by Rick Norwood
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The X-Files, "Fight Club" (****) written by Chris Carter | |||
This is not the mythos episode we've been waiting for. For that, we must wait until the cliffhanger and/or
concluding episode. Off screen, the cliffhanger of whether David Duchovny will or will not get his million
bucks an episode to make Season Eight is, at this writing, still hanging fire. My bet is he'll do it. "We've
already settled the question of what you are. Now we're just haggling over the price."
"Fight Club" is about twin sisters (with different mothers, but you're laughing so hard you forget about the
details) who generate disaster whenever they come together, and who are drawn together inexorably. The story
really doesn't go anywhere, but it was fun while it lasted.
Whoever decided to make the return of Kes a time travel episode should have taken a good look at Jennifer
Lien. She is a wonderful actress, but there is no way she can look the way she looked six years ago, and that is
a constant distraction as she "successfully" impersonates her younger self.
The other problem with this episode, which has an excellent opening and which could have been one of the best,
is that we are never given sufficient understanding of the changes in Kes's personality. Given another minute of
air time, could the writers have made the changes believable? Does that minute exist on film, cut to make way
for four or five extra commercials?
Still, I was glad to see the Kes story brought to a conclusion. Introducing a character with a seven year life
span into a seven year series was a brave move, and I'm glad we haven't been left hanging by the actress's decision
to leave the series two years ago.
Lots of little details make this a very enjoyable episode.
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Rick Norwood is a mathematician and writer whose small press publishing house, Manuscript Press, has published books by Hal Clement, R.A. Lafferty, and Hal Foster. He is also the editor of Comics Revue Monthly, which publishes such classic comic strips as Flash Gordon, Sky Masters, Modesty Blaise, Tarzan, Odd Bodkins, Casey Ruggles, The Phantom, Gasoline Alley, Krazy Kat, Alley Oop, Little Orphan Annie, Barnaby, Buz Sawyer, and Steve Canyon. |
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