★★☆☆
Mulder and Scully investigate the kidnapping of a test pilot who worked at an Air Force Base allegedly containing technology of alien origin...
Second episodes of US TV dramas tend to underscore the show's concept and its character dynamics, for those who missed the first episode. DEEP THROAT consequently played in the same sandpit as The X-Files' pilot, with a continuing interest in ufology and a concept revolving around a mysterious disappearance. It lacked the moodiness of the show's premiere (perhaps because there was no spooky forests), but I found this a more satisfying hour because the story felt sharper and it's already clear Chris Carter had a master plan that's beginning to make itself known.
The biggest evidence of that was the début of enigmatic informant 'Deep Throat' (Jerry Hardin), who real-world namesake helped break the Watergate scandal that led to the resignation of President Nixon. It's a little odd Hardin's character retains that codename, and for most people watching at the time it wouldn't have been clear (he's not referred to as Deep Throat, and episode titles don't appear on-screen). He's one of a handful of informants Mulder (David Duchovny) will have dealings with over the course of the series, and introducing that element of the show so early was a wise move. The X-Files hasn't had time to demonstrate the variety of storytelling it will come to be admired for, but it's already laying groundwork for its 'mythology' and conspiratorial backbone.
DEEP THROAT: Mister Mulder, why are those like yourself, who believe in the existence of extraterrestrial life on this Earth, not dissuaded by all the evidence to the contrary?Rather like the pilot, the case isn't what keeps you engaged with the episode. I wasn't concerned about Colonel Budahas's (Andrew Johnston) safety and well-being at any point, and it wasn't in any doubt that he'd been taken to Ellens Air Force Base—to, as we later discovered, have his memories erased. The thing with The X-Files is that you're always on Mulder's side because his theories are the most entertaining, and it would be a far more unsatisfying TV show if sceptical Scully (Gillian Anderson) was always being proved correct. But that does mean the plots don't often trick viewers, by having Mulder made to look a complete fool. Maybe some future episodes do that (with 202 to choose from, that's surely true), but I don't recall them.
MULDER: Because, all the evidence to the contrary is not entirely dissuasive.
"Deep Throat" touched on some of the classic ideas behind ufology, with Mulder and Scully witnesses strange lights in the sky, visiting a UFO-themed diner, interviewing two spaced-out teenagers who think the government's testing cutting-edge aircraft (one of them played by Seth Green, pre-Buffy the Vampire Slayer), being threatened by black-suited agents who destroy photographic evidence you've made, and even the presence of a black helicopter (a popular conspiracy meme).
Right now, it's mostly fun to notice how much early X-Files already resembles the show when it became a true cultural icon in season 3, and yet how different it feels in some ways. Mark Snow's music carries a distinct whiff of '80s synth (a decade's taste tends to impinge on the next ten-year block by a few years), Scully's using a Microfiche machine to scour old newspaper articles, and Mulder's seen with a big cell phone.
In terms of character, Mulder is still almost exactly the character he'll be years from now, but Scully is a little different in temperament and look. She's less of an ice queen than I recall her being—with an easier smile and jokier interplay with Mulder at times. I actually really like her slightly more relaxed attitude (befitting a 25-year-old), although this episode does foreshadow the criticism from many people that Scully was occasionally too much of a buzz kill, or became frustrating because she wouldn't accept the blindingly obvious. It works in this episode because there's two interpretations of what's being investigated (Mulder sees flying saucers, Scully sees secret government aircraft), but there are moments when the weight of evidence for the government erasing memories of pilots witnessing alien technology is so persuasive that Scully just looks stubborn. Oh, and the fact her role is to type up "field reports" that largely pooh-pooh Mulder's theories probably doesn't endear her to all viewers. The show will certainly fix that to some extent.
Overall, "Deep Throat" is a very good annex to the pilot episode that underlines the characters of Mulder and Scully, while opening a door to the show's bigger concern about a global conspiracy involving the knowledge of, and collusion with, extra-terrestrials in the corridors of power. I also love this final exchange of the episode:
MULDER: They're here, aren't they.It's a spine-tingling moment that hints at a lot, but in retrospect it's also proof Chris Carter had an idea where all of this was going. 1998's X-Files movie would reveal something about the back-story to the aliens that brings Deep Throat's words echoing back in your memory. He wasn't lying, that's for sure. A very, very long time...
DEEP THROAT: Mr Mulder, they've been here for a very, very long time.
Asides
- As mentioned, Jerry Hardin makes his series debut as Deep Throat (based on the informant later revealed as FBI Associate Director Mark Felt, who leaked information to Washington Post journalists about a presidential scandal). He was also partly inspired by Donald Sutherland's character in Oliver Stone's 1991 movie JFK, known only as X.
- This episode's Ellens Air Force Base was inspired by the real-life Nellis Air Force Base, which, as Mulder states, supposedly took receipt of some wreckage from the alleged UFO crash in Roswell, New Mexico. The name Ellens came from an ex-girlfriend of Chris Carter's.
- Do you recognise the Budahas residence? The exterior became the Yellow House of protagonist Frank Black's family in X-Files sister series Millennium three years later.
- Chris Carter hates the special effects used to show the strange lights Mulder and Scully witness darting erratically around in the sky, calling them the "worst effects we've ever done".
- Assistant Art Director Clyde Klotz started working on X-Files from this episode onwards, and eventually married Gillian Anderson on New Year's Day 1994.
- The license plate number Scullly investigates is CC-1356 (creator Chris Carter was born on 13 October 1956). 1013 (a recurring motif) also appears in Scully's case file number: DF-101364.
- C. Carter is the name of the reporter credited in the newspaper article Scully reads on the Microfiche machine.
