David Duchovny returns this week, behind the camera to direct an episode that he thought up alongside Frank Spotnitz and series creator Chris Carter, who also penned the teleplay. It first aired on 28 April, 2002, and puts Scully’s (Gillian Anderson) baby, William front and center, and gives us the heartbreaking ending first… she gives…
Tag: john shiban
The X-Files (2002) – Scary Monsters, and Jump the Shark
FBI Agent, Leyla Harrison (Jolie Jenkins), from the accounting department is back in Scary Monsters. Written by Thomas Schnauz, this episode first aired on 14 April, 2002. Doggett (Robert Patrick) and Reyes (Annabeth Gish) get roped into helping Harrison, after Scully (Gillian Anderson) passes on a potential case the young agent brings her. Two bizarre…
The X-Files (2002) – Underneath, and Improbable
Doggett (Robert Patrick) gets pulled back into a case he worked back when he was a New York cop, when the man they arrested as a serial killer is exonerated and released from prison – only to have the murders start up again. Underneath was written by John Shiban and first aired on 31 March,…
The Lone Gunmen (2001) – All About Yves
The short-lived spinoff from The X-Files, The Lone Gumen, aired its series finale, All About Yves, on 11 May, 2001 (though they aired The ‘Cap’n Toby’ Show after it – the series had already been cancelled). Written by Vince Gilligan, John Shiban, and Frank Spotnitz, the episode sees Michael McKean’s Man In Black, Morris Fletcher,…
The Lone Gunmen (2001) – The Lying Game, and The ‘Cap’n Toby’ Show
Director Walter Skinner (Mitch Pileggi) shows up in The Lying Game, written by Nandi Bowe. This episode first debuted on 4 May, 2001. Frohike (Tom Braidwood), Byers (Bruce Harwood), and Langly (Dean Haglund) get pulled into a murder case, immersed in secrets, a government investigation and lies. And at the heart of it, Walter Skinner…
The Lone Gunmen (2001) – Diagnosis: Jimmy, and Tango de los Pistoleros
John Shiban puts Jimmy (Stephen Snedden) front and center with Diagnosis: Jimmy, which first aired on 20 April, 2001. When Jimmy ends up in the hospital following a skiing accident while he’s helping the boys, he finds himself immersed in a hunt for a killer, all from his hospital bed, in a riff on Hitchcock….
The Lone Gunmen (2001) – Eine Kleine Frohike, and Like Water for Octane
John Shiban pens the script for Eine Kleine Frohike, which first debuted on 16 March, 2001. The team sends Frohike (Tom Braidwood) undercover to pose as the long lost son of a female baker, the Poisoner of Alcaste, a Nazi who poisoned members of the French Resistance during World War II. With a makeover, Frohike…
The Lone Gunmen (2001) – Pilot, and Bond, Jimmy Bond
The second X-Files spinoff series launched on 4 March, 2001, and was written by Chris Carter, Frank Spotnitz, John Shiban and Vince Gilligan, all of whom share a created by credit for it. The series follows Mulder’s ‘friends’ Frohike (Tom Braidwood), Langly (Dean Haglund), and Byers (Bruce Harwood), their magazine, The Lone Gunmen, and their…
The X-Files (2001) – Salvage, and Badlaa
These two entries in The X-Files, while solid, failed to engage me as the previous stories of the season, and the series did. It’s not for lack of performances, I just wasn’t captivated by them, and they both seemed to circle around concepts of revenge. Salvage was written by Jeffrey Bell, and first aired on…
The X-Files (2000) – Orison, and The Amazing Maleeni
The possibly demonic, and definitely evil, Donnie Pfaster (Nick Chinlund), last seen in Irresistible, returns in Orison. Written by Chip Johannessen who had served as showrunner for Millennium’s final season, this episode debuted on 9 January, 2000. Pfaster, serving life in prison, somehow seems to magically walk out of a maximum security instituion, and Mulder…
The Mind Reels 