My initial reaction to Travelers was that I really hoped it would supposed to be this season's "Unusual Suspects", which I found rather charming as I enjoy those Lone Stooges. I found myself unable to really even hate this episode; it did not create that much emotion in me.
Many serious continuity problems existed, as no doubt reviews across cyberspace will point out. Why is Mulder so calm about his father's involvement now when he is so upset about it and, more importantly, surprised? Dad was clearly in this up to his neck. And, as so many of us want to, what the HELL was with his wedding ring? (If I find out he was married to Phobe, I will have to shoot someone...most likely Shiban.) And was that silly smoking thing supposed to make us associate him with the Black Lunged Bastard? Sigh. I tried to find some nifty "Star Wars" parallels where the son inherits the job of righting his father's wrongs. That *was* there, I will admit. Hardly made to be compelling, though.
Further, the villans annoyed me. They did not chill me or scare me; they annoyed me. What does 1013 have with casting actors with weird lips? Cohn was not intimidating at all and the Younger Elder, though he annoyed me less than normal, seemed cliche. Where are CancerMan and Ratboy when you need them? And the man cast as Mulder's father the younger version, though evidently a good guy, did not seem like the man I had in my head. But I dutifully tried to appreciate that he at one time did stand up for what be believed in, like his son.
This show *can* be a master of suspence and horror. It is at its best when it involves Mulder and Scully (iron-clad proof if there were was of how vital their captivating dynamic is to this show). And it is at its best when it plays with our mind by showing us just enough and no more.I personally saw way too much of those silly mouthlizards. Nazi creations? I somehow don't think so, gentlemen.
Yet I ended up not really hating this episode. I liked Doyle; he was the reason I did not completely want the hour (and the Dynamic Duo) back. I believed his desire to help and to do the right thing (but perhaps I am desperately trying to find something good here). I believed him as a vaguely Boogey wannabe. And something about seeing the origin of the X-Files was appealing. I liked the secretary, too; I saw some sort of parallels between her and Scully. And I chuckled in between frustrated wanderings of the mind (the surest sign of something really wrong), so that was...okay. But you know something is wrong when a review has to turn to tiny little things like this to get some enjoyment out of an episode of a show in which I cannot usually cram all the gushing I want to do into on reasonably sized review!
Okay, okay. I'll give it like 5 tic pacs. No more
SWILS Note: Gosh, I missed her.
MulderDrooling: Sorry. I didn't.