XFLB review for "My Struggle III"

XFL’s review of My Struggle III

By Christopher Irish

All italic comments by Matt Allair

Season eleven of The X-Files picks up where season ten left off. The cliff hanger with Mulder and the rest of the world suffering and dying of an Alien contagion or disease propagated by CSM and his world ending conspiracy left fans clamoring for answers and explanation.  If the X-Files has taught fans anything, though, it’s to trust no one. Or no plot arc.

The intro of the premier has CSM explaining why he’s done what he’s done. Again, trusting his word is shaky at best. He’s been a power player behind the Alien Conspiracy since the beginning as we know. He’s at times been part of the group of powerful men who set the wheels of invasion rolling and has been ostracized from that group. It seems that at this point in the series he’s engineered his way into being the most powerful man on Earth, deciding the fate of millions. We then see the familiar intro ending with “I Want to Believe” which turns into “I Want to Lie”. That should be in the backs of viewers minds the whole time this show is on, by the way.

(The title sequence closing tag line makes the theme of the episode explicit – I Want To Believe – I Want To Lie. This works on several levels, is belief founded on lies? If the Truth is the two edge sword, are lies built into the truth even for some greater good? Can our belief become so fervent we will ignore inconvenient truths?)

The season ten finale turns out to be a vision by Scully causing her to have a seizure. Mulder and Scully’s relationship has been the core of the show from the beginning with their initial distrust that gradually led to them only relying on each other and their eventual relationship culminating in the conception of their son William. William has been at risk since he was born and has been hidden away for his own safety. Early in the episode former Special Agent Jeffery Spender being attacked by an unknown assailant who says they “want the boy”. The boy, we can only assume at this point, is William. Spender’s relationship with Mulder and Scully is another shaky one. He is CSM’s son the same as Mulder is but where Mulder rejects CSM and his conspiracy, Spender embraced it and tried to be part of it but the cost of his decision left him horribly disfigured.

(Fans have been wondering why Spender seems less disfigured from the last time we saw him from The Truth, Orodromeus from Eat The Corn assumes his reconstruction was due to conventional plastic surgery, but one cannot dismiss the possibility that the reconstruction was alien, by whom, without the benefits of Carl Spender’s access, is hard to say. But if the remains of the alien rebels exists, it could explain this.)

Once Scully wakes up she conveys her vision to Mulder about the plague CSM will unleash on the Earth’s population. Mulder doubts her cautiously since the last time he saw CSM was when he presumably died in a helicopter attack in the desert. Mulder trusts Scully enough to go search for CSM and find out what their son has to do with the plot. Immediately he is tailed and one of the more extensive car chase scenes in X-Files history ensues.  While Mulder is playing out Scully’s vision Scully is left at the hospital. Spender shows up and informs Scully that someone is after William. Spender knows where their son is and Scully begs him to tell her where he is. As she tries to leave we join CSM and Agent Reyes discussing the situation. CSM mentions that if his plan leaks out it would be dismissed as “fake news”. The X-Files’ touching on cultural issues continues.

(A Key point missed that fans whom are insisting that because SM II was a vision, that the prior episode Babylon didn’t exist, is the detail of Mulder’s car. Aside from the question if Miller and Einstein recognizes Mulder. There is the fact that Mulder is driving Miller's mustang from MS II. Miller's license plate from MSII is JVR-1131 and Mulder is driving this same car and plate in MSIII.)

Scully calls Mulder from his desk and Mulder tells her where he is, which is part of Scully’s vision she warned him about. As she’s talking to Mulder she suffers another seizure. According to her visions, CSM’s end game is to reset the Earth’s population in his image. Only select people will survive the apocalypse as the planet is returned to, in CSM’s words, a “savage state”.  It seems that his plan requires William for unknown reasons, hence why everyone is searching for him.

(Much of the plot points about Scully’s visions, while likely channeled via their Son William, does mirror Mulder’s brain storm during “Biogenesis” and season Seven’s “The Sixth Extinction I and II. Much of the episode mirrors ideas laid out with “The Sixth Extinction” series. But Season Seven did expand and reset the conspiracy. This brings up the fundamental flaw with fans who cling to the narrative laid out “Redux I and II”, treating the information laid out in season five as gospel truth, and that should never have been taken at face value. The X-Files has always played with the theme of Empirical Truth and Subjective Truth, and most of the time has leaned towards Subjective Truth.)

Mulder arrives at a mansion after his long car chase that led him through multiple states where he discovers and talks with members of the Alien Conspiracy who broke off from CSM years ago. It turns out they didn’t factor into CSM’s vision so their plot is to eject themselves and other ‘worthy’ individuals into space where they will survive the impending cataclysm with CSM’s Alien Virus. So now there are two competing conspiracies in the X-Files universe. Scully, attempting to go in search of William ends up crashing her car due to her seizure issues. Mulder is busy discussing the remaining Syndicate member’s own plot to save themselves. They try to ply Mulder into working for them by assassinating CSM, which Mulder declines. Meanwhile CSM and Reyes have AD Skinner in a car where CSM threatens him with his Pathogen intended on slaughtering the population.

(At this point Carl Spender completely represents hubris, he was a key henchmen for The Syndicate, and as various members were killed off via in-fighting, or the Alien rebels from season five, Carl Spender took on the mantle of the cause, or his own idea of such a cause. His pathology leading to act as judge, jury, and executioner of the mere pawns of mortal men, thus, his hubris reminds of Christian Dominionist, Dispensationist Tim La Haye. In Spender’s case he has become to believe he is God.)

The Syndicate members tell Mulder that the Alien Invasion that was a threat for so long has been called off due to humanities destruction of their own environment. The social commentary is no doubt divisive in today’s increasingly polarized culture. The X-Files has always played off cultural events and there is no shortage of social and environmental issues for the series to delve into. If the reasoning for the invasion never occurring is true, it does explain why the time table never was met in the series. It could also mean that it was rescheduled or was a ruse the whole time since CSM and the Syndicate’s word should never be trusted.

(Some fans dismissal of the Global warming comment miss the point. Mr. Y’s comments should not be taken completely at face value, but in spirit, his explanation makes sense when you consider the events depicted in season five, and especially the feature, Fight The Future. Mulder saves Scully in the arctic with the vaccination injection that reverses the gestation process that was begun by the insect carrier, via Purity Control. But this action triggers the mother ship into activation and escape, hence, the Grey’s had realized that humans had the knowledge to reverse the gestational plague, and therefore Earth was no longer a viable option for colonization. But that does not mean that Carl Spender did not have his own ideas about who deserved to exist. There is no reason to not believe there weren’t multitier viruses that served different purposes if the aim was the deplete the population without the use the technological weapons.)

Mulder hears the Syndicate member’s explanation that their game plan is to basically eject humanity to space for colonization but ultimately declines. He leaves to find and help Scully who is now back at the hospital thanks to Agents Einstein and Miller, making their only appearance in this episode. While Scully is in bed a man attempts to kill Scully only to be saved at the last moment by a scalpel-wielding Mulder. They both sit together finally as the dead man is cleaned up and the police do their job in the background and Scully tells him that her visions are caused by William. This seems to be more of a feeling than a solid answer, no doubt we will revisit this issue during this season. Skinner shows up and Mulder confronts him since he tried to contact him. Mulder’s inherent distrust in anyone but Scully and he shoves Skinner saying he smells like smoke.

Now is where things get tricky as we see through flashbacks that indicate that CSM is the father of William, not Mulder. Scully seemingly agreed to a trip where she was drugged, or according to CSM, passed out after being awake for thirty hours. The implication that CSM may have raped her is there, either by himself or through scientific means of fertilizing Scully with an embryo. The issue has rose concerns over Scully’s situation, rightfully and the implication that CSM is the father and not Mulder has definitely caused an uproar with the fan base, and more specifically the “shipper” aspect of the fanbase.

That said, we should keep in mind that CSM has a long, terrible history of being a known liar when it suits his needs. Whether or not William is actually CSM’s and possibly a super human birthed by Scully or Mulder’s child who may have suffered altering effects by Scully’s past abduction remains to be seen.

(This is probably one of the fundamental misunderstandings of the episode. With little doubt, Carl Spender is one of the most deceptive figures in television history. He has always used lies to suit his needs, even forcing a Samantha alien hybrid to pose as Mulder’s sister as a distraction starting in Colony. What his final aims are at the moment are elusive, but there should be little doubt that he views William as a threat, and as a potential tool. Look at the tragic history of Gibson Praise, who’s parents were murdered, and once the boy was abducted, exploratory surgery was done on his brain, and the boy as a teen was forced to go into hiding in an American desert. Considering his hubris, one should not trust Spender’s claims about the parentage, nor believe that he isn’t using Monica Reyes and Walter Skinner as mere pawns, the only thing that is likely true is that he did drug Scully and used technology to make Scully fertile again during the episode “En Ami”, and figuratively he was just stating that in his comments to Reyes, and subsequently Skinner. It should be noted that John Kenneth Muir's review is the complete contrast to the Eat The Corn review. You can draw your own conclusions on it's merits. )

At the end of the day the headline “I Want to Lie” weighs heavy on the season already. We can trust Mulder and Scully but now with two separate conspiracies competing and CSM’s plot to annihilate humanity to suit his vision, it will no doubt be a complex mystery for our heroes to resolve. Hopefully seeing the resolution of a years long conspiracy being solved by Mulder and Scully will be exciting as well as seeing new MOTW episodes which are so loved by The X-Files fans everywhere.

All publicity stills courtesy of FOX.

I Can't Give Everything Away

The following was started in early summer of 2016, and continued in July 0f 2017.

2016 has turned out to be a very challenging year in many respects, there’s a sense that collectively things are winding down, and building up at the same moment. The harbinger of mortality is a very cruel beast, and I don’t mean that in just the sense of psychical death, but in things ending, established ideas about the world, the role of governments, businesses, religions, science, and philosophies, and a real sense about no one knows where things are heading. Doors are closing, and most really don’t know which new doors are opening and it is unsettling indeed. When icons pass on, there’s a vacuum that is felt, and that has always been the case. When established ideas on a beloved series end, and the proverbial slate is cleared, it shakes our assumptions, and people react violently, stabbing in the dark with a hope of some answers, or solace. The world moves onward and one either adapts to a new matrix, or withers.

A series of events happened in January that seemed synonymous in hindsight. On Jan 11th, I was driving from San Francisco to Los Angeles when I got the news of David Bowie’s death. It was early in the morning before the sun rose, and I didn’t have time to process it, I found myself mulling over the countless songs he has written while on the drive. A similar drive to what I documented in 2011. That day was a mix of anticipation and excitement over what I might be experiencing on the following day, 12th with covering The X-Files Red Carpet screening of “My Struggle”.

Little did I realize at the time the profound events that would shape everything that followed the first months of 2016, and I can’t say things progressed any better throughout 2016, For example, The consternations by fans over those six episodes, and then a certain election at the end of 2016.
 
I found myself thinking about the expectations of the artist, within any genre. I found myself thinking about a comment Beatle George Harrison made (to paraphrase): “The fans gave their screams and love, but we gave away our nervous systems.” Most artists lead difficult lives because of an innate sensitivity they have, their receptors are more acute, more heightened, and they take more in, and it’s difficult to deal with the external stimulus. In many cases, artists fall into drug use, or, if not, just straight up madness or mental illness (and in many cases don’t even see it within themselves). Many have to build up a wall, or a dam to control the flow of the creative river. Fans often live vicariously through the artist and build up their own expectations about the work the artist produces. But this becomes a two edged sword as the artist must create work that stays true to their point of view, and that P.O.V. doesn’t always jive with the public’s expectation. Steven King of course commented on the above point with his novel, Misery, about an obsessed fan’s drive towards hostage taking and torment.

Which brings us back to David Bowie, and his final album before his passing, Blackstar, generally a meditation of mortality and death, but the closing track, following a series of pretty stunning tracks, “I Can’t Give Everything Away”, could be viewed on several levels. I could argue that the final track was his statement of intent, his motivations behind the career sabbatical and the periods where he focused on the relationship with his wife and raising his daughter. Only a person with a deep neurosis could be driven to put out themselves to the public, but that energy can only go on for so long before it can be self destructive, and more often than not, the public cares little about the well being of the artist as long as they are fed what they need.


“Seeing more and feeling less,
Saying no but meaning yes,
This is all I ever meant,
That's the message that I sent.”

“I Can’t Give Everything Away.”

Indeed.

Which brings us to the issue of Chris Carter and the fan reaction to season 10, the massive consternation, the endless accusations of “Retcon” mythology betrayals, and the simple fact that Chris Carter wasn’t so much giving the fans what they thought they wanted, but more what they needed. That is the thrust of the few people whom qualify with being an artist, to tell the public what they need to hear as opposed to what they want to hear. It’s too easy for a creative person to just treat what they do as a commodity and to second guess what the public wants. It takes work to listen to their intuition and serve the work to the best of their ability.  Some do it, and some don’t.

But if you are rubbing people the wrong way, it’s usually a pretty good sign you are doing your job.

When all is said and done, the artist can only give what they can and be honest about it. No amount of wish furfillment by the public, no amount of reconfiguring what you would like something to be, will change the intent of a creative person’s work.

Since the bulk of this was written and pondered, a massive amount of assumptions have been challenged, 2016 wasn’t really all that great with a staggering number of deaths and scandals, and 2017 has turned out to be worse in many respects. The anchors have vanished, or drifted away, few have little to cling to, and the bearings one could rely on before have faded step by step, and we are in the nadir of living through a graceless and coarse age. I can’t really say how the new season of The X-Files will be received in 2018, will it be a mirror to the shows reception in 2001-2002, or will it have a bigger reception next year. Carl Jung, in principle, may have been correct that we will need to invent new symbols, new masks, and heroes. But you won’t find those answers by depending on self appointed nihilists, so don’t take up your time, this might be the alpha or the omega, but The X-Files has always been about finding a trace of hope, a little light, in the darkness. We’ll see what clues it leaves us soon enough.

Those Dark Monsters Within...

“Those dark monsters within”

XFL Blog’s exclusive interview with Jason V. Brock, conducted via E-mail by Matt Allair

XFL Blog’s review of DVD documentary “The Ackermonster Chronicles”, and book review for “The Dark Sea Within” by Matt Allair

For many Philes, they might not be familiar with author and filmmaker Jason V. Brock, but he is a consequential and evolving voice in the field and subgenres of Horror, fantasy, and Science Fiction, he has also an admitted X-Files fan from back in the day. But my personal bonding with Jason came out of our shared passion for iconic genre writer H.P. Lovecraft, a figure we have written about on this blog. Jason is known for being very outspoken, and while open about his liberal leanings, he has been very vocal about the excesses of liberal political correctness, and has made no bones about the misguided aims behind such efforts in relation to deceased authors like Lovecraft. But his interests are varied, and range into a celebration of the life of first generation superfan, Forrest J Ackerman, a man who was involved in the evolving field of Science Fiction literature, and its fandom from as far back as the early 1930s. Ackerman had become the agent to a wide range of notable authors, and an avid collector of classic genre films and publications. Ackerman was also the creator of ‘Famous Monsters of Filmland’, a magazine that, no doubt, X-Files writers Glen and Darin Morgan had followed as children. One can see the review of this great documentary below. His interests also extended into a documentary of television writer Charles Beaumont, whose work is notable in Rod Serling’s seminal series The Twilight Zone, which is another series I have noted that had an impact on the work of The X-Files.

Courtesy of the author

But Jason is notable as a short story author, and this second point might interest X-Files fans who are looking for something dark and interesting. His second collection of Poems and Tales has been issued by Hippocampus Press, ‘The Dark Sea Within’. While the following musings might appear to some fans as six degrees of separation in relation to The X-Files, I felt this would be a great interest. Jason has been gracious and generous with his time, and he is in person a very fun and charming person to interact with (we met during Alien Con in Northern California last year). His devotion to interact with other fans and other authors shows a real commitment to bridge gaps and find common ground in all areas. The format is broken into a review, then interview format, for both the documentary and his book.

“The Ackermonster Chronicles” – A compelling documentary from filmmaker, Author and Musician Jason V Brock about first generation genre super fan Forest J. Ackerman whom began his life as an avid reader of Science Fiction and Fantasy pulps from the 1920s to the 1940s, and became an avid movie fan of all horror and science fiction films from the 1930s onward. Over time he amassed a huge collection of everything conceivable that related to those fields, as well as amassed a great number of industry contacts, both in film and literature. His tale has been occasionally told before, but not with the level of candor and earthiness that one finds here. Jason managed to interview Ackerman before his passing, and Brock managed, in the process, to get many revealing little tales about iconic figures such as Ray Bradbury, and Harlan Ellison. But Jason also managed to get some revelations about Ackerman’s sexual fetishes - little of this white-washes anything. The presentation of the Documentary is also surprising, it doesn’t rely on nostalgic images or genre clichés in how it reveals the human story behind Ackerman and his circle, but rather edgy. He may have been a geek, but he still was a man nevertheless. This presentation seems like a tactic to appeal to Millennial’s whom have little idea of the man, or his role these fledgling fields of Science Fiction and Horror in the early years. The tactic evidently works. The number of people involved in the roster is impressive: Ray Bradbury, William F. Nolan, Dan O’Bannon, John Landis, Joe Dante, Greg Bear, film historian David J. Skal, Lovecraft expert S.T. Joshi, and visual effects icon Ray Harryhausen.

Matt Allair: I understand that you first started on the Forrest J Ackerman documentary (The Ackermonster Chronicles! [2012]) before others worked on similar documentaries about Forrest, and that you shot about 30 hours of material. Was it difficult to prioritize what to include?

Jason V Brock: It was, and my wife, Sunni, did an outstanding job as editor. The main reason was that there was so much to cover. Ackerman lived into his 90s, and was a pivotal figure in the development of several areas of popular culture, from fandom to the emergence of science fiction as a mainstay genre in literature and film, to the acceptance of horror by the masses via Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine and the legitimization of collecting. He was key in all of these roles, not to mention a beloved ham actor appearing in over 200 films and an agent and editor. Along the way, he even managed to cultivate a few outspoken foes (Harlan Ellison pops to mind!), and lifelong friendships with other people he inspired, such as the late Messrs. Ray Bradbury and Ray Harryhausen. Inevitably, Sunni had quite a job assembling everything, as I shot what I believe to be the longest interview Forry ever conducted, which ran about eleven hours! It was done in a single day, with a few breaks for food. Later we did some pick-ups to cover things missed in the original interview. To complicate matters, I shot in HD, which at the time was almost unheard of, so we had to have special gear to film and edit. It was sort of a nightmare, technically, back then.

And yes: Ours was the first documentary to be solely about Ackerman. Later, a few others came around and managed to get theirs out before we did, but that was only because they weren’t as thorough. I don’t want to say anything more negative, so I’ll leave it there. I will note that ours went on to win the Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Award for Best Documentary in 2014, so that tells you something.

We actually began the interview process in 2006, as I recall. During that time, we were encouraged to do another documentary about a man that Ackerman had agented at one time, the late writer for The Twilight Zone and some of Roger Corman’s Poe films, Charles Beaumont. Beaumont and Ackerman had many of the same friends and so on, so as I shot things for the Ackerman film, I also shot material for the Beaumont effort (Charles Beaumont: The Short Life of Twilight Zone’s Magic Man [2010]). During these interviews, Ackerman had a serious injury and was hospitalized. While he http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1531642/recovered, we continued to work on the Beaumont documentary, and were able to finish it. After that documentary was done, we had an invitation to have the World Premiere at the Egyptian Theater in Hollywood, CA. It went very well, with a near capacity turnout of around 400 people from all walks of life: Movie industry folks, reviewers, Twilight Zone fans, and so on. We also had an assembly of people who knew, worked with, or had studied Beaumont at this premiere, including George Clayton Johnson, William F. Nolan, John Tomerlin, Marc Scott Zicree, Ray Bradbury, and Earl Hamner. Other screenings of the film took place all over the world, including a special showing at the Center for the Study of Science Fiction at the University of Kansas under the invitation of the Founding Director and science fiction legend James E. Gunn.

After about a year, we were able to pick-up with the Ackerman documentary; sadly he passed away before the film was completed, though he did live to see a short 10-minute preview. After the film was completed, we had the World Premiere, by invitation once again, at the historic Aero Theatre in Santa Monica (which, like the Egyptian Theatre in LA, is part of the prestigious American Cinematheque), and panelists there for the audience Q&A included the widow of screenwriter/director Dan O’Bannon (Dan briefly lived with the Ackermans as a teenager), long-time Ackerman assistant Bill Warren, William F. Nolan (Ackerman was his first agent, as he had been with Tomerlin and Beaumont, among many others), and George Clayton Johnson. Again, we had a fantastic turnout, and the documentaries have since been shown numerous times all over the world.

Matt: What was the most difficult interview to secure?

Brock: Well, for Ackermonster, I would have to say it was John Landis, simply due to scheduling. He’s a busy guy. For the Beaumont film it was William Shatner, mainly for the same reason.

We’re completing a third film at present, entitled Image, Reflection, Shadow: Artists of the Fantastic. For that, likely the toughest to secure was Prof. Ernst Fuchs. We had to go to Europe for the majority of the interviews, and he was at work painting an amazing mural inside a chapel in the capital city of Klagenfurt in state of Carinthia, Austria. We had to drive through the Alps from Vienna, and once we arrived, Prof. Fuchs had me deliver a small brass model of a proposed sculpture to him, but the City Hall made me leave my passport as collateral before letting me take it to him! That was a bit of an odyssey.

Matt: It’s one of the few documentaries that is so candid about the sexuality of his era, as well as his sexual fetishes and interests; was the decision to include that aspect of his life intentionally going against the grain about what you would usually see in such documentaries? Did that aspect just naturally unfold as you learned more about him?

Brock: Well, in my films I prefer to uncover the true essence of the individual or topic. As a result, I tend to use unconventional means to achieve this goal. One thing I don’t like—especially if the subject is a person—is to have a narrator. I find that to be an old-fashioned way of doing things. Instead I let the people who knew the person explain to me, in long and candid terms, what the person they knew was like. Over the course of 20 or 30 interviews, one can establish a fuller picture of all aspects of the subject as viewed by others. I call it “peeling away the onion layers.” It gives us, I feel, a much fuller appreciation of the person at the heart of the film.

With respect to sexuality, it was Forry who brought that stuff up. I never got the feeling he was embarrassed or ashamed of it (and he had no reason to be), so we went with it. I found it an interesting window into how his mind worked, and it tied in to idealized notions of the past (such as nudism) as they changed into what we see today. Forry was genuinely fascinated with the good in people, and was what I would deem an optimist. He truly felt that in the future, we would be living by the tenets of what I have come to call the “Utopian Triangle”: everyone speaking Esperanto, living on a spaceship, and nude. He was more complex than just an old guy who liked science fiction books. I wanted to show that.

Matt: The documentary has a very edgy, contemporary presentation, and isn’t packaged with many nostalgic clichés. Was the approach done to appeal to younger Millennial viewers who might not be aware of Forrest’s, or Science Fiction’s, early history?

Brock: It was not done in a contrived way to appeal to a demographic, but if it does, that’s fine with me. It was done as a way to humanize the past, actually.

Matt: When did you first meet Forrest?

Brock: We first met him at San Diego Comic-Con in 2005, where he was doing a signing with Ray Harryhausen and Ray Bradbury.

Matt: Was there particular story you had to omit that you wished you hadn’t?
Brock: Several! There are so many stories told by different people I wished we could have included. Alas, there’s not room for everything! Perhaps more in a future edition. . .

Matt: In the commentary you mentioned being something of a neophyte about Ackerman when you started the project, did what you learn change your perspective about him?

Brock: Well, I understood his impact with respect to Famous Monsters, which I read growing up, but with regard to his importance in the larger scheme of things, that was surprising. To my mind, he’s the fulcrum of bringing this type of literature and film into the present. I say that not only because of his own achievements, but also because of his friendships with Ray Bradbury and Ray Harryhausen. They have, collectively, inspired millions of people, quite literally. And all over the world. People who love the genre don’t even understand the impact of these men, and I predict none of it would have happened if Ackerman hadn’t been the catalyst.

“The Dark Sea Within: Tales and Poems” By Jason V. Brock – Personally, I find it difficult to be easily captivated by contemporary weird horror or fantasy fiction. Most mass market fiction has been so commoditized to pander to a demographic, and so many genre writers fall into a generic cul-de-sac that provides a comfort eye candy to the reader whom happily takes it all in, it is difficult to find a genre writer that has something to say, and something transgressive that leads to new revelations about the characters depicted. But the purpose of weird horror and fantasy should be to reveal to the reader something new about the human condition that hasn’t been considered. H.P. Lovecraft, within his obsessional interests and neurosis, did open up a view of man as minuscule in a greater scheme of things, that notion ran in contrast to the comforts of Christianity. While Lovecraft did not influence him, Clive Barker’s early work remains some of the most transgressive to come out of the eighties, he’s one writer that moved Lovecraftian sensibilities into new directions, Clive was also unapologetic in celebrating the other as something beautiful. Anne Rice is another example of someone who celebrated the sensuality of the other with new perspectives. Yet the point is that horror and fantasy cannot move forward unless it is transgressive, unless it makes the reader uncomfortable, yet shock tactics are not enough. The reason why filmmakers like George Romero and David Cronenberg remained so interesting is the depth of their best work to have something to say. I am happy to reveal that Jason Brock’s new book reveals an ability to write good, captivating prose, and meets many of the expected above points.

The first tale that I was most curious to check out was ‘Brood’, a Lovecraftian tale that acts as a contemporary sequel to ‘The Shadow Over Innsmouth’, set in the coast of Massachusetts, a Sheriff and deputy investigate the bodies of mutilated half breeds off the coast, and this leads to as grim revelation. ‘The Dark Sea Within’ reminds me of a Clive Barker tale from his short story era – An art dealer, and his girlfriend, lured by the promise of rare art in Prague are lead into other realms.  ‘Memento Mori’ is a vignette that deals with an old man’s recollection of an unusual event from the Second World War. ‘Transposition’ is a surgical horror tale with a O’Henry twist. Thus far his work reveals a writer with a breath of influences. ‘The Shadow of Heaven’ is another Lovecraftian influenced tale of a Military unit in the Arctic that faces a grim outcome. ‘The Man With The Horn’ is another tale of a woman overwhelmed with curiosity about an apartment neighbor that leads cosmic revelations, this tale might remind others of Lovecraft’s “The Music Of Erich Zann’. The tale ‘Verlassen’ manages to have the flavor of a Ray Bradbury tale, introspective.

The tales ‘Unity of Affect’ and ‘Epistles From Dis’ manage to be structurally inventive, in the case of ‘Dis’, the title makes reference to the city in six level of Hell of Dante Alighieri’s poem, ‘Epistles from Dis’ manages to be an ambitious apocalyptic novella that demonstrates his sure hand with working in the longer-form format. In terms of his Poetry, many follow in the spirit of Edgar Allen Poe’s poetry, or Lovecraft’s dalliances with Poetry, but they also demonstrate the influences of writers like Milton and Edgar Lee Masters. There are many sides to Jason’s influences and that breath is revealed with each piece. I should note that the book concludes with ‘notes’ about the writing, while this isn’t completely unusual, it is rare to see a writer willing to share his through process and inspiration behind each work. The closest example I can think is musician Pete Townshend who is very open about his creative process. Jason V. Brock is a writer with great promise, although already very accomplished, I would be intrigued to see where could go with a longer-form Novel. Fans who have an interest in the weird fantasy field should celebrate such a new voice, recommended.

Matt: Your second collection, The Dark Sea Within, is very eclectic in its prose styles; was the selection process difficult?

Jason V Brock: Not really, I have always written in a variety of styles and with a broad thematic base. I like to challenge myself, and I like to gently confound expectations. The main thing is getting the flow of the book to be a smooth experience for readers. Of course, some people dislike poetry, so they can skip those if they wish.

Matt: Since the publication of Simulacrum and Other Possible Realities, how many years did it take to write the tales and poems in Dark Sea?

Brock: Well, not too long, actually. I had the bulk of the material together in a couple years. I write very quickly, and generally have three to five story requests in the hopper at any given moment. The longest part of the process for me is perfecting the pieces and handling final revisions before going to press on a collection. I am a chronic reviser, and enjoy that aspect of writing.

I did have to put in a great deal of work on the novella that debuted in Dark Sea entitled Epistles from Dis. I had been working on that piece—which clocks in at about 23,000 words—off and on for roughly ten years. It is a complex work, and involves a sweep of history as well as a lot of research related to the machinations of the disaster that unfolds in the story. It was fun to do, but tough as well. At the moment I am building the contents for my third collection, tentatively called Grotteschi: Further Explorations of the Kafkaesque. I hope to have it ready for early 2019. It’s about half-completed now; I have to wait for some of the pieces to appear in print before I can release it, though.

Matt: You are known for being an advocate for writers like H.P. Lovecraft and Richard Matheson: Is there a writer that has influenced you that would surprise most people?

Brock: I think most people would be very surprised to learn about one in particular. He was a fine literary writer named Richard Selzer. His work is lyrical, but rooted in reality. He began as a surgeon, and his book Mortal Lessons: Notes on the Art of Surgery is one of my favorites of all time. I had the chance to publish him once, and he was great to work with. A real gentleman. I also really admire the work of Gabriel García Márquez. Rod Serling, O’Bannon, David Bowie, William S. Burroughs. The aforementioned members of The Group, of course, and the cohort they influenced: Dennis Etchison, Peter Atkins, et al. (In fact, our publishing shingle, Cycatrix Press, is re-issuing Etchison’s Masters of the Weird Tale Centipede volume, It Only Comes Out at Night, in paperback.) Also the theatre has been a big influence; I was really into plays and theatre in high school. And the poet Dante.

Matt: Do you see a moral thread that runs through most of your story telling?

Brock: One theme is “be careful what you wish for.” I see others, but that one is recurrent. Also “things are not always what they seem to be.”

Matt: Is a lot of your story telling based on personal experiences? Is any of your fictional work autobiographical in some manner?

Brock: Most of my work has some tinge of biographical material. Many of my characters reflect amalgamations of aspects that I have, for better or worse. And liberal doses of imagination, of course.

Matt: I’m always fascinated with the issue of societal censorship, which seems to be an on-going scenario, and with artists—be they writers, musicians, painters, or filmmakers—the issue of self-censorship. Has there ever been an image, idea, or sequence that you thought of, to which you decided ‘It’s too extreme, I can’t go there’, when you were developing your work?

Brock: No. I am generally most interested in ideas that challenge or excite me. I have dialed back some of the baser elements of gore that I had in my earlier efforts. I was interested in medicine, and still am, and would frequently go for realism in describing things. Sometimes that grueling for a reader. So I learned to temper that with more flair with respect to style. It’s not so much about endurance as it is about conveying messages in my work. Sometimes the extreme parts stepped on that, though I have been known to be extreme from time-to-time!

Matt: Now that you have several story collections under your belt, do you feel ready to work on a long form novel?

Brock: I do, certainly. I have done a variety of long-form pieces now, ranging from 11,000 to more than 20,000 words. My literary agent, Cherry Weiner, is after me to complete my novel series, the first of which is tentatively called (UnSub). This is the beginning of a trilogy about a specific character, a woman named Sinthya Morrigan. She is an FBI investigator in the Behavioral Sciences Unit, and starts the series with her coming in to clean up a serial murder investigation in the Pacific Northwest, which is where I now reside. It’s a police procedural/crime book in part, but with a strong supernatural element. The trilogy is all mapped out; I’m finishing the first book.

I also have a Weird fiction short novel entitled The Kellen Diaries on the backburner. It will be a sort of lost document book about a specific character, and drawing on the Weird tradition, a bit of Lovecraft, and also Southern Gothic ideas. The latter is a natural draw for me, considering I am from the South, so it feels comfortable. Along the way, I plan on an S-F novel, and a couple others I have ideas for. William F. Nolan and I are working on several projects as well—one is his forthcoming Centipede Press Masters of the Weird Tale series omnibus (due in early 2018), and his memoirs, currently titled Nolan’s Run, due in 2018 as well from Dark Regions Press; I am serving as editor for those two. I have also outlined another novel—with Nolan’s blessing, as he wants me to assume the mantle for the literary franchise—which is an extension of the Logan’s Run universe, called Logan Falls.

Additionally, I have planned a couple nonfiction books of scholarship—one on The Group, and one about film, music, literature, and art, similar to, but wider in scope, than my Bram Stoker and Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Award Finalist book from 2014, Disorders of Magnitude. Then there is my semi-regular ongoing print/online anthology/periodical Nameless Digest which will see two issues out this year, with some fantastic stuff in them, including original stories by Ramsey Campbell, Jessica Amanda Salmonson, and a new Thomas Ligotti interview from Darrell Schweitzer.

Lastly, S. T. Joshi, the scholar, critic, and anthologist, and I are planning a new book called Future Weird for 2018. Should be pretty interesting, as it merges the non-Lovecraftian Weird with Science Fiction; we already have some excellent contributions for it. Very interesting admixture, that.

Matt: Are you optimistic about the current field of Science Fiction, Horror, or Fantasy Literature in 2017?

Brock: Overall, I suppose. Right now, there seems to be quite a bit of overtly preachy material out there. I think that will date badly as social mores change and people get tired of being lectured to; we’re not children here, for the most part. We can handle ideas that are different from our own, or at least I can, and the people I generally associate with.

There is also a bad trend toward PCism that needs to be kicked to the curb. “Artists” who are PC aren’t artists: They’re politicians yearning for acceptance, I feel. Now, there’s nothing wrong with addressing ethical concerns, or moral dilemmas, or recasting things contextually, but trying to dictate terms to people and hammer at them if they differ from your overly-rigid worldview is not only foolish, but dangerous. That’s mind control. Groupthink. I’m against it. I refer to these types as “Stalinists” but they aren’t that organized. They’re reactionaries, mainly. I am personally liberal, and find the very notion of people telling me what to think—or, even worse, the “correct” way to think—to be unacceptable. I’ll decide for me, thanks.

Along those lines, casting people into the lake of fire over a political stance is not only counter-productive, it’s a streak of self-righteous idiocy and narcissism that I find to be anathema to the tolerance, understanding, and compassion I was raised to be mindful of. It also stymies being the person who wants to grow as a creator and a human being; it involves too much talking and not enough listening; wanting to be “right” and not open to other points-of-view; even if someone has an outré or negative set of ideas, hearing them out is not an endorsement. It’s an acceptance that they are different in their perspective. That’s all. It won’t “turn you into _______” to listen, think, then formulate a reply rather than simply react in regurgitated, half-digested stereotypes and cockamamie ideas of pseudo-justice. We have to try and come to terms with one another, not just condemn people who are different than we are: How is that any different that being a sexist, or a racist, or a homophobe, or an ageist? That sort of unenlightened “thinking” violates my personal ethos.

There’s been way too much of that in the literary community of late. Enough already. Don’t become what you hate.

Matt: Due to the nature of this blog, I understand you are an X-Files fan, do you have a favorite episode or season?

Brock: I do! My favorite is the one where Scully and Mulder visited the retired sideshow community in Florida. Season 2, episode 20: "Humbug." I especially love it as I am frequently treated like a freak in real-life by people who have a hard time appreciating my takes on things.
I also tend to gravitate toward the misunderstood; that, too, is a large thematic concern in my work. I can trace it back to my upbringing in the rural South: We were poor, and I frequently felt the sting of ridicule over that, which was out of my control, of course. Most of my friends were the same, and I had a bit of a split childhood, first with my mother, then later with my father (who was mixed race) and stepmother. Looking back, growing up that way, in those conditions, gives one insight into humanity that you can’t get any otherwise.

Jason is a fascinating figure, and all areas of his work are worth looking into. You can Purchase The Ackerman documentary here, as well as his new collection of tales The Dark Sea Within here. Or via Amazon.

You can find Jason V. Brock via his Twitter, his Facebook, or his website with his wife Sunni.

Special thanks to Jason for his time!

New XFL appearance on X-Cast about ep 3

The X-Files Lexicon webmaster appeared on Tony Black’s The X-Cast to talk about season two’s episode, ‘3’. Tony could not have been more gracious and some interesting points about “3” were raised, as Matt Allair has always felt it was a better episode than given credit for by fans. The podcast explains why.

Chris's Comic Corner 5

A new review of IDW’s season 10 of The X-Files for issue 14 and 15, By Christopher Irish!

Season 10: Issue 14 Pilgrims Part 4

Written by: Joe Harris
Art by: Matthew Dow Smith
Colors by: Jordie Bellaire
Letters by: Robbie Robbins
Editor: Denton J. Tipton
Executive Producer: Chris Carter

The fourth part of the “Pilgrims” story begins with Scully on top of Mulder in bed aiming a gun at his head. She asks to see Mulder’s eyes, but he knocks the gun out of her hand, throws her to the ground and tells her to surrender – his voice changes and his eyes are clouded by the familiar Black Oil.

The comic flashes way back, to 72 million years ago. Dinosaurs are wandering the land as something flies across the sky and impacts in the distance. We see the familiar shape of the gray extraterrestrials in the dust approaching a dinosaur, before the comic shifts to two years before the present at an Arabian Desert excavation, presumably in the same spot. That scene ends and we return to Scully and Mulder, who has been narrating the whole section. He is still possessed by the Black Oil and is trying to explain it to Scully as she’s driving. Mulder explains that he needs her help and tells her that she’ll be able to help if she values the oil’s chosen host.

We cut to see the Cigarette Smoking Man enter an apartment in New York, where a shadowy figure wearing glasses is playing chess. The figure goes on about a specific chess game as CSM stands listening and says “it’s in the country now”. The figure calls the entity possessing Mulder by name and asks CSM if he’s trying to follow it or just the host it’s chosen to take. CSM angers the shadowy man, who uses telekinetic power to lift CSM Darth Vader-style as he assigns him a new mission.

We go back to Deputy Director Skinner, who has Alex Krycek bound in his apartment still. Krycek is nervous about what Skinner is planning to do with him as he stands above him, messing with a length of rope. Skinner explains what a pain Krycek has been throughout the years and how he shot him in the head (in the episode ‘Existence’, S8E21). Krycek seems surprised by this information, as Skinner hoists him up with the rope attached to his hands. Just as Skinner does this Krycek warns him that something is after him and the door rings.

We return to Scully and possessed Mulder riding in a car to an unknown destination. Mulder assures her that he will reveal truths to her as long as they keep going. Scully gets pulled over by a police officer and Mulder warns her that assassins could be sent after them. She asks if he knows anything about their son, William. We bounce back to D.D. Skinner, who answers the door with his handgun ready. No one is in the hallway, but before Skinner can return a bright light envelops him. Back with Scully, she is speaking with the officer who pulled her over, who insists that she get out of the car but won’t tell her why. She turns to Mulder but realizes that he has left. Flashing back to Skinner’s apartment, we see Scully enter the apartment armed with a handgun. Skinner calls out to her to find him since he’s been blinded, but we don’t see Krycek hanging from Skinner’s rope anymore.

We return to Krycek, who has inexplicably been snatched by two helicopter crews (black helicopters, no doubt). He is strapped to a chair and is wearing an orange prisoner-type outfit. He recognizes the situation he is in and begs to be released, and as we see the helicopter land, the Cigarette Smoking Man is on the spot waiting for him. We end this issue with Scully and Skinner deciding that they have to go out and find Mulder then figure out how to save him. Scully says she knows where the Black Oil is taking him and we see Mulder sneaking through the woods. He looks up and sees a big sign for “Skyland Mountain National Park”.

Season 10: Issue 14 Pilgrims Part 5

Written by: Joe Harris
Art by: Matthew Dow Smith
Colors by: Jordie Bellaire
Letters by: Chris Mowry
Editor: Denton J. Tipton
Executive Producer: Chris Carter

This issue starts off with a memory of Alex Krycek’s where he’s emitting Black Oil into an alien object in a missile silo (from the episode “Apocrypha”, S3E16). Krycek is recounting what he can remember since mysteriously re-emerging into the X-Files. He recollects a group of grey aliens approaching him and he tells his captors that he is their prisoner. We see that he is being questioned by the Cigarette Smoking Man. CSM tells him that his very existence is troubling since D.D. Skinner shot him in the head and Krycek has no memory of that event (in the episode ‘Existence’, S8E21). CSM expresses that his memories aren’t fully complete either and Krycek states that they should be working together since they’re both after the same thing.

We skip to Skyland Mountain in Virginia at 10:13PM. A group of sheriffs are standing near their cars drinking coffee. They stop what they’re doing when Mulder emerges from the woods and one sheriff reaches for his gun. He tells Mulder his orders are to detain him until the F.B.I. can retrieve him. As Mulder turns his back on the sheriff, his eyes blacken and we reach the title panel. We return with Scully and Skinner reaching the mountain at 11:21 PM. They find the group of sheriffs dead on the ground. They enter the station where the sheriffs were parked and find a security system. From there they see that, when the sheriff touched Mulder’s arm, he became possessed by the Black Oil, turned and shot his fellow officers. The officer then approaches the camera and then the feed dies. Scully and Skinner look around the area and find Mulder sitting on the edge of the ramp for the mountain lift looking at the woods somberly. He tells Scully that they’re too late and he’salready gone.

Back to CSM and Krycek, CSM is not satisfied with the answers he has been given and Krycek frantically tries to explain that he knows what he is and because he’s been bonded with the oil he can tell. It does him no good as CSM puts out one of his infamous cigarettes in Krycek’s eye, thus continuing the X-Files tradition of Krycek’s abuse. CSM asks more forcibly where Mulder is and where the Black Oil is taking him. Before he can answer, the mysterious man in glasses shows up and telekinetically throws CSM across the room, then frees Krycek. Krycek talks to the man, who communicates telekinetically as well. He mentions to Krycek something about “The Forsaken Ones” and Krycek says he eliminated them, but he is told that he is wrong. Krycek explains that he is their exterminator and every time he is killed in the future they can “grab him out of the past”. The man says to Krycek that he doesn’t understand one thing: what the entity he is hunting, which is called “Sheltem”, wants and what he is here to prevent. Krycek picks up a gun from the floor that the man left in front of him, points it at him and CSM, and says that he wants to go home. The man tells him he had better stop, but instead Krycek holds the gun to his head and fires.

Back at Skyland Mountain, Skinner is talking to Mulder and tells him that they will comb the woods to make sure they can’t find the now-possessed sheriff. Mulder leaves Skinner to it and goes to talk to Scully. He tells Scully about his time being possessed by the alien oil and that it wouldn’t give up any information other than “he’s ok”. They infer that it was talking about William. Mulder says he thinks that no one knows where he is so he is safe and Scully agrees with him. As they talk, a thunderstorm rolls in. Scully senses something is wrong with the weather and calls back all the search teams looking for the sheriff.

We see the possessed sheriff wander into a clearing and say “the cradle is full”, as a large crowd of other possessed individuals emerges. Suddenly, a man outside of the group starts screaming and we see that he is on fire. The possessed sheriff turns and sees the familiar and terrifying faces of a group of people with their eyes and mouths sewn shut that we’ve seen on and off throughout The X-Files. They burn this group of people and the oil seeps out and bubbles. All that is left are the charred remains of the people the oil possessed. As the smoke clears, we see Krycek emerge from the woods. He looks at the remains of the burned people and says “I’m free, aren’t I?” and is answered by thunder. He walks back to the woods.

We then get back to Cigarette Smoking Man in New York in the Mysterious Man’s apartment. He tells the man that he’s heard some interesting information from his sources in the F.B.I. The MM doesn’t seem impressed and CSM notices that the room is full of people sitting in the dark. We see Mulder’s old informant X and the Well-Manicured Man sitting amongst them and the MM says they all owe him a lot for their “second chances”. CSM says that they all have the same concerns and that they know him to be goal-oriented. He reaches for his cigarettes, which he finds are empty, then a familiar “ssst” sound emanates and he falls face first to the ground. The Mysterious Man tells someone that was behind CSM to clean up the mess, as we see CSM degrading to the green goo. We see that the person behind CSM was actually a new CSM. The plot thickens.

Now we have seen that the Black Oil can possess individuals, and that characters from the past have been returning, dying, and returning again. Could this Mysterious Man be the origin of their resurrections, or are there outside forces that Mulder and Scully haven’t encountered before? Multiple past story elements have intersected in this storyline and it’s been very interesting from a mytharc perspective. I commend Joe Harris’s ability to take past characters and twist them into a new plot that any X-Files fan could appreciate. We’ll see where this goes in future installments!

Special Thanks to Liz Tray for editorial assistance.

The Truth is Coming...

Not much to really add here. This should interest those who follow the Paranormal, Conspiracy Theories, or Crypto Politics.


Sometimes, there's very little that needs to be said.

I would be curious to get peoples thoughts more than offering my own, comments?

Where things stand with "The After"...

The following is not a review of the Pilot, but more a contextual advocacy. To those who follow this blog and in case anyone here is unaware, just over a week ago there was rapid press build up, with teaser clips, and another teaser clip from X-Files News for Chris Carter’s Pilot, The After from Amazon studios. Within a day, the Pilot was released to be viewed at Amazon and Amazon Prime for free streaming. But, of course, there’s a catch. Five pilots were financed and the one (possibly two) with the highest ratio of positive reactions from the public and get green light with more episode ordered for a season. This is an unprecedented development with entertainment media, and Amazon is trying to compete with the original content produced by Netflix. All of which means that fan support for Chris Carter’s pilot is crucial. We are in the middle of something that could end up being historic, depending on the outcome. With numerous segments of fandom-active players in this development–and fittingly, a kind of interactivity with Philes that we haven’t exactly seen for a long spell–this outcome could be sweeping when you consider the development of another show by Chris Carter from AMC, and the status of a third X-Files movie, and the status of a (hopeful) Millennium feature film or TV movie. Undoubtedly there’s a certain act of goodwill on the fan base, which I am well aware of.

Personally, I have advocated for the past three years supporting any new projects by Chris Carter. I have taken the longview that new projects that are a hit can only enhance the value of The X-Files, and Millennium. Developments with the film that was to follow I Want To Believe –Fencewalker--seems to be in a holding pattern, which has always seemed unfair in that the public hasn’t been given the opportunity to access it on its own merit. As of this writing, it is uncertain if Fencewalker will even get a direct to DVD release.

Yet demographics continue to shift and one never really knows when a time is ripe to reach the public consciousness. It almost determines itself, but it does feel like a good moment for Chris Carter to come back into the fold of television. Back in the 90s, and the retrospective critique that has followed, there were endless comments about how The X-Files captured the Zeitgeist of the era. Many found it appealing due to the chemistry of Mulder and Scully, while others found the subjects of the paranormal and alien abductions to be fascinating. I suspect the appeal was often more sub-textual than people realized, both with The X-Files, Millennium, The Lone Gunman spinoff, and Harsh Realm. These shows reflected a real unease with modern society, not only a mistrust of the Government and all established institutions, but the Utopian ideal of technology and progress, that having a disconnect from the cosmos, from spirituality, can have real consequences. None of Chris Carter’s work offered easy answers to modern society, and mostly raised questions, but the themes of the work seemed to offer a few road maps with how to navigate in an increasingly disjointed world.

In spite of the 90s being fairly placid in the Clinton era, excluding the partisan battles of the decade, the economy grew and many seemed outwardly optimistic, but there were whole circles of younger people, college-aged students, that felt this unease, and tuned into The X-Files on a regular basis through the bulk of the decade. For example, one could compare The X-Files phenomenon to the epochal Pink Floyd album “The Dark Side of The Moon” from 1973, an album that also addressed issues with the same kind of unease with modern society. Things have fundamentally shifted globally since the 1990s; one only has to look at the evidence to see that our society is in a mess.

For decades there have been complaints about the decline of society. Many argue that always been the case with each generation, but there seems to have been a shift, a decline that most can’t ignore. We see a growing mistrust of government bureaucracy, with a highly dysfunctional congress and inertness in America. A growing disillusionment with scientific research–evidenced by more corruption and fraud and a lack of faith in profit-driven university academia–we see growing divides within intuitional religions with fundamentalism taking far too great a hold, and driving decent people to abandon places of worship. We see misplaced priorities within Wall Street over Main Street–we first saw pensions in the private sector eliminated in exchange for the promise of 401Ks, which turned out to be worthless. Now we see the gutting of pensions in the public sector being gutted by certain State Governors under the guise of austerity. The cutting of as many safety net programs as possible under the guise of austerity, and ignoring rampant unemployment. We also see a health care system corrupted by too many high costs, where the share holders of profit-driven hospitals take priority over the needs of the public. As well as the manufactured revolt by partisan sides over the passage of a flawed health care bill to control costs.

We see the byproduct of a lack of regulation on the environment, more toxic spills, or the digging of materials through fracking which is causing unexpected and unintended consequences, unexplained earthquakes for example, and a rise in extreme weather in America. As well as more extreme conditions in various parts of the world. We see more of a shift toward plutocracy than ever before in my lifetime, with a barrage of false accusations, hyper-patriotism, and other mis-directions to distract the public. Some of these distractions include the rise of the technology base: gadgets to sooth the public, such as smart phones, Ipods, Ipads, smaller laptops, hand-held games, social networking, and apps. All of which can isolate people, aside from, or opposed to the argument of bringing them together. An education system that has just about eliminated critical thinking skills, and has become more effective in stifling individuality, through standardized testing and learning by rote and conditioning. You also have a growing demographic of people in their twenties that can see through all of this, and are trying to create their own pockets of a social movement and are finding greater difficulty in doing so. In addition to rising tensions in Europe and revolts against the European Union, with several key countries that seem to be modeling themselves on China, the benchmark for oligarchy and plutocracy, notwithstanding the growing problems in Latin America and some of the real crises that the media doesn’t report on.

Ironically, most pop culture venues are in bad shape. The print publishing industry is in trouble, with many established contemporary writers finding it harder to get works published, with growing cuts to budgets, and the downsizing of publishing staffer, as well as a shift to digital publishing like Kindle. The music industry is also in trouble. While MP3 file sharing is often made the scapegoat, it is the industry’s indifference to consumers, the inflated price of merchandise, and the price of live concert performances reaching such obscene levels as to demonstrate a real disconnect with the working class, that have all triggered a revolt against the industry. With just about all of the significant acts of the 90s, the grunge and alternative explosion that The X-Files had such an affinity with, gone. Including most of the mainstays for decades, your Stings and Phil Collins put out to pasture. Rock has been replaced on the radio playlist, first by Hip Hop, and then by some of the disposable pop acts--your Justin Beibers, Lady Ga Gas, or Miley Cyruss--that only a tiny sliver of underground music exists. Most of which is less artist-driven than producer driven, and the Svengalis that people so feared have come to fruition. Leaving the average listener feeling empty, and with little to connect with. Even the film and television industry are in growing trouble. With the demise of countless small studios–and the co-opting of genre pictures into the kind of tent pole events that just over saturate the consumer–and out of control budgets that many now admit are not sustainable. Most genre fans of fantasy, science fiction, horror, and superhero comics should feel satisfied, but many fans feel the satisfaction is hollow. The decline of alternative forms of art leave many people with no means to get their barings in the world. Many of the issues with television we’ll get to in a moment.

There is a growing feeling that all of this is culminating into a key crossroad, with a set of choices that many fear will reach a point of no return. In essence, to summarize, the world is in a mess.

Therefore it seems like the apt moment for Chris Carter to offer up a new statement on modern society. Since 2002, countless shows have surfaced to replace the spirit of The X-Files. Some of those shows like Lost featured X-Files alumni, I know people who watched Fringe as a way to satisfy their ‘X-Files Jones’, but for myself, it just never had much impact. You had shows like Supernatural, and Warehouse 13 (a show where I personally know one of the producers and writers as we were high school classmates), that are satisfying to a degree I guess, but still just don’t capture the elements that made The X-Files so important. Many of these shows, and new incarnations always coming up, sound the notes without playing the music. Mind you, many of these shows are well done, with an exceptional pool of talent attached to them, but they just seem like imitations. I have no idea how’s Chris’s new offering will be received, but one has always suspected that Chris Carter has always been Hollywood’s ultimate outsider. Personally, I am happy he is that outsider, we need those kind of figures and writers of substance, be it Rod Serling, Leslie Stevens, Gene Roddenbery, or Chris Carter.

A spate of interviews and features have already circulated here and here, and IMDB already conducted its own poll about which series Amazon should pick up. The X-Files Lexicon has just released its own interview with Chris Carter. Speaking for myself, and the efforts of others, gambling on Chris Carter and advocating his work, is a far better bet to place, and something I’m not regretting, whatever happens.

Special thanks for XScribe for editorial assistance.

X-aminations: Space: 1999

Space 1999 : Pilgrims Through The Void

(My apologies for the long spell, this required a lot of research, and outside circumstances, which I won’t go into, have delayed its completion. –MA) 

The ‘what if’ scenario of science fiction and man’s reaction to cataclysm was always remained prevalent in the genre, as well as the theme of adaptability and evolution, these ideas were explored in interesting ways during the first run of Space: 1999.

Often it seemed that Chris Carter would cast certain characters based on childhood shows that must of left an impact, and while it’s not especially surprising, the selection of acting talent was frequently revealing. While the casting of Darren McGavin as Arthur Dales in “Travelers” was pretty self evident due to his involvement with Kolchak: The Night Stalker, the casting of Roy Thinnes as Jeremiah Smith, was revealing when you consider Thinnes role in the seminal mid 60s series, The Invaders, a show that had elements that would be featured on The X-Files, conspiracies, covert alien colonization, and questions about identity. Another telling casting decision was Martin Landau as Alvin Kurtzweil in the first feature Fight The Future. While the casting decision might have been motivated by Landau’s role in Mission: Impossible, as well as the high caliber of his acting work, one also has to wonder if Landau’s work on Space: 1999, playing commander John Koenig, was another factor.

In the history of Science Fiction television, there seems to be a common thread, that Science Fiction that deals with metaphysics tends to resonate more with the public than programs that deal with hard science, and lean secular. The overall excellent first season of Space: 1999 explicitly dealt with metaphysics, with scenarios that constantly forced the characters to accept the other, and to accept and embrace intangibles. This does not mean the first season didn’t have it’s flaws, but the production values, the set design and the visual effects were fairly impeccable for it’s time, but the uneven scripts undermined the season.

Gerry Anderson has an interesting history, Born in April, 1929, Bloomsbury, London. His brother Lionel served in the Royal Air Force at the start of World War II, Lionel’s experiences in America influenced Gerry. He began his career in Photography, earning a traineeship with the British Colonial Film Unit after the war. In 1947, he was conscripted for national service with the RAF. After starting his career as an editor for Gainsborough Pictures, he moved into several projects in the mid 50s, utilizing his skills with puppets and miniatures, Once Gerry became involved with Sylvia Anderson in the early 60s, he had a series of hits, Supercar, Fireball XL5, and Stingray, the first British children’s television show in color. Thunderbirds would go on to be his greatest success, he followed this with another success Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons.

The early template for Space: 1999 could be found in Gerry Anderson’s 1969 film Doppelganger, also known in American as Journey To The Far Side Of The Sun, starring American actor Roy Thinnes, played an astronaut who travels to a newly discovered planet on the opposite side of the sun, which is revealed to be an exact mirror image of Earth A thoughtful and measured film that came right at the heals of Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey. Anderson followed this feature by developing UFO. While the premise has a few elements that reference the usual Abduction UFOlogy, - earth is visited and attacked by aliens from a dying planet and humans are covertly harvested for their organs, a military organization set up to combat the invaders, SHADO - But the show was more of a wild and wooly adventure, with a Thunderbirds flavor, than a series that seriously explored such esoteric subjects, that ran from 1970-1971.

Problems between Gerry’s wife, Sylvia, started to develop around this period, deciding to branch out on his own, Gerry Anderson’s next project was The Protectors, with Robert Vaughn and Nyree Dawn Porter. In spite of the success of The Protectors, UFO experienced a drop in ratings both in the UK and US, due to Gerry’s ideas within UFO, to expand the SHADO moonbase, he wasn’t willing to let certain ideas die. Being that Sir Lew Grade had stipulated that UFO should primarily be based on the moon, and such episodes set on the moon had been the most popular during the series run. Anderson approached Grade’s number two man in the New York division, Abe Mandell, and proposed taking the research and development done for UFO, while Mandell was open to the idea, he stipulated he didn’t want any earth-bound settings.

The first attempt for the pilot script, “Zero-G” had some similar elements that could be found on UFO, but writer George Bellak would end up establishing many of the elements to be found in “Breakway”. A deal was arranged, Group Three Productions with a partnership with the Andersons and production executive Reg Hill would produce the series, ITC Entertainment and RAI would provide the funding. Grade, while aiming for a US network sale, insisted the series have American leads, and employ American writers, and directors. Hence writer Bellak was brought on board, as well as Christopher Penfold and Johnny Byrne. Several writers credit Bellak for setting up the writers guide to help define the three lead, the facilities for the moonbase, and potential storylines.

It’s interesting to note that in 1966, several effects crew members working on Thunderbirds were convinced to defect the show and work on Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, and one could note the eventual influence. As a key figure in the development and influence of the first season, Penfold wrote 16 of the 24 episodes. Born the son of a vicar in Bristol, educated at Cambridge, Chris Penfold joined Australia’s ABC, becoming a writer and producer in radio and television. He eventually returned to England to work in industrial documentaries, before becoming story editor on the series The Pathfinder. Penfold commented in a 1997 interview:

"I was certainly interested in the idea of making popular the kind of science fiction which dealt unashamedly with metaphysical ideas, And in the first series of Space: 1999 a lot of the episodes, not all of them, but a lot of them, confronted those issues head on. I think they make very good programmes."

Penfold elaborated in a 2002 interview.

"Space fiction stories are mainly thought of as action adventure. What we were engaged in [with] Space: 1999 was of course action adventure, but it was also ideas adventure. We weren’t afraid of big ideas in series one, it was what drove us on day to day, it gave us a huge sense of excitement."

This explicit metaphysics was one of the strengths of the first season, and one could argue that each episode acted as an initiation rite for the moonbase crew, as they were headed into something transformative.

Episode summations

“It’s the struggle for survival that makes monsters of us all.” – Dorzak, season two

The premise is established in the pilot, newly appointed to Moonbase Alpha at the end of the 90s, Commander John Koenig heads the team, with Paul Morrow the second in command. Doctor Helena Russell is the head of the medical section, and a long time associate of Koenig, Victor Bergman is the science advisor, Alan Carter is the third in command and heads the massive squadron of Eagles that operate on the base. Sandra Benes is the data analyst. David Kano is the computer operations officer, and doctor Bob Mathias is Doctor Russell’s deputy. The following sequence is not based on broadcast air dates, but production dates. Yet I tend to feel this sequence makes sense in revealing the progression and development of these characters as they condition and accept the situations they find themselves in.

In “Breakaway”, Commander Koenig is sent to Moonbase Alpha to insure that a deep space probe ship to readied to send to a planet that has sent an intelligent signal to earth, Meta. But an unstable nuclear disposal area explodes and blasts the moon out of earth’s orbit. In “Force of Life”, A form of alien energy enters Moonbase Alpha, and inhabits a crew member, the force needs heat to survive, and starts to kill crew members, this type of story is frequent to the first season, and I’ll explore in a moment. In “Collision Course” The Alphan’s, after destroying an asteroid that is in their path, discover a massive planet, Koenig, on an interception, meets an alien embarsary from the planet who convinces him to do nothing to stop the collision, but the alpha crew challenges him, a test of faith. In “War Games”, an episode that would be re-cut into a feature, The alphans are tested from an alien planet they cross paths into believing they are under attack, but the attacks are projections to test their fear. Koenig and Helena visit the planet, learn about the race, and have to make a choice. The next episode featured Brian Blessed, “Deaths Other Dominion”, where the Alpha team come across a frozen planet, and meet fellow Earthmen, a team living under the planet that were part of a Uranus probe mission from 1986. But there is a price on Ultma Thewley, all of the humans are immortal, impotent, and can only remain that way if they stay on the planet.

The next episode seems to be a commentary on Colonial expansionism and the unforeseen genocide of native Americans due to exposure to diseases, In “Voyage’s Return”, The Moonbase Alpha team encounter one of the Voyager probes, but the probes drive system is destructive, yet the original inventor of the drive system is on Alpha. . A fleet of ships, the Arkons, have been tracking Voyager, and threaten to destroy Alpha and eventually Earth, due to the drive technology of Voyager destroying two worlds. The next episode which featured Julian Glover, “Alpha Child”, dealt with the first male baby is born in Alpha, and who is taken over by an alien entity named Jarek, a fleet of ships arrive, as the baby rapidly grows to five years old, before growing to adulthood. Jerek’s people intend to take over the souls of the Alpha crew, until another alien ship arrives to deal with Jerek and his people who are renegades. The next episode, A modern day retelling of the fable of George and the Dragon, has been written about by John Kenneth Muir, “Dragon’s Domain”, As recounted by Helena, an alpha crew member who is a friend of John Koenig and Victor, had encountered, on a deep space probe mission to an earth like planet in 1996, a graveyard of ships and an alien space dragon that killed the crew for blood. The Alpha crew find the same graveyard, that same crew member confronts the alien beast. In the next episode, which featured Joan Collins, “Mission of the Darians”, The Alphans encounter a massive space city, a kind of Ark for the Darians, whose planet died off ages ago. The Darians were split into a distinct class system after nuclear explosions destroyed parts of the space ark, a small circle of elites survived, and the rest were mutants, nine hundred years later, The Alphans discover the truth, the elites uses mutants and primitive humans as food to survive.

In “Black Sun”, Moonbase Alpha encounters a Black Hole, and has to initially create a reverse shield to protect the base. It soon becomes apparent the odds are slim and a survival ship is loaded with a crew of six, three men, three women including Helena. Ultimately, the episode deals with mortality and faith, and the thin line between science and metaphysics. The next episode featured Catherine Sheel who would go on to play Maya in the second season, The episode, “Guardians of Piri”, has been argued by some to be a retelling of the story of the Island of the Lotus Eaters, with Koenig cast in the role of Odysseus. The Alphans encounter a strange, surreal planet, Piri, where it’s main computer created an idyllic life, which led to the extinction of it’s people through apathy. Koenig must fight to save Alpha and his people from the same fate. There’s a minor subplot with Kano, whom had electrodes implanted in his brain years before, due to an experiment on Earth, predating VR, and the premise of the film, The Matrix.

In “End of Eternity”, a fairly weak entry, the tone of which is similar to “Force of Life”, a horror tale. The Alpha team come across an asteroid they discover is hollow, blasting the inner chambers open they release an immortal alien named Balor, whom was shunned from his home world for being a sadist and psychotic, Balor’s ultimatum is to control the Alphans for his own experiments. In “Matter of Life and Death”, Helena’s presumed dead husband, Lee Russell, reappears during a reconnaissance mission to a passing planet that the alphan’s believe could be a new home. But Lee Russell is an anti-matter copy of her husband, it’s presumed, a spirit to warn the base to not colonize the planet, after the copy dies, the warning is ignored with disastrous results, and Helena is given a choice. The episode plays as a parable about humans reentering Eden, the paradise that men were expelled from. In “Earthbound”, a crew of Alien pacifists, with a ship that is programmed to be bound for Earth, crash lands on Alpha, the crew greet and support the aliens, except for Commissioner Simmons (From “Breakaway”) who sees their vessel as a means to return home. Simmons blackmails the base and get’s his just deserts, featuring the great Christopher Lee.

In “The Full Circle”, A very sub par episode, the Moon passes an earth-like planet, dense with jungles, a strange mist causes a number of reconnaissance crew members to disappear, crews lead by Bergman, discover the mist transforms Alphans to a Nethanderthal state. The episodes feels like an excuse for the production team to shoot on location, and there’s an overall feeling of slumming it, in spite of an attempt to comment on man’s primal nature...it allows Sondra to play the victim. In “Another Time, Another place”, A distortion in time produces two separate moons with two separate alphans from different eras, one female crew member seems connected to the two eras, and tries to warn of danger when Alpha discovers the ruins of Earth. A slow, and somewhat interesting philosophical episode, that takes a nod to the spirit of Rod Serling.

In “The Infernal Machine”, An all-powerful spaceship visits the Alphans, it’s inhabitant Delmer Plebus Powells Gwent is an old man, and the ship is an extension of his genius and ego. After luring Koenig, Russell, and Bergman onto the ship, a militarized cat and mouse game ensues with the ship demanding supplies and companions. Leo Mckern delivers a sympathetic performance as the old genius who had placed his worst traits into the machine. The episode touches on another on going theme using reason and compassion as opposed to using military offense when dealing with the unknown. The episode thematically is similar to the V’Ger plot of Star Trek: The Motion Picture, a sentient machine that has the development of a child. Similar plot points are also found in the next episode, “Ring Around The Moon”, where a crew member is possessed by an orange glow, which ultimately kills him, it transpires it comes from a giant energy probe originally sent from the planet Triton, the probe which captures the Alphans and insists that Helena should become the eyes of Triton. To rescue her, Koenig must convince the probe that it’s home has long been destroyed and it’s mission to collect data serves no purpose.

In “Missing Link”, While on a recon mission to an alien world, Koenig and crewmates are on an Eagle that is destabilized, the Eagle crashes back on the moon and Koenig appears to be dying, his spirit is captured and scrutinized by an resident alien and his daughter on Zenno, due to the fact that humans appear to be the Zenno’s missing link. Pensive and psychological, although a little uneven in the characterization, it features Peter Cushing. In “The Last Sunset”, While Eagle’s do another recon mission to an oxygen rich planet they are heading into orbit, a probe attaches itself to the lead eagle. Back on Moonbase Alpha, while studying, the probe unleashes a gas, followed by a fleet of probes that gives the moon an atmosphere, and a weather cycle, but the develop causes a new set or problems for the crew, and it’s more than bargained for.

In “Space Brain”, The moon crosses paths with a massive space brain, a recon ship is destroyed, reduced to a rock as the brain emits anti-bodies. The brain tries to communicate with the alpha’s with massive amounts of data the crew can’t understand, on a second recon mission, a crew member is used as a conduit between the brain and the bases computer. A solution must be found or both the moon and the brain could be destroyed. “The Troubled Spirit”, A botanical scientist in the middle of an experiment has triggered and unexplained event. A psychic entity appears and kills a couple of crew members close to the scientist, but the entity might or might not be the future spirit of the scientists demise. The crew has to make a choice. This is in essence a ghost tale with an O’Henry twist.

By the next episode, the alpha crew seems to have learned the lessons from “War Games”; In “The Last Enemy”, The moon crosses paths with a sun with two worlds on opposing sides of the sun, both worlds and it’s alien races are involved in a age old war, and moon base alpha are caught in the middle as the moon is the perfect tactical location for both sides, the base has to stay neutral or face destruction from either planet. In the season closer, “The Testament of Arkadia”, The Moon is mysteriously locked into orbit around a dead, alien planet, and the power reserves of Moonbase Alpha mysteriously start to drain away, the crew must visit the planet Arkadia to discover the mystery, where they find the mummified remains of humans, and after finding Sanskrit writing learn of an alien holocaust and that earth are the decedents of this planet. A choice must be made, to create a new Adam and Eve, or face death with a dying moonbase.

Missed Opportunities

Leading into the second season, several shake-ups would change the nature of the series original intent. The break up of Gerry and Sylvia Anderson, factored into some of the changes, when ratings for the first season dropped in the United States in the Autumn months, Lew Grade canceled production for further work on season two, Gerry Anderson and Fred Freiberger were able to rallied the situation and do a re-pitch with the alien Maya. arguing that the dynamic would shake up the interaction of the characters, and re-spark viewer interest in the states. But it also in essence helped to dumb down the series. Setting aside the criticism of the scientific implausibility of the pilot episode, regarding how the moon blasted out of Earth’s orbit, a point that Isaac Asimov was highly critical of, there is also the missed opportunity of having a more compelling, biblical story arc. If the event of the breakaway had had to do with a massive commit or meteor has struck the earth, with something to the effect of shattering the planet in two, and causing a blast wave that broke the Moon from it’s fixed orbit, then you eliminate any hope of ever getting back to earth, and the Moon and Moonbase Alpha becomes a kind of Noah’s ark, with the survivors searching and waiting to find a new home. Certainly, the scale of the moonbase, suggests a city and miniature society. If the bio-chambers, envisioned as bio-domes, featured a range of animal life, this would reinforce the Noah’s ark meme.

When considering the civilian aspect of this society, unless one assumes this base was strictly a military industrial operation, then the lack of a civilian vs. military hierarchy, then the lack of development with Commissioner Simmons, who only appears in “Breakaway” and “Earthbound”, is another missed opportunity as far as a recurring character. A dynamic between Commander Koenig and the Commissioner could have been set-up; a tension between civilian and military needs. Such dynamics were put to great effect with Ron Moore’s Battlestar: Galactica, between Adama and President.Roslin

Writer Christopher Penfold was able cast some light on the inconsistent quality within the first season, in an interview from 1997:

"As the series developed, the increasing concerns of ITC for a kind of science fiction which I felt very alien to me began to have the effect of undermining the scripts which were being written. We had very good scripts which had to go back to the drawing board to meet a requirement which had come from Abe Mandell, who didn’t appear to have any understanding that if you take one strand out of a script, it effects everything else in the script. So a lot of rewriting, needless rewriting, went on and this had the effect of bringing the scripts further and further behind schedule. The difficulties came to a head and Gerry asked me to leave the series. I don’t remember having any severe falling out with him, but I realized the way the wind was blowing as far as story content was concerned and I was, at that point, utterly exhausted anyway."

Most people, when they reference their memory of the series will recall Catherine Sheel’s Maya from the second season, but I have found myself always underwhelmed by season two, and often found it inferior. Some of the reasons for the poor quality have everything to do with significant cast changes that changed the tone of the series. Barry Morse apparently had grown dissatisfied with the treatment of his character, Victor Bergman, and opted to not return. Undermining the trifecta of Koenig, Russell, and Bergman - a set of character arcs that shared similarities to Kirk, Spock, McCoy from Star Trek, or Harry, Ron, and Hermione from the Potter series. If the writers had allowed Bergman’s character to be more developed in season two, and progressed his arc to something more satisfying, and allowed for his demise at the end in the second season – he was an older man with an artificial heart – it could have resonated. The inclusion for Maya for a third season would have made sense other than the abrupt change at the start of the second season.

The other baffling change was the absence of the second in command Paul Morrow, and the appearance of Tony Verdeschi as the second in command, as well as the eventual love interest for Maya in the second season. Being that Tony never appears in the first season, it is a complete break from continuity, we are left to assume he was deep in the bowels of the moonbase, and moves up in rank with no explanation. It would be revealed that Fred Freiberger held a certain dismissive attitude about certain characters in later years, but many of the inconsistencies in the second season would merely help to diminish the reputation of the show. Fred Freiberger became notorious for cutting corners with the production, the look of the sets and costume design. Martin landau has commented:

"They changed it because a bunch of American minds got into the act and they decided to do many things they felt were commercial. Fred Freiberger helped in some respects, but, overall, I don't think he helped the show, I think he brought a much more ordinary, mundane approach to the series."

Critics of the first season often comment on the scientific implausibility of many episodes, yet they fail to recognize the season one series might not be realistic, it works in terms of it’s dream imagery – touching on some very primal psyche issues – the show, and each episode seems to act as an initiation rite, compelling the characters to accept, adapt, and transform from their accepted understanding of the universe, consciously or not, the series works within the purpose of alchemy. But another aspect that is referenced in the episode “Dragon’s Domain” when Helena Russell observes about the crew ‘inventing their own mythology’ in the closing moments, touches on the idea of mythologies reinventing themselves anew as our complicated understanding of our existence evolves.

All of this makes the first season worth more of an reexamination then some might have assumed. Some of these retellings like in “Guardians of Piri”, are interesting in context. In Odyssey IX, Odysseus describes the tale of the Lotus-eaters thusly:

"I was driven thence by foul winds for a space of 9 days upon the sea, but on the tenth day we reached the land of the Lotus-eaters, who live on a food that comes from a kind of flower. Here we landed to take in fresh water, and our crews got their mid-day meal on the shore near the ships. When they had eaten and drunk I sent two of my company to see what manner of men the people of the place might be, and they had a third man under them. They started at once, and went about among the Lotus-eaters, who did them no hurt, but gave them to eat of the lotus, which was so delicious that those who ate of it left off caring about home, and did not even want to go back and say what had happened to them, but were for staying and munching lotus with the Lotus-eaters without thinking further of their return; nevertheless, though they wept bitterly I forced them back to the ships and made them fast under the benches. Then I told the rest to go on board at once, lest any of them should taste of the lotus and leave off wanting to get home, so they took their places and smote the grey sea with their oars."

The theme of the tale can be seen as a comment on man’s nature to be easily distracted away from our true purpose. Certain conclusions can be drawn by the origin of the “Dragon’s Domain” episode – George and the Dragon. Of course the way that the tale is retold is interesting when you take into account the known variations of St. George. In the earliest account, the Golden legend, the king is forced to sacrifice his daughter from a lottery to appease the dragon, when livestock offerings fail. St. George passed by the lake per chance where the Dragon dwelled, after wounding the beast, the princess helps George subdue the beast, George persuaded the city folk of Silene to convert to Christianity with the promise the slay the beast, which he did. In later accounts based in Libya, a poor hermit tells George of the beast that has ravaged the country, and this leads to his quest, not by chance, but by choice. Another alternative version from Essex tells of St. George losing the battle with the dragon early on in the encounter. St. George retreats, and wanders down the river, prays over his challenges, removes his armor to melt it down and forges it into a metal box. He places his fears, doubts and lack of faith into the box, faces the dragon again with no armor and then slays the beast. This leaves a curious comment about the meaning of “Dragon’s Domain”, is Tony Cellini’s demise due to a lack of faith or an inability to overcome his personal demons from the first encounter? Regardless, like St. George, Cellini manages to convert them into the idea of believing in ‘belief.’

Christopher Penford wrote both “Guardians of Piri” and “Dragon’s Domain”, and he certainly pointed a way to reexamine classic mythologies and religious allegories and present them in a contemporary setting, which the why the abandonment of these memes all the more baffling. It has been rumored that a new series is being developed, Space: 2099. If this version comes to pass, and if the producers take pages from Ron Moore’s approach, perhaps some of the promise and potential of the idea can be fulfilled. Nevertheless, the first season is worth examining as it represented a time when the Science Fiction genre on television was allowed to intelligently explore the subject of metaphysics. We might not see the allowance of such subjects, or it’s like, for a long spell.

Special thanks to John Kenneth Muir, and Harry Craft for their insights.