7x13 First Person Shooter
Synopsis
The Lone Gunmen call Mulder and Scully to a Virtual Reality development lab where they learn that one of the program testers was killed inside the computer generated game environment by the digital image of a woman. Needing to get his yah-yah's, Mulder enters the game to fight the woman but Scully must step in to save him.
Writer/s: William Gibson & Tom Maddox
Director: Chris Carter
Originally aired: 27th February 2000 (in the US) - 14th June 2000 (in Australia)
Quotes
Scully: FPS.
Mulder: First Person Shooter.
Scully: Video games.
Mulder: Digital entertainment.
Scully: I can get in the Pentagon easier than this.
Scully: You think that taking up weapons and creating gratuitous virtual mayhem has any redeeming value whatsoever? I mean, that the testosterone frenzy that it creates stops when the game does?
Mulder: Well, that's rather sexist, isn't it? I mean, maybe the game provides an outlet for certain impulses, that it fills a void in our genetic makeup that the more civilising effects of society failed to provide for.
Scully: Well, that must be why men feel the great need to blast the crap out of stuff.
Scully: For the record, can you state your name, please?
Jade Blue Afterglow: For the record again, my name is Jade Blue Afterglow. I reside...
Scully: I'm sorry. Your real name?
Jade Blue Afterglow: That is my real name. What were you expecting? Mildred?
Links
Episodes: Fanpop and SideReel.
Transcripts: Episode transcript.
Screen captures at: The X Files Screen Grab Archive
Episode related fanfic: Page 1
Season 7 Gag Reels: Part 1 and Part 2
Mods thoughts and discussion attempts
I don’t even know where to begin with the episode. Its awful. Mulder and Scully seem OOC. The plot is bad and the guest characters are flat and stupid.
As a fan of the FPS game genre, I find this one … lame? Pathetic? Insulting? FPS is a little more than shooting at dudes on bikes, and chicks in tanks - ok, maybe not by much. Perhaps I’m just defensive. Hee.
Mulder’s sudden interesting and knowledge in video games is a real head scratcher. When has he ever shown an interest in such a hobby? Maybe when Morris Fletcher was in his body, some of his love for golfing games got left behind.
Scully makes me LOL greatly with her lines. But that one “no fair picking on a girl” makes me cringe something shocking.
I also hate that scene at the police station with the men all gathered around the interview room making rather oafish gestures about Krista Allens character. I also hate Mulders same reaction to her. Chris Carters commentary reflects how the crew acted the exact same way also and it really grates me. I dunno, maybe porn stars evoke that kind of reaction?
Extra
Title - "First Person Shooter" is a phrase used to describe games like Quake and Doom -- games where you see the action through your game-character's eyes (first-person perspective), and your main goal is to shoot your weapon and take out your opponents, bad-guys, etc.
This is the computer programmer/video-game episode by William Gibson and Tim Maddox -- the people who brought you Season Five's "Kill Switch" (however, this is not a follow-up to "Kill Switch", it is a stand-alone).
Much of the opening action sequence was filmed at the Rykoff food distribution company. Rykoff is X-Files producer Paul Rabwin's uncle.
Scully comments that she can get into the Pentagon easier than into the FPS offices, possibly referring to Mulder's infiltration of the Pentagon in the Season 5 premiere episode 'Redux'.
The door that leads to the "game world" was supposed to appear heavier, but the actors forgot to fake it while filming.
Maitreya says "Watashiga korekara surukotowo yurushitene" to Musashi just before she kills him - it is Japanese for "Forgive me for what I am about to do."
Maitreya means "loving one" in the Sanskrit language. It is the name given to a Bodhisattva who is a future manifestation of Buddha who will bring peace and final enlightenment to the world. In some temples, the name has been applied to any manifestation of Buddha. Maitreya is typically depicted as seated, with his feet on the ground. The most commonly known such is the popular Laughing Buddha, based on an image of the Chinese monk Budai. Westerners often think of Maitreya as the Buddhist equivalent of a Messiah.
At the end of the show, we see that the elevator is at the opposite end of the staircase, and the staircase is apparently the only entrance to the game platform. Does this mean that Scully and Mulder walked through the game platform (when it was operating) before they got into the elevator?
When Maitreya first creates doubles of herself Mulder drops his sword, but when Scully enters the game he has the sword in his hand again.
Jade Blue Afterglow uncrossed and then recrossed her legs and then a pan of Mulder's titillated look in the police station. This is an obvious allusion to Sharon Stone in Basic Instinct where she flashes the interrogators a view sans undergarments.