PLEASE say at the end of this, we'll learn it was all a dream...I can't think of a worse ending, except that this is supposed to be real.

After that opening sequence, I thought for a minute there the X-Files had been assimilated; turns out it was just Seven reliving old times on the holodeck.

So why not pull the power after Super Gameboy loses his hands but still has his head? I know we find out they couldn't later, but no one even tries. Glad I don't have friends with that kind of reaction time.

Apparently Mulder missed the good judgement class at the FBI Academy. Was he not paying attention when two other players died at the hands of this chick? But no, he has to get his "yah-yahs" out. And what was with those silly little sunglasses? It was kinda cute when he turned into King Arthur though.

These programmers don't use backup files either. Or maybe they have to shut down their holodeck properly as well. Too bad they never thought of "end program."

Oh btw, I missed the tag line this week. Was it anything different? (Personally, I think "resistance is futile" would've been great.)

The worst episode idea ever was "Sanguinarium". The worst episode ever was "Agua Mala". The writers, I guess deciding that this system was just too inconvenient, decided to combine the two into one of the absolute worst hours of television I've ever watched.

SO MANY MISCHARACTERIZATIONS! Mulder's no longer a driven guy with a dream, he's a hormonally-driven moron who has nothing better to do than charge headfirst into a dangerous video game. Scully is angered at the creation of this Evil Vixen character until she learns the underappreciated woman programmer created her out of a sense of girl power, and then it's ok. WHAT were they thinking?

SO MANY MISTAKES! So how *was* the game created? It wasn't "Kill Switch"-style VR suits this time; apparently, it was holographic. Were 'photons and force fields' used to create the real objects inside? Just how was this accomplished? Where did Mulder go when he disappeared, and why did he come back? The programmers apparently had an "out" the whole time and kept it secret; fine, but why did no one think to just pull the plug and cut the power when it got dangerous? And why send in Uber Nerd and, later, the Lone Gunmen to an environment that's proven fatally dangerous? Why did Scully and Mulder allow this?

Just so much wrong...I have no clue what they were thinking, unless this was supposed to be a parody of Star Trek Holodeck episodes. Fine, I suppose, it was effective as intentionally bad. But there wasn't enough of a payoff in the end to make it funny, it was just cringingly bad.

Three years ago, TXF was nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Dramatic Series. There's a reason for that, and I don't think it's any worse a show now than it was. But episodes like this...I can't imagine what they were thinking.

I missed this episode, should I be sad or relieved? (judging by the responce so far, relieved)

In fact...

Upon further reflection, this episode reminded me of "Ghost in the Machine" in that it used ridiculous science with no basis in reality to put out an "action-packed" episode with no basis in quality.

Opening tagline was the same ... although "Abort, Retry, Fail" might have been nice.

When the original players were entering the game, the countdown to the start was run twice.

Just how long does it take for Mulder to strip down to his undershirt and get into a heavy VR suit(that looks like it would require help, with all the monitoring equipment to attach) to go out and help the Lone Gunmen, who looked like they were going to get slaughtered any second? Did he really need to take the extra few seconds to remove his dress shirt so he'd look properly cool? Ditto for Scully later on.

Mulder throws down some heavy covering fire so the Lone Gunmen can retreat, but when the Goddess runs across the street, having killed twice already, no bullets, and not even a warning to halt. Maybe Scully's testosterone screed was on target.

And of course, when the Lone Gunmen head back out to rescue Mulder, they don't bring any guns. Take an aspirin, guys, because that is painfully dumb.

Is anyone else kinda surprised that the anti-male-hormone fantasy creation of Phoebe, meant to save her sanity from close proximity to slavering adolescent-like programmers, is dressed in high black-leather boots with a thong and cleavage out to Topeka? Just wondering ...

Hey, Scully, next time you go into a combat zone to rescue an unarmed fellow agent in trouble, bring him a gun. Firepower is the name of the game. (Okay, not literally, but you know what I mean.)

And does anyone remember when these episodes were remotely plausible? When Scully had a rational explanation ready for whatever goings-on happened? (sigh) They can do better than this.

I quess I'm in the minority with me actually liking the episode. Though I have noticed the same nits the rest of you guys had.
I'm with you BG, that it did seem like Scully did change her mind with the vixen when she found out that the female was the one her introduced her. Though Scully still did point out to her, that she is a killer.
Plus, I like the idea that it was two women who were responsible for saving the day. Scully, who was out there, so the vixen didn't get a charge out of her non-male hormonal drive, and the female programmer who through the kill-switch.

I enjoyed the action and stuff.

But who decided to change everyone's characterization? Mulder, Sully, even the Lone-Gunmen were acting totally out of character.

They seemed like a parody of themselves.

As for the game, I couldn't help but cring throughout the episode.

the game is based on lights and stuff, right? It shoots the first victim, slashs the second guy. How the hell did lights do this?

And this vixen "jumped programs".

And can this the computer geek girl programming and "body-scanning" this character into existance. It seems strange a girl would create the thonged wonder woman she created. Also at the end was that a character of Scully?

One of the lone gunmen was shot (I'm rotten with names.) The suit was zapping him so he couldn't get up. So how did he get back to the pod? Nobody dragged him, that I saw.

The timing of all the humor in this episode was completely off. If that "who's on first" bit ("Mulder's right there!") is the sort of witty banter we can expect from the Lone Gunmen spinoff, I'm going to shoot the television. Ugh!

I liked the ep, too, for the most part, but some nits I found were when Scully entered the game chamber after the game disappeared and the Lone Gunmen were looking for Mulder. She enters at the only way in or out, at the top of the staircase, where she asks them where Mulder was, and gets no response. Then cut to commercial, and when the ep resumes she's down on the floor with the guys, then asks the question again. So, she gets no reply to her question at the top of the staircase, goes down the stairs (however long that's supposed to take) to the floor, repeats the question and then the guys reply to her? I realize the show had to cut to commercial but couldn't they have had her ask the question only once after the commercial break so that she wouldn't have to ask twice?

Here's another nit, to go along with what Amos said about the game being based on lights: When the CGI chick in her knight garb disappears, so does the sword. But when she gets it stuck in that column or post, Mulder is able to retrieve it and to use it prop the door open. A real door! But the sword is also CGI, so why didn't Cyber Chick make it disappear before or when he got to it, or let him use it to stop the door from completely closing he and Scully in?

Speaking of doors, the LG said the one at the top of the stairs was the only way in or out, and yet they can enter from the one that goes upwards? Apparently the writers, or Carter, or maybe me missed something there.

Well, I liked that we were back to a traditional "Mulder and Scully investigate the paranormal" thing, without silly voice-overs (except at the end--why does that feel like a Carter idea?) or strobe lights. Ivan (who looked like Jon Stewart, in my opinion) actually seemed like a realistic character, and I bet he was about to start manufacturing a "X-Files Game" for a second there.

In fact, that would be a better idea altogether. Remove the silly VR stuff (which seems totally unrealistic at times--and I'll have to say possibly illegal the second or third time), and give us a witty episode involving a shooter game based on the X-Files.

And the ending...yes, Ivan invented "Tomb Raider". Either that or "Penthouse".

::Is anyone else kinda surprised that the anti-male-hormone fantasy creation of Phoebe, meant to save her sanity from close proximity to slavering adolescent-like programmers, is dressed in high black-leather boots with a thong and cleavage out to Topeka? Just wondering ... ::

Actually- it makes sense- the Phoebe character was a weak-willed woman who had power issues in a male-dominated world. So what is her "goddess"? A powerful sexy woman - someone who has power over Men. If you doubt that her goddess had such power, just look at the goddess-model's interrogation scene. Right out of Basic Instinct. I sort of see this whole episode as a little tongue in cheek- and as such, am not as bothered by the above-referenced nits.

How could Mulder let the female suspect go on his own? He is not, after all, an LA County Deputy Sheriff.

Yea, I wondered that myself. Unless, the officers arrested Miss VanBlue for Maulder and Scully, and After they didn't have need of her, they were allowed to let her go.

Yet another SoCal episode. This episode should have been based in Northern California - either Silicon Valley or San Francisco.

Let's see M&S move about the country more!

I can't believe that Ivan would not let the machine be shut down... He's facing an investigation into the deaths of two - count them TWO - FBI agents if he doesn't shut the thing down...

MikeC: I thought that's what they were going for too. Actually, I was expecting an ending similar to the one at the end of the Star Trek: Voyager episode "Living Witness", where we found out everything we'd been watching was a simulation. I thought the mischaracterizations and the awful plot itself HAD to be intentional, and that we'd get an ending to let us know as much. As Len said, I'm still sure the episode wasn't intended to be serious, but this show used to be above campy apologetic self-parody, especially of the low, witless breed they did this week.

ScottN: agreed, that's three in a row, isn't it?

MikeC: I thought that's what they were going for too. Actually, I was expecting an ending similar to the one at the end of the Star Trek: Voyager episode "Living Witness", where we found out everything we'd been watching was a simulation. I thought the mischaracterizations and the awful plot itself HAD to be intentional, and that we'd get an ending to let us know as much. As Len said, I'm still sure the episode wasn't intended to be serious, but this show used to be above campy apologetic self-parody, especially of the low, witless breed they did this week.

ScottN: agreed, that's three in a row, isn't it?

I really wish it didn't let you accidentally do that.

Now I remember the other one: In the teaser, the geeks shoot the eurovillians in their sniper positions at the top of those enormous industrial garage/warehouse things. When the first one is shot on camera, he goes down and starts twitching before dying. But the players can't see him. Why did they waste the cycles on a dramatic death scene? No wonder they don't have any computing power left to back up the system software.

Ivan's not that great of a businessman. The very nature of this game is top secret. But for it to ship, he needs to have partners who are willing to build the physical buildings the gamespace runs in. No mention of such partners anywhere, and when Ivan comes back happy that they guy's death was "unknown causes," he only talks about shipping the software. What about the rest of it?

Yeah the game space idea seemed strange. This guy is going to build this game in shopping malls and arcades right? What kind of arcade could afford the space for the game and then the ratio of space to player. I mean you would have to charge quite a bit to make the game profitable.

So, and this is perhaps the most burning question from the episode, how did the two guys die?? It seems to indicate that everything in this game is merely projected (a feat in itself), but how precisely does light (non-lasers anyway) severe limbs and shoot bullets?! Or is this like a holodeck? Is there some physical subtance to the game? And then there is a problem and (gasp!) the safety protocols get turned off.

What bothers me most about this episode is that it seems to have been recycled from many different Star Trek shows. It doesn't help that Voyager did it (again, oh no, we've lost the safety protocals) in last week's episode. Sigh. This one was somewhat fun, but it ain't X-files

The warrior chick has already killed twice without mercy, so when Mulder comes face to face with her, he holds his fire and tries to talk to her? I would think you would shoot first and ask questions later. Where is Methos when you need him?

And why is Mulder still alive? Mulder gets knocked out, and later faces this killer weaponless, but she lets him live. Very inconsistent.

Interesting that the kill-switch is "Ctrl+Alt+Bloodbath" ... I think that was what Phoebe said. I was expecting "Ctrl+Alt+Del" ;-) Or maybe a different key like Break so as not to be obvious. But "bloodbath?" which key is that?
I could've sworn that when we see the monitor when Frohike says Mulder is still alive, I saw the heart pressure being "10" then correcting itself to 100+. Was I right?
BG:The Lone Gunmen went into the game without M&S knowing 'coz they were both in the police dept. And they all thought it was safe 'coz it was only background and not the "real game." But I agree, after the 2nd death, why not shutdown the game? And why send someone to beat the "goddess" ... it's a game so it'll be there always unless you delete her subroutine. Besides, granted there was no backup, shutting it down won't delete the game unless it's in RAM all this time. :-P
Why have the game-gear jolt the wearer when they are "killed" in the game? Why not just disable it 'til the end of the game as in the laser-tag temp disables? If "shooting the •••• out of everything" is a testosterone-driven thing, what's the jolt-pain for?
DonnaL is right ... why is Mulder still alive. Mulder is just one lucky guy I guess ... must be 'coz his birthday is coming up. The 2 guys the goddess encounters she kills but she leaves Mulder alive? And yes, the sword did seem out of place in the guns/tanks world of this game.
Why didn't they all think of looking through the game doorway when they were trying to find Mulder the first time he "disappeared into the game?" That's how they found M&S at the end of the show. Or did it have anything to do with the game being deleted thus releasing them?
And one last thing. Scully or Mulder made a good point that it was hard to get into the facility. Can understand about scanning the FBI id's but what was the retinal scan for? Did they link to the FBI db or something? Or was it for the FPS's own db?
Ok, that's all from me today. Ciao.

Mark: Byers was the one that got hit.

Mark Morgan got one of my nits: I was under the impression they were going to ship this game to malls, and make a bunch of dough...seems like they should at least check in to paintball franchises for the space that's going to be required...

Mulder was the only one wearing dark glasses...

the actual game seemed like major dullsville to me...
Who wants to play a game where nothing much happens? You get a gun, or maybe a sword, then a bunch of bad guys try to shoot you before you shoot them enough times. The environments were static and sterile. I'd rather play pong.

Um...why do players need to wear kevlar vests in the game, if they don't serve a protective function?
(well, they didn't work, anyway, but that's beside the point).

this episode was pure TIAC. I was bummed.

The killswitch was Shift-Alt-Bloodbath.

William Gibson cowrote this one. He did much better with Killswitch.

ScottN, thanks for correcting me ... but still, which is the bloodbath key? ;-) Just kidding.

This was yet another episode that was co-written
by the Carter and the creator of the entire
Cyber-Punk sub-genre of Sci-Fi,which explains the
over all feel of the episode.

The one thing that I really didn't understand was
how a player could be beheaded for real in the
game.It was understandable how Retro could die,since he was shot to death(presumably it had
to be psychosomatic as he believed he was believing shot for real).Unfortunately the same
premise doesn't work for getting your head lopped
off.

This is one for the Red Head of the dual!!!!!:)

Lopped off? Maybe the lopper did it! (see the frogger episode of seinfeld for this). I woulden't want to play a game like this. A little too real for me, I think I'll stick to having it only take place on a computer monitor.

I find it hard to believe that with that many people shooting at them that they didn't get blown to bits in a couple of seconds.

From the techno-bable (imagine that, technobable in the X-Files!) that Programer Girl and Finance Boy were spouting, I got the impression that 'Gamespace' was just a room with big video screen walls and you used special laser guns to make the program think characters were dead. The jumpsuit was supposed to act like the VR suits in Killswitch.

But then Mulder diassapeared.

So a room covered in TV screens can digitize people?

Imagine the fortune you could make sending digital people around the world at Internet Speed :).

No, I don't think it was just TV screens; I think the fact that they existed in 3D space (remember, you could move "around" the guys on motorcycles and run through the space they were occupying) indicated that they were actual holograms. Again, how they did what they did is anyone's guess, though.

As for psychosomatic deaths...thank God this wasn't the way it was. I was really worried about this; it's become such a cliche ("the body thinks its been shot so it acts like it") -- every scifi series including the X-Files a few times has used this not-that-great-an-idea-guys gimmick. It was perhaps the one pratfall this episode DIDN'T fall into.

Didn't read the nits. This has probably been said by just about everyone but here goes anyway...Just wanted to say that I've been a LOYAL X-Phile for the past 7 years and the only thing I can think of after seeing this "episode" is "Oh my god did THAT ••••!". What the hell is going on - didn't the x-files used to be good?

I agree with Len, loved the interrogation scene. Definitely a takeoff on Basic Instinct, and quite an inside joke, if anyone ever watched "The Larry Sanders Show" when David Duchovny was on it. It was done quite like the Larry Sanders/Duchovny scene.

How exactly would Mulder dissapear? And why
did the programmers think mulder would
disappear when the game was shut down ?
There's no matter involved at all.

How exactly was Mulder able to keep the
door cracked open with a holographic
sword? Wouldsn't the part going under
it disappear?

And how about just typing "quit"
at the nearest console when things got too
rough :)

Did anyone else get close captioning
that was ahead of the dialog by nearly
30 seconds? (here around Los Angeles it was).

Yes, got closed captioning way before they said it on audio (Dallas, TX). Made one feel almost psychic--the Great Yappi would've loved it.

Shouldn't that be "The Amazing Yappi"?

If the Goddess jumped into the usual program, what was happening when they went to level two? What was originally firing at people?
She had already shown she was capable of going up to people and blowing or lopping their heads off, so why stand back and make duplicates of herself just to fire at Mulder and Scully? Why not use the tank she had at her disposal?

Despite the nits, my girlfriend and I enjoyed this, including Scully's "yah yah" remark and Mulder's fake excited "Daniel Masachi!" enthusiasm.

They missed such a grand, perfect opportunity to have Esther's cyber-consciousness from the episode "Kill Switch" return and infect this somewhat metaphysical, currently impracticably realistic holographic scenario/arena. As it stands, the episode is mediocre, at least in my opinion. By the way, the actress portraying the female programmer/designer is the same actress who appeared on those nicotine patch commercials.

This has got to be the worst X-File to date. I thought "3" was bad, but this..... I couldn't believe this was an actual episode. Who wrote it, Carter's 13 year old nephew? No wonder Duchovny left after this season. He saw the writing on the wall.

After catching a few episodes of "The Prisoner," I realized the similarity between this episode and "Living in Harmony" pertaining to the said '60s/Patrick McGoohan cult series are quite evidential. However, it is the episode of "The Prisoner" that makes more logical sense, believe it or not.