Oh, MY. I don't know why JMS decided to do a parody of The X-Files on his show. It doesn't really seem like something they would have time for, trying to save ten billion people from a plague and all. And yet...I'm kind of glad he did, because that was pretty hilarious. RIDICULOUS, but hilarious.

(The premise of this episode was that there is an alien Mulder and Scully hunting down aliens and conspiracies, and humans are the aliens with an agenda. No, really. Alien Mulder and Scully. Who, given the way she kept clinging to his arm, are obviously going the same route ours did. They have an office, and they use cell phones. Their office window has a "Y" in masking tape on it. There is even a cigarette-smoking man. Plus the non-visual stuff: Durkani ["Duchovny"?] rambling on about how the truth is out there and he trusts no one, Lyssa being a non-believing scientist whom he eventually convinces, etc. etc. Oh, and they went for the green time/location title, but they got the font wrong, so it looked a little weird. Good effort, though!)

And damned if I didn't like the explanation/ending to this episode more than I did the actual series.

I think whatever's in Gideon's apocalypse box is at least part Vorlon. I guess that would've been addressed if the series had continued. Too bad.

- Even after eleven years and resolution of the storyline, "Memento Mori" is no less heartbreaking. :(

- "Bad Blood" is one of the funniest things I've ever seen. I don't think I've ever seen it before, actually, which is a travesty that has now been remedied. ("Large intestine, 829 grams...yadda-yadda...") And Brent Butt was the coroner! Hee!

- "Milagro" is a lot creepier than I remember it being. Like, a whole whole lot. (Of course, pretty much the only thing I remember clearly from it the first time around is "Agent Scully is already in love." What can I say, I had a one-track fannish mind as a fifteen-year-old.)

- And "Beyond the Sea" was pretty damn creepy, too. Of course, Brad Dourif kind of embodies creepy, so perhaps that was to be expected. Still. *shiver* Although possibly the creepier bit was Mulder continually calling Scully "Dana." Although I did enjoy her little "WTF?" reaction each time he did it. (And awww, it's Hammond!)

- "The Host": Fluky! I knew I remembered that episode from something. Heh. Although I think the real monster in that episode was whoever gave Scully a haircut that included bangs. Wow, mistake.

Hmm. The only things I'm getting from those eight episodes as a unit are: psychics and psychic crimes, creepy men who like Scully, and Scully-is-an-emotional-punching-bag. I have a sudden fear that everything in the movie will turn out really, really badly for her. Please let me be wrong about that. (I am in fact going to brave the crowds and go to an early afternoon showing tomorrow, in hopes that most other viewers will be at work and not the theatre. Wheee!)

*

In other news, has anyone else heard iTunes's single of the week for this week? Anyone else think this girl is the spiritual lovechild of Björk and Tim Burton? I like it, but wow, if you told me it was a Björk song, I would totally believe you.

Apparently Skiffy got ahold of the list of X-files episodes essential the the new movie. They're showing them in a marathon starting at 8 AM Eastern on 7/24 (next Thursday). Woo-hoo! I will be glued to the couch that day.

Now that the new X-Files movie is only a month from coming out, I'm starting to get veeeery excited about it. I spent about an hour tonight checking out the responses to a recent MSR vid challenge. From what I've seen so far:

Here's a cute, funny little vid.

And this is rather cool; it's clips in air-date order over the entire nine years, using an acousticy-sounding version of "Walking After You." (Remember in middle and high school, when we all made up little personal Mulder/Scully fanmixes which included that song, half of Sarah McLachlan's oevure, and bits and pieces from The Cure*? ...just me, then?) I realized in watching it that, wow, Scully's hair was almost as terrible as her wardrobe in the early seasons, and as she used progressively less hairspray, she looked progressively better. Also, bangs are a Really Bad Idea on her.

I hear also that in preparation for the movie, they're releasing an eight-episode DVD set with episodes Chris Carter considers essential for understanding the film. They are ( cut for those who don't want even the titles )

* Bonus points if, even now, hearing something by Savage Garden immediately makes you think of Paris/Torres on the strength of "To the Moon and Back." Ohhhh, I am so dating myself right now.

Spoiler pictures from the new XF movie can be found here.

( Brief reaction underneath )

"Humbug" was on Skiffy this afternoon, and I happened to catch the second half of it. I always forget how funny XF was--before it started sucking, anyway--in addition to how creepy. And the camera work was really quite good, at least in this episode; I loved the sequences in the funhouse and Scully's interview with the deformed curator. Also, Michael J. Anderson was in it! I love him! (And heh, he played a manager here too.)

One day, I need to sit down and rewatch the whole series.

(Oh, and read fic. Hmmm. Anyone got recs, or a favorite recs list/site?)

This weekend, I got two new pairs of shoes in as many days. This necessitated reorganizing the upper shelf of my closet, where I keep shoes I don't wear at least once a week neatly in their boxes, to fit two new pairs in. (Both pairs are Not Sandals, which are of course the only thing practical in the current weather.)

Since I was in an organizational mood after that, I decided to bring some order to my computer. I'm not quite there yet, but at least my "downloads" folder is down from 500+ items to 168, the rest having been either deleted or put into subfolders. To complete this organization, I ended up watching a lot of vids with names I didn't recognize, and skipping down memory lane in the process.

- Atlantis had such potential. Awesome-looking, completely unexplored city built by the ancient ancestors of humans, a whole new galaxy to explore, interesting characters who were totally cut off from Earth...what went wrong there? It went from super-cool to utterly meh in about two seasons. Boooo.

- You know what I miss? The Invisible Man. Remember that one? It was so goofy and funny! And then Vincent Ventresca's hair was another source of amusement all by itself.

- I think I've half talked myself into rewatching all of BSG before the TV movie in December. There are large chunks of the ongoing plotline I need to get myself back up to speed on.

- I'm also heading toward (one day) rewatching all of Farscape and all of the X-Files. ...Well, most of the X-Files. Minus almost all of S8-9. And probably minus a few Farscape episodes as well (Lobster of Truth, anyone?).

Today, for some reason lost in the mists of my short attention span, I went looking for X-Files music vids. One site also had Farscape vids, which of course I had to peek at. And naturally, now I want to rewatch both shows from the beginning. Well, minus most of S8 for XF...and some chunks of S7...maybe a couple episodes from S6 as well... (Nearly ten years later and I am still pissed off about that "children of starlight" crap. BOO, CHRIS CARTER, BOOOOOOOOOOO.) There are a few S4 episodes of Farscape I could skip as well...Lobster of Truth, anyone?

Yeah, now I'm wishing I hadn't canceled my Netflix subscription. Although if I watch TV, then there's less time to write and read books... Decisions, decisions.

(I think I would get twice as much out of TXF now that I've got both an academic education, courtesy of college, and an innuendo education, courtesy of fandom and ballroom.)

Anyway, I realized three things while watching said vids:

1. First-season M&S are so young OMG. They both look like kids. Gillian Anderson was only 24 when she took the job. SHE WAS ONLY A YEAR OLDER THAN ME. I...what?

2. M&S really spent quite a bit of time touching each others' faces, especially in the later years. And the Doctor and his various companions have been given a run for their money on the hand-holding front.

3. Either there are very few good vids out there, which I find exceedingly hard to believe for a fandom of this size, or I'm no good at Googling today. Anyone got recs? I'm partial to humor, Mulder/Scully, character study, and--should there actually be any beyond the three I've seen--Doggett/Reyes vids, but anything well-done good.

Okay, I've seen the Broccoli Test on my flist, and this I have to play.

[It's supposed to test nonverbal communication between two characters in a close relationship. Would one be able to communicate to the other from across a store that they need broccoli, but without words or pointing at the vegetable in question?]

( Answers )

Happy Fourth, everyone! *blows up neighborhood with fireworks*

For no particular holiday-related reason, fifteen X-Files icons for your enjoyment. Share amongst yourselves, and credit would be nice. Some general ones, one from "Darkness Falls," one from "Small Potatoes," two from "Field Trip," three from "Je Souhite," and four from "Hollywood AD." Bitterness towards Chris Carter contained herein.

1.

( 14 more )

*

In other news, this cold/sore throat combo needs to GO AWAY. It's been eight days. Enough already!

Hee, Fry had to have his spleen replaced on tonight's rerun of Futurama. I heart adult swim.

*

I'm working on some XF icons. Had to go get screencaps for them. Why is it that the first season X-Files wardrobe people felt the need to dress Gillian Anderson in ugly, ugly suits with enough shoulderpads to turn anyone into a linebacker? I mean, I know it was '93, and many things about the 80s hadn't really left yet (even clothes that little nine-year-old me got that year had shoulderpads. It was ridiculous) but...yeeeck.

*

Gave the cat a paper ball to play with tonight. He spent half an hour batting it everywhere. I think I got more fun out of watching him, though. Hee.

*blink* *blink*

I should learn someday that fanfic benders are never a good idea. I think I need detox.

However, I have a hankering for first season X-Files fic, preferably UST or even MSR, but casefiles are cool, too. Googling has produced some, but not a lot, and Gossamer's update archives only go back to mid-1995, when everyone was writing about Scully's abduction. Which is cool and all, but...not what I want now. I guess I could hunt through Google's archive of the atxfc, but anyone wanna save me the trouble and rec me something? ;)

Phun with Photoshop. ;)

Rules:
1. Want
2. Take (saving to your own hard drive/server)
3. Share
4. Credit is nice, but I won't hunt you down if you don't do so. Same with comments.

( 4 General SG-1 icons )

( 9 Mulder/Scully and general XF icons )

( 1 cute penguin, 1 Rock City )

*

Related question for icon-makers and other digarts people: anyone know of a scrolly font that's oriented more horizontally than vertically, yet isn't scrunched together. Scriptina and Zapfino would be examples of vertically oriented; Azariel, Baraquiel, Adine Kirnberg, and Dobkin are the more like what I want, but they're often too scrunched. I could just fiddle with the width value in the characters palette of PS, but I'm lazy. ;) Also, anyone know where to get a copy of Carpenter for free? My copy that I got from abstractfonts went away when my computer died last March, and now I can only find it online for $30. :(

We watched part of "The Erlenmeyer Flask" in Bio in SF today. Hee. Ugly Scully hair! Cell phones big enough to beat people with! Now I wanna read X-Files fic, when I know I should be working on my essay. I promised myself I'd get at least a third of it done tonight. Ugh.

Oh, and Slonczewski changed the schedule for next week. We usually watch 15-20 minute chunks of whatever show/movie we're watching, but next Thursday, we get to watch all of "Post-Modern Prometheus." Oh, yeah. I think the entire class squeed for joy when she announced that. Yay shippy! Woo-hoo!

And because there are no Doc Locke quotes this week, I present you with a small collection of Slonczewski quotes:

- "It can cause you a problem--like death."
- "This will have actual real [scientists] in a real X-Files episode"
- "Invertebrates do all kinds of things that we couldn't discuss in polite company."

And now that I have my network connection back, I can post this fic that's been sitting on my HD since before I got to school. Woo-hoo!

DISCLAIMER: Characters, situations, and lines of dialogue you recognize from "Audrey Pauley" belong to Chris Carter, 1013, etc. etc.
FEEDBACK/ARCHIVING: Please and thank you to both. Send it all to author1@comcast.net .
SPOILERS: Audrey Pauley
CATEGORY: DRR, Vignette, Weirdfic
RATING: PG
SUMMARY: A what-if for "Audrey Pauley." John choses the other path.

( The Other Path )

Lo and behold, Skiffy is showing 9th season XF episodes. "4-D" was on this afternoon. Hooray for Doggett/Reyes shippiness! There's a part of me that likes them better than Mulder and Scully. This is possibly because they didn't get seven years to fool around with the UST and then have it ruined with a weird baby and alien abduction storyline. Muse is staring at me and chanting, "Fic, fic, fic!" but I'm resisting. For now. Instead, I'll continue to download episode clips at this lovely site, which appears to have a D/R slant, since it's got all the relevant clips for "4-D," "Audrey Pauley," "Release," and probably others that I haven't investigated yet.

tarzanic, I did very much enjoy "Beneath the Surface" on Monday night. In fact, I think I may have found my favorite episode of SG-1. (Well, maybe it's at the top of a heap of favorites out of the ones I've seen, anyway. "Desperate Measures" on your tape completely blew me away, as do POV, 1969, Jolinar's Memories/TDYK, The Fifth Race, Nemesis/Small Victories, and a few other episodes.) The ending broke my heart. It got "damn you"s for both RDA and AT, because, dude. Ow. *sniffle* Speaking of your tape, will e-mail you soon about getting it back to you. I did very much enjoy Wormhole X-Treme! *g* Actually, now that I've seen most of S5, I've really, really liked all that I've seen. I've found that a lot of people didn't really like it, but I can't imagine why. It doesn't have the shippy that S4 did, but the stories and characterization are excellent.

Going back to tapes in general, also very much enjoyed D&C thanks to cheapevilgirl, so yay Krissy! :)

The kitten, whom we may be deeming Elmo ('cause it's sort of the only name that you can make from trees, which he likes to climb), slept on my lap for the entire afternoon while I watched tarzanic's tape. I get the feeling that he's staying with us for the long haul. Good, in that he's an adorable kitten and I love him to pieces, but bad in that I'm not looking forward to cat-proofing the house.

That's about it, I guess. I really, really, really, really miss Scapers. :-(