Written By: Dan Geer

After so many years of waiting, wondering whether or not Fox’s hit series The X-Files would ever get a third film, Fox decided that a limited series event for television was a better way to go, green-lighting six more episodes instead. Needless to say, fans were ecstatic. While we didn’t get a movie, we actually got more than we ever asked for, which was fantastic. More mythology, plus stand-alone stories for Mulder and Scully to investigate. It is hard to believe that it has already come and gone!

Now that it is all over with (for now), and we can take all six episodes into context – how well did it work as a whole? Was it everything we wanted? Of course it is impossible to answer for everyone. We do know that reception of the series has been mixed overall. Many people disliked the mythology episodes, and enjoyed the stand-alone stories much more. Others were really into the mythology episodes and didn’t care much for the others. Of course there are many, like myself, that pretty much enjoyed everything (although I wasn’t really into “Babylon” much at all). Everyone’s different, and that’s what was so great about the series, in that there’s something for everyone.

However, I believe this new season could’ve been handled better than it was. This assessment is based on how the mythology episodes turned out. We’ve been seemingly introduced to an almost entirely new direction for the conspiracy, one that paints it all in a much different light that, on the surface, seems contradictory to much of what we know from past seasons. Something had to account for aliens not colonizing in 2012 like the original series claimed, so things are now going in a different direction. It is now supposedly a “conspiracy of men” that, from the beginning, set out to destroy everyone but themselves and those they deem to be “the chosen elite,” and that aliens really didn’t have any intention of colonizing the planet at all. It’s merely men using alien technology to destroy the world. If these new plot points are to be taken at face value, then we have to believe that what we witnessed over the years isn’t entirely what we thought it was (of course, it could all just be a ruse, and aliens are still coming to colonize and “Old Smokey” is just lying to Mulder again).

But we shouldn’t jump the gun here. We have to give the writers the benefit of the doubt that this will be elaborated on in further seasons and made more clear on how it fits with what we thought we knew. I believe it can, and I have my theories, but at this point we can only speculate, since it ended on a cliffhanger (as is tradition on The X-Files).

Admittedly, the mythology seemed to be quite rushed here, and not much time was allotted to help the audience understand how the series can logically turn things up on its head like this and still fit with the things we witnessed in past seasons. Mulder has seen a lot during his years investigating the X-files, and we saw more than he ever did (i.e. we’ve sat in on Syndicate meetings). We do know that some of the original Syndicate’s plans were thrown out the window because those men were exterminated, so it solves some things, but not everything. In the end, it all appeared as if alien colonization was indeed going to happen in one form or another, and we believed it for 14 years – until this new season presented otherwise.

This Threads of the Mythology documentary lays out very well how the mythology was going, and with the new plot elements introduced in Season 10, well, you can see why it is so confusing again:

And therein lies the main reason behind some of the negative reception of Season 10. For 14 years, we all believed we were going to see alien colonization, that it was a fact in The X-Files universe. The last episode of the original series was even titled “The Truth,” which took place in a military court of law laying out all the evidence. It worked. We saw the conspiracy happening right before our eyes over those past nine seasons – with the Syndicate fighting against the alien virus in secret, warring aliens lighting each other on fire, Super Soliders, etc. – and came to accept it over the last 14 years. So it becomes very difficult to accept anything other than alien colonization. It’s been so ingrained in X-Files lore for so long.

We weren’t given much to go on in Season 10 to understand how the mythology has lead to this point (although there were clues presented within that do tie in with plot elements from past seasons, such as the small-pox plot thread, the Roswell alien bleeding black blood, Scully’s abduction, William, etc.). While stand-alone “monster-of-the-week” stories are a much-beloved staple of The X-Files series, they’re not the most important element of the show. And yet, four episodes were devoted to telling stand-alone stories and only two to the mythology. Granted, “Founder’s Mutation” and “Home Again” did devote some time to elements of the mythology, dealing with Mulder and Scully’s son. But even those episodes didn’t really help us understand how the old “alien colonization” mythology fits with the new conspiracy.

It seems to this writer that based on how rushed the season premiere and finale felt, and how many stand-alone stories we received versus those two mythology episodes, it just feels like at least one stand-alone episode could have been sacrificed to tell more of the mythology and let it breathe a bit. Ideally, it would have been best to have a two-hour premiere and finale, but David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson couldn’t commit to that, since that would essentially make this new season equivalent to eight episodes. But why couldn’t they have just split the season in half, with three episodes of mythology and three stand-alone? That would’ve perhaps allowed for more time to elaborate on some things.

However, the premiere and finale are still my favorite episodes of the season, despite them feeling rushed and leaving us with way too many unanswered questions. I did enjoy them immensely, because they do reintroduce the mystery back into the show. I love how we don’t know anymore where this is all going, and that we are asking questions again. It is actually a great time to be a fan of The X-Files, because now we can have fun speculating until we get more episodes! The best part of being a fan of anything like this is coming up with our own theories of how it is all going to go and having discussions about it with other fans. We have not been able to do that since 2002. But it was too much to ask of the audience to accept having so many questions left unanswered. Season 10 overall was quite a treat, but felt quite disjointed because of the uneven mix of episodes and the lack explanation for seemingly re-writing was was clearly established in earlier seasons.

On another note, it was also strange that the “text” used during the new season changed a bit. The credits at the beginning of each episode were formatted a little differently than in the previous seasons, using a smaller font and pushing it over to the left or right, versus the slightly bigger font centered at the bottom of the screen. The end credits looked smaller and the music sounded different. Even the text that shows up in the lower left of the screen establishing a time or place looked a little different than before. Just seems like an odd choice to change those little details now, when for nine seasons those elements never changed – especially since they did decide to keep the opening sequence and music almost exactly the same as before.

The stand-alone episodes were pretty wonderful for the most part, and I do appreciate that some time was devoted to telling classic “monster-of-the-week” stories. “Mulder and Scully Meet the Were-Monster” in particular was pretty much classic Darin Morgan brewed to perfection. “Founder’s Mutation” provided some wonderful “alternate reality” scenes with Mulder and Scully raising their son William. Beautifully composed scenes there. “Home Again” was also a great mix of classic “monster-of-the-week” moments, and bittersweet scenes between Scully’s mother and herself. And even though I did not care much for “Babylon” (since the episode was hardly an “X-file” at all), it was quite interesting to see the younger spirits of Mulder and Scully essentially embodied in Agents Miller and Einstein, Mulder’s “trip” was great fun, and the episode does set us up somewhat for the season finale. But I really feel that if one episode could’ve been sacrificed to tell more mythology, it should’ve been “Babylon.”

Here’s to hoping Season 11 will happen (it most likely will since the ratings have been great, but depends on Duchovny and Anderson’s schedules like before), and that the stories will be a little more evenly distributed next time around. Chris Carter has a lot to answer for now, and we all hope he gets the chance to. All the writers/directors did fine with the time they were given, the season was highly enjoyable, and Mark Snow’s music is still just as great as ever. Each episode felt much like what we’re used to. Overall, this season was a really good return to this universe, and not much else can bring me as much joy as seeing Mulder and Scully back on the case again. But hopefully next time whoever is on board will be given more opportunity to shed some light on the questions we’re all asking, and that it’ll all flow together a little more smoothly.

Rating: (out of four)

For more, check out this great article laying out one possible way the mythology can go from here:

X-Files: My Struggle, Part II, or Outfoxed Again

Also, John Kenneth Muir (The X-Files FAQ), offers some much insightful speculation here, aligning similarly to my thoughts on some of the mythology introduced in Season 10.

Read below for my initial thoughts on each episode (originally posted on Facebook immediately following the airing of each episode). I wanted to capture my immediate reactions there, while posting the overall “in-context” review above.

Seaosn 10, Episode 1 – “My Struggle”

Turns the conspiracy on its head… or does it? Guess we’ll have to wait and see. It is definitely possible.

Loved seeing Mulder and Scully at this stage in their lives. They’re worn out, torn apart, but brought back together, and back to their old selves by the end of the episode.

Conspiracies galore!

Hard to rate this episode without seeing how this limited event “concludes” (which I hope it doesn’t really 🙂 ), but so far, so good!