial, and it has somehow become part of our DNA.
BTW, I was wondering: why is Scully the first one to notice this virus in human tissue
if it's been around for millennia? And yes, we *know8 Mulder either has no bedroom or
doesn't use it. Your point being? (G-rated site! and BTW, you misspelt your name. :-)
Long live LINUX!

This ep clears up a lot of confusion with the oil and the aliens, but we still have the three different types of oil (Piper Maru/Apocrypha, Tunguska/Terma, and Movie) and still no explanation of the clones, bounty hunters/shapeshifter, or the faceless dudes (Pt. X, Red&Black)

-12-

Hey, 12th Man, I don't know if you've seen it or not, but check out the discussion of the multiple types of alien oilies on the X-Files Game board. The game features yet another kind of alien oil, one that makes people as invulnerable as the alien bounty hunter and his ilk, and I theorized that perhaps the change from incapacitating alien goo from "Tunguska/Terma" to mind-control alien goo in "Piper Maru/Apocrypha" to chest-bursting alien goo in the film and "The Beginning" is a process of evolution.

You've got it backwards, Joel... Piper Maru/Apocrypha came first.

-12-

Yeah, I know, but what I was thinking is that the oil from "Piper Maru/Apocrypha" and from "Tunguska/Terma" are two different specimins. The oil that took over people in PMA had been on the planet for a while, so it knew how to use us as a host to take over. The oil from TT, however, had just arrived in a meteor, and so had not adapted itself to our bodies. Given some time, it would probably take us over like the oilies in PMA, kind of like reaching oily puberty J

Re: the reactor guy being called Homer by his colleague - I still think his workmate is being sarcastic when he calls him Homer, simply because he is a lazy oaf like Mr Simpson> It's simply probably because he is very similar to the cartoon character and his workmates have given him Homer as a nickname - they're having a dig at his slackness every time they call him that.

Why did the alien in the movie not need the intense heat of a reactor to grow? He seemed to be getting along fine in the Ice Age.

Well, we only saw the alien in the movie for a few minutess... we don't know what's wrong with it...

Pretty cool episode. I love the meaningless speeches we keep hearing!

some scenes were really funny, especially when Mulder stated his belief and sounded like a madman. I can't believe he didn't work his presentation with Scully ( 'cook up a story') before he came in.

Also - what about the 75% rate of case solving from ' Tooms' ?

The thug sent to take care of the alien is armed with what appears to be a regular pistol. Correct me if I'm wrong, but wouldn't that NOT work on this creature?

To K.N.D., et al: Trust No One

I just saw this episode 15 minutes ago on Swedish television and one thing really bothered me. How does an alien creature get into a nuclear plant. I assume they don't leave the doors open...

And another thing, why is it, forgive the pun, dark as oil in this plant, anyway? Don't get me wrong, I like the X-Files atmosphere but sometimes it's a bit far fetched. It sure would be nice to have such an important structure well lit. Or don't they have enough power?

Someone already got this sort of.....Mulder goes w/Fowley to the plant.....He tells Scully to take care of Gibson, watch the boy, don't let him out of your site....something like that, anyways, but there she goes and leaves the kid to talk to Mulder on her cell phone....again, why? When she comes back, won't Gibson just read her mind and find out what Mulder said anywho? I mean, how hard is it to watch one child who is practically tied down to his bed with tubes and such?

Regarding the oil discussion:

I think that the Black Oil is just a carrier mechanism. It can either carry an alien's consciousness (as seen in PM/A) or it can carry a virus that actually causes aliens to begin gestating inside a person (FtF/The Beginning). What's seen in Tunguska/Terma is nothing more than the carrying mechanism that can accept either "payload". Some have even theorized that there is just one kind of oil, that it carries a creature which can decide to either inhabit a human form or gestate an alien form.

The "paralyzing" oil is nothing more than the black oil substance with no "payload." Remember, the Consortium is supposed to be working on a distribution/dispersion system. To achieve this, they would need the black oil to test their system; however, there is no need to actually be working with actual virulent oil until the very final testing stages. Therefore, I theorize that the paralyzing oil is nothing more than the base black oil with no virus (what causes gestation in a human) or alien consciousness.

In the first ep with the oil it was just a carrier that the aliens used to get out of the old WWII sub at the bottom of the ocean.

good 1215401793362

Christer: It sure would be nice to have such an important structure well lit. Or don't they have enough power?
Thank you! This is a nuclear power plant! The security would be tight and everywhere would be well lit. Even before 911 trying to get in one would be like trying to get into a military base. Also, Gibson and the thug were in the reactor! Not only would this place also be well lit but getting in there should be extremely difficult and the radiation would severely burn you without protective gear.

I'm fairly certian that in the movie the Syndicate stated that the gestation-style virus was a new/mutated strain. However, since the movie version predates (chronologically) the other black oil the Piper Maru/Apocrypha... eps are likely the mutation, assuming it is one at all.

Why didn't Mulder take that shedded skin with him? Why didn't Gibson try to leave while that thug was getting killed, or when the alien returned to the water? I find it hard to believe that earlier Mulder was swayed away from his cause so easily and now Scully won't put all the obvious pieces together.

Shane: And just how radioactive was that room entered by Gibson and the driver-assistant to CSM? That flunky must be extremely loyal...
It should be very radioactive the way it was set up and that flunky is not only loyal but not very smart either. He should've just had Gibson lead him to where the alien is then either suited up or called in a tactical team that the Consortium/Syndicate seemed to use all the time in the past.

Sean: Scully contradicted herself here... in the movie, she told Mulder that the virus was quite clearly extra-terrestrial in origin; she couldn't identify it at all, but knew it couldn't come from Earth. Now, in "The Beginning", we very quickly discover that the virus is in fact apparently entirely terrestrial in origin.
Good point Sean. Perhaps she didn't run as many tests the first time as she did the second but that isn't following scientific practices. She also didn't have Gibson's test results either but she still would've discovered that "junk DNA" earlier. Speaking of which, that explanation doesn't sound at all realistic. Is there really such a thing as junk DNA that isn't being used?

Mike: I think that Skinner is employed by the consortium personally... But I don't see why Skinner would have access to the file with the host after gestation...
You may have come to this conclusion by now but Skinner is assuredly not employed by the Consortium; he only did a few favors for CSM to protect M&S. He's also the Assistant Director of the FBI and has unique knowledge of the X-Files so obtaining a file from the FBI and making a mental connection to something Mulder recently experiened is acutally quite believable.

Joel: The oil that took over people in PMA had been on the planet for a while, so it knew how to use us as a host to take over. The oil from TT, however, had just arrived in a meteor, and so had not adapted itself to our bodies.
Actually the 'oil' from TT arrived in that meteor quite a while ago, like a few centuries IIRC, it's simply of a different type that doesn't carry the DNA to form gestating aliens or to use humans as hosts.

Brian: In the first ep with the oil it was just a carrier that the aliens used to get out of the old WWII sub at the bottom of the ocean.
IIRC the oil in that arc was just trying to get back to its ship. It posessed the captain because it was searching for the ship and when that failed it found its way to a downed P-51 pilot. Between then and Piper Maru & Apocrypha the ship was salvaged but the posessed pilot remaind until those French divers came across it.