The plot would require serious revision to be turned into an episode. You'd have to throw out nearly the entire Uber-UST plot thread to begin with, and without it, you'd need a new "B" plot, which would necessitate a different ending. Maybe the Uber-UST is really the "A" plot. Maybe the two plots are so closely entwined that by the ending, they nearly climax simultaneously. Sorry.

Scully torture? It skirts the line for awhile, and then crosses over, never to return. If I could take this fic seriously for long enough, I might get mad about it. You know I don't like stories that torture their characters either. But here, hasn't Scully been effectively replaced by the Fangirls/readers/writers? It sounds like from up thread, and from remarks made in my journal, that poor Magdeleine had to run the gauntlet to even get this posted. No wonder it took her a whole year, with the chorus of listmates hounding her, all in good fun, to write MSR smut. I think we have to give her credit for refusing to write that ending and instead giving us one that at least resets the UST back to levels more nearly approaching what I saw on screen.

This story did make me laugh out loud in several places. It also made me want to get out the red pencil.

Maybe the script could keep the parrot? I have this theory formulating about the parrot, about how it's the elephant in the room, representing the attraction that M&S feel that they can't acknowledge or act on. This works okay up until the moment Scully shoots the parrot, leaving me with nothing but dead parrot jokes to write about.