Written by Alex Gansa & Howard Gordon
Directed by Daniel Sackheim
In the first season of The X-Files, the majority of the
episodes were written by three writing units, Carter himself, Morgan &
Wong, and the writers of this episode. Alex Gansa & Howard Gordon are
significant for being the first group of writers to become famous for their
work after they left The X-Files. (Gansa left after the first
season; Gordon stayed on until Season 4.) The two had worked as a unit for the
cult hit Beauty and the Beast. When
Gordon left the series, he would briefly work for both Buffy the Vampire Slayer & Angel, before reuniting with Gansa
to become the driving force behind 24, one
of the first great shows of TV's new Golden Age. They are currently the head
writers of Showtime's Homeland, a
series which until a few weeks of this writing (its currently December 2013) I
thought would also be a great show.
What does all of this have to do
with The X-Files? Well, anyone who's
been a fan of either series know that Gordon and Gansa thrive in making
unbelievable situations absolutely brilliant, even if it doesn't make much
sense at the time. But for reasons which surpass the understanding, they were
never as capable as some of the other writers at taking the supernatural and
strengthen it with reality. One can see their struggles with the concept of the
series in their debut episode. They don't seem quite comfortable with either
making this a straight procedural or completely paranormal, so they try to do
both, and end up not doing well with either. Part of this could be written off
as the simple problem that they have no
idea what direction this series will take--- many scripts in the first season
will suffer for that reason. But the main problem with Conduit they seem
determined to try and lead us down as many blind alleys before eventually
leading us... well, that's another problem.
They clearly don't have a grip on
the central characters either. From before the teaser, Mulder seems determined
to put an X in this file where it may not belong. In doing so, he pisses off
local law enforcement (nothing new), theorizes outlandishly (ditto) and seems
to be personalizing this case. One of the problems with the show was that they
never got a clear idea as to how best to handle the Samantha Mulder abduction
storyline--- it will literally change from season to season. And right now,
Mulder seems determined to see his sister in this case where she most assuredly
is not there, but which Scully seems determined to remind us of with every
backward glance. It's very frustrating, and it equally irritating that we seem
to keep being lead down one blind alley after another. The mysterious woman who
seems to be unearthly is actually a friend of Ruby's, who's later revealed to
be a murderer. Kevin keeps looking at the TV screen and drawing binary code
that seems to be vital to something, but is just fragments of the whole. They
find a shallow grave near her abduction, but it's belongs to someone else. By
the time we mistake a motorcycle gang for aliens, one wants to grab the writers
and say "We get it! Nothing on the X-Files can be taken as what it seems!
Now make up your damn mind!" But they don't and we leave with Ruby
reunited with her family, but no answers of any kind available. It doesn't give
you faith in the writers, especially when you realize that this is one of the
BETTER scripts Gordon and Gansa will write for this show.
There are some good moments, but
like the fragments the FBI reads from the document that Kevin is drawing,
they're only moments of brilliance. Carrie Snodgress gives a believable
performance as Mrs. Morris, the woman who initially wants to convince anybody
that something horrible has happened to her daughter, and by the end just wants
the FBI to go away. The segment at the bar where Mulder takes the point of most
resistance when he tells the bartender he doesn't
believe in flying saucers. And when Scully looks at the massive enclave of
data that Kevin has been drawing is revealed to be a pictured of the missing
Ruby--- that's pure crystal in an episode that's most Flintstone's jelly glass.
And they're fragmented enough to almost make you think that this episode is
worth your time.
But as will come to be the case
with a lot of Howard Gordon scripts, the key word is 'almost'. There will be
moments of shock and awe that will register overwhelming the dullness of the
story. This will work better in episodes that are more Monster-of-the-week.
Unfortunately, at this stage in the series development, the writers are trying
desperately to find a unifying theme between every story, another big problem
with Season 1. So rather that having some kind of supernatural vengeance, we
get maudlin close-ups of Mulder and Scully trying to connect this somehow to
Samantha, especially in our first listen to Mulder's memories of what happened
the night she was abducted. And Howard Gordon has problems with showing
traditional humanity, no matter what series
he's working for.
I'm not saying Conduit is a
complete waste of time, either--- in tone and acting, it's pretty solid. But
for a series to be considered workmanlike at this stage in the game is never a
good sign for the average viewer. Like
Mulder, we want to believe that the
series is capable of greatness, but at this stage, with this episode, it's hard
to be convinced.
My Score: 2.5 stars
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