I found this episode surprisingly good. I thought the use of the Cops intro and the X-files intro together was the wrong idea. I think a Cops-style montigue with scenes from previous X-Files episodes would have been cooler. Oh Well.

I found the lack of conclusion a little frustrating, considering the Simpsons had left me hanging with a hilarious ending an hour earlier.

Well, this was a fun romp, wasn't it? I especially liked the commercial break intros featuring "The X Files" and the police lights.
I thought the continuous "bleeping" of the profanity was great.
Also, the two gay men were hilarious.

Best lines:

Mulder to Scully, concerning the cameras: "I don't think it's live TV, because she just said ****."

Mulder: "You're a ****ing police deputy! Don't be scared!"

Scully, concerning the second camera crew: "Jeez, more of you?"

Scully, finding the camera crew in the closet: "God, I really hate you guys."

Overall, a great episode!

Yeah, Mulder's line to Scully about it being live was the best.

What was this episode rated, did anyone notice? Usually even bleeped profanity is considered raising the "age" bar a bit.

I thought the gay men were annoying, personally. I could accept it because those sort of "I'm ready for my closeup" overdone personas really do show up on COPS a lot (I guess people with an eye for being on camera find a way to get in front of it). But ok, so it was like COPS. Did Vince think these guys were going to be funny enough that we'd want to go back to them? That seemed to be the motivation; I personally could have done without them. The portrayals *were* great, btw, only the writing left a lot to be desired.

I didn't like the episode all that much -- I didn't think it added anything to the series and a few good bits aside (the aforementioned "She just said *bleep*" was hilarious), I didn't find myself enjoying the romp aspects either. Neither was the "monster" all that interesting: how many times have we seen a monster who becomes what people fear? Come on guys, the werewolf might've at least been more interesting. I was also hoping the show'd focus more on the other cops and not just Mulder and Scully...it seems like M&S could have had some of the expositionary dialogue out of camera while we watched the other cops blunder around. I think it would've added to the effect, at least, what we got was really only "COPS, half way".

And worst of all, I think this episode's gonna blow the series continuity up completely. We've seen from a number of episodes that Mulder's a pretty recognizable figure, at least within a small cultish UFO-group minority, but we could accept the episodes where he was a complete unknown by the guest characters because he wasn't really a celebrity. But he's got to become at least somewhat notorious from this incident; if cops across the country don't know about him now, I think that will come across as a bit unlikely (wouldn't the story of this FBI guy who believes in werewolves spread around pretty quickly if a show presumably a lot of cops watch features him?) I guess the possibility exists that this was taped for COPS (within the context of the show) but never aired; such is the beauty of the format of it, I suppose. Still, I'll bet we see a throwaway joke about Mulder's having been on COPS a few episodes down the line...and nothing more. Oh well, this isn't a nit yet, obviously, but I think it's a little ridiculous.

(Never mind that "we have nothing to hide" nonsense. Skinner KNOWS Mulder, and he knows the guy's potentially gonna say stuff that'll make him come across as a lunatic. He'd either pull Mulder off the case or get rid of the cameras. Period.)

I personaly thought that "We have nothing to hide" was Scully's personal joke at the camera's expense, but I may have mised somthing when I burried my head under a pillow and started chanting "This is not happening, This is not happening, This is NOT happening..."

I loved Scully's reaction to the camera crew during this episode.

Would the camera crew really be allowed into the Mourg (sp?) like that for the Autopsy? And would the times when a camera or a microphone are visable be concidered nits J

This was fun. I hope we see some fallout from this; at very least, Mulder will become a lot higher profile, and his credibility is likely to increase a good deal too.

Since this creature isn't a werewolf, why was it keeping to the full moons?

Jason, the word is "morgue". I loved this ep. It was great and like Closure is one of my faves now. It's not the absolute best they've ever had but it was really good. I loved the great lines quoted above, too, and Scully's looking into the cam during the autopsy and repeating Skinner's offcamera line, rather sarcastically, "We've got nothing to hide."

Have M&S been officially transferred to the LA office of the FBI? It seems like every other episode is in LA/SoCal now.

(Never mind that "we have nothing to hide" nonsense. Skinner KNOWS Mulder, and he knows the guy's potentially gonna say stuff that'll make him come across as a lunatic. He'd either pull Mulder off the case or get rid of the cameras. Period.)

Perhaps Skinner wants Mulder to come across as a lunatic. Hmmmmmmmmm?

Shouldn't the deputy who was scared of the waspman have been relieved?

This episode reminded me of the Classic Trek episode "Wolf in the Fold."

>This episode reminded me of the Classic Trek episode "Wolf in the Fold." <

No kidding! I was half-expecting Mulder to look up into the corner of a room and catch that whirling red thing laughing maniacally: "Die, die, you're all gonna die!"

The episode itself didn't work for me though. Aside from Scully's comic relief, it just didn't ring true, either as a COPS or an X-Files show. And there's no way M&S would be having that "don't talk about this on camera" chat anywhere near a lens.

I did think the cinematography was outstanding though.

A fun concept (X-Files and cops! Hey, we've already met "The Simpsons"...next stop, "Malcolm in the Middle"!)...sabotaged by a dumb main idea. Frankly, the werewolf idea might have been better than the "greatest fear". Even better would be to have something which is a mystery that the audience can't guess in half a hour.

Some of this stuff was quite funny--the two gay men are the sort of people that pop up on "Cops" all the time, the cop's pointless pontificating is also typical (and Mulder even gets into the act), the woman speaking in a foreign language is also a familiar "Cops" figure. However, the episode seemed to forget that it was a "Cops" episode, as near the end we basically got a "X-Files" with an annoying camera view, as Mulder and Scully were on all the time.

The only really major quibble is--"How will this episode look when in the future, when 'Cops' is off the air?" It's like an episode of "Dragnet" taking place on "The Twilight Zone".

Also, some minor stuff--I was bugged by the fact that they started with the "Cops" theme (correct), then they did the "X-Files" theme (nooo), and ruined the mood with...credits (nooo).

I liked this episode. it's one of my favorites of this season.

My brother's girlfreind was quite content watching this episode of COPS until it was pointed out to her that it was an X-Files. She became audibly annoyed so I missed about the first 15 minutes of dialogue. "The FBI has nothing to hide" and Scully's smile-for-the-camera-Calvin grin takes on new meaning without hearing Skinner's comment on the phone.

As for the plot I was prepared for the cop we started with to be, knowingly or otherwise, the cause. After all, he is the only one to walk away from multiple encounters with the entity.

Lucsly, Dulmer, and their boss Kreinns do appear in the "Dragnet"-like story "God, Fate, and Fractals" in the most recent ST anthology.

I do have a nit -- when M & S go away from the video cameras, their dialogue is still very audible. If video cameras were being used, their dialogue would become fainter as they walked away from the cameras, which leads me to believe that one of them is wearing a body mike. I think that Scully is, because later in the scene, when Mulder walks away from Scully his voice becomes fainter. So, Scully ("I hate you guys") is wearing the body mike..

MikeC: I disagree, I was dreading the prospect that they'd remove the theme for this episode. In seven years, over the course of numerous storylines and incredibly varied episodes, that theme never changed. It's a little thing, but it added a real sense of constancy to a series that is really about ebb and flow. After all that, to change it for what's essentially a gimmick episode (for better or for worse...though I'd say in this case, it was for worse)...that didn't appeal to me AT ALL. Change the tagline if you have to, but don't lose the theme...not for this!

J Gordon: admittedly, their dialogue shouldn't have stayed at THAT constant a volume, but it doesn't have to do with distance from the camera. There were two guys in each camera team, and one was holding a mic, recording what was being said. Mulder and Scully walking away from the camera wouldn't necessarily decrease the intensity of their voices unless the guy with the mic wasn't following them.

Ccabe: oooh.

Have M&S been officially transferred to the LA office of the FBI? It seems like every other episode is in LA/SoCal now.
That's cuz the show has moved to SoCal, so they do most or all of the shooting down there now. I'm not sure if their offices are also supposed to be there, but it kinda makes sense if they are, though.

So? They shot in Vancouver for seasons 1-5, but they had episodes all over the country? Sounds like Carter is getting a bit lazy...

I thought it was the best Blair Witch-inspired story I've seen so far.

I was so afraid the show would turn into parody. But aside from a few jokes "She just said *bleep*" and such, it stayed pretty true to form for both X-Files and COPS.

There have been some commments about the dialogue in some of the scenes (particularly between the gay guys). It's possible (and almost seems likely) that some of that dialogue was improvised (a la Blair Witch). Certainly the whole show wasn't. But I got the impression that some of the scenes where the camera doesn't cut away for long periods of time were ad libbed. I have a friend who promised to find out for me.

I loved this episode. It was great. The jokes were wonderful and so was Scully's attitude toward the camera crews.

I believe that I have found a nit. At the beginning of the episode when the crew chases the officer guy, they turn on their lights so they can see as they run. At the end when they follow him into the house where he gets attacked by the creature it is almost pitch black in there and they don't turn on the lights. Do they not have the lights? Do they want to make the experience as real as possible or do they want to make the officer's job harder? Someone please tell me why they didn't turn these lights on.

In the scene where the police car gets
turned over, if you look carefuly, you can
see a slight fade revealing that it was
actualy two scenes spliced together.

It looks like the dashboard has changed
right before the car get rolled.

I really, really liked this episode, and I like it when shows go for the more freaky stuff (I mean like crossovers and "what if" stuff, not the freaky stuff as encountered on the X-Files), and I thought Scully's attitude towards the camera was just plain great. I was, however, hoping that it WOULD be a werewolf, because even a subject like that would look 'new' in such a fashion as X-Files was filmed in the episode.
Only recently did I begin actually hunting for nits, but it's hard because I never really get to watch episodes over and over (Dad never lets me tape them...grr) but I have found a few. However with X-Cops I just let myself go (very hard!) and just watched the episode.
One of the great "humor" episodes!