The Fires of X

I barely remember these episodes of The X-Files I've been watching recently. Some I don't remember at all. I don't know why I never felt like revisiting the series before but I'm kind of glad I kept it fresh for myself. Last night I watched "Fire", an episode from December 1993. I feel like the writing rapidly improved in the first season. There's nothing really silly in this one like the naked lady episode or the evil computer episode.

This one starts out in England where a gardener with the ability to start fires with his mind kills a friendly aristocrat stereotype.

Let that be a lesson; always have a duck pond on your grounds.

The action moves to Washington D.C. and Boston but, of course, it was all shot, as usual, in Vancouver. I kind of like that, though. It's like an alternate universe where the whole world is perpetually under an overcast sky and everyone has to wear overcoats all the time. That sure sounds like paradise in the middle of another sopping humid summer.

We learn a little about Mulder's past at Oxford in which he fell for a girl who's now a Scotland Yard inspector visiting the U.S. on the trail of the arsonist. Again, I have to applaud the show for making Mulder and Scully so extraordinarily professional that Scully shows not a trace of jealousy.

She's catty about it but not in a way that suggests she feels any ownership of Mulder. It's like the gentle ribbing you'd expect from a male colleague.

Last week came the news that X-Files series composer Mark Snow died. He composed that famous whistling theme that persists in the cultural landscape. I even heard it on Japanese TV recently. It's simple and effective.

The X-Files is on Disney+.