Mulder: Think about it, Scully. If Lucas Menand never gets hit by the bus, his complaint gets heard before the grant committee. Jason Nichols loses his funding and he never gets to collaborate on his research with Dr. Yonechi. Therefore, this photograph never gets taken because this celebration never happens.
Scully: And if your sister is your aunt and your mother marries your uncle, you’d be your own grandpa.
Written by: Howard Gordon & David Greenwalt
Directed by: James Charleston
Original Air Date: April 13th, 1997
Principal Setting: Boston, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Episode Summary:
Mulder and Scully investigate an accident that was predicted by an old man that desperately warns two college professors, one including Jason Nichols, that one of the men will die by getting hit by a bus. They brush him off and a security guard takes the old man away, but the work colleague does indeed get hit by the bus, at the exact time the man predicted. “Great Scott!” The old man is taken into custody but the security officer is found frozen and getting colder.
The old man escapes and meets up with a visiting Japanese scientist that is also found dead. They all plan on working on a special project that in fact leads to the possibility of time travel. The obvious suspect is Nichols, but Mulder begins to see evidence that something much more complex is happening.
Personal Commentary:
I really like time travel stories, but this one felt a little undeveloped and had some plot holes. It never explains how the time travel works, nor does it explain how the old man can self-combust at will. The old man is just trying to kill off the people he knew that were going to come up with the possibility of time travel, but wouldn’t some other scientist just pick up where they left off and discover it anyway? The time travel theories from Mulder and the science is interesting, but this time travel story is no Back to the Future.
Episode Grade: C+
Featured Video:
Fun Facts:
- The script took over a week of writing, with sessions of 15 daily hours and the contributions of John Shiban, Frank Spotnitz and Ken Horton.
- It’s the second time that Mulder quotes Scully’s thesis.
- The molecular model of the “freezing” catalyst shown in this episode contains less than 10 atoms and likely corresponds to a common organic compound rather than any fictional catalyst.
Faces You May Recognize:
- Hiro Kanagawa is famous for playing in Godzilla and recently has acted in the new shows iZombie and Heroes Reborn.
- Michael Fairman has been acting since the early 70’s and is famous for playing in General Hospital, Dead Silence, Mulholland Drive, and has made guest appearances in shows Bones and Workaholics.
201 Days of the X-Files Blog 