Little Green Men

With the X-files closed, Mulder is contacted by a political ally and sent on a dangerous mission to a radio telescope in Arecibo, Puerto Rico.

[edit] Summary

SUMMARY

As the X-files had been shut down in the Season 1 finale, "The Erlenmeyer Flask", writers Glen Morgan and James Wong thought of this episode as a kind of new pilot, in the sense of altering the established ground rules of the series.

Near the start of this episode, Mulder listens to a conversation in which a stripper named Tuesday is mentioned. In Millennium's pilot episode, a stripper named Tuesday is seen dancing, and is later interviewed by Frank Black in regard to another dancer's murder.

The scene in which Samantha Mulder is abducted differs from Mulder's recollection of the incident from a 1989 hypnotic regression tape that Scully listened to in the episode, "Conduit". Mulder supposedly recalled being paralyzed in bed while his sister was abducted, but this episode shows them playing a board game called Stratego before the incident. This was due to Morgan and Wong writing this episode without having first seen "Conduit" [1]. However, according to executive producer Chris Carter, a possible explanation for this inconsistency may be due to the fact that Mulder's memories were derived from hypnotic regression and were therefore vague. Video footage of Mulder undergoing hypnosis was seen in the Season 7 episode, "Closure", but his memory of Samantha's abduction was changed to the version of events seen here.

In the pilot episode of The X-Files, Mulder states, "The only reason I've been allowed to continue with my work is because I've made connections in congress." In this episode, Senator Matheson represents an example of those aforementioned contacts.

Senator Matheson's first name was Richard in the episode's script, but the name did not make it into the final episode. Richard Matheson is a science fiction and horror writer who wrote the 1975 novel Bid Time Return, later titled Somewhere in Time after a film adaptation of that name was released in 1980. The main character of that story had a passion for classical music, much like Senator Matheson in this episode.

Senator Matheson was originally to have recited the opening monologue, but this was later changed to Mulder, and David Duchovny's voice begins the episode.

Senator Matheson was originally to have been played by Darren McGavin of Kolchak: The Night Stalker fame, as that series had influenced Chris Carter to create The X-Files.

Senator Matheson would later appear in "Ascension", the Season 3 episode "Nisei" and, finally, the Season 6 episode "S.R. 819". He would also be referenced in "731", the sequel to "Nisei".

While Scully searches for Mulder, she reads an airline passenger manifest that contains the names of many early on-line X-Philes, including Cliff Chen and Pat Gonzalez, as well as X-Files novel author Charles Grant.