X-Files: Go Away

Latest season of The X-Files? Meh. I can't say I was ever a big fan of the show, as I stopped watching it around 1997, as I thought it was being written as they went along, with no real plot in sight. The new episode didn't cut it, plus - and just like when Twin Peaks came back - everyone looks old and tired. Apart from Scully. I will be glad when the show is laid to rest and it never comes back. Like an over the hill athlete or a rock band that should know when it's time to retire, it's time for The X-Files to become extinct.

"Endangered Species" - Reviewed

Over at Jim Harold's website, I review a certain 1982 movie on cattle-mutilations. Its title: Endangered Species. Here's how the article begins:

The world of Hollywood has always been quick to (a) pick up on what’s going on in the real world of unsolved mysteries of the conspiratorial and supernatural kind and (b) make use of those same mysteries in hit TV shows and mega-bucks movies. Take, for example, the 1994 movie, Roswell, starring Kyle MacLachlan and Martin Sheen. It’s a production that did a pretty good job of fictionalizing the world’s most famous UFO case. Then, there’s 1997’s Men in Black, starring Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones, a movie that brought the dark-suited silencers of Ufology to a new, huge audience. And, of course, there’s The X-Files, which weaved far more than a few well-known enigmas into its plotlines, including the Jersey Devil, lake monsters, and the world’s most famous, secret base, Area 51.

There is, however, one particularly sinister and enduring mystery that, for the most part, falls under Hollywood’s radar. Yes, it occasionally gets touched upon. Sometimes, it will get more than a few minutes of coverage. But, chiefly, it never gets the airtime that many might say it well deserves. You may be wondering what I’m talking about. Well, I’ll tell you: it’s the mysterious matter of so-called cattle mutilations.

And here's the link to the article.

Looking Back At "Dark Skies"

Over at Mysterious Universe I take a look back at the 1990s UFO/conspiracy-themed show, Dark Skies. Here's how it starts:

It was 20 years ago that NBC unleashed a much talked about and still widely remembered UFO-themed show: Dark Skies. It was the brainchild of Brent V. Friedman and Bryce Zabel. The show was not destined to last, however. It ran for just 20 episodes, from September 1996 to May 1997. The show focused on the world of two people caught up in a Cold War-era conspiracy of extraterrestrial proportions: John Loengard and his girlfriend, Kim Sayers (played by Eric Close and Megan Ward). When I first heard news of the series, of the nature of the show, and of the man-woman team, I thought: “X-Files rip-off.” It turns out that it wasn’t. And I was pleasantly surprised, too.

In The X-Files the extraterrestrial angle was always shrouded in ambiguity: were we really being visited by aliens? Was the UFO phenomenon just a cover for highly-classified experiments of a genetic- and mind-control-nature undertaken by top secret, “black budget” programs? Or, was it a strange and secret mixture of both? While ambiguity in a show like The X-Files worked, for me the ambiguity went on way too long – which is why I stopped watching the show around 1998. It’s for the very same reason that I stopped watching Lost – I felt like the story was being written with no real idea of where it was heading. A runaway train with no driver in sight.

An Improvement...

Well, I thought Monday night's episode of The X-Files (the 3rd of 6 new episodes) was a good return to form after the first 2, which were crap. Lots of humor and a shape-shifting monster dressed as Carl Kolchak from The Night Stalker!

The Invaders and Indrid Cold - Synchronicities

My latest Mysterious Universe article is a 2-piece one on the 1960s TV show, The Invaders, Indrid Cold, Mothman, and a few strange synchronicities.

Part one starts like this:

"In January 1967, a new sci-fi series was launched on ABC. The brainchild of Larry Cohen and brought to life by QM Productions, it was titled The Invaders. It starred actor Roy Thinnes as a man named David Vincent. He finds himself plunged into a nightmarish, paranoia-filled world in which hostile aliens are secretly attempting to take over the Earth. Over the course of two seasons and 43 episodes, we see Vincent doing his utmost to thwart the invasion and warn the public, the media, the military, and the government of the growing extraterrestrial threat amongst us.

"Although I’m not much of a fan of sci-fi (horror and mystery movies are more my thing), I do like The Invaders, which comes across like a combination of Invasion of the Body Snatchers and The Fugitive, and with more than a few Cold War fears thrown in, for good measure. Plus, it’s clear to see how the show inspired the likes of The X-Files and the short-lived 1990s series, Dark Skies."

And here are the opening paragraphs of Part two:

"Part 1 of this article introduced you to two issues: (a) the 1967-1968 ABC show, The Invaders, which starred Roy Thinnes as a man doing his very best to thwart an alien invasion of the Earth; and (b) the matter of Mothman and a certain Indrid Cold – the latter being an alleged alien who changed the life of a West Virginian man, Woody Derenberger, in 1966. But that’s only the start of things.

"I also mentioned in Part 1 how, in 1967, a certain episode of The Invaders was aired. Its title: 'Panic.' It dealt with an alien (played by Robert Walker, Jr.) who is infected with a deadly virus. Anyone and everyone he touches is literally frozen to death in mere moments. It’s up to Vincent to try and bring the alien’s murderous reign to an end – which he does.