X-Files Book Club

It's our final day. Was it a fun change of pace or an unwelcome diversion?

This is another MOTW episode I enjoy more for the relationship bits than for the X-File. The scene where Scully sings "Joy to the World" to Mulder actually made me tear up, in part because she'll sing it again much later in the series in a much different context. Other than that scene and the one in the car where they talk about building the tower of office furniture, the writing falls a little flat for me. I don't see the slightest resemblance to "Deliverance," which writer Frank Spotnitz claimed was his inspiration.



Writer: Frank Spotnitz
Director: Brett Dowler
Original air date: November 23, 1997

Synopsis: Mulder and Scully are carpooling with fellow FBI agents, Michael Kinsley and Carla Stonecypher, to an FBI team-building seminar in Florida. When they are stopped by a roadblock, Mulder gets out of the car to stretch his legs. Before Scully can ask, "Mulder, where are you going?", he has ditched the seminar and headed into the woods to assist with a missing persons investigation which Mulder is convinced is an X-File.

Most Memorable Quote:
Scully: Mulder, you need to keep warm. Your body's still in shock.
Mulder: I was told once that the best way to regenerate body heat is to crawl naked into a sleeping bag with somebody else who was already naked. (scoots closer to her)
Scully: (grinning) Maybe if it rains sleeping bags, you'll get lucky.

Links:
Transcript
Autumn Tysko
Drew Vogel

Fanfiction:
We get to season five and suddenly there's fanfic.
Communication by Wintersong.
Summary: So, what if Mulder and Scully really did get to build a tower of office furniture someday? What would we see?
Energy and Light by Oracle (on her Gossamer page) Wendy's note: not specifically a post-ep but it's season five, the fic takes place in a forest and it fits the mood. Plus I'm the mod.
Summary: Four girls have vanished, each one on a different night. Each one by the light of a full moon. Is it just a coincidence?
Still Life with Implant by denynothing1 aka Barbara D.
Summary: Adjusting to life in remission.
This Her Fever by Aloysia Virgata. Wendy's note: I'd never read this because the summary made it sound like cancer fic, which I mostly avoid for personal reasons. But it's not about Scully having cancer, it's Scully-in-remission fic and canon-compliant, too.
SUMMARY: It is, she thinks, a fitting coda to her life that Mulder and Father McCue should cross paths in this room, both trying to offer her salvation.

Minor announcement: I got the episode order wrong in the original posting. So that means tomorrow's episode will be "Small Potatoes" and Friday's "Detour." Sorry for the mix-up. Mea culpa.

I enjoyed this episode except for one thing. "Poor Queequeg!" Besides being the episode that kills off Scully's pet dog, "Quagmire" is best known for its third act: the conversation on the rock, consisting of almost ten pages of whimsical dialogue between Mulder and Scully.


Writer: Kim Newton
Director: Kim Manners
Originally aired: May 3, 1996

Synopsis:
Mulder and Scully investigate the mysterious disappearance of a federal employee biologist at a lake in Georgia.

Most Memorable Quote:
Scully: I called him Ahab and he called me Starbuck. So I named my dog Queequeg. It's funny, I just realized something.
Mulder: It's a bizarre name for a dog, huh?
Scully: No. How much you're like Ahab. You're so... consumed by your personal vengeance against life, whether it be its inherent cruelties or its mysteries, that everything takes on a warped significance to your megalomaniacal cosmology.
Mulder: Scully, are you coming on to me?

Links:
Transcript
Sarah Stegall
Autumn Tysko

Fanfiction:
Um. Yes it's been written but no I can't rec it. Maybe I've missed some hidden gem; if so, set me straight and I'll edit it in.
'

This is Darin Morgan's maiden voyage as a writer for The X-Files. He previously appeared in season two in "The Host" as Flukeman. I haven't watched it yet (World Cup!) so let's see what I remember. Well, Scully eats a cricket. They exhume a potato. Mulder looks hot. It's the first episode conceived to be humorous, as opposed to having a quip or two.


Writer: Darin Morgan
Director: Kim Manners
Originally aired: March 31, 1995

Synopsis: Mulder and Scully travel to the small town of Gibsonton, Florida to investigate the latest of a series of mysterious attacks, which occurred throughout the US over the past 28 years. They begin by attending the funeral of the most recent victim, who was a member of a community of former side-show performers.

Most Memorable Quote:
Mulder: Tell me, have you done much circus work in your life?
Mr. Nutt: And what makes you think I've ever spectated a circus? Much less been enslaved by one?
Mulder: I know that many of the citizens here are former circus hands, and I just thought that...
Mr. Nutt: You thought that because I am a person of short stature, that the only career I could procure for myself would be one confined to the so-called 'Big Top'. You took one quick look at me, and decided that you could deduce my entire life. Never would it have occurred to you that a person of my height could have possibly obtained a degree in Hotel Management.
Mulder: I'm sorry. I meant no offence.
Mr. Nutt: Well then why should I take offence? Just because it's human nature to make instantaneous judgments of others based solely upon their physical appearances? Why I've done the same thing to you, for example. I've taken in your all-American features, your dour demeanor, your unimaginative necktie design, and concluded that you work for the government; an FBI agent... but do you see the tragedy here? I have mistakenly reduced you to a stereotype. A caricature, instead of regarding you as a specific, unique individual.
Mulder: But I am an FBI agent.

Links:
Not Just a Fluke: How Darin Morgan Saved The X-Files
TWOP Recap
The 10 Funniest X-Files Episodes
Sarah Stegall
Transcript

Fanfiction: Alas, no. Let's go write some!

Our mini-rewatch begins! So, "Ice" has it all: sex, violence, black humor, bad science, plenty of opportunities for scenery chewing, and some of the tensest scenes between Mulder and Scully of the entire series.

My favorite retro-nineties fashion moment from season one is Dana Scully standing there wearing her gigantic puffy coat. She looks all of thirteen in that scene.



Writers: Glen Morgan and James Wong
Director: David Nutter
Originally aired: November 5, 1993

Synopsis: Mulder and Scully are assigned to investigate the mass murder-suicides of a team of scientists at a remote research facility in Icy Cape, Alaska.

Most Memorable Quote:
MULDER: Scully! For God's sake, it's me!
SCULLY: Mulder...you may not be who you are.

Links:
transcript
Entertainment Weekly's X-Cyclopedia: The Ultimate Episode Guide, season one. That magazine's TV critic was so obsessed with this show. Not like us.
Sara Stegall's review
Autumn Tysko's review

Fanfiction:
Everywhere In The Dark by tree.
Summary: A missing scene from Ice. What happened between saying goodnight and Mulder finding Murphy? This is one possibility.

Strange Things Done by Dryad
Summary: The Arctic in eight moments.

Maybe it's time for a reread of Universal Invariants by syntax6.
Summary: This is an AU story in which I play fast and loose with the first season. While I'm just as glad that Ethan got eliminated from the actual show (I don't think he would have added much on the screen) I thought it would be fun to play out the relationship here as Scully gets dragged deeper and deeper into the X-Files.

If anyone wants to rec other post-ep fic for "Ice," leave it in a comment. Don't forget to track this post so you can read everyone's comments.