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HBD Mulder! Happy 1013 to all Philes!

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Brilliant piece. I should probably watch another show….

happy 31st birthday to the x files! I put 31 references to various episodes in here, if you can find them all I'm afraid there's no hope for you. watch another show. (just kidding i know there's no escape)

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I finally was able to visit the incredible X-Files Preservation Collection in Saratoga Springs, NY. Jim, the proprietor, personally showed me around and I had such a great time talking about all things XF with him. A true fan and all around nice guy. What an awesome tribute he’s assembled to my favorite show. Any X-Phile should visit in person or virtually, it is a real treat! Here are just a few highlights of what you’ll see.

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TXF text post time again! Well, I for one am glad that Mulder did finally become Scully's pizza man!

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Thank you @sagan-starstuff for this in depth review of the ridiculous medical training of Special Agent Medical Doctor Dana Scully! I concur with it all, unless Scully was a child progidy there is no way the timing works out for her medical training. Even that would’ve only helped her prior to any medical training (skipping grades perhaps or breezing through college in fewer years). At best med school could get shortened by one year - but not typically the case for people pursuing non-primary care specialties. There’s no way any of the post-graduate medical training would have been shortened. I’m an anesthesiologist of the same medical training era of @sagan-starstuff so a bit more contemporary than Scully’s time, but medical training changes at glacial speeds, so even a modern analysis is very applicable.

I could write tomes longer than Harrison’s, Miller, and Barash put together outlining the many, many medical inaccuracies in the show. I’m sure a medical advisor could have easily fixed many of them. But the X-Files is a show I forgive for all that. Maybe it’s because I fell in love with the show well before I ever went into medicine. But really it’s because the show is so much more than that. Its merits are in storytelling, character building, and, at the heart of it all, relationships.

Happy 31st Anniversary my dear show!

XF Meta: Scully's Medical Training Timeline

At the request of @randomfoggytiger, I wanted to do my damnedest to make Scully's education and training timeline make even a little sense. I'm a physician (specifically a specialist in adult infectious diseases), and it's fairly clear to me that CC and Co probably didn't actually talk to any doctors about how medical training works. Love my girl - I'm a Scully Effect kid, I don't think I'd be a doctor at all if it weren't for the inspiration of Dana Scully. But her timeline is...iffy at best.

Disclaimer: My medical school and post-med school training occurred from 2009-2018, Scully's occurred in the 1980's-90's. From what I can tell, the durations of many residencies and fellowships don't seem to have changed much, but I can't say that for certainty for all programs at all institutions. I am also from the US, so I cannot speak to medical training in other countries.

Our girl was born in 1964, and so unless she skipped a grade (which some schools would do if students were classified as "gifted" or otherwise exceptional, she would have graduated from high school at age 18 in 1982 and went straight to college. Let's assume she didn't skip a grade, for the sake of argument.

You have to have a Bachelor's degree to apply to medical school. These degrees typically take 4 years, though if someone arrives at college with credits from dual-enrollment high school classes or AP exam credits OR if they take summer classes some people can complete them in 3 years. I don't know what the availability of dual enrollment or AP classes was like in the early 80's (and like CC, I'm too lazy to do the research to find out), so we can assume that Scully graduated from college in 1986.

Medical school is 4 years long - no shortening this at that point in time, and even now in almost all cases. So that puts medical school graduation in 1990 IF she's following a traditional timeline and went straight from college to medical school.

Now, if someone is going to go into practice they have to do a residency in at least one of a variety of specialties (Internal Medicine, Pediatrics, Surgery, etc.) in order to be board certified and practice independently. There are very, very few job options in clinical medicine if you DON'T do a residency, so if you want to practice, you have to do it. Residencies can be anywhere from 3-5 years, depending on the specialty. You can also further subspecialize after a residency by doing one or more fellowships (typically 1-3 years depending on the fellowship) before sitting for your board certification exams and starting independent practice. For example - after medical school I did a 3-year residency in adult internal medicine, then a 2 year fellowship in adult infectious diseases to be eligible to sit for the boards and enter my specialty, so 5 years further training after medical school before I could get a job, get board certified, and practice.

Scully is a forensic pathologist. She would have had to do a 3 or 4 year pathology residency (both were options at the time) followed by a 1 year forensic pathology fellowship. You CANNOT perform autopsies right out of medical school, if you are going to be a forensic pathologist you HAVE to do this training. So, following a traditional timeline this puts her as having completed forensic pathology training in 1994 or 1995. Pilot starts March 7th, 1992, so this is loooooong after she's canonically already an FBI agent and teaching at the academy.

But our girl's a smart cookie, so let's take a little leeway with her timeline. Let's say she skipped a grade some time in K-12. This puts high school graduation in 1981. Let's say she ALSO graduates with a bunch of AP credit and does summer semesters and finishes her undergraduate degree in Physics in 3 years. This puts her as starting medical school in 1984, with graduation in 1988. She'd still need to do that pathology residency and forensic pathology fellowship - let's assume a 3 year residency, then 1 year fellowship, so she'd finish training in 1992.

Still doesn't fit.

Let's go totally off the rails here - we know Scully was recruited out of medical school to the FBI, so she didn't do a traditional residency at all - UNLESS the FBI has an internal forensic pathology residency. It would HAVE to be accelerated in some way - some programs combine residency and fellowship by giving less elective time and more focus to the fellowship content. It's not common but they exist. Let's say in theory the FBI has an accelerated forensic pathology residency that takes 3 years, in addition to the 20 weeks of the FBI academy training. This has her finishing residency AND FBI academy training some time in 1991.

This is the ONLY way she could have finished forensic pathology training AND the FBI academy with enough time to be a fully certified forensic pathologist and FBI agent with some time left to teach at the FBI academy before being assigned to the X-Files on March 7th, 1992.

I can suspend my disbelief enough to be on board with this. You'd have to be pretty damned special, which we know she is, to get recruited out of medical school by the FBI. Maybe they even developed the accelerated combined residency/fellowship just for her! She's Dana Katherine Motherf***ing Scully, people!

Now, IWTB is where things get REALLY unbelievable. (Disclaimer: I have not watched IWTB since seeing it in theaters in 2008. I'll get around to rewatching it someday soon. Probably with a bottle of wine. Not a glass. A bottle.)

Mulder and Scully go on the run in 2002. We don't know how long they were in the wind, but by 2008, she's been allowed to resume a career and is practicing at Our Lady of Sorrows. Clearly in pediatrics - but general pediatricians sure as hell don't do stem cell transplants, so she'd almost certainly have to be a pediatric oncologist. We aren't told what her specialty is specifically, but that's what she'd have to be to do a stem cell transplant.

(That scene in the OR isn't even what stem cell transplants LOOK LIKE but that's a rant for another day, back to my point.)

MEDICAL BOARDS DON'T JUST LET YOU CHANGE YOUR SPECIALTY FOR FUNSIES.

(Deep breaths. Serenity now. Ok, let's do this.)

Scully would have had to do an ENTIRELY NEW residency AND fellowship in order to practice as a pediatric oncologist. Pediatrics residency is 3 years long. Pediatric Hematology/Oncology fellowship is 3 years long. In order for this to be even remotely possible, she would have had to START residency in 2002 to finish fellowship by 2008 and start her job at Our Lady of Sorrows.

And she's a former FBI agent harboring a known felon, on the run from government officials and alien hybrids who want her and Mulder dead.

There is absolutely no way even the smallest, most hard-up pediatric residency program is going to accept her with that hanging over her head. I'm not going to get into all the details of how rigorous and stressful the post-medical school residency application and match process is, but even if she didn't apply until she KNEW it was safe to come out from underground, she'd still have to explain a multi-year gap in her resume/CV to the program directors. Multi-year gaps in career and training without a reasonable explanation like a medical issue, time off to care for an ailing family member, time off for research, time away in a different, legitimate career are NOT looked on kindly when applying for residency positions. She would have a HELL of a time getting into a totally different residency.

It could happen - if anyone could do it, she could. But there's absolutely no way there's enough time for her to complete that training by 2008.

"But sagan-starstuff, it's CC, it's X-Files, we know there was no show bible and no one but the fans gave a shit about continuity or things making sense, there's no logic just vibes"

I KNOW, OK. I KNOW. And I love this insane, beautiful masterpiece anyway. I love exploring the possibilities of how and when it all could have happened with my fellow insane Philes who work so hard to glean meaning and order from this perfect mess of a show.

But couldn't CC have talked to one (1) doctor about what medical training is like at some point between 1993 and 2018? Just one?

Anyway. Yeah. That's my meta. Scully's training timeline makes no goddamned sense. Compels me, though.

@randomfoggytiger, this is for you. Honorable mention to @precedex-files who I ranted about this with in messages a while back.

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Thinking about the brain disease Mulder hid from Scully before he was abducted at the end of s7. I don’t think he would ever hide something like that from Scully, his personal doctor. It seems way out of character. And it’s bugged me for nearly 30 years now. But suppose he found out he was dying during the IVF arc, knowing that none of the attempts had taken and how sad and upset that was making Scully. He didn’t want to detract from what she was going through or add more sorrow to her life. Lord knows he feels guilty enough as is. And that’s why he chose to hide it. Suppose he agreed to be the baby daddy, not just because Scully is his best friend and his family, his one in five billion, constant and touchstone, but also because he knew he was sick and potentially dying. Maybe he thought that if he could help her achieve her deepest dream of motherhood, then she would forgive him for leaving her side, that it might lessen the blow to lose him. Especially if that baby was also his. Excuse me while I go fend off these onion cutting ninjas who have come after me.

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Some text posts I've been sitting on, they always entertain me

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^This is the truth that is out there

the thing about mulder and scully is that if you watch the x files, you WILL love them forever. there's no other way.

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I feel like I want to explain to young tumblr users who weren't born yet that MulderxScully was a revolutionary ship. No, it was not queer but that is not the only way to be revolutionary.

In the 90s when The X Files was airing, media was like misogyny soup. Yes, there were exceptions. But casual sexism was so ubiquitous it was like we were all frogs simmering in it and if you dared to say, hey, uh, isn't this joke a little shitty to the wife? Or maybe this female character could do something other than pose and ask questions so the male lead can answer them? Then you were a hairy feminist outcast loser.

Scully was a lot of things but she was not that. All the "You're not going to believe this, Scully!" memes are based on the fact that Mulder, an attractive white dude, wanted nothing more in his entire life than to share his passions with this tiny redhead. Was he nuts? Yes. But on many other shows, he would have talked down to her, would've ignored her, would've mocked her. He didn't.

When you go back and watch The X Files, there's these moments where Mulder and Scully look at each other like, "wait did Jack Black really just say that" and the significance to fan history isn't just the sexual tension. It's that, yeah, and the origin of the word ship, and the 'will-they-won't-they'. But the most important thing about those looks is how they told the audience that Mulder was looking to Scully for something. A man was looking at a woman and asking with his eyes "what do you think about this?" Was he also saying "and do you want to bone about it?" Yeah, yeah he was. But the first thing was sexy as hell.

Respecting a woman's expertise and folding information she provided into his worldview was a revolutionary thing for a man to do on television at the time. Thank you for coming to my MSR ted talk.

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The raid early in Tunguska where Krycek and SWAT gear Mulder tussle takes place in Flushing, Queens in the great city of New York. This is exactly my hometown.

Other notable NYC episodes include:

-Sleepless

-Kaddish

-Tithonus

-This

Plus the Syndicate and Marita Covarrubias are always in NYC.

Reblog and claim the X-Files episode that takes place closest to your hometown!

(If you need a refresher, here is a list-not mine)

I haven’t seen this far in the show but apparently I get an episode called Demons (seasoned viewers: did I get a good one?)

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Finally got around to these text posts. Sorry for the long brewing time. Have a laugh or a cry. Or a laugh and a cry. Preferably together. In the rain.

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I love that they kept the joke of Mulder being a terrible tipper alive through the revival! This episode is one of my favorites of the entire series. Yes, I know that it’s part of the revival. No, I won’t be entertaining other opinions on that matter.

X Files s11e7 out of context:

Mulder you should've left a tip

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This is why I hope they never try to recast Mulder (and Scully for that matter). No one could ever play him as well as DD did. Say what you will about his other acting, but he played Mulder perfectly. And he also let Mulder grow, as he demonstrated well in the revival.

i love hearing your thoughts, so - could you speak a little about david duchovny's acting? i know gillian is phenomenal, and is often considered the stronger actor. but also i just can't picture anyone else as Mulder. so i was just thinking of what is it that he did with the character that made me, well, absolutely devoted to the character. have a good day, your blog is a fav!

No one else could have played Mulder, and no other attempt to create a Mulder and Scully pair has come close to recapturing their dynamic. David didn’t play Mulder as just a goof or a wise-ass or a romantic sap. He was intelligent and petulant and too emotionally vulnerable. Other attempts to imitate Mulder come off as a romantic self-confident joker. David played it as someone who thinks quietly and talks very softly and occasionally erupts in bouts of rage and grief.

I think David’s micro-expression acting is perfect for Mulder - he has this quiet, unassuming expression, but there’s always a joke or a whirring thought or a memory of pain in his eyes. The quietness is what makes him intense and introspective, and all those times it seems like he hasn’t registered what Scully has said when she’s been vulnerable with him, or when he has a blank expression during a moment of crisis, actually strikes me as being true to Mulder’s character. He wears his heart on his sleeve, but only in a way that Scully can see, and in a way that is hidden from everyone else after years of isolation. I think David understood that Mulder’s numbness and isolation would make him act that way.

Every now and again, he did give standout dramatic performances; I’m thinking in particular of Paper Hearts, especially that scene in his mother’s basement, where he laughs to dismiss her worries, but his eyes are red and shining and he’s thrumming with grief, or when he gets choked up looking at a corpse he thinks is Samantha’s.  

One of my favourite underrated moments is when Scully calls him from the hospital in Memento Mori and asks him to bring an overnight bag, and he talks very gently with her on the phone, trying to act like he’s not worried, though you can see from his face that he is, and when he hangs up, he slams a draw shut and storms off. That anger is so real and more moving than concern. And then all of David’s improvised flood of tenderness in Redux ii, and the way he laughs whenever Mulder’s heart is breaking.

Overall, the subtlety and unexpected reactions are what makes Mulder complex and dark and light. Sometimes he’s intensely present, sometimes a crazy ass cosmonaut, and always with his mind in a million places and his heart like a stone in a grave.

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“Aurora Borealis!? At this time of year, at this time of day, in this part of the country, localized entirely within your kitchen!?” Steamed Hams, look it up if you are unfamiliar. Thank me later.

Been awhile since I dropped some text posts. A little bit goofy, a little bit MSR.

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Was able to chase down the ROM of the 90s X-Files PC game and after ignoring it for a few months finally figured out how to get it to run on a modern PC. And these are the questions the character is asking Skinner about Mulder and Scully 🤣🤣🤣

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Blink and you’ll miss Krycek’s cameo in FTF. Happy 26 revolutions around the sun and ruining the colonization timeline FTF!

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Absolutely heart breakingly beautiful. And I just finished rewatching the cancer arc too.

any moment now

a season 5-ish ficlet that just kinda. spilled out of me while trying to write something else. pretty much just very emotional angsty hurt/comfort

content warnings for discussion of the cancer arc & mulder-typical suicidality

tagging @today-in-fic

———

Look, she didn't mean to keep it from him, and she never lied because he never asked, and maybe she would have if he had. Maybe she wouldn't have. Is it still a lie if the truth behind it is the same?

She's fine. She is truly, completely fine, except for the moments when she looks at him and sees a gun pressed to his temple. except for when she passes out on the plane and wakes up with her head on his shoulder, his arms around her, and she wants to fall out of the sky.

Immortality isn't not dying; it's finding a moment worth living in and then never leaving, and that is the crux of the problem, isn't it? The "never leaving". The "finding a moment worth dying for".

Worth dying in.

She knows how to die now, and it doesn't scare her anymore, but it scares him, and she is scared of his fear. So, sure, she is afraid of dying and of what will survive, and for how long. There is no moment without him, and she knows he won't hesitate, just like he didn't hesitate trapped in a hospital room. Crumbling on the floor of his childhood home.

Crying next to her in the middle of the night, kneeling and twisting his sorrow into a prayer, and God did not hear him, but she did.

Some days, she wants to leave behind their guns and run away. She wants to take his hand and make sure he holds hers, always, never a weapon. Never something that might kill him, but she might kill him too, and she cannot tell if she's the gun or the bullet or the finger pulling the trigger.

If she really wants to stop him from following her, knowing there is nothing left to find alone.

An hour until we land, and she closes her eyes again and doesn't move. Neither of them moves anymore, they're done dancing. His lips are in her hair, and every turbulence is a spark of hope. They're burning up or dreaming that they are, or maybe this is her kneeling next to him with no prayers left.

They could fall out of the sky, and he would still put himself between her and the world, no matter how futile. He always will, unless the world is inside of her and killing her on its way out. He tried to dig up the truth marking her for death, having found it just to wish he had never started searching at all, pleading with nothing to allow him to take her place.

Her not him, him not her, and they keep wrapping the same ribbon around their hands—standing in front of the desk that is their altar, the office turned sacred ground turned graveyard dirt.

Let me save you on my way to the grave, as if they aren't going to be buried in the same coffin, the same earth. Not a moment worth dying for, but a person, a life imagined and lived over and over and over. Maybe this is the time they got it right. Maybe they always have. Maybe that's their immortality, a shared life worth dying in.

Any moment now, she thinks, and he thinks, and she takes his hand, even though it's not the flying that scares her anymore.

It's the landing.